i attended the writing of a book...

yesterday after 3isha (friday) i attended the “writing of a book” (katb kitab, aka “nikkah,” aka “marriage contract,” aka “engagement”) of one of my friends (mahmoud) here in alexandria.  the gathering was done at masjid 3omar ibn al khattab in alexandria.  a few brothers gave short talks (islamic in nature - one brother was telling the unmarried people to “not worry about resources and get married because Allah provides” and quoted the hadeeth, etc), one brother read some Quran (some verses from surat al nur in 2 qira2at), etc.

the legal marriage paperwork was signed, and shortly thereafter, the ma2zoon (the person who is authorized to do the marriage) asked the guardians of both the bride and the groom repeat the words of marriage, sweets were given out, and that was it!  afterwards, we took pictures with the groom and then left.

simple, but everyone had an awesome time.  masha’Allah, i really like this model, and i look forward to mahmoud’s wedding insha’Allah! we tell mahmoud what the Prophet (saw) taught us to say (as reported by abu hurayrah (ra) in sunan abee dawuud):

أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم كان إذا رفأ الإنسان إذا تزوج قال بارك الله لك وبارك عليك وجمع بينكما في خير