I know that we are reaching the end of ramadan and this post might appear later but I was inspired after publishing last year's Ramadanian thoughts and this year I had few more
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for the last couple of years, the radio stations in the area no longer plays songs in ramadan. They would play some of the silly 10 to 15 comic shows, and between breaks, they would play "anasheed". The Nasheed genre is a growing genre and at a certain point in time almost all arab artists have done at least a nasheed or two. But really, what's the difference between a nasheed and a song? there are 2 definitions I've heard so far:
nasheed - is a form of songs with limited use of musical instruments. Usually there are no melodies, electronica and tunes and the beats tend to be drum based only - I don't know what's the source of this but I heard of a hadith on the prophet where Aisha was celebrating Eid and there were of girls who were celebrating with only drums and the "arabic daf" - so maybe that's why those forms of instruments are accepted. I don't know if they had piano at that time, would it be allowed or not?
The other characteristic is that the topic is not about love and it should be about islam or religion.
However, over time, I saw that there are many anasheeds that are using more instruments and are covering different topics like kids, marriage and parents. So really, I can't see where do they really draw the line and the difference between a song and a 'nasheed'.
Some of the favourite anasheeds tha I like are for sami yousef "you came to me" and this one.
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Another habit that some people adopt in ramadan and especially the last 10 night is the act of "i3tikaf". It was encouraged by the imam of the mosque in his last jumaa prayer. Unfortunately, when I went to pray the other day in the mosque, I was shocked by the bad smell and how dirty the mosque was. I am not against the i3tikaf but the sight of dirty laundry, smelly blankets and pillows is just not acceptable and unless there is a mechanism to keep the mosque clean, then I'd prefer that i3tikaf is not performed.
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Leilet Al -Qadr is better than the prayers of a 1000 months. If you do the calculations of 1000/12 = then this is equivalent to 83.33 years, which is more than average lifetime of a person. So my idea is if you manage to catch one leilet qadr in a lifetime, then this is more than enough.
So for all the potential travel partners who use the argument of "but if we travel, we will miss Leilet El Qadr which is probably the 27th night", I confront them with my logic. Assuming that you sincerely pray on the odd night numbers of Ramadan, I guess that the chances of scoring one Leilet Al Qadr night is higher than gambling on the Roulette.
P.S: it is ironic that I convinced my travel partner to fly yesterday (i.e. before 27th night) and my inner conscience couldn't help me but to schedule my flight today after I prayed last night. Gosh, I am such a hypocrite. Oh well, he will be enjoying a day more in the Alpes Mountains before I join him. :D
Ramadanian Thoughts II
Status Update
2 months of no blogging.
I was just not in the mood
between vacations in jordan and in palestine
yep - palestine for 4 to 5 days where I roamed toul karem, beit la7m, ramallah
too bad I couldn't go to jerusalem
but at least I went to the nativity church
loved it
spent 2 weeks in jordan as well
wanted to go to syria but...
passed CFA Level I
which is bad news
this means I am now obliged to finish level II and level III to continue it.
I am planning preparation for that in November
workwise, I got promoted. :D
I am on twitter as well.
although I don't like it. you have to tweet daily and frequently otherwise, your tweets will be surpassed by other twitters
overall, I am happy with my personal achievements in year 2009
I anticipate updating my "relationship status" soon. :D
TAG: Eight Meme
I was tagged by Asoom around one month ago. At that time, there might not have been many interesting things to talk about. So here it is:
8 Things I'm looking foward to
- finishing "Dead Space"
- arrival of the watch that was ordered over a month ago and is still touring the world.
- praying in AQSA Mosque this summer (if possible)
- meeting a "special" person. :)
- Syria Trip and possibly ziad Rahbani Concert
- "Distant Heat" ft. Armin Van Buuren
- Reform of my current organisation - to see where will I fit workwise in the new structure
- Finishing "Pillars of Earth"
8 things I did Yesterday:
- diving and seeing many new types of sea creatures
- getting sunburnt even after using SPF 25 sunblock
- testing the new features of my new cellphone - NOKIA E75
- initial packing for my trip next week
- arranging my papers and my files - mostly bills
- working on my anger management skills on responding to those mockers on facebook who made fun of italy losing to Egypt
- living for a couple of hours in the dark side as I reached the final boss in "Dead Space"
- working on a farewell party for a colleague who is leaving us
8 things I wish I could do:
- learn the jumping ropes techniques
- stop overthinking
- be photogenic
- buy a major stake in ACMilan - I am sure I'd do better than cheap arrogant berlusconi
- plan a "chlorine" bomb for someone in the office - not mentioning names
- understand and be inside the head of those people I care about
- get in touch with 4 of my classmates in primary school
- work in a radio station
8 shows I watch:
- Prison Break
- 24
-Heroes
-Lost
-Numb3rs
-Smallville
-How I met your mother
-Scrubs
8 things I love:
- AcMilan
- Mechatrinus
- My 1000 piece puzzle
- My lala land
- CampFire Mocha - from carribou coffee
- Creative marketing and uses of technology
- My insane, twisted scary mind
- the few influential people who are always there for me.
Toronto's Miracle of Runway 24L
It has been over 2 weeks since the incident of the Air France Flight 447 that departed from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. I am sure that many of us are either following the case or at least aware that it happened.
whenever I travel, I tend to mute those 10 minutes where the flight attendant wastes her breath in describing to us about the safety procedures in case of accidents. I find it pointless to listen because if the planes gets into an accident, my chances of survival are minimal. As it was the case with the in most of Air Flight Accidents, like the recent Flight 447 incident , all of the passengers end up dead.
I said "most" coz there are few exceptions.
I still remember how 4 years ago we were sitting in our home and discussing with my dad on what date should we book our flight to Canada. I wanted to relocate 1 month prior my postgraduate school so that I can manage to settle in Canada and get used to it. My family were thinking that they might as well spend part of their vacation there as well since the weather in August tends to be amazingly interesting.
Our flight was initially booked on 2nd of August 2005. I can't recall the events that happened but for some reason, my dad decided to change the booking by one day and make it on 1st of August.
We departed early morning from jeddah. After spending a transit period of 4 hours in paris, we took the Air France flight and arrived to mississauga 1st of August afternoon Toronto time. For many of us, it was the first time that we experience a long 16 hour flight. So it would be normal that all of us would be suffering from the jetlag. I remember briefly walking around the town before I realized that all shops were closed. Apparently, it was the Civic Holiday. With nothing else to do, I went home and slept.
I remember waking up around dawn and seeing dad sitting on the tv and watching the live news of the incident of Flight 358 (ironically Air France as well). Briefly, the plane crashed at Pearson Airport the next day as it was landing under severe weather conditions. As it was landing on the runaway, it didn't reach a complete stop and evenutally hit a small ravine. A post fire started later that destroyed the plane. Luckily no one was killed. the thanks goes to the alert flight attendants that managed to get more than 309 passengers within 90 seconds only. What's more interesting is the emergency responses arrived to the crash site in less than 52 seconds.
you can always click on the link above to know more about what happened. What this incident shows is 2 things:
1- the myth behind surviving an air crash does not only exist in fictional tv series like "LOST".
2-If Air France was one of the options available to me, I'd definitely take it. At least they have a track record of one successful evacuation while the others have either none or were lucky not to experience such an accident.
in an attempt to teach me a lesson about destiny and life, my superstituous father says:
"see, i7med rabbak. We were supposed to be on this flight. Imagine what we could have gone through. But Allah protected us from this and inspired me to change the booking"
I said: "Hell no. I'd take my chances of being there. I'd experience the thrill and action of it. I'd have a cool story to tell my friends and I get to be a millionaire when I sue Air France, Airbus, and Pearson Airport for the so claimed psychological damage they would have caused me."
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Brain Implosion
My life is about moving from one obsession to another.
I am becoming recently obsessed about the preparation for CFA exam Level 1 that's coming up in exactly 6 days. I have planned well for it. I started studying since December last year. Considering that I have to read through 6 books where each book averages around 450 pages, you can understand why the CFA Institute recommends at least 250 hours of study.
The problem that you face with such exams is that as soon as you finish reading the material in book 6, you find yourself that you forgot what was in book 1 and book 2 and you tend to go back and forth. With the financial background that I have built over time, my main problem is not with complexity as much as it is with the gigantic volume that you have to absorb.
What strains my brain more is the fact that I am studying while having a full time job. So you can imagine my schedule these days as I come back from work at 5 p.m. Eat and rest till 6 p.m. and then I study for another 4 hours before I head to bed. That was my routine for the last 2 months.
consequences...? well, I am setting a new standard for nerdiness and suffering from the aftermath of "overstudying". As I am practicing more questions from the QBank available Schweser study material (over 4266 questions that I feel I am obliged to finish..lol), my performance is sloping downwards (wow, I am using mathmatical terms now) as I am overthinking questions and arriving to wrong answers where the right answer is simple and just in front of my eyes.
Despite all of that, I am trying not to let this shake my self-confidence. So far I've did well and managed to celebrate my birthday that was few days ago CFA-free. A brazilian lunch featuring grilled meat served on swords, and having a 'facial' (LOL) were few of the things I did to make it a bit special.
Few weeks ago, I received the following from the CFA institute. It was a considerate move from them that left a smile on my face. I tend to consider this the best birthday gift I got. I will leave them for you to see and enjoy
Bewildering interruptions on the beach
I have given up. I wish I can find a peaceful place where I can enjoy reading my book. I can't read at home unless I am going to bed. We don't have many bookstores here (actually, we have only one) and if you read there, then you'd most probably be kicked out during prayers time.
Coffee shops are full of people who either smoke or talk loudly, watch a soccer game or stare at you like you are some kind of an alien.
So, I decided to go to the beach. I'd dive, swim a bit and get a chance to read my book.
We came a bit late, We couldn't find a shaded area to sit under. I picked a spot against the wall where there is a little bit of shadow. I open up my book. Let's see what's up with williams in "Pillars of Earth"...
"WELCOME TO HOOOOOTELL CALIFORNIAAAAA..." one of the 3 British guys next to me decided to explore his vocal talents with his horrendous voice. He sang on 3 unrecognizable songs while he was lying on the floor and tanning.
so I changed my location and sat next to someone's umbrella under whatever shade I can have. I kept on reading. Oh man, this Alfred is such a jerk...
"yee, sheftee hayda keef 7almat bazazo wa2feh..hahahaha.."
what the...? the voice was coming from my left..3 lebanese women are sunbathing and checking the guy who just passed by them...7elmat bzazo wa2feh...I didn't even know that girls even check this out...DAMN
Time to move somewhere else. I managed to find another spot that was empty after it has been evacuated. Ok, no lebanese women or british guys next to me. only a jordanian family were sitting next to me. It can't get bad.
So back to the world of my novel. Poor Tom, I hope he will better luck when he goes to the castle and...
"ta3al ya 7amoudeh, ilbes" the jordanian woman calls her fully nude 3 year old son who was running around in joy after being freed by the limitations of garments.
"khalee il walad yetshamas ya mara, a7san mayfoot leilet il dakhleh mlawan..HAHAHAHHA" said the husband
I was :|...that's it, this is the last time I'd attempt reading at a beach. I put my book down and spent the rest of the day swimming. What's different this time is that I kept checking my nipples more often.
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A moment where I wished I had Moses Staff
Few days ago, I was asked what was the most embarassing situation I was ever in. I drove on my memory lane where I passed by many (and they are alot, trust me) incidents that left me red-faced in embarassment. But nothing is comparable to what happened to me on the dawn of my 5th semester at university.
my phone rings:
"so hamza, any plans for dinner?"
"hmm...actually not"
"ok, fine, I'll pass by you later to pick you up and your friend and we'll go out. You'll get to meet my sister for the first time too"
Yeaaa. She was the first among our group that got a car and since that day, we no longer took the University bus that took light eons to drop us at the city centre. With the car, we can even listen to the music we want and...Oh Memories.
So that night, the 4 of us decided to dine at the "Automatic" Restaurant in Sharjah near the corniche. I don't know what was so automatic about it since the dinner takes ages for it to be served. We even have doubts about the quality of oil its being used. We believe that they cook the food with "automobile" oil, thus the word "automatic". Well, I don't wanna know.
so here we were, seated. me & my friend next to each other. Her and her sister right opposite to us. Her sister has recently joined the university and as wise 3rd year students, we try to share our wisdom about the "do's" and "don'ts" and random things here and there. When I found the conversation was getting serious, I attempted breaking the ice and changing the topic:
"oh, so what's that on your necklace? is it your horoscope..I see a scorpion"
It was the trend back in the days for ppl to wear their astrological sign. It didn't occur to me that the fuming face and the grin look would outburst at me when she said:
"HOW DARE YOU. this is JESUS CHRIST".
Time froze.
the Earth rambled
The Heaven shattered.
I saw mateors crashing on me.
I imagined Odin being summoned and running after me to decapitate my head.
I have entered into a mental coma that triggered my tongue to activate the auto pilot program titled "endless apology". I have muttered apologetic words and phrases that I cannot recall till this day. No matter how much I justify that I never intended to offend her, I still felt bad whenever I rethink of it as it sounded so degrading. Scorpion. Damn, what was I seeing?
her older sister (and my friend) helped in justifying my position as it must have been an honest mistake coz I've never offended christians before. The drama was over after a couple of awkward minutes of silence, till my smart friend who was sitting next to me decided to question something interesting:
"the real question is...why were you looking at her chest in the first place?"
OH Earth, devour me.
Time Froze.
The Earth rumbled.
The Heaven shattered....
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