Thursday, December 04, 2003

Once upon a Ramdan...

Cairo is bursting with culture…
With rhythmic Quranic voices, beautiful Arabic calligraphy, faces, faces, faces (over plates of interesting meals), lights, rusty bronze, and tacky trails of neon light bulbs, green garbage
collectors smiling at you toothlessly at every corner, late
nights, early mornings (grooan), sticky golden sweets, and
murky orange drinks, big groups of people in noisy sweet
smoke-infested 2a3das, shouting over each others voices, or
rows and rows of people standing quietly, heads bent
slightly listening to musical verses spilling from speakers,
and repeating long "aaaaaaaaaaaamiiiiiinnnnnnn" s in strong
male dominant unision, intwingled with soft feminine
whispers as well..

The country's bursting with culture…
which is unla7a2able and even when your not praying, the tarawi7ers and tahagudders create this serene musical background sound and sensation that lasts all through the night..

I've gone through almost all the quran for the VERY first
time and it's an incredible feeling!
The book is SO FULL of tales of magic, adventure, hope,
love, fear, anger, emotion.. it's SO hard to imagine all
this is captured in paper and bound in a small book.. one
that I had barely ever experienced as such kaman..
did you know Soliman talked to the wind?
Do you know that means the wind, the mountains, the air, the atmosphere, trees, ants, birds, they're ALL ALIVE!!
And a beautiful moon through lacing clouds might actually be
looking right back at you? :)
And it might actually be telling a story f3lan :)

Did you know that shooting stars are actually "shehab" being
thrown at trespassers attempting to listen to the angels
discussing stories of you and me, and today and tomorrow..
And that judging by the speed of light and the fact that the
shooting star you see today, could be one that shot
thousands of years ago..
you ARE witnessing history when you see 'em!

How Beeeaauuuutiful your own voice sounds when your
stretching out the names of God to sing in unison with a
number of others..
how scary it is, when you finally do achieve the unison of
voices, so that the next time you open your mouth, you don't
hear YOUR voice, but a stronger more collective one, that
yours own only becomes a part of .. a flavor, a particle, a
color..
NO WONDER they get into trance-like states. it’s bewildering!

du ever think of how beautiful the Arabic word is??
I always(still do ya3ni) have a serious problem with it.
bas you can never actually LOOK at an English word and not
read it, you can't do that with Arabic. you have to give it
attention. each word is an icon, an idea, sometimes even a
concept. They all stem from a three letter word, and infused
with other letter and loads of tashkeel actually transmit an
idea.. a concept, and it's doer, doee, or the actual action
of it.. bas you can't just look at it.. you have to actually
read it. and often ponder it too.