Thursday 18 February 2010

Is it morning yet?

I woke up at two thirty this morning to some guy playing with the loudspeakers on the masjid minaret. I'm not sure what all he said, but I heard "Helloooooo! Kayf halokum?!" The Arabic equivalent of "Hey, how's it going everybody?" The loudspeakers are loud, they're audible for miles, designed to wake up people who don't want to wake up for prayers at dawn, and directly above our dormitory. He carried on for a while, but I didn't hear any sirens.

Everybody else slept through it; you learn quickly here to sleep through the athan. I tried to sleep, prayed witr, made every du'a I could think of, recited Qur'an, tried to sleep again, had a snack (bread and zatar), oiled my hair, and wrote a lot of emails. I'm still awake, darnit, and I have a tajweed class today. And a very hoarse throat still.

5 comments:

  1. that is too grate, some yelling over the speaker. Here in the morning we just get one main call then about 4 others pop up at random to give this really cool echo. I will miss that when Im back in vic for the few months. Hope you are doing well. sorry it has been a long time since we talked. hope your travels are going well.

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  2. It's funny now, but I was a little annoyed then. I never did get back to sleep, lol. I'm sort of glad the cops didn't get the guy.

    There are tons of masjids, and they all do the call at slightly different times. It does set up a weird sort of echo. I will definitely miss that if I am ever not in the middle east.

    Boxie: You have internet! Yay! Is it just one of those sticks? It's great to hear from you. When are you going back to Vic? (I won't publish your response if you don't want).

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  3. I understand your plight. I've spent half my life in the UAE, and, usualy, they start out with "kaif Halakom?" and then a little speech they conjure up on their own. Then the prayers would start out themselves. It's hard at first, but, after a while, it's difficult to live without; like an integral part of your life.

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  4. I love hearing the athan, and I would miss it very much if I returned to a non-Muslim country, but I do not like random jokers fooling around with the loudspeaker in the middle of the night. I'm not a very happy camper when I'm woken up at rude hours, lol.

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