Sugar Update

Did word get around Qatar that I was cutting down on sugar? Yesterday I was at Costa Coffee chatting with a colleague when the lady behind the counter came over with a free serving of cheesecake for us. Then later at Tim Hortons, I wish I was kidding, the manager came over and gave me a free white chocolate macadamia nut cookie. What the heck? Apparently it’s the Murphy's Law of dieting, as soon as you go on a diet that's when all the treats come out. I'm expecting tonight to get a phone call inviting me to a chocolate tasting.

Today I stopped by the supermarket to see about low-sugar alternatives. First up was bread. I like bread and I like eating it with meals. I don't want to give up bread. But how much sugar is in the stuff?

Luckily I did find a local bakery that puts the nutritional information on its bread packaging – Qbake.

QBake says on its packaging there’s no added sugar, the ingredient list appears to agree, and one piece of whole wheat pita bread has only 1.4g of sugar in it. Other QBake breads (white pita, sliced loaves) also say there's no added sugar in it. I think 1.4g fits the low sugar diet I'm aiming for so I'm glad that QBake put it on their label. That's not to say it's a wonder food, there's around 140+ calories per pita and maybe around 4 grams of fiber, but it's still a decent bread for an occasional snack or maybe to have one with a meal. It’s certainly better than snacking on cereals.

Okay, that's bread solved, what about yogurt? Surprisingly it varies a lot from brand to brand. Many have added sugar, some have added pectin (a type of sugar), some have aspartame or other artificial sweeteners and a few have no added sugar/sweeteners at all. If the yogurt has added fruit then the sugar content is even higher. I looked at one mango yogurt and a tiny one-serving cup had 21g of sugar. You can find yogurts with <1g of sugar.

So yogurt is okay if you read the label and make sure it doesn't have any added sugar. I also looked at laban and that seemed to be fine too, none of the ones I looked at had any added sugars.

I recall Dr. Lustig was okay with eating fruit as even though it naturally contains sugar it also has fiber, which helps to counterbalance the sugar. I think in yogurts the fruit has been processed enough that I doubt there's much fiber left in it -- better to buy a plain yogurt and add fruit yourself.


The quest for low-sugar continues, we’ll see how easy it is to eat out and miss the sugar.

Cutting Down on the Sugar

A friend of mine sent me a link to a YouTube video he wanted me to look at. The video was by a Dr. Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California and the video appears to be getting a lot of buzz.

The video was an hour and a half long and I really didn't have the time to watch the whole thing so instead I put my critical thinking cap on and did an internet search for Dr. Lustig. I found some news articles, interviews and a youtube video excerpt from 60 Minutes covering his theory. In a nutshell -- people eat way too much sugar so need to cut down sugar intake, especially fructose (which is in a lot of processed foods). Sugar is largely responsible for the current obesity epidemic and as far as he is concerned is essentially toxic in the amounts that we are eating. He also says that the food industry has been steadily increasing the content of sugar in foods to make them tastier and to compensate for removing fat from foods due to the move towards “low-fat” eating. There is also some related items regarding calories and how a sugar calorie differs from other calories but I think that's a secondary concern to the overall call to lessen sugar intake.

Now “sugar is evil” and “processed food is bad” is nothing new and is banded about sometimes by alternative medicine circles who love to go on about the dangers of refined sugar or processed sugar, instead promoting natural alternatives. Given I am not a doctor or nutritionist instead it's better to take a critical look at the quality of the messenger and the message.

Positives

Dr. Lustig is:
• a qualified physician with a lot of experience specializing in a relevant field of medicine related to what he is discussing
• not trying to sell you special treatments, expensive medicines or trips to his clinic
• trying to use evidence-based methods to support his hypothesis (not a ton of studies out there right now but there is some experimental evidence supporting it)
• not recommending extreme measures that can be common in alt-med circles: like discontinuing current treatments or avoiding/distrusting the medical establishment
• not heavily pushing for people to buy his book. Alt-med people might give you a teaser and you need to buy their book to get all the relevant information. Dr. Lustig appears to be giving you the overall information you need and if you want more granular detail or food recommendations you can buy the book. Appears more interested in getting the message out than book sales.
• not recommending banning sugar, just cutting back on it a lot.
• not mentioned by the internet site Quackwatch.

Negatives

One newspaper interview with Dr. Lustig contained a few statements entering into the conspiracy theory area -- that the food industry was hand-in-hand with the U.S. Government and they silenced Michelle Obama or something like that. (If you’re reading this Dr. Lustig my advice is to stay away from this kind of thing, keep the debate focused on the evidence and the medical findings. Conspiracy accusations just allow opponents the ammo to dismiss you as a “conspiracy-kook” instead of looking at the evidence.)

So overall a lot of positives and almost none of the red flags that would generally indicate quackery. Hopefully the lengthy youtube video is similar but the other items I reviewed support the above.

Conclusion: an informed hypothesis that is certainly worth study and debate.


So given that the main thing to do is simply cut back on sugar I figured I would give that a try as part of my attempt to slowly lose weight. I'll admit I've been more focused on calories and fat but don’t see any reason not to be more “sugar mindful”, this is not exactly radical, fad-diet stuff here. I figured I’m on the right track already – I never add sugar or sweeteners to coffee or cereal, in fact I don’t touch a sugar bowl. My cereals are typically high-fiber whole-grain cereals (but I do add a bit of those sugar/honey cereals for flavor, that’s going to stop). I've already been cutting back on desserts as part of trying to slowly lose weight, only drink diet sodas, get juice from a juice stall where it’s blended fruit, and I rarely drink alcohol.

So I’ll cut out the bit of sugar cereal and go off the soda, even diet ones (maybe a psychological thing, I think drinking a sweet drink might make you just want to have sweet drinks more). That should about do it.

Until I read the labels on my food.

What do you know, a high-fiber cereal has added sugar. Why would you add sugar to a high-fiber whole-grain cereal? One of them discloses that for every hundred grams of cereal I’m eating 20 g of sugar (for comparison a banana has 12g and apples around 10g). 20% sugar! Huh? And my healthy Dorset high-fiber muesli? 27.5g! (though it’s likely from the dried fruits in it, there does not appear to be any added sugar).

Um, so I guess I’ll cut the cereal down by half and replace the half with an apple or banana. I think Dr. Lustig won’t have an issue with bananas or apples.

I like breads but apparently many of them have a lot of sugar, and I have no way to know how much since the breads have no nutritional labeling. Guess I’ll reduce the bread intake too.

My favorite “healthy lunch” is a vegetarian pasta dish from Vanellis that has a red sauce – their website indicates the sauce likely has around 6-8g of sugar based on the amount of sauce I get. Okay, that’s not bad, but maybe I’ll try to cut down the sauce even more.

I like low-fat yoghurts but they appear to have added sugars – I’ll see if I can find one that doesn’t.


Suddenly this is looking harder than I thought. But I’ll stick with trying to lower the sugar intake and see what happens.

Ezdan Mall Update – 21st August 2013

[Sorry, this is no longer the most recent update: there is one more update, click here]

So I went to the mall last night to see what was open.

Now open: the kids’ amusement park. Sorry, no pictures, it was actually pretty crowded with families including lots of Qatari ladies so I didn't try to take any pictures. The amusement park is nowhere near as big as the ones found in malls like Villagio and City Centre but it looked pretty popular. It's geared towards little kids though.

Costa Coffee is also open.


Not open: WH Smith. I took a picture of the inside as well.

Mado (a Turkish café/restaurant chain). It still might be a while, based on a picture took through a gap in the door.

Any restaurants: the only full restaurant open is Royal Tandoor, otherwise there’s a few places in the food court open.

It’s taking a long time for the other restaurants to open. Ezdan really needs to get those moving, I think it’s the biggest flaw in the mall right now. (That said I’d probably only go to Tim Hortons anyway unless I wanted a big meal.) Many stores still aren't open but I think if there were more restaurants the mall would feel a lot more complete.

What is in a Name ... Continued

A while ago I commented about how my name was confusing to people who speak languages other than English. “Glen” is particularly troublesome as many languages do not have “Gl” as a syllable, nor is “Mc” used outside of Gaelic areas like Scotland or Ireland. This is led to all sorts of interesting combinations: “Gu-ren” in Japan, “Gren” in at least two Chinese languages, and “Say what?” in Bermudian. (I’m kidding about the last one :) ).

Arabic can really struggle as they do not have a “g” nor an “e”. Egyptians handle it better than others because in their dialect they pronounce “j” more like a “g” but for other Arabic speakers it's a bit of a struggle. I have had “Qlin”, “Klin” and “Grrrlin” though I prefer “Jlin”, and it is written that way on Arabic business cards. It has its downside though, I once received mail naming me as “Jaline”.

Turkish also struggles with my name, like many languages it does not have a “gl” sound. Some Turks, once they hear my name a few times, go “Gulent”, which isn’t bad. A couple of elderly Turkish ladies decided to call me “Bulent” as that is an existing Turkish name (my Turkish friends occasionally joke about this and they’ll call me Bulent for laughs). But an incident buying a bus ticket to Bursa has taken name confusion to a new level. When I went to buy the ticket they asked for my name, I said it slowly and even spelled it out. They gave me my ticket and then I boarded the bus. While on the bus I decided to read the ticket, and saw the following:

It might be difficult to read (it was really hard to take a picture of the ticket) but under name instead of “Glen McKay” it reads:

“Given Macey”


lol

Doha Skyline 2006

Recently Dohanews posted some photos of West Bay in 2004. That got me thinking a bit as to how much things have changed in Doha. I always tell people who have recently moved here about all the construction and all of the things that weren't open when I first arrived (like the “new” Souq Waqif, the Museum of Islamic Art, Villagio Mall, Al Waab Street, three-quarters of the buildings in West Bay, most of the luxury hotels, the Al Shammal freeway, Katara, the Pearl and so on). It only took seven years to build all that. Amazing isn't it? It's also why I'm not concerned about whether Qatar can build the 2022 infrastructure in time -- they've managed to build so much in seven years they shouldn't have much of a problem doing it in nine.

Anyway, here's some pictures of Doha from 2006 to early 2007. Enjoy.

Back From Eid Vacation

I’m back from Turkey. Had a great time but on unpacking I realized that I left my camera cord behind so now I can’t transfer the pictures into the blog. My friend is still there so he will bring it when he comes back in a few days after which I will post some pictures.

Otherwise, as someone who likes tennis, I was thrilled to hear that Canadian tennis players did really well at the Masters tournament in Montréal. We now have a Canadian player ranked in the top 10 and another in the top 40, up until a couple of years ago I think the best a Canadian had managed in the rankings was in the top 50 and now here we are with two above that. To top it all off Canada is in the Davis Cup semifinals, something that even a few years ago the tennis world would have written off as a complete fantasy. They'll have their work cut out for them though (they play Serbia headed by World Number 1 Novak Djokovic), but that they even made it to the semis shows just how far Canadian tennis has come in the last few years.

Ramadan 2013 - Last Day, Eid Mubarak

Since I was not traveling yesterday I fasted and that extra hour of fasting really made a difference -- it was tough. Weather outside was hot & sunny, around 30 degrees, so I couldn't go out much. Found by the afternoon I was feeling a bit weak, and by 8:00pm I was starving.

After iftar my friend and I went for a long walk on the corniche for exercise. It was pretty busy, I guess thousands were out enjoying the evening. Even after midnight there were a lot of people. My friend had it tougher as he definitely had to go to morning prayer as it was the first one for Eid, which meant getting up at 4am. It is also tradition to go to the barber for Eid so we went to one for shaves -- at 1:30am (yes, they were still open, it's the busiest time of the year.

I then went to bed and slept until breakfast. Eid is a time for visiting relatives so my friend's in-laws were coming over for a traditional breakfast

Weather is sunny and warm, plans are to go into town and enjoy the seaside, as well as being able to eat and drink during the day.

Eid Mubarak everyone!

Ramadan 2013 – Day 27, Travelling

Vacation has started. I got to the airport to catch a 3:45am flight to Turkey. I was a bit surprised to see that even at the airport lounge there was no alcohol available as it was Ramadan – looks like Qatar has become strict about alcohol during the Holy Month.

After landing in Istanbul

I grabbed a bus to Bursa, which uses a ferry to cross the Sea of Marmara,

and from Bursa made my way to the seaside town of Mudanya, where my friend lives.

Because we are farther north the day is longer, iftar here doesn’t start until 8:20pm so it was a long day of fasting for my friend (I didn’t fast today because I was travelling). Unlike Qatar it is not as strict here for Ramadan, restaurants are open throughout the day and many people were eating and drinking. I guess only some Turks fast during Ramadan. We had iftar at one of my favourite places in Mudanya – a kofte restaurant called Pinar Izgara. For dinner we had some of their famous kofte and for dessert a specialty of the house, kemalpasha (literally “General Kemal”, it’s named after Ataturk).

After we took a walk along the Corniche then went home to meet with friends. It’s 2am now so we’ve decided to stay up and have sohour at 3:30am before going to bed. I hope I can get my sleep schedule back on track once Eid arrives.

Ramadan 2013 - Day 25, Itikaf

Things are starting to quiet down since we are in the last ten days of Ramadan. This is because Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) used to worship more during these last ten days, even praying all night. So many Muslims dedicate more time to prayer on the last 10 days of Ramadan. If I have this right, prayer and doing good deeds at this time gives greater rewards in Heaven than at any other time. My Muslim friends are at the mosques a lot more now so I can’t hang out with them during the evenings. So for a non-Muslim like me things are simply quieting down. The fasting schedule is starting to wear me out as well - all of this sleeping during the day is messing me up again.

Some Muslims do a kind of 10-day spiritual retreat known as “Itikaf”. The time is spent worshiping, performing extra prayers, and reciting the Qur’an. Some Muslims practically live in the mosque for those 10 days and I've heard that some Qataris book vacation time from work to perform Itikaf. Many mosques will remain open for 24 hours a day so people can perform Itikaf.

There is also a belief that during the last 10 days of Ramadan there is a special night known as Laylat Al-Qadr. Prayers during Laylat Al-Qadr are worth 1000 months of prayer (Qur’an, sura 97:3). However it is not known ahead of time which night of the last 10 of Ramadan that Laylat Al-Qadr falls on (I am a bit confused on this point as I'm not sure how then people determine after-the-fact which night it was). This also encourages people to devote themselves to prayer on the last 10 nights, so they don't miss Laylat Al-Qadr.

Anyway I leave on vacation tomorrow night so I’d better prepare. The Qur’an says you don’t have to fast while you're traveling so I don't think I worry about my fast once I reach the airport.

Ramadan 2013 – Day 23, Traffic and Breaking the Fast

So on the first day of Ramadan I commented how the morning commute was excellent but that it was likely because I went to work earlier than the opening hours for government ministries and other offices. Turns out I was right. Yesterday I had to leave the office at 8:30am for a business meeting so I was leaving West Bay at peak time.

The traffic coming into West Bay was absolutely insane! Worse than a standard day when the schools are in. It got to the point where police were closing off parts of the roundabouts and diverting traffic away. Unbelievable. A bear that in mind for next year.



Now I must confess I've blown my fasting for today. Like I said, the weekends are the toughest time for me that I normally go to the office just to distract myself from food. Well today I got home early and started surfing around on the net. Next thing I knew I was eating a snack. It was like I couldn't help myself I just reached into the cupboard, grabbed some food and ate it. Pretty much the whole time I was thinking to myself, "Glen, what are you doing?” and yet I ate the food anyway. Sure, I was hungry but I wasn't starving so I'm not sure why I did it. *sigh* oh well, I guess everyone's entitled to one bad day.

Because I deliberately broke my fast (as opposed to accidently, like swallowing a bit of water when brushing your teeth) Islam would require an additional day of fasting at a later date to make up for this one.

Ramadan 2013 – Day 21, The Qur’an and the Prophet Musa (Moses)

Starting my look into how Islam records the life of Moses I quickly realized I had bitten off a bit more than I could chew. Moses is mentioned more in the Qur’an than anyone else, almost 300 passages mention him, which goes to show that he was clearly a very important Prophet to Muslims.

It would a lengthy process to type all the main passages into this post so I’ll just cover some highlights:

 Islam agrees with Biblical tradition that as a baby Moses was put in a basket and sent down the Nile River in order to prevent him from being killed by the Pharaoh. He was then adopted by one of the Pharaoh’s family.

 Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite. This caused Moses to flee the area and become a shepherd, much like the Biblical account.

 The story of the burning bush is a bit different in Islam. Moses was lured to the area because he saw a fire and once he reached there Allah spoke to him. Allah did not take the form of fire nor did the fire speak to Moses.

 Like the Biblical account Allah sent various plagues to Egypt (I didn't do a comparison to see if all of the plagues were the same but locusts and frogs were there).

 The parting of the sea occurred to allow Moses and his followers to escape the Pharaoh’s army. The army was drowned when the sea closed in on them.

 The Israelites were punished by Allah to wander for 40 years

 The Qur’an states that Allah “ . . . wrote for him on the Tablets the lessons to be drawn from all things and the explanation of all things . . .” [7:145], which ties into the story of the Ten Commandments but the Qur’an does not state what was written on the tablets nor what number of statements were there. Thus I don't believe Muslims automatically assume it was 10 things. The Torah was reveled to Moses during his time wandering near Mount Sinai.

 Islamic tradition agrees with Biblical accounts that while Moses was away many of his followers started worshiping a statue of a calf, though it is not clear if the calf was golden -- I can’t find any reference specifically saying it was gold in the relevant passages. However, the calf was formed by melting “ornaments” carried by the people so it’s a reasonable assumption.




By and large the Qur’an agrees with much of the Biblical account. There are a few differences but in terms of the major items the differences appear minor (well, except for the Ten Commandments one, I'm sure many would consider that a big difference).

Ramadan 2013 – Day 19, Traditional Qatari Ramadan Foods

Out at Ezdan Mall they had some posters for traditional Qatari foods, including the recipes. I've eaten most of them at one point or another.

My first encounter with harees was at a wedding. A container of it was being passed around the table and given that there were no plates or cutlery people were just scooping some out with their fingers and eating it. Some of my friends declined (imagine passing around a jar of white peanut butter and everyone was dipping their fingers in it) but I dug in. In truth I find the taste of it very plain, kind of like porridge without sugar or much spice. That many times it has little pieces of meat blended in with it makes for an odd experience.

Elqaimat is a staple at any wedding or buffet featuring Arabic cuisine. Tiny balls of fried dough sweetened with sugar syrup or honey. They are smaller and crispier than a doughnut hole.

Another standard dessert at an Arabic buffet, though I never knew its name before. The sign also says it's eaten at breakfast, something I've never tried before. A pretty straightforward dish, cooked vermicelli which I assume is sweetened with sugar syrup or honey. I've also seen it served drizzled with sweetened condensed milk.

It was interesting to see a sign for thareed as I mentioned it just a week ago when blogging about a friend’s iftar. I'm sure I've had it other times in the past but didn't know what its name was.

I believe on the weekend during Ramadan there is a stall at Ezdan Mall food court where ladies are preparing these dishes for you to try. Check it out if you have time.

Ramadan 2013 – Day 17, Sohour Banquets

So I've now attended my third sohour at a hotel. During Ramadan all of the major hotels host these lavish iftar and sohour buffets and I inevitably get invites either through work or from friends. The sohours are always popular and despite the many five-star hotels here you still need to reserve in advance.

Here's some pictures from the most recent one, at the Ritz. While some hotels actually set up tents on the grounds for the sohour some, like the Ritz, decorate their ballroom instead.

The buffets are huge, focusing mostly on Arabic cuisine but are sure to offer numerous other foods as well.

Love the dessert section (though I didn’t have much of it, I swear).

It's things like this that can make it difficult for people to lose weight despite the fact that you're fasting throughout the day for a month. Ramadan is also a time of celebration so families or friends commonly meet up for iftar or sohour at these buffets. I'm okay with sohours because at least you've already eaten, but iftar is more difficult because once you break your fast and start eating it's hard to stop when there is a horde of food around.

Anyway it is still worth trying at least once. Sohours typically start at 9pm and go on till late, maybe 1am or 2am. Most people don't arrive until sometime after 10 or 11; we arrived around 9:20pm to an empty ballroom but by 11:30 it was packed.

Expect to pay at least QAR 200 per person but more likely you'll be paying around 300.

Ramadan 2013 – Day 16, Katara Lecture and Art Exhibitions

So last night I went to Katara to attend a lecture by Sheikh Saad Al Aatik on "Deliverance from Hellfire". It didn't start until 9:30pm but to get out of the apartment I arrived at Katara around 8:15pm so I could wander around. There wasn't much humidity that night so while it was hot it wasn't so unpleasant that you couldn't walk around.

First I came across a gallery that held modern artworks expressing faith.

I'm not much for modern art so I wasn't sure what to make of it. The glasswork was kind of cool and a few people were getting pictures taken standing behind the glass.

Then I saw another exhibition at a nearby gallery. The title refers to the 99 names of Allah that are found in the Qur’an.

Turns out the artist is primarily a graffiti artist but while there was some artwork definitely inspired by graffiti art . . .

. . . he also had a lot of calligraphy work on display.

Then I stopped for a free Arabic coffee and some dates from a stand that Katara had set up. That was nice of them. Finally it was off to the mosque for the lecture.

Beautiful mosque isn't it? Anyway, Sheikh Al Aatik (on the right with the red gurtra) started off the lecture and after a minute I realized that the entire lecture would be in Arabic! I heard about the lecture through a catalog of events happening at Katara, I wish they had said that the lecture would be in Arabic, I assumed it would be in English because the catalog listing was in English. Don't get me wrong, I can speak a bit of Arabic, but nowhere near enough to follow what was going on, I caught maybe 5% of what he was saying. *shrug*, I sat patiently, admired the mosque, and tried to pick up whatever words I could. After about 45 minutes lecture was over and I left. Shame that I couldn't understand what he was saying.

Anyway, Katara has a lot of events and nice exhibitions on display during Ramadan. If the weather is not too humid I suggest you go there one evening.

Ramadan 2013 – Day 15, the Qur’an and the Prophet Dawud (David)

Looking at the Prophet David (Dawud in Arabic) in the Qur’an we see that, like my look at the other Prophets, much of the overall history is there but without all of the detail in the Bible. In some ways it appears that it is assumed that the reader of the Qur’an knows much of the history that is referred to in the verse.

The battle with Goliath is only mentioned once, and it covers only 3 verses in the overarching narrative of King Saul. David is only mentioned once:

2:251 So they routed them by Allah's Leave and Dawud (David) killed Jalut (Goliath), and Allah gave him (David) the kingdom and Al-Hikmah (Prophethood), and taught him of that which He willed. And if Allah did not check one set of people by means of another, the earth would indeed be full of mischief. But Allah is full of bounty to the 'Alamin (mankind, jinn and all that exists).

Otherwise the bulk of discussion on David comes from the 38th Surah. First it mentions his ability to either speak to birds or somehow charm birds (it’s unclear to me)

38:18 Verily, We made the mountains to glorify Our Praises with him (David) in the 'Ashi (i.e. after the mid-day till sunset) and Ishraq (i.e. after the sunrise till mid-day).

38:19 And (so did) the birds assembled: all obedient to him (David).

Followed by some verses about David passing judgment on a dispute between two men arguing over some sheep (I won't go into the details here) and concluding with:

38:26 O David! Verily! We have placed you as a successor on the earth; so judge you between men in truth and follow not your desire - for it will mislead you from the Path of Allah. Verily, those who wander astray from the Path of Allah (shall) have a severe torment, because they forgot the Day of Reckoning.

There’s not much more than that. The Qur’an does not contain much else about David and certain stories, such as David’s interactions with Bathsheba and Uriah, are not mentioned at all and generally discounted by Islam. As the Prophets of Islam would be exemplary in following the path of Allah, I'm guessing that Muslims are of the view that there is no way the Prophet David would commit the major sin of adultery as outlined in the tale of Bathsheba. In a similar vein Islam does not believe that the Prophet Isa (Jesus) would be drinking wine since alcohol is forbidden.

However there is something that the Prophet David is famous for in Islam – fasting (which is why I felt investigating the Prophet David was an appropriate thing for Ramadan). The Fast of David is not mentioned in the Qur’an but it is mentioned numerious times in the Al-Bukhari Hadiths, for example:

Book 21:231 Narrated Abdullah bin 'Amr bin Al-'As: Allah's Apostle told me, "The most beloved prayer to Allah is that of David and the most beloved fasts to Allah are those of David. He used to sleep for half of the night and then pray for one third of the night and again sleep for its sixth part and used to fast on alternate days.

Book 55:631 Narrated Abdullah bin Amr: Allah's Apostle said to me, "The most beloved fasting to Allah was the fasting of (the Prophet) David who used to fast on alternate days. And the most beloved prayer to Allah was the prayer of David who used to sleep for (the first) half of the night and pray for 1/3 of it and (again) sleep for a sixth of it."

The fact that David used to fast on alternate days is well-known in Islam and is seen as one of the best fasting regimes. You should not fast any more than that (except daily Ramadan fasting of course as that is mentioned in the Qur’an). Versions of this Hadith appear almost a dozen times in Al-Bukhari:

Book 31:197 Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Amr: Allah's Apostle was informed that I had taken an oath to fast daily and to pray (every night) all the night throughout my life (so Allah's Apostle came to me and asked whether it was correct): I replied, "Let my parents be sacrificed for you! I said so." The Prophet said, "You can not do that. So, fast for few days and give it up for few days, pray and sleep. Fast three days a month as the reward of good deeds is multiplied ten times and that will be equal to one year of fasting." I replied, "I can do better than that." The Prophet said to me, "Fast one day and give up fasting for a day and that is the fasting of Prophet David and that is the best fasting." I said, "I have the power to fast better (more) than that." The Prophet said, "There is no better fasting than that."

Apparently the Prophet David also used to be frugal in his eating:

Book 34:286 Narrated Al-Miqdam: The Prophet said, "Nobody has ever eaten a better meal than that which one has earned by working with one's own hands. The Prophet of Allah, David used to eat from the earnings of his manual labor."

Book 34:287 Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "The Prophet David used not to eat except from the earnings of his manual labor."

I can’t recall when it happened but I do remember meeting one Muslim (and I don't know how the conversation got onto this) who said he had tried the fast of the Prophet David for a month. He said it was extremely difficult given how it disrupted your eating and sleeping patterns. I don’t doubt it.

Ramadan 2013 – Day 14, Iftars

Ramadan is the time of year where you receive a lot of invitations to meals. So far this Ramadan I've been out to two iftars and two sohours, with a third sohour coming up this Friday. I've been deliberately trying to reduce the number of times I eat out compared to prior years -- I think the first couple of Ramadans I was out almost every iftar eating at restaurants, which is overdoing it a bit.

I haven't mentioned the two iftars yet. One of them was at a non-Muslim friend’s place. They had guests coming down from the UK so we thought it would be a cool idea to have an iftar so they could see what the custom was like. So I arrived with a variety of dates as well as things like laban and had a nice meal of mixed mezzahs and other Arabic foods. I also cooked my homemade chili, both a spicy and non-spicy version so people could blend it to the desired level of hotness (my spicy chili is mind-blowingly hot). It was perhaps a larger meal than would be standard for an iftar but it was a pleasant meal.

Earlier this week I also received an invitation to an iftar from a friend of mine who works at a nearby taekwondo school. Each Ramadan the owner of the school hosts an iftar for friends and students and when I arrived a number of my friends were already there.

In preparation a number of places had been set up on the floor for the drinks, dates, and food.

Here’s a look at where I sat. The metal dish held a chicken stew called Tharid that is cooked with a base of bread. The platter had pieces of lamb on a bed of rice.

And soon the hall filled up with people ready to break their fast.

When iftar was announced we all sat down on the floor and started eating. There were no utensils, the traditional way to eat meals, so you used your right hand to grab pieces of meat or roll balls of rice in your hand (so you could easily put them in your mouth). You only use your right hand – never the left.

After eating people washed their hands and left for prayer. It was over in less than 30 minutes, iftars are not some multi-our event. A number of us went for coffee after the prayers were over.

Ramadan 2013 – Day 13, Qur'an Calligraphy

Last night I went down to Katara to catch some of their Garangao events and happened to walk past a gallery with this sign:

That was certainly worth a look, I did a post about Qur’an calligraphy a year ago on the various styles and how they developed.

One of the first things they had was a great list showing examples of some of the styles:

It may surprise you to find out that each line of calligraphy has the same words in it. It took me a while to figure this out too. While kufic is pretty straightforward for me to read styles like diwani and diwani jali are exceedingly difficult for a beginner like me to decipher. Yet they all say the same thing. It might be in part because written Arabic is read right to left so printed Arabic tends to be very horizontal like kufic, whereas most of the styles here seem to be written almost diagonally or at a sharp angle, from the top right corner to the bottom left.

Now in my original post on calligraphy I mentioned the early Uthman Qur’ans, of which possibly two of those early Qur’ans still survive – the Topkapi Qur’an in Istanbul and the Samarqand Qur’an. At the exhibition were replica copies of both. The Topkapi is the first picture, the Samarqand second. Both are in Kufic but with slightly different style:

The exhibition then discussed the evolution of calligraphy and credits two main historical periods: in Baghdad under the Abbasid Dynasty (roughly 8th to the 13th century) and in Istanbul under the Ottoman period (16th to 20th century). Below is an example from one of the top 16th century Ottoman calligraphers, Ahmed Qurah Hasari.

While in most of the examples we see that the calligraphy is quite spaced out, not all Qur’ans were written this way:

But many were incredibly decorative, with a lot of color and artwork, not unlike the level of decoration that went into some of the Medieval Bibles:

Here's a decorative modern example for comparison:

Finally the exhibit had some copies of the earliest printed and translated Qur’ans. The first printed Qur’an was in 1694 in Germany:

The exhibit also had copies of the first Qur’ans printed in Iraq and Saudi Arabia (at the top and bottom of the picture respectively)

And the first translations of the Qur’an date from around that time. A copy in French was first produced in 1649.

It took a while after that for the first translation in English, which was published in 1734.

It was great to have seen that exhibit, especially since I had to leave Katara to meet friends before the Garangao events really started to take off (I keep forgetting things start really late here, people were only starting to show up around 10pm). At least the exhibit made the trip worthwhile.

If you're interested in seeing the exhibit it is in building 22 of Katara.

You can read more about Qur'anic Calligraphy here.