My Father dreams

My father is a simple man, raised by his grandfather in their old village, the only religious teacher who instilled in him a deep faith and strong memory for religious heritage. He excelled in collecting an impressive Islamic library over the years and quoting whatever suits a situation from this massive knowledge base.
Due to his tolerant and logical nature, I never had to struggle much with him in my previous decisions to study or work in a different city or country or to dismiss a marriage proposal that doesn’t suit me, it was always my mother who was difficult to handle. My father and I have a peaceful and distant relationship, we rarely discuss things too personal except when I have to. Recently, while spending sometime at home, I find myself alone with him in the mornings; this could’ve been why we started discussing few things about the religion, he takes many things for granted and believes deeply in the conspiracy theory, he also believes that promoting ideas of religious freedom or secularism is a by-effect of the dominating Western culture. In one of our arguments, I started talking about how interpretation of religion is so varied that it didn’t provide ground bases for modern societies, and that constitutions based on religion usually fail because they’re used politically to promote certain aspects of religion while suppress others, taking women issue for an instance. In other discussions about lack of freedom of religion despite the Quranic Verse “No force in beliefs” he said that there are three ways for non-Muslims to live among Muslims, to pay the tax and keep their own faith, to convert to Islam or to declare war with Non-Muslims to choose one of those two things, observing my own reserve against this Islamic interpretation, he handed me a small ancient volume that explains the verse, to my astonishment, there are six interpretations for this short and much too obvious verse, each declares a different meaning but none of them explains the verse as it means literally, allowing religious freedom principle. I would say that ancient scholars had more freedom of interpretations than modern scholars, who never come up with one more interpretation as the many found in that book. I stopped discussing this any longer, since I could’ve seen the worry in my father eyes, he is worried that I may have a change of heart, not understanding my inner struggle to prove that God the creator of all humans is much more merciful and tolerant than that image portrayed in those interpretations. He then told me that he had some dreams about me, he found me in one married to a Christian who happen to have two more wives, in another dream, he saw me married to a distant cousin of mine who lives in US and whom he doesn’t like, all of the dreams of course explains his deep concern of my decisions and fate, something he never had to worry about before. I did manage to stir his fears; I just can’t put the weight of such struggle with religious facts on his heavily-religious mind. The point is, those questions are not of his generation concerns, they are of mine and of those generations to come, challenging his deep conviction of faith and enquiring from him some religious answers -like what Ibrahim did in the Quran to prove creation- is not what he was raised to do. I failed in selecting my topics and my audience, but I learned how religion can be a reason for conflicts and fights instead of what it was intended to be, a peaceful path to God and to better one’s self.

Changing face?!!!

A real historical breakthrough, the fourth in a raw. A US patient received a new face from a deceased donor in a 22 hours operation. Unique ethical questions arise and its worth to contemplate upon, I’m sure that the patient who lost her face would definitely choose the operation regardless of the weak chances of success or the changing identity/face ethical dilemma…

Hassan, the lonely boy

In the plane back to Saudia, I had the pleasure of Hassan’s company. Hassan is a 12 years old boy, of an American mother and a Saudi father. His dad is a pilot who was on a holiday in the states with his family. His mom is a devout Muslim now, with three more younger kids. Hassan is a polite, thoughtful and smart boy, we engaged in conversation about his schools days, his brothers, and his friends in saudia, how does he seem to fit in Jeddah. He longed to be  in an American school, , just like his younger brother, but he can’t because of the Government laws, his brother has ADHD so he needed a special school, that’s why he could join the American school. he had to attend the Saudi schools, a private one, but nevertheless a typical school. he suffers from mocking and bullying of his school mates, the lack of real friends, the English teacher who doesn’t like him to correct his many mistakes, and the boring curriculum that doesn’t have ay rooms for sport or exciting activities like his younger brother school.He can’t find solace in the company of his father’s relatives or many cousins, many of them do not like him much or play with him, they prefer each others company over his…

He longed for company, being somewhat different from the rest of his classmates or cousins, his only friend is another boy of an American mother and a Saudi father. His mom allows him to be with that boy every weekend, but soon, he’ll not have the freedom of access as his mom decided that the boy sister is growing older that he shouldn’t be mixing with her and him anymore in their house.

He expressed a great desire to study in the states, but his mom is afraid that he’ll be around non-Muslims which would affect his faith. She wouldn’t mind though letting him go when he’s older, maybe by the time of the  University if he can be with her parents. I asked him then about them, he told me that they are “Kaffir”, as they wouldn’t believe when his mom told them about Islam and that they’ll go eventually to hell. I tried soothing the conscious of that little boy, assuring him of God’s knowledge, that he alone decides who goes to hell and who goes to heaven and that he should always trust that God is just and merciful. Of course being born as a Muslim, I never had to challenge the ideology of Islam or the conflicts of faith and family, I truly understand his lonliness in a world of Arabic speakers outside his little unique home, his struggle to be accepted by his dad’s family and his friends at school… I told him that his English teacher is simply jeolous of him and he should igore him, I told him that he’ll know eventually how to express himself and will gain friends with time, that there are many other kids just like him, but I think he’ll have to find his way through the hard way, with his father being little involved with him and his mom being incapable of deciphering the local culture, I think that this little boy will have a long struggle to come, I just pray that his parents will be able to guide him through this with enough wisdom and understanding, there’s a little hope that his school or friends would ever be different orhis little society be more inclusive, I know he’ll grow out of this, I’m just hoping he’ll not lose faith of his dad’s people as he expressed much affection for US and nothing of the sort for Saudia despite his parents persistence, but I can’t really blame him if this ever happened…

My Birthday in Washington D.C.

Is it a coincidence that just this morning, out of all mornings, as I opened the novel that I chose it to pass the time in the airport, “Night train to Lisbon”, I read this paragraph, describing the passing of time on people when an old professor occasionally meet some of his old students ” Sometimes just because of change; a premature bitterness, a harried look, a symptom of serious illness, but what usually startled him was the simple fact that the altered faces indicated the incessant passing of time and the merciless decline of all living things”… Despite the gloominess of advancing age, I decided that it’s not so often I get my birthday at the right time, when I happen to be free for a weekend in Washington D.C., a historical and classy city in the time of holidays with everything glowing & singing in celebrations, I’ve just finished my finals, and preparing to go home for a holiday, all signs that this is a time to celebrate my birthday. I spent the morning in the best museum in D.C. according to my own rating, The American history museum, where I relived the history of the founding Americans, The description of the main people shaping this nation, a family of freed slaves, a family of Jewish immigrants and a family of a wealthy industrialist…There was the hall of presidents, their histories, assassinations’, families and their lives after presidency, I just love Abraham Lincoln…There was a lovely exhibition about America at war, for any cause it was, I truly enjoyed the short documentary displayed about letters of soldiers, their fears and courage’s in dying for their country, the endless rows of tomb stones in different national cemeteries is both frightening and sad, nevertheless showing the price people have to pay to earn the American dream, or as simply put by Lincoln “ a government of the people, by the people, for the people” to endure on this land…

I passed by the theatre showing the nut-cracker ballet, I got a ticket thinking that I’ll regret later since I’m not a ballet person, but I was totally overwhelmed by the vibrant music, customs, colors, steps and moves and the happy aura in the theatre, everyone dress to impress with the kids in formal gowns and ties, simply lovely!! I was going out singing when a street musician played the nicest songs ever, can things be better than that?

All in all, this was the best birthday ever although spent alone, another general rule broken, alone doesn’t mean bored, I just had all the fun & joy that I can wish for, a truly memorable time…

Happy Eid and many happy returns

November Collectibles

1. “And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand” Barack Obama in the eve of his presidency election.
   
2. “I want you to take this with you after this class, don’t let my economic lessons poison your humanity, it’s good to have the rational analysis of needs and maximization of benefits and rewards, , but it’s not all about financial gains, emotional and humane needs are also important” our health economy professor summoning the end of our course
   
3. “You can analyze economy status by observing people nails, it shows how well their economy is” A professor in my college, another chose teeth, I go for teeth as well.
   
4. “The crown prince issued a 10,000 SAR for each student in US who came to greet him at his NYC home” God I wish I knew, I could’ve bought that nice red beetle I always wanted. He is meeting them again on Monday, but I also have a final then, I guess I’m just not that Lucky
   
5. “I have my reservations against this lady”, my friend, who doesn’t wear Hijab, feeling offended after a feminist friend we have met for lunch told us that she’s against Hijab because it adds another barrier for the so many existing ones in women lives here to face, I wish my friend would hear all the comments I have to hear and explain in so many encounters…
   
6. “I shall pick 3 characteristics, historically Western values of the emerging global culture: a scientific world-view; a tolerant attitude towards the religious beliefs of others; and an acceptance of women as the equal of men” Michael Cook in his short book “The Koran”, introducing the challenges of Quran interpretation facing a dominant Western audience and critics.
   
7. “So what’s the difference between someone who is covered totally and someone who shows her face?” says Craig, a class mate who keeps asking me about women issues in Saudi Arabia
   
8. “So we’re going around the corner for a drink next time to celebrate the end of the semester, if you don’t drink you can have a coke or something?” A class professor looking at me but asking the whole class.
   
9. “That prince has all the money and power, why there are so many speculations that he’s headed for elections, why would he be interested in presidency?
   … “Well, maybe now that he has it all, he wants to be God!!” my friend answering my comment on that famous figure…
   

Linguistically Smart British-Saudi

I just have to admit that this guy is speaking better than me, I always thought that my Egyptian mother and elementary school teachers corrupted my accent, but here is a proof that they were all innocent…The fact is historically most Arabic language scholars were not Arab, I don’t see that he’ll have any problem in coming up with Arabic poems as he wishes…