In the year 2026, twenty years after the first and defining draft of The Salaam Matrix was written, this diagnostic tool has taken a leap and two new variants, or derivative matrices, have surfaced based on the insights gleaned from contemplation on the model vis-a-vis the emerging complex reality of the world:
We are calling them The Shadow Matrix, and The Ghost Matrix. 🌘👻🥀
The Shadow Matrix is a study of life in a malfunctioning and ‘broken’ state, where things do not work, they are out of balance, and there is corruption and pollution. As the name suggests, the Shadow Matrix is the study of that which is dark, troubled, and troubling. It is a brave, clear, and no-nonsense diagnosis of pollution, toxicity, breakdown, distortion and theft.
The bravery of the Shadow Matrix is that it doesn’t sing “all is well” or make only positivity and creation the gold standard and aim of enterprise. The Shadow Matrix is both an incidental and on-going audit of that which is malevolent or malfunctioning, willfully or otherwise. This is not an assignment of blame, but rather an assumption of responsibility of on-going evaluation and correction of the system.
The power and the promise of the Shadow is a deep cleaning of the system, removal of harm, restoration of balance, and the ability to face what is dark and disturbing without ado and avoidance. It is the belief of Ramala Hubb’Allah, the designer of The Salaam Matrix, that doing this work on a cyclical basis will improve the health of our systems.
The Ghost Matrix is a study of the neglected and forgotten or poorly attended state of life, of that what was not done, ignored, omitted. It reckons that which was or is needed but not provided and designed, it takes a look at lack and needs. On the flip side, the Ghost Matrix is also a precursor to identifying gaps and thereafter opportunities.
If the Shadow Matrix takes account of errors of commission, the Ghost Matrix is a tabulation of the omissions. Just as in the case of the Shadow Matrix, the Ghost Matrix also compels the reader-user to take a look at that which is often not willfully and correctly seen, which goes unnamed, unidentified, and unreckoned. This is the Matrix that allows the affected to speak up and count their needs and requirements, which can stay suspended if not actively met. Sometimes the consciousness of a system and people goes in sleeper mode, and they take a state of lack and neglect as a given operational state. The Ghost Matrix, especially when it comes with some benchmarks of what could have been, becomes a pointed reminder and checklist of what needs to be.
Why the Shadow & the Ghost Matter?
These two matrices, which are used as standalone isolates and can be used on their own each, are transformative in their nature, character, and intent. These matrices are intended to remove a positivity bias and solely creative and introspective focus from the Salaam Matrix and its practice and bring in an element of actively embracing the art of auditing the misfunctioning and the missing.
The greatest gift of these models is not just what they do in practice, but their audacity and their legitimization of looking at the world in ways that we have deemed too impolite or hostile or uncultured.
We confuse niceness and pretenses with culture, elevation, manners and civilization. Yet, the civilization always produces brokenness or has things that go missing or are not put in place — until, of course, the system and the human perception is so well-lubricated that the gaps are nearly instantly filled, and the needs are not felt or left unattended. That, of course, is possible. But to report “all is well” when it is not, is not just dishonest, it is also an impediment in the way of evolution.
The Shadow and the Ghost Matrix legitimize and normalize taking a look and naming things.
They give power to the people to name their pain and their problem.
They compel and invite decision-makers to create feedback loops and grievance- report & redress systems.
They validate the existential truth that life is not all rainbows and roses.
They instill a sense of responsibility and guardianship in the people.
They remove taboos from around what we deem failures and omissions.
They allow the tense parts of the psyche to rest, and the stressed parts to vent.
The Persistence of Flaw
Not all brokenness and neglect come from a fault or flaw. Some of it is systemic, and some of it is evolutionary. You need new clothes for your teenager who is gaining height because that is part of the need of a growing child. Every year, there is a need for park benches and public bus replacements.
Malfunction and Neglect in their smallest instance are not a condemnable issue — they may occur naturally and spontaneously in the course of life. It is the persistence of the lag, or not having had an awareness in the first place nor accounting for it later or taking responsibility, that is the issue.
Humans are often tolerant of an error or lack or a breakdown — as long as there is hope and assurance that this will be addressed, acknowledged, corrected. What pains and what metamorphosizes in aggravated malfeasance is the persistence and the neglect, the denial, avoidance, gaslighting, or the shirking of the decision-makers concerned.
The Shadow and the Ghost Matrices make it normal to ask for accountability or to take responsibility. It makes taking a look a part of the curriculum, not just an accident that is politely smiled and nodded away.
Imagine a politician who makes it their business to audit their own party, their governance and their programs (as well as the given government policies) using the Shadow and the Ghost Matrices as tools, instead of putting on the cheesy smile expected of people who were supposed to report to the citizens that all is well. Now, the politician bravely broaches the subject, and the citizens are prepared to hear it too, because they accept that good governance means not just maintenance and creation of that which is approved and pleasing, but also reckoning with what doesn’t work, what is broken, what is painful.
In hero archetypes, the one who takes a look at the darkness is an after-dark messiah of the streets, and the one who takes a look at what is missing is a humanitarian and philanthrope of angelic proportions. Their bravery and humanity almost villainize the person who was keeping up appearances and order — to the extent that now the disruptive and even destructive anti-hero is the people’s favorite and the “good guy” gets stalked and booed.
The trio of the Matrices in The Salaam Matrix diagnostic, decision-making, and design system brings the good guy, the dark lord, and the angelic philanthrope at one table and even merges the roles. Now, the light, the dark and the missing all get equal value and legitimacy and work in tandem to continuously improve the system.
A Complete Governance Cycle
While developing the idea and aspects of the Shadow and the Ghost Matrix, the designer Ramala Hubb’Allah noted that the two new matrices completed a circle and a full scan of the system in such a way that the audits and decisions from the two derivate matrices strengthen and clarify the original matric, Salaam — the matrix of wholeness, resolution and prosperity that leads to incremental wellness and wealth for the people it is used for.
It became clear that the Shadow and the Ghost audit systems, when carried out, actually reinforce the original matrix, therefore creating a complete governance and auditing loop.
This methodology ensures that the user (person or institution) of the Salaam Matrix (whereas generically this means the original matrix and its derivatives) takes care of both the creative and maintenance side of the system, and also examines that which is neglected, absent, and broken. The latter are not condemned or brushed aside, nor made the subject and source of shame. They are accepted as legitimate aspects of a lived life, and a valid part of a complete audit system.
The Cost of Neglect of Ghosts and Shadows
The value of these two aspects of the Salaam Matrix cannot be understood fully except by appreciating the costs of neglecting or never knowing them.
When the darker and the needy aspects of life are ignored, the system as a whole starts experiencing breakage, loss, and ultimately even theft and sabotage as the affected begin to try to cope, and the malevolent, malicious and frivolous begin taking advantage of the lack of insight into the fullness of system. Breakage begins occurring. People plan rebellion and are full of resentment, or exhausted from having to heal, mend and cope in frequencies greater than what are a natural part of the System’s operation and movement. (Some needs and losses are part the normal operation, but within statistically tolerable limits.)
In time, the losses, the neglect, the essential cover-ups and the excuses, and the resentment of people that can even turn VINDICTIVE, begins to show up. The (forced) serenity of the system begins to crack. Forced agreements are not kept any longer, and true reactions emerge either organically or hand-delivered by persons, groups, organization… even the unnamed parts of the system themselves. The costs are felt even invisibly and are often confused for fate or the paranormal. While the otherworldly and the non-human world exists and has impact, the key actually lies much more with humans ourselves.
The wise guardian is mindful not just of the potential and the creative side, but of the dark, troubling, problematic and neglected side of reality and systems, and does not resent them. IN truth often what one person, party or point-of-view deems dark and malevolent is in fact the normative and completely benign reality of the other.
The Whole, the Parts, and the Sum of Parts
Through the creation, acknowledgement, processing and integration of the Shadow and Ghost aspects, the Whole is enriched and fortified. It is now no longer a naive and unmatured aspirant, but a fully matured system or person that understanding that the totality of system requires oversight, maintenance and taking care of parts, not just ceaseless creating or aspiring good.
GOOD is not defined as a sliced part of the whole that deals only or preferentially with the creative and the positive, but as a complex totality that cares for the broken and the missing — a reality or a being that is mindful, hands-on, proactive and accepting of the less appealing aspects of life.
Salaam, by Definition!
Through the lens of this project and beyond, the designer Ramala Hubb’Allah has redefined the word Salaam as a comprehensive concept. Normally translated as “Peace” or “Submission”, a Jungian lens as well as the examination of the concerns of Muslim teachings is that Salaam is peace through a process, and the process is called “submission”, but it is less blindly following edicts that make little to no sense to a follower, and more “following the recipe faithfully”, which is called agreement, alignment, surrender or submission in the languages of various times and eras.
Ramala Hubb’Allah’s definition of the word Salaam is:
Wholeness, Wholesomeness, Integrity, Completion (by gathering of Parts).
Ramala noticed that following a life path is less about linear living from day to day, and more about walking a map with various regions and areas where one needs to work, and, where relevant, excel. We humans have a degree of control over the choices of regions, and the parts within that region, with some essentials and basics being common to the specie, some to each group of humans, and some to the formulation of a personality and person.
The work of achieving a sense of completion in life is to allow these component journeys to render themselves in a well-structured story of life. Furthermore, the journey is not just amongst external projects, but also, it is of attainment, loss, and completion in what we call the inner realm, which means a number of things from the soma to the soul of a person and a group. In the inner realms, there are parts and aspects of Psyche. The coming together and harmonization of those is a state of alignment, peace, tranquility and nervous stability.
The integration of these inner parts is the inner state of Salaam.
What the designer of the Salaam Matrix recognizes, honors and pays stress on is this inner tranquility, and the integration of parts that renders a more complete and accomplished Psyche. And to achieve this state in the inner, which ultimately ought to be the goal of human endeavor in the outer, we need to have systems and practices in the outer world that allow inner integration. Unfortunately, not many modern paths tend towards that journey in an active act of reclamation of inner maps and journeys. What we often have are parts and fragments, often not even connected well together or strung along with great force; we have paths of high exertion and complex effort and toil that may not be necessary in an instance or an epoch, and we end up with are ruptured societies and stressed and aggravated humans.
The Salaam Matrix is a path not only of self-governance and guardianship, but also of integration.
This integration is more honest and comprehensive when we have the courage and audacity as well as persistence and patience to look into the Shadow and Ghost aspects of life. This is what these new matrices accomplish.
This state of completion brings about a stillness and peace, that comes from the parts of the psyche and system coming to rest and no longer edging, seeking and aspiring but finding rest and growth in one another. This is also what is called the state of Submission — not in the sense of slavery to but alignment with What Is. This is a process, and it requires constant work because life itself does not stay still, it moves like an escalator, and you have to move along
Coming Full Circle
The Salaam Matrix started as a hopeful and entrepreneurial device that had a secret ambition and assumption: If we build quickly and enough and serve people’s needs, the collective grief in the world will diminish until it may not exist except as a structural or time-based gap.
From a business perspective, this is a fair proposition since the job of business is to deliver products and services and serving only partial social needs that fall under the mandate of a business. In the Salaam Matrix lingo, we used the tool as a Zone 3 (Socioeconomic) tool.
Then the Salaam Matrix expanded and started looking at users and stakeholders in other Zones too, and it was clear that this tool could be deployed in, for, and from any Zone.
Suppose we have a Zone 1 issue, such as better pilgrimage-making for citizens of a nation. The solution can come from Zone 4, Government: Governments can make rules around prayer, congregations, and pilgrimages easier, safer, and with minimal conflict.
Suppose the challenge we have is a Zone 4 (Ecological-Political) one. Solutions can come from Zone 1 (Spiritual) — the tenets of various faiths about better guardianship of Earth can move people to take better care of the Planet — or Zone 4 + 2 (Gov + Households) where the government trains and enables households to become better caretakers of the environment.
In this way the SMX could be used to solve the challenges of any zone from any zone. This creates a situation where we leave behind the pristine and more controlled world of Business, and enter other zones which can be messy, loaded, and full of conflict or lack of clarity. At first the Salaam Matrix approach was only creative: Develop a product and service to solve the challenge or provide delight or service. Within this schema too, the designer of the Salaam Matrix found that we often have to convince policymakers, families and entrepreneurs to look at the breakages and omissions in the system.
The Risk of Incompletion: ‘It’s Full/It’s Empty!’
Without a proper interweaving of social fabric, human psyche can fall across two broad divides: Optimism, and Pessimism. The Optimist profile wants cheers, joy, possibility and may refuse to see an issue as an issue. Even if they solve an issue, they do not hear and address the anxiety and stress around it fully and do not drain it well from systems. The Pessimistic profile focus on gloom and doom and can refuse to see possibility. They may be correct in their grief and stress, and sometimes bring a genuine issue to light, but without connecting issue identification with solution pathways, we risk having people sit in a strict divide.
In introducing the Shadow and the Ghost matrices as standalone but complementary frameworks, we are granting powerful tools to the users and readers, and those who are courageous enough to examine life in totality and therefore see what goes unseen, and hear what is unheard. This, more assuredly, is the path to Salaam — to wholeness, completion, integration and peace. Aameen. 🌹
NEXT STEPS: A detailed codex is under development for all renderings of The Salaam Matrix. In-depth Shadow and Ghost analyses, and codex elements are being developed.