6/1/06: The Importance of Tajweed

When the Qur'aan was revealed, when the angel Jibreel (as) recited the Qur’aan to the Prophet Muhammad (saaws),  Jibreel (as) recited them with Tajweed and he showed the Prophet (saaws) the ways in which it was permissible to recite the Qur'aan.

Tajweed essentially means to observe the correct pronunciation of every letter with the rulings and characteristics which apply to each letter, without any exaggeration or absence. The reciter can then recite the Qur'an upon the way of the Prophet (saaws) who received it from Jibreel (as) who received it from Allah (swt).

And of the proofs that the scholars bring to show the obligation of Tajweed is when Allah says in the Qur'an, the translation and meaning is which:

'And recite the Qur'an (aloud) in a (slow and melodious) style (tarteela)'
(Surah Muzzammil (73), Ayah 4)

Ali ibn Abi Talib (rad) said in the explanation of this Ayah:

"at-Tarteel is Tajweed of the letters and knowing where to stop (correctly)".

Some of the Clear Mistakes are:

1.      Changing one letter into another, or a short vowel (harakah) into another, (changing Fathah into Damma or the letter Qaaf into Kaaf etc): This applies to many Desis who pronounce “dha” as “za” or “tha” as “sa”. 

Also problematic in other situations such as the name “Thameena”, which is a Musim girl’s name.  Many Desis will refer to that name as “Sameena”, which means fat thus possibly disgracing the girl for life; unless she really is fat and her parents want to get her married so call her that to get her to stop eating and start cooking Biryani like every Desi girl should.

2.      Not observing the elongations (Madd) at all.

3.      Stopping or starting at an incorrect place so that the meaning is corrupted.

Sadly many Muslims of this day and age overlook the importance of Tajweed for other topics like how a Salafee (or Salafi) defines the “yadd” of Allah, how many head-banging rhythms a Soofee (or Sufi) does in the dhikr session, or how to make takfeer on Sami Yusuf’s concert instead of focusing on how to read the most important book in this world.

But then many Muslims will always come up with excuses they cannot find someone who is able to teach them.  I personally think this is ludicrous as there are plenty of places in Chicago and elsewhere that teach tajweed.  My own university had a tajweed teacher.  Also, you can learn online by listening to Shaykh Husary recite and he is known to be the Qari of all Qaris.  You can also get a book that covers the tajweed rules, and these are available online for free, or you can buy them from any Islamic store such as those in ISNA, instead of wasting your time intermingling with the opposite sex and smoking sheesh in the Hyatt hotel lobby (unless you were there for Arif’s speech).

Let my mama always says, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”

If you want get this desi Mushaf, but i prefer the Egyptian ones

5/23/06: Biological Evolution: An Islamic Perspective

I had the opportunity to discuss evolution with my arabic teacher yesterday, and I happened to remember I had read a great article (by someone who I forgot) regarding this controversial topic.  So before we are quick to write off the entire theory, we should examine it to see if it contradicts the teachings of Islam first.  In other words, think before you speak.

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Many Muslims wonder about the theory of biological evolution – the theory that living species on Earth today are descended from others in the past, and that the present diversity of living species we see is a result of descent with modification over the course of numerous generations.

Muslims also wonder about one of the main processes that evolutionary theory proposes to explain how evolution takes place – the process of natural selection. This is the idea that the individuals within a populations of living organism vary in their individual traits – they are not exactly alike – and that the organisms which are most successful at leaving descendants will pass on their unique traits to the next generation at the expense of the traits possessed by less successful organisms in the population, thereby contributing to a long-term gradual change in the suite of traits found within the population.

To start with, it is not our intention in this article to discuss the scientific implications of evolutionary theory. We wish to explore the issue from the perspective of Islamic teachings.

We as Muslims must ask:

Does the theory of evolution – and likewise the theory of natural selection as a mechanism of evolution – conform to Islamic teachings or conflict with them?

Is a Muslim allowed to believe in evolution as a scientific theory as long as he or she accepts that Allah is behind it?

Is a Muslim allowed to believe in human evolution? If not, how can we explain the fossils of upright, bipedal, tool-using apes with large brains that have been discovered?

We wish to re-emphasize that our concern here is not with examining the scientific merits of the theory of evolution. What we want to know is what Islamic teachings have to say about the idea. Whether evolution is true or false scientifically is another matter altogether.

When we look at the sources of Islam – the Qur’ân and Sunnah – we see that, with respect to human beings living on the Earth today, they are all descendants of Adam and Eve.

Allah also says: “O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honorable of you with Allah is the one who is the most God-fearing.” [Sûrah al-Hujûrât:13]

The Prophet (peace be upon him) identified the "male" mentioned in this verse as being Adam. He said: “Human beings are the children of Adam and Adam was created from Earth.” Allah says: ‘O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Verily, the most honorable of you with Allah is the one who is the most God-fearing’.” [Sunan al-Tirmidhî (3270)]

We also see that Allah created Adam directly without the agency of parents.

Allah says: “The similitude of Jesus before Allah is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: ‘Be’ and he was.” [Sûrah Âl `Imrân: 59]

We also know that Eve was created from Adam without the agency of parents.

In the Qur’ân, Allah states clearly: “O mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord Who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate and from them twain hath spread abroad a multitude of men and women.” [Sûrah al-Nisâ’: 1]

Therefore, the Qur’ân tells us that Adam and his wife were the father and mother of all human beings living on the Earth today. We know about this by way of direct revelation from Allah.

The direct creation of Adam (peace be upon him) can neither be confirmed nor denied by science in any way. This is because the creation of Adam (peace be upon him) was a unique and singular historical event. It is a matter of the Unseen and something that science does not have the power to confirm or deny. As a matter of the Unseen, we believe it because Allah informs us about it. We say the same for the miracles mentioned in the Qur’ân. Miraculous events, by their very nature, do not conform to scientific laws and their occurrence can neither be confirmed nor denied by science.

What about other living things, besides the human beings living on the Earth today? What about plants, animals, fungi, and the like?

When we turn our attention to this question, we find that the Qur’ân and Sunnah do not tell us much about the flora and fauna that was present on the Earth before or at the time of Adam and Eve’s arrived upon it. The sacred texts also do not tell us how long ago Adam and Eve arrived upon the Earth. Therefore, these are things we cannot ascertain from the sacred texts.

The only thing that the Qur’ân and Sunnah require us to believe about the living things on Earth today is that Allah created them in whatever manner He decided to create them.

Allah says: “Allah is the Creator of all things and over all things He has authority.” [Sûrah al-Zumar: 62]

Indeed, Allah states specifically that He created all life forms: “And We made from water all living things.” [Sûrah al-Anbiyâ’: 30]

We know that “Allah does what He pleases.” Allah can create His creatures in any manner that He chooses.

Therefore, with respect to other living things, the Qur’ân and Sunnah neither confirm nor deny the theory of biological evolution or the process referred to as natural selection. The question of evolution remains purely a matter of scientific enquiry. The theory of evolution must stand or fall on its own scientific merits – and that means the physical evidence that either confirms the theory or conflicts with it.

The role of science is only to observe and describe the patterns that Allah places in His creation. If scientific observation shows a pattern in the evolution of species over time that can be described as natural selection, this is not in itself unbelief. It is only unbelief for a person to think that this evolution took place on its own, and not as a creation of Allah. A Muslim who accepts evolution or natural selection as a valid scientific theory must know that the theory is merely an explanation of one of the many observed patterns in Allah’s creation.

As for the fossil remains of bipedal apes and the tools and artifacts associated with those remains, their existence poses no problem for Islamic teachings. There is nothing in the Qur’ân and Sunnah that either affirms or denies that upright, brainy, tool using apes ever existed or evolved from other apelike ancestors. Such animals may very well have existed on Earth before Adam’s arrival upon it. All we can draw from the Qur’ân and Sunnah is that even if those animals once existed, they were not the forefathers of Adam (peace be upon him).

And Allah knows best.

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Some people see evolution as a chauvinistic theory

5/15/06: Sultan Hassan Masjid

While I have plenty to share on the ignorant youth who litter the streets of Attaba and Cairo, I feel my roommate Arif has done a good job of it on his blog; not to mention he has more of a personal connection with what transpired that day.  My blog will revolve more around the visit that day to the grand mosque of Sultan Hassan from the Mamluks.  Time is short so I will substantiate my blog with mostly pictures of this mosque.

Anyway, many consider the Sultan Hassan Mosque to be the most outstanding Islamic monument in Egypt.  It was designed so each of the four schools of thought (Hanbali, Hanafi, Shafi, and Maliki) each has a section inside the mosque.

Travelling to Sultan Hassan by Taxi

Looking to the Center Court

Jumuah about to begin

After we finished praying we visited the neighboring Mosque which had a group dhikr gathering, with the lead vocalist announcing how the prophet saaws was made from noor.  Also notice the grave of some saint behind the group of men.

For more pictures of the mosque please visit:

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5/5/06: Things in Cairo that turn me into the Hulk

This post is dedicated to the various intrinsic events that I encounter on a daily basis that bring me to the brink of madness soothed only by my tender side to overlook these primitive annoyances over the common brotherhood of Islaam that I share with most of these Egyptians (with the exception of Coptics).

Smoking: If someone was able to expeditiously extrapolate the number of smokers in this city, it would probably come to well above half of the city.  Smoking is the one habit that helps Egyptians bond together: Men, women, and even by a big part of underaged boys and girls; though for women it is less because of the customs.  Whether it is through relaxing yourself in a café on Friday night by smoking sheesh, or by taking breaks from driving a taxi, or to relieve yourself from suicide after being abused physically by your husband in front of everyone, smoking is the one trend that almost every other Egyptian picks up instinctively.

This kid needs a couple of thapars (slaps)

Like I stated many things before, Careens are known to be the most educated in the Arab world (I know it doesn’t mean much in the modern world).  This means that the many of the residents in Cairo know fully well that smoking is proven to be dangerous to your health by causing many pathological diseases including lung cancer, that smoking (whether regular or sheesha (which is medically more harmful) is declared haraam by most of the ulema including the ones here at well-known Al-Azher, who posted a fatwa against smoking in almost every mosque, that by smoking their cleanliness is compromised significantly not only in themselves but in their surroundings, that the air that permeates the city like a parasite sucking the liveliness out of your system like a ringworm that leaches from your body further exaggerates the effect of smoking, that smoking is one of the remaining legacies of colonialism, which they despise in their hearts and want to wipe out clean from their history, and that many people like myself scorn smoking and therefore lose respect for them almost instantly because of its intruding nature.

So in essence, they are not to be excused for ignorance, for ignorance entails that they are oblivious to the full repercussions off what they are embarking on, intentionally.  This also means that they are fully responsible for caving to their desires and pushing themselves to the point of maybe even earning a sin.  (Also bothersome are those Egyptians that declare music to be haraam while at the same time puffing smoke into your face.)

Cant find a job in Egypt? Join your local weed corner!

Cutting in one front of you: As the day draws to an end, you desire to replenish your stressed and depleted body by going to the legendary Sharqawis.  You proceed to the joint, say your salaams to the workers at the store that you now know by name, and then continue to make your order with the cashier.  Which seems like a routine to the common observer, except with one conspicuous difference; before you are about to make your order in the line, a fellow Egyptian cuts in front of you, flashes his money in front of the cashier, and orders the food before you.  And that’s not all; the same Egyptian also has the nerve to cut in front of you when you offer the receipt stub to the chef. 

Usually I tend to overlook these small annoyances, but what has lately struck me lately is that a lot of these people lack the common decency that every human should uphold to.  They even fail to feel an ounce of remorse for their actions.  In fact it is something that is abstract to them; like sleeping, eating, and as we know by now smoking.   This rather rude occurrence is something you rarely if at all see in America; and Americans are not known for following the morals endowed in Islaam.  Everyone and their mother try to cut in front of you like as if they are doing you a service.  This is why the Egyptians who spend day and night trying to imitate the American culture should only imitate that which will benefit them in their akhlaaq and adab; not how to rhyme and such.

Zagradatun (To shrill cries of joy): Zagradatun is the loud, obscene, inexorable sound that Arab women impart during marriage, eid, or mawlids.  I have reached the limit of my brain power so I’ll make it simple: this sound never will appeal the mind of any sane listener.  Not even Jim Carrey’s “most annoying sound in the world” in Dumb and Dumber overtakes this unrelenting buzz of human tongue discombobulation.  I respect what other cultures have to offer especially their food, but this is one aspect of Arab culture leaves me traumatized forever.  Which would make this sound a strong precursor to my departure from Egypt?  No, whoever developed this sound is a genius worthy of the Nobel prize.  This invention challenges the most prominent military invention of the 20^th century, the invention of the nuclear bomb: it serves as a huge deterrent to those who think even once about making a move against you.  Way to go my Arabic sisters, you really know how to check these men and keep them where they belong: away from you.  Also thanks to you, I have decided to perfect this sound and add it into my own repertoire of tactics intended at keeping certain people away from their homes (such as the “bakeyea” guys and certain weird personalities).  This is one weapon a superhero like Batman sure would love in his arsenal.

An Arab wedding: home of the most annoying sound

Honking:  Which brings me to an irritant that exists in mammoth proportions here: honking.  If Egypt had a drivers Ed class, the teacher would spend more time teaching his students how to master the technique of honking than how to maneuver the car and follow the rules (too bad they dont exist anyway).  Honking is cherished to such a degree here that they have different honking techniques for specific instances: such as picking someone up, to utter an expletive to a nearby automobile, to shout out to a girl, or to move someone of their path (Credit goes to Ali who deciphered the Rosetta Stone of honking).  However, virtually all the time, Egyptians honk because it is part of their everyday driving tasks like turning their steering wheel or switching gears; in other words at the most random of times.  They honk when they see anyone on the road, to impress or stalk others, or even when no one is even around for another mile.  I don’t know whether this is because they are bored, or on the brink of suicide, or because this is how they were taught to drive and a part of their great historical tradition of ticking people off (which is the best explanation); but it has gotten to a point that I have had to zone honking out of my sense of hearing. 

Which is why Egyptians need to stop honking when it is not critical to do so.  Like bacteria mutating to develop a resistance to antibiotics, the whole purpose of honking may be defeated by the resistance that Egyptians on the streets are now forming by zoning out the honk.  However in this day and age, Egyptian drivers are evolving the honk to select the best fit for the road.  The drivers now go to great lengths by forming honk styles that fight off even the most resistant of Egyptian pedestrians.  They have resorted to such tactics as playing tunes from such “icons” as Michael Jackson (since he is now the most famous Arab export living in Bahrain), which would drive anyone else in the world including the deaf, nuts.  Listening to a normal car honk is now becoming an endangered pastime like Umm Khultoum.  Welcome to Cairo in the 21^st century, where you can relish the worst tunes ever composed from the 70s and 80s along with a head light beamed at your face leaving you motionless and vulnerable for an eventual hit-and-run for a death that is more honorable then the ill-fated Last Samurai.

Horns and Brakes: two neccesities for the Egyptian road

For more annoyances, please refer back to my pet peeves during sleeping blog.

4/19/06: Luxor: An Ancient Tourist Paradise

Luxor (AlAqsur) is one of Egypt’s greatest tourist attractions, along with Giza and Sharm al-Shaykh.  An ancient and historically significant city formed on the banks of the Nile River, its economy now is dependent solely on tourism; downplaying its importance once as part of a great Egyptian empire stretching through most of Egypt.  It is also commonly known as the world's largest open air museum. Luxor is built on and around the ancient site of Thebes. Tourists have been visiting the area since ancient times from the same places (mostly from the West).

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Luxor

Luxor is known for its East and its West (both located relative to the Nile River).  Both sides have important ancient structures, but I only visited most of the Eastern ones because someone who is non-Arab and non-Muslim (and White because those are almost worshipped here for their money) usually get jipped and I still have to pay back my loans (not to mention pay for the rising medical school costs soon).  The ticket system runs in the following way: If you are foreigner and not a student you pay around 40 pounds in most of the structures like the temples; if you are foreigner and a student, you pay half as much; and if you are Egyptian you pay around only 2.  Well I am a student but I still don’t have my international student card so it would seem I would fall under the gullibles who pay 40.  However the ticket system here was meant to be broken.  I was able to get by with the cheaper prices (because I stated that I was a talibul ilm and Muslim, and impressed the ticket administration with more fusha than most Arabs here speak).

The same logic also applies in the stores in Luxor (and sometimes in Cairo), where almost all the store owners understand some English, not to mention beg for you to come to their store.  Also they like to holla out your ethnicity (“Hey Indian” or “Hey Pakistan") to attract your attention; which emboldens me to ignore them even more since every other seller does it.  It seems the more you live here in a 3rd world country the better you become at haggling and arguing.  For starters, usually you start by stating a little less than half the price the store owner offers because these guys make a living out of shafting you (especially if you are non-Egyptian).  However, it really helps that many of the Egyptians here are favorable towards Muslims and even more if you are Arab so they are more conducive towards lowering the prices.  I would not count on that though, especially if you are not Arab looking.  Another way to haggle is to state your price and start walking slowly outside; only to have the seller beg for you to come back by stating a favorable price; which you can further haggle down.  This cycle of tantalizing, bickering, and laughing at the seller while bringing down the price should take about 5 minutes in each store.  Some practice while at the same time getting ripped off should propel you into a pro in no time.  Too bad my skill will be lost when I come back to the States.

Deek, an Egyptian delicacy in Luxor, highlighted for your convenience

Luxor is located in Upper Egypt but in reality it is located in the South of Egypt (see map below).  The reason being that Upper and Lower Egypt is defined by its relative ness to the Nile’s origin which is from Sudan.

My roommate Ali, I, and another student from Qortoba took a train to Luxor from Cairo.  The ride takes approximately 9 hours (give or take 1 hour for the disorganized Egyptian workers).  We took 2^nd class to the city and 1^st class back.  Both are air-conditioned and 2^nd class is closer to the seating arrangement of an airplane while 1^st class is a bunch of cabins with seats inside.  If you want to take my advice you should take 2^nd class because it is 25 pounds less and because the seats in it actually slide back unlike 1^st class, which lacks beds and in it are chairs that are as hard as rock.   

Also because in the ride back we shared our cabin with a mentally deficient Giza man who after listening to me talk to my friend in English for 1 hour started teaching me how to count to 10 (which he barely could do himself), took a picture of himself with our camera just after he said salaam and asked us to give it to him at his house where he asked us to take more pictures of himself, spent his time groping his crotch, armpit, and feet publicly while speaking to us, he wasn’t satisfied with the groping so he opened his fly to dig deeper to grope some more, coughed up a loogie that was as long as half his body right when we were all looking at him, demonstrated how he did not take a shower in 3 days by smelling like what happens after you defecate Indian food, took our stuff (including our food) without asking repeatedly with his dirty hands, shook our hands with his dirty hands, woke us up every hour because he wanted to impress us how he could pronounce “Gold” or “Los Angeles” (which is where he said he studied English in what he said was located in “madinet nasr” in Egypt; also I have no clue as to what Gold had anything to do with our conversations) , and spent 10 min laughing uncontrollably on the seats like a baby after we all did the same before similarly at him because he acted like a retard.  Not to mention he would tell secrets in my roommate’s ear to show how his IQ level was on par with a kindergarteners, sang to us the most horrific nasheeds known to man for the first 2 hours, cut our conversations like every minute because he was not getting the attention he clearly deserved, and ended up not giving my roommie (Ali) any breathing space by taking all of one side of the cabin seats (6 total; 3 on each side) [poor guy Ali: he had to sit next to him for 9 hours].  BTW – This guy was around 60 years old and had 8 “intelligent” kids (who could all speak English effectively and count to 10; one of his kids was named “Sonovo” which is the only English “name” he could think off).  And all this time I thought the guy (Aiman) who we visited before to Giza was weird.  He was lucky we didn’t all gang jump because we decided he was a retard.

Ali’s breathing space is hijacked by an Egyptian villager (notice the disgusted face)

Ali engulfed in a sweaty Egyptian armpit

Like I said before the prices in the stores are more than quadrupled for foreigners (especially Whites).  If you are smart you would get the prices down to what is commonly referred to as “Misry Prices”.  For example, a motorboat cruise down the nile would cost around 150 pounds per hour for tourists.  If you are smart you would pay only 10 pounds per hour (we payed 40 for atleast 3 hours).  A cheap hotel would cost around 150 pounds for tourists and about 90 for Egyptians (we payed only 50 for two days and 1 night).  Swimming trunks cost about 70 for tourists (we payed only 25; this after some serious haggling), T-shirts are about 50 (we payed 21), and so on.

Which brings me to the main part: what do you actually do in Luxor besides slapping yourself silly to kill all the mosquitoes that lick your blood dry?  Well most people who come here spend their time equally in resorts, motorboats, horseback riding (this  comes in carriage form or regular), visiting tourist sites, shopping, eating till they die, swimming, bike riding, and ofcourse if you are non-Muslim drinking, smoking sheesha, watching belly dancers, and doing other haraami acts which cannot be described here.  Out of the above we accomplished everything except for the haraami acts (and the eating till you die because that is not from the Sunnah either). 

The temperature was a constant 35 C (98 F) throughout the day with a strong diminution at night because of the desert.  In fact I haven’t seen weather this hot since Saudi.  The 150,000 people here look different from Careens as they seem more of a mix of Arabs and Africans [I heard in Aswan which is further south they look almost like Sudanese].  The streets are more similar to Indian ones in Hyderabad then they are to Cairo and most of the city is also non-Egyptian.

A Luxorene girl

As for our trip: We arrived on Friday morning on the Eastern side, went straight to bed in a hotel, prayed Jumuaah in a Sufi-stronghold city (where they start making mawlids right after the prayer) [As for madhabs: some people pray with their hands down since they are Maliki; the rest being Shafiee], took a motorboat to Crocodile Island (which is a resort for foreigners that is in the middle of the Nile River, but we got a pass for 20 pounds; there’s only 1 crocodile in the whole island), left it on a motorboat to the West side to ride horses, came back to the East side on a motorboat again, and went to the bazaar to eat and chill.  On Saturday, we started by bike riding to visit the Karnak Temple (this was my favorite event because we rode bikes across the main corniche road on the Eastern side), then rode to the Luxor Temple, then to the hotel to return the bikes, then we went to a nearby hotel to Swim, then road a Horse carriage across the Eastern city again, came back and then left for Cairo.  This is just a gist of what we did but there is much more that I forgot to include.

Motorboating through the Nile

Biking through Luxor was quite the event

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Karnak Temple

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Karnak Temple again

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Luxor Temple

The Temples are impressive if you are into Egyptology (yes there is a major with that name) because they are staggering in size.  But I’m not a big fan of the history of grave worship because it is correlated with shirk so I will leave you to decide based on the pictures I post soon.

Back in Cairo where we are treated with the usual; Bums getting into a fight.