Posts under "art"

Birth of a Prophet (571 – 632)

Posted by Fisal 2 Comments
Feb 4 2012

Birth of a Prophet (571 – 632) مــِــيـــلادُ نــَــبـــِــىّ 

     Today in the Islamic Calendar is the 12th of رَبـــِـــيــــعُ الأوَّل Rabi’ Al-Aw’wal  1433 A.H. (After  Hijra) which is the birthday of prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him). The day was a Monday and the Islamic Calendar depends on the moon cycle unlike the Gregorian Calendar. In some Muslim countries, the day is a national holiday and in others, it is not. The birthday of Prophet Muhammad is a turning point نــُــقــطـــة تــَــحــَــوُّل in the human and Arab history. Muhammad is widely considered the most influential figure in history. More than one billion people all over the world follow Muhammad’s teachings and consider him as their guide مــُــرْشــِــد , mentor and leader. Whenever his name is mentioned, Muslims often show their respect saying “P.B.U.P.” (Peace and Prayers Be Upon Him عــَــلــَــيــْــهِ الــصــَّـــلاةُ وَ الــســَّــــلام) Muhammad managed to build a nation and a civilization out of nothing and according to the Islamic faith, he is the last messenger and prophet from God.

      The full name of the prophet is Muhammad Ibn Abdillah Ibn Abdil-Muttalib Ibn Hashim from Bani Hashim; one of Quraysh’s prestigous tribes. Muhammad’s ancestry dates back to Ishmael إســْــمــَــاعــِــيــل son of Abraham إبــْــرَاهــِــيــم . His grandfather Abdil-Muttalib عــَــبــْــد الـمـُــطــَّــلــِــب was head of his tribe. Muhammad was an orphan يــَــتــِــيـــم as his father died before he was born and his mother died when he was six years old. Abdil-Muttalib took good care of Muhammad until he was two years old, then his uncle Abo-Talib أبــُــو طــَــالــِــب took him as son and protected him. Muhammad grew up in Makkah مـَــكــَّــة  and worked as a shepherd رَاعــِــى and then as a merchant تــَـاجــِـــر . Muhammad was very different from all his peers in Makkah. He was well known as the Truth-teller and Loyal الـصــَّـــادِق الأمــِــيــن . He never drank wine or alcohol.       

       At the age of twenty-five, Muhammad married Khadeejah خــَــدِيــجــَــة who was older than him. Muhammad used to go out of the city and spend a lot of time in the desert الـصــَّــحــَــــرَاء thinking and meditating. When he was forty and during his meditations in a cave in the desert, he was visited by the angel Gabriel جــِـبــْــريــِــل for the first time. It was the first revelation وَحــْــى to him. Muhammad was ordered to pass the message of Allah to all people. His mission was to restore the worship of the One True God إلـــهٌ وَاحــِــد , the Creator and Sustainer of the whole universe and to teach people the laws of moral, ethical, legal and social conduct. Islam means peace and calls for peace through submission to the will  and commandments of God. The revelations continued for twenty three years.

       Muhammad continued to pass God’s message to people around him in Makkah for  thirteen years. He found severe opposition and harm. He refused all kinds of bribes to abstain from what he was doing. When he and his weak and poor companions found no freedom in Makkah, He ordered them to immigrate to Al-Madinah الــمــَـــدِيــــِــنـــَــة and he followed them later in the company of his best friend Abu-Bakr أبــُــو بــَـــكـــْـــر . The people of Madinah welcomed Muhammad and his companions and provided them with food, shelter and protection.

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Peace  سلام  /salam/

O, my Birthday; You have come back !

Posted by Fisal No Comments
Feb 3 2012

       Most of us have had some sad experience in this life as sadness is a universal feeling. Lots of poets have expressed that feeling and many singers have sung these poems. Today, I am going to present a sad song from the Egyptian movie “A Day without Tomorrow يـَــومٌ بــِـــلا غــَـــدٍ “. The movie was produced in 1962, directed by and story of Henry Barakaat, scenario by Youssif Eissa and staring Fareed Al-Atrash, Mariam Fakhr Al-Deen and Zaki Rustom. This sad song by Fareed Al-Atrash فــَــريــِــد الأطــْــرَش   was written by the poet Kamil Al-Shennawy كــَــامــِــل الـشــِــنــَّــاوي  . I did the English translation of this song.

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عــُــدتَ يــَــا يــَـوْمَ مــَـــولــِــدي 

O, my Birthday; You have come back !

 

عــــُــــدتَ يــــَــَــا يـــــَــــْومَ مــــَـــــولــــِــدي

O, my Birthday; You have come back !

عـــُــــدتَ يــَــــا أيـــُّـــهـــَــــا الــــشــَّــــقـــِــي

You have come back, O, naughty one

الــــصـــِّــــبـــَــــا ضــــَــــاعَ مـــِـــن يـــــَـــــدِي

Young age has gone out of my hand

و غـــــَــــــزَا الـــشـــَّـــــيْـــبُ مـــَــــفـــْـــــرِقـِـي

And white hair has invaded my head

لـــَـــــــــــيــْــتَ يـــَـــــا يــــَـــــْومَ مــــَــــولـــِــــدي 

O, my birthday, if only

كــــُــــــنــْــتَ يــــَــــومــــــــاً بــــِــــلا غـــــَــــــدٍ 

You were a day without tomorrow

لــــــــَــــــــيــْــتَ أنــِّــــــــي مـــــــــِــــــــنَ الأزل

If only I

لــــَــــمْ أعِــــِـــــــش هـــَــــذِه الــْـــحـــَــــيــَــــاة

Have never lived this life.

عـــِـــــــــشــْــــتُ فـــِـــيـــــــهــــَـــا و لـــَــــمْ أزَل

I have lived it and still

  جـــَـــــاهـــِـــــلاً أنـــَّــــهـــَـــــا حـــَـــــيـــــــــَــــاة

Unaware it is a life

  لـــَـــــــــــــــيــْـــتَ أنـــِّـــــــي مــــــــِـــــــنَ الأزل

If only I

   كــــُــــــــنـــْــــتُ رَوحـــــَـــــــاً و لـــــــَـــــــمْ أزَل

Were just a spirit and still.

  أنـــــَــــا عــــُـــمــــْــــــرٌ بــــِـــــــلا شــَـــبــَــــاب

I am an age without youth; 

 و حـــَـــــيـــَـــــاةٌ بـــــِـــــــلا رَبــــِــــيـــــــــــــــع

A life without spring.

  أشـــــْـــــتـــَـــرِى الــحـــُّـــــبَّ بـــِـــالــعــَـــــذاب  

I do buy love for torture,

 أشــْـــتـــَــــرِى , فـــَـــمـــَــــن يـــَــــبـــِــــيـــــع ؟

I do buy but who sells ?

  أنـــَــــــا وَهــــْــــــــمٌ …. أنـــَــــا ســـــَـــــــرَاب 

I am an illusion … I am a mirage !!

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Peace سلام /salam/

Egypt’s National Anthem

Posted by Fisal No Comments
Jan 25 2012

     Today is the first anniversary of the 2011 Revolution, so I am presenting the Egyptian National Anthem النشيد الوطني المصري . The Egyptian national anthem is a crystallization of Egypt’s history. The anthem reflects the people’s inspirations and beliefs مُعتقدات . Egypt’s current national anthem was based on an idea in the mind of one of Egypt’s leaders. The first few lines of the anthem were obtained from a speech made by the great leader Mustafa Kamel مصطفى كامل in 1907. Egypt’s current anthem was written by the poet Mohammad Younis Al-Qadi محمد يونس القاضي and composed by the great artist Sayed Darwish سيد درويش , who died before listening to it. I did the English translation underneath.

Egypt’s National Anthem النشيد الوطنى لمصر 

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بــــــلا د ي   بــــــلا د ي    بـــــلا د ي

O, my homeland, my homeland, my hallowed land,

لـــــكــــي  حـــبــــي  و  فــــــــؤادي

For thee, is my due love and heart,

بــــــلا د ي   بــــــلا د ي    بـــــلا د ي

O, my homeland, my homeland, my hallowed land,

لـــــكــــي حـــبــــي و فــــــــؤادي

For thee, is my due love and heart,

مـــصــــر  يــــا  أم  الــــبــــــــــلاد

O, Egypt, thou art the Mother of all nations,

أنـــــــتِ  غـــايــتـــــي  و  الــمــــراد

Thou art my sacred wish and holy demand,

و عــلـــــى  كــــل  الــــعــــبــــــــاد

And all people are indebted,

كـــم  لـنـــيــــلـــكِ  مــن   أيـــــــــاد

To thy generous Nile,

بــــــلا د ي   بــــــلا د ي    بـــــلا د ي

O, my homeland, my homeland, my hallowed land,

لـــــكــــي حـــبــــي و فــــــــؤادي

For thee, is my due love and heart,

مــــــصــــــر  أنـــت  أغــلــــى   درة

O, Egypt, thou art the greatest pearl,

فـــوق  جــبـيــن  الــدهــــر  غــــرة

Over the forehead of Time shining,

يـــا  بــــلادي  عـيــشـــي  حــــــرة

O, my homeland, live free,

و اســـلــمـــي  رغـــم  الأعـــــادي

And be safe, whatever the foes.

بــــــلا د ي   بــــــلا د ي    بـــــلا د ي

O, my homeland, my homeland, my hallowed land,

لـــــكــــي حـــبــــي و فــــــــؤادي
For you, is my due love and heart,

مـــصــــــر  أولادك  كــــــــــــــرام 

Egypt, thy sons are generous,

أوفــيــــاء  يـــرعـــــوا  الــزمـــــام

Loyal, guarding the land,  

نــحــــن  حـــــرب  و  ســـــــــــلام

We are war and peace; 

و  فـــــداكـــــــي  يــــا  بــــــــلادي

A sacrifice for thee

بــــــلا د ي   بــــــلا د ي    بـــــلا د ي

O, my homeland, my homeland, my hallowed land,

لـــــكــــي حـــبــــي و فــــــــؤادي

For you, is my due love and heart,

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Peace سلام /Salam/

Egypt; Yesterday and Tomorrow

Posted by Fisal 1 Comment
Jan 24 2012

       Yesterday, Tuesday, 23rd 2012 was a memorable day as the newly-elected People’s Assembly مجلس الشعب (The Parliament البرلمان) held its first session جلسة after a year of the Egyptian 2011 Revolution. The Parliament ran its internal elections for the chairman’s post and it was won by Dr Mohammad Saad Al-Katatny; a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and one of the founders of their Freedom and Justice Party (FJP). Al-Katatny was in prison سـِـجـن on the same day of 2010 and Fathi Sorour was the Chairman of the overthrown ex-regime’s Parliament and yesterday was the time for them to change positions, a thing which can be considered a political irony سـُـخـرية and may be considered an indicator of the success of the Egyptian revolution.

 

       The Muslim Brotherhood الإخوان المسلمون won the majority الأغلبية of the Parliament Members and jointly with the Salafi Nour Party حزب النور السلفي winners, they will shape a new era of Islamists in Power. Those Islamist forces have a vision that is different from that of the Liberal forces; the minority الأقلية in the Parliament. When the ex President Mubarak stepped down, he passed his authorities to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) المجلس الأعلى للقوات المسلحة . Most people can’t see the separate thin line between SCAF as SCAF and SCAF as President or a political leader. To those people, SCAF as SCAF has protected and guarded the revolution and thus has fulfilled its noble and expected role. When SCAF came into power السُـلطة  and played the role of the president, it failed to maintain the same support of the majority of the people and especially the revolutionary young people and the liberal forces because of its repeated mistakes and failure to achieve the aims and ambitions طـُـموحات of the revolution and hence some forces accuse it of following the same policy as the Mubarak regime or at least trying to protect this ex corrupt regime. Islamists took the side of the SCAF fearing the fall down of the country while the young people and revolutionary forces took the opposition المـُـعارَضـَـة side asking for the SCAF to step down and pass the power to a civilian authority سـُـلطة مدنية , end the emergency law قانون الطوارئ and fast trials محاكـَـمات سريعة to the killers of the revolution martyrs شـُـهـَـداء .

       Tomorrow 25th January is the first anniversary ذِكرَى سنوية of the revolution. SCAF and its Islamist allies call for a celebration احتفال day and national holiday. On the other hand, the revolutionaries and liberal forces consider tomorrow as a day of mourning بـُـكاء / حـِـداد / حزنٌ على the martyrs and peacefully protesting and declaring their anger of the slow and frustrating performance of the SCAF. What will happen tomorrow is not at all certain and can not be expected. The only certain thing is that tomorrow, we will see huge masses of people in the Tahrir Square as well as other big squares all over Egypt.

 

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Peace سلام /salam/

Mother of the Egyptians

Posted by Fisal 2 Comments
Jan 13 2012

Safiya Zagloul (1878 – 1946)

       

     Born to an aristocratic family, Safiya Zaghloul صفية زغلول was the daughter of Mustafa Fahmy  Pasha  مصطفى فهمي باشا , who was one of Egypt’s first Prime Ministers. She was nicknamed after her husband Saad Pasha Zaghloul سعد باشا زغلول . She was also nicknamed the ‘Mother of the Egyptians أم المصريين‘ after she had taken part in the feminist demonstrations مظاهرات نسائية  that followed the 1919 Revolution against the British occupation toEgypt. Safiya played an important role in the political life inEgypt at that time.

     Safiya was born in 1878 and died on January 12th, 1946 leaving behind a rich and extra-ordinary life of an Egyptian woman and a faithful wife زوجة مخلصة . Safiya and her husband used to open their house to all national leaders and patriotic figures to discuss the country’s politics and think together of legal and peaceful ways to embarrass the occupation. The house also was open to all kinds of people so that it was called the “House of the Nation بيت الأمة” . After her husband was sent to exile المنفى out of the country, a lot of people gathered around her house. Safiya immediately, issued a declaration بيان that was read to the angry demonstrators in which she promised that she would follow in her husband’s footsteps and that she considered herself a mother to all the Egyptians who went out to face the bullets for the sake of freedom. One of the demonstrators cheered up, “long live تحيا the mother of the Egyptians” and hence came her nickname as the Mother of the Egyptians.

      In 1921, Safiya was the first wife of a political Arab leader to appear with him publicly unveiled. She had French education تعليم and her husband gave her all credit ثقة . She was also the first Egyptian woman to carry the name of her husband like westerners. Safiya was a good example of the great Arab women.

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Peace  سلام  /Salam/

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