Tag: Islam

Blow Dryer for Feet

“This setup prevents Muslims from having to lift our legs up dangerously high while trying to stick our feet in the sink one at a time. The alternative to that is we have to take a handful of water and pour it onto our feet below the sink causing the floor to get wet. Muslims also have to keep their feet clean before praying, which is obviously problematic in a bathroom where everyone pisses on the floor and walks with their shoes between the stalls and the sink, so you might see them trying to keep one shoe on while washing the other foot and then switching. It’s also why we take our shoes off before praying and use prayer rugs to avoid touching unclean things while praying.”

[Image and description found here.]

Daniil Sihastrul’s Contribution To The World

Daniil Sihastrul House of Rock 3Daniil Sihastrul House of Rock 1Daniil Sihastrul House of Rock 2

From Wiki:

Daniil Sihastrul (Romanian for “Daniel the Hesychast“) was a renowned Romanian Orthodox spiritual guide, advisor of Stephen the Great, and hegumen of Voroneț Monastery. Canonized by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1992.
[…]
Daniil Sihastrul ignited a hermit movement in northern Moldova, having many novices in the woods surrounding Voroneț, as well as at the hermitages and monasteries in its surroundings. He encouraged Stephen the Great to fight for the defense of Christendom and to build holy places.

He has been considered a saint ever since his life time, being credited with healing the sick, exorcising demons, and removing suffering.

On first glance, it appears that St. Daniil was an eccentric loner who spent his life exorcising his mind from all thought in pursuit of purity of spirit for personal enlightenment, as that was apparently the aim of the Hesychasts. On the other hand, he was not a hermit full time, and used his stone temple as a place of refuge and contemplation. Given that he advised military strategist Stephen The Great, Daniil was well respected at the time (late 1400s AD).

Now what did Stephen The Great do? He stopped the Ottoman Empire warlords from overrunning Moldova, killing Christians and others indiscriminately, and from instituting islam and shari’ia law.

St. Stephen defeated Mehmet at a famous and decisive battle in a place called Vaslui (not far south of Iaṣi in the province of Moldova). Had he not done so, little would have stood between Mehmet and the Ukraine—and the obliteration of the rest of the Orthodox world. Mehmet met his match shortly after having sacked Constantinople. With the rest of the Balkan peninsula falling to Islam’s sword, Mehmet must have seemed unstoppable to Christians everywhere, yet none of the Western powers nor the Western Church would lift a finger against the Ottomans. Thus, Stephen stood more or less alone in defense of Christianity and his homeland [via].

Interesting times, indeed.

Oh, and here’s a photo of Deniis hawking his CDs. I’m not an historian, but it amazes me what one may find just by searching for the origin of an image.

[Images found here and via here.]

Entirely avoidable…

French Flag Half Mast

https://youtu.be/y60wDzZt8yg

Don’t Sit Under The Argan Tree

Goats In A Tree

These goats live in a small region in southwestern Morocco where the Argan tree grows. Although the region is semi-arid desert and there’s fodder elsewhere, they love argan berries. They’re goat candy. Since the goats can’t reach them from the ground, they learned to climb Argan trees.

But that’s not the weird part.

When the goats poop, local women pick out the hard undigested nuts, crack them, extract the seeds, mash and grind them up, and produce argan oil – all by hand. It gets stranger: only women are allowed to do it.

Women […] run the entire industry, which is an incredible fact considering that Morocco is a rather patriarchal society. Only women are taught to make argan oil, and they are the sole gatekeepers to the centuries-old method. Much of the country’s oil is made in cooperatives that allow women the opportunity to work and make money independently [via].

Then they rub it on their faces, put it in their hair or eat it. TRUE.

But take this story a step further, and it becomes downright astounding. One sunny day, hundreds of years ago, some Berber women figured it out:

“Hey, Fatima! Bouchra! I found some goat crap under a tree. I bet there’s something in it that we can eat AND wear. Whaddya think? Don’t tell the guys.”

And the rest is history. But wait. There’s more:

The Berbers were the same people that produced Berber carpets, and had a hand in producing purple dye from seashells – the color of Roman Royalty. It’s also interesting to note that a large percentage of Berbers were Jews, Christians and Animists before those sects were marginalized by Islam in the 7th Century. The Barbary pirates were Islamic Berbers, thrived in the world-wide slave trade, and the word “barbarian” has etymological roots to the Berbers as well.

Goats-trees-berries-poop-cosmetics-food-Morocco-Berbers-carpet-purple-Islam-pirates-slavery-barbarians. What a connection, and it all began with Goats In Trees.

Fun Facts To Know And Tell.

[Image found here. Somewhat related post here.]