whats the plot

i got in a taxi to go a short distance a few days ago. while driving, the man said to me:

you know, today, something strange happened. i just dropped off my nephew to the airport where he’s traveling to qatar. i am subscribed to a “du3a a day by sms” service by etisalat, and i got the du3a while driving him to the airport. so i told him, “read me the du3a,” since i was driving. he read the du3a (which said something along the lines of “astawda3 Allah” (or put as a trust with Allah) my self, my family, my deeds, and so on).  the taxi driver continued, “i was shocked – the timing was incredible! it’s as if Allah had that message come today just for him specifically!”

he then asked me to listen to a clip of a story from a sheikh on his phone. the sheikh mentions a man whose wife was pregnant and he had to go and travel. the wife didn’t want him to go and tried to insist that he stay and not go. “how can you leave me while i am pregnant,” she asked? so he put his hand on her stomach and said, “oh Allah, astawde3ak ma fee batniha” – that “oh Allah, i leave as a trust with you whatever is in her stomach.”

so he left. he came back after he was done with his travels and found young kids (from his family or relatives or what not) telling him that, “your wife has passed away.” so he said, “inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji3oon.”

they then told him that they found something strange – that every night, some sort of smoke would come out from the place that they buried this lady. so he went there and dug up the grave, and found his wife sitting in the grave with his son alive and between her feet.

sub7anAllah… as the taxi driver added, had the man made the same du3a and added the mother in the du3a as well, he would have come back and found his wife as well.

i almost died yesterday… again…  sub7anAllah.  it was around 1am and i was really tired and sleepy… i was trying to cross the street from the maw2af to get to the other side and find something to ride home.  i guess i really wasn’t paying attention and was thinking instead about “what will i take home,” and weighing my options as to what transportation is best to take.  i crossed half the street and saw cars coming, but didn’t register that they were flying… so i started crossing the road nonchalantly (mind you, this is a highway-type road) without paying much attention.

suddenly i hear screeching brakes and i look and i see a mini-truck (one of those that carries a particular type of good for a supermarket, etc) coming straight at me and scrambling to come to a halt… a second later, i realize that it’s going to hit me and he’s trying to stop to avoid hitting me.  i don’t know what happened, but i guess i stepped back two steps just in time to avoid getting hit.

i finished crossing the street and some people on the other side are like, “mesh tekhalee balak ya sheikh, hatdaya3 nafsak keda!”

sub7anAllah…  Allah saved me, al7amdulillah.  death can come at anytime…  the problem is that i often forget this.  may Allah grant us 7osn al-khatema – ameen.

i stopped a taxi that had just picked up some people and was going the same direction i wanted to go in.  he asked the others if he could drop me off on his way to their destination.  because i was in a rush, i said, “if not, if you may please just drop me off at the end of the street on your way.”

so i got on, and he shook my hand and said “taqabal Allah mina wa minkum” – i was like, “uhh… thanks, jazakAllah khair”  (this wasn’t after a salah time, i wasn’t coming out of a masjid, and it wasn’t the end of ramadan, so i was just surprised)…

anyway, i made it to the end of the street.  i had a 5 LE note and 1.25 LE worth of change.  i valued the travel at 2LE, so i gave him the 5 and asked him for change.  he said, “i don’t have change.”  i said, “okay, take it and forget it” – he refused and put the money in my hand and clenched my hand and said “you’re making me hold up traffic, go!”  i insisted but to no avail…  in reterospect, i should have given him the 1.25, but i forgot that i had it at the time, and it wasn’t exactly fair either.  i felt bad, and so i made du3a that Allah gives him more rizq on that day than he ever made in a single day before – i hope it happened insha’Allah

that would be the second time i got a free taxi ride.  the first time, i was walking to jum3a at masjid al fat7, and a brother in a taxi stopped me and said, “are you going for jum3ah at masjid al fat7?” – and i said, “yes” – and he said, “come” – he also refused to take money, saying “i stopped you, you didn’t stop me” :p

today (well, yesterday actually) – was quite a busy day!  within 24 hours, i rode 4 different types of masharee3 (minivans), a bus, a train, an underground train, and a handful of taxis.

some of these minivans are crazy – imagine that when a minivan stops, 20 people run towards it, all trying to get on.  time passes and another one comes by and the process repeats.  it’s quite possible that you may end up standing inside the minivan, or even end up riding while hanging on to the door.

i’d like to add that google maps and gps definitely come in handy at times!

a few days ago,  i had to wake up extra early to go to work, and it so happens that i also ended up sleeping really late that same night.  i woke up and was really spaced out.

i went to take a “mashroo3″ (minibus) to work.  first off, i got on the wrong one (despite me asking, “is this going to x?” and him answering, “no, it’s going to y”).  secondly, i was next to the door.  “mashroo3 etiquette” mandates that the person by the door closes the door when passengers board or depart the vehicle.

the guy behind me pushed the door midway to close, and, being spaced out and all, i neglected to close it.  we drove a little, and the door fell off.  “Allah yenawar ya bashawat,” the driver said (sarcastically and seemingly upset – can’t really translate it, but an english equivalent would be, “nice going, gentlemen”).  the driver and his assistant went back, grabbed the door and tied it on the mashroo3.  the man said something about, “lazy people who don’t close the door,” got back in the car, and started driving.

i felt bad, so i handed the driver some money to fix the door with (of course i am sure it was already in really bad shape, otherwise it wouldn’t have fallen off from driving at such a slow speed on local roads for a minute or less, but nevertheless…).  the driver asked, “what’s this?”  i said, “this is to fix your door with.”  he said, “we don’t accept reimbursements…” i said, “but it’s my fault, i neglected to close the door.”  he said (approximately), “we drive with Allah’s protection, and the door’s time came and qadar Allah wa ma sha2a fa3al.”  he refused to take the money (and the passenger next to me also told me, “forget about it, keep your money”).

i really respected the guy for his mindset and for controlling his anger.  may Allah increase his rizq – ameen.

it’s nice to have directions (walking and navigation) in egypt – quite useful (albeit imperfect).

i spent the night at my aunt’s house in cairo yesterday, and had a ticket for the 8am train to alexandria. i figured, “rather than hassle with n different modes of transportation, especially while fasting, why not call city cab?”

city cab (aka cairo cab) is a “professional” cab service, similar to what we have in the us. i called last night around 1am and asked for a cab to the train station to pick me up at 7am, figuring it’d be good to give myself some extra time (just in case).

so 7am came and the cab didn’t show – so i called them back and they said “let us give you the driver’s number”. i said, “isn’t it your job to make sure he’s on time rather than asking me to call him?” they said, “ok hang up and we’ll call you back and connect you to him.”

long story short, he promised he’d be there by 7:30 and that he’d get me there in time – i later called back and got his number – yet 7:50 came around and he still hadn’t arrived.

i called him and said “forget it – i lost the value of the train ticket thanks to you, not to mention the difficulty and inconvenience of getting to alexandria when you don’t have a train ticket.”

he apologized and said that he had another job and the cab company told him to get me when he was done (rather than dispatch a cab just for me). only in egypt…

something interesting always happens whenever i make the trip from alex to cairo.  the past two times i went, i encountered some sort of major discussion over the fare of the mashroo3 (micro bus).

during the first incident, i was leaving from sidi gaber – as those in alex may know, how long it takes to fill the mashroo3 depends on what time you leave (esp since sidi gaber doesn’t have as much traffic to cairo as ma7atet masr does).  anyhow, after waiting ~45 minutes and finally having enough people to be ready to go, the man announces that the charge will be 25le (the normal is 22).  people were outraged and argued, etc – mainly because of the chicanery involved (waste 45 minutes of our time and then tell us that you’re charging more, so we either go ride another bus (and wait another 45 minutes to save 3le, or we deal with it and pay)).

the man didn’t budge about the price, and people stayed on board (but were disgruntled).  one lady, during the argument, said “mesh awel mara nerkabooha”  (this happened to be the first time i heard the alexandrian slang of changing the form of a verb to something i can’t yet explain – it should be “mesh awel mara nerkabha…” – go figure).  later, the man decided to stop on the way to use the restroom and the lady became angry – he offered to let her take another microbus the rest of the way if she wasn’t happy (but she decided to stay).

i had a similar experience yesterday when coming back from cairo – the man wanted 25, but the people got their way of paying 22.  afterwards, a huge argument broke out with the driver about turning the ac on (he didn’t want to turn it on until we got on the highway).

on monday, june 7th, myself and two brothers needed to go to the smart village in the morning and come back to alexandria in the afternoon.  we rented a “limo,” (which is just a normal rental car with a driver) to take us, wait for us, and bring us back.  we left early in the morning, finished our work, and left cairo to go home a few minutes after maghrib.

the road that connects cairo to alexandria is called “taree2 (masr eskenderia) al sa7rawy,” or “cairo-alexandria desert road” as google maps translates it.  the distance is about 200km (~120 miles).  the way people in egypt drive, combined with the high speeds, bad lighting, and bad conditions of the road make this road a dangerous place, especially at night.

anyhow, along the way, after traveling about 46km from cairo, the driver smelled something and said, “i smell something, let me check on the tires” – he parked on the side of the road and found a tire had gone flat, so he put on the hazard lights and said he would replace it.  we looked and found a masjid right next to us and decided to go and pray maghrib and isha there while he finished repairing the tire.

the masjid was at a lower elevation than the road (10-20ft), so we went down (on quite a sandy area) to the masjid which was very small, old, etc.  we prayed, and started walking up to get to the car.  we saw the driver was done and started backing up the car a little bit.  we finally got to the top (to the shoulder of the highway).  we approached the car, and when we were one step away and i was about to open the door, i saw a medium sized going at full speed crash straight in the car, leaving a track of dust, glass, debris, and making the car fly into the ditch into the lower elevation of the area where the masjid is.  for a few seconds, we saw fire, and then it stopped.

when the dust had settled, we were really shocked and worried about the driver – miraculously, al7amdulillah, nothing happened to either driver – both were okay.

needless to say, we were very thankful – if there hadn’t been a masjid there, and if we hadn’t gone to pray, i would have been on the left passenger side of the car, the area of the car which took the majority of the impact.  if we had been just 3 seconds later, i would have been opening the car door and/or have gotten into the car, and in this case, i may have been seriously hurt.

the car after the accident

so al7amdulillah that i am alive – as Allah (swt) says in:

“And He is the subjugator over His servants, and He sends over you guardian-angels until, when death comes to one of you, Our messengers take him, and they do not fail [in their duties].” 6:61

sub7anAllah.  so anyhow, it appears as though the driver of the truck had fallen asleep or something and thus hit the car, even though it was clear that it was on the shoulder (well inside), the blinkers on, etc.

after the accident, the car was in the hill between the higher and lower grounds – on it’s right side was a huge concrete block that the car could have hit.  the driver later told us that he felt something telling him to reverse the car – had he not, he would have hit one of many metal poles hanging out from the ground on his way down.

but get this – the truck stopped – in the middle lane of the highway, and that’s where it stayed for about an hour until a big truck was able to come.  people stopped the traffic manually (with nothing but one of those red-lit sticks) and had a big truck (literally) drag (with a rope) the medium sized truck to the side of the road.

anyhow – some interesting points were that 1.  the people that reside in the area where we stopped got out and left what they were doing to help us, offered water, support, and helped moving the cars to safety.  2.  people in egypt are really afraid of police, especially in high speed accidents.  3.  the man decided not to press charges when the police came (one possible reasoning is that the company he works for has brought the car into the country on a “diplomatic visa” so that they don’t pay taxes for it, and yet aren’t using it for “diplomatic purposes,” and so they could get in trouble).  3.  people in egypt drive at insane speeds on that road and corresponding small roads.

the driver had someone else working at the company come from alexandria to pick us up and drop us back.  it was hard to sleep on the way back – the new driver was a very aggressive one, and along the way, we encountered fire fighters putting out a car on fire from a different accident, a car going the opposite direction on the highway, and cars going extremely slowly in the left most lane of the highway, thereby almost causing accidents.

i’ll write about the aftermath in another post insha’Allah.