it was stated in the religious supplement of a local newspaper by dr. mahmoud gad abdel rahim, that there is a program for cancer prevention in religion. it has been proven that honey, dates, and milk help cure cancer. the ask and black seed also have great benefits in increasing immunity, and it has been discovered that 85% of women with cervical cancer are caused by their husbands being uncircumcised.
the above s t a t e m e n t, which does not even deserve to be confirmed as incorrect, was stated in an article i wrote on november 27, 1994, that is, 30 years ago.
what is more painful than the above statement is that our “religious culture” was not satisfied with stagnation, but was characterized by decline, and we became at the forefront of delay and stagnation.
we issue reprehensible fatwas, the more strange and extremist they are, and the more extremist their speaker is, the greater the number of believers in them, and the longer the queue of listeners to them!
all of this is happening while we are very close to having artificial intelligence technologies explode in our faces, turning our lives upside down. this is what the advanced west thinks and fears, and we cling to the pinnacles of our backwardness and weakness, i do not know how we failed, not only to advance intellectually, at least, rather, we have become more backward, and our situation has deteriorated and slipped to the bottom in every field. the reason is known, the cause is known, and the treatment is also known.
a tweet about a paragraph from a distinguished university professor, which he said in a symposium held in a gulf country, related to the wisdom behind kuwait airways’ broadcast of the lengthy travel prayer. the tweet was widely spread, as is the case with any criticism of behavior or words related to religion!
i researched the origin of the supplication and found that the topic goes back a few decades when a kuwaiti captain, at the height of his religious extremism, decided to recite the travel supplication, in his loud voice, before taking off on his plane.
after some passengers were surprised by the matter, as it was the only plane to do this, the captain was investigated, and he insisted on his position! as usual, when it came to religious matters, the captain’s behavior was overlooked, and over time, broadcasting prayers became a custom on all kuwait airways flights and moved to other airlines.
although the “religious mood” of the person who came up with the idea of broadcasting the supplication changed after years, the supplication has remained to this day, and has become longer than before, knowing that the supplication is available in its text, and better and more than it, on every passenger’s mobile phone, and he can listen to it or read it with ease.
the story of the survival of the supplication, and the change in the “mood” of those behind its imposition, brought to mind the incident of our american friend who insisted on cutting off the tail and head of the fish before putting it in the oven, despite her husband and guests’ protests and their ridicule of her behavior.
her insistence came under the pretext that this was what her mother used to do. when the latter was contacted and asked about the reason for insisting on cutting off the tail and head of the fish, she said that she was doing what her mother used to do, and when the grandmother was asked, she answered, with shocking simplicity, that the small oven she had was not large enough to put a medium-sized fish inside it!
how many things, customs, and rituals we do not really know why we do them, and we often do them based on those who came before us.
the era of jet planes came, and we were happy to ride them, and we were confident that they were the safest and most comfortable means of travel, but the dangers of riding camels in the barren desert, and the ‘depressingness’ of what befalls them. looking, the horrors and dangers of death on the road remained firmly established in our minds!