[Ulmius]

An old article, but I think it's interesting because it shows the general attitude Arabs have toward alcohol. Many Arabs drink though it's considered haram by most to do so, and it is indeed an integral part of their culture. It leads many to question how they approach religion.

The quoted verses with ellipses halving them are two-part lines; the ending of each line rhymes in Arabic.

I have found a Maronite book of masses and hymns that I am planning to translate occasionally on the appropriate liturgical day. Stay tuned!

[IronJack]

the Arab heritage is poetic as well as literary

If by "poetic" and "literary" you mean "savage ..."

[Claud]

Translate the Maronite material from Arabic? Syriac?

[Talisker]

If you subtract the murder, raping and mutilation aspects of Islam, and translate Allah as the One God, and interpret jihad as the inner spiritual struggle against temptation, it is a beautiful and profound philosophy.

I’m not joking. Some small number of imams have tried to do just that. Unfortunately, they are outvoted by the rest of the majority of imams, who are also better funded.

And of course, Muslims themselves vote by which imam they pay attention to. By turning Islam into a reward for demonism, Muslims have destroyed their own souls, voluntarily, by the millions.

But, for an example of the spiritual beauty of what Islam could be, read some Rumi.

[Shadow44]

Arabs were drinking long before Islam, and that wasn’t going to stop them. Caliphs used to go to Christian monasteries so they could get drunk in private.

If the Caliph himself was getting drunk, then that just about makes the case.

[Hiddigeigei]

“A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, — and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness —
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!”

[dmz]

It leads many to question how they approach religion.

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A couple of years ago, while visiting family in Jerusalem, we did the Bethlehem excursion to see the Church of the Nativity among the other sites to see there, and after that we took a walk across the square to the market that starts at the edge of the square.

While walking across the square, the call to prayer happened. Loudest I heard the entire time I was in Israel, much louder than any I heard in the Old City of Jerusalem.

No one stopped what they were doing, everyone (mostly Arab) just continued to do what they were doing. The level of devotion was a bit below what I had come to expect.