Zayd
Habar Magaadle
As you may know, I've been in the blessed motherland for two months and a half, for the earlier part, I was busy visiting relatives, making connections, and finding ways to improve my meherad (business). Truthfully, I never paid attention to the many maqaaxis that lay alongside the road, although much of my male relatives who are of my age do chew.
After a month or so with the grace of Allah I did find spare time to visit the beautiful farms of Arabsiyo, for the first time in a long time I was bewildered at the beauty, I really witnessed the oft-repeated verses of the Qur'an where Allah says (paraphrase) " And we send down rain, and by it we bring dead land back to life, and so it is for the resurrection". The sheer beauty of seeing camels, cows, goats and sheep grazing in lush greenery.
Then I saw a section of the farm used for cultivating khat, a different species called Wadani, the leaves are more bigger than the specie grown in Ethiopia and Kenya. From birth I was a curious individual, and so after inquiring as to what was being cultivated there, once I was told it was khat, they (farmers) then offered me to test it. It was sweet and bitter at the same time, it reminded me of coffee. After it went soft in my molars I consumed it, and then decided to go on a 14 day trial on it. Everyday I would chew from 'Asr to 'Isha at home, or with 'friends'.
After 14 days I've now seen the pros and the cons of this stimulant;
Pros
When the stimulant kicks in, I felt more alert, more euphoric (in a good mood bruv), happy, and always a thirst for learning, or doing something. Whether it was fixing management issues, helping out relatives, I was in a constant state of wanting to do something positive. The biggest positive imo was that I could read 200 pages of a information-filled book in 2 hours and understand it all, there was no lackadaisical feeling, only energy. I also felt a loss of appetite, ofcourse beforehand I ate breakfast and lunch, but there was no desire to eat thereafter, even after 'Isha, hunger kicks in the next morning. Speaking from a Muslim spiritual perspective, surpressing the two desires, that of the stomach and the genitals is a big plus, because one can then begin to focus on attaining higher ranks, instead of that of filling the stomach (the Prophet pbuh said human beings have never filled a vessel worse than the stomach), and pursuing sex driven by lust like a wild animal.
Cons
Personally, the positives outweighed the negatives, but insomnia was an issue, I did sleep every night, but I would wake up every 3 hours, and even at times felt as if I was in the company of my 'friends', quite strange indeed. Constipation definitely takes place, but can be subsided by consuming 'xamar/tamarind?' or camel milk (which is delicious btw, I drink that ish every day, 2 cups in the morning along with breakfast).
The biggest negative is that like coffee, khat stains teeth, I brush twice everyday but was surprised to see that my teeth was quickly stained, I then embraced the old method of baking soda and lime/lemon, and alhamdulilah my teeth are now white as they were before.
So that was my two week trial on khat, will I chew again? If I do, then like everything in this world, moderation is safety, and abuse is self-destruction..
After a month or so with the grace of Allah I did find spare time to visit the beautiful farms of Arabsiyo, for the first time in a long time I was bewildered at the beauty, I really witnessed the oft-repeated verses of the Qur'an where Allah says (paraphrase) " And we send down rain, and by it we bring dead land back to life, and so it is for the resurrection". The sheer beauty of seeing camels, cows, goats and sheep grazing in lush greenery.
Then I saw a section of the farm used for cultivating khat, a different species called Wadani, the leaves are more bigger than the specie grown in Ethiopia and Kenya. From birth I was a curious individual, and so after inquiring as to what was being cultivated there, once I was told it was khat, they (farmers) then offered me to test it. It was sweet and bitter at the same time, it reminded me of coffee. After it went soft in my molars I consumed it, and then decided to go on a 14 day trial on it. Everyday I would chew from 'Asr to 'Isha at home, or with 'friends'.
After 14 days I've now seen the pros and the cons of this stimulant;
Pros
When the stimulant kicks in, I felt more alert, more euphoric (in a good mood bruv), happy, and always a thirst for learning, or doing something. Whether it was fixing management issues, helping out relatives, I was in a constant state of wanting to do something positive. The biggest positive imo was that I could read 200 pages of a information-filled book in 2 hours and understand it all, there was no lackadaisical feeling, only energy. I also felt a loss of appetite, ofcourse beforehand I ate breakfast and lunch, but there was no desire to eat thereafter, even after 'Isha, hunger kicks in the next morning. Speaking from a Muslim spiritual perspective, surpressing the two desires, that of the stomach and the genitals is a big plus, because one can then begin to focus on attaining higher ranks, instead of that of filling the stomach (the Prophet pbuh said human beings have never filled a vessel worse than the stomach), and pursuing sex driven by lust like a wild animal.
Cons
Personally, the positives outweighed the negatives, but insomnia was an issue, I did sleep every night, but I would wake up every 3 hours, and even at times felt as if I was in the company of my 'friends', quite strange indeed. Constipation definitely takes place, but can be subsided by consuming 'xamar/tamarind?' or camel milk (which is delicious btw, I drink that ish every day, 2 cups in the morning along with breakfast).
The biggest negative is that like coffee, khat stains teeth, I brush twice everyday but was surprised to see that my teeth was quickly stained, I then embraced the old method of baking soda and lime/lemon, and alhamdulilah my teeth are now white as they were before.
So that was my two week trial on khat, will I chew again? If I do, then like everything in this world, moderation is safety, and abuse is self-destruction..
