al-Qāhira

Geez, I can hardly contain the excitement! It's real, finally real and I'm going! The paper I submitted in a moment of temporary insanity (or so it seemed) was accepted and I've been invited to give a presentation at the conference at Cairo University. Tick tack. Clock's ticking. Better finish that research because I'm flying out in less than two weeks. Actually in a week and change, inshallah.

Subhanallah I can't believe the day has come, well, to be fair I'm only flying out for a week, not the 6 months+ I've been talkig about for ...well... a while. But it's a start. Not least because I'll be stepping into Tahrir square next week, one of the centre points of the ongoing struggle for change. Because I'll get to see Game'at Al-ʾAzhar al-Šarīf, the world's 2nd oldest institution of higher learning, because I'll get to visit one, if not the Middle Eastern metropolis.

al-Qāhira
2012 is looking pretty good right now.

12th of Rabi’a al-Awwal

I desired to praise the Chosen One and was hindered

By my own inability to grasp the extent of his glory.

How can one such as I measure an ocean, when the ocean is vast?

And how can one such as I count the stones and the stars?

If all of my limbs were to become tongues, even then –

Even then I could not begin to praise him as I desired. 

And if all of creation gathered together in an attempt
To praise him, even then they would stint in his due.
I have altogether ceased trying – awestruck, clinging to courtesy,
Tempered by timidity, glorifying his most exalted rank.
Indeed, sometimes silence holds within it the essence of eloquence,
And often speech merely fodder for the faultfinder.

(Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi)