In the morning, the group decided to collect some tip for Mido, "in appreciation for your excellent story telling and guide. - From Malaysian friends"
1. The Citadel and Mohammad Ali Mosque
Mohammad Ali Mosque. Made out of alabaster (marble) so it is sometimes known as the alabaster mosque.
There are palaces inside the Citadel. One of them was burnt and abandoned. Mohammad Ali was very smart. Instead of building a palace he built a mosque. People can't burnt mosque which is a sacred building. So he built an alabaster mosque under his name and it stayed till today.
There was a courtyard inside the mosque. This is where all social activities are performed. The other part, the "inner chamber" are only used for prayers. In the courtyard, there's this thing that was used to clean the hands, arms, legs, face and head before prayer. From the courtyard, we could see the clock tower that was given by the French in exchange for the obelisk from Luxor Temple.
Underneath this huge courtyard is a big water tank. As the mosque is built on a higher ground, water needs to be pumped up and store in the tank. Water is pumped from River Nile via an aqueduct.
Inside the mosque, we saw the tomb of Mohammad Ali. Mido said the tomb was placed inside the mosque so that when people pray, they are also praying to ask God to bless Mohammad Ali. However, he "sort-of" implied that Mohammad Ali was never a good king.
The prayer hall of Mohammad Ali Mosque. It was here that Mido told us about Islam.
We all sat in a circle.
He mentioned that each mosque has a niche. This niche marks where Mecca is and where a Muslim have to face when they pray. All you have to do when going into the mosque is to look around for the niche and you can start praying.
The mosque is built to project the "prayer lead"'s voice. The lead will stand in front of 10,000 people (the capacity of this mosque!) and will start asking people to pray. Mido demonstarted the effect by shouting "Allah is great". That caught a lot of people's attention.
Why take off shoes in mosque.. because of the way ze bray. By putting ze heads on the floor. So if ze have shoes, there will be dirt on the carpet. It's not nice to pray like that.
Explained why women and men had to bray separately. Asked Kim to stand in front then bend.. how to concentrate and bray to God with this attractive woman in front of you? He said that it is out of respect for women. In this mosque, women prayed on the second floor. Other smaller mosques - women pray behind the men.
Since we are in the mosque, he would like to talk to us about Islam.
5 laws of Islam:
If you follow all these 5 laws, you will be a good Muslim
1. believe in God
2. bray to God 5 times a day
- why bray (so that you won't do bad things like stealing and killing because you know you will face God in the next few hours)
- how we bray (Mido demonstrated how he prays. He said it's like an exercise, 5 times a day). I wonder why he's um.. not as fit as he should be.. ha ha.. Also, he said that you don't neccessary have to do the "exercise" if the situation does not permit. You can just say your silent prayers.
3. fast for God during Ramahdan
- why - so that you know how it feels like to be hungry and to be lonely (as you cannot make love too). What's worse is that even with money, you cannot buy food. After Ramahdan, when a beggar ask you for money to buy food, you will help.
Islam - it's between you and God. Who's the person who is going to judge you. Your God. Not your fellow friends. So why have excuses like
not fasting because of travel and medical? Your God knows the truth.
4. give alms to the poor - 2.5% of savings (i.e. additional money you have after taking care of basic need). You can start by helping out to relatives/friends/neighbours (a way to prevent crime too). After this is done, if you want to, you can give to a collection to help other people. If only the other rich Arab neighbouring countries are doing the same thing.
5. pilgrimage/haj - the only rule that God will forgive if you are not able to fulfill because He understands that it is difficult for someone from a far away land to come to Mecca to perform pilgrimage. A Muslim must work hard and earn money from his two hands for his pilgrimage. He should not "inherit the money from his parents or rich wife" or borrow from bank.
What he said in the mosque was an eye opener for me as I didn't know the liberal side of Islam. I have always pictured it to be really strict and by the book. Perhaps it's just me, being ignorance.
As we exit the mosque, we saw a view of Cairo city as we are at a higher level. It's breathtaking!!
*addition:
- someone asked why green is the colour of Islam (in the mosque, ladies who wear sleeveless shirt were given a green robe). No specific reason except that green represent trees, plants and oasis in heaven.
2. Back to Egyptian Museum
Saw mummies!
3. Alexander the Great story
Told us story on how Alexander (from Greece) attacked Persia. The tactics was to come to Egypt first, then move to Persia from Egypt. If he attacked Persia from the North, his flank is exposed because Persia has a lot of allies. But if he crossed the sea to Egypt and came from South, he is not exposed.
Is Alexander the Great homosexual? (Chloe's question) In Mido's opinion, no because:
1. He has a lot of warriors under him. Tough men fighting for him. If he's homosexual, they will not be his followers.
2. Records on a lover that he had.
Mido said that the reason why he was branded homosexual is because he never married.
4. Lunch
After lunch, we boarded the bus. Mido came up and gave a farewell speech.
5. Going back to Malaysia... :'(
