Swimming pools in Damascus

If you have any information on swimming pools for ladies only in the Damascus area, please leave a comment. It should be a place where women are allowed to cover their awrah!

Aswa al Khair

Last summer we went to a new mall called Aswa al khair.

When I first got there I thought it was some kind of amusement park because there was so much light in all different kinds of colours.

The Mall has several boutiques, outlets and a huge supermarket. The latter is really cool, because you can get all sorts of halal meat slices (for the bread), which is pretty difficult in some parts of Europe.

Looking foreward to go there again inshaAllah.

A glimpse into the Umayyad Mosque at Maghreb Prayer

After some shopping at the Hamidiyye Souq we went to the Umayyad Mosque to pray the Maghreb prayer.

The Umayyad Mosque is also known as the Grand Mosque of Damascus. It is one of largest mosques in the world and holds a great religious significance. Before the Muslim conquest, it was a church. Damascus was the head office for the Umayyad dynasty from approx. year 660 -750. After that the head office became Cordaba and the new dynasty was called the Abbaside dynasty.

One of the Minarets is spotted through the old Roman Ruins.
Look at the huge crowd. All moving to Mosque to pray.

This is one of many places to make ablution (wudu). This is obligatory before praying.

Here is the shrine of John the Baptist. Unfortunately some people think he has some kind of saint function and therefore ask him for some favours, instead of turning directly towards Allah.
Next to the mosque is the tomb of Hero Salahuddin al Ayoubi (born 1138), who was a Kurdish Muslim general and founded the Ayyoubid dynasty.

The ceiling. Look at how well decorated it is. It is made of mosaics and geometric patterns.
This is in another room. Wonderful colours.
The interior is decorated in fine mosaics and was inspired by the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

Art!
It is told that that these walls depict Paradise...

I must state that this Mosque looks very different at magreb time, when the sun is setting. It is very beautiful.

Huge area!
Just lovely at night!

Kids resting after playing in the big court yard of the mosque.

This is taken from the inside facing the gate out to the souq. You can see the Roman ruins.

It is dark now, You can spot the moon.

Allah yehmeekee ya Sham

Sabarah

It has been a long time since I have been blogging, but I have been really busy. I'll try to post a bit more often inshaAllah

I thought I'd give my favourite fruit in Syria a tribute:)

I love Sabarah, it's really good, healthy and delicious of course!

Here you can see a cactus fruit stand. They are everywhere in the city. I also like eating corncob's but I am afraid of getting sick from the water...:(

Here is a stand in Souq al Kaslaneen in Sha3lan. The picture is taken by my sister. In the night time these stands will be glowing by chains of light bulbs. Some big stands have seats, so that you can sit down and enjoy your sabarah.

If you don't know what the fruit looks like, you can see it here:

taken from: http://www.harald-zappe.de/me/exotic/exotic.html

The fruit has has approximately 85% water, 10-15% carbohydrates, with a big amount of Vitamin C, 6-8% glucose and fructose levels, very high in fiber, minerals and low in calories. SubhanAllah!

ENJOY!

Souq

Shopping

When you want to go shopping in Damascus, there are various of places to go. I ENJOY walking alone through al Hamra, Telyani, Salhiye and al Hamidiyeh. When you are alone you have the time to just look at the buildings, "analyze" people (hehe) and just inhale the whole atmosphere. I also LOVE to go there with my father or mother. They always provide me with historical information which you just can't get enough of!

Finally! The Blue Tower is finished! We saw them put on the last letters on the top of the building. And there are palm trees now. I still dont know what the building is for? Hotel, business?

Picture taken at Sahet Arnous.

We were on our way to Faris:) You can see moun Qasioun in the back ground. I love that mountain so much... it's indescribable.

Al Hamidiyeh

This is in the beginning of souq Al Hamidyeh.

This is Sheikh al Bzooriyeh, where you cab buy all sorts of spices.
You name it they have it.

Notice the holes in the "ceiling". It is from the time when the French shot at Damascus

Between al Hamidiyeh and Bab Touma

What a nice builing!
It is placed between souq al Hamidiyeh and Bab Touma.

Another small alley. Kids playing.

Cham Palace

Cham Palace

This building is the Cham Palace. It's a hotel and everytime I walk past the cafe lounge I see some Syrian actor. There is also a cinema on the corner where last seasons movies are shown for half a year.

Sujuq

My favourite junk food :)

My favourite junk food is the ultimate sujuq from this store

Tastes soooo good, mashaAllah. And with a cold venetto...! Mmmm

Four Season Hotel

Four Season Hotel

Look around in the city and you will probably get a glimpse of the monstrous building which happens to be the Four Season Hotel. It might be pretty but it looks so weird with all the other building, but I guess there had to be built something for the rich Saudi and Khaleeji tourists. They have to spend their money on something, right? Who cares if it is reasonable or not?

Garbage in Damascus

Garbage man in Old Damascus

My heart always goes out to the garbage men in Sham. I feel so sorry for them. They have to clean the streets which are never clean because of the careless Damascene community, who obviously don't care about the environment or the future of the country and their children and grand children. Now I don't want to sound like some hippie BUT this is probably the sadest thing: How indifferent people are about treating the nature. A huge part of the problem is probably the missing dispenser around the city. You might find one for every 2 km! That might be the reason why people dont feel like holding their garbage when they dont know when they will pass a dispenser. (By the way, I was told that the reason for not having that many dispensers around in the city, was that some ignorant people had cut the bottom so that the garbage in the dispensers fell down on the ground.)

It's a shame. It wouldn't hurt if Damascus looked cleaner. If you know anyone in the Ministry of Environment in Damascus pass the idea to them.

I hope that one day we can walk through a clean Damascus.

Audio Islam

Salam

OK, now this post is a bit away from the subject, but here goes anyways. I hope you can benefit from it, inshaAllah.

Check out www.audioislam.com

This webpage is fantastic. There are hundreds of recitations and lectures by several. You might want tot try Yasir Fazaqa on Self Image Psychology. He is really good, mashaAllah and very inspiring. You´ll find him under Muslim Identity and then under Taqwa. He speaks about how important it is that we Muslims keep our head high and who we should be mirroring.

He also has a lecture called "Be proud Muslims" and "The Sahabiyat" and "Fiqh of Priorities", which are all good, mashaAllah.

Download it to your mp3 and listen to it when you are moving around:)

Souq al Hamidiyah

Syria Allah Hamihah - Syria God is protecting it

This is a picture from my first visit to souq al Hamidiyah in the summer of 2006. I was met by this huge bill board with the text: Syria Allah Hamihah. Which it is indeed, inshaAllah.

Check the man running with a rack of clothes. I don't remember noticing him when taking the picture!

This is one amongst many shops that sell spices and weird stuff like dead and dried turtles and other stuff from the ocean. I don´t really know what they are for, and if people buy them, but I have been told that they are used for magic. I hope people will stop doing magic since it is haram and will harm themselves in the end.

One of these boys stopped us and asked for his picture to be taken, when he saw us taking pictures. We said OK, but then he became shy, so we said "ohhh come on!" His friend then came along, and we were allowed to take the photo. Right after, they RAN to the Umayyade mosque to pray salat al Duhr. Sweet or what!?

This is taken in front of the Umayyade Mosque. Look at all the old Roman ruins.

Bab Al Zagheer + Bloudan

Bab al Zagheer

We started the day by visiting our deceased relatives and Sayidinah Bilal and Abdullah ibn Jafar. Then we went to restaurant Mora in Bloudan. But by the time we got to the restaurant, my batteries were dead.

This is the grave yard in Bab al Zagheer

Some Turkish Imams are obviously buried here.

Here lies Sayidinah Bilal. The first one to call to prayer in Islam.

May Allah be pleased with him.

This is Abdallah ibn Jafar´s tomb.

Sayidina Jafar was the muslim warrior who kept on holding to the flag in a war. When his hand that was holding the flag was cut off he switched the flag to the other hand. Then this hand with the flag was chipped off. To show that the muslim were victorious he put the bar of the flag in his mouth. The enemy then slaughtered Jafar and he died, but the Muslims had won the war.
Abdallah was his son.

This is just to show how stupid some muslim can be... Writing their names on our legacy. Pathetic and sad.

Masjid Bloudan al Kbeer

This is probably the most beautiful mosque I have ever visited! It is huge and have several entries and several prayer rooms. If you ever go to Bloudan you gotta stop there and pray!

The huge Gate to the Mosque in Bloudan

Jame3 Bloudan al Kbeer ( The big Mosque in Bloudan)

The inside.

This is the view from the Masjid The Minaret

Paradise on earth!

Masjid Al Telyani

Masjid Al Telyani
I am back from Damascus. I had a wonderful time alhamdullilah eventhough everybody was concerned about Lebanon, but with very strong faith that they would be victorious, which they did alhamduliliah.

This is a masjid in Al Telyani. I don´t remember the name, but it is huge and beautiful on both the inside aswell as the outside.

It is located near Nabeel Sweets.

I am in Charming Damascus now:)
Wonderful place, may Allah always protect it! Amin

Sfiha!

Who said you can't eat Sfiha outside Syria? Here it is made in a Danish household ;) Right from the oven!

All I can say is that it was really good!

Last year, when we visited some relatives in Sham, they served us Sfiha made with chicken instead of meat. It tasted just great. Hope I get to eat that more!

Sahet al Qusoor - Qusoor Square

Sahet al Qusoor. It has changed a lot over the past years. It is VERY busy and crowded in the night time due to the many shawarma and Pizza places in the area.

The mosque is called Jame3 al Hussein. It's pretty inside. We prayed fajr there a few times.
When it's Friday and all other shops are closed we go to Bab Touma ;) All though it's pretty boring compared to Salhiyeh and Abou Roumaneh

Bab Touma is located on the other side of the street behind me (the photographer).

Jinn House

This is a house near Jesr al Abyad. It is said that this house has jinn.

The story that goes is that there was a family living in the house, but they ran off when they started hearing sounds and feeling harassed. It is said that people hear the Jinn make wudu at fajr time. Now my question is, how can jinn be evil if they are muslim and pray? Anybody heard another story? Or is it just an hoax?

I went really close to the house, and tried to look inside. All I could see was dirt and the shutters were closed. It was totally unattended. People looked funny at me for taking a picture of it. But hey, what are cameras for?

Ps. I know that we shouldn't interfere with jinn, and this is not my intention. I'm merely curious about the story that floats.

The first Minaret in the world

This is supposed to be the first Minaret in the world. It's in Bosra, Southern Syria

Locals selling handmade rugs.

Kids playing

More kids playing

These kids were playing soccer, when we came across their field. The boy stopped guarding his goal just to pose! So cute!