Having just come from a conference in Cairo, I can agree that everyone will want to give you directions, regardless of what they know, and everyone says “insha’allah” every second word. However, the worst culprits of the second act are British Muslims at the conference who seemed really insecure about any identification they had.
Related Posts
Reading the Qur’an – part 1 – Interpretation
The Qur’an (also Quran, Koran) is the Muslim holy book, believed to have been revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) – through the angel Jibra’il (Gabriel) – over the span of 23 years. The Arabic language of the time was a nascent language of literature, used mostly as a mnemonic guide in its written form; because of the close association of Semitic Languages (including Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac) the turn of Arabic into a literary language was not unprecedented. The script did not (and still does not) mark short vowels, punctuation, differentiate amongst different letters, and depending on the scribe,…
Hijab
There is an op-ed written in a NY Urdu language paper (English translation) that deals with the issue of hijab. I’m looking for the Urdu version, but the English translation reminds me very much of what some of the early debate was like in NY in English. You would throw out a whole bunch of arguments and see what would stick. The arguments have become much more sophisticated and targeted, helped both by time and the easy accessibility of more academic material. I think this article is important, not because of what it says, but because of the language and…
MLT – Muslims and the Media
Amazing panel. Lots of interesting people, including NPR and Newsweek representatives. Short, pointed comments. Nothing too new, but well done. Chris Dickey Newsweek http://www.chrisdickey.com in the US history is a put down (you’re history), whereas in the rest of the world it is very much alive occupation has no meaning for Americans, never been occupied, don’t see themselves as occupiers Deborah NPR don’t have to worry about images Q: what are the equivalents to the angry Muslim? A: the adhaan Iraq was first time to talk about Sunni and Shi’ah http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2100182 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5477014 Mustafa Australia French riots related to Cronulla riots…
3 thoughts on “You will read this, Insha’allah”
Comments are closed.
Hello.. I am a new reader! I actually feel that ‘insha’allah’ is pretty nice and underused. I live in London with people who are only ‘born’ Muslim (in that it’s cultural, but they are not religious) and I was thinking about bringing it back. But perhaps it has never gone away? And it might drive me crazy if I had to hear it every second word.
Salaam Fatima, and welcome. Thank you for your presence and your comment. I love “insha’allah” as it’s a nice way of reminding ourselves of God’s omnipotence. However, I fall into the camp of “man proposes, God disposes,” rather than “as God wills.” I’m a little bit of a free-willer.
Cairo was funny because I actually did hear people using it to refer to the past and to statements of fact, such as “it’s finally cool.” Oddly, it was the Muslim from Britain who used it the most in this manner, and after having spent some time with them, I think it had to do with the fact that these particular individuals were attempting to prove they were authentic.
I understand that. My family is South African and they have a huge inferiority complex when it comes to Arab Muslims, and they go into complete ‘insha’allah’ overdrive around them because of this. I find that ‘hierachy’ that some people seem to think exists with Muslims from different places very troubling, actually.