Mark Rizk Farag > Recent Status Updates

Reminds me of an Egyptian mosalsal. And just like those serialised dramas, it is struggling to be succinct 😂.

Prepare your heart for your departure. If you are wisc, you will expect it cvery hour. Each day say to yourself: "See, the messenger who comes to fetch me is already at the door. Why am I sitting idle? I must depart for ever. I cannot come back again." Go to sleep with these thoughts every night, and reflect on them throughout the day. And when the time of departure comes, go joyfully to meet it... ' Isaac the Syria

'Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, nor comply with what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth from among those who were given the Scripture,1 until they pay the tax,2 willingly submitting, fully humbled.'

Surat a tawba - 29

Stories of love and lust among those over 70 are strangely refreshing. Our fiction and media usually imagine them as aesexual or depraved.

Fascinating. Early conversion to Islam as a largely pragmatic decision to avoid taxation and ensure social mobility taken on the part of Copts who may not have understood the doctrinal differences is counter to both Coptic and Islamic narratives.

'Mama please. What do your shoes have to do with black Tuesday, and pogroms, and the fall of Constantinople? '

😭😭😭

Any kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.

Heartfelt and humorous. Also, I am learning so much about the Rum minority in Turkey who I didn't know much about prior.

A whole lot of white jesus. But in a book for little Egyptian kids? Why? 😂

So... The meeting between Omar and Pope Benjamin is a myth, as is the Copts welcoming the Arabs in 😂. We are in for a wild ride.

The financial system as described in this book is ridiculous enough to warrant multiple Terry Prachett books.

The illustrations 😍🔥

'I never ask from God that He should preserve me from calamities; only that He should keep me from despair. Have faith; when the Most High lets go of you with one hand, He catches hold of you with the other.'

A Coptic character! And one who gets mistaken for a Muslim no less 😂. Feel so very seen!

'Fortune has smiled upon you, my young friend, and I am happy for you as if you were my own son. But be on your guard: riches and power are the enemies of sound judgement. When you see a field of corn, do you not see that some ears are straight and odhe bent? This is because the straight ones are empty! So keep that humility which has led you to me by the will of the Most High, and opened the path to fortune.'

'she was old enough to be a grandmother, 32 years of age'... How times have changed 😂

I was once told 'if you highlight everything, you highlight nothing'. That is the sole thing stopping me from highlighting the majority of this book.

'A lost homeland is like the body of a beloved relative: bury it with respect, and believe in eternal life'

Religious intolerance is ugly, irrespective of who perpetrates it.

'Persia makes me think of an unlucky sailing boat. The sailors constantly complain thst there is not enough wind to move, and then suddenly, as if to punish them, heaven sends them a tornado.'

This book is amazing! Need to get more books by this author 🔥

'I am not one of those for whom faith is simply fear of judgement. How do I pray? I study a rose, I count the stars, I marvel at the beauty of creation and how perfectly ordered it is, at man, the most beautiful work of the Creator, his brain thirsting for knowledge, his heart for love, his senses, all his senses alert and gratified'

A bit boring and plain so far... Kind of like butter...

- the way the brokers and traders didn't seem to care about the financial crash or the bailouts is insane

- reminds me that 'code switching' is not just for ethnic/racial minorities but also occurs across class lines too

'It is not enough to say prayers; one must become, be prayer, prayer incarnate. It is not enough to have moments of praise. All of life, each act, every gesture, even the smile of the human face, must become a hymn of adoration, an offering, a prayer. One should offer not what one has, but what one is.'

June might be the most mortally contortive and cringe inducing character I've ever read.