future generations will ask, what is this cloak?

Subhanallah, by putting the Arabian Abaya (cloak) on Messi 🇦🇷, this ultra clever PR/Dawah move immortalizes a symbol of Arabian/Islamic culture for decades! As everyone from future generations will ask, what is this cloak?🎓

Let us talk about the history and significance of the Abaya, how Europeans have been wearing it for centuries without even realizing its origins 🇪🇺, and how Argentians are genetically linked to the Muslims of Sicily! 🇦🇷

Did you know that the Abaya was common at the time of Prophet Jesus peace be upon him? Especially in Palestine 🇵🇸 and the Levant region 🇸🇾! It was called "Bisht" in Aramiac, the language of Prophet Jesus, which comes from an older Akkadian language, and is the same word Qataris and people of the Arabian gulf use today. Bisht! 🇶🇦 

But it goes even 5 centuries earlier than that! The oldest mention we find, is by a Greek historian Herodotus 🇬🇷 (425 B.C): "Arab soldiers used to wear the Abaya tied with a belt on their bodies, and a bow🏹 in their hands"!

The Prophet ﷺ also wore a brown Abaya, which he gifted to a companion (Tabi'i) called Awais Alqarni, then handed down generation to generation until  it made its way to Topkapi palace in Istanbul on display today! 🇹🇷

But did you also know that Europeans have also been wearing the Arabian Abaya for 13 centuries?!!

Indeed, ever since Muslims reached Andalus in the 8th century 🇪🇸, they opened the University of Cordoba in South Spain. During graduation ceremonies, the Muslims students wore the Abaya, and as non-Muslim students came from all over Europe to study at the best University in the world at that time, they also wore the same Abaya! 👨‍🎓👩‍🎓

As these students returned to their countries, they copied the most dominant culture (just like our youth do today), and the Abaya spread to Europe 🇪🇺 and eventually all over the world 🌎, even in Argentina itself 🇦🇷, where millions of students every year wear it in graduation! 

Why Argentina? Because Argentinians are 60% ethnically Italian 🇮🇹, and the South of Italy, Sicily, had Muslim presence for over 470 years! Therefore, DNA tests prove that Argentians are partially descendant of those Muslims! 🧬

Indeed, this is a reminder that we, the children of Adam, are always linked together in one way or another! 🤝

When the Amir Prince of Qatar🇶🇦 puts this Bisht on Messi, it is one of the highest symbols of honor a head of state can give to a person, similar to the King of England knighting a person 👑! Bisht literally means "nobility" in old Aramaic!

And now, as the world celebrates the win of Argentina ⚽️, let this historic photo remind them of the history we share together, and the knowledge of Islamic civilization that has spread to all continents of the world! 🏟

Thank you Qatar 🇶🇦 the best world cup in history ⚽️! You have made every Muslim proud, and left your mark with a historic world cup photo! You are the true winners of the tournament! 🏆

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