Dugsi Quran
Baba
Easleigh - a sprawling, high crime, lawless district of Nairobi where all
that's good and bad about Kenya and Africa in genereal seem to converge.
Vaguely familiar faint harmonic sounds eminates from blocks away peicing
through the city's background cacophony. With exception of occasional
brightfully dressed Somali women, striding along the street sides in their
own majestic walk, that faint harmonic sounds, episodically strengthened
by the eastly winds, conjures memory and familiarity of my old world.
But can't quite ascertain the precise nature of the hymn untill approached the
source of the sound, after cross few streets of
mad and dusty. And it became clear! It is Quranic school or Dugsi conducting
the traditional recitation of the Quran, known Subac, where each student
takes a turn to recite a verse, by heart, from the Quran, culminating in
harmonious chorus of all students as the verse draws to an end. The teacher or Macalin
attentively listens, correcting student errors and occassionally
joining the chorus himself as if to emphasize the end of the verse or
perhaps to remind pupils of his presence.
Pitched between a three story apartment building and the wall that encamps the
premise, is tattered old tent that sways side to side at the slightest breaze.
This dirt browned tent serves as Dugsi Quran for about fifteen families
or so, with twenty five students aged between seven to twelf years. Visable through
the tent's many gaping holes is an open air drainage that transports, in
ever laggard pace, the refuse from a communal wash depot. A dripping rusty
pipe beckons for attention through another hole while the sun rays shine
through a shaft at top of the tent eluminating air pregnant with dust
particles that seem to make breathing risky affair.
Inside the tent, students sit in two semi-cirles, one for the boys
and the other for the girls. The teacher sits right at the center of the circle
forming a bridge between the girls and the boys. A pile of Loohs, the
traditional two-sided flat surfaced wooden logs used for lesson preparation
command attention in one side of the tent. As I enter the tent unannouced
students pause for second and the teacher raises his hand to signal for
greeting. He immediately motions students to proceed with the recitation and
pre-empts them picking up the recitation precisely where the 8-years old Sahra
left off as my arrival interrupted her turn. For this sunday, the Subac or
recitation is for the advanced students, thirteen of them who, by in large,
memorized more than half of the Quran.
The Teachers gets out of the tent to chat as I get ready to leave. Some
evenings and the weekends he volunteers for this task, he says. Most the
children are from refugee families, and with exception of few this is the
only educational opportunity available to them. Lacking the legal status
and therefore the legitimacy to persue life's basics, the Dugsi is the
institution available to them , the teacher explains. With a soft smile and
resolute voice he speaks of his conviction of the crucial roles Dugsi
Quran plays in the community, knowing wrong and right, fear of god and discipline.
Abdirahmaan, the godfather of the Dugsi joins
the chat and fills us in how he conviced the landlord to allow them to
build one room dugsi for the neighborhood children. But because of lack of
resources, Abdirahman says, the best they are able to do is that tent which
occasionally collapses on students when there is sufficient wind draft.
Apprehensive that my question might be misconstrued as an offer of aid, I never
the less proceed to ask what it would cost to building the room.
"No more than 55,000 shilings or $900" he replies as his eyes gaze on the tent, perhaps imagining
something better replacing it one day.
As I walk away from the Dugsi, I take one more look at the tent. Through one
of its holes a young girl catches glimse my glance, and responds with a glorious
smile. I wave back goodbye sheepishly. The sound of subac slowly dissolves
into distance, fainting away against the backdrop of redish western skies
as the day reluctantly makes way for the impending night.
Few weeks later and many miles away, just before Christmas, a colleague at work
hands me a paper. It's got the description of the family the team adopted for
the Christmas. Last day to contribute, he informs.
Then it dawns on me - a ramaddan project! For those kids in Eastleigh
under the rickety tattered tent could sure use such a project.
Can we give them one room-dugsi as gift of Iid!!!!!??
The least I could do, I thought, is inform their country men and women, in
this list, of their simple need!
Aw_Ali
abdul abdi
it was rather a touchy report but it makes no economic sense
to spend money on funding yet another koranic school in yet
another third world country to unfortunate kids whose time is
wasted away by making them recite foreign verses they hardly
understand. it would be wiser to forget to tending their souls
but to care for their bodies with donations of food, medicine,
clothing, shoes, and books so that they can earn marketable
skills to care for themselves and for their needy relatives.
-------------------------------------------------------------
bashir ali
> dear aw-ali,
> it was rather a touchy report but it makes no economic sense
> to spend money on funding yet another koranic school
Abdul,
Your inability to grasp what aw-ali conveyed to us
says a lot about you----you are the victim of firmly
fixed and deep-rooted hatred for Islam by imitating
the enemies of Islam.
The reason what Aw-Ali wrote didn't make sense to you
is that it was not about economic, or anything like
that. Rather, it was about seeking rewards from Allah
and helping needy children who love their religion.
> kids whose time is wasted away by making them recite
> foreign verses they hardly understand.
Abdi, no matter what misery your senseless mind tells you
to BELITTLE the Qura'nic teachings these Muslim children
are learning is, my opinion, making you completely without
a conscience, because you are not and have no concerned about
whatsoever with these children's well being. In fact and ironically
enough, it is your BELITTLING their sacred verses of the Qura'n which
these kids were born with---makes you a SUSPECT, a suspect who might
be sleeping with their enemy, the enemies of Muslims.
> it would be wiser to forget to tending their souls
> but to care for their bodies with donations of food, medicine,
> clothing, shoes, and books so that they can earn marketable
> skills to care for themselves and for their needy relatives.
Perhaps what you don't understand is that these children and
their families, unlike you, do not want to forget their own
souls. That is because, they don't want to sell their own souls
as you have sold yours to the devils of the worldly goods.
You see, despite all the exploiting your
western friends(in the name of Christian's
charity) work in Africa are doing, these
Somali Muslim children are still going to
recite their HOLY BOOK.
Your wetern friend's can in the most
nefarious ways plot against Islam in order
to stop the work of Islamic education given
to the Muslim children, but it is failing big
time and you hate to see that.
There may be veiw handful of us, including you
who are unfortunitly poisoned by these enemies
of Islam who are now becoming their puppets.
Abdul, you can imitate your western-lords in order
to poison and stop the next generation's link with
the religion of their ancestors, but you will fail
too, because Somali Muslims can not all them conform
to its enemies, with a commond understanding and a
common aim to isolate Islam from their community life.
Bashir.
mouktar...@hotmail.com
Although I do not agree with abdul, I still believe he had a point. For this
specific case, I think, helping these young people get a shed, is wise.
However, as abdul said their health and physical well-being are also very
important.
Maybe you guys have previous "hoskatuur". Nevertheless, I think if somebody
expresses an opionion against or different from the islamists line of thougth,
they shoot sacrilege! and burn whoever said it. they postulated that they are
enemies of islam. From that moment, that person is as good as dead.
We need guys like abdul to remind us that the plurality of opionons and
thougths still exist in our community. We need guys like bashir to remind us
that we live in dangerous world where we have to struggle for our personal
freedoom and freedoom of expression.
Regards,
Nabad iyo Cano
Mouktar M.
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G13a3m1
encounter.
But the question how we gonna help those
little kids who are trying their best.
Please post any idea on the news group page
how we gonna help those kids and how we
gonna in touch with you.
bashir ali
> Dears,
> Although I do not agree with abdul,
> I still believe he had a point.
> For this specific case, I think, helping
> these young people get a shed, is wise.
> However, as abdul said their health and
> physical well-being are also very important.
If Abdul were concerned these children's well being,
he could have said let us also get them medicine,
food and shelter in addition to their Dugsi, a place
where they can learn their Islamic needs(Qura'n).
However, this is not what he prepossess...he
tried to convince us that what these kids are
learing, the Qura'nic, is so bad that it is like
a bad business if we invest....he said to "spend
money on funding yet another koranic school..makes no
economic sense" as if the Qura'nic learning is
a "wasted" thing.!
> Maybe you guys have previous "hoskatuur".
> Nevertheless, I think if somebody expresses
> an opionion against or different from the
> islamists line of thougth, they shoot sacrilege!
> and burn whoever said it. they postulated that they
> are enemies of islam. From that moment, that person
> is as good as dead.
I don't know the guy, personally....the other
"hoskatuur" I had him with was when he tried
in another time to discredit and blaspheme our
Holy Qur'an and what our religion stands for.
http://x3.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=343008226&CONTEXT=916232356.1736311061&
He can express his opinion and even misrepresent
our belief all he wants like the sacrilegious and
the enemies of Islam have done and he
can even tell us to "forget to tending our souls".
However, I'm not in here to burn anyone to death;
I'm here to respond to unfair and blasphemous
expressiveness against Islam.
carr...@my-dejanews.com
abdul abdi <74653...@CompuServe.COM> wrote:
> dear aw-ali,
> it was rather a touchy report but it makes no economic sense
> another third world country to unfortunate kids whose time is
> wasted away by making them recite foreign verses they hardly
> but to care for their bodies with donations of food, medicine,
> clothing, shoes, and books so that they can earn marketable
> skills to care for themselves and for their needy relatives.
>
Dear Abdul,
Reading your comments, I guess it is fair for me to make the assumption that
you were/probably still are a Muslim, based on your name, but more
importantly your background knowledge on dugsi quran. The sad story here is,
though you are trying to portray the role of pragmatic and caring , the
subliminal message tragically hidden in your account is the fact you became
another victim of the relentless assault on Muslim religion by non- Muslims
in general and Westerners in particular. Undoubtedly, West's vicious campaign
is to sideline as much weak_link as possible; those who have low self-
esteem to begin with and opt to reject their culture and spirituality at the
drop of the hat.
I hate to see that a seemingly intelligent person buying into the despicable
argument of direct correlation between Islam and economic disadvantage of
its subscribers. If that is the case, how would one explain the Japanese, an
economic power houseof its own right, with their non-Christian belief .The
issue is more complex to explain of the fact people who are superior
spiritually and morally are lagging behind in development than the corrupted
West; one certainly cann't be easily comprehended by someone who is running
away from his past rather than standing up and refuting the cheap poropoganda
machine. Ever wondered why it is always Islamic terrorist and not Christian
terrorist.?
For the most part,Mankind(Muslim, christian hindu, jewish etc) needs strong
spirituality to make sense of the overwhelming meaning of life. It is has
nothing do with worldly day to day affair. Coupling the two is probably the
root of your confusion. The bottom line is, while rejecting Islam you are
unwittingly embracing christianity. Indeed, it is vicious cycle which may
riddle one with an endless soul searching, like the man who was cursed for
eternity to push a stone up to mountain only it(the stone) to be rolled back
to bottom after he reaches the summit. I am just curious about what happens
when the so called convert finds himself a place where Budhism is the
prominent religion.
In conlusion, Mr Abdul, while I agree feeding the hungry is utmost priority,
enriching their souls with righteous guidance of Islam is just as important.
Moreover, it is obvious from Mr Aw_Ali's report that students are now in need
of better facility than the tent they are already using. In other words,
despite their dire situation food is not their immediate concern . With that
note, let us( including you) past the collection and contribute to the Dugsi
quran
ps. It is never my intention to curtail your rights as an individual. You can
chose whatever religion or system you want. I just have strong objection of
your onslaught on Islam in the disguise of caring.
Cabdirasaq.
Baba
Thanks to all of you who expressed interest in helping those children.
With little contribution from enough of us, here on this usernet, I'm
confident we can give them a shelter from the heat, dust, and the cold
as they continue their religious training.
I have a contact number for the elder who actually sponsors the dugsi.
He is around 60 years old man who lived in the district for 40 or
so years. He seemed decent God fearing man. I'll call him get details
as to how they are going to impliment the project if we were to provide
funding.
Also, I have posted the same article to SAPD forum and generous
individuals pledged around $500 already, so we are well into reaching the
goal.
Unless someone is willing to relief me and shoulder the responsibilty for
collecting funds, It appears I'll be the one to peform this task,
which lead me to the feeling that I need to atleast mention my full name
and location.
I'm Abdinur Mohamed Ali (Aw_Ali). I Live in Kansas City, Missouri.
Should you decide to donate to this project, you may send your donation to:
Abdinur M. Ali
P.O.Box 5295
Kansas City, MO 64131
If you have any questions, here are my phones:
(816) 333-7078 - Home
(816) 968-4647 - Work
Thanks much and Ramaddan Karim
Aw_Ali
fa1234
Baba wrote in message <77jgam$dom$1...@ns3.umkc.edu>...
>In article <19990112221841...@ng-ft1.aol.com>, g13...@aol.com
(G13a3m1) writes:
Brother Abdinur,
Thank you very much for your concern. Only Allah can reward
you for the compassionate message you've honoured us with
in this blessed month.
Perhaphs you could write your account No. here so that
the brothers and the sisters could have the chance to
contribute directly to you?
Once again, thanks.
Wassalam
Baba
I earlier posted my postal address. And here now is an account number specially
established for this project.
Bank Address: 221 W. Gregory Boulevard
Kansas City, MO 64114
Account: 5166002773
Thank you for caring and for your generosity.
Happy Eid
Aw_Ali