One key to happiness

 

An Advice

You may not need to agree, but I heard this at an Iftar party. 

 "In this country, sometimes it is tough to give all the religious values to our children. But if you ask me to pick only one value, I will teach them to say Bismillah (in the name of God) at the start of any meal and shukar-alhamdulliah (thank God) at the end of any meal. I believe this will put a lot of things in line. It is easy to teach from an early age by practicing ourselves and asking them to follow."

Islam and lunar calender

Yesterday someone said this beautiful thing. It may not be all true, but it makes sense. 

"Founders of early Islam purposely chose the lunar calendar for its rites and rituals, giving the message that this is a religion that should be practiced in all seasons. By following the lunar calendar, all events such as Ramadhan, Eid, Haj, and other events fall every year at different times."

Easter and full moon

 Pardon my ignorance but I just learned that:

"Easter is determined as the first Sunday after the first full moon (Paschal Full Moon) after the vernal equinox."

The vernal equinox is the equinox in spring, on about March 20/21 in the northern hemisphere and September 22 in the southern hemisphere. This is when the Sun is exactly above the Equator and day and night are of equal length.

This mystifies me due to my perpetual fascination with full moons. 

Books and language

 "Three days without reading books will bring a tint in your conversation by the fourth day." ~ Chinese proverb.

Symbiotic

 "We all mutate into each other." ~ Anonymous 

Humans are like the moon

"Humans are like the moon. We all have a dark side that nobody ever sees." ~ Anonymous 

Tum

 I think I have posted this poem before on the blog also. It is going around the web now for a few years but it still makes me take a sigh for a moment.