Humor and Moroccan Culture by Matthew Helmke

Author:Matthew Helmke [Helmke, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2007-04-06T07:00:00+00:00

Society's foundation

There was a new teacher at the school and he wanted to know the names of all his students. He asked them, “Who are you?” and they began to answer. The first said, “I'm Yosef” and was then told to stand and recite Surat Yosef. The second said, “I'm Miryam” and was told to stand and recite Surat Miryam. Next to her was a frightened little girl who answered, “My name is Fatiha!”

It is impossible to understand Moroccan culture without a basic understanding of Islam. At a minimum, one should know what the Qur'an is, what the five pillars of the Islamic faith are, and have some knowledge of the religion's basic beliefs. I will cover some of these in this chapter.

The Qur'an is the key to understanding this joke. The Qur'an is the holy book of Islam. It is said to be an eternal book existing in heaven that was revealed bit by bit over many years to an illiterate man named Mohamed, in a series of angelic visitations. The angel told Mohamed to memorize and recite several passages, called suras or surat. He did so and taught others to memorize the passages as well.

After Mohamed's death all of the suras were written down and collected in the form in which we now find them. They are mostly ordered according to length, from the longest to the shortest, with one exception being the sura called the “Fatiha” or the opening, the beginning. This first sura is among the shortest and is one which is recited every time a Muslim prays.

There are ladies named Fatiha throughout the Arabic speaking world. The name is not an uncommon one. What makes this joke funny is that it is probably not this particular girl's name. She saw her friends, Yosef and Miryam, have to recite extremely long suras simply because they had the same name as that sura. This girl, through quick thinking, saved herself a lot of work. I have heard another variation of this joke in which the girl answers with the name of the second sura, which is also short and is recited by Muslims during their prayers. That variation is either funnier or less so, depending on your sense of humor. The second sura is named Baqara, “The Cow.”

The Islamic religion stands on five actions called “The Pillars.” They are the testimony, prayer, giving alms, fasting, and the pilgrimage.1 According to Muslim teaching, all a person has to do to be a Muslim is say the testimony and truly believe it, and then try to perform all of these pillars sincerely.

There are some basic beliefs in Islam, but contrary to a faith like Christianity, which stresses orthodoxy, or correct belief, Islam stresses orthopraxy, or correct action. This is an important difference because it allows for a wide variety of specific beliefs to exist under the blanket of Islam. What is important is the testimony and the striving to complete the pillars. Anything else is secondary. There are a very small number of beliefs that are required in Islam.

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