You Who Pass Between Our Fleeting Words

Look Milena,

"I love you the most." I say, but maybe that's not true love.

If i say, "You are a knife, and I always pierce myself with that knife", maybe I would be explaining true love.

And Milena, I can bear anything with you in my heart.

| Franz Kafka

Wondering who you are?

You’re the purple scar that appears for no reason,

The images that give rise to nostalgia without features,

You are the ecstasy that did not complete,

A torment that lasted for an entire lifetime.

You...

You're like a trip I’ve been saving for months,

and when it was time to go,

I felt a desire not to leave.

A Night Beneath the Palm’s Shadow

The wind hums secrets through the date-laden trees, whispering names of those who once walked this dust, where footprints fade but never truly leave, pressed deep in the memory of the earth’s quiet trust.

Oh, moon of longing, hung low and bright, do you still remember the songs we sang? Verses embroidered in the fabric of night, soft as jasmine, where old echoes hang.

A mother calls, her voice a prayer, threading through the hush of dawn, her hands—cracked, but full of care— building futures from threads long gone.

And here I stand, between past and now, a daughter of sand, of stars, of sea, asking the wind to teach me how to love, to lose, yet still be free.

Had I told the sea

What I felt for you

It would have left

it’s shores

It’s shells

And followed me

- Nizar Qabbani

The occupation of Palestine documented in photographs

Proclamation of Marshall Law in Jerusalem by General Allenby. 1917

British forces enter Jerusalem, December 9, 1917 with Brig. Gen. Watson and Col. Bailey at the Jaffa Gate.

British occupying army in Jerusalem. 1929

Palestinian leaders meet to discuss the 1929 revolt against British occupation. 1929

Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestinian leaders at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem. 1921–1937

Palestinian delegation in London to demand Palestinian independence. 1929

Palestinian citizens searched during the uprising of August 23 to 31 at Jaffa Gate. 1929

Palestinian women’s delegation demonstrating against British policies outside of the high commissioner’s residency. 1929

Palestinians demonstrating against the occupying British army at Jaffa Gate. 1933

Palestinians protesting British occupation, Jerusalem. 1933

Palestinians at Abou Ghosh take oath of allegiance to protest British occupation and reject Zionist immigration. 1936

Fire scorched the Armenian Quarter in the old City. 1936

British occupation soldiers stand witness to their destruction in the City of Jenin. 1938

Jenin after British occupying soldiers destroyed a quarter of the city with dynamite. 1938

Palestinians lined up by British occupying police for identity card check. 1939

Australian soldiers marching down Jaffa Road. 1940–1946

British military recruits parade across Jaffa Gate. 1941

Photographs published by: https://www.palestinephotoproject.org/Gallery-Folder/Occupation-and-Resistence/i-3bPjRwR

🌌 PART I: The Arab Astrologers—Names You Must Know

📝Abū Maʿshar al-Balkhī-known in Latin as Albumasar

Born in Balkh (modern Afghanistan) in 787, a former hadith scholar who turned to the stars in midlife.

His Kitāb al-Madkhal al-Kabīr (The Great Introduction) became the bedrock of European astrology when translated into Latin.

He systematized planetary natures, zodiac signs, houses, aspects, and the elements.

His “conjunction theory” argued that history moves in great cycles, marked by rare celestial alignments—especially Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions, which he claimed heralded the rise of prophets and empires.

"All change under heaven is written first in the sky."

📜 Al-Kindi – The Philosopher of the Arabs

A polymath in the Abbasid court, blending Greek philosophy with Islamic theology and celestial theory.

In De Radiis Stellarum (On the Stellar Rays), he proposed a theory of stellar influence—not superstition, but a natural force, like light or magnetism.

He laid early groundwork for what would become natural philosophy (proto-science), suggesting stars transmit influence through rays affecting Earthly matter and human temperament.

🌍 Al-Biruni – The Observer from Khwarezm

Though more astronomer than astrologer, he cataloged astrology in full without ever endorsing its claims outright.

His Kitāb al-Tafhīm contains precise definitions of astrological terms, planetary motions, and how horoscopes are calculated.

A master of cultural synthesis: he compared Greek, Indian, and Persian systems, noting their commonalities and contradictions.

🕊 Abū al-Rayḥān al-Sijzī & Al-Zarqālī – Instruments of the Sky

Developed the astrolabe, armillary spheres, and zij tables—astronomical charts used by astrologers to pinpoint planetary positions with astonishing accuracy.

🪐 PART II: What the Arabs Contributed to Astrology

🧠 1. A Philosophical Foundation

Arabs didn’t just practice astrology—they thought about it. They debated whether the stars compel or merely incline.

Al-Farabi and later Avicenna argued the stars could only affect the body, not the soul—a blend of Neoplatonism and Islamic ethics.

The stars whisper, they do not command.

📊 2. Horoscopic Techniques Refined

Arabs inherited and enhanced horoscopic astrology from the Greeks:

Twelve Houses (Bayūt): Places in the chart signifying career, love, health, death.

Lots (Arabic Parts): Points calculated from planetary positions, like the Lot of Fortune and Lot of Spirit, used to fine-tune predictions.

Triplicities and Dignities: Systems to assess planetary strength.

Interrogations (Horary Astrology): Divining answers to specific questions, such as “Will I marry?” or “Will the king win this war?”

⚔️ 3. Political and Historical Astrology

Astrologers like Abū Maʿshar claimed that world events—plagues, conquests, religious shifts—were written in planetary cycles.

Used to time coronations, launch battles, found cities.

Caliphs would sometimes delay decisions until the astrologers said the heavens were "favorable."

🏥 4. Medical Astrology

Used zodiac signs to diagnose and treat illness—Aries rules the head, Pisces the feet, and so on.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) himself, though skeptical of predictive astrology, used astrological charts for medical diagnoses, especially in fevers and crisis periods.

🌠 PART III: Astrology in Islamic Society

🌗 Religious Debate

The Qur’an warns against claims to know the unseen:

"Say: None in the heavens or on the earth knows the unseen except Allah." (Qur’an 27:65)

So Islamic scholars:

Allowed astronomy (for timekeeping, Qibla direction).

Permitted astrology only if used to understand natural rhythms—not fate.

Condemned fortune-telling or attributing independent power to stars.

Yet astrology persisted—not as dogma, but as courtly art, folk belief, and scientific curiosity.

🕯 PART IV: The Transmission to Europe

Translations of Arabic astrological texts into Latin via Toledo and Sicily reawakened Europe’s interest in the stars.

Terms like zenith, nadir, azimuth, almanac, and even algorithm come from Arabic.

Albumasar, Albohali, Messahala—all Arabic astrologers Latinized into the canon of European learning.

The Renaissance astrologers (like Ficino and Agrippa) drank deeply from Arab wells.

🌌 In Closing: A Legacy Like the Night Sky

The Arabs did not merely gaze at the stars—they listened to them, charted them, debated them, and passed on their wisdom in tomes that still echo today. Astrology, as they practiced it, was never just fortune-telling—it was philosophy, poetry, medicine, and mathematics entwined in a cosmic dance.

I want to write a letter of resignation,

a letter in which I apologize for not being able to fulfill my duties to others and to myself. To be said that he/she was here, but they left and never came back.

I want everyone to wait for me, without ever returning.

Painting by - Martin Brado

Self-taught

The failed echo will help me And the tyrannical secrets inspire me! Times of resounding anxiety And a storm hugs me tightly Here the cities of contradiction contain me The countryside of art precedes it I am drawn to the current by self-taught people My heart is steadfast in the war alone

And despite the hatred I prepare for the feverish blindness!

Sakina Al-Sharif

I can't promise to be calm,

dignified, and indifferent.

like a rock by the sea...

If my heart's going to break,

let it break from anger, grief, or joy.

― Nâzım Hikmet

People keep asking me  Why I have such a stern face I tell them: It’s because I have a soft heart