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I am your brother, Adam


This is a nice poem I read and thought I'd share:

I am Malaysian Pakistani and Somali and Arab:

I am Turk and Irani and native of the Maldives:

My home is in Paris, Berlin, London;

in Mexico City, Port-of-Spain, Durban;

in Karachi, Zagazig or Kuala Lumpur,



I am as at home sailing in a lateen

rigged baggala along the red-rock Oman

shores bound for Socotra's island as I

am crossing the Khyber Pass in a camel

caravan...or driving a Mercedes taxi

in Istanbul.



Na'am, aiwa, acha, kha,

I am your brother, Adam.



You will know me in the mosques when

I stand shoulder to shoulder with you

and wish you peace when prayer is done:

and you may see me in Isfahan talking with

a miniature painter or in Dera Ismail Khan

listening to a young and vocal teacher of

Urdu or in Medan listening to a old man

chanting the Quran or in Sacramento listening

to a college boy who has all the problems

of the universe solved.



You will know me becuase I am your brother

and in a real and forceful sense I am

a part of you, dependent on you as you are

dependent on me...as rocks in a city wall...

round as the ancient wall of Baghdad.



I am Egyption and Tunisian and Syrian:

I am Berber and Kurd; Fulani and Nausherwani

and Pawenda;

I am Maliki, Hanafi, Hanbali, and Shafii:

all these I am, for I am your brother

standing besides you in the mosque waiting

for the iqama...white-garbed in the plain

of Arafat...fasting with you in Ramadan.

I am at home in the black tents of the bedu

and the tall buildings of Hadhramaut...;

I am always lingering at the Great Mosque

to circle the Kaaba and to kiss the hajr

al-aswad and drink from the well of Zamzam;

and I am standing, too, in the Haraam ash-sharif

in Jerusalem and in Karbala...and all of them,

each of them, has meaning on meaning for me.



Na'am ya habibi, ya azizi, ya akhi,

I am your brother Adam.



You will know me when you see me

becuase I wll be fingering my beads

and you will know well what this means...

subhanAllah...



You will know me and I will know you

for we are real brothers; and I am of

one place as I am of another...as much a

part of one as the other; the lover

of all lands where I can listen to the

call of the muezzin coming over the night,

or hear the beat of a single Muslim heart.
 

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Login to find out (July 6, 2005 at 9:23pm)
i wonder what 7awwa's poem will be; "oh my name is 7awwa and u can find me in the shopping malls of dubai, or tanning in the beach of casablanca. when im not doing du3a in masjid el hussein in amman im praying in the grand mosque of baghdad. when my back starts to hurt ill go for a therapeutical session in the sand dunes of the Sahara before i take a dip in the sahel of tarablus. then ill need to do my hair and nails so ill go Chez Michel in bayroooout. whem iim all pretty and done and need some rawa2, ill get me an argyla from souq elhamidiyyeh in damascus before i grab dinner by el fayyoum bi masr. after a late night shopping spree in khan el khaleeli, ill make my way down to san3a for some cool qat that will hit the spot" ya sater...
 
Login to find out (July 6, 2005 at 8:44pm)
unknown author mona3
 
Login to find out (July 6, 2005 at 8:36pm)
, very nice. who wrote it?
 
Login to find out (July 6, 2005 at 2:15pm)
Ashraf u don't need a visa if u are a VIP :P
 
Login to find out (July 6, 2005 at 1:45pm)
ya salaaam, the arab world in 9 stanzas. did he need a visa to travel so much ;)