Ramadan 2014 -- Day 13, Ramadan Cannon and Preparing for Garangao

To mark the breaking of the fast last night I went to the State Mosque to see the firing of the Ramadan cannon.

As usual lots of families were there and kids crowded around the cannon.

The soldiers on duty were friendly and had no problem posing for pictures with the kids.

As sunset approached everyone was moved a safe distance away.

And . . . fire!

The problem with taking pictures of the cannon blast is that you then can't cover your ears. My ears were ringing a little after the blast. After the cannon went off I tucked into some dates and water that I had brought with me. Three guys near me didn’t have any dates so when they saw I had some they asked if I could give them a few so I gave them some.

After iftar I wandered around Ezdan Mall for a bit. Happened to come across some tables set up in the middle of the mall asking people to sign up to be organ donors.

I signed up, I don't have an issue with donating my organs to others when I pass away. Sadly I know someone who's uncle passed away recently waiting for a new organ. He was on an organ transplant list but a suitable organ was not found in time. Organ donation can save lives everyone, if you haven't signed up please consider it. There's a website on that notice board I took a picture of.

The mall also had some kind of lecture going on. I'm not sure exactly what it was about as it was in Arabic, likely a Ramadan religious lecture.

The weather was dry so although it was hot in the evening it was definitely bearable. I decided later that evening to go for a walk to Souq Waqif. As it was the night before Garangao I figured the area of the souq selling candy would be busy but I was a little surprised at just how busy it was.

Here's a picture near Souq Waqif at 11:30pm, there was a traffic jam.

And in the narrow lanes there were big crowds. This picture was taken around 11:45pm.

So what does one do at the Souq around midnight? Get a haircut of course. I wandered by the Turkish barber there for a trim. Most places would be open until 1 or 2am.

Even at 12:30 in the morning a table at a café was hard to come by.

One thing of note is that the Souq has expanded the fan zone in preparation for the upcoming World Cup final. It had been getting more and more crowded around the original screens that had been set up in the Souq, to the point where it was difficult for many people to even watch due to the crowds. Now the Souq turned one of the parking lots into a massive fan area. It looks like it could hold thousands of people.

Tonight I’m planning to go to the Garangao festivities at Katara and take a few pictures.

Ramadan 2014 -- Day 12, Learning About Shari'a, Part 2

(This is part two of my overview of Islamic Jurisprudence, you can find part 1 here)


I’m now reading the lengthy chapters in my book of Islamic Jurisprudence dedicated to the Sunnah (the way a Muslim should live his life) and hadiths.

Hadiths are the sayings and doings of the Prophet Mohammed, narrated by witnesses, and are the primary source for Sunnah after the Qur’an. Most hadiths either reiterate principles in the Qur’an or add additional clarifications to the Qur’an. For example the Qur’an approves selling things but forbids charging interest (riba), while the Sunnah/hadiths further clarifies where certain types of transactions might be considered riba.

That said a minority of hadiths involve matters not mentioned in the Qur’an and these are generally considered an independent source of law in their own right. Scholars still look to see if there are overarching principles in the Qur’an which may modify the hadith or provide context in how to interpret it.

The book then goes on to discuss a serious issue in interpreting Sunnah – fake hadiths. There are tens of thousands of hadiths and while some where written down during the time of the Prophet most were written down after his death. There are some stories that state in the early days of Islam the Prophet did not want hadiths written down lest there be confusion between Qur’anic revelations and hadiths, causing people to inadvertently consider hadiths as the word of Allah, but there are hadiths that note that later in life the Prophet did not object to hadiths being recorded. Many hadiths were kept orally, with people committing them to memory and transmitting them through the generations. Hadith scholarship and research was taking place since the time of the Prophet but some of the most significant efforts to record and collect the authentic hadiths in books, such as the Sahih Al-Bukhari, occurred two to three centuries after the Prophet’s death.

It was well known that shortly after the Prophet died that some people were deliberately propagating fake hadiths, either for fame, political purposes, to discredit Islam or what have you. In other cases people were inadvertently misremembering them or there were errors in recording them. Many were created during the Sunni-Shi’a schism or other wars, supporting one side’s views while discrediting the other. Because of this a lot of scholarly effort goes into researching hadiths to see if they are authentic or forgeries. Such was the extent of forged or questionable hadiths it is said that books such as the Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Al-Muslim, despite containing thousands of hadiths, only contain a small percentage of the total hadiths that were reviewed when compiling the collections.

So what do scholars do when analyzing a hadith for authenticity? A lot is involved.


First you analyze who the source is for the hadith as well as the people narrating it:

o Trustworthiness of the sources is vital. Have there been instances in the past of those people lying or falsifying hadiths? Apparently there is a lot of literature in the Muslim world discussing the many people who are the sources for hadiths and to what extent they can be trusted.

o You also need to examine the timeframe and location that the hadith was narrated. Many hadiths have been proven false by identifying that the narrator and the person recording it were unlikely to have met at the time or even been in the same area.

o Does the hadith appear to contain things that are beneficial to the narrator or recorder, thus indicating possible personal motives for creating the hadith? It could indicate it is a false hadith or should at least call it into question and further confirmation would be required before declaring it authentic. The book gives an example where a man claimed the Prophet said that always eating a certain food improves your health -- a food that the man just happened to sell as a merchant.


After that a scholar examines the text of the hadith itself for things that might call into question the authenticity:

• Style of language – hadiths are typically in an elegant and sophisticated wording. Crude language, slang, or words inconsistent with other hadiths could indicate it might be fake.

• Inconsistencies in historical fact, such as a hadith narrated by someone who met the Prophet at a public bath, when historical evidence showed there were no public baths in the city at that time.

• Statements that are in opposition to what is in the Qur’an. This can be subtle, the book gives an example of a hadith that states you will go to Heaven for naming one of your children Mohammed, which is in opposition to Qur’anic teachings that Heaven is for those who do good work and live a just life.

• Hadiths that indicate extreme or fanatic viewpoints, likely falsified by someone pushing an extremist view.

• Hadiths that were claimed to have been known to many people yet only one source has reported it. If a hadith says the Prophet said xyz at the crowded mosque then more than one source should have noted it. Islamic scholars usually try to get multiple examples of the hadith from many sources as a way to verify its authenticity.

• When hadiths use disproportionate or exaggerated language for rewards or punishments. An example was given of a dubious hadith which stated if you say a certain phrase Allah will create a bird with 70,000 tongues that speaks 70,000 languages praying for you.


Surprisingly (to me anyway) hadith scholarship appears to be an exercise in critical thinking and historical research. A lot of effort goes into assessing hadiths to determine if they are authentic.
This also provides more insight into how the various schools of Islam could diverge in their views. Say there was a hadith that was borderline as to whether it was authentic or not, meeting almost all the criteria while there was something about it that cast a bit of doubt:

• If one group concluded the hadith was not authentic then they would be more inclined to be skeptical of other hadiths by that source, which means more hadiths could be deemed false.

• If another group concluded the hadith was authentic then they would be more likely to accept other hadiths from that same source since.


And you immediately have divergence between the two groups. While this has in part created the differences between the various Sunni schools (such as Hanbali and Hanafi) I believe acceptance of certain sources and hadiths is a significant factor in the differences between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, though I’ll find out more about that when I read that book about the schism.

And I’m still not done the chapters on hadiths! There’s more work and analysis scholars do, as well as how to analyze hadiths from a single source. I’ll get to that in a later post. [Part 3 is now finished and you can find it here].

Ramadan 2014 – Day 10-11, Meals and Soccer

Last night a bunch of friends and I decided go to Souq Waqif to have iftar and then stick around to see the World Cup semifinals (Argentina vs Netherlands) on the big screens at the Souq. My Turkish friend and his wife were with us so we booked ahead to try the new Turkish restaurant in the Souq called Bosphorus.

It’s a small restaurant and most of the tables were occupied by Turks. My Turkish friend did all of the ordering, first came the soup and selection of mezzahs

Then a house specialty, a 2-metre kebab dish. I think this was the first time the restaurant had prepared it as even the staff were taking pictures.

Before eating they gave us each cups that contained dry ice which they then used to create a dry ice fog.

Then a plank of desserts, the pastries were really good and they sell them for takeaway so one of my friends will be stopping by this weekend to buy some for home.

And of course Turkish coffee.

I know, I know, too much food. I managed to keep a rein on my stomach and not overeat. Despite there being 7 of us there was still food left over.

Before we left one of the ladies at our table suddenly received one more mezzah. When we were eating the appetizers she felt that the rice in stuffed vine leaves was a bit undercooked. Unbeknownst to us when the chef heard that he immediately started cooking rice and surprised her (and us) with a new sample of the stuffed vine leaves for her to try, to ensure that she ate one that was to her satisfaction (it was).

After dinner there were still plenty of time before the game so the ladies went home while my buddies went to the mosque for tarawih prayers. Afterward we noticed it was still pretty hot and one of the guys remembered that there was a fanzone at Aspire that was really good, open air yet air-conditioned, comfortable seats and so forth. He said it opened an hour before the match which would give us time to get out there and get in.

So off we went to the Aspire fanzone.

The place was huge, probably the size of a football field. There was about 100 people waiting for the gates to open and there was a bit of a crush to get in, not sure why as the place could probably hold 2000 people so it was not like people weren't going to get seats. Anyway we sat down in some nice cushioned seats, got some water and sodas from the drink stand, and sat back to enjoy the game. The place even had shisha on offer!

Like my buddy said despite it being an open-air area the air-conditioning was really strong, after a while some people wished they had brought light jackets as it was a little chilly. Anyway it was a nice fanzone and I'm glad we went there instead of sweltering in the heat.

OMG, What Happened to Brazil!

Like I said before I love watching the World Cup because of the drama and excitement. So it was great that I got the chance to bear witness to what will go in the annals of World Cup history as the craziest match ever. Even for people in the crowd supporting Germany jubilation by the third goal moved into utter shock by the fifth. In some ways I still can't believe it even happened. 5 goals in less than 20 minutes?! Even some British press are feeling sorry for Brazil.

I really feel sorry for the Brazilian fans, I really do. This must be so disheartening. I'm not even sure what the media in Brazil would even be able to say. And for all those Brazilian fans who would've paid a small fortune for tickets to see that game, wow, that was just brutal.

As I'm not a huge soccer fan I'm trying to come up with a similar analogy. Canada losing in Olympic Hockey semi-finals 10-0?

Well, at least I was a witness to history.

Ramadan 2014 – Day 8-9, Preparations for Eid

Despite the heat and humidity I was wandering around Souq Waqif last night. It was actually fairly crowded with the shops doing brisk business.

Eid al Fitr (a celebration for ending the fast at the end of Ramadan) is a major holiday to Muslims. As part of Eid one should wear either new or your best clothes so Qataris do a lot of shopping for new clothes during Ramadan. Tailors and clothing stores in the Souq were busy as many people were buying thobes, abayas, dresses and sandals.

Candy stores were also busy as people were buying candy in preparation for Garangao on the 14th night of Ramadan.

Talking with Qatari colleagues today I also learned of another Eid custom, giving money to your children and other young relatives. During Eid everyone visits all of their extended relatives and it is customary for adults to give some money to the children. In keeping with the spirit of things being new most Qataris will order brand-new bills from the banks in advance of the holiday. Since tens of thousands of people order new bills it can be a significant amount of money, the Central Bank makes sure they do a large printing of money in the run-up to the holiday.

At around 11:00pm I received a call from friends of mine to join them for sohour at the St. Regis Hotel. The late hour for the call didn't surprise me one bit, during Ramadan the main sohour meal is after the tarawih prayer, usually 9:30pm at the earliest. Many Qataris eat even later than that because the first prayer of the day (fajr) is around 3:30am, many just decide to have a late meal and stay up all night, going to sleep after the prayer.

So off I went to the St. Regis. This time I kept my stomach in check and didn't overeat, though I must admit the sushi was really nice and I had seconds of that. I also had a shisha, something I have maybe 2 or 3 times a year, but everyone in the hall was having one so I decided to spend the evening relaxing with a shisha. Despite it being a weekday we were there till around 2am. I wasn't that tired today, I had a two hour nap yesterday afternoon anyway so it was fine to get by on 5 hours sleep during the night.

Ramadan 2014 - Day 7, Learning about Shari'a

Over the last few days I’ve been reading my book on Islamic Jurisprudence. Can be a bit challenging to read legal works when you’re tired from fasting but so far I’ve learned quite a few things about Islamic Law:

There are four sources of Shari’a, in order of importance:

- The Qur’an
- Sunnah
- Consensus (ijma)
- Analogy (qiyas)

There is not complete agreement on this list. All agree that the Qur’an is the most important followed by the Sunnah but some dispute the level of importance of either ijma or qiyas.

Then came a chapter on the Qur’an itself.

The order of the verses within each surah and the order of the surahs was determined by the Prophet Mohammed shortly before he died (I didn’t know that). The arrangement results in many unrelated topics being combined together in the same surah and passages on similar topics being split up amongst many surahs, the Qur’an is not even arranged chronologically. It is thought that this was to make people look at the Qur’an as a whole rather than relying on discreet parts. You would need to be well-versed on the entire Qur’an to be able to find all the relevant passages on a topic since they could be in many places.

I also didn’t realize that the timing of the revelation of a particular passage is important because it can supersede other passages. Muslims accept that some laws were introduced gradually in a series of passages where the newest one supersedes the previous ones. If you weren’t aware of that it could look to the casual reader that some passages are redundant, or contradict one another, but in truth the passage that was revealed last takes precedence.

The prohibition on alcohol was used as an example. In the early days of Islam there were no restrictions, then a passage was revealed that alcohol is harmful (2:219) but didn’t prohibit consumption, later a passage prohibited offering prayers while under the influence of alcohol (4:43), then later came the outright ban on consuming alcohol (5:90) that we are most familiar with. To the casual reader it would seem redundant to ban alcohol and also mention that you can’t offer prayers under its influence but the ban was revealed last.

The book then goes on to discuss “definitive” versus “speculative” passages in the Qur’an. Definitive are those that are not subject to interpretation, while speculative passages can have multiple interpretations. Speculative passages can result in differences between the various schools of Islam. For example one passage notes as a punishment for a transgression to feed ten hungry persons. Must it be ten different people or can you feed one person in need ten times? Scholars differ in opinion by drawing conclusions based on other areas of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Factor in that many hadiths are not accepted universally by all schools of Islam and you can see where complications arise, a scholar may support an interpretation based on Sunnah that other scholars don’t accept as authentic.

Metaphorical interpretations are rare in Qur’anic analysis and most scholars do not encourage it. This makes some sense to me as the Qur’an does not have the lengthy stories that one finds in the Bible – the Qur’an is around 1/10th the length of the Old + New Testaments so does not have the lengthy narrative of Biblical storytelling from which a lot of metaphorical analysis derives. The Qur’an refers to many of these stories (Noah’s flood for example) but the references tend to be short and seem to infer that the reader is already familiar with the circumstances.

Finally, it is important to understand the circumstances around which the passages were revealed. Called “asbab al-nuzul” in Arabic it can be vital to understand the situation at the time of the revelation to be able to interpret the passage. Many Qur’anic passages were revealed in response to particular events or questions people had about key issues. Some non-Muslims have criticized Islam by pointing out that revelations “conveniently” occurred when guidance on something was needed at the time but Islam accepts that many passages were in response to events, and grateful Allah provided guidance, so don’t have an issue with this. Thus Islamic scholars will see if there are any historical circumstances around the revelation of a passage when they try to interpret its meaning.


Only a tenth of the way through the book. It’s not an easy read, I need to go to the glossary frequently to figure out the various legal terms, but it has provided some insight that I did not know before.

[Part 2 of "Learning about Shari'a" can be found here on Day 12 of Ramadan 2014]

Ramadan 2014 – Day 5-6, Ramadan Meals

During the last couple of days I was invited to some iftar and sohour meals. Aside from that you should break it fast with dates there is no set menu for any of these meals. For example I celebrated iftar at my Turkish friend's house. Here's what our Iftar meal was:

Dates (of course), water, a vegetable salad in a tomato sauce, and a pasta salad in a spicy tomato sauce (it appears that Turks really like tomatoes). Turkish coffee and tea with biscuits to finish.

On the table was a small white jug with a red cap. It contained Zamzam water that my friend brought back with him from Mecca, and we each took a small glass of that to break our fast.

But if you want to do something more lavish you could do an iftar or sohour at one of the 5-star hotels. I met up with some of my Qatari friends to have sohour at the Ritz-Carleton.

Most hotels set up elaborate “Ramadan Tents” but in most cases it's not actually a tent but the ballroom. Some places go all out with the decorations to make it look like a lavish tent. The Ritz had a live band as well as a whirling dervish dancer, common entertainment at hotel sohours. The banquet was of course huge, with a sushi station, pasta station, meats, wide array or desserts, etc.

Unfortunately you really have to be careful at these sorts of things if you've been fasting. It puts a lot of strain on your stomach to go from not eating or drinking all day to suddenly gorging yourself. My problem is when I break my fast I'm so hungry I will eat almost everything around so I try to make sure that my meals are a reasonable size so that I don't go overboard. Sure enough, I wound up with a terrible stomach ache and once I got home I had to lay down for the rest of the evening, which meant I couldn't eat anything at dawn, which meant an even longer fast. Not the wisest thing I’ve done. Of course I’m not the only one, overeating is a common problem this time of year.

Ramadan 2014 - Day 4, Mosque Restrictions

My friend arrived back from vacation bringing with him couple of books that I had ordered. More Ramadan reading!

1) Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, Mohammad Hashim Kamali. I wanted to get a better understanding of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). The Qur’an and the Sunnah provide a number of rules or ways that Muslims should live their lives, but I still didn't know how that translated into Shari’a Law. This book outlines the various sources of fiqh and how to interpret the strength of those sources. I may have bit off more than I could chew here though, the book is 540 pages and at first glance seems to be written for lawyers, but let's see how it goes.

2) After the Prophet: the Epic Story of the Shi’a-Sunni Split, by Lesley Hazelton. Qatar is a predominantly Sunni nation (I've heard various estimates that puts around 3-10% of Qataris as Shi’a) and I know little of the historical events that led to the schism. Given that there are still sectarian issues in the Islamic World perhaps not surprisingly I couldn't find anything in the local bookstores on this. I wanted a book by a non-Muslim historian to hopefully get a more neutral perspective of the history.


On to other topics I read a news article about the Ministry of Islamic Affairs announcing a number of restrictions for mosques during Ramadan:

-- no collecting donations in mosques without approval of the Ministry;
-- no holding religious lectures in mosques without approval of the Ministry;
-- no distributing leaflets or brochures or any written material, including Qurans; (!!)
-- Ministry permission is required to reside in a mosque for itikaf (I have a blog post on what itikaf is); and
-- Ministry permission is required to host an Iftar in a mosque.


Wow, I didn't realize that during Ramadan the Government was strict about activities in mosques. Ramadan is clearly serious business to the Government. Don’t hand out Qurans?! Need permission to have religious lectures?! It's definitely a sharp contrast to many Western Governments who tend to stay out of religious matters. In fact this is an interesting contrast to the West, most (all?) Western countries tend to have freedom of religion laws to prevent the government interfering, in Qatar it is the opposite. Islam is part of the very fabric of Government including laws in accordance with Islamic principles.

I asked a couple of Qataris about this and neither were sure why this was. One speculated that the restriction on handing out leaflets or holding unauthorized lectures was to curb potential recruitment by extremists, but I don't recall ever hearing about any issues about extremism in Qatar so it seems doubtful. (Then again what do I know about extremist Islam operating here, it's not like they would advertise in English-language newspapers). I’ll ask a few more Qataris and see if they have any insight.

Ramadan 2014 – Day 2 and 3, Happy Canada Day!

I looked at the calendar today and realized that it's Canada Day! Happy Canada Day everyone! (For you non-Canadians, it's Canada's national holiday.)

So remember how I mentioned that if the military were going to move the Ramadan cannon they would inform the media? Well they now have, the cannon has been moved from its usual location on the Corniche to the State Mosque. I'll go there this week to see it.

Last night was the first iftar at home, here's my typical meal to break my fast . . .

Looks similar to my sohour meal, doesn’t it? Much of it is the same: dates, nuts, cheese, olives, but I also made a pot of vegetable soup and included a slice of bread and a banana. Every now and then I might switch one of the items for a boiled egg for some extra protein. The only part of it that is traditional is the dates, under the Islamic tradition you should always try break your fast with dates (though I have read a few don't have dates then olives are an acceptable substitute), and some hadiths mention that it should be an odd number of dates, like three or five. Surprisingly my meal might be considered a big iftar for many Muslims, many have a very small iftar (dates, water, maybe something else small) then go to prayers and have a larger meal later in the evening.

Later that evening I went at Souq Waqif to watch the Algeria v. Germany match. Even though the match started at 11:00pm there were probably around 300 people watching the match on one of the big screens there. This was my first time watching at this screen and it was nice because someone had set up a lot of chairs for people to sit on. If you got there early enough (I did!) then you could watch the match sitting in a chair.

Switching to “Ramadan hours” and staying up later in the evening makes it easier to watch the World Cup. This of course has unintended consequences and there’s already articles in the newspaper about young men skipping Ramadan prayers to go watch the matches. Needless to say the elders frown upon these actions have many clerics are already reminding people that they should not be focusing on watching football or other television programming.

http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/qatar/289876/youth-skipping-prayers-for-world-cup

So of course the match went into overtime and I didn't get home until 2am, which left about five hours to sleep. Woke up and went to work. During the day I wasn't hungry or thirsty so much as I was exhausted. Not getting enough sleep combined with not eating any food or drinking any water makes one very tired and when I got home this afternoon I immediately had a nap.

That lasted three hours! Whoops, that was longer than I intended, I will have to set an alarm next time. I woke up about a half hour before iftar so I jumped out of bed and started preparing the meal. I figure I'll make the transition to Ramadan hours over the next few days.

Ramadan 2014 - Day 1 Continued, Where’s the Artillery?

So after an afternoon nap I packed up some food and water and went down to the Corniche area to see the Ramadan cannon, which fires to signal the end of fasting.

When I got to the lot the cars were all there . . .

The fence and people were there . . .

Reporters and TV crews were there . . .

But wait a sec, where's the cannon?

For some reason the cannon wasn't there! Everyone waited around but no military personnel appeared and then we heard a nearby mosque sound the end of the fast. Strange, I wonder what happened to the cannon? I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be there. TV crews were there and you figure if the military wasn't going to be holding things there they would have informed the media.

I'll try going again in a few days. [July 1 update: the cannon has been moved to the State Mosque]

From the Corniche it was off to Souq Waqif to catch the Netherlands vs Mexico match (game was okay, then went into overdrive for that crazy-crazy last 10 minutes). Aside from the match the souq was pretty quiet, at half-time (8pm) some of the restaurants weren't open and the ones that were didn't have a lot of customers. Chances are most Muslims were at evening prayers called Tarawih so they’d probably be out later in the evening.

I'm going to see the 11pm match tonight (Algeria!) so we'll see if maybe the souq picks up after nine or so. There’ll definitely be a lot of Algerians there.

I had a snack at half-time and then a mixed grill at around 11pm. I think it was too much food, my stomach didn't feel that great afterward. I’ll try to cut back on mid-evening meals and stick to iftar and the 3am meals as my main ones.

Ramadan 2014 – Day 1, Rough Beginning

So did everyone watch that Brazil versus Chile match? That match was crazy!

Anyway, after I got back from watching the game I got everything prepared for my first sohour meal. Set it all up on my nightstand then set the alarm for 3:10am so that I could eat before the fast. Especially important to have liquids since you can't drink water during the fast.

Iftar (the meal to break the fast) isn’t until around 6:30pm so that means over 15 hours without any food or drink, and I still have to commute to work in temperatures over 40°. Whoever invented air conditioning is a lifesaver!

So in the morning I opened my eyes a little and saw some daylight peeking through the curtains. How could that be, the alarm is supposed to go off before sunrise? Sure enough the battery had died on my alarm clock and it was actually 5am. Technically it was too late to eat the food that was on my nightstand but I'm not being as strict about this as a Muslim would be so I woke up and started eating. That's when I accidentally knocked the bowl of nuts off the nightstand, scattering nuts all over the floor. The bread was stale (blah) and there was no way I was going to drink the glass of laban -- it'd been sitting on my nightstand for over six hours. All in all not a great start to my Ramadan meals. I went back to bed and slept a little longer before going to work. At least because it’s Ramadan and most people are fasting working hours have been reduced, which makes it a bit easier to get home to have a nap before iftar.

Today there were a lot of well-wishes from people for the holiday. Some stopped by my desk, others sent texts or messages. Some of the messages even contained images with Ramadan tidings.

It's also time to plan meeting friends for iftars and sohours. I've already got one invite for this weekend. People may think that because you're fasting all day everyone loses weight during the month but in fact it's the opposite. Ramadan can be quite festive and there are lots of invitations to iftars and sohours, and people buy a lot of sweets for eating during the month. Many restaurants and all the major hotels also have huge buffets on offer. If you're not careful you usually wind up gaining weight instead of losing it.

Normally for iftar I would make a meal at home but the World Cup is complicating the schedule a bit. Tonight I'm planning to break the fast by watching the Ramadan Cannon near the Corniche, but I also want to catch the World Cup match starting at 7pm (Netherlands versus Mexico, should be a good game). So tonight it's off to the Corniche, see the cannon at 6:30pm, munch on some dates and a banana in the car, and drive to Souq Waqif to catch the kickoff. Despite the heat the Souq is becoming more popular for watching the matches so it can get crowded. I'll have a snack at half-time and get something more solid to eat after the match.

Ramadan 2014 starts tomorrow night

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs announced that the crescent moon was not sighted so Ramadan will start tomorrow night.

Unlike the Western calendar the months in the Islamic calendar begin when the crescent moon is sighted. This means that the start of end of a month can vary by +/- a day. I think some countries use astronomical calculations to determine the start of the month but Saudi Arabia and Qatar still use the traditional method of sighting the crescent moon.

So fasting begins Sunday.

2014 Ramadan Preparation

With all the issues about my recent car accident I forgot to mention that Ramadan is almost here! It could even start tonight. And like other years I too will fast in order to experience Ramadan much like the Muslims here do.

Even though I haven't been blogging about it I have been getting ready. Over the last couple of weeks I've been slowly weaning myself off the caffeine: reducing the number of cups of coffee or making some of them decaf, then switching to tea, then reducing the amount of tea. If you like drinking coffee then weaning yourself off the caffeine is crucial before you start fasting otherwise you start Ramadan off with severe caffeine withdrawal. I haven't had any caffeinated tea or coffee for the last couple of days so it won't be a problem to not have any coffee during the day (but I will be having a bit of coffee in the evenings, see below).

I've also got most of my Ramadan food stocked:

Dates

Olives, nuts, and Arabic coffee (it contains the spice cardamom)

And some Ramadan-related reading material. I'll be reading the Al-Muslim Hadiths this month, and a friend of mine is due to return from vacation shortly and he'll be bringing me a couple of other books to read on Islamic History.

And as always I'll be posting frequently during the month with experiences and other general things about Ramadan.

How to Renew Your Car Registration

In Qatar every year you need to renew the registration on your vehicle. It's actually a straightforward process, here's how it works.


1) If your car is more than three years old it has to undergo an annual inspection. Here's a link to a post I did about how to get your car inspected. You will need to have the paper with you showing that your car has passed.

2) You will need to have proof of valid insurance for your car, usually your insurance expires around about the same time as you need to review your car. Review your insurance and have a copy with you when you go to renew your registration. (They will keep the paper so make sure you have a copy of your insurance policy for yourself)

3) Go to the Traffic Department. They used to have a convenient kiosk in the basement of City Center Mall but someone told me a week ago that it was no longer there. I couldn't find information on anywhere else you could go except for the main Traffic Department in the Madinat Khalifa neighbourhood. It's located pretty close to the Shammal/22nd February highway, between LandMark and Al Saad. It’s a new building, if you've been in Qatar while and you're familiar with the Traffic Department that building is closed, the new one is located across the main road from there.

The building looks like this:

3a) when you park you’ll probably see a bunch of guys standing around, mostly Africans, who will then offer to help you with the process for a fee. These guys do speak Arabic but I found that the employees in the Traffic Department had no problem speaking English so you don't need to hire an "assistant". Maybe for more complicated things you might need the help if you don’t speak Arabic.

3b) You will need to bring with you a copy of your insurance, your soon-to-be-expired registration, and the car inspection paper (if your car had to be inspected).

3c) you will see signs outside that say “Licensing and Registration” which point off away from the building. Don't bother wandering off in search of where this is taking you, just go to the main entrance.

4) Going through the main entrance you will enter a HUGE room, with a large round desk about 30 feet in front of you. That's the reception, go there first and tell them you're renewing your registration, they'll then give you a numbered ticket and direct you to an area where the counters are that handle registration renewals (behind them and to the left, but they might direct you somewhere else if you are a lady as I saw a cordoned off “ladies waiting area”).

[Sorry, no pictures, I always get a bit nervous about taking pictures inside Government buildings in this part of the world]

5) When your number is called go up to the appropriate counter.

6) Give them your registration, proof of insurance, and the car inspection paper. Now do you have any outstanding fines or speeding tickets? If you're not sure you’ll find out as they will add the fines to your registration fee. The regular fee is QAR 100, plus any outstanding tickets/fines. They accept debit and credit cards, I'm not sure if they take cash.

7) Once you've paid they will then print out a new registration card for you -- you're done!


Hope this helps.

So, Speaking of Car Accidents . . .

Today while I was in my car waiting at a light a taxi zoomed up and ran into the back of my car!

Over seven years without an accident and now twice in four months I have been hit from behind while stopped at an intersection. *sigh* This one was bad too, most of the trunk was caved in.

So I called the police. Since no one was injured and the taxi driver agreed he was at fault (it would be pretty hard to argue otherwise, unless I somehow reversed into him at 50 kph) the guy on the phone told me to come to the traffic station in Madinat Khalifa to file a report.

So off to the traffic station, filed a report, then tried to go to the insurance company but they were already closed for the day. So now I have a wrecked car sitting in front of my apartment building. As soon as they saw the car the security guards at my apartment building were asking me what the heck happened -- the rear of the car is pretty smashed up. We'll see what the insurance company says tomorrow.

A couple hours after the accident I realized I was still feeling kind of light-headed. I took a nap and still felt the same. Not in pain, and there’s no bump on my head, but similar to that feeling you get when you oversleep. Maybe I have a mild concussion from my head slamming into my seat when my car was run into. I went for a walk this evening and ate some dinner and felt a bit better but still have a bit of this “fog”. Hopefully I feel better tomorrow, otherwise I'll have to conclude that I did get a mild concussion and so will have to take it easy for the next few days.

The New Hamad International Airport

This weekend I happened to be in Wakra so I figured I'd stop by and take a look at the new Hamad International Airport which opened about a month ago.

First reaction: wow, it sure is a lot farther away than the old airport. While it is close to the old airport it's probably an extra 6-8 km of driving to get to the entrance (unless you live in Wakra in which case it’s probably a bit closer). Bear that in mind when going there, it'll take a bit more time and I'm assuming taxis will charge more.

As you drive in you pass by a small lake with fountains, from which you can see the VVIP “Emiri Terminal”. Looks nice. Naturally I couldn't get any closer than this.

For now parking is free, though that won't last for long and there are barriers and machines already set-up for when they want to start charging fees. I think because of the free parking a lot of people were parking their car at the airport then going on vacation, it was actually difficult to find a parking space. The first lot was completely full, but if you keep going forward to the West Lot there were some spots available there.

The parking spaces have little indicators to track how many spaces are free. Unfortunately some of them were not working properly so there would be a sign saying that there were a few empty parking spaces in this row only for there to actually be no parking spaces available. (In the picture below you can see that the parking space indicator is still green even though there is a vehicle parked there).

In between the two parking lots is a small park area with a mosque in the middle.

What was nice was the enclosed areas with moving walkways that you could use to get from the parking lot to the airport. It was air conditioned so you didn't have to walk too far in the heat.

The arrivals floor certainly had a lot more space than the old airport. This section was nearly empty, most of the people waiting for arrivals were in the middle of the airport. Plenty of seats if you wanted to sit in the areas to the left and right of the arrival doors. There's even some artwork in the area.

Nice new boards with the arrivals information.

Here's a nice touch, the board tells you when all of the bags have been unloaded from a flight, so if you are waiting for someone to arrive you'll have a better sense of when they will be coming out.

In the departures area there is definitely a lot more space than before. There are 10 rows of counters for checking people in. Qatar Airways has the first 6, with check-in for the other airlines in 7-10.

Qatar Airways tried to keep the fanciness of its previous Premium Terminal. The check-in area for Qatar Airways business-class passengers has some nice seating.

Food and beverage was still a bit limited, there was one café (Faraggi) on the arrivals floor and another small café on the departure floor. There was also a small bookshop and store where you could buy things like bags of chips. A few more places were being renovated so there will be other options available soon.

Unfortunately I wasn't flying anywhere so I couldn't go past the check-in to see the rest of the airport. I look forward to seeing it on my next trip.