qatarperegrine | Cat Dude

I've been reading about Abu Huraira, who narrated most of my favorite hadiths. As an extra point in his favor, his famous nickname means "Father of Kittens," or less literally "the guy with all the cats," because he was such an animal lover.

I've read conflicting accounts of whether Abu Huraira was Jewish or pagan before he converted to Islam. But this biography says that:

"Often he would praise God for his good fortune and say: 'Praise be to God Who has guided Abu Hurayrah to Islam.' 'Praise be to God Who has taught Abu Hurayrah the Quran.'"

They're brachot! That's totally the traditional Jewish formulation for a prayer: Blessed are you, Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has [insert blessing here]. So Abu Huraira converted to Islam and wrote Muslim brachot for himself. That kinda rocks.

My other favorite Abu Huraira story of the day, quoted from the same source, about how Abu Huraira used to weasel free food out of people:

"When I was afflicted with severe hunger, I would go to a companion of the Prophet and asked him about an ayah [verse] of the Quran and (stay with him) learning it so that he would take me with him to his house and give food. One day, my hunger became so severe that I placed a stone on my stomach. I then sat down in the path of the companions. Abu Bakr passed by and I asked him about an ayah of the Book of God. I only asked him so that he would invite me but he didn't. Then Umar ibn al-Khattab passed by me and I asked him about an ayah but he also did not invite me. Then the Messenger of God, peace be on him, passed by and realized that I was hungry and said: 'Abu Hurayrah!' 'At your command' I replied and followed him until we entered his house."

The story has a happy ending: the Prophet shared a bowl of milk with him. I love that he flat-out admits that he used to ask arcane religious questions so people would have to invite him over and feed him.

Here's my other random Muslim find of the day: an ASCII bismillah, from here:

__________________________________________ | | | || || | || | | o_,_7 _|| . _o_7 _|| 4_|_|| o_w_, | | ( : / (_) / ( . | |__________________________________________|

See how it kinda sorta almost looks like "In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful"?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم