Ahl al-Masjid (People of the mosque)

The man turned out to be a professor (a word loosely used for teachers/lecturers in Bosna) of Arabic at a local University. As if Arabic was the common spoken language in the contemporary Muslim world, he continued to address us in Arabic- to which I had to tune my language box before I could respond. My Arabic was very much deficient, a product of informal learning for over 18 years. Nevertheless, the conversation seemed to go without as much difficulty as one would expect, until we were interrupted by the many other Muslims who wanted to share their hospitality to us.

I've been a foreigner in many other mosques, but had never been received so warmly as I had here in Mostar. It was in the middle of a busy wednesday, but everyone seemed to have some time to give. It is not too much to say that we felt being in the middle of the attention, in a positive way. We had a salesman working in a mobile company from whom we could get some advices on getting a new SIM card. Even the busy President of Darul Kuran Foundation, Džewad Gološ, stopped by to ask about us. He, who had earlier agreed to show us around, found Nurudin Pajević to replace him doing this totally voluntary work. How then, can we complain? Mostar had welcomed us.

Nurudin was a tall, married, 23 year old man who keeps a decent beard. Without a pause he started his tour-guiding, providing us with loads of details as we walked pass whatever was on our sides. Nubli did not wait to take his notebook out and jotted much of it down, at times making himself looked like a journalist, albeit an amateur one. I, on the other hand, focused my faculties to memorise and appreciate them, only to later admit my limitations. Nurudin surely knows much about his hometown. What a perfect guide, just as we needed.

Inevitably, the whole thing got me thinking again. The fact that Nurudin knows practically everything about Mostar, if this is not exclusive to him, is a wonder. So far there wasn't any one question we posed that he didn't answer satisfactorily- this phenomenon is hard to find amongst the youths of my country, and less so in my current country of residence. If- and it hasn't been tested yet- this same knowledge and acquaintance about one's own country is to be found in the larger general public, then it must've been a product of either of these two: the formal/informal institution, or the recent war- either way, it is still commendable.

Regardless, history does most in preserving identity. And with identity comes everything else.