The Oriental Time Concept

The Oriental Time Concept

Cultures have different time concepts. Some of them are present i.e. future oriented and punctual. A point of time in a day, a week or a month is fixed or better scheduled precisely. This nails down like a slave to a commitment you have made. You might have a very tight diary and have to meet deadlines which puts you under stress till you get stomach ulcer. Other cultures are past oriented as if the present or the future only makes sense when linked to the past. In addition, you don’t make an appointment for a point of time in a day, let alone in a week or a month. When you make an appointment for say 7 O’clock pm your friend might turn up at 6 pm, 10 pm or can ignore it altogether. The oriental or Inshallah culture reflects this type of understanding. You don’t need to commit yourself much. This is called the IBM principle expressed and abbreviated in Egyptian Arabic: Inshallah Bukra Maalesh meaning: if God wills there is tomorrow, it doesn’t matter.

“I hope you haven’t forgotten we live in May 2009” I sometimes feel telling some oriental man talking on the TV, radio or when writing in a newspaper. Go to oriental, Islamic or Arab media and ask a question about a present problem or deal with a current topic ,your partner will surely take you back more than 1500 years and tries to make his point by saying: The Prophet said or Mr so and so in the 6th, 7th or 8th century said. First I beg you stick to my point and the present (May 2009) and not what the Prophet or Mr so and so said in the 6th, 7th or 8th century. Second: How do you know what the Prophet said? There are thousands if not millions of sayings put in his mouth. You tell me what the Prophet said in such confident way and make such black and white statements as if you had dinner or tea with him just yesterday or the Prophet has a supernatural mind. If you give me a big list of more than hundred names (Isnad) in a desperate attempt to trace back the saying to the Prophet, it sounds to me more than ridiculous because I know if somebody says something and this is reported the third person reporting won’t remember much or change part of it let alone if the hundredth person reports. Dear friends we live in May 2009.

Jamshid, Bremen
18 May 2009

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