I am an American revert to Islam, mother of 5, married and living in the Palestinian occupied territory just north of Jerusalem/alQuds. I am still struggling to learn Arabic, both the Palestinian spoken dialect and reading Fusha.
Likes
My kids (most of the time, lol)
the Palestinian people, who are warm and friendly
my computer
my garden, with as many flowers as possible
VisualDhikr has a wonderful, panoramic view of the inside of the Al-Aqsa mosque, as well as beautiful pictures of Jerusalem, Damascus and Morroco.
Dislikes
being so far away from my mother and sisters
people who make up their minds without reference to the facts
prejudice
having my life controlled by Israeli walls and checkpoints!
Do men fancy that they will be left just upon their declaring, “We believe”, and they will not be tested? [Ankabut 29:2]
I took some pictures from my friend's balcony of the mess the wall has made of her neighborhood
Did you notice the guys climbing over the temporary bit of the wall?
The solders came soon after and chased them away.
The Wall cuts right through the neighborhood, separating neighbors and families.
they are still building this bit...
I live on the other side of this hill. It used to take 5 minutes to drive from my friend's house to mine, now, driving around the wall can take 1/2 hour to an hour, depending on the mood of the soldiers at the new checkpoint. And we both live IN the West Bank!
This is what that Israelis-only road looks like from the top of my front steps. There used to be a valley there. They built a hill, and put a road on top of it, then put walls around it. Look at the truck in the picture to get an idea how big it is.
The Israelis are building again in our neighborhood. The "Israeli's only" road had a huge wall around it, but it was not "The Wall," so now they are building "The Wall!" Do they need a wall to protect their wall that protects the road??? Perhaps they will take the inside one down. This one is "prettier," if you can get over the ugliness of the mentality that built it.
Here are two articles from Stop the Wall about our area.
The Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights (PICCR) reported that since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada on September 28 2000 until July 2006, 68 pregnant women had to give birth at checkpoints, and that 34 infants and 4 pregnant women died on these checkpoints. from http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/68births.html
Uprooting olive trees I saw this on alJazeera the other day, and had tears running down my face. It is about a documentary called "My Dear Olive Tree."
Could there be anything more "black and white," more clearly evil, than stealing the food and livelihood of innocent people?
Going to school in Hebron (Turn the sound off if you don't want to hear women singing)
all of Brother Baba Ali's clips from Ummah films! It's good to laugh some times.
I love this song by Outlandish, the words are wonderful!
Look into my eyes
Tell me what you see
You don't see a dang thing
'cause you can't relate to me
You're blinded by our differences
My life makes no sense to you
I'm the persecuted one
You're the red, white and blue
Each day you wake in tranquility
No fears to cross your eyes
Each day I wake in gratitude
Thanking God He let me rise
You worry about your education
And the bills you have to pay
I worry about my vulnerable life
And if I'll survive another day
Your biggest fear is getting a ticket
As you cruise your Cadillac
My fear is that the tank that has just left
Will turn around and come back
Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let the media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Someone tell me ...
Ooohh, let's not cry tonight
I promise you one day it's through
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters
Ooohh, shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters
See I've known terror for quite some time
57 years so cruel
Terror breathes the air I breathe
It's the checkpoint on my way to school
Terror is the robbery of my land
And the torture of my mother
The imprisonment of my innocent father
The bullet in my baby brother
The bulldozers and the tanks
The gases and the guns
The bombs that fall outside my door
All due to your funds
You blame me for defending myself
Against the ways of my enemies
I'm terrorized in my own land (what)
And I'm the terrorist?
Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let the media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Someone tell me ...
Ooohh, let's not cry tonight, I promise you one day it's through
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,
Ooohh, shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,
Americans , do you realize that the taxes that you pay
Feed the forces that traumatize my every living day
So if I won't be here tomorrow
It's written in my fate
May the future bring a brighter day
The end of our wait
The Miniature Earth
Asmaul Husna recited by Ehab Tawfiq
Books
the Qur'an of course
The Autobiography of Malcom X
A Tale of Two Cities
Pride and Prejudice
Walden
Other Info
The Society of Ina’ash El-Usra aspires to promote the standard of Palestinian women through its various services and programs to meet the demands of the new era, especially in the fields of vocational and technical education. One of their projects is the production of traditional embroidery by local women.The pictures above were taken at their exhibition in al Bireh.
Arabic Links
Links for sites using Shaykh Dr. V. Abdur-Raheem's book Lessons in Arabic Language
01 Madinah Arabic Reading course This is the place to start if you need to learn the Arabic letters and how to begin to read/write words. The “Arabic Language Course” begins lessons roughly based on Shaykh Dr. V. Abdur-Raheem's book Lessons in Arabic Language.
02 The Arabic course of the Islamic University of Madeenah This is the link to the first level. There are 4 sections; the book Lessons in the Arabic Language (darus ul lughat ul arabiya) Reading (qira'at) composition (ta'beer) and the beginning section that teaches the Arabic letters (ta3leem alkitaba). This site is entirely in Arabic. It is useful if you want to print out the pages, and the text can be copied and pasted into your word processor to be edited or to increase the font size.
03 lessons from the Madeenah International University This site has the same lessons as the previous site, but with an English interface (several other languages are also available!). Each lesson is broken down into several pages and there are audio files to pronounce each sentence. On some pages the definitions of individual words are given. The answers to the exercises are also given. This is a great site, but still under construction. The only disadvantage is that you can't copy and paste the text. There are also the English notes for the "Arabic Grammar" pages (the book Lessons in the Arabic Language)for the first level, although they are not readily apparent. On the lesson page, there is a menu at the top. Click “musaa3ada” and then “shar7 al dars” (written in Arabic letters).
04 fatwa-online downloads If you download the file labeled Entire 2-year Arabic language syllabus (of all subjects) as studied at the Institute of Arabic Language - Islaamic University of Madeenah you will have the entire set of lessons just like the Islamic University of Madeenah's site. You can run them on your computer while offline, or burn them on to a cd (there's an auto run included). Like the Islamic University's site, it is all in Arabic. Unlike the site, you can't copy and paste the text into a word processor. Also available are downloads of the complete texts of Shaykh Dr. V. Abdur-Raheem's book Lessons in Arabic Language (The grammar portion of the "Madeenah Arabic program.")
05 Lectures for the Madeenah Arabic lessons This site seems to be gone, but I am leaving it in the list just in case it is temporary. This page from UponSunnah.com has audio lectures for the lessons. The Lessons in Arabic Language book as well as the Ta'beer and Qira'at lessons are used, and the red numbers on this page indicate the order. There is a link to download the syllabus (just like the one at Fatwa-online). There are also notes explaining the grammar terms for some of the lessons (in jpg files). Unfortunately the lessons end before the first level is finished. ****If anyone knows who this teacher is or has any further lessons, please let me know****
07 Lessons in Arabic Language - Book 1 individual html pages Chapter 1-17 of Shaykh Dr. V. Abdur-Raheem's book Lessons in Arabic Language book 1 (The grammar portion of the "Madeenah Arabic program.") Each chapter is an individual page, and there are transliterated vocabulary lists.
08 islamic-knowledge.com/Learning_Arabic Another place to download Shaykh Dr. V. Abdur-Raheem's book Lessons in Arabic Language (The grammar portion of the "Madeenah Arabic program."), books PDF format. There are many other files here for learning Arabic.
09 Audio for the Lessons in Arabic Language book This page has audio files for books 1 and 2 of the Lessons in Arabic Language books. The lecturer reads the lesson and translates it, and he also reads the English portion of the printed book with the explanations of the grammar rules. (I haven't found any place to download the English pages, but they are at the mediu.org site as noted above and with typos) This site also has jpgs of someone's homework, if you would like to check your answers. (Personally, I would use the mediu.org site for that)
12 Learning the Language of the Qur'an This site is doing a free classes on Paltalk including one using Lessons in Arabic Language. (the "Practical Arabic" class) InshaAllah they will eventually have recordings of the lectures to download.
13 adly.net This site is also doing a live class of the "Lessons in Arabic Language" book. They use their own voice chat room, which you have to dl to get in. I haven't listened to it, so I can't offer any recommendation.
14 Interested in studying at the Islamic University of Madinah? To be considered for admission, male applicants should be 25 years old or younger with a high school diploma and generally good grades. Tuition is free. The school provides the students with a monthly salary of SR 840 (about $225) and a round-trip plane ticket yearly. The monthly salary is sufficient for single students living in the dormitory. Since the university does not have a women's branch, the university's policy is not to grant visas to students' wives. :-(
15 buying the books here is a website that sells the books. This is not a recommendation. I have never bought from this company.
I posted these links, and others, as well as simple Word Document vocabulary lists and quizzes for the first book, in the files section for my Yahoo Group Studying Arabic. The group is not particularly active now. I only created it to try and share the online resources I had found.
Iraqi Arabic Obviously made for US military personnel
Learning Moroccan Arabic (Daarija) This is a Yahoo group. It looks active, so I hope it is good. The files are for members only, so I haven't checked it out.
Moroccan Arabic It looks like someone is scanning a book of Moroccan Arabic for Peace Corp volunteers. It is about half done, and each chapter opens as a PDF file.
Syrian Arabic has a downloadable book and audio files
Hey assalamo alaikom sister, i hope this finds you and your family well inshallah, sorry i didn't answer your post before, baraka Allah feeki for your prayers :), I've been to Alquds twice this year, i am from northern palestine and I hope we can meet there inshallah. salaam fi amani Allah
Thank you for your comments on my page. I must apologise for not answering you sooner, but with moving house, and setting up my home network, and sorting out my Divorce, I am not online as much lately.
I have been going to a variety of celebrations for Ramadan, going to different Masjids etc although due to my need for medication at times, the fasting tends to get interupted as I need fluids occasionaly.
I trust you, and those you hold most dear, are well at this time of Ramadan, and that the difficulties, that currently afflict Palestine, are not causing you discomfort.
