jordan pulse -
When I saw Sheikh Abdul Karim Salameh Al-Huwaian praying beside His Royal Highness Prince Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II, Crown Prince of Jordan, I felt that time does not move forward—it turns in circles of loyalty.
In that moment, it was not merely a prayer, but an image that encapsulated a nation’s narrative: a tribe that recognizes the stature of the state, and a state that preserves the stature of the tribe. A Hashemite standing in reverence, and a sheikh standing beside him in dignified attire—as though an invisible thread of shared history bound them together, its title: allegiance to what is right, not to what is expedient.
My memory returned to the devout scholar Sheikh Ayesh Al-Huwaian, to a time when a word was a pledge, a stance was manhood, and loyalty was belonging—neither bought nor sold. It was an era when Jordanian tribes formed the shield of the state, and the state was their generous, sheltering shade.*
In Jordan, the relationship between the Throne and the tribe is not built on passing courtesies, but on a partnership of meaning. The Hashemites carried the message of renaissance, and the tribes carried the trust of the land.
When the forehead and the prayer rug stand aligned in one row, you realize that history does not repeat itself by chance—men bring it back.
It is an image of prayer… but at its core, it is the prayer of an entire nation, where the grandson walks in the footsteps of the grandfather, and the present shakes hands with the memory of loyalty.
Political writer: Khaled Al-Hunaity
“Generous shade”: an extended, wide, and sheltering shade.