Sayidda Zainab "Shrine"

Cambridge...

Souq

View of Damascus

PICTURES...!

After a LOT of problems with them, i can finally put some up.

I'll put a little comment under each one when i have more time inshaallah.

Salaam

Syria 2

Apologies for the delay-iv been quite busy with.."stuff"..anyway now that im having to reply on memory quite a lot the description below might be a bit all over the place..anyway..

So-to Syria.

Alhamdulillah it was fortunate that the brother i went with had a freind in Damascus who he went to university with in the states. Anyway we caught a taxi and arrived at his place at around 2 in the morning. Subhanallah, he had an amazing flat. Basically he was a medical student in the US but was on a fulbright scholarship to Syria for 1 yr learning arabic (more about these dodgy american paks who are scamming the scholarship scheme later..). It was a 2 bedroom flat which he was sharing with a chinese guy and a libyan guy both of whom were students of sharia at the same uni. Ok, we were sleeping on the floor, but we werent too fussed.
The first thing i noticed about Syria is that its a lot poorer than Jordan. The second thing i noticed was the pictures of President Assad Everywhere (although theres a good few pics of King abdulla in Jordan too).

Our plan was to stay in Syria for 4 days only so we had to make the most of it. so what did we do?We woke up the nest day at 11am...Anyway the main "sights" in Damascus are all related to Islam with the focal point being the Ummayad Mosque.

Subhanalla! its an absolutely amazing mosque. By far the most beautiful and biggest one iv seen.In the guide book it says that after the mosques in Maccah, Madina and Jeruslam its the next in line in terms of religious importance and also aesthetics/architecture. And i would agree. InshaAllah pics will be going up, but im realising more and more that nothing beats the power of seeing something for yourself. It had one main prayer hall which must have been at least 150mt long and a huuge courtyardoutside. The level of decoration and attention to detail was phenomenal and even more inspiring bearing in mind the mosque was over 800yrs old. Also the main souq was right next to the mosque so the attendences, for the day prayers at least, was pretty high.

One slight dampner (food for the feminists..) was that the mosque was mixed. Not Mixed mixed. But mixed.Whether or not women should go to the mosque is another issue ( http://www.daruliftaa.com/question.asp?txt_QuestionID=q-21225280) but here you had women going allover the place so often u cud end up doing your sunnah on the same row as a woman. So i wasnt too happy that. But by far this was the best thing we saw and there is to see in Syria. And pretty much on all the days we were in damascus we would try and at least pray once here and just spend some time sitting in the mosque/courtyard appreciating its beauty.

The other main attraction of Syria/damascus is the fact its so rich in terms of islamic history. Soo many of the main sahabas are buried here. Alhamdulilla we got to go to the makams of Hadrat Bilal, Khalid ibn walid as well as of big shuyukh like Ibn Arabi and Imam Nawawi with Sayyida Ruqaya and Fathima (grand daughters of, Ali daughters of Hussain i think) thrown in too.

Obviously the latter for shias have more significance, so the Iranian government paid for two huge mosques to be made where they are buried, and these were another highlight of the trip. Both mosques were in classic persian design - huge gold dome, with blue decorations. But the insides were just crazy. The guidebooksaid if they built mosques in Las Vegas, this is how they would build them. And they were'nt kidding. The inside was just full of gold and silver decorations with mirrors Everywhere. Everywhere. Very OTT.It was slightly uncomfortable too as in both of these places there were a lot of shias present on some kind of pilgramige and were doing their beating of chests etc etc..but the mosques were something i wont forget.

Another highlight of the trip was our visit to Himms, a town around 1 hr north of Damascus and home to the resting place of Khalid bin Walid. Here again the mosque was amazing in architecture and splendeur but much more "plain" (and respectful to be honest) than the iranian built ones. Near Himms we also went to visit, as the guidebook described, "the best preserved crusader castle in the world" and this was the legendry castle which Richard the Lionheart and Salahuddin Ayubi contested over. Again, it was an amazing sight. The fort was huge in size but also remarkably in good shape bearing in mind its age. The tour around the castle took a good hour on its own. An amazing thing was the level of "technology" being used at that time - e.g. how they maintained water supply throughout the castle and how they their horses etc would remain safe.

Another thing i remember was the sight from the top of one of the hills surrounding Damascus. subhannalla from the top one could see all of the city in all its splendour.

Hmm...what else? maybe i should have written this earlier as my memory seems to be failing me...inshaallah i'll put up the pictures and maybe that will remind me of some more things, but in summary, Alhamdulilla the trip went really well, we saw much of what the rich islamic history has to offer and i would encourage all of you, if you have the opportunity to visit syria.

Salaam.

INTERMISSION - BREAKING NEWS

Salaam,

Some shocking news for you all; yesterday someone stole Sheikh Nuh's shoes from the mosque.



I feel sorry for that guy.

Some background on Sheikh Nuh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuh_Ha_Mim_Keller

Salaam.

Syria 1

Salaam,

So off set the intrepid explorers on their quest to enter the ancient land of Syria, without any documentation, visas, or place to stay in Damascus if let in..

All the way to the border we were being encouraged to recite ayatul qursi as this was to help us in our confrontation (we Knew there would be a confrontation) at the border. After 1 and 1/2 hrs we got to the border and it began.

There was four of us who set out to penetrate into syria, me, one malaysian and 2 americans. First thing; "why no visa??!! u need visa! who tell u u no need visa??" etc etc but after explaining to him that we got told we could obtain visas at the border, the border guard shuffled to a back room with our passports in hand. He then returned 5 mins later; "Malaysian, u in for free, syria and malaysia good friends, british-we will see, americans. No"

So obviously we all started protesting, then pleading, then begging (it wasnt a pretty sight) for them to let us all in, and that we had to All be let in or it was no good. And then the charm offensive began. We knew from the outset that we would have to be smooth to get in so had come equipped with sweets. Yes sweets. So whilst mine and the two americans details were being faxed to the interior ministry (this is what he told us) we started to work on the guy.

Who said management wasnt a useful degree??! My paper in negotiation skills (i actually did do a paper on how to negotiate with people..) came into full practice now. First we started to just chat with the guy, then we offered him some sweets, then more talking, then we started talking about our families, then about our plans in life, then about how it was ony fair for us to be let in, then more food, etc etc...it was a sight and a half. Then SIX hours later the dreaded fax came back. I had been let in, but the americans had been refused. We were Gutted. And so was the official. Genuinly. Now what to do? I was genuinly saying to forget going as it would split the group up bt on the insistance of the two americans and the fact that the malaysian guy could speak fluent arabic, we decided that the two of us granted visa's would go for it and the two americans would return.

So off set the brit and the malay into Syria...

Next installment: Syria 2...

Salaam.

Syria

Salaam,

Short entry; basically some of us are going to the syrian/jordanian border in a few hours time to see if we can get in...OK, yes we dont have visa's and will most likely be made to wait for upto 5 hours and then sent back, but we thought we'd try it out anyway...

InshaAllah if we do get in, we'll be spending the next 4 or 5 days there so eid will be in Damascus inshaAllah

Please pray all goes well...

Salaam

Things...

Salaam,

Things which tell u ur becoming a sufi:

1) you refer to everyone as "sidi"
2) you kiss peoples hands when u see them
3) you own a tambourine
4) you start growing ur hair long and start to wear one of those hats (u know the ones im talking about...)
5) you own a huuuge tasbih (rosary bead) - a small one just wont do


Things about Amman :

1) All the things in shops have price stickers on them so u wont get ripped off (unlike Egypt or Bd)
2) All the taxis have metres in them so u wont get ripped off (unlike Egypt or Bd)
3) There's no "stray dogs and cats which will kill u even if u go near them as their That diseased problem" here (Again unlike Egypt or Bd)
4) Their equivalent of the ice cream van is the gas van. Yes the gas man. ALL day he goes round and round in his van playing the SAME tune OVER ad OVER and OVER again selling those gas cainsters for portable heaters. But no, children dont run out and jump onto the back of the van and get a free ride with it...(ahhh, burnley days..)

Unfortunately my USB cable seems not to want to work so im not able to put up pics of my trip to the Salahuddin castle and the masjids of the sahabi Abu Ubaida and the prophet Shuraim but iA i will buy or borrow one soon.

Alhamdulilla my lessons are going well so far in terms of im really begining to appreciate why people keep going on about the beauty of the arabic language. My grammar teacher, Ustadh Faisal, is an absolute legend. He's only still around 26 but has studied arabic in the US, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Mauritania and so many other countries. I think this isnt because he was a bad student and kept getting kicked out of the institutes but to go and seek knowledge with the best guys in that particular field...

I thought i would never say this, but im enjoying arabic grammar. The best thing about the lessons is that it isnt just grammar straight up, but its given its full context; the stories behind why things are the way they are, what this implies wrt the qur'an and hadith and examples of how these rules are used in islamic literature. He also throws in lots of random anecdotes which keep the class lively. And the Best thing about the grammar class is that its taught in English ! Yes. I have no idea why all the other arabic institutes i know try and teach newcomers to the language grammar in arabic. This was the case when i was in Cairo. I mean how on earth is the teacher supposed to explain to me tenses, pronouns, ordering of words etc in arabic when i dont speak a word of the language..??

Also, since admittedly my english aint too good to begin with, by learning arabic grammar im having to learn english the way it was supposed to be with terms like "intransitive", "indicative" and "parallel conjunctions"...(5 points to whoever knows what the last one is...)

Anyway must dash now. Thankfully tomorrow is Friday so no lessons = can sleep in. So far iv been getting around 6 hours of sleep on average per day. For anyone who knows me this is not good. Basically i try and be in bed by 10pm everyday, but this always becomes 11pm or later and i end up waking for thahajudd as an azaan goes off for it when its close to fajr. And since my classes start at 8am, i cant go back to sleep after fajr. So yes, Only 6 hrs per night so i try and make the most of Fri and Mon mornings.

Salaam

Stuck

Salaam,

Alhamdulillah im fully into my course now having had about a week of lessons, and its going OK so far. To be honest with you its involving a lot more work than i envisaged or wanted to do...my plan was to have a good time and learn some arabic at the same time, but if i actually want to learn a decent amount, im gonna have to devote more time to it as its getting increasingly technical, especially the grammar.

Those of you from uni know that i undergo random motivational crises (that was wrt economics so fair play i think) but iv already undergone some here...! but i keep reminding myself that im spending quite a lot of money and making quite a few sacrifices to be out here so i should make the most of this time. And who knows, the arabic might in fact come in handy in the future...? But i really do think that learning qur'anic arabic should be high up on the "things to do" list of muslims as how on earth can you justify praying 5 times a day and reading your holy book and not knowing whats going on...??

With eid coming up some of the brothers here are trying to plan a trip to one of the neighbouring countries, but here we faced the wrath of arab (and almost all 3rd world countries) beauracracy. First we were thinking what would be nicer than to spend eid in jerusalam and pray in masjid al aqsa i.e. a trip to palestine... but then we basically got told this would be impossible. But not only this but it could prevent you from going to hajj for the next ten years...

Jerusalam is actually only 80 miles away from Amman but it is ridiculously difficult to get inside. Unless you are with your family (so are not going to get up to no good) or you have family there, you cant get in. Even if you do get in, your passport will get stamped by the israeli guards saying you entered israel, hence meaning you cant go on hajj as saudi arabia doesnt let anyone into the country who has visited israel... (a bit of a shot in the foot by them to be honest as it means muslims cant go to visit palestine and then go to hajj until they get a new passport).

So then we decided we'll try and go to Syria, but again got told this would be very difficult. Anyway we ended up going to the Syrian embassy, which resembled a prison more than anything as you could not enter the building and had to speak to the officials through a booth with metal bars. There we got told to go to our own repsective embassies to get a letter of recommendation and then we Might get a visa. So to the British embassy. Their we got told it was 35pounds for the letter and the syrians would charge us another 35pounds and we still might not get a visa so to go back to the syrian embassy and to see if we could gety a gurantee of a visa as the woman didnt want us to waste our money. So bask to the syrian embassy to be told by the woman "maybe you will get the visa, maybe you wont, i dont know"...

Anyway what we might do is just go to the Syrian border and illegaly enter the country...no, actually we've been told that sometimes they issue visa's there so to try our luck and see what happens. And since its only a 1 1/2 hr drive it wont be much of a waste if we get turned back.

So after all that it seems most likely il be spending eid in Jordan...but iA even if that is the case we're going to try to go to Petra/Aqaba, places which have a lot of history so should be good anyway iA.

Salaam