Jordanian Paradise

Abu Jahl, one of the arch-enemies of Islam in Mecca, mockingly said, "Muhammad promises you gardens (i.e. in Paradise) like the Gardens of the River Jordan." The word used here, Al-Urdun, now means the political state of Jordan, but was originally the name of the river. For this reason, one of the older names of this area was East Jordan; i.e. east of the River Jordan. Urdun is the Arabization of the Hebrew yarden ("downward flowing") which is from the Hebrew triliteral root y-r-d (to flow or descend) which is related to the Arabic triliteral root w-r-d with the same meaning. The Arabic form would be warid, but rather, the Arabs refer to the river as al-shari`ah.

While the fertile basin of the Jordan River (known as ghawr or its plural aghwar in Arabic) is certainly not comparable to Paradise, let alone to some of the more beautiful areas on earth, Abu Jahl and his cronies were not that well traveled and could only make comparisons to what they had seen. Ever since Qusayy set up the Iylaf (mentioned in Surah Quraish), an agreement with tribes north and south of Mecca, Quraish would send out two annual caravans: one in the summer to the Levant and one in the winter to Yemen. The Arabs were taken by the natural beauty and relative cool of the Levant. They referred to Taif, a fertile, cool city close to Mecca, as, "a plot of the Levant in the Arabian Peninsula."

A person who has never left Amman might wonder what Abu Jahl was talking about: everywhere you look, there are beige buildings, beige rocks, and beige soil. In the winter, Amman feels like a plot of the North Pole in the Levant. Once when I traveled to Damascus, I checked the weather forecast and found that it was supposed to be colder than Amman. Upon arriving, I found the opposite to be true. The weather forecasts for Amman must be for the low-lying areas like downtown. For those of us who live in K-Town and other areas of high elevation, it's usually colder than the weather forecasts indicate. Amman is a mountainous city, with some areas having an elevation of about 800 m (that's half a mile for the metrically challenged) above sea level. A short trip westwards towards the Aghwar gives one a very different experience of Jordan.

This past Saturday I decided to escape from Amman's dull cold to the hot springs of Northern Shuna. We took a bus to Irbid from the bus depot in Amman, followed by a bus to the depot of the Aghwar followed by a bus to Northern Shuna. (Once you get out of Amman and into the greater Jerash area, the scenery is quite pleasant.) The bus to Northern Shuna dropped us off at an intersection and we walked about half a kilometre up towards the hot springs. The road was lined with banana and citrus trees. A shepherd guided his flock of sheep and goats over the shrub-covered hills. I asked him if he had any rams to which he said, "no." In other words, these were dairy sheep. I wanted to compare the prices of meat sheep to the prices in the area around Amman. (In Jordan, the distinction between dairy and meat animals is not based on breed, but rather, on the sex of the animal.)

We paid 25 piastres per person to get in to the hot springs complex. There is a spring for men and one for women as well as a number of private springs. We rented a private spring at 10 JD for one and a half hours. We arrived at 11 am, and they were still setting up. We went in to the room, bolted the door shut, and ran the hot water. The pool was about 2.5 m on each side and 165 cm in depth. The pool was in a separate room, so occasionally my son and I would get out and open the door of the room to get some air in. While it's not airtight, the steam can be overpowering at times. The only downsides to the area are that the water is very high in sulphur, which stinks like rotten eggs, and the cleanliness is not up to par with a real touristy area. The upside is that there are no tourists. It's all local Jordanians. Also, don't bring silver jewelry with you, as my rings got rusted by the sulpur-heavy steam. By the time we left the springs, there were a lot of visitors.

After leaving the springs, we headed to downtown Northern Shuna to try to buy some fresh ewe milk or yogurt. Unfortunately, it was too late: they had sold out for the day. After boarding the bus in downtown Northern Shuna, I noticed a monument to Mu'adh ibn Jabal, the great Companion (Allah be pleased with him). The next time I go, I will definitely make a point of visiting his grave, insha' Allah.

Finally, try to get out of Irbid before sunset. The regular buses stop early and you'll be stuck with relatively expensive options after that.