The 'Asab in Eid in Yemen

← Back to Articles

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings. Today we present to you the topic of the virtual Eid.

Definition: it is the practice of Eid social rituals over the internet. I know well that the internet in countries like Yemen is not at its best, due to the monopoly of a single internet company with no competitors, and also because the Yemeni people are waiting for the X space company owned by "Elon Musk" so that its satellites cross over the Arabian Peninsula and Yemenis can finally enjoy high speeds at better prices than Yemen Net.

Back to our topic: after completing the Eid prayer inside the house (due to the current lockdown) — and it is said (that there is no prayer for women, and this is an objectionable thing) — after completing the prayer and reading the supplication, tasbih, tahlil and takbir (what is the tahlil?) we begin a round of visits to paternal uncles, paternal aunts and maternal aunts (and what is the plural of khāl?).

We can start with a message on Facebook — even if they are against Mark (the sugar mountain = Zuckerberg in German) — so then via a WhatsApp message or a call, to keep the ties of kinship (a beautiful lecture by Dr. Adnan Ibrahim on this topic). And surely, before you start with relatives, start first with the lady of the loved ones, my dear — she is the one who stayed up the nights and cooked us today's food (lovely rhyme).

And if you cannot do that, then congratulate their sons, their daughters, or your cousins, and tell them to convey your greetings to their parents.

And we must remember those who have gone ahead to the afterlife, and ask God to grant them forgiveness, paradise and mercy.

But now we know that greetings neither fatten nor satisfy hunger — yet sins fall away when two Muslims shake hands. But handshaking is forbidden in these times, and they replaced it with knocking the knuckles (what is the difference between kū' and bū' without asking Goog\*?).

\* I wrote Google as "Goog" because some call it "Googl" and it is a strange thing. If we do not preserve our Arabic language, and we are said to be the origin of the Arabs, then who will preserve it?

We return once more to the 'asab — and what do you know of the 'asab? It became clear to me recently that the 'asab comes from the head of the family to his wives, his fiancées, or to his sisters. "And be gentle with children and be fair between them if you give them secretly or openly" — so the 'asab became obligatory for us. And although they never gave me much 'asab in the past, because I was ashamed of the question itself — praise God.

The 'asab: for non-Yemenis, it is a sum of money ranging between 2,000 and 5,000 Yemeni riyals, in the era of the commander of the Fourth Division who killed President al-Hamdi (as Al Jazeera showed), who had a five-year plan and had started preparing a ministry called the Ministry of War, who lent the World Bank and gave charity to Saudi Arabia with wheat and food crops.

Let us avoid talking about politics, although the author George Orwell, author of Animal Farm, sees that everything is related to politics in this age.

If you have continued reading this far, give a like and write a comment answering the questions in the post, and share the post with those who read without arrogance.

#MTH