Arab Culture Night

QUICK LESSON:

The adhan is the Islamic call to prayer which happens 5 times a day. It is recited by the muezzin [a chosen person at the mosque who leads the call to prayer] and projected through minarets all over the city. A minaret is often seen as a symbol of Islam and adorn most mosques. They’re tall and pointy with speakers in them… the Blue Mosque in Turkey has 6.

A part of our Arab Culture Night included a visit from 2 of the muezzin, a father and son,  from the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Haram al-Sharif as the Muslims call it.  The mosque sits on the temple mount along with the Dome of the Rock. Muslims consider this the third most holy place in the world to Medina[Saudi Arabia], the second holiest place and Mecca [Saudi Arabia], the holiest city in the religion of Islam. It's considered very prestigious to call for prayer at the temple mount.

These men were pretty amazing. They have the entire Qur’an memorized and can recite it beginning anywhere in the text. The son, who is probably in his 30’s now, had it memorized when he was really young. They recite the Qur’an in the mosques at certain times or whenever asked to. They “sing” it by our standard… but don’t like it to be called singing, they recite it. Singing the Koran is not allowed. Today when we went to the temple mount I heard a man reciting the Qur’an to a group of men that were surrounding him in chairs under a shady tree outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The muezzin have trained their voices and recite the Koran very beautifully and can kind of make it their own [pausing and emphasizing where they choose]. They do the same with the call to prayer, they don’t ever really recite it the same way twice. I am very familiar with the call because I used to hear it ALL FIVE times a day… including waking up to it at 4:30 am. Now I can sleep through it, usually. Some muezzin are better than others, this I can testify of! Sometimes it sounds like killing cats! Haha However, most of  the time the minarets around here project beautiful sound.

This is a translation of the Call to Prayer:

4X God is Greatest

2X I bear witness that there is no God except the One God

2X I bear witness that Muhammed is God’s Messenger

2X Come to Salat (prayer, worship)

2X Come to Success

2X Salat is better than sleep [only said for the first prayers of the day @ dawn]

2X God is greatest

1X There is no god except the One God

It was really interesting. I asked why, if the call is so short, are there sometimes really long pauses and sometimes the call stretches for a whole hour. [this used to REALLY bug me] He said because it’s beautiful! Why rush it?

What I really want to know is… Is every minaret connected to a mosque? Or are some minarets free standing and just broadcast the call from elsewhere? If you know the answer… tell me.

The rest of the night included an elaborate, traditional Arabic dinner prepared by our chef Achmed in the very well decorated Oasis… lots of photo taking … and learning a traditional Arabic dance by some local high school students [which actually turned in to a big dance party by DJ AJ, we’re good at those!]. It was a really fun night. The shop keeper, Shabon, in the Old City let me borrow this traditional dress too. Great night.