The spirit of Ramadan and Eid before the arrival of wahabis

[Globetrotter-]

The spirit of ramadan and Eid before the wahabis arrived!

An article worth reading by Bashir Goth.


Living with the perpetual fear of the Somali cultural heritage and the tolerant, almost native Islam being eroded by torrents of alien and jihadist movements of Salafism, Tabligqhi and Al Ittihad Al Islam, which are all different variations of Wahhabism, I thought it might be useful as the Eid draws near if I set down my childhood memories about the tradition of Ramadan back home, particularly as my son like so many others who have not seen the home that is their birthright and find it hard to relate their parents practice of Islam ,with the distorted image that they encounter everywhere at the present time.

Once I started jotting down the outline, the memories of Ramadan nights in my native village and every town of the Somali people living in Somaliland , Somali region of Ethiopia and Djibouti and even Southern Somalia to some extent, charged my mind. Defying both time and distance, I presently found myslef sitting in Daa'uud Yaakhi's tea shop in my native Dilla village, amid mesmerized audience, enjoying Ramdan nights as they knew it for centuries, clapping to the tone of the African drum, chanting the chorus of the anecdotal Ramadan Qasida Yaa Khyaral Anaami and enjoying Islam as they found it fitting to their culture and their heritage.

Already swept by nostalgia, I tried to relate to Omer my memories of Ramdan in Somaliland . Although I marshalled all my efforts to make him feel the beat, tone and taste of Ramdan as I knew it as a child, it was too distant for him to get the feel of it, but I could see that he found some excitement in the idea of Islam imparting some fun for children and not all grim and gloom as he sees it today.

Remembering that a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought the ideal way to make my son feel the real flavor of Ramadan back home would be to get a video film of one or two sessions filmed in the traditional setting. I reached for my computer and rushed an e-mail message to my brother, Hashim, asking him to videotape a few sessions of the Ramdan night for his nephew. The reply was quick and shocking. “The famous Ramadan nights' tradition is no more.” Well, was I shocked at all? No, to be honest, I was not. But what I was not prepared to accept was how a minority group of zealots could have such a sweeping effect on the Somali cultural landscape to the extent of wiping out the collective memory of the people and destroying everything that we held dear, just because it didn't agree with their narrow and myopic interpretation of Islam.

Faced with the misfortune of seeing the Ramadan atmosphere dissipated, I was left only with my last resort of reverting to the power of the word to convey my memories to my son.



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My son, with great pride and delight I can tell you that growing up in Somaliland was full of fun and excitement and the most exciting month of all was Ramadan. In our village of Dilla , Awdal region, where I grew up and in every village of Somaliland the excitement used to start in the evening of the first day of Ramadan. With everyone filled with the urge and expectation to be the first to spot the crescent of the new moon, people of the village rushed to open areas and higher altitudes on the outskirts of the village to participate in the great search for the Ramadan moon. With more experience than children, adults would survey the area where the sun had just set, while children, relying on their sharp eyes and untiring enthusiasm would canvass the whole horizon from left to right and up and down. Even small girls and sometimes adult women joined the Ramadan crescent search. Once in a while a woman or an elderly man from the countryside would pass the crowds glued to the evening horizon. They would stop to try their luck with a glance or two towards the sky and carry on with their journey homewards carrying their provisions of food, sugar, oil and kerosene tied in numerous knots to their sheets or in paper bags and worn out vimto bottles.

At some point and amid this rush for the search of the hidden crescent and after few false alarms in which eager adults had mistakenly taken small batches of cloud for the crescent; all eyes would turn to us, young ones, both girls and boys, excitedly canvassing the sky with our frantic and curious eyes until one of us shouted:

“Waa taa…. waa taa... It is there.” And soon all other children would join, all shouting and pointing at the place where they spotted the crescent amid a lot of excitement, giggling and gloating. What seemed to be an assembly of people united in goal and action would soon split into two rival groups as the age gap wrecked the unity and placed a wedge between the old and the young. The crowd would be divided into a lively and vigorous army of kids all jumping, shouting and pointing towards the crescent and haggard and exhausted elders straining their necks and eyes in a desperate attempt to locate the crescent for themselves.

“Where is it adeer (uncle) ?” the oldies would say, sweeping the horizon with their bleary, weary eyes and seeing hundreds of star-like sparks blinking all over the evening sky.

“Look there Adeer .. look,” we would say, pointing at the crescent and our faces lit up with the passion of youth for life.

The old men would start the uphill struggle again, rubbing their eyes, pulling their eyelids far apart in a futile attempt to improve their retreating vision, wiping out the burden of years; wondering how fast time has passed.. It seemed only yesterday when they could spot the crescent with a glance and tease others for not seeing.

“There Adeer, there,” we would say “you see the birds sitting on the Galool tree?”

“Yes,” the old men would say, seeing the tree more through their memory than with their eyes.

“Just look above the birds…”

“Oh, yes, now I see it.” would say the one with the best sight and others would breathe a sigh of relief as one of their peers could vouch for the truth of the crescent being seen.

“Bileey bil khayr..” will then resonate through the whole crowd with the children singing all the way back to the village., "bileey bil khayr.. bileey bil kheyr..."

The people then hit the shops, buying provisions and the whole market bustled with teashops (maqaaxiyo) preparing for the long nights of Ramadan.

Not to sight the new moon on the first day was anticlimactic, as everyone knew that the following day would automatically be Ramadan. It was only your grandfather who would sometimes fast one day ahead of the people even if the moon crescent was not sighted. A man who was an expert in astronomy he made his own calculations and fasted accordingly, but he used to advise other people not to follow him and to wait for the official declaration of Ramadan.

Ramadan Night life

Ramadan nights had the feeling of modern day music concerts. Crowds of people gathered in tea-shops, sitting side by side in rows on straw mats, all chewing the narcotic khat, sipping light, sweet black tea and burning incenses once in a while in a little stove, Girgire, strategically placed in various places to warm the place and help the effect of khat to kick in. The Rock and Roll stars of Ramadan nights were the clerics who mesmerized the audience with their chanting of religious lyrics in Arabic - a language that was revered by Somalis as the most sacred language on earth as God, the Almighty, has chosen to speak in it and above all they believed that Arabic was the language that all people would speak when they go to the hereafter. So when the cleric uttered the first line, a wave of nostalgia gripped the crowd and with the drum and clapping all would reach the highest realms of spiritual delight.

The Sheikh would start every night of the first 15 nights of Ramadan with the curtain raiser " Marhab, Marhab Yaa Ramadaan, Wa yaa marhabban bika yaa Ramadaan... Welcome, welcome O' Ramadan...You are indeed welcome O' Ramadan.", while the opening lines of the second half of Ramadan would be " Mawada, mawada yaa Ramadaan, Wa fii daacatilaah yaa Ramadaan ... Farwell, farwell O' Ramadan, in God's piety we will remain O' Ramadan.". The crowd would sing these lines in Unison as a chorus.

The Sheikh would then start his first sermon of the many sermons he delivered during Ramadan. The lectures were mostly about fasting, history of Islam, life of the prophet, stories of the prophet's wives, prophet's companions, prophets before Mohammed, stories about Islam's view of the creation of the world and the meaning of the existence of man as well as lectures about human relations, the rights and duties of every Muslim towards his fellow Muslim, parents towards their children, children towards their parents, husbands towards their wives, wives towards their husbands, social coherence, helping the poor and education about various other religious duties. This was the poor man's religious school, where the poor of the poorest would enjoy the bliss of religious ceremonies and educate themselves while indulging in their most favorable past time and in a non-restrictive social gathering.

The night's program mainly comprised of several lectures during the night and several Qasidas - religious lyrics. Usually the first Qasida was the legendary masterpiece Yaa Khayral Anaami, written somewhere in the early 20th Century by Sheikh AbdulRazak Al Dankali who hailed from the Afar race which lives in the rugged and harsh terrain between Ethiopia, Djibouti and Eritrea. As soon as the Sheikh uttered the first line a very talented drummer set the tone with exotic beats of the oiled drum amid the rhythmic clapping of the crowd. The drummer would be innovative in his task; surprising the audience every night with new beats and stunts such as throwing his sticks into the air and juggling between them while continuing his beautiful beats without any disruption. For us, children, this was the most hilarious experience of the month because in the absence of circus groups and amusement parks we looked forward to such skilled demonstrations by individual talents. In our village, Ramadan drummers were our stars, our heroes and our role models. Their beats and stunts had dominated our thinking and dreams. It was not unusual to see a man or two pseudo- Sufis reaching nirvana through the shouting, drums and chorus singing. It was not uncommon to see a man gripped by seizures, writhing on the floor and making strange and fearful sounds as if in communion with dead souls or inhabited by demons. The crowd, however, saw him as a person who was overtaken by overflow of spiritual emotions. This was a fearful episode though somewhat an amusing experience for us, children.

At hiatus between lectures or chanting hymns, the audience turned into lively conversations in twos and threes; discussing worldly issues related to their livelihood such as livestock, harvesting seasons, marriages, history, anecdotes etc. However, we the children didn't give much attention to the sermons and we all rushed outside to play once the Sheikh sang the line "Allahuma Salli Alaa Muhammadi, Wa anzilhu Al Manzilaal Muqarabaa, Cindaka fii yoomil qiyaamatii," heralding the beginning of Hadith sermon.

However, one of the most imaginative hadiths we used to listen with great enthusiasm and amusement was about the globe on bull's horns. This myth, which I later in life learned had originated from popular Persian beliefs, said that the globe rested on the horns of a bull which itself rested on a fish. The belief attributed the origin of earthquakes to the position of the globe on the horns of the bull. It said when the bull was tired or when there was too much injustice in the world, he became impatient and shifted the globe from one horn to the other, thus causing earthquakes. This was our magical Harry Potter story told us by our local sheikh.

We also lived through another exciting time in the last ten days of Ramadan where the general belief says that God had hidden a night of power in it. "It is a night that prayers are accepted by God straight away and anything the person wishes becomes true," the Sheikhs would say. But how to know the night, what are its signs? Some of the popular myths that we as children believed and gave us a lot of fun was that the night of power came in the form of a mythical man called Khidir and that he was recognized by his boneless thumb. It was fun for us to shake hands with as many people as we could in the night of the 27th of Ramadan which is popularly believed to be the night of power, discreetly checking everyone's thumb by pressing it between the thumb and forefinger. Another poplar belief said that the donkeys don't bray, but the problem was donkeys rarely brayed in the night time unless attacked by hyenas. All in all, my son, all we wished as children in the night of power was to pass our exams with high marks. My personal prayer as a teenager was "Ilaahow aan imtixaanka wanka galaa..." (Oh! God may I be the first in the class) which I often did, although I cannot tell whether it was mainly due to merit or due to prayers.

Women made the taste of Ramadan

Uncomfortable as it may be to you to hear this, women couldn't go to the teashops were men were having all the fun and listen to the religious ceremonies. The most daring of them and young girls wound gather and sit in the courtyards of the tea-shops just to eavesdrop and get a feeling of what was happening inside. Some of the conscientious teashop owners would sometimes give them straw mats to sit on and fire to ward off the cold.

Despite the hardship they went through, women made the taste and flavor of Ramadan and found their bliss in seeing their families content and enjoying themselves. Women's time and energy were consumed by preparing the various meals of Ramadan, the Iftar, the dinner and the suhoor. They could hardly catch up a nap or even have a social conversation between meals., particularly between iftar and suhoor. Their work started from the moment they heard the Biley Bil Kharyr, where every woman would go on frantic shopping, buying provisions for the next day essentials such as flour, oil, onions, meat, rice, spices etc.

I remember my mother and her female helper, who often happened to be a niece or other close relative living with us, starting their work at midday prayers. Their backbreaking task included pounding millet while standing with a long stick in a bowl or in a pestle and mortar to make flour, making dough in the traditional primitive way of kneeling and grinding sorghum between two stones known as dhagaxa iyo willaha . I can not find a better way to express this other than quoting the famous Kenyan's children's game song " This is the way our work is done in the land of Kikuyu" or "Mawira Maitu Ni Ogwo" - our work is done like this". It says:

...This is the way we build our fire…. (kneel and cook over an open fire)

This is the way we carry our water.. .(in a gourd on the head)

This is the way we grind our corn.. .(kneel and grind corn between two stones)

This is the way we pound our millet...(stand up and pound millet with a long stick in a bowl on the floor)

This is the way we carry the baby... (baby is strapped to the back and body rocks from side to side)."

Almost at 5 o'clock the samosa, the three cornered tasty delicacy which we call Saambuusa in Somali, hit the streets with its aromatic smell filing the air and making the fasting faithful salivate with desire and buy it in dozens. As children, my son, Saambuusa was our favorite dish as it was a delicacy that appeared in Ramadan only and disappeared from the streets after Ramadan. Other pastries such as Qureec or Khameer and the famous Somali pancake Loxoox (lohooh) were also sold in plenty during Ramadan. Mothers used to send lots of these pastries and loxoox with their children to sell in the streets. It was not uncommon to hear a girl shouting Loxooxeey, loxoox or a boy shouting Sambuusa, Sambuusa.

While women were busy cooking and preparing Ramadan delicacies late afternoon, men used to pass their time by either working on their business, reading Quran or playing games such as dart rifle, locally known as Tuu Tuu, shooting competitions and Shax, a chess-like Somali indoor game, mostly played by the adults.

The Iftar time

My son, the time of breaking the fasting, usually known in all Muslim countries as Iftar, was a feast time. As the sun went down the horizon and the time of the evening prayers call (adhan) came near, all people sat around the Iftar food which mainly consisted of water, dates, Sambuusa, shurbad( a kind of soup made of barley and cooked with little pieces of meat and vegetables) and tea. There might also be some kind of juice or watermelon. While waiting for the Adhan, people tuned their small transistor radios to Radio Hargeisa to listen some religious lectures or songs glorifying and educating people about the merits of Ramadan by the legendary voices of our artists. Most famous among these songs were:

Bisha Soon Xurmeeyoo, Nafta Xakameeyo, Aakhiro Xasuustaay (Glorify the fasting month, By controlling your soul, And remembering the hereafter), or Ilaahay nebigu doortow, Imaanka ka dooganaayow, Adduunyaba dan uma haynoo, Adiyo diintuba na deeqdee ( Oh! you prophet, who has been chosen by Allah, you who has full of contentment in his heart, we care not about the world, to have you and the religion is more than enough for us), or Nebi Allow, ninba afkii, nuur allow kugu ammaan (Oh! messenger of Allah, everyone in this world praises you with his language, oh! you Allah's glorious light."

When the prayers call was heard, the people attacked the food with such voracity, starting with water and few dates according to the prophet's tradition. Then the famous song of Iftar, which we as children liked the most came to air on Radio Hargeisa: Cuna, cuna, caba oo cuna., immikay cuntadu cad xalaalatee, cisi ku afuroo, cuna, cuna, caba oo cuna (Eat, eat, drink and eat / the food is now permitted / so break your fast in honor / eat, eat, drink and eat).

After taking some sips of water, few dates and one or two sambuusa, men used to rush to the mosque to pray the Magrib (evening) prayers only to come back after a while to enjoy the rest of the light meal. The heavy meal was usually postponed until after the Isha and Taraaweeh prayers. The taraaweeh prayer was real fun for children. As it consisted of 20 raka' offered in two sets each and three witr which made it a total of 23, we as children used to see this as a game. As the Sheikh performed it in haste to finish the whole 23 rakat as quickly as he could in order to release people to enjoy their evening Ramadan sessions and assemblies, we used to giggle discreetly and sneak a look or two at elders who tortured themselves in the constant standing, bowing and prostrating exercises. We used to bet on how many of them would quit the Taraweeh before it was finished. Women used to pray taraaweeh in our house, where your grandmother, Sheikha Rahma, a learned woman herself, used to lead the prayers.

After taraweeh prayers, men spent their Ramadan sessions in the teashops, chewing the narcotic Khat, listening to religious lectures and singing religious hymns amid clapping and drum beat. Some affluent or prominent individuals used to hold their own private Ramadan sessions at their homes.

Your grandfather, who was the grand Sheikh of the area, used to spend Ramadan nights at home with one or two learned friends with whom he conversed and discussed issues of religious, cultural or social importance to them. He would once in a while make a round of the teashops and when he arrived at any of the congregations, complete silence was observed in respect of his presence. He would greet them say few wise words and leave them to enjoy their nights as they pleased.

Look, my son, as a man who was schooled in the hands of scholars of eminent standing in the old and famous Islamic learning centers in Zeila, Harar, other parts of the Somali territory, Yemen, Sudan and finally Al Azhar University, your grandfather Sheikh Omer Good Nur, had the Islamic knowledge, cultural understanding, social intelligence and experience needed to teach people by good example and by the power of the good word. He saw Islam as a religion that could thrive and prosper in any culture and that different cultures in the wider Islamic world demanded different approaches to the native people's adherence to the teachings of Islam. During Friday sermons and every time the occasion demanded, he would remind people of what the duties of a good Moslem was; he would tell them the merits and rewards one would get in being a good practicing Moslem, but he would never harshly reprimand or disown anybody for not being an adhering Moslem. It was one of these days, my son, when your grandfather came back from the Friday prayers where he led the prayers and delivered the sermon. When he returned home he found my younger brothers, Ahmedweli and Harawe, and me waiting for him to have lunch. He knew his duty as a father and a religious scholar demanded him to remind us of our religious duty.

"Why didn't I see you in the mosque," he said addressing Ahmedweli and me, as Harawe was still a child. We kept silent. As young Moslem men who reached adulthood and as the children of the Imam and Grand Sheikh of the area and beyond, we knew it was unbecoming of us not to go to the Friday prayers to say the least. It was not like we never did, we did but it was one of those days that as teenagers we just didn't feel like going but we knew to say "we didn't feel like" was not a proper way to answer so we preferred to keep quiet.

He then raised a small Quran book he had in hand and said: "Listen, I have been born in this religion and you have been born in this religion. If we don't find anything of what the Qur'an promises us when we go to the hereafter, it would be unfortunate but we wouldn't regret it because we followed the path that we thought was the best and if we found what was promised to us in the Qur'an was true then we would be the most fortunate human beings. Therefore, as Somalis Islam is our religion and my advise to you is to live as good Moslems and adhere to its teachings."

Looking back at his moderate way of educating people, I can now understand why he view Islam as a message of universal truth that should find its way into the hearts and minds of people without imposing rigid and draconian codes. This is how your grandfather and his fellow Sheikhs used to educate people. They sufficed themselves to explain and highlight what they saw as the truth. Their philosophy was as the the popular saying goes, " you can take the horse to water but you cannot make it drink." You see my son at that time and age religious scholars like your grandfather didn't have the audacity to issue Fatwas. The fatwa was something they avoided like a plague. We have a Somali proverb, which says "only a man who doesn't know the menace of a lion will try to rescue a sheep from its mouth." Your grandfather and his contemporaries knew the danger entailed in issuing a fatwa, therefore, they stayed away from it and they never, never accused anyone of committing blasphemy. Being genuine scholars, they knew their role was limited to act as heirs to prophets but not prophets themselves. They took cue from the Quran and preached just as the Quran taught them to preach.

Opening the Quran will teach you how right they were. This soft and humane approach was there in the Qur'an all the time over the last 1500 years for all people to see, read and heed. The holy Qur'an says:

'God desires to lighten things for you, for the human being has been created weak' (94:28). 'It is part of the mercy of Allah that you deal gently with them If you were severe or hardhearted, they would have broken away from you' (3: 159).

Also prophet Mohammed (PUH), told his companions to be portray Islam as an easy and accessible religion and not as rigid and frightening phenomena. He said in one of his authentic hadiths (sayings):

"This Deen (religion) or way of life is easy'; 'Make it easy, don't make it difficult; 'Let people rejoice in being Muslims and not run away from it' .

Now, you see son, why your grandfather and his contemporaries despite their profound knowledge didn't object to people remembering and commemorating religious occasions, particularly Ramadan in such a lively and entertaining way without saying Haram, Haram, Haram as many of today's dwarf clerics are quick to do. You know your grandfather was not alone in this but every scholar of Islam in all regions and areas lived by Somali people in the Horn of Africa didn't see any conflict between Islam and the way Somalis celebrated Ramadan and other Islamic occasions with dances, drum, singing and festivity. This was the time, my son, when religion belonged to us and Islam was inseparable from the Somali culture. Unlike what you see or hear today, my son, being Somali and being Moslem were one and the same. Islam was not something imported, it was home grown and had from the beginning blended with the soil of the land and soul of the people.

To return to our Ramadan tradition, by the time the Suhoor time arrived, the countryside people would have been already gone, traveling long distances back to their homesteads; but with the vitality and spiritual buoyancy they gained, they didn't find any difficulty in covering the distance in a very short time.

The Suhoor time was the most uncomfortable time for us as children. After making rounds in teashops, enjoying the festive mood of the drums, Qasa'id, and clapping and after playing some games in the moonlit night, we would sleep close to the Suhoor time. By the time the Suhoor was ready we would be in the best part of our sleep and to wake up and eat was the most daunting job for us. It was my father's wish that we had to eat Suhoor even if we didn't fast. He knew the cooking in Ramadan for the young ones would not be as great as other days, and he therefore wanted us to fill our stomachs at suhoor time. Also it was his way of inculcating in us one of the noblest traditions of the Ramadan month. Therefore, we ate the suhoor meal, which usually consisted of white rice and butter milk (bariis iyo caano dhanaan) (sareen) and butter milk, half sleeping. You may not think highly of this humble meal, my son, but this was considered to be a healthy and a light meal that didn't cause any stomach upsets or heart burns during the daytime for the fasting person.

Ramadan weddings

In Ramadan, my son, Dilla area used to get the largest number of weddings. People believed that marriages that were held in Ramadan were blessed forever. But as children this was also another good thing that made the whole month for us a long season of festivals. The elders discouraged the bridgrooms to spend the Ramadan night away from their brides. I remember your grandfather telling any newly wed man he saw in the village to go to his wife.

“You have left a young woman behind who is eagerly waiting for you. She knows no one else in her new family. She needs your company. Go home,” he would tell them.

You know, the interesting thing was that many of the bridegrooms who had their weddings in Ramadan used to forego fasting. As children we sometimes thought that those who married in Ramadan might have done so in order to avoid the fasting. What we didn't know at the time, my son, was that it was difficult for a newly wed young couple to resist each other and refrain from physical temptations. This was something that the Sheikhs understood and they didn't chastise those bridegrooms who did not fast. You see, Islam was a flexible religion that gave allowances to the people's human needs and circumstances; and the sheikhs were intelligent people who knew how to mold religious laws to make fit the society's culture and lifestyle .

The Eid festivity

At the evening of the last day of Ramadan, people were once again in the same moon-sighting euphoria that they had been at the beginning of Ramadan. People again gathered at the outskirts of the village to search for the new moon that signified the end of the Ramadan month and the beginning of the month of Shawwal, the 10th month of the Islamic lunar calendar. As children, it was our second day of empowerment in a month. This was one of the rare occasions on which the adults depended on children for such an important issue. We competed with each other to spot the crescent. One could see an explosion of emotion and happiness once one child shouted , "Waa taa...there it is...” It was always good to spot the new moon on the first day and end Ramadan with 29 days. It was like the sweet feeling one got when suddenly locating something that he had the hope of finding but didn't know when. Sometimes when the new moon was not spotted in the area, people were in a limbo for the first few hours into the evening as they waited for an announcement from the national radio. If after a long wait the radio announced that the moon was not spotted anywhere in the whole country then people started their ordinary Ramadan programs but with less fanfare. It was like reaching the denouement of an exciting play with the end already known.

Once Eid was declared, the people entered into such joyous mood and everywhere one heard the exchange of greetings in the traditional Arabic and Somalized versions of Eid Murabak, Ciid Wanaagsan. The market was once again bustling as men rushed to buy new clothes for their families and women made last hour purchases for the ingredients of the morning Canbaabur ( Anbaabur) or Eid pancake and the Eid feast. There was no one who was more excited than children, because the two Eids, the Fast breaking Eid known as Eid Al Fitr and the Prilgrimage season Eid known as Eid Al Adha, were almost the only two occasions that we as children used to get new clothes and new shoes, lots of jelly nougats (nacnac malab) and money to spend. We could hardly sleep in the night before Eid. Our intense excitement about the joy awaiting us on the Eid day had deprived us of any sleep. I remember my brothers and I keeping a watchful eye on the spot where the new clothes were stored. We couldn't wait to try and put on and stroll in the streets with pride and haughtiness for having such good new clothes. We would whisper to each other, giggle and stay nervous the whole night.

You see, for you my son, new clothes don't account as a present. For you new clothes are something you buy whenever you feel like. Buying new clothes is like buying potato chips, uneventful and unexciting. You live in the age of plenty and the age of technology. What you need as present are high tech electronic chips, games, cell phones and computers etc. But back in my country, we saw new clothes as the greatest gift. We had few toys in our village, no big selection. Some flutes we called Biibii , small harmonicas and tennis balls such as Abu Cudbi (made of cotton) or Abu Cinjir (made of rubber), which we used as football, and few toy cars. However, our biggest buy of the day was Fataatiir (marbles). We would have pocketfuls of fataatiir and would all day play a gambling game of marbles with each other in twos, threes and groups. At the end of the day one may have doubled or tripled his possessions or may have lost everything and returned home forlorn and empty-handed. This innocent marble gambling definitely tops the Haram list of today's extremist groups, who view religion only as a leash to be tied to people's necks, while the one who holds the other end of the leash dictates their movements, their freedom and their thinking. Not even innocent children's games are safe from these people's onslaught on popular culture. Remember the banning of Pokemon in Saudi Arabia. Remember son, how you as a 10 year old boy got confused and angered because you couldn't see the logic why anyone would spend time and energy to ban an innocent children's game that would disappear by itself in time. Now you know why we have to fight this new breed of religion because it has been imported and because it denies our kids to laugh and play.

Impatient for the night to end, we would wake up before sunrise; take rounds to wash ourselves by standing in a washbasin and pouring cold water from hand-held bucket or kettle over our heads. As water was scarce and had to be greatly economized, we had learned early in life the most economical way to take bath. You had to use only half a kettle of water to wet your body, and then you soap yourself and then wash off the soap with the other half of the kettle or to the maximum with a full kettle. Once finished, you stepped out of the washbasin and you had to get rid of the used water by pouring it on the grass growing at the outside hedge of our house.

With clean bodies and oiled and combed hair, we used to put on the new clothes and new shoes. My father than used to put some drops of French perfumes, usually brought from Djibouti, to which we used to say "Allahuma Salli Wa Sallim Wa Baarak Caleih"(May Allah's blessings and peace be upon him ). You know son, we believed as children that perfumes were made of the Prophet Mohammed's sweat, it was therefore recommended to remember him whenever one smelled a perfume. With the new clothes and the few changes our parents gave us as Xaqal Ciid (Eid money ), we were the kings of the world. We would take some sips of tea as our father told us that we should not go to the Eid prayers without putting something in our stomachs. It was a Sunnah, prophet's way, he told us to eat something even few dates before one went to Eid prayers, particularly the Eid Al Fitr.

Eid Prayers and Eid festivities

The night before the Eid and the early morning of Eid before the start of prayers, people used to be frantic about paying the fitri alms . It is mandatory in Islam that the head of every household should pay a charity called Zakatul Fitr (Fast breaking alms) on every member of his family to needy people. It is like head tax paid to the poor at the end of Ramadan. The rule is to pay the Fitr anytime from the last ten days of Ramdan up Eid day prior to prayers. The logic was to share the happiness of the Eid with the poor.

The Eid prayer in our village was held at the School football pitch. People poured in to the place from all corners, from the village, from the countryside and from even far places, while the traditional chanting of Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Laa Illaha Illa Laah, Allaahu Akbar Allaahu Akbar, Wa Lilaahil Hamd, (God is great and there is no god but Allah) filled the air. Then people would offer Eid Prayers often led by your grandfather's friend Sheikh Mohammed Farah, while your grandfather would later make the sermon, highlighting the importance of continuing with the good deed and charitable spirit of Ramdan to the rest of the months. One of my most memorable Eid prayers was the day when during the prayers when people kneeled down on the ground, we were shocked by the loud shrieking of a man in the assembly. All people around the man jumped and went to his rescue. It was Aw Rabash, I could see from where I was. He was a tall and hefty cleric who was famous in the village for his amicable personality and his meat business. He was stung by a scorpion while prostrating and couldn't stand the pain. As the scorpions in the area were known to be poisonous, many of the people nearby him quit the prayers and started stuffing tobacco leaves into his mouth. The general belief was that tobacco leaves made the victim of snake or scorpion bite vomit and the tobacco juice also neutralized the poison in the blood. It often worked and it also worked in Aw Rabash's case. The scorpion was also found under one of the prayer mats and killed. We knew this Eid later as the Eid that the scorpion stung Aw Rabash.

After the sermon, people would start leaving the place but not before hugging, lots of handshaking and exchanging complimentary words with cheerful faces. Soon then Ulema, led by your grandfather, would gather under the shade of the big trees of Dilla valley. They would make a big circle and start performing the traditional sufi dance known as Dikr , while chanting Qasa'id in praise of God, Prophet Mohammed and Sheikh Abdul Kadir Al Jeelani , the founder of the Qadiriya order to which most of the Somali people adhere. The dance itself had such a beauty and rhythm that we children couldn't wait to join. A cleric with the best voice would sing lines of some famous poems, while the rest of the congregation repeated the course. Then they would sway back and forth, bowing down until their torsos become horizontally parallel with the ground, then they straighten up. They begin with a slow motion, with one or several of them singing some beautiful lines. The most favorite one, which I can so vividly remember, went like this:

Wa Fi kulli shayin lahuu aayatun, Wa Fi kulli shayin lahuu aayatun, Tadulu calaa anahuu waaxidun (In everything He (God) has a sign that proves that He is one), Allah, Allah, Allah....

Then they hastened their movements, all chanting Allah while bowing down and Allah while straightening up. They continued with this soul purifying dance for sometime all reaching spiritual ecstasy with the swaying and Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah ..... amid the ululation of women, watching from the sidelines.

As soon as the Dikr was finished, men and women started performing cultural dances, with the famous dancer Ismail Aw Suleiman performing the legendary Wilwile and women performing their colorful and diversified Heello yar-yar . Among the most exciting lines that still ring in my ears include:

Waayahay sidaa weeye hooy, hablayohow ma haysaaneey hooy, waayahay sidaa weeyee hooy ... Another masterpiece was the famous Ha daganeey hooy dadow Wallaahi dayaa... This had made the Eid a fanciful cultural festival that was equally enjoyed by men, women, children and the elderly. With the dances and festivities over, we used to go home to indulge and savior on the Canbaabur delicacy, the Eid bread laden with eggs, sugar and spices. This was the first of the day's feast as most of the families brought rams or goats from the countryside to be slaughtered for the Eid feast. The lunchtime was another event that we looked forward to as children as your grandfather used to invite as many as people as he could for lunch. My mother and other women used to make food that could feed a whole army. It was enjoyable for us to help our mother to take dishes to where men were eating and pass them around the soups, bowls, spoons and finger bowls (faro xal) for people to wash their hands. This is how we learned the spirit of giving and community sharing. You see, my son, in Africa people used to eat together in groups of families or even communities. It was a shame and a sign of greediness to eat alone. It was the white man who introduced restaurants to us where people ate alone without sharing. Both Islam and our nomadic culture demanded us to share everything.

The Eid day was the only day that your grandfather allowed us to accept money from other people. Every adult person we met gave us some pennies as Xaqal Eid, Eid money. Every child used to collect as much money as he could and we would go around with our pockets laden with coins, candies and marbles and sing Waa ciidoo, waa Cali baqbaq "it is Eid, it is Ali baqbaq". You see, by eating so much sweets and delicacies our stomachs became musical, thus came the name Ali baqbaq -meaning Ali whose stomach makes sounds. People in Africa, son, don't have a great variety of food. They eat may be eat not more than two or three stable foods all through the year. Those days in Dilla, like any other town in Somali territory, we used to eat loxoox (traditional bread) with local butter and tea at breakfast every morning, rice or spaghetti every lunch and millet with milk as supper every night, even meat or chicken were a rarity. It was only on Eid days that we ate such great variety of food. Therefore, it was natural for our young and clean stomachs to become musical on Eid days.

This was, my son, how we celebrated Ramadan and Eid. This was the culture of the Somali people everywhere. Ramadan nights and Eid days were happy occasions in which religion and local traditions had joined to create such a splendid and joyous Somali-Islamic culture. It saddens me, my son, and I feel a great pain to tell you you may not be fortunate enough to see such beautiful blend of folk and religious spirit, such popular religion that embraced music and dance, this Islamic faith that lived in harmony with the African drum and the African beat, this faith that lived in the heart and mind of people. This great and vigorous culture, my son, has been converted into a grim, austere and unattractive code of police laws by an ignorant horde of extremist groups. These alien infiltrators had turned our Ramadan and Eid festivities into lifeless, soulless, music less and uncreative rituals. They silenced the drum in Ramadan and banned the women's singing and dancing in celebration of Eid as being Satan's verses that would invoke the anger of the Almighty. For their almighty unlike our merciful Allah, is a philistine deity that would rather use the whip in order to strike fear in people's hearts rather than raising the drumstick and creating a beautiful beat that helps the soul of the faithful to soar.

Bashir Goth
Abu Dhabi, UAE

[Globetrotter-]

In my opinion, no somali writes as good as Bashir Goth.

Thank you Mr. Goth for telling the world about the true islam polluted by wahabism !

[B-MAX]

Goth. Is that a Somali name? I don't think so. Unless the YizzKhak Shamir-blood thing has to play a big roll here!

[*Proud_Muslimah*]

Yet, another idiot who does not know anything about Islam, the REAL Islam that is!!!

[SoMaLiSiZz]

This thread Qosol badana .. this is not islam this is rats feet

[Globetrotter-]

Proud muslima and somalisis could you tells us the reasons why you feel the author is wrong?

Get out of the closet of wahabism .

Many somalis relate to the description provided by Mr. Goth. This was the kind of islam somalis practised for centuries before many somalis (including you two) were brainwashed by arabs.

You cannot differentiate between islam and arab culture. I suspect you are one of those low self esteemed somali women who are easily seduced by arab propaganda.

[Cawar]

Globe

Honestly speaking, you have a paranoia about Wahabism(that was first Imp.), it doenst bother me or my friends a bit, why would it bother you???

And believe me, we tend to associate and tolerate all kind of pple.

[Globetrotter-]

Cawar, wahabism is a threat to islam. Many people are easily seduced by wahabism and in the process think all other muslims that do not subscribe to it are NOT muslims.

Wahabism is arab culture disguised in ISLAM.


Proud and somalisiz and others that lack the ability to absorp the hidden message of wahabism easily become the prophets of wahabism

[Cawar]

[quote="Globetrotter-"]Cawar, wahabism is a threat to islam. Many people are easily seduced by wahabism and in the process think all other muslims that do not subscribe to it are NOT muslims.

Wahabism is arab culture disguised in ISLAM.


Proud and somalisiz and others that lack the ability to absorp the hidden message of wahabism easily become the prophets of wahabism[/quote]

Globe

This is were you are wrong!!!

Just because someone embraced some part of Islam doent mean he or she is a wahabi or fanatic, if that is what you are implying..... however why do you associate everything thats islamic with arabs???? do you know that many of the things that has been achieved by muslims were done by non arabs, including.... Salaxudin who conquerd Jerusalem???? not that the arabs didnt have any imp. role in Islam, actually they had the vital role, but dont associate your dislike for arabs(i really dont know why?) to that of Islam.

[Globetrotter-]

Cawar

Salahudin Ayoubi was a kurd and in the days he reigned there was no state of israel , iraq or saudi arabi.

Don't distort history dude.

Wahabism is a political movement that wants to enhance arabs and it is why african muslims are suffering in Darfur or why thousands of kurds, shias have been gased.

[SoMaLiSiZz]

Oh my Allah this is funny wallahi tanak yu waad iqa qosliseen

[Globetrotter-]

Maxaad ku qososhay dhili carbeed baad tahaye?

Malaha waxaan u maleeynayaa inaay ku haayso nin la'aan. ee raadso nin ku waso.

[Xyaad]

Globe i was wondering if you believe in our Prophet Mohammed (saw) and accept his teachings?

[SoMaLiSiZz]

[quote="Xyaad"]Globe i was wondering if you believe in our Prophet Mohammed (saw) and accept his teachings?[/quote]


Nice Quiz Xyaad

[Globetrotter-]

Xyaad, The hadiths have been tempered with. Wahabists have misintepreted them and use it to justfiy their sick agenda.

I do blv in the true islam
The kind of islam that is about humanity
The sort of islam that does not condemn,
that does not condone terrorism


Not the wahabist islam based on hatred.

Is that enough?