Category: Islam

What Is The True Meaning Of Ramadan?

Ramadan Mubarak to all Blue Abaya readers, it’s that time of the year again to reflect on the true meaning of Ramadan. Ramadan in Saudi Arabia is estimated to begin on the 16th of May 2018. To read more about what kind of changes Ramadan brings with it in the ‘Magic Kingdom’ readRead more

Ramadan and Eid al Fitr in Saudi Arabia

Learn all about the Holy Month of Ramadan and Eid al Fitr holidays in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from the following Blue Abaya posts. The first post on Ramadan is back from 2010 when the blog began and it’s called ‘Magic Month in the Kingdom‘. A good read for those not familiarRead more

Hijab And Youth: A Modern Look At Modest Dress In Saudi Arabia

I have the pleasure to share with Blue Abaya readers another article from “Anonymous Saudi Man”. It’s always interesting to read his view points as we hardly ever hear the Saudi men’s side to common issues in the Kingdom. This time he is discussing the hijab and what heRead more

Recycling The Saudi Values

Recycling, preserving the environment, conservation and green thinking are all mostly alien terms in Saudi-Arabia. Wasting, exploiting the environment, littering and materialism are the way of life in the Kingdom. “The GCC has the world’s highest levels of domestic waste, after the USA,Read more

Remember to say Mashallah!

Something I learned the hard way in Saudi-Arabia was the importance of saying mashallah, maashallah, mashallaah, or mash’Allah. When I had just started working as a nurse I was full of excitement and I was very talkative with my patients. I wouldn’t give second thought to complimentingRead more

The Abused "Inshallah"

Inshallah, insh’Allah, insha’Allah -God willing is a very frequently used term among Muslims. It stands for “if God wills, it will happen” and it’s meant to be said as a positive thing. Responding with “inshallah” after having been asked to do something,Read more

King Abdullah- the Emissary of Saudi Women

King Abdullah was recently chosen as one of the world’s top 10 most respected leaders by Newsweek. This might come as a surprise to some since his actions do not usually make big headlines internationally. Nevertheless in the past few years he has accomplished a lot for women in Saudi-ArabiaRead more

The Magic Month in the Kingdom

Ramadan is a very special month to Muslims all over the world. In case you are not sure what Ramadan means to Muslims and why Muslims fast check out this post: The True Meaning of Ramadan The crescent moon has been sighted and the fasting has started this morning. Ramadan in Saudi-Arabia is a veryRead more

Saudi-Arabia’s Epidemic: Tribalism

Tribalism is alive and deeply rooted in the Saudi culture. Read more about what tribalism actually means here. Tribalism can have some positive aspects to it. It creates close family ties and high respect of elders. Knowing ones roots and the names of ancestors hundreds or even thousands of yearsRead more

Camels-Miracles Of The Desert

Camels, the animals designed specifically to survive in the harshest of environments – the desert.Every single detail of the camel has been carefully designed and constructed to perfection. It is one of the few animals specifically mentioned in the Quran: “Have they not looked at theRead more

Saudi culture and visiting the sick

Since my last post showed a rather negative side of saudi culture, this post will display one of the many positive sides to the Saudi way of life. Visiting the patients in hospitals is a very important thing here, it stems from Islam and its teaching to visit the sick. A patient in saudi hospitalRead more

Culture Shock!

Everyone who moves to a foreign country or environment will go through culture shock. There are 5 stages of culture shock, each of them with their typical characteristics. Some people go through all phases quite easily, while others have serious problems, or they do not progress at all and hence doRead more