Well, an utterly strange and unlikely coincidence just occurred in my life and in the life of this blog. New readers may not be aware of my writing habits. Therefore I shall inform any and all of you. They are thus: I write from my bed, on my Apple laptop computer, then copy and paste in an email – sending it to my Computer Guru Chris (who resides in the UK). Been doing that since its inception, with a brief recess while living in Edmonton when Lucky, my 16 year old Administrative Assistant posted.
Yesterday I dutifully sent off the blog, wondered why it had not been posted. But when I looked, in my sent emails, discovered I had sent it to the Edmonton Al Rashid Mosque instead of to Chris. In my defense (if one is needed) theirs, and his, begins with with Info,
The strange and unlikely coincidences escalate. But first of all, we should perhaps look at some definitions.
Coincidence is a a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection. There are many synonyms, here a few to whet your appetite: serendipity, fate, destiny, fortuity, providence, freak, fluke, a happy chance,happenstance.
If someone or something whets your appetite for a particular thing, they increase your desire to have it or know about it, especially by giving you an idea of what it is like. This idiom, was first recorded in 1612.
The flukes, fortuities and and happenstances increase. I am in an Instagram conversation with an Edmonton teenager. A brilliant young woman, who I have actually not met even though we both once lived in Edmonton. I am telling her about sending my blog to the Edmonton mosque. This conversation ensued.
Me: You should read the blog about an idea for getting out of Edmonton. I accidentally sent it to the mosque in Edmonton instead of my blog master in England.
She: I did not realize that you did not upload the blog yourself. Did they respond?
Me: No, I doubt that they will I am not recently funny in my blogs but this one was different. And that was the one that accidentally went to the mosque. I was slightly off color, shall we say. Not me but from a New Yorker joke about elevators. But the real emphasis was the education of Saudi women.
She: Would that get their attention?
Me: I would hope so. The Edmonton mosque is repressive towards women. I ended up having nothing to do with them for that reason. But did not talk about it at the time as not to add to the fuel of Islamaphobia. .
She: How are they repressive?
Me: No programs for women that I could see. – basketball for boys. 8-10 year old young girls.. When I was in Edmonton, even I was a submarine Muslim and went uncovered. Muslim women are target practice for ignorant bullies, not Muslim men. And now conditions are even worse. I remain here in Saudi Arabia rather than go ‘home’. I am not safe there.
Is it fate that I am now talking about this on my blog? More than mere happenstance? Please ponder that.
I typed coincidence into the search engine of this blog to find that it is mentioned 67 times. That was mind boggling. Totally. Ponder that but in the meantime do let us lighten up a little.
Https//vt.tiktok.com/ZSF8LBt was sent to me by AMA during a very long and involved morning text. Look at it, it is utterly darling. It is a little Scottish boy Sam @Babysamanddad who wants a follow to see where his videos are reaching. I am not a follower on TikTok and shall not be as one can go crazy and waste much time on all the various forms of social media. I limit myself to Instagram and my blog. However, I provided the following response to AMA who sends me TikTok stuff.
Me: That is ABSOLUTELY darling. Sam is from Scotland!I once had my face painted like the Scottish flag. I should make that my screensaver. I shall try and post it on my blog which goes ALL over the world. I have my statistics done by country sometimes. I am read in places I have never heard of even. Mashallah. Oops Inshallah Keep forgetting Inshallah.
The conversation radically changed, as you shall soon see. We were talking about a certain individual. AMA became very cautionary.
He: Do not go any further without your waly?
Me: What is a waly? I do not think I have one. Hahaha
He: A man who represents either his daughter or his sister in consummating marriage.
Me: Okay! I have one. It is you. So I can’t go anywhere without you? Cannot even go for breakfast? So please hurry back from Riyadh so I do not starve to death in the meantime. I guess I will have to play impossible to get in the meantime. Hahaha
I have since looked up the word. AMA was right but his spelling was wrong. This is from Wikipedia:
Walī (Arabic: ولي, plural ʾawliyāʾ أولياء) is an Arabic word with a number of meanings, including, “protector”, “helper”, “a man close to God”, or “holy man“,[1] etc.[2] “Wali” can also mean a “legal guardian”, or ruler;[3] someone who has “Wilayah” (authority or guardianship) over somebody else, and in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) is often “an authorized agent of the bride in concluding a marriage contract (Islamic Law). Before a woman is married, a mahram, (close male relative, usually brother or father) should be present whenever the woman meets with someone of the opposite sex and for other issues.
We then went onto discuss more important matters. The prescription for the statin and blood pressure medicine I need to have refilled, he knows doctors in Khobar. I can wait on his wali talents.
Another Saudi man was serving as my wali during July. In front of about forty people the dowry negotiations were going well but then there was a currency exchange problems. We were at a million – but I was talking American dollars and he was talking Saudi money. He and his people were going to get back to me and my people but they never did. Oh well. It was not to be I guess. Hahaha
It is a new dawn and a new day. Different wale, different guy but still me. Some things remain the same. I am not fickle – there are six months between February and July. Everything changed. Once discussed dowry negotiations with a Mecca man who was being badgered by his financee’s father to cough up lots of cash.
Me: You should say that your are offering your future as the dowry. That you will work hard and industriously all of your lives together, providing for her and for your children. That should be the new form of dowry – I mean what Is a woman to do with camels in this day and age.
For you not of the Muslim faith – Muhammed’s (PBUH) uncle gave him some camels so that he had a dowry for Khadiji his first wife and the mother of his children. Ali sold his armor to have a dowry to marry the Prophet’s daughter, Fatima. I could quite ably negotiate my own dowry but that is not done in this culture. Oh well. I got a waly – had one before, now a replacement. The term waly is not in Google but looked up wingman and found a definition.
Alter Ego: What is a wingman?
Me: Well according to Google a wingman is Wingman (or wingmate) is a role that a person may take when a friend needs support with approaching potential romantic partners.
Alter Ego: So why does that concern you?
Me: Well, it appears that someone may have asked a person to take on that responsibility. I did not know for sure what it meant until I Googled it.
Alter Ego: What are you going to do about it?
Me: Nothing right now! I just found all this out this morning. This is a big step.
Alter Ego: Go slow.
Me: I am!!! I am going nowhere. Well that is not true as I am going to Bahrain to pick up my luggage. But I am coming back. ASAP.
Alter Ego: ASAP back from Bahrain but slow for the other that might involve a waly.
Me: Exactly!!! The wali is very responsible so do not worry.
Alter Ego: I will not!
Me: Thanks.
All of these coincidences!!! I am beginning to think that this might be my destiny. It is so entirely accidental that I am here in Khobar, in the first place. And here with a replacement wali???? Hahaha
Back to serious. I sent AMA a photograph, yesterday’s sunset.
Me: This photo is the sunset. It is most unusual, as has this whole day has been. This taken about 20 minutes before sunset itself.
He: Gorgeous.
Me: Thanks for the compliment. I am worshipful of sunsets. How can one doubt the Creator when one sees a sunset?
He: What about the few minutes of sunrise. These moments captivate me as well as sunsets.
Me: For me, not as compelling Perhaps I have not had the views. Of course I am awake but usually writing as those are my best hours for thinking and writing. Doing some more thinking about the sunsets. I find it amazing because of the way the sun falls suddenly from the earth. With the knowledge, from the Faith that it will rise again.
A longer conversation ensued when we spoke of our yesterdays. His was extremely family intensive – my goodness!! He had congratulated me on my vigor.
He: Your vigor amazes me. God bless your soul.
Me: Thanks! I think it is the basic solitude and the fact that I have no responsibilities for self care nor familial obligations nor girlfriends. All of those require energy and concentration.
Your incredibly busy day made me happy that I do not have a car to maintain nor a family. Therefore I have time to create and to be with Allah(SWT)
He then sent. https://quran4all.net/ar/96/translate-2
I viewed it. Speaking (admittedly) defensively about my intense need for self reliance.
He: We are all your family. I mean you are my sister. You are my sister. A precious one no doubt.
Me: I love you! Am I your big sister or your little bratty sister. I prefer the little bratty one please.
He: Just my sister with the full mouth.
Me: Okay a full mouth that I am always emptying on others. Emptying on others because I talk all the time. That makes sense actually. Lived on this earth for eighty years under often trying conditions to end up being your sister with the full mouth That is a fate worse than death.
Originally, this phrase was used to mean the rape of virgins in Gibbon’s 1781 work Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but now there’s even worse than that. Sometimes, for writers, Death is Cheap. Or maybe they have children as their intended audience (or a nosy censor) and can’t kill off a villain or character. This is another explanation of the phase. A highly undesirable occurrence, as in Alexis thinks driving daily during rush hour is a fate worse than death. Formerly applied quite seriously to a woman’s loss of virginity, this idiom today is used hyperbolically and far more loosely. A fate worse than death describes something that is too horrible to bear. A person would prefer to die rather than endure something she described as a fate worse than death.
Upon contemplation I decided that being AMA’s sister with the full mouth is not a fate worse than death. On that optimistic note I shall close.
The stunning photo of the sunset shall follow. I also placed it on Instagram with music in the background Hallelujah, the amazing Leonard Cohen song. How I loved him!!! The feeling was not mutual as he never met me. We might meet in Jannah, I am sure he is going to get there, although not a Muslim, he was a spiritual man who made great contributions to the world.
