Jeddah’s Future

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Here’s an Arab News article on the strategic plan to make Jeddah a world-class city.

الحمد لله رب العالمين

The Shariah Index Project

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The Shariah Index will rate countries’ Islamic law. Interesting…

ُما شاء الله والحمدلله

Protected: The American Novel Since 1945

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

The Rambler

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

It’s been many years since a recommendation to read Samuel Johnson’s The Rambler passed from the lips of a scholar to my ears, by God’s will. I tried then, and again, but today, section one made clear and immediate sense to me.

الحمدلله رب العالمين

Digital Social Media

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Once in a while, a message from somebody shows up in my inbox inviting me to join Facebook or Twitter.

In the freely accessible articles section of Shadhiliteachings.com can be found a cautionary piece by Sheikh Nuh Keller on the perils of digital social media.

الحمدلله رب العالمين

The Samarkand Manuscript

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Allah enabled us to visit Columbia University’s Butler Library a few days ago to view a facsimile copy of the huge Samarkand Manuscript of the Quran. Inquiring about it with the library via e-mail and being offered the opportunity to see the manuscript up close was surprisingly simple and the people involved were all pleasant and easy to deal with. (For those who might not know the requirements for handling the Quran, here is guidance for Muslims and non-Muslims.) We were informed that 25 copies of the manuscript were made in Russia around 1900, and that the reason one of them was obtained by Columbia University (in the 1930s) was because of the high interest that University scholars had in studying it. The librarian added that Princeton and Harvard universities have copies as well.

Everybody who can should see the beautiful manuscript إن شاء الله.

والحمدلله رب العالمين

Protected: Manhattan

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Japanese Tea Garden

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Apropos of Yesterday, 14 August 2009

The flight on Virgin America from LAX to SFO was over before it felt like it had even gotten underway, easily the fastest trip Allah has blessed me with in my experience thus far. The online check-in and service quality at the airport was good, but the most interesting feature was the Main Cabin Select seating that we had the opportunity to choose. In exchange for taking responsibility for removing and discarding an airplane door and helping one’s fellow passengers evacuate the plane in case of an emergency, the obliging traveller is afforded one free check-in bag weighing up to seventy pounds. Also, they had a small bottle of water waiting for each of us in the seat-back pockets before us, which was a nice touch.

As for San Francisco itself, it felt a lot more personable than Los Angeles. The hilly topography, gorgeous climate, interesting architecture, and alternative culture (including no shortage of cafes offering foods and beverages for the health-conscious) immediately thrust me into the reality of why San Francisco has always been a happy place for me, thus far.

We went to Golden Gate Park after having a bite to eat, and found our way through an arboreal space near a baseball diamond to a street servicing the Botanical Garden as well as the Japanese Tea Garden, which I’ve since gathered is the oldest public garden of its kind in the United States.

There, a very healthy, solitary, foot-long, fish with white scales and a bright orange splotch near its nose, swam placidly through the clear, still water, of a pool around which pathways gave rise to a relaxed and contemplative mood.

سبحان الله

There were many trees and a few choice spots we found to sit at and reflect on the serenity of the controlled environment of the garden, which was so peace-inducing and greatly appreciated after two weeks in urban Los Angeles that it occured to me that producers of contemporary Islamic culture could learn a lot about developing environments conducive to peace and reflection by simply visiting a Japanese tea garden, and do a real service to humanity – or at least to Muslims in Muslim societies – by developing such environments; such places are needed as a counterbalance to lives that are spent mostly in fast-paced cities.

This Japanese tea garden was much nicer than the similarly themed one I remember in New York, to some extent because I was with my wife, no doubt.

……….

After 11 p.m.

San Francisco looks like a gold bracelet in the night. One of those thick, expensive ones you can find in the gold souk of Jeddah’s downtown balad district, tastefully designed and exquisitely detailed.

والحمد لله رب العالمين

Postcards of Algiers

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Postcards of Algiers

ما شاء الله لا قوة الا بالله

Pacific Colors

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Palisades Park

First of all, a couple of corrections regarding the colors found at Santa Monica beach: the sand is not brown; it’s tan, and the ocean water is not strictly-speaking blue. As the tide brings it to shore, it shows the belly of the waves is in fact of an emerald greenish hue. And finally, the creases in the ocean’s perpetually shifting surface are not gold. They are white and,  moving, shine with the sunlight.

الحمدلله رب العالمين