With a car full of 7 girls, a mix of London Bangolis, Pakistanis, Americans and an African we showed up to Alexandria as the Adhan for Maghrib flooded into the noise of coastal Mediterranean life to cleanse it. We were dropped off across from the train station, and the little conductor boy quickly shoo-ed us out of the van. They didn’t have a license to be driving us and so they closed the curtains anytime we tried to look out unless we were on the highway.
The setting darkness fell around us and we walked in the direction of the nearest minaret. The Imam had just started reciting and it was so incredible. Listening to him recite, it dawned on me that I could understand the ayaat. I knew he was reciting ayaat from Surah al-Kahf and which part he was talking about: how one brother advised the other, how the other rejected faith for the temporary pleasures of this life. This is what makes Egypt beautiful:
Walk into any random little masjid in an alley and you will have people who recite the Quran with so much meaning and beauty it can bring you to tears, and you will have the opportunity to listen, to understand, to practice, to test what you have been learning.
