Ramadan 2012 - Day 8, FANAR Islamic Centre events

Nothing exciting so far today. Slept in, went to work for a little while to pass the time, then went and picked up my cleaner to tidy up the apartment (he’s Muslim so he asked if he could switch from his usual time to Friday afternoon during Ramadan -- that way he's got something to keep him occupied in the afternoon while he’s fasting).

A few days ago someone from FANAR, the Islamic Cultural Centre posted a comment about upcoming Iftar events for Non-Muslims. I figure I should help spread the word, I went to one last year and had an excellent time. The remaining events are:

Katara: August 3rd
Fanar: August 10th

I was told you can call 44250234 or email “culture @fanar.gov.qa” to reserve a space. I highly recommend it, I'll see about whether I can attend the one on the 10th.

FANAR also hosts lectures and other events (tonight they have a lecture by a scholar but unfortunately it is in Urdu). Their website doesn't seem up to date but I'm sure you can give them a call and find out what's coming up. Some of the local papers will also advertise their events.

The plan for tonight was for me to host a ghabga, a meal that takes place after iftar but before a sohour, typically around midnight. Ghabgas are unique to the Gulf region, for most other Arabic speakers any meal after the iftar is a sohour. An Egyptian friend of mine said he had never heard of a ghabga until he came here.

Plans changed when one of my Qatari friends called and asked to move the ghabga to his majlis. No big deal, there was only going to be six of us at my place (including him) and with one exception the other guests are friends of his and he said it was okay for me to invite along the one guy he didn't know. Looks like it will be Ghabga at a majlis tonight.


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Hadith of the Day


You can practically see his eyeballs rolling . . .


‘Imran bin Husain narrated: A man bit a hand of another and when the bitten pulled away his hand, the biter's front teeth fell off. The biter came to be Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) for justice. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: "What do you want me to do. Do you want me to order him to keep his hand in your mouth so that you can bite it off like a stallion?

Put your hand in his mouth and pull it out when he bites.”