بسم الله الرحمان الرحيم
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most merciful.
2. My Mud House
Here is my mud house. I was born
here twelve years ago. We still
build our houses using the local
earth mixed with straw. A few
villages have tried using more
modern building materials like
concrete and tin roofing but their
houses are not as comfortable
to live in as ours. Our houses are
cool during the hot summer
months and cozy in the winter
evenings.
A famous Egyptian architect, Hassan Fathy from Cairo, our capital city,
once visited our village. With him was a group of young university students
of architecture. They took photographs of our house and asked my father
many questions about its construction. Hassan Fathy was not a villager,
but he understood the importance of traditional earth building techniques-
and of keeping this technique alive.Today, his students encourage people
to use earth as a building material. Hassan Fathy told us that the design of
our village houses was very ancient. For example, in front of our house,
is a long baked mud-bench called a mastaba in Arabic. This was a feature
of all ancient Egyptian houses. Today, we of course are Muslims,
al-Hamdulillah. The days of the pharaohs are buried in the past. We can
no longer even imagine worshipping any god other than Allah,
Rabb al-'Ameen, the True Deity who sent to us His final Messenger,
the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, as a mercy to all nations.
It has been the custom in our village to work very hard and save money
so that one day we might be able to visit the Holy Cities of Makkah and
Madinah. Al-Hamdulillah, my father and mother made their Hajj, or
pilgrimage, two years ago. Our house is now known as a ''hajj house''.
'Abd al- Rahman, a village artist, is always busy whenever anyone returns
from the hajj. My father hired him to paint colourful scenes on the outside
of our house. In Al-Khayriyyah village, there are several houses like ours.
I actually helped 'Abd al-Rahman paint some of the pictures; for example,
I painted the kiswah, or black covering over the kaa'bah and the Egyptian
flag on the passenger ship.
Insha'Allah, one day we will all be able to visit Holy Makkah and perform
hajj and meet millions of fellow Muslims on the Plain of Arafat on that
glorious day, and offer our heartfelt prayers knowing that they will all be
accepted.
3. Our Food
In Arabic, we are known as fellahin
or ''people of the countryside''. Our
life is hard but beautiful, and we
always offer thanks to Allah.
Our day begins with the Adhan, or
call to morning prayer, but quite
often it is our rooster that wakes us
up! Our masjid is in the middle of
Al-Khayriyyah so that everyone can
easily come for prayer. After salat
al-fajr, we always read from the
Holy Qur'an. Before starting our day,
reading from kitab Allah strengthens
our imaan and our desire to be good
servants of Allah.
We all have chores to do immediately after prayers. The water buffalo need
to be milked and their milk is to be quickly transported to the city for sale.
I collect the eggs our chickens have laid and sometimes sell them in the
week-end market. My mother and sisters prepare for us a hearty breakfast.
Our breakfast table is full of delicious and nutritious food, Masha'Allah.
The staple food of all fellahin is aysh, a wonderful coarse whole wheat flat
bread and ful medammes, stewed brown fava beans with salt and lemon juice.
We also have some white goat's cheese and gigantic fresh radishes. This
morning, my mother has prepared a very special Egyptian drink - karkadi
or hibiscus tea. This is a delicious bright red drink made from the dried petal-
like parts of the karkadi plant. In Ramadhan, we very often break our fast with
a refreshing glass of hibiscus tea which can be drunk hot or cold.
The dark green soup you see on the table is another Egyptian favourite -
melokhiyah. This is a very healthy vegetable, something like spinach.
It has been eaten in Egypt for thousands of years.
Egypt has always has its fellahin. Masha'Allah, we helped to build the
pyramids and other ancient monumental buildings without the use of
modern technology. We also supplied the food to the pyramid builders.
Our baladi or traditional home-cooked food keeps us strong and healthy,
al-Hamdulillah.
Islamic Village Stories
Written & Illustrated by
Luqman Nagy
In the Name of Allah,
the Most Gracious, the Most merciful.
2. My Mud House
Here is my mud house. I was born
here twelve years ago. We still
build our houses using the local
earth mixed with straw. A few
villages have tried using more
modern building materials like
concrete and tin roofing but their
houses are not as comfortable
to live in as ours. Our houses are
cool during the hot summer
months and cozy in the winter
evenings.
A famous Egyptian architect, Hassan Fathy from Cairo, our capital city,
once visited our village. With him was a group of young university students
of architecture. They took photographs of our house and asked my father
many questions about its construction. Hassan Fathy was not a villager,
but he understood the importance of traditional earth building techniques-
and of keeping this technique alive.Today, his students encourage people
to use earth as a building material. Hassan Fathy told us that the design of
our village houses was very ancient. For example, in front of our house,
is a long baked mud-bench called a mastaba in Arabic. This was a feature
of all ancient Egyptian houses. Today, we of course are Muslims,
al-Hamdulillah. The days of the pharaohs are buried in the past. We can
no longer even imagine worshipping any god other than Allah,
Rabb al-'Ameen, the True Deity who sent to us His final Messenger,
the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, as a mercy to all nations.
It has been the custom in our village to work very hard and save money
so that one day we might be able to visit the Holy Cities of Makkah and
Madinah. Al-Hamdulillah, my father and mother made their Hajj, or
pilgrimage, two years ago. Our house is now known as a ''hajj house''.
'Abd al- Rahman, a village artist, is always busy whenever anyone returns
from the hajj. My father hired him to paint colourful scenes on the outside
of our house. In Al-Khayriyyah village, there are several houses like ours.
I actually helped 'Abd al-Rahman paint some of the pictures; for example,
I painted the kiswah, or black covering over the kaa'bah and the Egyptian
flag on the passenger ship.
Insha'Allah, one day we will all be able to visit Holy Makkah and perform
hajj and meet millions of fellow Muslims on the Plain of Arafat on that
glorious day, and offer our heartfelt prayers knowing that they will all be
accepted.
3. Our Food
or ''people of the countryside''. Our
life is hard but beautiful, and we
always offer thanks to Allah.
Our day begins with the Adhan, or
call to morning prayer, but quite
often it is our rooster that wakes us
up! Our masjid is in the middle of
Al-Khayriyyah so that everyone can
easily come for prayer. After salat
al-fajr, we always read from the
Holy Qur'an. Before starting our day,
reading from kitab Allah strengthens
our imaan and our desire to be good
servants of Allah.
We all have chores to do immediately after prayers. The water buffalo need
to be milked and their milk is to be quickly transported to the city for sale.
I collect the eggs our chickens have laid and sometimes sell them in the
week-end market. My mother and sisters prepare for us a hearty breakfast.
Our breakfast table is full of delicious and nutritious food, Masha'Allah.
The staple food of all fellahin is aysh, a wonderful coarse whole wheat flat
bread and ful medammes, stewed brown fava beans with salt and lemon juice.
We also have some white goat's cheese and gigantic fresh radishes. This
morning, my mother has prepared a very special Egyptian drink - karkadi
or hibiscus tea. This is a delicious bright red drink made from the dried petal-
like parts of the karkadi plant. In Ramadhan, we very often break our fast with
a refreshing glass of hibiscus tea which can be drunk hot or cold.
The dark green soup you see on the table is another Egyptian favourite -
melokhiyah. This is a very healthy vegetable, something like spinach.
It has been eaten in Egypt for thousands of years.
Egypt has always has its fellahin. Masha'Allah, we helped to build the
pyramids and other ancient monumental buildings without the use of
modern technology. We also supplied the food to the pyramid builders.
Our baladi or traditional home-cooked food keeps us strong and healthy,
al-Hamdulillah.
Islamic Village Stories
Written & Illustrated by
Luqman Nagy
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