Bayt is Arabic for house, and while it exemplifies domestic warmth, it also has poetic and religious connotations and serves as a reminder that true wealth goes beyond the material.
In plural form, the word becomes buyoot. Bayt is a metrical unit of poetry in Arabic, Urdu, Indian and Sindhi traditions. It usually corresponds to a line, encompassing two hemistiches of equal length. However, when someone says bayt al qaseeda, they can also be referring to the core couplet in a poem, its most powerful part.
Furthermore, bayt al qaseed can be used as one would use "the bottom line" in English. If you’ve been conversing in circles with a friend and finally arrive at the core of the matter, you could describe that as bayt al qaseed.
In a more domestic setting, a happy home is bayt saeed. Bab al bayt is the door of a house, judran al bayt, its walls. Adawat baytiyya are home appliances. Farsh al bayt, meanwhile, is a home’s furniture. Bayt maskoon is a home that is inhabited, although it is more commonly meant as a haunted house.
Bayt al naar is a fireplace, or an oven. Bayt al maal is a somewhat archaic term for a bank. Bayt lal ijar is a home that’s for rent. Bayt lal baea is a home that’s for sale.
In Islamic history, Ahl Al Bayt, which literally translates to People of the House, refers to the family tree of the Prophet Mohammed. In Sunni Islam, it extends to include everyone from his clan, Banu Hashim. It can even refer to all Muslims.
Al Masjid Al Haram, or the Great Mosque of Makkah, is also known as Bayt Al Haram. Bayt Al Maqdis, meanwhile, is a common designation of Jerusalem in Arabic.
Awhan min bayt al ankaboot is a common Arabic expression, which means “more fragile than a spider’s nest”.
If you are particularly close to your neighbour, where they are almost a part of the family, you could describe that relation as jari bayt bayt.
A’mood el bayt is the pillar of a home, whether that is literal or proverbial, such as a family’s breadwinner. Sitt bayt is a homemaker.
If a person says kharabet bayti, it usually means they’ve had an adverse experience, like losing their jobs, which puts them and their family at risk. Bayt byoot is the game children play when imagining themselves in a household.
If a person is mirabba bi bayt izz, then they are brought up in a family that prioritises respect and discipline over material wealth.
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
RESULT
Manchester United 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1
Man United: Sanchez (24' ), Herrera (62')
Spurs: Alli (11')
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Cologne v Hoffenheim (11.30pm)
Saturday
Hertha Berlin v RB Leipzig (6.30pm)
Schalke v Fortuna Dusseldof (6.30pm)
Mainz v Union Berlin (6.30pm)
Paderborn v Augsburg (6.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund (9.30pm)
Sunday
Borussia Monchengladbach v Werder Bremen (4.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Bayer Leverkusen (6.30pm)
SC Freiburg v Eintracht Frankfurt (9on)
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Super 30
Produced: Sajid Nadiadwala and Phantom Productions
Directed: Vikas Bahl
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Srivastav, Mrinal Thakur
Rating: 3.5 /5
In numbers
1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:
- 800 tonnes converted into alternative fuel
- 150 tonnes to landfill
- 50 tonnes sold as scrap metal
800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal
Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year
25 staff on site
Bookshops: A Reader's History by Jorge Carrión (translated from the Spanish by Peter Bush),
Biblioasis
if you go
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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