“No one can tell me how to dress.” – Egyptian Volleyball Olympic Doaa Elghobashy while facing criticism for not wearing a bikini.

#muslim #islam #olympics

#Palestinian #medics prepare premature #babies, evacuated from #Gaza City’s Al Shifa hospital, for #transfer from a #hospital in Rafah in the southern #Gaza Strip to #Egypt, on November 20, 2023. Twenty-nine premature babies arrived in Egypt on November 20, #Egyptian media said, after their evacuation from Gaza’s largest hospital.

YEMEN , THE LAND OF QUEEN OF SHEBA

The history of the Yemen stretches back over 3,000 years, and its unique culture is still in evidence today in the architecture of its towns and villages. From about 1000 BC this region of the Southern Arabian Peninsula was ruled by three successive civilisations -- Minean, Sabaean and Himyarite. These three kingdoms all depended for their wealth on the spice trade. Aromatics such as myrrh and frankincense were greatly prized in the ancient civilised world and were used as part of various rituals in many cultures, including Egyptian, Greek and Roman.

Aish baladi
Egypt

Native to Egypt, aish baladi is a flatbread made with whole wheat flour. It is traditionally baked in extremely hot ovens and can be found at numerous Egyptian markets. The bread has been produced since the times of ancient Egypt, when it was made with emmer wheat.

Nowadays, this bread is a staple at Egyptian tables, from breakfast to dinner, and everyone eats it, whether poor or rich. In fact, it is so important that the word life (aish) is included in its name.

Quick Facts About Africa:

Awesome Facts- Ancient Africa

1. Africa was called Alkebulan (mother of
mankind).

2. Africa ruled the world for 15,000 years.

3. Richest man in history is an African King
(Mansa Musa).

4. Africa civilized mankind.

5. Mining started in Africa 43,000 years ago, In
1964 a hematite mine was found in Swaziland at
Bomvu Ridge in the Ngwenya mountain range.

6. Africans were the first to organise fishing.
expeditions 90,000 years ago at Katanga, Congo.

7. Africans carved the world's first colossal
sculpture 7,000 years ago.

8. The ancient Egyptians had Afro combs.

9. African Kings ruled India.

10. Africa is a home to World's oldest University.

#WeLoveAfrica!

Sharing iftar meal in Qena, Egypt

Discover Egypt:

Ramadan is seen as a time for increased social and community bonding among Muslims. Sharing meals with others during iftar (fast-breaking evening meal) is a way to strengthen relationships and build camaraderie among members of the community.

Egyptians usually break their fast with a light soup, such as lentil or vegetable soup, followed by a range of appetizers, known as mezze. For the main course, Egyptians often serve meat dishes, such as grilled lamb or chicken, as well as rice and vegetables. After the main course, Egyptians often enjoy a range of desserts, such as baklava, basbousa, and qatayef. These sweet treats are often served with Arabic coffee or tea and are the perfect way to end the Iftar meal.

It was the golden age of Islam. It was not the fabulous wealth of the empire or the fairy tales of the Arabian Nights that made it golden; it was the strength of its ideas and its contributions to human thought. As the empire had grown, it had come into contact with ideas from classical Greek, Indian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist and Hindu civilizations. The process of translation and understanding of global ideas was well underway since the time of al Mansur. But it received a quantum boost from Harun and Mamun.

Harun al Rashid was the son of al Mansur and was the fourth in the Abbasid dynasty. Ascending the throne as a young man of twenty-two in the year 786, he immediately faced internal revolts and external invasion. Regional revolts in Africa were crushed, tribal revolts from the Qais and Quzhaa in Egypt were contained and sectarian revolts from the Alavis were controlled. The Byzantines were held at bay and forced to pay tribute. For 23 years he ruled an empire that had welded together a broad arc of the earth extending from China, bordering India and Byzantium through the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean.

Harun established a School of translation Bait ul Hikmah (house of wisdom) and surrounded himself with men of learning. Commenting on the role of Harun in establishing the House of Wisdom, Bozkurt says: “It is known as Bayt al-Hikmah. The idea of building such a grand library came to fruition during Harun Rashid’s term. He started bringing books from across the world for translation. During his son Al Ma’mun’s term, the process went further.” Bayt al-Hikmah served as a bridge between ancient Greek and modern Western philosophy. It collected ancient Greek artefacts from Egyptian, Byzantine, Sassanid and Roman countries and prevented them from disappearing.

His administration was in the hands of viziers of exceptional capabilities, the Bermecides. His courtiers included great doctors, poets, musicians, logicians, mathematicians, writers, scientists, men of culture and scholars of Fiqh. Ibn Hayyan, who invented the science of chemistry, worked at the court of Harun. The scholars who were engaged in the work of translation included Muslims, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians and Hindus. From Greece came the works of Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Galen, Hippocratis, Archimedes, Euclid, Ptolemy, Demosthenes and Pythagoras. The Muslims learned from these sources and gave to the world algebra, chemistry, sociology and the concept of infinity.

What gave the Muslims the confidence to face other civilizations was their faith. With a confidence firmly rooted in revelation, the Muslims faced other civilizations, absorbing that which they found valid and transforming it in the image of their own belief. The Qur’an invites men and women to learn from nature, to reflect on the patterns therein, to mold and shape nature so that they may inculcate wisdom. ”We shall show them our Signs on the horizon and within their souls until it is manifest unto them that it is the Truth” (Qur’an, 41:53).

It is during this period that we see the emergence of the archetype of classical Islamic civilization, namely the Hakim (meaning, a person of wisdom). In Islam, a scientist is not a specialist who looks at nature from the outside, but a man of wisdom who looks at nature from within and integrates his knowledge into an essential whole. The quest of the Hakim is not just knowledge for the sake of knowledge but the realization of the essential Unity that pervades creation and the interrelationships that demonstrate the wisdom of God.

It is believed that the House of Wisdom was an intellectually vibrant place that was mainly driven by its cosmopolitanism, something that was "never seen before."

Honoring Egyptian women among the first memorizers of the Noble Qur’an in the village of Tamouh, Giza Governorate, on the night of the middle of Sha’ban
Credit: Kareem Elbana

A foreign tourist took a photo next to the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut statue.
And it stunned those who saw it.

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER’S FAITH JOURNEY LEADS TO ISLAM

Marina Zouaghi and her family moved into their new home in Oak Creek only two days ago, yet the house is orderly and welcoming to a guest, with a platter of miniature cream puffs, grapes, and nuts on the coffee table. Her mother, Jill Ochoa, greets me as Marina comes from the kitchen with three glasses of Chinese gunpowder tea flavored with mint.

Marina’s 3-year-old son sits on a couch reading with his grandmother, while her 7-month old daughter Amel swings in a baby swing; the baby is quiet and content until a little attention from a guest has her clamoring for more.

We’re gathered to talk about the two women’s reasons, emotional, spiritual, and deeply personal, for becoming Muslims. Both Marina and her mother now wear hijab. Marina says of her first contact with a covered woman, “I was kind of afraid of it. I didn’t know what it was.”

Marina’s journey began about nine years ago, when, in her early 20s, she worked “doing a little bit of everything” – barista, waitress, delivery driver – for an Egyptian couple who owned a coffee shop called Sphinx and other businesses. It was Marina’s first encounter with Muslims. “I started working there during Ramadan,” Marina says, and “I kept trying to feed them.”

Marina asked her employers and co-workers why they fasted, and “everybody gave me a different reason.” Some of those reasons included understanding the feelings of people who don’t have enough to eat. And Marina, “being Christian at the time,” thought, “then I should be doing it too.” She began to fast as best she could. “One time I was delivery driving, and it was so hot and busy on the East Side. I bought a strawberry frappé and downed it, and then I continued fasting.”

She also “tried being modest, or what I thought was modest. I quit wearing nail polish for the month and wore a longer skirt.”

But an interesting thing happened. “At the end of the month, it felt good, and I got really interested in Islam and started studying it more.”
She joined the Muslim Student Association at Alverno College, where she was an international business student. There she met Sakina, who taught her the basics of how to pray. “She was really cool, very non-judgmental. I would show up to her apartment and she would teach me different things and answer my questions.”

One day, a friend called her at work. The friend concluded their conversation with the words, “Jesus is with you,” and Marina thought, “She means ‘God is with you.’” Her own response brought her up short. “I froze because I realized I had had a . . . change in my belief system. I was very nervous that my fundamental beliefs had changed.” Muslims believe that only God is Divine, Jesus, Muhammad, Moses and others are viewed as great prophets.

However, the end result was, “I decided that I wanted to become Muslim.” Now, when she saw women wearing hijab, “my fear had turned to envy.” Jill bought Marina her first modest outfit, a maxi dress from Target, and Marina “felt like a queen on the East side.” When she decided to begin wearing a headscarf, she “watched a lot of YouTube videos. If you want to learn how to wrap a hijab, it’s on YouTube.”

On June 29, 2012, Imam Ziad at ISM said the words, “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his final messenger,” this is the Muslim testimony of faith. Marina repeated them, “and that made me a Muslim. Then we all went out to eat.”

She has never looked back. Becoming Muslim “changed things – health, finances, self-respect, outlook.” And all the changes were positive. “I felt really restless before – that subsided when I became Muslim. I was much calmer.” Her mother agrees. “Me and her dad [saw] that she was happier, wasn’t as stressed.”

Less than a month after her shahada, Marina married Messaoud Zouaghi, who had come to Milwaukee from Algeria to study at UWM. Most of the wedding guests had never been to a mosque.

Marina met her in-laws for the first time on Skype, but she and her husband subsequently traveled to visit them in Algeria. Jill and Messaoud’s mother Noucha now talk regularly. “I was so worried about Marina traveling abroad,” Jill says. But Noucha told her, “My son is now your son and your daughter is my daughter.” Today, Jill says, “I don’t worry about her when she’s with them. I know they will take care of her.”

A Mother Follows in her Daughter’s Footsteps

Jill Ochoa was baptized a Catholic. In her 30s, she became an Evangelical Lutheran. In 2009, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, an autoimmune disease of the digestive system, a condition that is aggravated by stress. “I had gotten to the point with Christianity where I kept having questions about my faith and never got the answers I wanted. . . It was always that I didn’t have enough faith. The sicker I got, the angrier I became.”

Though she approved of the changes in her daughter since her conversion, she didn’t necessarily understand the reason for those changes at first. One night, “I was digging through the Bible,” Marina says, and finding passages that supported her Muslim faith. “I was crying and it shocked [my mother] and she got overwhelmed.” Jill told her daughter, “I’m never becoming a Muslim, I just want to understand you better.”

But Jill got an email from a friend to attend an interfaith panel at MSOE, “and I said okay, and that was the day I decided I wanted to be a Muslim.”

On the panel were an imam, a priest, a rabbi, and a Christian pastor. Jill asked, “If someone does something horrific to a child, and they ask for forgiveness before they die, do they still go to heaven?” The priest and pastor both said yes. The rabbi said, “We’re not quite sure what happens.”

But the imam said: “We think of this world like a scale. Not every deed weighs the same. When you go before God, you want to have more good deeds than bad deeds. You don’t just say you’re sorry. Sometimes you have to answer for them.”

Jill went down to the lakefront early one morning and sat at the end of a pier. “I put my head on the ground and prayed and felt this overwhelming hit of peace and strength. I felt someone was there with me, and I wasn’t alone.”

When she told her husband she wanted to become a Muslim for her birthday, he said, “So, no present?”

But Islam was her present. Jill was 47 at the time of her conversion, when she too began wearing hijab. At a family picnic on a warm summer day, people kept asking her, “Aren’t you hot? Aren’t you hot?” But they also noticed something else. “I started getting some respect and some strength that I didn’t have before,” Jill says.

To date, two more of Jill’s daughters have converted to Islam, Jade, who became Muslim 3 years ago, and Melissa, who became Muslim on the 27th day of Ramadan this year, before her marriage to Jorge Vazquez, who attended her shahada. One daughter, Mariah, remains Christian