“Even Jesus, if that was his real name, more on that later

Had his lost years and nobody knows from whence he tarried.

Buddha was able to reach enlightenment only after leaving the palace

And seeing suffering, he must’ve been like “Yo, this can’t be the full picture!”
I ask myself, would there have been a Malcolm X,

If not for a Detroit Red before him?”

In the course of my four decades on this planet, I’ve had the privilege of studying, subscribing to, and rejecting many walks of faith. As I mentioned at the beginning of “Exodus,” I used to be a junior deacon at a Baptist church. I was responsible for leading prayers, reading the scripture for the day, and on occasion reporting what we learned back to the larger congregation. I enjoyed my role and relished the responsibilities; hence, “They’d always say, “you gon’ be a preacher one day!”

With age comes wisdom, which, at my young age, came in the form of questions. One of my more pressing inquiries was how can Jesus be both God AND the *son of God? These theological questions and a lack of clear answers led me on a journey of religious exploration. When I was 13 or so, I attended an academic enrichment program that was affiliated with the Catholic church. I came to memorize the Hail Mary. I went to mass and confession. And I spent a lot of hours with Father Charles firing away all of my questions about the meaning of existence, where did Jesus go during his Lost Years, and how could Mary give birth if she was in fact a virgin. 

Driving to high school I’d encounter brothers from the Nation of Islam on the street selling The Final Call newspapers and bean pies. These encounters with Islam, and my love of Wu-Tang, led me to the Five Percent Nation of Gods and Earths. I was Rastafarian entering college, and later converted to Orthodox Islam. In between, I studied Buddhism. 

As I moved through each of these chambers, sitting with their doctrines and practices, building with their adherents, I took the aspects that resonated most with me and discarded the rest. Central themes always emerged, one of which I’ll expound upon here. And that’s the idea of Becoming Holy, or when the respective leaders have their divine, life-altering epiphany and choose to step fully into their calling. 

In Christianity, Jesus moved about the people. As a young man, he enjoyed sitting at the feet of wise men and elders and before the age of 30 he worked as a carpenter. Then, he disappeared and had “Lost Years,” from the age of 12 to 30. 18 years of unrecorded activity. When Jesus returned, he had a message and the way for the people to follow. 

In Buddhism, Siddharta Guatama was raised in a palace in the lap of luxury. Feeling that he wasn’t getting the full human experience, he left his station of royalty, shed his belongings, and lived an ascetic life for 6 years. This period was known as the Great Renunciation. While wandering and pondering, he sat under the Bodhi tree in deep contemplation for 49 days, eventually reaching enlightenment. He then returned with a message and a way for the people to follow.

In Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, worked as a merchant in Mecca, and his trustworthiness earned the respect of a wealthy widow Khadija, who would become his first wife. Muhammad often withdrew from society and retreated to the cave of Hira for long moments of contemplation and meditation. It was during one of these trips that he received his revelations from the Angel Jibril (Gabriel). At first, Muhammad was shaken to his core and ran to his wife for comfort, thinking that he was going insane. Over time, he realized that he was being called to lead the people and share his revelations. “READ!” the angel commanded.  

There is a trend here. Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad all lived among society for some time, withdrew and spent time away in moments of deep contemplation, and then returned with great insight that would become the basis of their respective doctrines. 

I often ask myself this question…if I withdrew from society to live a contemplative life, what message would I have for the people when I returned…if I returned?

In “Exodus,” I added Malcolm X as another example. Brother Malcolm was a hustler and petty criminal known as Detroit Red before he was incarcerated (his “time away”). While locked up, he gained knowledge of self through encounters with the Nation of Islam and returned back to society with insight and a new outlook on life and his purpose. I posit that we never would have been blessed with Malcolm X if he didn’t go through his own struggles as Detroit Red; it was necessary for him to go through this rocky tract in order to gain wisdom that would connect and lead the people. 

My takeaway: we all have holiness innate within us, but we are often too distracted to effectively tap into and cultivate it. There is divine utility in being able to process our surroundings and what is going on around us and, by divine osmosis, within us. Doing so allows us to reach our own truths which we’d probably find align to larger, universal truths and experiences shared by all. 

In this social media digital age, we often say “tap in,” when what we probably need to do is DIG IN and go deeper than the surface tap.  

Peace and Love,

Rankofa

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Listen to the song “Exodus” below!