It's sad that many cultural norms are being, mistakenly, confused with religion. People don't know if what they're doing is based on a religious or cultural beliefs !

We argue over issues like growing beards, wearing ankle-short thobs and whether women should be driving or not ! We care so much for 4-digits plate numbers and some fancy brand's new handbag or shoes !

What happened to the original Islam; the religion that values courtesy and respect to one another. The religion that respect the others' points of view. Isn't that what islam is all about, teaching people how to live in a happy, smiling society ?

We pretend not to be secular, but we don't really apply religion in our lives. We started to think that religion is what people do at the mosque or it is something seasonal that happens 1 month of every year.

Isn't smiling to the person that sells you your "karak tea" part of our religion ? What about standing in line for you coffee, isn't being civilized what islam came is here to teach us ?
Fastening your seatbelt when you're driving is something Allah would want you to do !
Putting trash where it's supposed to go, isn't it this one of the fist lessons they taught us in religion class ?

This confusion is transforming the religion into something else, something that we don't believe in. We put our religion in sealed cans and use it when it's for best for our interest and hide it whenever we don't feel like islam !

I can keep going about forgotten concept of our beautiful religion. But i think the point has gotten through.

This is not only about islam, i'm sure that other religions are having similar problems. since i don't know a lot about other religions, i'd rather not to talk on their behalf. Hypocrites live everywhere and can believe in an religion !

عجبني .. و قررت وضعه للأهميه

it's hard to imagine the way our life would have been if we weren't rich. What if oil hadn't been discovered, would we be happy ?
i'm sure we wouldn't have the beautiful sky scrapers nor the fancy cars.
It's hard to imagine this.

But what if everything was as it is right now except that the wealth was shared between the people. What if no one OWNED the country. what if everyone had to work harder to get their share of this great wealth that many people don't appreciate.

Would our simple-minded people pursue better education to get their share of the wealth ?

would this pursuit of knowledge be a catalyst for the architectural and intellectual growth ? or would the money be the reason to the moral, intellectual, civilian retardation ?

I guess we all agree that a nation can advance if the had both wealth and knowledge. What what can make us happy ?

Does knowledge make us happy ? We see happy illiterate people everywhere.
Does money make us happy ? But many poor people are happy.

Is it what we do with the money that makes the difference ? or is it how we got the money ?

What is happiness anyways ? Is having an enormous amount of money happiness ? Is spending all your money happiness on stuff you want happiness ?

What makes us pathetic rich people ? maybe it's trying to live up to the "rich people standards".

what makes us pathetic poor people ? i'm sure it's trying to keep up with the rich people's standards.


Are you happy ? are you happy because ur rich ? are you smart ? are you smart because you're rich ?

It's sad that our IQs isn't measured by the amount of money in our bank accounts ? imagine how the world would be with many smart rich people ?


now let's move to another scene. Imagine a poor person that you've seen somewhere. What made you think that this person is poor ? Was it his cheap car ? or was it his non-super-sized house ? Did you take a look at his bank account ?

Maybe this person was actually richer than you thought. It's just that he was happy with what he had. His car did its job, his house was enough for him and his family. Maybe his money got him everything he wanted, it's just wasn't everything other people wanted. Maybe he didn't want to live up to anyone's standards.

Now imagine a dumb rich man. This is not a hard thing to imagine since there are plenty of those around here. What if this man was very rich and had everything he thought he wanted ? An expensive car, a huge house, yacht, jet plane and maybe another house in another country too. What if this person didn't know how to say "thank you" when people do him a service ? would you say that this is a happy person ? What if this person had the most expensive phone invented, but he didn't know how to put his favorite song as a ringtone, would you say he's happy ?

so it's not being at rich people's life standards that defines a person's happiness.

most people say it's how satisfied a person is that makes him a happy person. But I don't think being satisfied with what you have that matters, it's actually appreciating the value of everything in your life. It's appreciating the people, the things and the knowledge.

Today was a nice sunny day in Columbus. Nothing better than a sunny day with blue sky with some clouds here and there. the cold breeze comes filled with energy. Ah ! .. i wish it was like this all year long.

we were tossing a Frisbee next to the parking lot. It was fun and felt good to jump and run around a little. A little boy popped out of no where with a bottle that had a firefly called Max. The kid asked me if he could play with us and i said ok. I asked him about his name but his answer wasn't clear. He told me it consists of five letters. He was 7 years old, 4 ft tall with a short, spiky hair. I could tell that he was having fun, although he sucked in tossing the Frisbee. He told me that he enjoys sports and he likes "the game mexicans play". I was confused, he read that on my face and told me : "the game that they kick the ball and hit it with their heads". I knew he meant Football, or what he would call Soccer. A friend of mine got his football out of the house, which was very close, and we started passing it around.

The kid with the five letters name asked me if we were Mexicans. I told him no, and explained that we were speaking Arabic. He didn't have any idea what that meant, he just knew that it wasn't Spanish. He then shouted " You Guys are awesome !", we all laughed.
When we got tired, we sat on the pavement side and got some Pepsi and fireworks to play with. That seriously impressed the kid. he asked us if we can wake up early to play with him.

It was getting dark and we don't know where the kid's house was. I asked him about his parents. "Mom is home" he said, " Dad hates mexicans". That was interesting. I asked him why. he said "Some mexicans are good. My dad kills mexicans, he hates them. " I didn't know if i should tell him that killing people was wrong, i did it anyways. I told him that Mexicans are humans just like us, we don't want people to hate us and kill us. I dunno if he understood anything i said. My friend asked "so, where is ur father now ?".

"He's in Jail. Some people were angry and came to our house" the kid said.
" who took him ?"
" i don't know, but i think they're cops, i hate cops"
"why?"
"they're mean. they came to our house and kept yelling"
"Maybe your father did something wrong. Cops don't like bad people."
"I can burp my name, wanna see ?"

I asked him to go home and come back tomorrow to play with us. He was disappointed and walked away with his bottle very slowly.

I don't know why i wrote about this. I just thought it would be an interesting story to tell and think about. I hope he doesn't grow up to be like his father. i don't know if he arrived home safely. "I have a map drawn in my head" he told us, so he should be ok with his map. :) smart kid, i liked him.