Here in the States, the typical work week is Monday-Friday, 9-5. What is it in the Muslim world? Are banks and offices open on Friday? How about Sunday? If it varies, I mostly want to know about Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.
I guess the “Jewish Questions Will Always Be Asked On A Saturday” rule now has a Muslim corollary - IME (training people in Saudi, at a chem plant, very briefly, and doing IT work for companies in Saudi & UAE), Friday is treated the way westerners would Saturday, and Sunday is the start of the work week. In industry, 9-5 was nominally the norm, although everyone seemed to get out of the office at 4.
Thanks! I’m trying to skype people at work in these countries and can’t get them on Friday or Sunday, which seems a little fishy.
Hope this doesn’t sound too patronising, but you are allowing for time zone differences, aren’t you?
You could look up Wikipedia. Don’t presume that because a country is a “muslim” one that they have different work days.
Pakistan is Mon-Saturday. As is Indonesia.
If that’s Friday afternoon, they may just have one of those “short Friday” patterns.
Do I understand correctly that Islam observes Sabbath on the day we Westerners know as Friday?
Islam does not observe Sabbath. There is no day of rest. You are supposed to go to the Mosque for Prayers at about what would be Lunchtime and thats about it. (Several Muslim countries do infact have Friday as a weekend).
Which makes it annoying if you are from a country where Friday is a working day (like Pakistan) and have to travel for business to one which it is a holiday like the UAE or Qatar…some bastard keeps booking me for Saturday evening flight with a return for Monday morning. I have no weekend.
I spent 3 years in Saudi, the weekend was Thursday and Friday. Recently they switched, so now the weekend is Friday and Saturday.
As has already been said, there is no single work-week in the muslim world and there is not naturally the concept of the Sabbath, although some of the salafis are strangely inventing the idea.
In most of the Islamic african countries the work week is either the monday to friday or the monday to saturday (which is the weekend is only one day). It is usual for the large companies with the international business even in this case to keep the monday to friday.
In the Middle East they do keep the weekend for the friday to saturday or the thursday to friday (which I think was developed only to be as ‘different’ as possible).
so there is no Muslim world work week, there are regional variations and like about many concepts many ‘westerners’ mistake the Gulf for the muslim world in habits and laws, when they are far from being the good synonyms.
Companies will open at least as much as government offices, which is Sunday morning to Thursday afternoon/lunchtime, but many will open longer and at the weekend. Although the staff will be present it doesn’t mean they will actually answer their phone, unless it’s their mobile 
It’s likely phones will go unanswered at the start of the day (not quite awake or still recovering from driving in), lunchtime (up to three hours - gotta let the food digest slowly), mid afternoon (time for tea or a nap), late afternoon (the call could extend until after quitting time:eek:) and during prayers (seemingly random periods of the day). Other than these periods, the person you’re calling might just be really busy talking about very important matters, such as who’s bought a new car/phone, had a baby, lost a relative, football team won etc, with their colleagues to answer.
Same deal in the UAE. When I was there (1999-2003), I worked Saturday-Wednesday and had Thursday-Friday off. Made communications and liaison harder with only three overlapping days and a 9-10 hour time differential. Some time after I left they went to Friday-Saturday weekends and Sunday-Thursday work (one nice thing about a royal oligarchy; you can do things like that real easy).
Fridays were seen as the day you did go to Mosque for the ‘about-noon’ call to prayer and usually (this in in Abu Dhabi), the preachers would get on the loud-speakers and, well, preach (some of them would have made good Southern Baptists preachers, if you can imagine it…). Have no idea what they were saying, but they were passionate about it.
Only thing I remember was Friday mornings was when the driver training cars were out in force, as most people were at home. Given that most of the instructors were Cab Drivers :eek:, a morning drive could be hazardous to your health.
In Oman government business is handled from Monday to Friday, with a long break (3-4 hours) in the middle of the day.
Yes and no. Friday is the “special day” where you go to Mosque, but it’s not a whole day of rest like the Sabbath, as AK84 explained. It’s Sabbath lite. I think they picked Friday because Saturday and Sunday were already taken.
That is actually one fairly well regarded interpretation:
[QUOTE=Muhammad al-Bukhari]
We came last and yet we are the first on the day of judgment. They have received the books before us. We have received the book after them. Friday was their day to be glorified. However, they disputed on that while Allah had told us Friday is the day to glorify. Thus they will follow us. The Jews glorify Saturday, and the Christians glorify Sunday.
[/QUOTE]
Other hadith suggest that Friday is the holiest day because it’s when Adam was created (Friday is the sixth day in the Islamic week, at least in the hadith; I’m not sure if that tradition is universal).
Indonesia is Monday-Friday, same as the US. Decades ago there was a half-day of work on Saturday, but Saturday hasn’t been considered a workday since the 1990s.
One word. “Camel Shit”.
That’s two words. One word would be “reported.”
Which is when I went to Indonesia; 1996. So, thanks.
Moderator Warning
Since this appears to be a religious or ethnic jab rather than a joke (and if it is a joke, it makes no sense), I’m giving you an official warning. Don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator