A Star from Mosul

• Arabic (Including literature)
• English
• History
• Geography
• mathematics
• Art
• Sport
• Family (For girls only)
• Health (For girls only)
• Computers

• Arabic
• English
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• mathematics
• Art (For girls only)
• Family (For girls only)
• Sport
• Computers
• And in my school, they teach us French too.

God's first revelation to Muhammad showed how much Islam cares about knowledge: "Read, in the name of your Lord, Who created..." [96:1]

• I didn't know what's the value of having a mobile till after the war...
• I didn't know the value of the satellites till we bought one (After the war too), how did we know the news before? I don't know... How did we spend our time? I don't know...
• I didn't know the value of the Internet (Which is something I can't live without now) till we had one..
• I didn't know the value of freedom till now, till I started the blog.
• I didn't know the value of a better salary (Not that good) till now, we really can buy things with the salary of one month, and that's cool.
  

• I didn't know the value of security, till we lost it (when the war started).
• I didn't know the value of the telephones between Baghdad and Mosul, till we lost it (Thank God, they have internet and we check on them every day).

Q)Thank you to whoever brought up the subject of Iraq food. When one of my nephews was in the Tikrit area last year his letter home praised the tea you have in Iraq. It is my understanding that this is at least similar to the chai tea they sell in the United States. However, I have also been told that the spices used in chai tea varies from country to country. What spices does Iraq use in this tea? He also said that it is very sweet...is it because a lot of sugar is used? Or, is there something else added to make it so sweet? I have been wondering this for a long time, so am hoping that someone could answer these questions for me...thanks.

A) I asked dad and he said that we put one of three things in the tea: heal, Darseen, Atrah... I don't know if you use the same names for them..
And we call the tea, "chai" in Arabic, so it can be the same as the Chai tea you have.. Our Chai is sweet because of sugar. And the best tea we have in Iraq is the Ceylon tea.

I've just noticed that Pat in NC is a female, so sorry, you can hug me, there's no problem in that..

Do you remember "And that's how the story goes on" Blog...? Faisal has added a new story, and for those who're interested in writing, you can go on and continue with it.

Link of today:
Paradise at her feet

Where do you find Paradise? The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Paradise is at the feet of the mother."

They say that a fool lives to eat and a wise man eats to live. But then the question remains: for what purpose does the wise man live? Living is not an end by itself. There has to be a purpose for man to live for...

That's it for now.... We'll go to my aunt's house today, I'll try to make dad and mom answer your questions about food when we come back (God willing).
And don't forget to watch today's game... I don't know what time it is, but I'll ask in my aunt's house and see...

The Ten Commandments

0) (Exodus 12: 1-17 & Deuteronomy 5: 6-21)
0) Confirmation in the Quran (Chapter: Verse)

1. Thou shall not take any God except one God.
1. "There is no God except one God" (47:19)

2. Thou shall make no image of God.
2. "There is nothing whatsoever like unto Him" (42:11)

3. Thou shall not use God's name in vain.
3. "Make not God's name an excuse to your oaths" (2:224)

4. Thou shall honor thy mother and father.
4. "Be kind to your parents if one or both of them attain old age in thy life, say not a word of contempt nor repel them but address them in terms of honor." (17:23)

5. Thou shall not steal.
5. "As for the thief, male or female, cut off his or her hands, but those who repent After a crime and reform shall beforgiven by God for God is forgiving and kind." (5:38 - 39)

6. Thou shall not lie or give false testimony.
6. "They invoke a curse of God if they lie." (24:7) "Hide not the testimony" (2:283)

7. Thou shall not kill.
7. "If anyone has killed one person it is as if he had killed the whole mankind" (5:32)

8. Thou shall not commit adultery.
8. "Do not come near adultery. It is an indecent deed and a way for other
evils." (17:32)

9. Thou shall not covet thy neighbors wife or possessions.
9, "Do good to your parents, relatives and neighbors." (4:36) Saying of the Prophet Muhammad (P) "One of the greatest sins is to have illicit sex with your neighbors wife".

10. Thou shall keep the Sabbath holy.
10. "When the call for the Friday Prayer is made, hasten to the remembrance of God and leave off your business." (62:9)

Today is Raghda's birthday, if you want to make her happy, you can go to her blog and sing for her... You can send her an email, or send her a greeting card.


Today, I got a message from the Bravenet team, who are the ones who supported me with the Guestmap. 93 people signed the guestmap, and that's great. But only 100 people are allowed to sign and if the number passed 100, the oldest signatures will be erased automatically. Therefore, I made the map read-only, and now it's just a guest map, nobody can sign it.

Today, I was receiving lots of viruses, so people; I guess it's the viruses' season... Turn on your anti-virus programs.

Dad went to a shop today, to buy an oven to mom... He came back without buying it, because as soon as he was there, he heard shooting. A man was chasing another man with a gun, and he was shooting to make him stop or something. The police were there but they didn't move or do anything... Why? It's really confusing. I don't know why.

Yesterday, we heard lots of bullets. We didn't know why, so we gathered all in the bed-room, just in case one got in like last time... Today we knew why, it's because we won. Bullets and shooting is an old way to express the joy of the irresponsible Iraqis. Before the war, when we hear shooting we know that there's something happy, like marriage or winning in a game. But, after the war things changed and whenever there are bullets, there are killing.
At least there were just bullets in Mosul. In Baghdad according to what Ferid said, there were mortar bombs instead.

Like every Friday, we gathered in one of my uncles' houses. And like every time, I get some news from my dear uncles. It looks like when we won the game, and when the Iraqis started shooting, the American soldiers thought that there was kind of an attack, so they started shooting too. Until they realized that the Iraqi team won, they started to participate in shooting with the Iraqis not against them... The odd thing is that although the shooting was to the sky, a bullet got into my uncle's house, but nobody got hurt.

There's no strange thing when an Iraqi argues with an American here in one of the blogs... This happens in the best houses, everybody has his unique opinion. This happens a lot in the family gatherings, between one of my uncles and my aunt's husband. They both come home with a headache, but none of them wins.

The best thing in these visits is when we get in the car, and everybody is outside the house getting ready to leave, and when we start to go, I wave to see everybody waving. That's very cool... :)

Today, like every day this week, we went out to congratulate relatives coz their son has graduated... Such visits in Mosul, includes women only. They talk about politics, the current situation. Usually I come back home with very sad feelings. Today they talked about how they used to live before Saddam came to power... I liked what they say, and as usual decided to write little about life before, during and after Saddam according to what mom told me...

Before Saddam,
Here, mom was just a regular girl, a daughter of a very educated man, an engineer... In these times, men who completed collage were few...And women, you can't find a woman who has completed school.
Men with collage degrees had very good salaries, and therefore they lived a good life. Their salaries could buy them cars, houses. They could afford the marriage expenses with their own salaries.
They had maids; they used to go abroad.... It was so safe, if you dropped your key in the street, you'll find it there tomorrow. Dad told me that they didn't even lock the front door of the house. They used to buy new cars every 5 to 10 years.
The only thing they didn't like is not having imported stuff (clothes and such things) in Iraq, so they used to buy them from outside the country (Lebanon and Syria).

Food (Vegetables, fruit, and cereals) were available to everybody in very cheap prices. Telephone and electricity were available 24 hours a day (Gasoline was so cheap).
Conclusion: Life was simple and easy, there were no big problems.

During Saddam,
Mom and dad were in the US when Saddam was handled the power, and when they came back, they didn't recognize Iraq... It was changed a lot, to a better Iraq. Lots of developments... But in 1980, when the Iraq-Iran war started (Which lasted for 8 years), things got too bad. And there was a big inflation in the country. The prices got higher and higher.
They had every one who's less than 45 years old in the army.... Men started running away... People got killed, got lost or caught by the enemies.
Nobody could afford buying meat, they bought something mom called meat-grinder (not sure what you call it)
Milk is something for rich-people only.... It would be wasting of money. The value of the one Dinar got too low. Before Saddam, a dollar = 0.3 Dinar....... After the Iranian war it became 30 Dinars, really. That's when my uncle went out of Iraq (Illegally) because he couldn't afford living their any more... Then the Dollar became =3000 Dinars, and got down to 2000 Dinars.
Cars prices became too high. It's funny that till before 2 years, almost all the cars in the streets were 1980's or earlier. There were some newer cars Saddam gave to the military officials. A 1990 car would be a very expensive car.

An example about car's prices: In 1982, dad bought a 1981 car (Toyota, Corona) with 9,000 Dinars. In 2002 he sold it with 5,750,000 . Dinars
Salaries got too low, and people couldn't afford buying food. But the government made a plan to give the families the necessary materials (soap, sugar, rice, flour, fat, and sometimes beans) according to the food-oil plan.

But at the end of Saddam's times, things got a little bit better, we had so many things in the bazaars...But, I didn't like the way we lived. No internet, no good salaries, no safe planes (Remember till not long time ago, we had no airlines), no traveling, no mobiles, no satellites, and no freedom. And most importantly, the electricity was too bad; we had 3-9 hours of electricity every day only (More in Baghdad).

The situation in the hospitals was tragedy, all the equipments were old, with no maintenance, and soon they got out of use. The drugs are few, very bad, and from very bad sources. The salaries of the medical staff were very little, example, a specialist doctor gets less than 3$ a month. Nurses and the sub-medical staff, their salaries were less than 2$. The expenses are too high. Transportation from home to the hospital, costs more than the average of the salaries. This made the employees, look for other sources of income, which is almost always illegal.

The only people who could live a good life were the merchants.

After Saddam,
there are alot of changes,the ordinary life become an adventure, bullets every where, daily explosions, american tanks and military vehicle every where, that's mean you can,t drive your cat infront,beside, or behind them, along space should be kept between them and any civilian car.Most of the road are blocked by the Iraqi police, alot of check point. In addition to NO traffic law
Salaries got higher but still, they're too low. Cars are available, we can buy new cars. Mobiles and satellites everywhere. Impossible to buy a house or a land to build a home on it (Prices of such things got too high) . 0% security. Can't walk in the streets. Death is always near. Every bombing we hear, we should call the relatives to check on them (Mobiles are necessary in such situations)... Electricity is the same as in Saddam's times. And again no airlines.

If you think you are indeed clever and laughed at X's replies, then please check the answers below:

1) The 100 year war lasted 116 years from 1337-1453.
2) The Panama hat is made in Ecuador.
3) The October revolution is celebrated in November.
4) King George's first name was Albert. In 1936 he changed his name.
5) Puppy. The Latin name is INSULARIA CANARIA which means islands of the puppies.

Thank you all for signing my Guest map

Before I start with my long post for today, I have few recommendations.
*If you know about computers, and you want to have fun, here's a great joke Fayrouz posted to her blog. I would really like if you read it, especially Ben, you'd surely love it.
*Another thing, if you wanted to know why I didn't post yesterday. Here's a small hint about what happened.
*And you can also read some advice, a new post I wrote to Iraqblogcount.
*And, can you please sign my guest map.... You can find a link to it in my favourite sites list, in the sidebar. BTW, Ferid helped me putting it.

Now, I'll start with my post....
I once posted a picture of Al-nabi yonis mosque, one of my blog's readers (Sam Ismaiel) suggested that I should post more information about it... Well, today I'll mention every thing that I and my dad know. And every thing that Sam mentioned to me.

The word al-nabi, means the prophet in English (al=the, nabi=prophet). Yonis/Yonus/Younis is the name of one of the prophets sent by god to the people... His name is Jonah in English, and he was once swallowed by a whale.
Well, I searched more about him in the Internet, and I found this information in this site...

Prophet Jonah (Yonis) (pbuh) also known as Dhan-Nun. About his people Almighty Allah said: Was there any town community that believed after seeing the punishment, and its Faith at that moment, saved it from the punishment? (The answer is none)--except the people of Jonah; when they believed, we removed from them the torment of disgrace in the life of the present world, and permitted them to enjoy for a while. (Ch 10:98 Quran)

The inhabitants of the town of Nineveh were idolaters who lived a shameless life. Prophet Jonah (pbuh) was sent to teach them the worship of Allah. The people disliked his interference in their way of worship, so they argued. "We and our forefathers have worshipped these gods for many years and no harm has come to us."

Try as he might to convince them of the foolishness of idolatry and of the goodness of Allah's laws, the ignored him. He warned them that if they kept on with their foolishness, Allah's punishment would soon follow. Instead of fearing Allah, they told Jonah that they were not afraid of his threats. "Let it happen," they told him. Jonah was disheartened. "In that case, I will leave you to your misery!" so saying, he left Nineveh, fearing that Allah's anger would soon follow. Remember Dhan Nun (Jonah), when he went off in anger, and imagined that we shall not punish him (the calamities which had befallen him)! (ch 21:87)

Hardly had he left the city when the skies began to change color and looked as if they were on fire. The people were filled with fear by this sight. They recalled the destruction of the people of 'Ad, Thamud and Noah. Was theirs to be a similar fate? Slowly faith penetrated their hearts. They all gathered on the mountain and started to beseech Allah for His mercy and forgiveness. The mountains echoed with their cries. It was a momentous hour, filled with sincere repentance.

Allah removed His wrath and showered His blessings upon them once again. When the threatening storm was lifted, they prayed for the return of Jonah so that he could guide them.

Meanwhile, Jonah had boarded a small ship in the company of other passengers. It sailed all day in calm waters with a good wind blowing at the sails. When night came, the sea suddenly changed. A horrible storm blew as if it were going to split the ship into pieces. The waves looked wild. They rose up as high as mountains then plunged down like valleys, tossing the ship and sweeping over the deck.

Behind the ship, a large whale was splitting the water and opening its mouth. A command had been issued from Almighty Allah to one of the greatest whales of the sea to surface. It obeyed. The whale hurried to the surface of the sea and followed the ship as it had been commanded.

The tempest continued and the chief crewman asked the crew to lighten the ship's heavy load. They threw their baggage overboard, but this was not enough. Their safety lay in reducing the weight further, so they decided among themselves to lighten their load by removing at least one person.

The captain directed: We will make lots with all of the travelers' names. The one whose name is drawn will be thrown into the sea." Jonah knew this was one of the seamen's traditions when facing a tempest. It was a strange polytheistic tradition, but it was practiced at that time. Jonah's affliction and crisis began.

Here was the prophet, subjected to polytheistic rules that considered the sea and the wind to have gods that riot. The captain had to please these gods. Jonah reluctantly participated in the lot, and his name was added to the other travelers' names. The lot was drawn and "Jonah" appeared.

Since they knew him to be the most honorable among them, they did not wish to throw him into the angry sea. Therefore, they decided to draw a second lot. Again Jonah's name was drawn. They gave him a final chance and drew a third lot. Unfortunately for Jonah, his name came up again.

Jonah realized that Allah's hand was in all this, for he had abandoned his mission without Allah's consent. The matter was over, and it was decided that Jonah should throw himself into the water. Jonah stood at the edge of the ship looking at the furious sea. It was night and there was no moon. The stars were hidden behind a black fog. But before he could be thrown overboard, Jonah kept mentioning Allah's name as he jumped into the raging sea and disappeared beneath the huge waves.

The whale found Jonah floating on the waves before it. It swallowed Jonah into its furious stomach and shut its ivory teeth on him as if they were white bolts locking the door of his prison. The whale dived to the bottom of the sea, the sea that runs in the abyss of darkness.

Three layers of darkness enveloped him, one above the other; the darkness of the whale's stomach, the darkness of the bottom of the sea, the darkness of the night. Jonah imaged himself to be dead, but his senses became alert when he found he could move. He knew that he was alive and imprisoned in the midst of three layers of darkness. His heart was moved by remembering Allah. His tongue released soon after saying: La ilaha illa Anta (none has the right to be worshipped but you (O Allah), Glorified (and Exalted) be you (above all that evil they associate with you), Truly, I have been of the wrong doers." (Ch 21:87 Quran)

Jonah continued praying to Allah, repeating this invocation. Fishes, whales, seaweeds, and all the creatures that lived in the sea heard the voice of Jonah praying, heard the celebration of Allah's praises issuing from the whale's stomach. All these creatures gathered around the whale and began to celebrate the praises of Allah in their turn, each in its own way and in its own language.

The whale also participated in celebrating the praises of Allah and understood that it had swallowed a prophet. Therefore it felt afraid; however, it said to itself; "Why should I be afraid? Allah commanded me to swallow him."

Allah Almighty saw the sincere repentance of Jonah and heard his invocation in the whale's stomach. Allah commanded the whale to surface and eject Jonah onto an island. The whale obeyed and swam to the farthest side of the ocean. Allah commanded it to rise towards the warm, refreshing sun and the pleasant earth.

The whale ejected Jonah onto a remote island. His body was inflamed because of the acids inside the whale's stomach. He was ill, and when the sun rose, its ray burned his inflamed body so that he was on the verge of screaming for the pain. However, he endured the pain and continued to repeat his invocation to Allah.

Almighty Allah caused a vine to grow to considerable length over him for protection. Then Allah Exalted caused Jonah to recover and forgave him. Allah told Jonah that if it had not been for his praying to Him, he would have stayed in the whale's stomach till the Day of Judgment.

Almighty Allah recounted: And, verily, Jonah was one of the Messengers. When he ran to the laden ship, he agreed to cast lots and he was among the losers, then a big fish swallowed him and he had done an act worthy of blame. Had he not been of them who glorify Allah, he would have indeed remained inside its belly (the fish) till the Day of Resurrection. But we cast him forth on the naked shore while he was sick and we caused a plant of gourd to grow over him. And we sent him to a hundred thousand people or even more, and they believed; so we gave them enjoyment for a while. (Ch 37:139-148 Quran).

Gradually he regained his strength and found his way to his hometown, Nineveh. He was pleasantly surprised to notice the change that had taken place there. The entire population turned out to welcome him. They informed him that they had turned to believe in Allah. Together they led a prayer of thanksgiving to their Merciful Lord.

Ibn Abbas narrated: "The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said: 'One should not say I am better than Jonah Ibn Matta.'" (Sahih Bukhari).

Sam sent me a picture of the mosque a long time ago... And here it is.

Every Friday, all of my father's family (sisters and brothers, their children and their grandchildren) gather in one of my uncles' houses. Well, this Friday, it was our turn. So, they all came to our house. And, we took this opportunity to show the women, the baby's clothes and stuffs... This is a tradition here in Mosul, to show the baby's stuffs to the relatives.

Ok, there were lots of people in our house, lots of cute babies to take care of and lots of work... We have previously told my uncle in Australia to stay awake and come to the messenger to talk to his brothers like every Friday in our house, but we had problems with the connection and we couldn't chat with him.
Now, my legs are aching, too much. But I had fun to day and time passed very quickly.

Every Friday, the Muslim men go to the mosques to pray the Friday prayer... This time, they were threatened by terrorists that they'll blow up the mosques like they did to the churches on Sunday. But, our Christian brothers did something that I and every Muslim really appreciate. They stood outside the mosque and guarded it for the Muslims. Well done, that really shows how united we can be and we've been.

P.S.: dear commenters, no matter how charming and cute that little recycle bin (under your comments) can look, do not press it. Coz your comment would be erased if you did... Thanks