Eid mubarak!

Today is Eid al-Adha, the “greater Eid”, to honor those returning from a Mecca pilgrimage, as distinguished from the “lesser Eid”, the three day party following the month of Ramadan.  The graphic says “Eid Mubarak” عيد مبارك (blessed Eid) in Arabic and is adapted from a design from artist Salma Arastu (link to her website).

A quick glance at some mosque websites shows Adams Center in DC is collecting donations for a relief fund for the families of the victims at Fort Hood.  Why am I not surprised. (The button for prayer times in my right sidebar is a link to Adams.)

My local mosque?  The last time I heard, they were collecting donations to pay for a billboard to try to convert people to their religion.  And I thought Moslems weren’t supposed to proselytize.  Tsk.

Do Arab Christians and Moslems have different names for the same biblical personages?

I remember a Jordanian Moslem from the town where Herod had his palace (the one where the Baptist was beheaded) telling me the name for John was Yohanna.

Bible:

Checking the account of John the Baptist in an Arabic Bible we find in Matthew 3:1 the name used is يُوحَنَّا Yohanna. Jesus, from Matthew 1:1 is يَسُوعَ Yasua.  While we’re there let’s get from Matthew 1:16 the names of Mary مَرْيَمَ (Mariyam) and Josephيُوسُفَ  (Yousef), parents of Jesus. In the same verse there is also the word for Christ الْمَسِيحَ –Maseeya.

But in Arabic there is more than one Mariyam and more than one Yousef. Aaron, brother of Moses had a sister Miriam the prophetess. In Exodus 15:20 she is called مَرْيَمُ Miriam, same as the mother of Jesus. Joseph يُوسُفَ (Yousef) who was sold into slavery in Egypt (Genesis 39:2), the same as the carpenter Joseph. There is also more than one Jesus, the name Joshua يَشُوعُ (Yashua) (son of Nun and aide to Moses) being cognate (?) with Jesus, but not spelled the same here in Numbers 11:28.  But isn’t s/sh a shiboleth somewhere in the Bible?*

Koran:

On to the Koran. First, Jesus. Koran 3:45 has the names Jesus عِيسَى (Issa),  Maryيَٰمَرْيَمُ (Mariyam) and Messiah ٱلْمَسِيحُ (messeeya) . A few passages further on (3:39), John the Baptist is called بِيَحْيَىٰ Yahya. Apparently Joseph the carpenter doesn’t rate a mention in the Koran, but Joseph who was sold into slavery to Egypt has his own book of the Koran where he is called يوسف Yousef, or in the fully voweled classical Koran version يُوسُفَ.

And in Spanish (from the same Bible portal as the Arabic):

John the Baptist-Juan el Bautista

Jesus-Jesús

Mary-María

Joseph-José (The Egyptian Joseph is also José.)

Joshua (son of Nun, Moses’ aide)=Josué (hijo de Nun, asistente de Moisés)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Judges 12:5-6:

⁵ The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the Gileadites asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” ⁶ they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’ ” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.

The Hebrew for “messiah” appears to be מָשִׁ֫יחַ transliteration: mashiach, phonetic spelling: (maw-shee’-akh).

Eid is over, time to replace the Ed Mubarak widget.  The new one says “rabbi zidni illma” or “Lord enrich me with knowledge.” It’s from Koran 20:114

فَتَعَٰلَى ٱللَّهُ ٱلْمَلِكُ ٱلْحَقُّ ۗ وَلَا تَعْجَلْ بِٱلْقُرْءَانِ مِن قَبْلِ أَن يُقْضَىٰٓ إِلَيْكَ وَحْيُهُۥ ۖ وَقُل رَّبِّ زِدْنِى عِلْمًۭا ﴿٤١١﴾

I love to read those internet discussions about Islam.  This one is from a Pakistani forum where someone asks:

I want to learn any kalmaat 1) to recite before starting to study so that my mind won’t get distract ( i’m sick of it) _ 2) or to help in memorizing ,heard of such things but don’t know any , hoping anyone of u would help. one famous one I know is “Rabbi zidni illmaa”.

Kalimah in the Koran is usually translated as “word”; Kalimaat is the plural.

Here are some suggestions from the forum:

Dua While Studying Something Difficult

“Allahumma la sahla illama ja-‘altahu sahla anta taj ‘alu al hazana eza ma shi’ta sahal”

“Oh Allah! Nothing is easy except what you have made easy. If you wish, you can make the difficult easy”

which I also found here, along with more duas for studying.

Another:

Some of My Favorite and they work like missile

1. Ya alliem—— For Study
2. Ya latifon—–For every thing

Please recite them numberless with your breath in and breath out

How mysterious that they “work like missile”.  But participants’ requests for more information did not produce further explanation.  Googling Ya alliem yields a redirect to “al-’Alim (‘a-leem) the All-Knowing”, the second of the 99 names of Allah. Ya latifon redirects to Ya Latif! O Gently Kind! Another of the ninety-nine names.

Another of the forum members adds:

ya haseebo is great for studies too… especially exams

Al-Haseebo is another of the names of God meaning “The Reckoner” and having to do with accounting.

From this description of a recitation for curing jaundice, we learn the system of using the names:

The way to recite:
Allahumma Ya-Haseebo, Ya-Haseebo, Ya-Haseebo …….
In the next breath you will again say Allahumma Ya-Haseebo …….. like that to
complete 300 times.

I should be taking notes here, since I don’t have health insurance.

The ninety-nine names of God seem to be quite popular, here is a list.

There are two “eids” or festivals in the Moslem religious calendar: the “big eid“, a feast for those who are returning from the Haj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, and the small eid, the three day feast that follows the fasting month of Ramadan. Today is the first day of the post-Ramadan feast.

A few years ago prayers were held in the mosque, with overflow, mostly for the women, in adjoining buildings where the prayers could be seen on large TV screens.  For the last few years the prayer has been at a local soccer stadium.

The men are in the front, the women in back.  An empty twenty-foot strip of grass separates them.

The governor even showed up and gave a talk. For more mainstream-type photos, see the Chicago Tribune’s coverage of the event.

For my view, keep going.

The traffic was worse than rush hour, and crowd control was provided by the police department and by the soccer stadium staff, who referred to the women’s entrance as “entrance for women”, not the “entrance for sisters”, as the mosque staff do.

Here is a typical sight in this neighborhood–women with scarves driving land rover type vehicles, here seen in the rear view mirror.

Then on to the mosque parking lot, where there are events for children, mostly moon walks and toys for sale. Small boys with toy pistols run through the crowd shooting at various people.  “We’re out of bullets,” says one.

I am reminded of the year I was in Jerusalem during eid.  Small boys ran though the ancient streets shooting at each other with toy machine guns. Not an impromptu activity.  I once saw an organized school program in which girls did folk dances and little boys, five years old at the most, marched around the stage with plywood machine guns. What a childhood. And how lucky I am to be born in a country where children can be children instead of being expected to go to war.

But what’s this? The guns are toys, I think, but it looks to me like the little Moslem boys are being taught warfare.

From the Arthur M. Sackler Museum in Boston.

The black portion of the bowl is a Hadith (saying attributed to the Prophet) and reads in Arabic, “Modesty is a branch of faith, and faith is in paradise”; the red letters are from an epigram attributed to Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the son-in law of the Prophet and the fourth of the orthodox caliphs, and reads, “Greed is a sign of poverty. Peace.”

This makes me sick.

Today I ran across this link to a video of some children. It’s being billed as a video about children singing the praises of Obama, but it’s pretty obvious to me it’s not. It looks to me more like Koran memorization. The children are supposed to be from Kenya but they look vaguely Indian. The language is Arabic. You can hear the phrase bismallah al-rahman al-raheem, (In the name of God the merciful the compassionate) the phrase that begins most chapters of the Koran, at the beginning of both recitations. It’s also pretty obvious that neither the word “Obama” or “America” (Arabic pronunciation ahm-ree-ka) is used at any time. For comparison here is a video of boys memorizing the Koran in Bangladesh.

Imbedding is disabled, so I can’t put it on this page. The comments are disabled too, or maybe someone would have left a message saying which Koran verse this is (I’m sure that’s the last thing the person who posted it wants), but here is the URL :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08iomNFrzU4

The explanation of the video by “PloppinFreshTV ” is “I leaned everything I know about film editing from Michael Moore. Thanks Mike! Alpha Omega. “
The text of the “translation” subtitles is:

The Kenyan Muslim
Will soon destroy the great Satan from within
He will speak of hope and change.
but the greedy Americans will be defeated!
Yes we can.
Destroy the Satan of America!
yes we can.
Praise the Kenyan!
Praise Allah!
Soon we change America.
With the help of the fellow Muslim!
He will open the door for us to enter with ease
Bring me, bring my allies to your shores,
Oh brother.
We strap on a bomb to teach American pigs a lesson!
when our mission is complete
martyrs we will be!
Praise Attah, the brave martyr!
Praise our Kenyan brother
who will bring down the great Satan from inside!
All praise Allah!

There are some thousand google hits altogether for the video.  The ones I see were all in the October 2008 timeframe, just before the election.  None recent, until now.  The fact that it seems to be reemerging now, and with no good explanation, is interesting.  If anyone knows what it is please do comment so people googling it can have an answer.

The saddest thing is that although it’s obvious to me that it’s a fake, some are taking it at face value.  Even Snopes initially speculates that it’s a “generic anti-American recitation”.  It gets posted here in a comment thread at Huffington post, and at a seminary of the Apostolic Church. But this forum defines it as the salat magreb evening prayer.

Here is the Evening Supplication (Du’a).  I really don’t think this is it.

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. I beg You, O Allah, the causes of Your mercy and intents of pardon and salvation from Hell and from all trials, Heavenly success and Your esteemed attention in the land of peace and from all trials and the proximity of Your Prophet Hazrat Mohammed (S.A.W.) peace be on him and peace on his progeny. O Allah, whatever talents I have got, it is but from You. There is no god but You. I beg Your pardon and seek atonement.

This Koran portal comes from, where else, Jordan:

ALTAFSIR.COM is a completely free, non-profit website providing access to the largest and greatest online collection of Qur’anic Commentary (tafsir or tafseer), translation, recitation and essential resources in the world.

It was begun in 2001 by the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, Jordan. Today the website is fully operational in Arabic and English and provides the original Arabic texts of 110 or more books of Qur’anic Commentary, Interpretation and Explanation (tafsir or tafseer), recitation (tajwid) tutorials and hadith collections, and other fields, pertaining to the study of Qur’anic exegesis. Translations of the meanings of the Qur’an are currently available in 18 different languages, and in several cases more than one translation is available. The site also includes audio Qur’an recitations; resources on Qur’an syntax; resources on the Contexts of Revelation (asbâb al-nuzûl); resources on the meanings of words found in the Qur’an, and other works on the Qur’anic sciences. It contains over a million pages of Qur’anic Commentary and translation. Some of the texts presented here exist only as manuscripts and have never previously been published in book form despite their historical importance and influence. Altafsir.com is thus a complete website for the study of the Qur’anic Sciences.

In addition to presenting the standard Classical and Modern Commentaries on the Holy Qur’an (tafsir or tafseer) texts of all eight schools of jurisprudence, the site also contains works of various mystical, philosophical, linguistic and theological currents. Moreover, the first time in one place, comparative studies between the Shafi‘i, Hanafi, Maliki, Hanbali, Ja‘fari, Zaydi, Ibadi and Thahiri schools can be carried out complete with multi-screen displays and search programs.

If you want to look up a particular passage (in Arabic), you can type in the number here.  My favorite passage is Baqara 62 or 2:62 .

To find the same passage in English, look in the left sidebar, select “translations” (it isn’t a “Koran” unless it’s in Arabic– everything else is a “translation”), then select “English”.  Here is the first book of the Koran, a short passage called the Fatiha.  It’s a sort of declaration of faith, as common to Muslims as the Lord’s Prayer is in the Christian faith. This is the Pickthall translation.  If you want to see a different tranlation, click for the dropdown menu under “works”, then click “display”.  Here is one English translation for the verse I like:  Baqara 62.

Ramadan is over, Eid is over, time to retire the Kul ahm intum bxeer widget.

And to replace it?  What could be more appropriate than Insha’Allah? The phrase can function as a polite refusal, a pious sort of Murphy’s law, or just a reminder for stressed out types that everything is NOT under their control.

Insha’Allah

In the words of one American who lived in Guinea, the word Inshallah was tied up with ritual greetings and difficulties in transportation that made American-style punctuality impossible.

Now, I’ve learned to be very patient. I’ve also become more tolerant. I realize that I don’t have control over certain things, and that sometimes I must accept my fate and not get upset about unexpected events and problems. Also, instead of letting misunderstandings complicate a situation, I take the extra effort to talk about it until all the confusion is cleared up.

Good advice anywhere.

[Art calligraphy by Salma Arastu.]

A few days ago I started getting hits on a post I wrote a year ago for Ramadan. It had a lovely “dua” or prayer in Arabic.  But the dua’s not there anymore –the website has been reorganized. Too bad.  I enjoyed the feeling of peace that emanated from the sound of the prayer and also the feeling of connection to Muslims during their holy season. The disappearance of the dua is a bit like the Hindu sand pictures that remind one of the impermanence of everything.

But Ramadan has come around again, I’ve got guidief in the frig, and I’m fasting today, so here are some picks for this year’s spiritual journey.

For anyone who is homesick for the call to prayer (note: link no longer active) (link is now active as of the first day of Ramadan 2009), here is the city of San’a, Yemen at sunset.

Sheik Abdul Kareem Edghouch reciting the Surat Al-layl( text in Arabic)–”The Night” (English interpretation of text) chapter of the Quran.

From a Pakistani site, a haunting female voice singing Sallu Aliyeh Waa Aleyeh (Mehnaz) in an eastern musical scale. And Madine Ko Jaye (Abdur Rufi), with a male voice, minor tones and strong percussion. If you like those, follow the “religious” subject line backwards and you will find the 99 names of Allah and the call to prayer from various world mosques.

Apparently fasting has its own correct prayers to go with it.  I have found the same formula prayers at two sources.  From the website hamdonaat.com:

Following is a compilation of Duas for Fasting (Ramadan)

- Dua for keeping a fast at the time of Sehar (Niyaat)

Wa bisawmi ghadinn nawaiytu min shahri ramadan

- Dua for breaking a fast at the time of Iftaar

Allahumma inni laka sumtu wa bika aamantu [wa 'alayka tawakkaltu] wa ‘ala rizq-ika aftarthu*

OR

dhahabadh-dhama’u wab-tallatil ‘uruuqi, wa thabatal arju inshaAllah

Allaahumma inni as�aluka birahmatika al-lati wasi’at kulli shay�in an taghfira li

- Dua for breaking a fast at a friends house

Aftara ‘indakumus saa’imuna, wa akala ta’aamakumul-abraaru, wasallat ‘alaikumul mala’ikat

I love it how this person puts both the Arabic and the transliteration together.

Or relax and just listen to this “Beautiful Ramadan Dua’a”–but she uses the Arabic L33T notation so you might not know the pronunciation unless you are familiar with this. I know 3 is the ein letter and I think 7 is the heavier H sound but I don’t know the rest. She also gives some more prayers she calls “authentic” like “Upon seeing the first dates of the season”.

For even more spiritual listening, Al-Hidaaya has a video supplication for every day of Ramadan.