Archive for the 'Islam' Category
The Museum of Lago Atitlan
Monday, March 9th, 2009
I have written a companion piece for “Emeralds”. I am trying to alternate between publishing pieces here and publishing them at othermatters.org ; since I published Emeralds here, I am publishing this one at the other site. Read the beginning here, and if you are interested, go to see the rest by clicking the link […]
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Emeralds
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
NB: I am interested lately in the topic of ihsan. I intend to write a series of posts about it; this is an introduction.
“The irony is that your selfishness hurts you,” she says. “You’re so selfish that you drive other people away. The result is that you don’t get what you want.” My throat […]
Posted in Faith, Islam | 4 Comments »
For Stanley (Fugue, 2)
Monday, February 25th, 2008
1999, Valle, Honduras
We travel backward through the night. As the truck picks up speed, we scoot away from the tailgate. Stacked along the back of the cab are bags of cement mix. I brace my feet against the side of the truck, and push my back against the pile of bags. The edge of […]
Posted in Islam, Travel (Miscellaneous) | 4 Comments »
Mansfield by Rain
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
The choir loft has been painted milky green, and the walls are trimmed with jade. Two feet beneath the balcony, a floor has been erected from arch to arch. It is carpeted with the color of grass. Here and there, lines of tape course diagonally across the floor. Marwa comes to me to read Qur’an. […]
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10 Muharram
Saturday, January 19th, 2008
Next to the moon there is a cloud the color of milk poured down a ruler’s edge. It is alone in the sky, thinner than me, waiting to be burnt away by the wind, or split by an aeroplane. I listen to the emptiness of my wallet, hanging on a black string from my shoulder, […]
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Notes on Mercy
Sunday, January 13th, 2008
Nadia’s eyes turn black and wet. “I am really sad,” she says. Her voice is thin like an old sole. “I always looked up to her.” She turns her face away. “Ever since I was little.” Her hair shines in waves in the light of the bar’s monitor.
“It is a great loss,” I say. […]
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Muttrah or The Heart
Saturday, November 24th, 2007
The sunlight has taken on an aged quality, beautiful and weak. It is five in the afternoon, and I have come from the shore. There crabs with silver claws followed the disappearing tide, and a man in orange bathed himself in the sea. I sat in a wooden pagoda, studying tankers, taking pictures of dhows, […]
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Blindness (Bus to Nizwa)
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
Note: I reviewed all of my Omani stories, and found that I had missed a few important points. This is, insha’Allah, one of the last stories for the Oman collection. It describes how I went, by bus, across the mountains, to Nizwa’s edge.
All cities crumble in the same way. Whatever differences infect their centers are […]
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Taqwa (Ramadan Journal, 1)
Saturday, September 22nd, 2007
It is Friday evening, and I wait, ravenous, in the kitchen. I am visiting a co-op in Cambridge; it is a tall purple house sitting on a double lot, where eight of my friends live. I have been invited to make dinner with them, and to talk about the possibility of moving in.
My head […]
Posted in Islam | 13 Comments »
Shahadah (Stations, 2)
Saturday, August 11th, 2007
Part 1.
August, 2006.
The journey there will be a long one, spanning two days. As a final nod to comfort, I have purchased first class tickets for the train ride between Boston and New York. There will be, I suspect, plenty of difficulty in the hours to come. I must pass from Boston to […]
Posted in Stations, Islam, Travel (Miscellaneous) | 9 Comments »