Picture (Truck 4)

A Hadith (6)

Materialism is coming up everywhere in the world, and Yemen is, unfortunately, no exception. I recently came across a beautiful hadith of the Prophet (PBUH) that has a link with this, in which he (PBUH) said: "... this wealth is like a sweet fresh fruit; whoever takes it without greediness, he is blessed in it, and whoever takes it with greediness, he is not blessed in it, and he is like a person who eats but is never satisfied..."

The National Dialogue... Park?!

One of the newest small parks in Sana'a, which will contain a couple of dozen or so swings and slides and some benches, is being built in between two graveyards and next to a wide road where traffic rushes past. It doesn't (so far) have any trees to sit in the shade. Doesn't sound great for a city park? Then notice the name: 'The National Dialogue Park'. Is there any relation, you wonder, between a park that is unlikely to attract many visitors and the national dialogue? Ah, and the the First Armored Division's base in Sana'a, the base of Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar who joined the opposition during the uprising and has now been ordered to leave his post and instead serve as a presidential adviser, will be turned into a national park, according to President Abdu-Rabbo Mansour Hadi's decree. This will give us the 'March 21 Park'.

More Rain!

For some unknown reason, rain water finds no way to flow away quickly from the streets. So when it rains heavily (which it does every now and then), streets immediately change into rivers, with all the fun that involves!

Rain

Alhamdulillah, we have some rain these days (in/around Sana'a, at least - I don't know about the rest of the country. That's an interesting thing here anyway - rain can be extremely local: often there may be rain in one part of the city but nothing in another). It usually doesn't last for more than an hour or so, but that's enough to make the air smell fresh (especially since Sana'a has quite dusty air). These days, some water comes down nearly every day. The last good rain we had was during the last month of Ramadhan, I believe, so that's quite a while ago. And when rain is a rare occurance, it becomes much more beloved to the people. "Beautiful weather, isn't it?" one might say when it rains. I think that readers in rainy countries (such as Britain or Holland) can smile about that!

A Hadith (5)

Abu Hurairah reported: The Prophet (PBUH) said: "It is charity to utter a good word." (Bukhari and Muslim)

This is something we should not forget in our daily lives...

The National Dialogue

People are speculating whether or not the National Dialogue is going to work out. There are supposed to be representatives from all different groups and parties, but the truth is that not all of them participate - for different reasons. And so the question is if problems and differences of opinion can be solved if the people involved are not present. Whatever the case, the 'average citizen' doesn't notice much of the talks except an increase in roadblocks where soldiers search cars for weapons.