People ask about our name. In arabic the word 'Al' is the definite article meaning 'The'. 'Shihab' is an ancient Arabic word used even in the time before Islam to mean: a shooting star. And 'Thahabi, is Arabic for 'gold' and Thahabi is the adjective. In Arabic unlike English, the definite article is attached to both the noun and its modifiying adjective. And so we have: Al Shihab Al Thahabi. We choose this name because it reflects the ancient culture of the Arab. Alone in the desert on a moonless night, he was moved by the striking speed and beauty of the shooting stars, emerging from now where in the dark, limitless, canopy of the heaven only to be inciengerated in a brilliant mometary streak of light and flame.Somewhere in one of these timeless deserts, on a night at the edge of memory, fifteen centuries ago, a poet named Labeed ibn Rabiah looked up at the night sky and voiced the words that are immortalized in Arabic literature.It is , of course, not possible to convey the charm and eloquence of this verse in English. But the meaning is : Man, is but like a shooting star and its light which turns to ash after gleaming brightly. At Al Shihab Al Thahabi we like to think one still retain the qualities that the ancient Arabs needed to survive in one of the most hostile environments on Earth: initiative, courage and selfless hospitality to the stranger.
