Prayer brings the believer closer to God. Prayer brings the believer orientation and direction. Prayer brings balance. During his first tour of castaway duty on the Island, Sayid tried his best to honor his faith and uphold its pillars of belief. One of the last times we saw him praying on the Island was just days before he escaped it.

The episode was ”The Economist,” which juxtaposed its Island tale of Sayid trekking into the jungle to bargain peacefully with John Locke for the life of Charlotte Lewis with its flash-forward tale of Sayid taking lives as Benjamin Linus’ personal assassin.

Ever since then, Lost’s first man of faith has been slowly, sadly losing his religion, one dehumanizing hit at a time, all of them committed in the misguided belief he was avenging the (alleged) murder of his true love, Nadia. Did he pray for deliverance as he found himself getting dragged into the pit? We don’t know.

Sayid could cast blame for the sorry state of his soul. He could blame Machiavellian manipulation. He could blame it on divine conspiracy. But more than anything, Sayid blames himself. Last night’s episode of Lost, ”Sundown,” reminded us that for all his spirituality, and for all his protest-too-much bleating about being a ”good man,” Sayid has never been able to make peace with his past as a torturer for Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard, as well as the CIA. He’s more than mired in his quagmire; he feels like he deserves it.

To quote Joseph Conrad, Sayid is a man infected with a self-mortifying, self-corrupting ”fascination with abomination.” This season, after getting beamed to the Island present with a life-draining gunshot wound, Sayid was certain he was hell bound, and he took that stinkin’ thinkin’ into death. He was subsequently revived, though either Sayid came back all wrong — or came back just the same. Or neither.

With Lost’s final season now one third complete, the matter of Island eschatology is still a murky affair. ”Sundown” — a warped mirror version of ”The Economist,” juxtaposing an Island story about Sayid becoming a dark knight assassin for Nameless, the Lockeness Monster, with a Sideways tale about Sayid playing white knight dragon slayer for the sake of protecting his family — invited us to debate what exactly Sayid now believes about himself, about the Island, and about the bald-headed embodiment of raw power and diamond-hard will that is His Royal Smokeyness, who promised his good and faithful servant another chance at life and love with Nadia in exchange for his sick skills.

As he followed UnLocke into the Island gloom, wearing the kind of smile that you find both on the born again and the zombie dead, it was hard to know if Sayid was being led toward the dawn of new hope or being lured deeper into the heart of darkness.

Hosted by the Inner-city Muslim Action Network (IMAN), IMAN at the Apollo: A Special Edition of Community Café, treated a sold-out audience to the musical styles of a people bound together through their beliefs in promoting peace, social action and community support. Along with partner organization Islamic Relief, the event managed to raise over $13,000 towards Haiti earthquake relief funding.

American and international Muslim performers graced the stage with musical styles that ranged from hip-hop to opera. Yes, opera. And when the house lights came on, audience members got the chance to see how the ethnic and cultural diversity on stage poured into all of the seats around them. People of all races and religions rocked out together to good music for a good cause.

Featuring Amir Sulaiman and Liza Garza

With Special Performances by
Mos Def & Aasif Mandvi (Daily Show)

Also Featuring:
The ReMINDers, Progress Theater & Many More!

Hosts:
Azhar Usman (Allah Made Me Funny) & Ibrahim Abdul Matin (IMANYC)

DJs: Kidragon and Raichous

As an infant child, Ameer could always be heard making noise. Whether it was banging on walls, tapping objects together to hear what sound they would make, or manipulating his voice to imitate the sounds he heard in his environment, he was always making noise.

His mother gave him the name "The Noise Maker". The noise irritated his siblings to the point where he would have to leave the room or take physical punishment, but during these times Ameer was busy perfecting his craft. His mother found a way to direct his love for noise by teaching he and his siblings songs and having them perform them in front of crowds. They performed in talent shows, family reunions, people on the street, you name it, and they did it. All these things played a key role in Ameer’s love for music.

Though Ameer had a great love for music he had an even greater love for spirituality. Born a Muslim into an Islamic household, he was always taught to bring Peace to wherever he went. The meaning of his name Ameer, meaning Prince and/or Leader, had a profound effect on his life. "I would always watch movies and cartoons that had Prince’s in it and would try to imitate the good that they would do wherever I could. The cartoon I felt most connected with was Aladdin. I liked the stories of someone poor changing their status in life and still looking out for the best interest of the common people.

I felt that he always treated people fair, and that was really the type of person I was. I always have had a drive to do whatever it takes to make things fair for mankind and nature. I had a reputation that I wanted to maintain too, when I graduated high school my senior class nominated me "Most Dependable" and that was something I was proud of and wanted to keep about myself".

Though the greater world tries to separate spirituality from popular music, in Ameer’s mind, music was a reflection of the spirituality in the artist who wrote the words.

In 2009 he put out mixtape entitled "Transition Complete" that did very well in the United States.  Now he is branching his music out with his 2nd album entitled "Muslim My Whole Life" do out in the summer of 2010.  With the first video already out and doing very well, it is looking like this may be his biggest album up as of yet.

While reports surfaced last year of Loon’s (now named Amir Junaid Muhadith) conversion, the Harlem rapper recently made a public declaration on Al Jazeera, the sole independent news network stationed in
the Middle East.

“Loon is working his way out of my system,” Loon stated, while sporting traditional Islam garb. “[I’m] happy to be accepting Islam, and finding the peace of mind I was always searching for in the music business…Thanks to Islam I was able to complete my search and now I’m very much at peace. Bad Boy days are over, I’m now what you call a good boy.”

Loon was a staple of the late 90s, early millennium Bad Boy roster. The Harlemite was most prominently featured on the hit singles “I Need a Girl, Part 1 & 2.”

When asked if he will continue to rap, Loon referenced the importance of being spiritually grounded before making that decision, as the media will be cognizant of any contradictory actions.

“Right now I’m focusing on studying Islam and becoming more knowledgeable of the deen (Islamic way of life),” Loon explained. “Being in the position of influence, I have to be able to protect myself. The media sometimes tries to use these transitions that artists make as an opportunity to make a mockery of Islam, or whatever faith a person might choose…But Allah knows best, maybe I will [return to rap].”

Acknowledging that mainstream Hip-Hop currently has a very low spiritual component, Loon asserts that it is a challenge to all artists who follow religious tenets.

“That’s something that all of us artists that have accepted Islam struggle with, because it’s a very fine line,” Loon said. “With me I really love the music, but it’s the lifestyle that’s really the bad influence. The music can be geared towards things that influence people to do positive things. But the actual part that detours people from practicing their faith or concentrating on positive things is the lifestyle.”

Last year, T-Pain, Akon, Busta Rhymes and others raised the ire of the Muslim world with their remix of “Arab Money,” which featured Qur’anic scripture over music.

This action is considered blasphemy in Islam, and forced the artists to remove the remix from rotation.

As a potential Islamic artist, Loon is aware of this issue and is considering the safer avenue of spoken word.

“The mass audience that we reach as artists are particularly in the club. So to have people in the club actually reciting ayahs (verses) or things that pertain to Islam would kind of give the wrong impression,” Loon detailed. “Spoken word is something I’ve been focusing on. I do have the lyrical ability to establish a lot of things that make Islam so beautiful. But it’s very hard to walk that fine line when you have music in the background that plays a role as dance rhythm or something that may mislead a person from the message we’re trying to give.”

Loon is the second Harlem rapper, following former friend Mase, to leave Hip-Hop due to spiritual enlightenment.

Loon’s last LP was a 2007 joint project with fellow Bad Boy alum G-Dep, entitled Bad Boy.