Growing Pains

Growing Pains - Boonaa Mohammed

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Those who criticize my generation Forget who are the ones who raised us Produced kids who popping razors Scrapping their veins open like erasers Trying to erase all the pain and shame of delinquent teenagers On call with drugs and alcohol having A ball while our species is endangered Because in this day and age you are nothing but a facebook page,

A retweet of nothing sweet, a selfie inside a cage

Living in a material prison, a 16×9 cell of whatever your TV will sell Everybody wants to be somebody but nobody wants to be themselves We ignore the ones who adore us and adore the ones who ignore us We are only Muslims by name, so long as immigration won't deport us I'm sorry Mr. Politician; I didn't mean to look so different I know my parents have a funny accent But I'm just working with what I was given You see we moved to these lands to escape from poverty and persecution But colonization of my nation kind of left The promise lands looking like an illusion

And I don't know what I'm doing, where I'm from or where I'm going

You see I wanted to go to school But the class they put me in is boring They told me that I have special needs, And that my grades ain't that important But they don't know I could flip Trees, and by 3, buy me a pair of Jordan's And I don't even want to play the race Card, cause I ain't even a fan of poker But every time I visit jails, It looks like the coloured people taking over But as I've grown older, I've realized what's most important And I don't ask Allah for less tests, I ask Allah for bolder shoulders Because inside of every tear is a moment most sincere to God The help of Allah is near, but how near are you to Allah? Because in order to be free, You must escape from the prison of your desires And speak only when your words are more beautiful than silence Make friends with the Qur'an because it is a book of guidance Embody the message of messengers, And stand tall like Dawood did to Giants I was looking for faults, and so I started in the mirror And I realized real hommies, Are those who want to be hommies in Jannah And even though people are complicated, Islam is real simple You see Allah gives us so much, but yet we thank Him so little And even liberals see my sisters wearing Hijab's as criminals But I see every covered girl as a cover girl so take cover girl And forgive your enemies but never forget what they have taught you And know that those who gossip with you will one day gossip about you They tell me I should rap to the youth although my poetry is spoken I tell them my tongue is a loaded Gun, and I am careful where I point it And I ain't trying to give advice that I haven't acted upon myself Cause everybody wants to change the world, But nobody wants to start within themselves But from what I can tell, the signs are clear; the end of time is near And behind every wrinkle on the faces of Our elders, lies wisdom beyond our years If only we would take a moment to attain all that they made One generation plants a seed, so that the next can receive the shade People ask me what changed, but wallahi akhi nothing really, I just began to see this world as a traveller and I'm moving quickly On my way into my grave, to the earth where everyone will sleep Cause the angel of death is a celebrity everybody's dying to meet People say they are just "killing Time" but really time is just killing you And your life is nothing more than all The paths and roads that you will choose Even a man who killed 99 people and repented to Allah was excused So if you say your heart has grown Distant from Allah, then ask yourself who moved? Growing up is painful, but you can't stay small forever Everybody wants a rainbow, but ain't prepared for bad weather So never ever let the devil make you sad at who you are Cause only in your darkest hour can you see the brightest stars Some of the best lessons in my life, were learned at the worst times But I wouldn't change a thing except my patience in the divine Because if Allah brings you to it, than He will bring you through it Just have patience and pray, trust me, I'm living proof of it