13th day of Ramadan around Israel

Monday, August 23, 2010
13th day of Ramadan around Israel

Amazing food for Sehri at the Hotel Dan Jerusalem; fresh vegetables and fish... that fish was so good. It was indeed a very long day going up from Jerusalem to Golan Heights, Sea of Galilee and the Mount of the beatitudes and other places.

We went to Jericho, proclaimed by them to be the oldest city in the world and passed by the Mount temptation where Jesus was tempted by the devil to give up meditation but failed.

Stopped by Jordan River at the very spot Jesus was baptized, and I walked right in along with several others. I was the second in line and asked the Pastor to dunk me in the name of Allah and without blinking an eye he did, Imam Jensen followed the suit along with Karen and others. It was quite an awesome feeling to be purified where Prophet (to me) Jesus was Baptized.

Tiberias is a historical place where historical Jewish people have lived and have been buried, it is the place where the Mishnah (Talmud) was born, thus the Jewish oral religious tradition began.

We did not get to go on the replica boat believed to have been the boat used by Jesus, found a few years ago at the bottom of the sea of Galilee.

Mount Beatitudes was awesome with a huge valley and the sea of Galilee on the south. Apparently Jesus saw the beauty of looking towards the sea through the valley, and an Italian Architect is redesigning the churches with that point of view; a window to see the outside. Here is where Jesus delivered his famous sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:1-3) blessed are the peace makers.

The six of us prayed on the grass knoll outside a Restaurant while the other members had a wonderful sea food luncheon there.

Nazreth was just incredible where Jesus was born.


The whole valley around the Sea of Galilee is beautiful and Jesus taught along this valley. It is lush green with mango and banana groves. We missed Yad Vashem and Masada.

We were running late to do the Iftaar (breaking the fast) at the hotel and the six of us on the bus were trying to figure out how to handle it. Imam Abdullah Hasselhoff went to the microphone on the bus and explained the Adan, the Muezzin's call to prayers and shared the essence of fasting.

Mufeed, the Palestinian driver offered water and dates to break the fast. Later on at the dinner event (I think it was the next day).

Iftaar became a part of the meeting. Here is a good story to share; the speeches were going beyond the Iftaar time and we had to break the fast. A Rabbi sitting on a table two tables down along with other Muslims text messages his wife to find the sunset, and then relays that to the people on his table. He also took the initiative to call on the wait staff to bring the water for breaking the fast. That is the spirit we all need to develop.

14th day of Ramadan missed fasting

14th day of Ramadan missed fasting
Tuesday, August 24, 2010

I had not slept for more than 4 hours a day for the last full week
went to sleep at 4:00 AM and did not get up until 8:30 AM.

Today's schedule called for doing things we wanted to do and a few of us chose to go to Haifa, and we are hoping to go back there and see Bethlehem, Masada and Yad Vashem.

Pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157624688827209/

5th Day of Ramadan at Ahmadiyya Mosque

5th Day of Ramadan
Sunday, August 15, 2010

My Iftaar stop was at Ahmadiyya Mosque in Allen, Texas. I have been to this Mosque about three or four times before. Just about every know me and I knew most of the congregation there. Tariq reminded me about their national leader on my Radio show some 14 years ago when I had launched the first Asian Radio in Dallas.

I was hoping to be acquainted with new rituals and to my surprise; it was no different than going to any one of the Sunni Mosques in Dallas area. The only new thing was the educator was reading and explaining the chapter 95 Al-Teen and did a great job followed by breaking of the fast with dates and the Indian-Pakistani tempuras (Pakoras).

Imam Malik Mohammad led the prayers and prayer ritual was exactly the same as the Sunni tradition. After the prayer they talked about the Floods in Pakistan and their charity that serves out there. I was taken back when Imam Malik introduced me to the congregation and it was good to be with them.

A few Muslim may question following the Imam other than my own tradition, it is not the Imam, it is your own intent, niyyah that counts. It is the same argument I am having with Sean Hannity on Fox TV - the character of Imam does not matter to me, like every one, he will come and go, butit is my niyya that matters to me the visitor.

I asked them to join me going to other Mosques about breaking the fast, and most of them were aware of my schedule published at World Muslim Congress.

The dinner was traditional Indian (my reference, they call it Pakistani) chicken Qurma, Rice and Kheer. Met with Professor Qudsiyah who wants to be involved in interfaith work and Robert Hunt of Perkins school of theology at SMU had mentioned to her about my work in Pluralism as well. She is a professor of Law and speaks on Islam.

On the Dinner table Dr. Jari Khan, Tahir and three other gentlemen and their outreach coordinator carried on the conversation about Prophet Muhammad. I talked about the example set by the prophet of respecting the otherness of other; when he signed the peace treaty with the Meccans in Hudaibiya, his name was signed as Muhammad the messenger of God to which they objected, �your followers may believe that, but to us, you are Muhammad son of Abdullah� � Prophets Associates objected the removal of the phrase messenger of God, but Prophet saw another point of view and respected the otherness of other and had his signature reaffixed as Muhammad son of Abdullah. That is one of the greatest examples of Pluralistic attitudes that the Prophet wanted people to follow.

They presented me with a copy of Qur�aan with translations by Maulawai Sher Ali. The first thing I do is go to the first chapter, verse 7 as that has been one of the mistranslated verses both by a Muslim for his political desires after the fall of the ottoman empire by the European Kings in the 11th Century who deliberately mistranslated Qur�aan to egg their subjects against Muslims.
More about this at: http://quraan-today.blogspot.com/2008/01/unlike-jews-or-christians-17.html

My Iftaar Schedule - http://ramadanexclusive.blogspot.com/2010/08/my-iftaar-schedule.html

Mike Ghouse is a speaker thinker and a writer on Pluralism and Islam, a frequent guest at the media offering pluralistic solutions for the issues of the day. His work is encapsulated in 22 blogs and 3 websites listed at www.MikeGhouse.net