Somali Alfa Leyla Wa leyla ( Somali Arabian nights ) In the 99 night Shahruzaad said, O dear king, once open a time in Somalia, a country in the horn of Africa, there were two women who were filthy rich. They were called Habarnaaji and Habarkuuley. As children they came from not so rich families. One was from Mogadishu and the other was from Hargeysa. They both had humble origins. They met in Jeddah Saudi Arabia and became friends. Both Habarnaaji and Habarkuuley were talented in money making. They collected money from the Somali workers in Arabia and put the money into business. They imported clothes, food , and electronics into Somalia. Once they come back to Somalia they give the money they collected from the Somali workers in Arabia to their families in Somalia. The Hawala started and showed a promising future. The promising future came to light after the civil war and dear King Habarnaaji and Habarkuuley in a short span of time established money wiring centers all over the world. Their business flourished like never seen before. The people of Somalia had a love hate relationship with the Hawala business. On one hand they created a means for the Somali diaspora to send money to their relatives back home. But on the other hand, Habarnaaji and Habarkuuley, became very arrogant and did not care about the well being of the people. They did whatever they fancied. They controlled the government. They corrupted member of parliaments to introduce laws in the interest of the the two rich ladies. Habarnaaji and Habarkuuley, bought lands and made many people homeless. They were accused that were only self serving entities who did not create job opportunities for the People Of Somalia. But one day Habarkuuley and Habarnaaji surprised every people including Mahadey Muse and Farey who were among the regulars of Qaboobe coffee shop at Waberi, one of the oldest neighborhood of Mogadishu. Mahadey Muuse and his friend Farey are sitting at a table at the corner of Qabobe’s open coffee shop. They are waiting for today’s Qat to flood the market. In the mean time Mahadey is complaining about his wife. Shahruzad stopped to sip her mint tea and then said Mahadey and Farey had the following conversation with each other. Mahadey Muuse: Farey, I am over sixty, I am not a boy any more. This old lady Makka is treating me like a naughty boy. I have literally to beg her to give some money. She says I waste the money on qat. She does not see all the money she spends on those good for nothing woman. All those gallons of sesame oil, the sacks of sugar, the beans, the rice, and not to mention the goats she slaughters at least once a month. Farey: Oh my, that is a lot of money. Why dont you call your children and tell them to send the money on your name. Think of what we could do with all that money. We would enjoy the best mira money can buy and all the beautiful girls would be knocking on our doors. Talk to your children. She is the one who is wasting the money on the women’s association. Mahadey Muuse: You don’t know Makka. She controls the children and they hear only what she tells them. All I am asking is to get my monthly money separated from hers so I don’t have to argue with her all the time. Do you know what she said today? ( Farey shakes his head )- As I was coming here- she said this the last time I would set foot in the house. She wants to kick me out and take my house. She want the house all to herself. The house I inherited from Muuse Muude Mahadey. Farey And invite all the Qadiriya both Uweysiya and Seyliciya and throw more and more parties. Mahadey Muuse: Exactly, that’s unacceptable. I will kick her out instead and I don’t care where she goes. Farey: Why would you care? let her walk bare footed all the way to where ever she came from. Isn’t she from far and away? isn’t where you married her from Way up north? Mahadey Muuse: No, I married her from Garas Bintow, her great great grand father moved there and married from the Garas Bintow people. Farey: But now things have changed. Every body has to go back to his origin. The Somali of today is quite different than the one of Makka Jaamac’s great great grand father. Mahadey Muuse: I would say even different than just five years ago. Since the civil war, things are now more in prospective. We can see more clearly. Before they were throwing muds in our eyes and we could not see well. We were dancing to the drums of the Life long the Unity of Somalia while they were having all the best part of the pie only to themselves. This will never happen again. We will never accept it. Every body back to where they belong. Farey: Now you talking sense today, but keep this lovely discussion after we sit and chew few bunches of Qat and we listen to the Qaraami songs, the romantic old ones played on the acoustic guitar. ( Farey gets up on his feet, spreads his arms and dances to his song )- Heelow, heelow, heelow , hee, aahaa aa. To which Mahadey joins him in the song. No more shirib, and no more gableey shimbir. Let’s play Garami songs. Where is Raaheeye, where is Burcaawi? Lii la low law la, law la low laa lii la low law lii law, They change gear and sing one tune after another, Dii yoo hidii o hidii dii yoo hidii oo hidii dii yoo hidii. How I wish to have Maandeeq and Guduudu Carwo to be singing for us tonight. That would be a party and worth of one’s time and money. How about some one who would finance us? We would not worry about money any more? I’m all ears. Habarnaaji and Habarkuuley, the Hawala Sisters and the owners of more half of Somalia. Rumor says they marry a new husband at least once every week. I will take take Habarnaaji and you take Habarkuuley. But I do not think they will look at us? What is wrong with us? Our age. They want men in their early twenties who can make them pregnant. Have they succeeded? Not yet. Then they should give chance to the wise and the old men. We have to wake up early and go to their hotels. To do what? To fill an application. Application for wanted a husband for one week. Lots of men go in line. Some of them sleep in front of the hotel so when the doors open they want to be picked first. So why only one week. Isn’t marriage a commitment for a life time? Well,not to them. Habarnaaji and Habarkuuley can get away with what ever they want. I do not have the energy to sleep outside waiting for one old woman to pick me as her husband and throw me out after a week. But she throws you out with a duffel full of money. You wont be dealing with Makka any more. Still, I do not want to go in line waiting for either of the old women. So you rather deal with Makka and her Qaadiriya. We should not waste our money on Qadiryia. How about on the Al itihaad, the ones who come from the Saudi. I had rather have the Qadiriya. Why? Why? That is obvious. First of all Al Qadiriya would never go all their way and kill innocent people praying in Mosques or buying at a Market place. The second reason is Al Shabaab is the descendant of Al itihaad and those hard liners who came back from Saudi and want to change us from Shaaficiya to Hanbaliya. No way, we are Shaaficiya and we stay that way. So your wife can invite the Qadiriya? Of course as long as she keeps the those from Saudia and the Shabaab at bay. They start singing again. Dii yoo hidii o hiddii diiyoo hidii o hidii dii yoo hidii But their singing gets interrupted after they hear special program about job opportunities will air on Habarnaaji and Habarkuuley FM radio. ================================================================== The clients at Qabobe open coffee shop have stopped their discussion and turned all their attention to radio. Habarnaaji and Habarkuuley are on the air. They are giving interview on their fm radio. Mahaadey and Farey sit back at their table. What can you tell us about the application for husband for one week. Well it is some thing we have realized that their is not much work opportunities for our people and we have decided to do some thing about that. We have been creating new jobs and unfortunately that is not enough. We urge more companies to invest in the our work force. People who have stead job and getting their paycheck, are less likely to be involved in violence. So improving the job market helps foster a stable community. The war mongers have less people they can exploit. The more people are employed is good for business and economy will grow. Your companies have been advertising husbands needed. You call it work opportunity. I would like you if you would elaborate on that. We have been getting calls from our listeners asking for more explanations about the new ad. Habarkuuley: Er, thank you for asking me the question. As we said our people’s well being is some thing we care about. We want them to get more and more opportunities to get a job. Any body who is interested can come to either Habarnaaji or Habarkuuley hotel for information regarding the application. But I can say briefly that we are looking for husbands. Any one interested can come to apply. The successful candidate with be married to either Habarnaaji or Habarkuuley for three weeks and after the three weeks are over, we will have a preganancy test and if it is positive then the husbands will stay married to us for the rest of our lives but if the pregnancy test is negative then he will have to go to make room for another husband. The former husband will go with enough money to go into business. We want more and more people to be given the opportunity to be self employed and we provide the initial investment. So far how many men have been lucky enough to be your husbands? Habarnaaji: We don’t have the exact numbers in front of us but it is about 120 husbands and counting. So it is safe to say that about 120 ex husbands have been released to the job market and are self employed. Do you know how are they faring in the market? Habarnaaji: Our people keep in contact with them and so far the reports are encouraging. I am glad the reports are encouraging and that means they too are providing more work opportunities for more and more people. This is a win win situation and every body involved is happy. Now we come to the conclusion of our special program. Thank you Habarnaaji and Thank you Habarkuuley for your time. Thank you for having us. ======================================================== The reaction of Qabobe’s patrons differs widely. Some simply laugh and don’t take it seriously. Others are drooling to spend even one day at Hotel Habarnaaji and Habarkuuley. Farey and Mahadey are among the ones cheering for the “Husband wanted application” They did not specify about the age limit. So I think they start following equal opportunity policy for men of all age. Yes, All men are welcome. Come tomorrow morning we will go to the job center to fill the application. A young man with a long beard next to their table seems upset and throws hard stares towards them every now and then. They overhear him saying this is not acceptable. Have we come to this level. Then as if on cue the discussion once again comes to a halt. Waberi Radio, another FM Radio, a rival of Habarnaaji and Habarkuuley Radio is responding with another special program. They have a special guest on the phone. The announcer states that they will discuss Husband Wanted for a job with one of the greatest Somali scholars. First of all, Sheikh Yusuf Aden, I should thank you for accepting to be interviewed with us. We all heard what Habarkuuley and Habarnaaji said. My question to you , dear Sh. Yusuf is from the point of the Islamic Religion regarding what the two rich ladies have proposed, what do you tell the young men who are contemplating on being the chosen ones to be husbands. Sh. Yusuf Aden’s voice: In the name of Allah, All praise is due to Allah and I thank him for all the bounties he us bestowed on us and May Allah bless our beloved prophet Mohamed SCW. Let me say this, I have never thought I would hear any absurdity aired on a public radio and I tell to all men young and old do not go Habarkuuley and do not go to Habarnaaji. They are playing and corrupting on your moral values. They have enough money to create job opportunities. For many years they have been taking the hawala from all over the world. They make billions in profits and they accumulate more wealth that they do not know what to do with it. They do not pay tax and they do not return nothing to the community. They buy more lands and turn people to street beggars and displaced in their own country. They do not build infrastructure. no schools, no hospitals, no roads. I urge the people to stand up and say to these arrogant women enough is enough. Stop playing on our morals and on our values. From the point of the Islamic view, for a marriage to be valid, certain criteria have to be met. Both parties involved have to agree and no one can limit on the duration of the marriage. The moment you set a time table for how long the marriage should last then it is void and has no legal value. Secondly, when a woman is divorced she has to wait for three consecutive periods and their respective cleanliness period ( Three Quruua ). The arrogant women are humiliating you. They are calling you to perform zina ( fornication ). Nothing more and nothing less. Do our people need work opportunities to be created for them? Of course they do but they do not want work that comes from their genitals. They want respectable jobs. Our men are not gigolos and you should know that. We are muslims and we say no to your indecent proposal. We may be poor and hungry but we have our dignity to keep. And our slogan is now we are Muslims and will keep our dignity for the rest of our lives. Thank you Sh. Yusuf for your input. And with that we come to the conclusion of our special...... The announcer was about to say special program but he did not get the chance to finish the sentence as huge explosion was heard. This sent every body running. They thought the explosion happened at the coffee shop. But after few seconds of frenetic activities, they calmed down and realized the explosion they heard was at some where else. And after few moments they hear Waberi FM Radio is no more. The explosion has reduced the radio station to rubble and to ashes. This is not the end of the story. Those present at the coffee shop would be hearing the next day that Sheikh Yusuf Aden, a great Islamic scholar has been shot to death as he was leading the Fajir Prayer ( dawn prayer ) inside Waberi Masjid. Two masked gunmen strolled into the Masjid and shot the great Sheikh when he was in Sujuud -procrastinating for Allah. =============================================================== Then dawn came and Shahruzaad stopped talking.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 02:33:35 +0000
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