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.
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.
posted by Me at
12:28 PM
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