Whatever it is, I'd love to hear it.
This is one of my favorite jokes, I think my (Jewish) mother told it to me first.
A Catholic priest, an Imam, and a Jewish rabbi are all talking to each other. All 3 of the men have had problems with rats at their place of worship, and they're discussing how they've dealt with them. The priest says, "I caught them, put them in a box, and dropped them off ten miles away- but they still came back!" The Imam says, "I caught them, put them in a box, and dropped them off fifty miles away- but they still keep coming back!" The Rabbi says, "I gave each rat a Bar Mitzvah, and they haven't come back since!"
One of my favorite aspects of Arabic/Muslim culture is the mourning when somebody dies. We have a 3 day wake when a person dies. The family that lost a member pick a place (usually the yard of a family member) and set it up with chairs, usually in a circle and prepare for people to come. And the whole city comes. Every family, even if you didn't really know the person, but in support of the family, half the city shows up. When they enter, their close relatives sit in the entrance and people come, offer their condolences and find a seat. They are offered a small cup of really good and strong coffee (arabic mocca with cloves and cardamon, try it), then they are offered a date (usually Majhoul dates, soft and sweet) and then a cup of water. Even if you do not like those, people usually accept out of respect. Then they sit for as long as they wish, talk to the people around them, about whatever they want to talk and then leave. As you can imagine, it is very tiring for the family as it goes for 3 days for 18 hours a day (most people show up in the evening/at night). The family is invited for lunch and dinner by other large families because they know they might not have time to cook and also out of support. I think it is a very strong and beautiful sense of community, specially in such hard times... When my grandfather died, I was in 7th grade, it was my first family death. I was put on coffee duty with my cousin who I didn't get along so well back then. We did it for 3 days, non-stop and we really connected. Coffee is usually prepared on an open fire, so we were sitting there hours and hours preparing coffee and talking. Of course we had to test-drink every batch and never went to sleep. I always like this tradition, I hope you enjoyed my story :)
Wow, us Jews actually have something very similar! In the Jewish faith, when someone dies, the immediate family picks a room, sets up chairs, and sits down to receive visitors. It's called "Sitting Shiva." They do this for seven days, and aren't allowed to cook their own meals, leave the house unless absolutely necessary, or really do much of anything. Everything is provided for them. It's an incredible thing. Basically the whole community comes to talk, console, reminisce about the departed, or just "schmooze." From what I've seen, it really helps the mourners bear the grief. In all honesty, it's one of my favorite parts of Judaism. But what's really cool is that, from what you're saying, Muslims actually do something similar! Our cultures aren't all that different, in a lot of ways. :)
I apologize since this isn't really a story or anything, but I have a question. In your religion, is it considered "bad luck" to be brought back to life using CPR? As an EMT, I once responded to a home where a family member passed away but the family begged us not to do CPR and said it was just their time to go. They didn't have a DNR, so you can imagine this created a bit of an issue. I'm just curious really and I haven't found the forum or the right person to ask without coming off rude in some way.
I might be the wrong person to ask as I am not a muslim, anymore. But I never heard about such a situation. What I do know is Qada qa Qadar the predestination of Allah. Wikipedia described Qadar as follows: So according to that, God already "wrote down" (think Death Note) that a person is going to die. So I could imagine that some people could see CPR as something that defies gods will. Funnily, they didn't think it through as it is also possible that God meant for the person to have a near death experience and then be brought back to life through CPR. Sadly, many people use this concept to surrender to things that happen to them. As in "this and that happen? God intended it to be like that" and then they stop questioning it, This connects also to the concept of Tawakkul which is the "Trust in God's will". Muslims says that, if you encounter a challenge, you should do something about it and then leave to the hands of god. This usually gives them a feeling of relief as they hand responsibility to a higher power. And when things go bad, then its "the will of god". But thinking about it, Tawakkul is a nice mind trick to ease on yourself... I am getting carried away :D I hope I was able to answer your question, partially.Qadar is one of the aspects of aqidah. Some Muslims believe that the divine destiny is when God wrote down in the Preserved Tablet ("al-Lauḥ al-Maḥfūẓ") all that has happened and will happen, which will come to pass as written.
Honestly, I love the lore and customs of most religions. It's the extremist nutjobs that make me irk. But religions, being the sum of hundreds (if not thousands) of years of humanity in all it's facets, good or bad, certainly have a lot to teach us.
Yeah, it did help our relationship. We still disagree on many levels but we treat each other with respect :) There are some traditions that are really beautiful because they are universal, independent of the current "age". While others are absolutely stupid.
It's not so cute, but my parents, as way of sarcastic motivation, would always say to me: "You tried your hardest and failed miserably. And what did you learn? Don't try." Which I'm pretty sure is a good Simpsons quote.
Not so much hah, but I'm currently reading East of Eden, by Steinbeck, and it puts the "Cain and Abel" Christian parable in a new light. Basically, instead of Cain being punished by God for murdering his brother, he instead is given the power to defeat sin. "Human morality can triumph" or something.
My favorite parable from Christianity is probably the parable of testing servants.
I just love the conclusion: Luke 12:48 ". . . From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." It really motivates me to work hard, stay focused, and makes me realize that sometimes, "all eyes are on you."
I love the spoon parable of Heaven and Hell. Hell is a room where everyone sits at a round table, all with 5 foot long spoons and a bowl of soup sitting in front of them. They starve and are hungry as they are unable to get their own spoon into their bowl of soup or mouths. Heaven has the same setting as Hell, but instead of trying to feed themselves, they feed one-another. Everyone is happy and full because they serve each other.
Though that is old reasoning- because the first thing I thought? "It's not a problem to have a huge spoon if you drink straight from the bowl". So unless the bowl is glued or somehow enchanted to only be able to feed from a spoon, it's a non-issue.
Czech mushroom picking joke: An old frail man who was almost blind, was wandering through the deep corners of a forest he knew as well as one possibly could - collecting mushrooms for his late night supper. In the Czech hills, one could never be too careful when mushrooms are concerned, because death could come as swiftly as a craving mouthful. Being hard of vision, the man would tear off a small piece of mushroom and taste it before adding it to his spoil, since poisonous mushrooms are bitter. Almost having filled his mushroom-pack, he plucked his final mushroom, ripped of a tiny piece, and placed it on his tongue; >> /// EW, FUCK!!! - lucky I didn't step in that !!! ~~ /// <<
Pretty much the only interesting tale from French Canadians (in my opinion) is La Chasse-Galerie (also known, in english, as Bewitched Canoe). Long story short (as I recall it), the winter is rough and cold so three lumberjacks make a pact with the Devil to ensure a safe passage to the village to dance with their wives and see their children on New Years' Eve. The Devil delivers them a flying canoe for passage on the condition that they don't swear, drink or call the Lord in vain during the travel, going and coming, and that they're back before six in the next morning. All goes well for going, they dance for a while, and start coming back. But one of them is drunk when coming back. So they tie him up in the boat and go on. Except that he manages to get free, gets an oar and starts swearing aboard. Then the canoe tips over because they tried dodging the oar, and they all end up to the neck in snow. The next morning they wake up in their cabin, safe, and the person who found them just said they were found in the snow completely drunk.
While this isn't necessarily a joke from a culture, my German grandfather always used to tell this joke: How do you fit a crocodile in a matchbox? (obligatory "I don't know, how?) Well, you need binoculars and tweezers. Then you hold the binoculars backwards and look at the crocodile, so it becomes really small. Then you pick it up with the tweezers and put it in the matchbox.
When I would make excuses my mother used to tell me "If frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their asses when they hop."