The Prayer of Dutty Bookman

Dutty Bookman was a West African Muslim male enslaved and transported to Haiti, then the French colony of Saitnt Domingue. Bookman fled enslavement became a runaway African, a Marron eventually leading the Bois Caiman rebellion of 1791 which started the Haitian Revolution paying for this act of consummate revolution with his life. Bookman left to history his prayer of Bois Caiman, the prayer of rebellion. This is but one example of the proud Muslim legacy bequeathed to us by our Muslim ancestors in the Caribbean challenging us to be proud of this legacy and honour it.

Traditional Boïs Caiman Prayer

August 14, 1791

The following prayer is supposed to have been given by Dutty Bookman during the

Boïs Caiman meeting.

"The god who created the earth; who created the sun that gives us light. The god who holds up

the ocean; who makes the thunder roar. Our God who has ears to hear. You who are hidden in the

clouds; who watch us from where you are. You see all that the white has made us suffer. The

white man's god asks him to commit crimes. But the god within us wants to do good. Our god,

who is so good, so just, He orders us to revenge our wrongs. It's He who will direct our arms and

bring us the victory. It's He who will assist us. We all should throw away the image of the white

men's god who is so pitiless. Listen to the voice for liberty that speaks in all our hearts.”

Boukman enslaved against his will transported to the first outpost of the white world order, the Caribbean was faced with a social order that was hostile to his race and his belief for massa was paranoid about an African male and female who is a believer enslaved on his plantation. For the enslaved African believers never surrendered, were literate in Arabic and Islamic maths, some even in Islamic book keeping and sciences. When given the opportunity they soon mastered the English language and ran the plantation. Boukman was then faced with a choice in the white present life: to be worked until death, to be flogged to death or to resist as a believer he chose to resist, better yet to flee, to reject the white man's present life and in his freedom to resist the white world order to the point of his death. Boukman refused to live in the present life under the terms and conditions of the white world order which would have meant compromise, surrender to massa for he was already in an existential condition in which there is only surrender in submission to Almighty Allah (SWT) who is One. To surrender to the white world order in fact means rebellion against Almighty Allah (SWT) for there is One not two. There is no need for hijrah to this mythic khilafa our sole duty in the present life is surrender in submission to earn the outpouring of the Sakinah in the present life and entry to the Garden of Bliss in the second creation. This is the lesson of the praxis of Boukman for us believers of the 21 century as the strategic plan of Almighty Allah (SWT), the Majestic, the Sublime marches on in the present life to unleash the Day of Doom. Malcolm/Malik el Shabaaz did not fall from the sky as the munafiqun of the muslim lands collapse it is the duty of the believers of the west to now provide a 21 century vision to the believers. Inshallah