Friday afternoon, after praying the Jumuah prayer in the new city, I headed towards the shrine of Moulay Idriss II in the old city for a recitation of the Dala'il al- Khayrat. The area was filled with people relaxing, talking, praying,even sleeping. After a while the group that recites the Dala'il began to form and me and another Moroccan woman that I know joined the group and spent the next two hours putting Salawat on the Prophet (upon him be Peace and Blessings) through all of the different formulas available in the Dal'ail.
It was the first time that I had read the Dala'il in such a public space and I could immediately see the benefit of having such public readings. People who had just come into the shrine to pay their respects to Moulay Idriss II or just to take a rest would come over to us and listen for a bit. One man held up his young daughter over us so that she could take in all of the baraka ( blessings) of the recitation. Small groups of teenage boys would come and sit and listen, I could tell that some of them were very moved by the words of the prayers in the Dala'il. They seemed to look at us ( the group of people reciting ) with a reverence that made me realize once again how blessed my time here in Morocco has been and how many paths have been open to me. Alhamdulilah.
The next day, Saturday, I found myself in the old city again running a bunch of errands including buying fabric with a friend and speaking with the main attendant of the Qarawiyin again about the women's ablution area "situation." I had been blessed to get an audience with the representative of the Minister of Islamic Affairs a few days before and have basically been given some go ahead to try to figure something out to solve the problem presented by an open women's ablution area.
The issue was made clear to me by speaking with the main attendant and also just by hanging out in the ablution area myself. The doors to the area were purposefully taken off because some women were using the ablution area as a restroom. The doors were taken off so that the attendants can see into the room and stop the women from violating God's house . So - in order to restore the doors we have to have a system in place that prevents and prohibits this, like female attendants, which for reasons too long to go into here are not as easy as I thought they would be to come by.
Just after talking to the attendant I went into the ablution area to find exactly what he was speaking of, a woman about to use the restroom. I scolded her and told her that there was a bathroom just outside the door of the mosque that she could use. She smiled and ignored me and began her business. I told her that this was God's house and asked her how would she like me to do what she was doing in the middle of her house. There was no getting to her. The attendant told me that there are women who are not "conscious," and who will not listen to reason.
I prayed the after noon prayer (Dhuhr) at the Qarawiyin, then sat while they read a hizb of the Qur'an from Suratul Nisaa after the prayer. The Qarawiyin had a festive flare to it with men, women, and children sitting, praying, reading the Qur'an, talking in groups, etc. I looked at the people still filling the mosque after the congregational prayer and thought to myself that if it had not been Ramadan we would have all been somewhere eating lunch and preparing for our mid-day naps.
With the recitation of the hizb of Quran complete, I made my way out of the Qarawiyin and up through the streets of the old city to another recitation of the Dala'il , this time at a private residence. Before the recitation starts, I help one of the kids of the house with some English homework. Slowly but surely the group gathers and begins reciting Qur'an and then the Dal'ail. All the while the smell of Harira, the lamb and tomato soup with which most Moroccans break their fasts permeates the house. It is being cooked in the kitchen and holds itself out to us fasters like a promise.
A few hours later we finish the recitation and people file out to their different places. It is only an hour and a half before sun-down and so you get the feeling while walking that everybody is either heading towards home to get ready to break their fasts or that they are beginning to wrap up their business in order to start home.
I was headed towards a friends house. As we sat talking a few minutes before the call for the sun-down prayer was to be given, a few of us admit that the fast "overpowered" us today, meaning that we could really feel its control over our bodies. It was not said out of complaint, but as an observation that allows us to compare our weakness to God's Strength.
And then the chorus of calls to prayer from all around the medina come through the open window. We each grab a date, I am handed a cup of milk , and then "Bismillah" the day's fast is done.
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