Everyone knows that religion is more pervasive in the culture of the Middle East than it is in the United States. Here the call to prayer blasts out across the city five times a day including once around 4:30 am. You can’t look in any direction without seeing the spire of a mosque in the skyline. But the most interesting and most frustrating aspect of religious culture here is the idea of "In Shah’ Allah", which translates to “God Willing.” This phrase is said whenever you express that something will be done in the future. Some harmless examples include “I will wake up early tomorrow, In Shah’ Allah” or “We will eat dinner around 6:00, In Shah’ Allah.” Slightly more frustrating are the responses to the repairs we have requested from our landlord. Brett and my refrigerator is freezing everything and it will be fixed, “In Shah’ Allah.” Mary and Lauren (two other Miami students) have a couch that is so broken it is now a useless pile of wood and fabric. This too will be repaired “In Shah’ Allah.”
Sometimes, however, this attitude of placing life in God’s hands can be downright maddening. At dinner a few nights ago, we ordered our food around 7:00. God apparently willed half of our party’s orders to arrive at 8:30. I was supposed to meet a Jordanian student to practice Arabic at 1:45 the next day. God never willed her to show up at all.
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