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I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated you all on my life here in Cairo! My internet access has been sparse since I moved, inshaallah I will have internet at my new apartment soon! But my life is WONDERFUL!!! I am doing well in new class; I am much more prepared for MSA 4 than I was for MSA 3 and it feels good to walk out of class feeling like I understood everything that we covered that day.
I turned 25 last week and my birthday was fantastic! I have become a part of a very kind and caring Egyptian family who made my birthday a wonderful and memorable occasion. They sang me happy birthday and even gave me a lovely pair of earrings as a present! And I had eggs sunny-side-up for my birthday breakfast! All in all, it was really great!
I went to the Mosque of Sultan Hassan on Friday to participate in the midday prayer. It was an incredible experience. To be lined with up all of those women and sharing in this glorious communion with God as we all praised Him was...indescribable. My friend Hassan took me and we went a
couple of hours early so that we could look around and appreciate the beauty of the mosque. Hassan, like me, is quite religiously minded and so he had tremendous patience with me as I took in the beauty of the place. Anyone else would have probably gotten bored and wondered what on earth I was doing, but Hassan just sat there, quiet and patient, and waited for my moment to pass before we moved on. I was gazing at one particular bit of calligraphy, Allah, and as my eyes traced the lines again and again and again I felt so close to Him that I was frozen in place and time for what I discovered later was nearly an hour. I love the iconoclasm of Islam because in those moments I KNEW that my heart was focused exclusively on God--it wasn't the beauty of some painting ore stained glass or any other human representation of the Divine that brought me to that place of communion with God. It was just a few simple squiggly lines. Lines that do represent something, but in the totally abstract way that language represents ANYTHING. It was an incredible experience.
It has been pretty
warm this weekend--yesterday is was 105 and today it is supposed to get up to 110! I laughed out loud when I talked to my grandma Mae for her birthday and she said that it SNOWED in Minnesota yesterday morning! Gosh, I really am in a totally different part of the world, aren't I? But the weather isn't bad; it was definitely hot but when I got home for the night and checked the weather I was honestly shocked that it was THAT hot! I even spent the entire heat of the day outside, walking around with Hassan and sitting in the Al-Azhar Park.
I officially converted to Islam this week! I have been planning to do this for quite some time, but things kept coming up or the person who was going to take me had something come up or we went and the imam who would officiate the proceedings was not there for whatever reason. I think that it was because I was supposed to be going with my new Egyptian family and not with a random person with whom I shared little connection. These proceedings are not precisely vital to my conversion, as I have proclaimed
to the world and God in particular that I believe that there is no god but God and that Muhammad was His Messenger and I have begun my new life as a properly devout young Muslim woman. However, it is still an important and meaningful step to be officially recognized by the powers that be as a Muslim. So I went to the "Embracing Islam Office", which seemed more bureaucratic than religious, filled out paperwork, repeated the shahada, and spoke with an imam about my new role as an American Muslim. He suggested a response to questions regarding the hijab that I found particularly entertaining: "Don't all queens wear crowns?" I laughed out loud, which may have been considered rude, but I really enjoyed his perspective and I couldn't help myself. So now I have a certificate that bears witness to my official conversion to Islam. It's official! I'm a Muslim!
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letia Blanco
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Congratulations!
It sounds like you are having a wonderful experience and I am so happy for your happiness! Love you!