School Books

School is in full swing... I have classes from 8am to 1pm 5 days a week, with Thursdays and Fridays off.

My school bag is heavy! These are my books:


From Top left:
The brown book is 'Duroos fi Uloomul Qur'an' or Lessons in Quranic Sciences. 355 pages. We've been told that memorising the summaries at the end of each chapter is enough to pass the exam.

The blue book next to it is Jafer Subhani's 'Seeratul Muhamadiya' or the Life story of the Holy Prophet. 287 pages, but written really easily in story format

The blue and white book is 'Aadaabal Islam vol 1' or Islamic Manners/behaviour. 325 pages. The teacher summarises the chapters into bullet points which she makes us number in the book. She also expects us to regurgitate the lesson on the spot! scary stuff. Especially when you are one of the few non-Arabs in the class!

The little book on the bottom left is the last chapter of the Holy Quran (Juz Amma). It contains the last 37 chapters of the Holy Quran and we are expected to memorise it by the end of the term.

The light blue book next to it is 'Aqeedatul Islamiya' or Islamic Principles of Faith. 458 pages, badly photocopied and bound together. Actually its not the whole book, its just the half we are studying this term!

The green book with the pic of Imam Khumayni is our Tajweed book - or how to recite the Quran with the correct pronunciation. We haven't started this class yet as the teacher hasn't returned back from the summer holiday (she's not the only one - 6 members of the class are still in their home countries!)

The blue and brown book is our Sarf book or morphology. Its the Arabic grammar book we're studying this year. Our teacher is Egyptian, but you would never guess from the way she speaks Arabic. She's convinced I don't know grammar very well, so she's always asking me questions.

The books arrived late - we were well into our first week before the deliveries starting trickling in. The theory is that the books are printed in Iran and then shipped over.

We're still waiting for our Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and Hifdhul Mawdhooi (Memorisation of the Quran by subject) books, but nevertheless, the teachers are ploughing on with the lessons.

The books have cost a grand total of 260 liras, which is just under 4 pounds - a hell of a lot cheaper than university textbooks back home!

With so much studying this term, I guess I can kiss my social life goodbye!

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

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.

This is what I was busy doing today...

When we moved into our apartment in Syria, it was dirty! The previous tenants were related to the landlord, so they didn't bother cleaning the place properly.

Unlike when we moved to Qum, I didn't make myself ill scrubbing the place. I took things slowly - doing a bit every week.

The kitchen walls were caked in grease - all the way to the ceiling (no idea how the grease got up there!) and one day before classes started, I got on a chair and scrubbed the walls with steel wool. Problem was, being a bit vertically challenged, I couldn't reach all the way to the top. So for the past 8 months, my kitchen walls have looked like this:

BEFORE
(The top 2 rows of tiles are still caked with grease)

That was until I spotted a ladder last week, borrowed it and spent the next 2 days scrubbing the walls. Now it looks like this:

AFTER (all sparkly and clean)

I even managed to study in between all the scrubbing. A day well spent :-)

Notes from Sister's circle...

Our last sister's circle was conducted in Arabic. Its great for our language skills (and an ego booster when we find we can understand most of it!)

We looked at a hadith from our 6th Imam who says that there are 8 characteristics of a believer:

1. They are firm in times of tremor (that means anything that knocks you from your day to day routines - a death, accident etc)

2. They are patient in times of hardship

3. They are grateful in times of ease

4. They are satisfied by what God has given them

5. They don't oppress their enemies

6. They don't oppress their friends and forgive them easily

7. Their body is always tired

8. People are always at ease around them.

We discussed each of the points - some of them are quite obvious, but I'll expand on a few of them:

(4) It's human nature to look at people and only see their faults. For example, you see that your friend's husband does x y &z around the house and so you fault your husband for not doing the same, forgetting that he does a b &c.
If you think of everyone as a glass - half of us is filled with good qualities and half with bad qualities. So we need to start looking at the good half.

(7) This one was a bit puzzling - because we straight away thought it meant that the body should be tired with worship. But actually it means that the believer shouldn't rely on other people to do their work (unless of course they need help), but rather try and do as much as they can themselves. I guess its all about setting the right expectations of other people and realising that no one 'owes' you anything.

You know you're a talabe (student pursuing religious education) when....

...You squeeze every last drop out of shampoo/face cream/shower gel bottles (even cutting the lids off to get to the hard to reach stuff) cos you don't know when your next parcel from back home will come

...You have 3 types of tea; the imported tetley tea bags which are reserved for yourself. The local stuff which is used when people come over and the random tea/coffee/powdered milk that zawwar (religious pilgrims) leave behind

...You can have upto five types of Chevro (Bombay mix) in your cupboard at anyone time. And all of it has been left behind by zawwars. I still have yet to understand why people think bringing chevro on a trip is a good idea. You need spoons and bowls to eat it with, it's messy and it makes you thirsty.

...You become an expert at airline weight restrictions. Hell, you even book your ticket with the airline that gives you the most. You can pack your suitcase to within 100g of the allowance. And you have even perfected the 'puppy dog' look for the check in staff in country of origin to make them give you an extra few kilos. Obviously going back home is easier - you can slip the check-in guy $20 and he'll let you off with the excess luggage!

...You have worn 4 layers of clothes (and even worn a winter jacket in summer) on your return flight so that you can bring the last few clothes that won't fit in your suitcase.

...You look like a refugee with 3 pieces of hand luggage

...Your parents are experts at finding passengers to bring the much missed goodies from back home (thank you to everyone who has kept us topped up with dairy milk - we love you lots!)

...You don't mind when zawwar leave behind chevro, biscuits, shower gels, even broken biscuits. They are a reminder of back home. Again, thanks to you all! We love you too!

...You write lists of things to do back home in the summer and they include mundane things like 'go to Tesco'

...You consider Primark clothes to be good quality, because they are - compared to the rubbish you get out here!

... You don't feel hot when temperatures reach 30 degrees back home. Its not really hot until its 53 degrees (Anyone remember Qum, Summer 2009??)

...You don't flinch when you see cockroaches or ants. And you are used to seeing hundreds of stray cats. (and on that subject, I have yet to figure out one thing - there are thousands of stray cats and dogs here, but where are their droppings??? This is proving to be one of life's mysteries)

...You throw the concept of recycling out of the window. In fact the closest you get to recycling is bagging up bottles and cans separate from the rest of the garbage so the people who search through the dumpsters for things they can sell have an easier job

...You get home to find that the grocer has sold you out of date groceries, but you lack the language skills to go back and complain

...You are asked the same questions by all the zawwar who visit. And try and put the answers on your blog, but quickly realise that no one bothers to read it.

...You learn how quickly the fresh produce goes bad and shop for the week and not a tomato more than you need

...You learn which fruits are in season during the year from their prices

...You know every decent eatery within a 5 mile radius because there are so few of them and you are on first name terms with the owner and you know what you are going to eat before you even leave the house!

...You have a profound relationship with the sayyidda of the town (the decendant of the holy prophet) who is buried in your neighbourhood. She is everything from a surrogate mother to confidante

...You realise that what you learnt in Sunday school barely even built the boat that set off on the sea of knowledge. You start to appreciate the lengths that our aalims go through to research and learn in order to relate it back to us. And you seriously worry about people who sit on the mimber without studying

...You miss home, especially the friends and family and going out. But in reality, you wouldn't give upthisnew lifestyle, even for mountain of gold

Thoughts from class.

We're covering 8th form verbs right now - for the Arabic groupies amongst you - thats the افتعل pattern. (verbs which indicate internally activism with will and determination)

Our teacher taught us a phrase:

الأقتصاد في النفقة نصف المعيشة

which roughly translates to 'economising in expenses is half of living'

So when I heard this, it made me think of a certain East African muliyani who always says that the wife has 3 duties to her husband - cooking, cleaning and economising. (LOL). Maybe someone forgot to tell her that cooking and cleaning aren't wifely duties religiously - but rather a wife does them out of love for her family.

Anyways, the saying is more applicable today than ever before. It really made me ponder on things. How easy is it these days to stock up on clothes, food and other things! With the advent of Primark, Tecso, Pound/Dollar/10 lira stores its so easy to pay next to nothing and fill our cupboards with things that we hardly use. This isn't economising at all!

And it made me think - I have clothes in 3 countries - I have no idea how much I have, let alone when I am going to wear it all! Do I really need so many clothes? Each summer when I go back to London, I try and de-clutter my things, but then end up splurging in Primark or Tesco, so end up with the same amount of things!

When we moved to Iran (almost 3 years ago), we set up our home with new things, splurged on kitchen gadgets etc (not that there is anything wrong with having nice things).But 2 years later when we packed up everything to move to Syria, it made us realise how much stuff we had accumulted in such a short time. And how much food stuff we had in the cupboards which we couldn't finish off before we left. We set up our home in Syria very differently. Rather than hoarding the 'good stuff' for a day which may never come, we just use what we have. And rather than buying things from the souk, I try and buy them from the 10 lira store, so I don't feel bad leaving things behind when we leave Syria.

A scholar once made an interesting point in a lecture -

In life, we can choose the car we buy, the house we live in, the job we accept and others. Buying an expensive car like a Jaguar or Lexus will get us to our destination, as will a cheap car like a Ford Escort or a Lada. The main difference is the price, although the ride may seem a bit smoother in a Lexus.

But if you look at the other costs, the operating expenses, petrol, insurance for a Lexus are much higher. A Lada on the other hand, can be maintained and operated quite cheaply. Anyone with half a brain can fix a Lada!

If someone wanted to borrow your car, you would lend a Lada to someone at the drop of a hat, but if someone wanted to borrow your Lexus, you’d think twice. You’d offer to drop them to their destination and pick them up! Don’t get me wrong, Islam does encourage us to earn a living and have nice things! But think about it, even though both cars get you to the same destination, the ride in the Lexus is more egotistical and so there is more attachment to the expensive luxury, and it is this that diverts us from what we want to achieve.

Imam Jafar as Sadiq (as) has said: imagine yourself going through customs with lots of luggage. Say I was going to Paris for a short trip. Even if the customs officer wasn’t suspicious of me wearing hijab and my husband with his beard and dishdasha, he will be once he sees my 2x 30kg suitcases and he’ll ask “What do you have in there? Gifts? Clothes? You’re staying for 2 days and you have 2 suitcases?” they will question me and make sure that I don’t have anything beyond my means. But, if they see me coming through with a small carry on bag, they’ll just let me through. The 6th Imam tells us that it’s exactly the same in the Hereafter, the more we have, the more responsibility we have and the more we have to answer for. So on the Day of Judgement, the less we have to account for, the faster we will be able to enter Jannah.