Friday, September 30, 2011

Musalla of Sayyida Zainab



There's one thing that REALLY annoys me when I got to the Musalla of Sayyida Zainab (The bit where they have the congregational prayers).

It's not the fact that you have to go early to get a spot near the fan in the summer, nor the fact that you have to hang around at the end to avoid the rush. Nor, as the guidebook says, is it the overpowering stench of feet (I guess 2 years in Iran made me immune to that!). And I can even deal with people not praying in sync - not everyone is lucky enough to have areligious education.

The thing that really annoys me is this... there is a certain group of people (whom I won't name, otherwise I'll get tonnes of hate mail) who think its ok to come into the prayer room lastminute.com and assume that a spot will mgically open up for them. Just so you know woman - the space doesn't open up, but rather you squash the rest of us who actually turned up on time. And, to make matters worse, they often bring in these huge shopping bags with them. It's kinda ironic that in the shrines in their own country, they are not even allowed to take food and water bottles, let alone shopping, but in Syria they think nothing of huge 'take up a whole person's space' shopping bags.

A friend of mine last summer used to refuse to let them squeeze in at the last minute and actualy lecture them about turning up on time, rather than taking the scenic route via the souk. I tried it once, but turns out the woman had just arrived to Syria and she'd literally freshened up and ran out the door in order to get to the prayer room on time. She did promise me, however, she wasn't going to do any shoppping :-)


Pic taken last night of a lastminute.com lady who squeezed in next to us and her shopping bags

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Back to school

It's been a while since I last blogged. Since my last post, I've been back home to
London and returned back to Syria and started school!

After the scary interview (4 teachers on the panel asking everything from the rules
concernig doubts in prayer to the basis of wilayat!) and then a series of blood tests,
chest X-ray and blood pressure, we got accepted into the hawza (religious school).

Walking into school on the first day took me straight back to Iran. The hawza is
actually run by Iranians, but everything is taught in Arabic. Dua Ahad was playing
on the speakers and the day started in pretty much the same way as it did in Iran-
in complete chaos! We were sorted out into classes, and just like Iran, my class
has students from all over the world- Pakistan, burkino faso and France! The teacher
is from lebabnon and speaks a bit of french, which is lucky as most of the African
students speak French too.

Class ran from 8 to 10 after which we went next door to the mens hawza for the
opening ceremony. It consisted of three vey long speeches, which gave me an
opportunity to type out this blog post on my phone so it can be uploaded when I get
home! And read a LOT of Quran.

A group of students got up to sing some nasheeds and in the process managed to massacre
an Imad Rami nasheed. Actually thats a bit unfair- part of the blame needs to go to
the dodgy mikes. I'm sure the Stanmore AV team would have done a much better job. Lol

We all got given a goody bag with a pen, magazines, and snack pack to welcome in the new year.