Coming Home

Well, it's almost that time.  In about 5 hours I'll be headed to the airport in Amman, Jordan.  From there, we fly direct to JFK - 13 hours of fun!  I didn't really have the time to write the kind of "final post" that I would have liked, so I think that what I'll do is write one more post when I get home.  So, if you are still interested, keep checking for a little while after I get home and I'll write at least one more post reflecting on my experience as a whole.  As for right now, I should probably head to bed.  It's almost 1 a.m. and I have to wake up at 5 a.m. to get ready to leave!

I can't wait to see everybody and tell you about my experiences in person!

تجويد (Tajweed)

Throughout the course of the program, we participated in clubs that met once a week and were focused on different aspects of Arab and Islamic culture, and life in Jordan.  The club that I decided to attend was تجويد (Tajweed), which is the name for the science/art of Quranic recitation.  Little did I know that there is an entire set of rules for how the Quran is supposed to be read aloud.  (I should briefly point out that adherence to Tajweed is only required of imams and those who are reciting the Quran in public ceremonies.  Most Muslims don't recite the Quran according to Tajweed when they are simply reading to themselves.)  So, over the past 6 weeks or so, I learned some of these rules.  It was not easy.

One difficulty is that some of the letters are pronounced differently in Tajweed than in normal Arabic.  These letters are pronounced with emphasis, only half-pronounced, or not pronounced at all depending on the letters/vowels surrounding them.  Another difficulty is that you must remember to hold long vowels for a certain amount of time and short vowels for another.  Sometimes long vowels are held for 2 beats, other times 4, or 6, depending on the position in the verse.  Along with these rules, you must be able to make your voice sound very nasal sometimes, and very clear at others.  This is also determined by letters and context.  These are just some of the many rules that exist in Tajweed, many of which we didn't even have time to cover.

With so many rules, we never really expected to come close to mastering Tajweed in a few short weeks; people train to do this for years.  One of our professors at the language center, Dr. Ahmad, was trained in Tajweed, so he was the one who ran the club.  He has an incredible voice and knows many parts of the Quran by heart.  It was very impressive to see/hear him recite whole surahs (chapters) by memory.  I say recite, but what you hear in Tajweed is closer to a song than it is to a simple reading of a text.  Much of the Quran was written in a very poetic form that bursts forth with musical quality.  It really is cool to listen to.

Listening and doing are two different things however.  Every week, Dr. Ahmad made sure that everybody in the class had a turn trying to recite the passages that we were looking at.  It was a very difficult, and slightly awkward experience to have to sing/recite the Quran in front of everybody, but I enjoyed it.  Dr. Ahmad would always recite the passage line by line (or sometimes only half at a time) and we would have to repeat it exactly...well, close to exactly.  It became clear that Dr. Ahmad was not going to allow us to slide by and mispronounce the words.  This is the Quran, after all, and must be read exactly as intended.

Many of the students, including myself, struggled with pronouncing the words in the right way and sticking to the correct rhythm and tone.  Fortunately, I have a musical ear and a good ability to mimic sounds, so this helped me pick up on the technique pretty fast.  However, when Dr. Ahmad saw that I could handle shorter passages, he started to lengthen the amounts of words that I had to recite and this didn't turn out so great.  My ability to mimic sounds could only last for a very small number of words, and then after that I had to rely on applying the rules and reading the words correctly, which definitely did not happen.  Though he insisted on correct pronunciation, Dr. Ahmad was gracious and light-hearted in his approach because he knew that we were just interested in learning a bit.  So, despite our constant errors, we had a good time just sitting around and trying to learn as much as we could. We also got to hear a lot of cool renditions of the Quran.

To give you an idea of what Tajweed sounds like, I looked up a couple youtube videos of Abdul-Basit, one of the most famous practitioners of Tajweed.  In the video where you see him reciting the verses, he puts his hands by his ears to block out all other sounds because he is doing this all from memory and must concentrate to recall it all.  He also covers his mouth sometimes and this effects the sound that comes out.  If you are intrigued, you can check these videos out at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEnqBUdIGc4&feature=fvwrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK-mxZC1GFk (pay attention to how long he goes without taking a breath in this video - this guys has some serious lungs!)

جامعة يرموك (Yarmouk University)

So, since I've been here for 8 weeks, I guess it's about time that I post some pictures of the campus that I walk through every day.  I was waiting to walk around and take pictures on a Friday morning because the campus is abandoned, so I could just walk and take pictures without having a bunch of random people in them. But, since I have almost always been gone on Fridays, I had to wait until last week to do this.  So, here are some pictures...

Our apartment building 

The language center.  This is where we take classes during the week.

The college of technology.

Another random building that looked cool...

The east gate of the university is the main entrance.

The university mosque

Ramadan

Monday was the official start of the month of Ramadan.  Ramadan comes at a different time every year, because it is based on the lunar calendar, not the solar calendar.  So, this year it started on Monday (Aug. 1) and will continue for 30 more days.  The reason that Muslims fast during the month of Ramadan in particular is that this was the month in which the Quran was revealed to Mohammed back in 610 AD.

During this month, Muslims are obligated to fast from food, drink, smoking, and any kind of intimate relations during the daylight hours.  There are exceptions, of course.  Young children and the elderly, as well those who are sick or traveling are exempt from fasting throughout the month (although those who are traveling have to make it up later).  Traditionally, Muslims will wake up very early in the morning, before sunrise (like 3:30am) and eat a large meal together with their family.  This meal is called السحور (as-suhoor).  Then, many Muslims will go back to sleep for a while and then get up and go to work.  Many places shorten their hours for Ramadan so that their employees don't have to work as long while fasting.  After sundown, Muslims get together for another large meal called الإفطار (al-iftaar), which means the breaking of the fast.

Needless to say, fasting from sunrise to sunset is no easy task.  It is supposed to help Muslims remember their blessings and re-affirm their reliance on God.  It is also supposed to be a month in which Muslims make a larger effort to help the poor, read the Quran, and pray.  Finally, Ramadan is a time to restore broken relationships, whether with God or with neighbors, family members, or friends.

One last interesting fact about Ramadan is that the fasting that takes place during it is one of the "Five Pillars of Islam."  These Five Pillars are the central tenants of Islam.  They are:

• the declaration of faith (Shahada)
• praying five times a day (Salat)
• giving money to charity (Zakah)
• fasting (Sawm)
• a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime(Hajj)

One Last Day

It has become apparent that I had quite a lot to say about my trip to Jerusalem.  So, I'll try to wrap it up in this post and move on to something else next time.

Friday was our last full day in Israel.  We got up early in the morning and caught a bus to Tel Aviv, the second largest city in Israel.  Tel Aviv is situated right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and is a very modern/western city.  There were many times when we were walking around that we felt like we were in Greenwich Village, NYC, or in some European city.  The only time we actually felt like we were in the Middle East was when we walked through the Yemeni bazaar.

There wasn't really anything specific that we wanted to see in Tel Aviv, we mostly just wanted to go and experience a little bit of the ultra-modern side of Israel after spending so much time in the Old City of Jerusalem.  So, we walked around quite a bit, saw a few interesting monuments, had lunch, and headed for the beach.  Since we weren't really planning on spending the day at the beach, none of us brought swim suits or towels.  However, when Jim and I went to take some pictures of the beach, we could resist the urge to jump in.  So, off came our shoes, socks, and shirts, and we jumped in the Mediterranean Sea!  This was my first time seeing/swimming in the Mediterranean.  It was quite beautiful and the water was warm and comfortable.  After swimming for about 15 minutes, we decided that it was time to go, since the other guys were waiting for us.  So, we dried off in the sun and then headed back to the bus station and back to Jerusalem.

About an hour and a half later, we were back at our hostel.  We changed and went out to dinner on the Via Dolorosa.  As we sat there, the sun was getting close to setting, so all of the orthodox Jews were hurrying along the Via Dolorosa to get back to there homes before sundown.  While all this was happening, the evening call to prayer emanated from the nearby mosques.  In those few moments, we experienced the convergence of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in a way unique to Jerusalem.  I won't soon forget the picture of Jews walking down the Via Dolorosa to the call to prayer.

After dinner, we went back to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and stayed there for about an hour.  I wandered around the church, found a secluded place, and prayed for quite a while.  This was the opportunity for meditation that I missed the first time I visited the church.  So, I was glad that I was able to come back, sit, and think.

When the church closed, we walked back to our hostel, sat on the roof and looked at the city as we ate some delicious grapes that one of my friends purchased.  We went to bed early, but I made sure to wake up shortly after 5:00am on Saturday morning so that I could see the sun rise.  It was beautiful.

Wanting to be back in Irbid at a reasonable hour, we departed Jerusalem at about 7:00am.  We travelled through the West Bank to the border, from the border to Amman, and then from Amman to Irbid.  We arrived in Irbid at about 1:30 in the afternoon and were able to relax for the rest of the day because our professors were kind enough not to give us homework over the break.

My trip to Jerusalem was one that I will not forget for a long time.  Hopefully my reflections in this blog will help you all understand what I experienced, and will help me to remember all the details of my trip. And now, here are the last group of pictures from the trip!

A cool church we saw on our way to the bus station in the morning

A view of West Jerusalem

The Old City walls

The Yemeni bazaar in Tel Aviv

The beach

Standing in the Mediterranean

The very-developed shoreline

Me and my travel companions

My favorite hotel: Israel + Hotel = Isrotel!

Another picture of the Old City

Returning home for the Sabbath

The first of many sunrise pictures

The blue domes are from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

One Day in the "City of God" (Part 3)

When we got back to Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon, Jim and I decided that we wanted to walk the Via Dolorosa, which is the road on which Jesus walked while carrying his cross to Golgotha.  If you've ever participated in the Stations of the Cross during Lent, this road is what the stations are based on.  There are 9 stations along the Via Dolorosa, and then 5 more within the premises of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  This Church was built on what has been traditionally held to be Golgotha, the place where Jesus was crucified.

We took our time walking on the Via Dolorosa, pausing at some stations to see the small chapels that have been built.  After about 45 minutes we found ourselves in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  The church is large and very beautiful.  There is a maze of small chapels upstairs, downstairs, and on the main level.  One of the most interesting things in the Church is the alleged tomb of Jesus.  Again, I'm skeptical that this was the actual tomb of Jesus, but it was still interesting to look inside. Despite my skepticism about the location of the tomb, it was quite powerful to wander through the church and think that Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice not far from where I was walking.

The entrance to "Jesus' Tomb"

After exploring the church for about an hour, we were about to leave when a group of Franciscan monks began singing and walking through the church with candles.  We stayed and listened for a bit and then we returned to the hostel to meet up with some friends and go out to dinner.  We stayed in the New City for a few hours and then returned to the hostel to get a good night's sleep.

One of the thoughts that kept running through my mind during the day (and still today) is that it was so hard to reconcile the deep spiritual and historical experience of being in Jerusalem with the heartbreaking and infuriating political situation that exists there today.  Our visit to Bethlehem was particularly striking in this regard as we saw the wall, an Israeli settlement, a checkpoint, the birthplace of Jesus, and the Shepherd's Field all in the matter of a few short hours.  I remember thinking at one point that if the Church of the Nativity was not the exact site of Jesus' birth, then maybe it was located in some formerly-inhabited palestinian house that was bulldozed to make way for the wall.  How ironic.  How sad.

A city so central to three religions that preach peace has been violently occupied in the name of those same religions, time after time.  Tragically, today, the "City of God" has fallen utterly short of the message that God brought to this world.