"煲電話粥"

cantonese proverb

By 默默富酷

July 11^th, 2016

the last day of Ramadan

first published on my facebook 11/07/2016

“煲電話粥 (bōu dihn wá jūk)” - to talk on the phone for hours. well, not literally. i did spend almost an hour with several muslims at a mosque in hongkong on the last day of ramadan.

i was on a work trip to hongkong/macau and i arrived on the eve of eid al-fitr. i chanced upon jamia mosque (些利街清真寺) in central, hongkong. it is the oldest mosque in hk at 101 years old.

i walked in and greeted the 2 muslims within the mosque with “as salaam alaikum”. they returned the greeting “wa alaikum salaam” and welcomed me in their midst. here I met and spoke to several muslims (mainly from pakistan) practicing i‘tikāf (seclusion from worldly affairs and staying in the mosque) during ramandan. one stayed for 10 days and another for 40 days.

i spoke to one of them for a while. he was born in hong kong and speaks fluent cantonese and english. he shared with me the history of the mosque and also about my religion. we spoke candidly about our faiths, though he is a muslim and i, a christian.

he asked me about perceptions of muslims and islam, given the increasingly media association between islam and terrorism. we agreed that while there is little association, the media seemed to always link the two. i bid him farewell as he needed to pray just before sunset.

i visited the kitchen where several others are preparing the last iftar (sunset) meal of chapathi, fried okra and a sweetened rose syrup. they invited me to share the meal with them but unfortunately i was unable. i wanted to return to document the morning prayers of eid but the summer storms prevented me.