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Showing posts with label Saudi Arabia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saudi Arabia. Show all posts

Friday 30 November 2018

Muslims in Non Muslim Countries: Cuba

It has been awhile that I have been sharing the presence of Islam and Muslims in Non Muslims countries and to share their experiences as minority and their emergence with main stream dominating population. Recently a friend reading my series on the subject, shared a documentary by BBC about life and living of Muslims in Cuba, which gave me a cue to write about Muslims in Cuba. The very opening scene of the documentary shows a man, clad in shalwar and qameez - the traditional dress of Pakistan, leading the prayer of a very small group of Muslims further intensified my interest in Cuba and I was amazed to find that it were the students from Pakistan which first became a sizable Muslim community in Cuba.

The Muslims first stepped on the Cuban soil in the 16th century, generally Moors from Muslim Spain. The Muslims, mostly traders from the Middle East started doing business of sugar for many generating. Many stayed, mostly in Havana or around Santiago de Cuba, the second-largest city at the far east of the island. 

While Fidel Castro took control of Cuba in 1959 and instituted a communist government, all other religions and their religious places were were shuttered and religious schools of all kinds were forced to pack up and leave the island and everyday Cubans took to praying to God in private. In recent years, there has been some relaxations and religious freedom is creeping in at a slow pace.

The presence of Muslims today in Cuba is mostly attributed to students that came to Cuba for higher studies. A large group of students from Pakistan, besides Rwanda and Nigeria, served as the vanguard for other students to follow the suit in the 1970s. It is said that the dominant population that went to study at Cuba was the Pakistani students who were about 936 in strength. 

During the 2005 massive earthquake in Pakistan, in which over a hundred thousand perished, Cuba sent more than 2,000 doctors and other medical specialists to help the earthquake affected areas. The following year, it offered 1,000 scholarships for young people from across Pakistan and were given scholarships by the government.

According to a 2011 Pew Research Center report, out of  a total population of 11 million, there were then 10,000 Muslims in Cuba who constitute 0.1% of the population. By 2012, most of the 10,000 Cuban Muslims were converts to the religion. Ninety-nine percent of Cuban Muslims are converted to Islam and not descendants of Arabs.

This journey of Islam in Cuba has not been easy. Hajji Isa, formerly Jorge Elias Gil Viant, a Cuban convert and artist, a Cuban revert says very proudly: 
"Many brothers from other countries have said to me that we Cuban Muslims are the real Muslims, because it is so much harder to observe here than in a country where many people share the same beliefs and practices." 
Embracing Islam by former Froilan Reyes, now Hassan Jan, 43, is interesting. For a fun loving audio technician at the University of Medical Sciences in Santa Clara, his life changed in 2010 when during month of Ramadan, he was required to work with a group of Pakistani medical students studying at the university. "At first I was very uncomfortable working with them," he admits. But his interaction with the Pakistani students induced in him a quest to embrace Islam.Seven months later, he converted and changed his name. "Allah showed me through the way they behaved that Islam was something else: Islam is peace, it's the will of God. Allah gave me the opportunity to understand that. It was a gift for me," says Hassan. The first reaction came from his wife who was first hesitant. "I didn't want to convert because of the things people said - that they abused the women. But I read, I read a lot, I looked for books so that I could understand better," she says. She converted five months after her husband and changed her name to Shabana.

For one Ahmed Abuero, 48,  the transition was a difficult one who converted after reading Malcolm X's biography 17 years ago. "It was difficult at the beginning because I had to stop drinking alcohol, seeing women, playing, eating pork and drinking rum, things every Cuban does," he said. "The night I converted to Islam, I could not sleep. I knew the following day my life would change forever." 





Hajji Jamal who reverted to Islam in 2009 shares his experience of embracing Islam after living a life of a Christian all along: "I was a member of the Baptist church. I knew a lot about Christianity, but I could never really understand the Holy Trinity. Then I met a Cuban Muslim who'd been Muslim for many years, and started to talk with him about Islam. He gave me a Quran to read: 
"It took me a while, but then eventually I did read it and I could see a logic there, it seemed very sincere, very real and it was this which attracted me to Islam." 
Jamal is now an informal representative of Santiago's Muslim community. "We're trying to give the best possible example of Islam, for at the moment there's a lot of negative messages in the media. People generalize, thinking, 'If you're Muslim, you must be a terrorist'," says Jamil

Due to scanty information about Islam, it is difficult for the Cuban reverts to face numerous face challenges, specially the non availability of the halal meat. Thus a Muslim confess: "Food is difficult because everything's forbidden. The meat we eat most is pork, though forbidden in Islam but we do no have any choice. To be honest, it is a bit difficult, but Allah gives you the strength to go on."

Hijab has always been a challenge to Muslim women anywhere in the world and so in Cuba. Some of the Cuban Muslim women who wear a headscarf have faced objections and discrimination from the authorities in their workplace or universities. According to  Shabana, mentioned above, "such situations are usually resolved through discussion and explanations of what Islam is about." Shabana, however, says that for her "it got complicated" and she left her job. She now provides childcare at home for the son of a Muslim student.
Masjid Abdalla, Cuba

Jorge Miguel Garcia, whose Muslim name is Khaled, is a part owner of a café in Santiago which serves as an informal meeting place for the Muslim community besides also being popular with the non-Muslim Cubans. "Unlike other cafés, we don't serve alcohol and that's never been a problem," says Khaled.  
"People who come for the first time always ask me about Islam and I like that, that they are interested. Many come back specifically because they see it as a healthy place where everyone is treated with respect. Those are the principles of Islam: peace, love and submission to Allah."
However, Khaled sells dishes which include pork, but believes that one day to run the café completely in accordance with Islamic precepts.

In 2015, a museum in Calle Oficios in Old Havana was turned into a prayer house with the support of the Office of the Historian, the body responsible for the restoration of central Havana. The makeshift mosque allows Muslims in Havana Friday prayers. Elsewhere, Muslims have shared small places in their homes where Muslims can come and offer prayers. 

Pedro Lazo Torres, known as the Imam Yahya, said there used to be so few Muslims in Cuba that they could hold their prayers inside someone's home. As they grew, their prayers spilled out into the street. Torres is now president of Cuba's Islamic League and says the number of Cubans asking to convert continues to increase. Yahya is presently Imam of a mosque that was inaugurated in June of 2015 thanks to funding from Turkey's president, Erdoğan. Located in Old Havana, the mosque sits next to an Islamic museum, known as The Arab House, and has brand new Spanish-Arabic copies of the Koran.

Saudi Arabia and Turkey are in forefronts to help the Cuban Muslims. a Saudi funded language lab operates in both Havana and Santiago and in 2014 had a stand at the Havana Book Fair where literature about Islam and copies of the Quran in Spanish were distributed. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who died in January last year, sponsored five Cubans to make the Hajj pilgrimage in 2014 - something a near-impossible dream for most Cuban Muslims. Jamal and Isa (mentioned above) were fortunate to be among the five. "When I arrived at Jeddah, at the airport, the first thing I heard was the sound of prayer, I began to cry, "Jamal recalls.

Despite indifferences and lack of information about Islam and media blasting of "radical Islam", Muslims are continuing their efforts of blending Islamic values and Latin American customs in Cuba by regularly celebrating Islamic festivals of Eid which follows after a month long fasting in Islamic month of Ramadan.

You may like to watch the documentary by BBC on What is it like to be a Muslim in Cuba, which inspired me to write this post:

Photo: Mosque Abdallah | References: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
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Saturday 21 July 2018

Holy Places of Islam: Al-Masjid an-Nabawi - The Prophet (ﷺ) 's Masjid


Those proceeding to Makkah, Saudi Arabia for Hajj, the annual pilgrimage, or Umra, their definite destination in Saudi Arabia is holy city of Medina Al Munawara, for this is the city which felt the footsteps of Prophet of Islam Muhammad (peace be upon him) and this is the city where the Prophet is buried in a specially enclosed chamber inside the Masjid Al Nabawi.

Al-Masjid an-Nabawī has the honour of being constructed by Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) himself along with his companions soon after his migration from Makkah to Medina in 622. Al-Masjid an-Nabawī is the third masjid built in the history of Islam. Today, it is the second-holiest site in Islam, and most visited after al-Masjid al-Haram in Makkah. It is also one of the largest masjids in the world. As per experts' calculations, the area covered by the present day masjid is roughly 100 times bigger than its original size when it was built initially. Although the masjid was built with no roof, but today its architecture is one of the most absorbing and awe inspiring in the world.

Al-Masjid an-Nabawi was built adjacent to the place of abode of the Prophet (ﷺ),  The land on which the masjid was built belonged to two orphan brothers, Sahl and Suhail and contained a few date trees, graves of polytheists, a resting spot for herds of cattle. The Prophet purchased the land and some polytheists graves dug up and leveled which then formed the courtyard of the Prophet (ﷺ) 's masjid.

Initially the masjid was constructed keeping its direction towards Masjid Al-Aqsa (Bait Al Muqqadas, Jerusalem), but later it was re-orientated to the south When the revelation came down to change the Qibla to Makkah in 624 CE. 

The masjid took seven months to complete and measured 30.5 m × 35.62 m (100.1 ft × 116.9 ft) upon completion. The roof at a a height of 3.60 m (11.8 ft) was supported by palm trunks was made of beaten clay and palm leaves. The three doors of the mosque were Bab-al-Rahmah to the south, Bab-al-Jibril to the west and Babal-Nisa to the east.






The most notable feature of the masjid is its Green Dome in the south-east corner of the masjid. The dome is exactly atop the house of Ayesha, wife of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), which later converted into the tomb of the Prophet (ﷺ). Initially a wooden cupola was erected at the place of the present day dome, which was later built as green dome in 1818 by the Ottoman sultan Mahmud II. It was painted green in 1837. 

The original minbar (place from where the Imam of the masjid addresses the audience) used by the Prophet's (ﷺ) was a "wood block of date tree". In 629, a three staired ladder was added to it. The first two caliphs, Abu Bakr and Umar, did not use the third step "due to respect for the Prophet." The third caliph Uthman placed a fabric dome over it and the rest of the stairs were covered with ebony. The minbar had many changes but the present marble minbar was made in the late fifteenth century.

There is something peculiar as for mihrabs of Prophet's (ﷺ) masjid is concerned. While all other masjid only have one mihrab, but the Prophet’s (peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him) masjid has three. The current mihrab is the one used nowadays for the imam to lead prayers. The next mihrab is set back and is called the Suleymaniye or Ahnaf mihrab. It was made on the orders of the Sultan Suleyman the magnificent for the Hanafi Imam to lead prayers whilst the Maliki Imam lead prayers from the Prophetic mihrab. The Prophetic mihrab completely covers the area that the Prophet (ﷺ) used to lead prayers from except where he placed his feet. 

The Rawḍah (Arabic of "Garden") is an area between the minbar and burial chamber of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). It is regarded as one of the Riyāḍ al-Jannah (Gardens of Paradise). A green carpet distinguishes the area from the rest of the mosque, which is covered in a red carpet. There is a tradition that supplications and prayers uttered here are never rejected, thus every devout vising the masjid attempts to pray here, though access into the area is generally not possible and one really has to wait to find a space for him.

Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him), one of the most narrator of Hadihs attributed to the Prophet (ﷺ) has been quoted in Sahih Bukhari (the books on collection of Hadihs of the Prophet) that the Prophet (ﷺ) said:“One prayer offered in my masjid is superior to one thousand prayers offered in other masjids except Masjid al-Haram (Makkah al-Mukarramah).”

There is a legend of an empty space or grave next to where the Prophet (ﷺ), Abu Bakr and Umar (may Allāh be pleased with them) are buried. This was confirmed, however, when the individuals who went in to change the coverings in the hujrah* in the 1970s noted the presence of an empty space. Some believe that this empty grave is meant for Prophet Eesa (Jesus, peace be upon him) when he returns to the earth and eventually dies his biological death. However this is just  a speculation as there is no mention of this empty grave or what this space is meant for earlier in the history of Islam.


Photo | References: | 1 | 2 | 3 |
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