Oman, March 01: “Whosoever obeys God shall be admitted to the gardens beneath where rivers flow.” – Holy Koran.
This image of paradise taken from the holy Koran reflects the dream of a people who for thousands of years have had to keep body and soul together in the desolate wastes of the Arabian Desert. The dream of an oasis is surrounded by shady palm trees.
160 kilometres from Muscat, the capital of Oman, is an earthly manifestation of this paradise, the oasis village of Misfah, with a population of some 300-400 people.
Nearly all of them are peasants, and they grow dates bananas, limes and other fruit. Most of the harvest goes to market in the large towns, where it is sold for export.
The people of Misfah live quiet, harmonious lives in close contact with each other. They all belong to the same tribe. They build their own homes of materials found in the area, red clay or granite. They all share identical social status although the village does have a sheikh. But he is only an administrator among equals.
No river flows through Misfah, but there is a system of canals. Water from a mountain stream is fed down to the village, forming the basis of a harmonious ecology, embracing humans, animals and plants. There are some 4,000 of these systems in Oman, known in Arabic as el falaj’. Many of them saw the light of day 600 years before the birth of Christ and are an impressive feat of engineering. Some of the canals run underground, buried at a depth of nearly 120 metres. Everyone in the village helps to build and maintain the canals. The government of Oman now provides sizeable grants for the reconstruction of the falaj, which fell into disrepair in previous periods of poverty. Water is distributed on a democratic basis.
Having flowed through the village, the water is channeled to the orchards below, where it is distributed according to ancient rights and principles.
The Islamic faith plays a colossal role in the life of this small community, even as infants, the children attend school every afternoon where the imam, prayer leader, is their teacher. The older children attend ordinary schools. Under Oman’s present ruler, Sultan Qaboos, much has been done to improve the education sector. Schools are being built everywhere and illiteracy, once widespread, is now well on the decline.
The villagers are called to prayer five times a day. This is done not from a minaret, but from the mosque itself, as it was in the first days of Islam.
Before going to prayers, one has to perform a cleansing ritual. Cleanliness in both body and soul is essential when communicating with God.
Being called to prayer five times a day gives the villagers a reeling of unity and provides them with a dimension in life which is difficult for a westerner to understand.
Faith and prayer are fixed ingredients of everyday life and remind the individual of the spiritual and religious aspects of life. Prayer is experienced not as a burden, but as a welcome opportunity to take a break from everyday activities and to see things in a wider perspective.
Essential to the Islamic way of life is a relaxed attitude to time and the joy of being together. In Misfah, this manifests itself in the way people, each and every day, spend several hours simply passing the time of day.
Every day, the village poet Habib can be heard reciting religious poetry from his window. Habib, like the other villagers, built his own house, and is the village handyman. Habib is a deeply religious person, harmonious and light-hearted. His faith is reflected, for one thing, in his perception of happiness.
A grill is made by splitting the trunk of a banana tree. Because it is so moist it does not burn. Sheep and goats are abundant in the mountain oasis, and are the main sources of meat.
Many different types of vegetables are also to be found in Misfah, so the villagers’ diet is a varied, healthy one and they are in good physical shape.
Sheikh Hareth is Misfah’s representative to the outside world, but he, too, is a peasant on a par with the other villagers. Internally, his function is more or less of a social nature. He attempts to intervene if disagreements arise between villagers, and in consultation with
other men, he is responsible for the distribution of water from the falaj.
As a result of dynamic development in Oman, many young men from the village have found work in the towns, but they still come home every weekend to their families and friends in Misfah.
The villagers of Misfah are devout muslims. Their social, economic and moral conduct is substantially inspired by the teachings of the Koran. The Koran is the Muslims holy book. In Arabic it means ‘recitation.
—-Agencies