You've got me on my knees, Layla

My favorite radio station here plays an incredibly cheesy radio soap opera called The Love of Qays and Layla. It's about a woman named Layla, who is in love with Qays despite her upcoming marriage to someone else, and Qays' devolution into a madman due to his love for her. So far we've heard two episodes; in the first, Layla was receiving the sage advice that she could be true to Qays by refusing to have sex with her soon-to-be-husband, and in today's episode she sent Qays away and got married to the Other Man. This soap represents BAD acting at its finest, although I have to say Qays' despairing "Nooo!" was about twice as believable as Annikin's.

I just looked up the radio station's claim that this cheesy and overly romantic tale is "based on a centuries-old Saudi Arabian love story," and it is indeed true. The famous version of it -- Layla and Majnun, majnun meaning "madman" -- was written in the 12th century by a Persian Sufi poet named Nizami. It was set in seventh century Arabia and is based on an oral tradition that, at least according to some, may actually date back to that period.

According to something random called the History News Network, this story -- though unfamiliar to most of us in the West -- has influenced a number of classic Western love stories, such as Romeo and Juliet and, of course, the Eric Clapton song.

And, since I've read a bit about the epic, I now know that Layla is NOT going to have sex with her new husband, and that they're all going to die tragically. Hope that doesn't spoil the plot for anyone else.

Each grain of sand takes its own length and breadth as the measure of the world; yet, beside a mountain range it is as nothing. You yourself are the grain of sand; you are your own prisoner. Break your cage, break free from yourself, free from humanity; learn that what you thought was real is not so in reality. Follow Nizami: burn but your own treasure, like a candle -- then the world, your sovereign, will become your slave.

-from Nizami's version of Layla and Majnun

Fiqh facts of the day

So, debate in the local community has turned to the issue of ad-diyat or blood money, the compensation given when a Muslim kills another Muslim accidentally. Phrased like that, it doesn't seem a pressing issue, but this is the law in effect in the case of a fatal car accident. And here in Qatar, we have a lot of car accidents, many fatal.

The Qur'an says:

It is not for a believer to kill a believer unless (it be) by mistake. He who hath killed a believer by mistake must set free a believing slave, and pay the blood-money to the family of the slain, unless they remit it as a charity. If he (the victim) be of a people hostile unto you, and he is a believer, then (the penance is) to set free a believing slave. And if he cometh of a folk between whom and you there is a covenant, then the blood-money must be paid unto his folk and (also) a believing slave must be set free. And whoso hath not the wherewithal must fast two consecutive months. A penance from Allah. Allah is Knower, Wise. (An-Nisa' 92, Pickthall translation)

The Qur'an doesn't specify the blood money to be paid, but 100 camels seems to have been the accepted standard fairly early. (That's now around $25,000.) Traditionally, though, you only pay half that amount if you accidentally kill a woman. This mirrors the fact that daughters only get half the inheritance of sons, on the grounds that men have financial obligations far exceeding those of women. However, there is apparently some debate about whether this system is required for blood money, and it is being debated here at the moment.

From yesterday's paper: Blood money must be equal to all: Qaradawi
And from today's: Scholars split over 'blood money' issue

Apparently it's not an entirely new issue, since the same players seem to have said about the same thing at Christmas: Qaradawi urges gender equality on blood money