May 9, 2020
Mazdan in Malta
An old proverb about someone who speaks, gives advice or makes a suggestion but finds no one to listen to him. The origin of the proverb goes back to several stories.

The first story, which is the most accurate, says that the proverb is Arabic and common in Tunisia, Lebanon, and Egypt. Malta was once an island inhabited by Arab Muslims, as the Islamic conquest of Malta began in 827 AD. Under the Muslim Aghlabids, during the reign of King Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn al-Aghlab, the eighth king of the Aghlabids, in 870 AD, Muslims took complete control of the Maltese islands, and Christians there began paying tribute to the ruling authority in exchange for freedom of religion. A report written in 1240 AD by Giliberto Abata, representing King Frederick II of Sicily, states that 1,119 families inhabited the islands of Malta and Howdah, including 836 Muslim families, 250 Christian families, and 33 Jewish families. With the Norman conquests, the Arab element remained dominant as a culture, language, and religion for 150 years, until the 13th century AD. After this period, Christianity spread throughout the Maltese islands, forcing converts to Islam to abandon their faith, especially if they insisted on permanently remaining in their Maltese cities and villages. Therefore, returning to the popular proverb "He calls the adhan in Malta," this proverb has become common in Arab and Muslim countries, expressing amazement and astonishment at this person calling the adhan among the Christian population of Malta, which had become entirely Christian.

The second story: says that the proverb goes back to the period of the British occupation of Egypt, when a poor young man found it difficult to find a job opportunity after completing his studies, which caused his family grief. How great was their hope in our Lord and in Him to rescue them from the cycle of poverty. After despairing of finding a job opportunity, he learned that whoever attacks the occupation is exiled to the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea, and a monthly salary of thirty pounds is paid to his family during his absence. He did not lie about the news and indeed, after a round of fierce attacks on the British occupation, he succeeded in achieving what he wanted by being exiled to the island of Malta with a guaranteed pension for his family, which lifted them out of the swamp of poverty. But as they say, “Oh, what joy that did not last.” After a few months and after investigations by the occupation forces, they discovered that the young man had no noteworthy political activity in exile, which prompted them to issue a decision to return him to Egypt. Upon his return, the monthly salary was cut off from the family. When he was asked by people after his return, what were you doing there? He said: I was calling the adhan in Malta!! It was known at the time that there was not a single mosque In Malta, until the call to prayer is made... while churches are spread out according to the number of days of the year, and Malta even includes the largest churches in the world...

The third story: It is said that in a long time ago, one of the sheikhs of the Maghreb was forced by need to seek a living on the island of Malta on the Mediterranean coast opposite Libya. When the time for prayer came, he began to call the adhan in a country visited by tourists from every corner of the world. Their awareness lasted only a few seconds, but no one paid him any attention. After his adhan, he began to perform the iqamah for prayer, but no one lined up behind him, so he prayed alone. He later realized that there was no benefit in his adhan, so he continued to pray when the time came until he left for his country.

The fourth story: It says that the proverb is Egyptian and that Malta was a remote island located isolated in the Mediterranean Sea before the development of means of communication, which made people assert that its inhabitants did not hear the call to prayer emanating from Egypt and did not know the meanings of its Arabic words. Therefore, the description applies to whoever does such an act as wasting his effort and time in vain.

My last dream interpretation applies to this example. I was listening to the ear in the dream and no one could hear me until a man came to me and said, “People will not wake up.”
This applies to my book, The Waiting Letters, which I published for everyone in PDF format. Unfortunately, very few people have read it, and the rest are either skeptical about what is in it or do not want to read it. Even the majority of those who have read the book are too embarrassed to say that they have read it, lest someone insult or ridicule them.
That's why I told you that I feel like I'm in Malta.