تاء مربوطة

Taa’ Marbooṭah

This is the second preliminary introduction to (hopefully) a series of essays about my strange life, my family background, and our connection to the noble and exciting history of our origins — before the horrendous Middle Passage — in the regions surrounding the Senegal River, and the connection to the rise of Europe and the evolution of European symphonic music.

Taa’ Marbooṭah, the Symbol and Its Functions

Feminine Gender

As I wrote in the first preliminary introduction, the symbol taa’ marbooṭah is an essential part of the Arabic writing system. The usual and primary function of taa’ marbooṭah is to indicate feminine grammatical gender. In Arabic, all nouns and all verbs are either masculine or feminine in grammatical gender. In European languages, it is common for nouns to have grammatical gender, but not verbs. In English, grammatical gender has almost disappeared, and usually occurs in reference to biological gender. For example, a male person is referred to as “he” and a female person is referred to as “she”. Some European languages — such as German, Greek, and Latin — have three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. In English, we have the pronoun “it” which seems to be all that remains of a neuter grammatical gender. There is no word in Arabic that corresponds to “it”. For example, a book (“kitaab“) is referred to as “huwa” (“he”) and an eye (“`ain“) is referred to as “hiya” (“she”). In order to translate Arabic into idiomatic English — and avoid sounding strange — huwa and hiya are usually translated as “it”.

In the following example, the first two aayaat of the soorah entitled Ash–Shams (“The Sun”, Qur’an 91:1,2) have been interpreted three different ways — by an organization called Sahih International, by Yusuf Ali, and by myself. The first interpretation translates both “hiya” and “huwa” as “it” — which results in the clumsy phrase in the second ayah, “when it follows it”. Yusuf Ali, accepting the British tendency to think of the sun as masculine, reverses the gender of the pronouns, thereby mistranslating “hiya” as “he”and “huwa” as “she” — so that the splendorous (capitalized) Sun is masculine, and the (submissively?) following (and un-capitalized) moon is feminine. (The numerous and often apparently deliberate mistranslations in Yusuf Ali’s interpretation propelled me into abandoning all interpretations of the Qur’an into English and immersing myself into the original Arabic language of the Qur’an; I considered myself “plunging into the dark”, and with time, my understanding of the original Arabic language is growing — a dim light growing brighter, instead of a bright false light leading the reader astray. May Allah bless our Brother, Yusuf Ali, for his abundant hard work and for all the benefits it has brought to the world and forgive him for his mistakes and shortcomings.)

والشمس وضحاها
والقمر اذا تلاها

wash–shamsi wa-duhaahaa
wal-qamari idhaa talaahaa

By the sun and its brightness
And [by] the moon when it follows it

By the Sun and his (glorious) splendour;
By the moon as she follows him;

By the sun and her brightness
By the moon when he follows her

Taa’ marbooṭah added to a masculine noun makes it feminine, usually. “Muslim” (masculine) becomes “muslimah” (feminine). The word “kareem” (noble, generous) is often used as a personal name for a man. As “kareemah“, it becomes a personal name for a woman. (The Arabic writing system does not have upper-case and lower-case letters; a personal name must be distinguished as such by the context.) There are personal names ending in taa’ marbootah which are given to men. “Usamah” — often spelled “Usama” or “Osama” in English transliteration — is a man’s name.

Other Functions

Taa’ marbooṭah is also used to indicate the singular of generic nouns. For example, “naml” refers to ants in general. “Namlah” refers to a single ant. Taa’ marbootah is also used as an intensifier.

Taa’ Marbooṭah and My Strange Life

My choice of taa’ marbooṭah (the usual indicator feminine gender) as a general theme of my autobiographical comments is somewhat of a tease. Issues of gender-inappropriate behavior and sexual deviance have been persistent in my life from an early age, and some of my readers may suspect my intentions — despite my stubborn efforts to make myself clear. For example, I have always believed — to the bottom of my heart — that it is wrong for people to have sex outside of sex between a man and a woman who are married to each other. Is that clear? The unclarity comes from the beclouded hearts of those who want to present themselves as sincere and righteous Muslims, but who make excuses for fornication — for example, saying that fornication is “normal” or “natural”. (Fornication is doubtlessly normal, being outrageously prevalent, but it is still bad and forbidden by Allah. And fornication may be natural, but sexual relations between two male animals or two female animals is also natural — in that it occurs quite often among various species in nature — but being natural does not make it good for human beings.)

As a young boy, as early as seven years of age, I was accused by my older brother of “acting like a girl”. I assume that I had feminine mannerisms — based on his hostile attitude and the hostility of other boys my age, who did not hesitate to call me a “faggot” and beat up on me. It was all rather unpleasant, but I believed two things: (1) that if I acted like a boy, I would be accepted; and (2) that if I punched somebody in the face they would all stop calling me a faggot to my face. The reason I didn’t punch anybody is that my mother had told me not to fight, and I desperately wanted to be a good boy, so I didn’t fight (until years later). The reason I didn’t act like a boy is because I was offended by the mere thought of acting — which is the focus of these comments.

To this day, I wonder how it was that I was offended by the mere thought of acting — of being phony, putting on an act. I was not offended that my brother was saying I was like a girl. (Is having feminine mannerisms actually a crime?) Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said (to paraphrase him) that life is sincerity — life is not about putting on an act.

We live in a society in which young men — and especially young African American men — are putting on an act. Exaggerated gestures associated with masculinity are obligatory. Any man who does not engage in such posturing is thought to be homosexual.

As a young boy, I was growing up in a society which regarded femininity in a male as a crime — but lying and stealing, and aspiring to fornication and even rape were considered admirable traits and behaviors. This is largely true of the African American Muslim communities that I have attempted to be a part of. Lying, stealing, and rape are publicly condemned, while fornication is actually excused — but being sexually attracted to other men is virtually unspeakable. Since Muslims do not actually read the Qur’an, they are not aware that Allah has made clear that anyone who fears standing before Allah and restrains himself from his desires, then surely the Garden of Paradise is his destination (Qur’an 79:40-41). Restraining myself from doing what I feel like doing, because I know I am going to come face-to-face with Allah one day, puts me on the path to Paradise.

If you are putting on an act, you are not fooling Allah — but you are disrespecting Allah. You are showing more regard for the opinions of other people than for the judgment of Allah. Why then should Allah admit you to his Paradise?

Having spent my first seven years in such a hypocritical society, how was it that — even at the expense of being beaten and rejected — I was unwilling to be insincere in my everyday behavior? How is it that the mere thought of putting on an act offended me? I suspect that, somehow, the wisdom from the Prophet had come down to me — in my bones. Along with other mysteries, this makes me wonder how deep the Muslim ancestry runs in my bones. I suspect the history of the Muraabitoon — along with an even deeper history — runs in my bones.

2 Rajab 1437
April 9, 2016