Monday, December 19, 2005

How do I even begin summarizing the past 24 hours?

I woke up yesterday at about this time (8am), with about 4 hours to my Islamic Civilization exam. Great. That gave me only 2 hours to quickly re-review my notes, take a shower/get ready and be out the door. So, with the clock ticking, I did what I normally do when in such situations; I logged on to my computer :P
It was probably for the best.. because for no reason, I went to the university's site to check up on the who/what/where/when of the exam and found, luckily, that the exam was actually at 2pm instead of 12 as I had thought. Good! A few more hours to do some last minute cramming.

So... blah blah blah, got to the exam on time... it was pretty easy. (24 hours later,) I still remember the questions:
(paraphrasing)

1) Describe the interaction of the Sassanids, Lakhmids and Nestorian Christianity prior to the rise of Islam.
2) What were the causes and consequences of the Ridda Wars?
3) In what ways did the actions of Husayn at Karbala serve as a defining moment in Islam?
4) What were the main points that Hasan al-Basri made in his letter to the Umayyad Caliph, Umar the Second? How was this significant?
5) Compare and contrast the roles that the Umayyad & Abbasid Caliphates played in Islamic Civilization. What were their differences and similiarities. How did they differ from the early Caliphs? Based on their roles, which would you say was more successful?


Alhumdullilah, I think I did well, but only time will tell.

My stomach was growling so loudly during the exam that I'm sure everyone within a ten-seat radius of me could hear. So, after Asr at the Scott Religious Center, I went over to the Popeyes we have on campus (which, by the way, is in our University's own retail mall). I think it was a bad idea though, because the chicken strips tasted like they had been sitting there since morning.

Getting home at 5:15, I quickly read maghrib and took a 3 hour nap before getting ready to go to work. (Sunday's midnight shift really sucks because we start at 9pm instead of 12:15am). Last Thursday, because of the snow storm, a lot of people didn't show up to work. That's why today everyone thought it was my first day and I was asked atleast a dozen times "Is this your first time?", "Where are you from?", "Do you speak Hindi?". Keep in mind, that 9 and a half people out of 10 who work at MAC are desi, and a further 90% of those desis are Gujratis. (Sidenote: yes, the cafeteria did smell like curry at break time..but that's all I'll say about the working environment there, otherwise that's how people get in trouble). I think I'll have mastered the Gujrati language by the time I'm done working at MAC, because that is all I heard all night long. There were several times when I just couldn't stand it and felt like telling everyone to either speak in English or be quiet. There were times though when their comments almost made me break out in laughter, like when one old gujrati guy said to me, "But you are a University student. Why are you working here, when you could have been in customer service?" And then, this lady asked me "How do they treat Asians here in Canada (in the professional workforce)?" and some other lady beside her said "No, he is Canadian. They like these kind of boys." Naturally, I didn't speak very much for the rest of the night.

Aah... 7:15am couldn't arrive any slower.

2 comments:

Pink said...

3hrs - that's not a nap!!!

ur islamic civilisation exam sounds interesting - how does it fit in with ur uni course - or is it extra-curricular?

btw - will u be going to the 'Reviving the Islamic Spirit' conf at the end of the month? if so, plz blog abt it as we're deprived here in uk :(

Umar said...

The islamic civ. class is just an optional course, taken to fill up credits (and for my own interest, of course). And while it is interesting in that it gives you a better picture of Islamic history, it also tends to look at some issues a bit too objectively.

I won't be going to RIS, but he will. I'm sure he'll have something on his blog about it.