Fisham is having a break

Dear readers!

I am very sorry for the unwilling silence at the blog.

I will be back in January 2008 with new stuff insha'Allah. Please, if you do you have stuff to publish, do not hesitate to email me.

Take care and Blessed Eid and Merry Christmas!

Fil Quds - Into Jerusalem

مررنا على دار الحبيب فردنا
عن الدار قانون الأعادي وسورها
فقلت لنفسي ربما هي نعمة
فماذا ترى في القدس حين تزورها
ترى كل ما لا تستطيع احتماله
إذا ما بدت من جانب الدرب دورها
وما كل نفس حين تلقى حبيبها
تسر ولا كل الغياب يضيرها
فإن سرها قبل الفراق لقاؤه
فليس بمأمون عليها سرورها
متى تبصرِ القدس العتيقة مرة
فسوف تراها العين حيث تديرها

...

Blessed Eid!

Eid in Filasteen in picture:

A vender in the old city of Nablus sells sweets in preparation for Eid Al-Fitr, the celebration marking the end of Ramadan. (Rami Swidan, Maan Images)

A Palestinian merchant sells fruit in a market in the Gaza Strip, as Muslims prepare to celebrate the end of the holy month of Ramadan. (Eman Mohammed, Maan Images)

Ramadan-feelings from Betlehem

The entrance of Ramadan has brought a lot of wonderful blessings to the beautiful city of Betlehem.

People are so busy up with prayers and doing good to please God. Every evening, me and family, go for taraweeh-prayer in the mosque nearby.

But this year praying in this mosque has got a new taste. The mosque is filled up with praying people that kids and young boys have to pray outside at the street. Seeing people smiling, exited to catch up the taraweeh prayer in the mosque makes me so glad and gives me harmonious feelings. There is a spiritual competition during Ramadan, where everybody compites to act good towards people and to please Allah.

A Palestinian girl holds a Ramadan lantern at a celebration of the Islamic holy month. (Wissam Nassar, Maan Images)

Unfortunately this same glad feeling can not be found at my university. Only first day of Ramadan we enjoyed the ramadan-decorations and the dates that we were given at the entrance of the university. But nowdays you can't find anything that reminds you of Ramadan. It is sadly since the whole city is celebrating Ramadan and a lot of the university's students are muslims.

I comfort myself although with the ramadan-greetings from my university.

Qatayef (Ramadan pancakes)

Qatayef is a typical Palestinian dessert that is prepared during the holy month of Ramadan.

The photo was taken by Nada at A blogger from Gaza

Qatayef are pancakes filled with either cheese or nuts and thereafter fried in oil. Then they are dropped in cold sugar syrup for a final touch. Qatayef is a very special delight that can't be resisted!

Enjoy Qatayef by using this very easy receipe >>

Ingredients pancake:
1 cup of flour
1 cup of semolina (sameed)
2 and 1/4 cups of warm water
1 teaspoon of instant baking yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
Pinch of salt

Pour all the ingredients into a bowl and mix in a blender. Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave it to rest for 15-30 minutes. Prepare a pancake pan, and heat it till it is really hot. Start pouring the mixture into the hot pan just like pancakes, but in smaller sizes, and don't flip it on the other side!

Just leave it till it’s done. You will know that when the top shoulder is full of air holes and the bottom side is colored goldenbrown. Cook all the batter in this way and cover the pancakes so that they do not dry out.

Fill the pancakes it the way you wish; Fill it with either cheese and sugar or walnuts and cinnamon and sugar. Close by folding over and seal by pressing the edges.

Bake the half-moon shaped Qatayef on a greased tray in a preheated (250 C ) oven for a bout 30 minutes, turning once, till golden. Dip hot Qatayef pancakes into room temperature pre-pared sugar syrup for few seconds and serve hot. The sugar syrup is made of 3 cup sugar and 1 cup water and some juice of lemon.

Bon Appetite!

Ramadan photos from Jerusalem

Beautiful photos from Jerusalem during Ramadan!




Photographer: Ameer Qaimari

Blessed Ramadan

All over the world muslims are welcoming a very special and dear guest - Ramadan.

Ramadan has finally arrived to overhelm us with joy and blessings.

During the entrance of Ramadan I sense a spiritual calmness mixed with peaceful harmony. The play of sunlight escapes my mind free to Jerusalem wandering and touching every holy stone in it. I can still smell the blessed soil and the sound of the beautiful azaan can still be heard.

Still I can't stop wonder how Ramadan's entrance will be like in Filasteen? How does palestinians sense its blessed givings and how is Ramadan celebrated? Join us and share with us your story or thoughts about Ramadan in beloved Filasteen.

Ramadan is not only about fasting, it is mostly about showing one's solidarity with the oppressed and the poor ones. It is also about self-discipline and to scrub all your sins and to start over with people around you. It is about to begin a new start.

May this Ramadan become a new start for everybody. A start filled with love, respect, peace, kindness and tolerance! And may Allah (SWT) wash our hearts from hatred, envy and ill wills.


Blessed Ramadan!

Spiritual guarantee

The beautiful scent of olive trees and jasmine bushes are embracing me at my arrival to Filasteen.

At the same time my soul is enjoying the blessings that has been bestowed on this country. I am always amazed every time I visit my dearest city and see its wonderful people.

I mean, logically by 60 years of occupation people should get more inhumanized, intolerante and meanful expressions should be the common "conduct".

But that is not what I find during my latest visit 2007. I still find strong people decorated with heartly smiles. Friends and relatives are welcoming you to their homes and overhelming you by giving you the best they can find. However, due to the poverty there is not much to give but even though people are ready to give you their hearts and souls.

You sense a miraculous harmony, I would say it is bizarre. Nevertheless bearing in mind the ongoing provocations from soldiers and nightly shooting. No I am not trying to convince you that it is paradise you find in Palestine. Everybody knows it is not; The infrastructure is totally demolished and the economic standard is not getting better. On the other hand people have learnt how to value every minute of their lives. To live hour by hour and let tomorrow be tomorrow.

I cannot stop myself from unconsciously comparing this lifestyle to mine in Europe. Honestly, if someone could measure the stress-level on a richter-scale in about where I live it would scream DANGER! Is not that strange? I mean we have everything here in Europe; high economic standard, economic guarantees, social welfare, all high-tech stuff you can dream of. All this is supposed to release free time for family and friends. But the fact is we cannot handle this "freedom". On the contrary to the people in Palestine. They do not have this stability we experience. But they can afford what we lack, the quality time with family and friends. Their love has not limits. They have what I call a "spiritual guarantee".

Photo: Olive grove

Broken roads and crazy taxi-drivers wakes me up from my silly conclusions. I hand over the small coins to the taxi-driver at the same time I breathe in the wonderful scent of jasmine. I take a look around me, watching children, youth and elderly people . I try to understand their expressions on their faces and I try to read their thoughts;

How would they describe their situation? And from which point of view? What are their dreams and hopes?

This blog will insha'Allah be an exlusive collection of thoughts, ideas, reflections, hopes and dreams concerning Palestine from youth all around the world.

So if you also have a story you would like to share with us or photos, music, video and even a poem, please do not hesitate a second to email me and Insha'Allah it will be a valuable contribution to this blog.

Many thanks and God bless you!

Today and tomorrow

Filasteen - In my Soul, Heart And Mind is a blog dedicated to all palestinian youth. They are like the golden dome at the top of the Dome of the Rock. Year by year passes by, yet the golden dome is still shining to give light to whole Jerusalem. The same thing is about the palestinian youth - the give light to Palestine's future. They are and will always be my past, present and future.

On this blog youth will share hopes and dreams, ideas and reflections, photos and poems - everything that is connected to their deep love for Palestine.

FISHAM is a shortening to Filasteen - In my Soul, Heart And Mind. But it is alo an arabic word meaning in contribution. And that is what youth are and have always been - a contribution to mankind - regardless of ethnicity, religion, race or gender.

I inaugurate this blog with "UNTUK MU PALESTIN" - a song about Palestine by "Raihan" from album Gema Alam.

Enjoy and ahlan wa sahlan!