Jordan: Land of the Sahaba

Back in 2006, I went to visit the graves of Ja'far ibn Abi Talib, Zayd ibn Al-Haritha, and Abdullah ibn Ruwaha (Allah be pleased with them) in Mu'ta, near Kerak, Jordan. I didn't have a car at the time, but transportation to them is easy by bus. It is sufficient to say the Ja'far ibn Abi Talib was the one whom the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said most resembled him in appearance and character. As for Zayd ibn Al-Haritha, he had the title, "Beloved of the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)" as he was the adopted son of the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). He was known as Zayd ibn Muhammad before the Qur'an enjoined people to be attributed to their actual fathers. (Read more here.)

There are many other Companions buried in Jordan, but I didn't have any affordable means of getting to them before I purchased a car. Last week, I drove down to the Jordan River Valley (Ar. ghor) with the family. We took University Street through Amman, past Sweileh in the direction of Salt and followed the signs towards Deir Alla. (Jordan is a tiny country if you're used to living in North America. This is closer than it seems.) We drove down the long, winding roads through the green hills and valleys. When we finally reached the bottom of mountain pass, we turned right, drove a short distance, and found the shrine and masjid of Dirar ibn Al-Azwar (Allah be pleased with him). The masjid's gate was closed. We greeted the Companion in the way that is indicated in the sunnah:

سلام عليكم دار قوم مؤمنين أنتم السابقون و نحن اللاحقون و يرحم الله المستقدمين منا و المستأخرين نسأل الله لنا و لكم العافية

meaning:

Peace be upon you, abode of believing people. You are the preceding ones and we are those who will follow. May Allah have Mercy on those among us who precede and those who come later. We ask Allah well-being for us and you.

I was about to leave at this point when some boys told us that the entrance of the masjid was on the other side. We drove up the road and around and found the entrance. I renewed my wudu', prayed in the masjid, and then went to greet Our Master Dirar (Allah be pleased with him) and supplicate.

After leaving the shrine, I realized that I didn't explain to my children the etiquettes or reasons for visiting graves. I told them that one first starts by offering two units of prayer to Allah Most High and then proceeds to greet the deceased. I asked them why we should pray near the deceased to which my youngest daughter said, "We should pray for them." I told her that this was correct, but in addition to praying for them, we should pray for ourselves near them. Allah has appointed certain people, places, and times as more sacred than others. As is mentioned in the Qur'an (Surah Aal `Imran), when the Prophet Zakariyya (peace be upon him) found that Maryam (peace be upon her) was given fruit that was out of season, he prayed for a son in that area, as it was a place where the Largesse of Allah had manifested itself. Thus, prayer near the pious is prayer in the vicinity of the Favour and Mercy of Allah.

Further up the road, we found the masjid and shrine of Abu Ubaydah ibn Al-Jarrah (Allah be pleased with him). The area around the masjid had a sweet scent. As we entered the masjid's courtyard, the scent became more intense, thought it was still subtle. I finally found the source of the scent: the courtyard was full of blossoming orange trees. We prayed, greeted the venerable Companion, and continued along our way to the shrines of Sharhabeel ibn Hasanah and then Amir ibn Abi Waqqas (Allah be pleased with them).

We drove further up to the souq of Northern Shuna, where there is a monument mentioning the Venerable Mu'adh ibn Jabal (Allah be pleased with him). It appears that we had driven too far up. We stopped to buy some vegetables and fresh yoghurt, and then returned a short drive down the street and turned towards Irbid. When we finally came to the site of his shrine, it was almost maghrib. We prayed maghrib and then visited him and his son Abdurrahman.

(For more information on the Companions buried in the Valley, read this article.)

The Jordan River Valley is right next to Israel and the Occupied Territories, so there are a number of security checkpoints along the way. Mostly, the officers just waved us along. Once, they stopped us to help us navigate around some bricks. At the shrine of Mu'adh, I tried making a phone call with my cell, only to get a message in Hebrew and English announcing that I was on Shalom Net and that the number was unavailable. After visiting the sites, I continued north through Irbid and then drove down to Amman. I didn't want to go through checkpoints or drive a mountainous, winding road at night.

There is one more shrine that I need to visit in Jordan: that of the the Companion Ikrimah ibn Abi Jahl (Allah be pleased with him). Other than these clearly demarcated shrines, many Companions are buried in the battlefields of Mu'ta and Yarmouk.

Limited Time Only: Gold Mine of Nutrients

This is the season for raw dairy from grass-fed cows, goats, and sheep in Jordan. Once we get into late summer, goat and sheep milk will stop being produced. Also, when the fresh herbage dries up, animals will go back to being fed fodder. Of course, I'm not referring to commercial dairy, which is pasteurized and often factory-farm produced. Rather, get it from the small-time merchants who buy directly from local farmers and sell by the roadside or deliver to your house.

If you're still unconvinced that you should drink raw, grass-fed milk, read Super Healthy Milk and Health Benefits of Raw Milk from Grass-Fed Animals.

Economics, Politics, Religion, and War

You absolutely must read Ronan Bennett's Ten days to war.

For the stubborn or lazy among you, it basically says: for most impoverished countries, foreign aid and having your turn on the UN security council are not privileges. Rather, they are tools of bribery and enslavement. As one Arab poet said:

أنت عبد لما أنت فيه طامع و حر من ما أنت منه آيس

meaning, "You are a slave to that which you long for and free of that which you have despaired from." Foreign aid, the promise to increase it for good behaviour, and the threat to cut it for bad behaviour is how Uncle Sam disciplines the youngins.

Jordan is not a strong country militarily or economically. Looking around from Jordan, you see Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Syria. These are certainly not the most cordial or stable of neighbours. Jordan lives off of foreign aid, particularly American. Jordan is a nice country, but one has to ask: does it have a choice? If I were in a room full of armed nuts, I'd also be as nice as possible. If Jordan tells the US to go take a powder, it will be left to fend for itself economically and militarily. Thus, it makes sense that Jordan has to support America's wars, whether right, wrong, or otherwise. Ironically, it is America's wars that are destroying Jordan's economy. Prior to the first Gulf war, Iraq was Jordan's largest trading partner. But it was the 2003 war against Iraq that did in Jordan's economy: Jordan used to get free oil from Iraq but the 2003 invasion ended that. Since then, the Jordanian government has been removing subsidies from petroleum products gradually.

A new player has entered the scene after the fall of Iraq: Saudi Arabia. As most people already know, Saudi Arabia is aiding Jordan. There really is no such thing as a free lunch, and one can only wonder how Jordan will be affected by this close relationship. I already noted in an earlier post that Jordan celebrated Eid according to Saudi Arabia's, "sighting." Of course, there will only be so far that the Saudis can interfere in Jordan. The Royal Family of Jordan are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and the Saudis have a known problem with showing respect to anything noble, lest respect for something turn into idol worship. As long as Jordan continues to pray for the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) after the call to prayer and make the Prophet's birthday a national holiday, we are ok, insha' Allah.

Needed: A 4x4

I wanted to buy a 4x4 but a friend of mine convinced me to buy a regular car and then rent a 4x4 when I needed it for camping. I took his advice, unfortunately. Most car rental places don't carry pickups, and those that do won't rent it out for a couple of days. I did find SUV's, but nothing for under 118 JD/day.

How am I supposed to visit Ghadeer Al-Burqu`?

Jehadist Musings III: Sainthood Through Driving

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of the signs of the saints (Ar. awliya) is that they cause you to remember Allah. When I first learned to drive stick shift, my wife's constant praying while riding next to me was a sure sign of my wilaya (sainthood).

Jehad also couldn't help noticing my wilaya. Once he mentioned how one really can't tell a person's spiritual state from external factors and, agreeing, I said, "Right. Like, you'd never guess that I was a great wali (saint) from my appearances." After concurring, Jehad added, "But there are subtle hints, like being able to drive a car that isn't running." Jehad was referring to yet the latest issue with my car: it simply turns off once in a while. One such time, I was driving from the Abdoun Circle towards the Fourth Circle, about to go up a hill when it stopped running. I quickly slipped it into neutral, started the car, and moved it back into third gear. I personally thought it was pretty cool how you could do that very smoothly with a stick shift. When I asked Jehad if he thought it was cool, he agreed that it was very cool that we weren't killed and didn't get rear-ended. (Did I ever mention the Brits aren't excitable enough?) He also commented that I did everything so well that he wouldn't have even noticed it turned off if I hadn't mentioned it.

Through our two day tour of Amman, Jehad had a gentle exposure to what driving is like in Amman, inasmuch as driving in Amman can be exposed gently. Actually, the Lonely Planet Guide to Jordan mentions that the only real danger in Amman is driving. People would cut right in front of us without signaling, pull out of intersections seconds before we arrived at it while we had the right of way, make headway towards us in a roundabout as if they were going to crash into us, etc. Jehad audibly expressed his shock on a few occasions. I explained to him the excitement I had learning to drive stick shift and drive in Amman at the same time.

Regarding my car turning off, I have since pinpointed the problem: the car often idles at around 400 RPM, which is too low. When it attempts to get above 600 RPM, it cuts out. If I tap the gas instead of applying it linearly, it gets past the 600 mark easily and I can drive normally. All this means is that I have a slightly delayed start when cruising without applying the accelerator to when I start accelerating. It's only ever annoying in heavy traffic. As for why it turned off right before I went up a hill, it's because I was depressing the clutch the whole time I was descending and then suddenly applied the gas at the bottom of the hill. I have two choices: I can continue to drive the car the way it is (since I know how to avoid the problem) or I can fix it. I will probably fix it eventually, insha' Allah.

Strangely enough, I love my car, and consider it fairly reliable. Old cars are kind of like marriage after the honeymoon: you either learn to live with the small problems that crop up more often than you'd like and make the best of the situation or you search for another vehicle. Of course, if the problems are severe, just get another vehicle.

Jehadist Musings II: Shooting

Jehad runs an archery club in the UK. Many well-meaning Muslims trumpet that archery and horseback-riding are acts from the sunna. Most traditional and liberal Muslims criticize extremist Muslims as being literalists who try to apply the letter of the law without considering the spirit of the law. Reading classical Islamic texts leaves no doubt at all what the intent of horseback-riding and shooting is: it is that able-bodied men be prepared for war. However, one doesn't find anyone criticizing those who practice archery and horseback riding as literalists. Rather, the spirit of the law is largely ignored in this case. The true sunna in these matters is to be prepared for war. War is a part of human history and is not going to disappear any time soon. One can either prepare for it or wait to be killed or imprisoned when it occurs.

To state the obvious: I do not support terrorism. The classical books of Islamic Law all indicate the importance of obeying one's leader, even if he is not a practicing Muslim. Rather, I am suggesting that all able-bodied men should be ready for war so that they can serve under the army of a Muslim leader, even if impious. This can be accomplished in the following ways:

1. All Muslim countries should have mandatory military service.
2. All Muslim countries should support the right of citizens to bear arms.

The first of these strategies ensures that Muslims can mobilize their citizens in the case of an emergency. Sometimes, when I see the fashionable young men of Amman, I wonder if they'd rather be taken as concubines in the case of a war rather than fight. Like many others, I was thoroughly disgusted with Fouad Siniora's tearful pleading with the deaf and dumb international community while Israel raped his country in 2006. As the mother of the last Moorish ruler of Spain told her son, "Now cry like a woman over that which you didn't defend like a man." Egypt and Syria have mandatory military service, as does our peaceful neighbour and friend: Israel. While I would hate for Jordan to become as brutal and oppressive as Egypt or Syria, mandatory military service does not necessarily spell out brutality: Israel is not brutal with its citizens, and neither was Jordan in the days when mandatory military service was the law. (Jordan is still one of the best Arab countries in terms of treatment of its citizens.)

The second strategy has as its prerequisite just governance. It's no surprise that Syria and Egypt don't make it easy for their citizens to own firearms: they are afraid. How else are they supposed to violently crush any opposition to their authoritarian regimes? Jordan, on the other hand, does not make it very difficult for the average citizen to own firearms, and neither does Israel, Switzerland, the USA, or Canada. The reason they can do this is because the leaders of these countries all know that they don't overly oppress their citizens, so they're not insecure about them bearing arms. Having discussed the prerequisite of this strategy, what is the point of it? As we have seen in many recent examples, war against superpowers generally involves a quick victory of the superpower's army against that of the lesser country followed by a long, drawn-out guerilla war. If many citizens are armed, it proves much more difficult to secure a quick victory over the land. And, for all the anti-gun apologists: Canada has more guns per capita than the USA yet it doesn't have the crime rate.

Two archery advocates have justified archery in the same way: there is a belief (and I'm not sure how authentic it is) that the wars near the end of time will be fought using ancient technology -- horses, spears, and arrows. (I am not denying this belief. I simply don't know of it's authenticity, and given that I'm not a scholar, my ignorance on the matter is irrelevant.) Thus, according to these advocates, archery and horseback-riding are good skills to know so that we can be a part of the Army of the Mahdi when he arrives. The first counter-argument to this is that it might be another thousand (and possibly even 10,000) years before the Mahdi arrives. Are we going to forfeit the Islamic duty to be prepared for war in the meantime because we were waiting for the Mahdi? Secondly, assuming that there will, in fact, be a return to ancient technology at the time of the Mahdi, there will be time to prepare, as the events will not unfold overnight. While archery and horseback-riding are not trivial skills, they do not require a decade of preparation.

In closing, I am not criticizing archery or horseback-riding. They are noble pursuits, and teach one skills that are very useful to modern warfare. Archery is much more difficult than shooting a rifle or handgun. Thus, a skilled archer will probably become a good shooter in short order. However, a sudden war that requires firearms expertise is more likely than a sudden war that requires archery. Many hadiths on the matter don't mention archery explicitly, but rather reference ramy, which means, "shooting." Part of academic honesty is maintaining one's methodology consistently. If we are too busy criticizing extremists for being literalists and ignoring the spirit of the law to notice our own inconsistencies, maybe it's time to hold our tongues (and pens and keyboards) and reflect.

Jehadist Musings I: Whining and Dining in Amman

Brother Jehad (his real name, as he needs all the fame he can get) visited us from the UK. It was my duty to entertain him. So, while I don't normally frequent restaurants, this was business, and it was my responsibility to keep him well fed and happy.

Before I start my review, I should tell you that I grew up spoiled: my mother and ex-wife were good cooks, and restaurants aren't worth it to me unless they're so good that they're memorable.

The first day, Jehad wanted to eat Italian, so I had my adviser on culinary matters find me a restaurant and ask them my two standard questions: where do you get your meat from and do you serve alcohol? She suggested Casareccio, who said that their meat is all from Amman's Abattoirs, and is in fact, local meat. (These two statements are not synonymous since imported animals are also butchered in Amman's Abattoirs.) When she asked them if they served alcohol, they said, "No, unfortunately."

We headed to the Abdoun Circle after asr and sat at our reserved table. It was a Tuesday afternoon, and reservations were apparently not necessary, as the place was relatively quiet. The table had a basket of room-temperature, factory-made, preservative-filled, overly-sweet Italian bread slices on it along with some tasty olives, and high quality olive oil with thyme. We were hungry and the food took a while to arrive, so we finished the basket and got a refill. Jehad ordered lasagna, a chicken caesar salad, and fries. I ordered a, "prime beef fillet", medium rare, with butter sauce and some grilled vegetables. For drinks, I ordered mango juice while Jehad ordered a strawberry shake. They forgot to bring the drinks until I requested them again after we were done eating. The steak was definitely not prime beef. I don't think they even know what prime beef is. In fact, I don't think there are beef cattle in Jordan. I have always suspected they just butcher unwanted male dairy calves. (However, I have no hard proof for this assumption.) The steak was also a bit on the dry side, though the butter sauce helped soften it up. The baked potato was good, but they didn't ask me what I wanted on it, so it arrived with a bunch of sour cream. The waiter was polite enough to ask me if I wanted another potato after he saw me scooping away the sour cream in disdain. He probably thought I was some sort of a back country hick, as when I rhetorically asked him, "What's this?" he told me, "Sour cream" and then followed up quickly with, "Labneh." I guess it's standard practice to douse baked potatoes with sour cream, but personally, I only ever use dairy butter or olive oil. The next day, I told my culinary adviser that I was less than pleased by the Casareccio. She asked Jehad what he thought and he liked it. First of all, he's a guest so he's probably too polite to say otherwise, and secondly, he's British: anything better than lukewarm shepherd's pie is probably exotic by his standards. The bill was around 35 JD, including a small tip. I got a follow-up call from Casareccio to make sure that everything was to my taste. What was I supposed to tell them? I quickly brushed it off with the generic, "Alhamdulillah, thank you"-type answer.

After dinner, we went to the latifiyya in K-Town, prayed isha, and then headed out for sweets at Zalatimo. I accidentally went to Al-Wadees instead at first. It would have probably been a better choice. While Al-Wadees doesn't have the atmosphere or selection of Zalatimo, the quality of the actual cakes is remarkable. After a bit of navigating, we ended up at Zalatimo in Shmeisani. Jehad ordered the Tutti Frutti ice cream and a strawberry milkshake. I ordered a chocolate brownie with fudge sauce, whipped cream, and ice cream and a mint espresso topped with whipped cream as a drink. The brownie was good, but not remarkably so. The same goes for the fudge sauce, which was not heated. The, "whipped cream" was, of course, chemical garbage that probably didn't have any dairy in it at all. The ice cream was generic-tasting ice milk at best. We also ordered a large bottle of water, which took longer than expected to arrive. They charged 16.84. I was so put off by the bad quality and high price that I didn't tip them. Atmosphere might be something that space exploration experts worry about. For me, it's the quality of the food first, followed by the price tag, followed by the service.

The next day we had a potluck lunch at work. Jehad wanted to see Qasid, so we dropped by in the late afternoon. There were a bunch of soldiers hanging around the entrance. We went upstairs and saw the immaculate Qasid premises. Someone I knew told me that Prince Ghazi had dropped by and he was now at Islamica Magazine in a meeting. There were a couple soldiers outside of Islamica's offices. I asked them if I could greet the prince and told them to search me if they wanted to. One of them looked at the other, who tried to muster up a tough-guy look and told me, "Wait over there." (Jordanians aren't very good at being mean.) We waited a while between Qasid and Islamica until I got some urgent phone calls from work, so I headed back into the office. Alhamdulillah, the fire at work got put out, and we head out for K-Town to dance with the dervishes after maghrib. We then set out to feed our faces.

We headed out to Gene's Grill inside Safeway at the Seventh Circle. I parked the car at a Porsche dealership. Jehad and I wondered if my 1985 Cressida would invoke the envious eye of those around us, but hey, sometimes you just can't hide what you have. I asked a waiter about the steaks and where the meat came from. "China" was his answer. I asked if he meant that it was imported as meat or if Chinese animals were slaughtered in Amman. He said it was the former. I told him that someone told me before their steaks were from Australia. (They also told me that they were imported as live cattle and butchered in Amman.) He said he could get me Chinese or Australian beef, as I wished. They used to also carry American beef, but no longer did. I asked him if the Australian beef was imported as meat or as live animals, and again, he confirmed the former. I asked him if the same was true regarding the buffet, and he replied in the affirmative. I thanked him and we left.

We drove back to Jabri on Gardens' Street. After confirming that their meat was all local, we ordered: Jehad had fried chicken and a had the mansaf meal. While Jabri is certainly not a place to take VIP's, the food is clean, good, and cheap. The sauce that they make their mansaf with tastes genuine and doesn't upset my stomach. Their meat is reasonably good. The meals and drinks were 10.40 in total. Talk about good, cheap food!

After dinner, we drove back to the Abdoun Circle to check out sweets at Gerards. Jehad ordered three scoops of ice cream. In order to be able to compare apples with apples, I ordered the brownie fudge sundae. The brownies were stacked in a pile like stationery or auto parts. They looked like the same brownies that I had at Zalatimo. I imagine that they are produced and packaged in some great, big brownie factory and distributed throughout Jordan. The fudge sauce was good, and the whipped cream was real, alhamdulillah. However, the ice cream was mediocre-tasting ice milk. The crushed nuts were crunchy. I ended up paying 5.50. It would appear that in Jordan, quality and price are inversely proportional.

I would definitely go to Jabri and Gerard's again. I would definitely avoid Casareccio and Zalatimo going forward. However, if you are ever in British Columbia and want to have a spiritual experience with a hot fudge brownie with ice cream and whipped cream, go to White Spot.

The best steak I've had in Jordan is at Reem Al-Bawadi's sister restaurant: Al-Waha. Make sure to get it grilled, and not with some sauce. In fact, Reem Al-Bawadi's and Al-Waha's grilling is particularly good, much better than that of Alia restaurant in Sports City. However, the mansaf I ordered from Reem Al-Bawadi once was rather sorry. Since when did Egyptians know how to make mansaf anyways?

RSCN Action Alert

The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature made the unfortunate decision to charge foreigners with legal residency the same as tourists and visitors. Previously, the rule was that anyone with a Jordanian residence would be charged the same as a Jordanian. This decision was precisely what made me decide not to go to the Ajloun reserve and instead go to Zayy.

I called them up and complained, indicating that, since I earn a Jordanian income, I should be charged as a Jordanian. They thanked me for my perspective and said they'd mull over the issue until mid-May.

If you are in Amman, please call the RSCN at 461-6523 (ext. 1) Sunday through Thursday and tell them that legal residents should be charged the same as Jordanians.

Zayy

Zayy is a nice forest outside of Salt and makes for a good picnic spot on Saturdays. Don't bother going on Fridays, as it'll probably be crowded. In the spring, there is an arrangement of wildflowers in red, mauve and yellow. The only problem is the litter. One day, I'm going to become PM and lock up people who litter. It's really sick when you try to relax in the forest but can't avoid seeing the bottles and bags everywhere.

When asr time entered, we walked down to a nearby masjid to pray. The imam of the masjid spoke genuine Salti but told me he was originally from Mansoura. I inquired as to why he didn't sound Egyptian at all and he said he's been here for a long time. I also told him that I was surprised that the Ministry of Endowments would hire a foreigner to which he replied that they will in exchange for residence, but they don't pay foreigners wages. The masjid had been abandoned and he decided to revive it. He also pointed to the land in front of the masjid and said, "Besides, I eat as much fava beans as I want from the land." (There have to be two memories of every Egyptian child, even us Western expats: planting fava beans and having your pet rabbit butchered for use in mulukhiyya.) He politely and insistently invited us over for coffee to which I equally persistently (and hopefully politely) declined.

The Spread of Arab Dialects Across the Middle East

In a conversation with an Emirati, I found that my previous assertion that the pronunciation of kaf as chaf was limited to Palestine, Northern Jordan, and Iraq was false: rather, the Emiratis speak this way as well. In fact, the Emirati brother thought that pronunciation of the kaf as chaf was common among all bedouins. He also mentioned that Emiratis pronounce the qaf jaf. (In the Emirates, Shariqa is pronounced Sharja.) This agrees with the pronunciation of the elderly among Bani Hassan here in Jordan, but southern Jordanians do not speak this way. In fact, I had to explain to one of the bedouins in Petra that saying chaf was not city speak.

Another thing that the Emirati brother mentioned is that the Omani dialect stands out in that they pronounce the jeem geem, like the Egyptians. (This is also the pronunciation of some of those from neighbouring Hadramaut, Yemen.)

The Arabic language prior to Islam and shortly afterwards was a wide array of dialects and pronunciations. The Qur'an preserved some of these dialects, the Sunnah contains some others, and Arabic poetry as well as erudite texts document some of the others. These dialects spread across what then became known as the Arab lands to Iraq, the Levant, and North Africa. For example, the Himyarite dialect survived in one incarnation across Egypt and the Levant: instead of al-bari7a, we all say imbari7, as they used am- in place of al- for the definite article. The urban Egyptian dialect seems to have at least a bit of Southern Arabian influence, as they pronounce jeem geem. In Jordan, it appears that the north was influenced by the same tribes who settled in the Gulf region while the south of Jordan is closer to the Hijaz.

Sumer Is Icumen In

Alhamdulillah, the weather has warmed up considerably. Last spring, after I told my wife we could put away the heaters for the year, it snowed heavily, and that was April. Thus, I'm not going to feel totally secure until it's May. Summer in Amman is air-conditioned compared to Egypt. Last year, I visited Egypt in the late summer: morning and evening, indoors and out, there was no escape from the heat except close to water in Alexandria. Actually, I love Amman's weather in the spring and summer.

Another wonderful thing about spring in Jordan is the truly fresh ewe and goat dairy. Ewe milk almost tastes like you're drinking cream and sugar. Drink it raw, boys and girls.

Traditionally, Jordanians say that the coldest days of winter start on December 22 and last for 40 days. For the past three winters, the cold has really started in mid to late January. This raises a question: if long-term climatic changes are in the works, are seasons to be defined by their traditional dates or by the actual weather present? The latter would seem more logical, as no one in Australia considers their warm weather to be winter just because it occurs in December. Would it then be right to say that winter in Jordan starts in mid January?

Farewell to Chocolate Ahmed

Back in 1984, I entered the sixth grade at the BC Muslim School in Richmond. The atmosphere was much more like an instructional summer camp rather than a school. One of the figures who was always there with a smile was Ahmed Omeria, who the younger children referred to as, "Chocolate Ahmed" because he would give them chocolate. Originally a sailor from South Africa, Ahmed Omeria became as much a part of the masjid as its walls. I left the Muslim School to complete tenth grade through graduation in the public school system (as the Muslim School didn't do high school), went to university, graduated, worked, and whenever I'd come to the Richmond Masjid, Ahmed Omeria was there. After working for two years in Vancouver, I roamed across North America for six years before finally moving back to Vancouver at the end of 2002, and Ahmed Omeria was still there in the Richmond Masjid, making adhan and smiling.

Yesterday I heard news that what befalls us all had befallen Ahmed Omeria: inevitable death. The news saddened many in Vancouver, as well as Vancouver expats in Qatar, Jordan, and Egypt.

Dixit Hopkins:

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you will weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

May Allah have mercy on Ahmed Omeria and grant him the highest levels of Paradise, and do the same with us when we reach what he has; ameen.