My colleague and workmate Abu Garda was also an Imam and had
committed the whole of the Koran to memory a prodigious feat and could recite
sections of it in a delightful half sung style of the Islamic clerics. (I
wonder how many Christians have learnt the Bible from cover to cover.) Not only
was he working with me but he was also studying English Literature at the
University, from this you might gather he was exceptionally intelligent, and he
was. His spoken English was excellent and his written English even better. As
an Imam he would pray five times a day and during his prayer time he would give
me a passage from an English translation of the Koran to read so we could
discuss it on his return. Despite all his accomplishments he was a typical
Saudi in that much that what could be done today was left to tomorrow, when I
accused him of procrastination he would smile and say “It is our way we will do
it later Inshallah”.
Twice a year Syb and I would take leave in the UK and it was on one
of these leaves that we discovered a little gift shop that had some ‘Round tuit’s'
for sale. A ‘Round tuit’; is usually a plate with the phrase printed round the
circumference and a little verse explaining that now you have an ‘Round tuit’
you can do things immediately I can’t remember the exact wording but that was
the gist of it. I later found the above example. An ideal little gift for Abu I thought.
After returning from leave and back at work, I presented Abdul with
his gift. He looked at it for a long time with a serious demeanour, he lifted
his eyes to me and said “Mr Mike isn’t it very rude to call someone a fat
twit?” It took me a long time to have him understand the meaning of ‘Round tuit’
but eventually he gave me a smile of acceptance and we continued to work together
happily as before.
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