One Month and Water

Assalam u alaikum,

Can you believe it's been more than one month already?

I certainly can't. The time has gone so fast. Taking stock of the benefits, I think I have learned something. I certainly could have learned more, especially in the talking department, but I feel more close to Arabic. It's not just that I've learned more words. Things make more sense somehow. Then again I might be deceiving myself. Insha'allah, not.

In one way it's hard to learn Arabic in an Arabic country because not that many people speak classical Arabic (fus'ha). Alhamdulillah at least we have Ammo Ramly and our landlord (not the bawwab) who can speak Arabic, and of course our teachers, but other than that it's pretty tough. It's actually the best experience when we can talk to other students while our teachers are present. That way we can use the words we've learned in another context, but without the fear of totally making up stuff.

Abu, I heard you really want us to go the Pyramids. The only thing is, you don't realize that the pyramids are nothing on Nasr City. Everyday is an adventure. Today, for example, we realized what a blessing water is. Just think about it. Without running water you can take a shower, wash the dishes, and worst of all, use the toilet! The reason I am saying this is because our water abruptly shut off this morning. I went to make wudu' for fajr and I was really in a rush because I thought I could hear the iqama. I started thinking that the water flow was kind of sputtering, when suddenly it shut off. Zip. Do da. Nothing. I went to the kitchen and tried the tap. Zilch. I turned on everything. "Uh oh," I thought. I was so groggy though, I was only worried about missing jamat. I ripped Mustafa out of bed and dragged him to the masjid. Alhamdulillah we got namaz. We tried the water again when we got home, but again the most we got was a little sputter and then nothing.

You can't imagine what's it's like to want to go the bathroom, but realize you can't flush the toilet. That's a really horrific thought. And then you think, "Hey wait, people have lived for centuries without running water, and many people still live without running water! What's going on?" I realized we've become quite dependent on these little amenities. Sure it's fine when we go camping for a few days and we have no running water. We feel invigorated by our little brush with the wilderness and then run home to our beautiful homes with everything you can ever dream of. Think about Atiq bhai and Arif bhai, our two fellow students at Markaz Al-Diwan, who have had this problem for a long time. They never know when their water is going to turn off. And yet they never complain and always have a smile on their face. I am really going to miss them when they leave in a few days. Allah always protect them and what they've learned and insha'allah we will meet again someday.

Alhamdulillah our landlord and the bawwab came and fixed the problem in about five minutes. Apparently sometimes the cistern of water at the top of the apartment has a little lag time getting water to the apartments so there is air in the pipes. When that happens, water can't come through. So what the bawwab did was turn on this pipe in the bathroom and basically drowned the floor of the bathroom with water (I was quite surprised by the way he just let all the water cascade on the floor and then just walk out). He let the water run for a little while, then left. So alhamdulillah we have water again. May Allah never test us with more than we can bear.

Ma'asalam,

~Ameer