10.40
Since my school granted itself an extra holiday today, extending slightly the one week break we will now enjoy between terms, I enjoyed a bit of a lie-in after sahur and the swubuh prayer. Now up and running, and having got a bit of marking done, and listened to a bit of Mozart, and read a bit more of The Holy Qur'an, and bought the newspapers, I'm considering the logistics of breaking the fast this evening at said school - for I will be there and staying overnight for our annual Drama Camp.
The degree to which I become dependent on tried and tested routines in this month of fasting is striking. There are, for example, two morning routines, depending on whether it's a working day or not, each involving its own auto-pilot. At five o'clock it's all down to the brain stem, I'm afraid. Since breaking the fast in the middle of the camp is unusual, to say the least, it's taking a little bit of figuring out.
12.00
Now considering which mosque to go to for Friday Prayers, another change in routine, and how to get there. Originally I was intending to walk to Mesjid Abdul Aleem Siddique, about ten minutes away, but it's been raining and I'm not sure I'll be able to get there in a reasonably dry state. But the parking on the narrow street the mosque is on is dreadful so I don't fancy trying to get a place - unless I set off really early. Mind you, there's still time for the rain to ease.
14.25
Lucky, lucky, lucky. There I was, plodding my way to prayers, and the drizzle had begun. I'd miscalculated just how long it would take to get there - more like a good fifteen minutes - and I still had at least eight minutes to go and there was a distinct sense that the heavens were about to open. A young lady pedestrian, like myself without umbrella, actually started to sprint to get to wherever it was she was going. I began to picture myself arriving at the mosque looking like a drowned rat. And the rain eased. In fact, by the time I went through the gates there was no sign of rain at all. And coming back I enjoyed the bright sunshine.
15.05
Just completed my reading of The Holy Qur'an in Abdullah Yusuf Ali's version. This reading was one that gave me more of an overview of the scripture than I've achieved before, but in other ways it wasn't a great reading. I was going too fast, which goes directly against what The Qur'an instructs you to do in terms of how it needs to be read - essentially slowly and meditatively.
So I'm not going on to the Arberry translation just yet. Rather I'm turning to an interesting little book I got some three years ago entitled Approaching The Qur'an: The Early Revelations. This is by Michael Sells, a professor of religion at a college in Pennsylvania, and it gives very close readings of some of the shorter suras with lots of information about the Arabic. It's really intended as an introduction to Islam for western readers but it's so well done there's lots to gain from it. Close and slow reading is what I need now.
Oh, and I'm also reading Farid Ud-Din Attar's The Conference of the Birds in the very fine Penguin translation, so there's lots to be getting on with. Now I've got to decide what to take along with me for the camp as I usually have the chance to get at least a little bit of reading done. Noi is planning a flask of tea for me, amongst other goodies, so it looks like I won't starve.
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