Al-Fitr, as everybody knows, follows a month of fasting and abstaining from pleasures from dawn to dusk. A Muslim does all this for the sake of Allah Who rewards him and her in many ways. The festival of joy and giving is one such way. It means that after every hardship, after each trying time, there is a sweet reward. To further illustrate the point: It is after being heated by fire that gold is withdrawn from rock, can be made malleable and then shaped. And further, it is only because of the tremendous pressure of the earth that diamonds can be formed. Pleasure without perseverance is not that sweet, enjoyable, or cherished. Anything gained without hardship and sacrifice has little or no value. The more one endures, the more the person enjoys and appreciates its value. And so it is with the musky fragrance know as oudh, which is derived from the Aloeswood tree, but only after it has suffered an infection over many decades and then dies, then only yielding up its rich prize. Oudh is highly valued in the Middle East for its fragrance. It commands astonishingly high prices due to the demand. Rich, precious oudh is so rare its price makes gold and diamonds seem affordable in comparison. The eighth-century Egyptian jurist and poet Muhammad Ibn Idris Al-Shafi'I wrote: “Gold is just dust when still in the ground/ And oudh, in its country of origin, /Is just another kind of firewood.” Prices range from a few dollars a kilogram for the lowest quality to over thirty thousand US dollars for top quality oil and resinous wood. It is said that this is the legendary tree from the Garden of Eden. “Life without oudh is impossible to imagine in several ancient cultures, including across Arabia,” said a senior executive of a company dealing in oudh. “The sale of oudh rises sharply during the months of Ramadan and before both the Eids. During the wedding season the sale of oudh also goes up because it is burned copiously during wedding parties,” he said. Determining the quality of oudh is similar to judging the value of a diamond – only a few have the expertise for it. A layman may be able to assess the quality of diamonds, or the purity of gold, but only a few wise and long-term users can ascertain the quality of oudh oil. Oudh comes in different forms - from wood chips to powder mixed with oil and shaped into round balls. It is burned as a mark of respect and hospitality and is a traditional gesture of welcoming and honoring guests. In fact, oudh is considered an important feature at most social occasions. Oudh is cut, sliced, polished and burned over coal in a traditional incense burner called a mabakhir (a charcoal brazier). In most Gulf countries it is customary to pass around the handheld mabakhir of smoldering oudh at social gatherings. Oudh is burned over smoldering bits of coal in the cup that is normally lined with sheet metal. In some homes, it is burned in an electric mabakhir for convenience. The mabakhir is always passed around counter clockwise and each individual wafts the smoke onto himself or herself to perfume their clothes. While oudh is burned in a mabakhir for fragrance, oudh oil or dehn-al-oudh is packaged in a bottle as a personal fragrance. Oudh-based fragrances are just as treasured a commodity. In the past, there was little use of bottled perfume in the Arabian Peninsula, so oudh was used both by men and women to perfume their clothes and hair.It is part of Arab tradition to go to mosque with a nice smell. It is used in the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet's Mosque in Madina, increasingly so during Ramadan and Haj. During Ramadan, some Arab families burn oudh each evening after breaking their fast. Being very expensive it is only used on important occasions such as Eid, Friday prayers, weddings, and to celebrate the birth of a child. The oudh oil is often given as part of a bride's dowry, together with gold and other gifts. Oudh is also found in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Thailand, Java, and all over Southeast Asia. Oudh/Aloeswood oil is derived from the Agarwood tree. It makes a long and complicated journey before arriving on the other side of the world. The networks of middlemen, the refined grading techniques and the marketing efforts multiply the price many times before it reaches the customer. In the early 14th century, Ibn Battuta described his travels in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where visiting Sultan Ayri Shakarwati, he was shown “a bowl as large as a man's hand, made of rubies, containing oil of aloes”. Ibn Battuta also wrote that in Muslim lands every oudh tree was private property, and that the best trees grew in Qamara, or Cambodia. In the process of producing oudh, one of the most wonderful aromas on the planet, the tree dies of infection. Its sacrifice does not go to waste. It leaves behind a fragrance that is soothing beyond imagination. Oudh is a product of the Aquilaria and Gyrinops species of trees. The Aquilaria tree grows up to 40 meters high and 60 centimeters in diameter. It bears sweetly-scented, snow-white flowers. These trees form resins that can then produce some of the highest quality oudh oils. The fragrance oil business is a complex, multi-faceted business. Many people are involved in the making of one good oil. The consumer benefits from the tree's sacrifice and hundreds of pages of research and many hours of testing. Buying from an unknown vendor can result in a buyer being given an inferior product at a very high price. Tricks such as making oudh wet with water add extra weight and since oudh is bought by weight, what the customer may think is a cheaper product may actually cost more. The oil content of oudh determines its price, which is directly related to the quality of the fragrance and its lasting qualities. Physical and chemical testing as well as gas chromatography and density tests can determine the quality in a laboratory. But usually the appearance of oil, the quality of fragrance and its lasting strength are used as benchmarks for price determination. It is advisable and safe to buy from a trustworthy source. That way one can be sure of getting the best quality product. Agarwood comes in solid or liquid form. Solids are only solid at room temperature, and if warmed slightly, it turns to mobile liquid. It is an anti-asthmatic and can be applied directly to the skin as it is non-irritating. The oil is very tenacious and only the tiniest of drops is needed to fill the air with its unique aroma. It is a complex aroma with many nuances, deep and ethereal. The aroma takes about 12 hours to unfold and it will last on the skin for more than a day, and if placed on any material, the scent can last for months. It can be used as a perfume, an aroma therapy and an essential oil or as a meditation aid. The resin is also used in perfumery. Oudh oil is slowly making an appearance in the West where the majority of people do not know about this natural gift of nature. It is said to provide motivation and devotion to meditation. It is supposed to facilitate communication, refresh the mind and body, drive away evil spirits, take away exhaustion, remove impurities, expel negative energies, bring alertness, calm the nervous system, relieve anxiety, invoke a sense of strength and peace, enhance cerebral functioning, remedy nervous disorders such as neurosis, and obsessive behavior, and it is a companion in solitude. Chinese, Tibetan, Ayurvedic and Unanai physicians have all used Agarwood in their practice to treat various diseases as well as mental illness. It is considered a stimulant, a tonic, able to relieve nausea, nerves, regurgitation, and weakness in the elderly. It is a diuretic, relieves epilepsy, and is antimicrobial. It also helps with gas, smallpox, rheumatism, illness during and after childbirth, spasms in digestive and respiratory systems, shortness of breath, chills, general pains, fever, asthma, cancer, colic, digestive and bronchial complaints, abdominal pain, diarrhea, cirrhosis of the liver and as a director or focuser for other medicines. It has also been used as a treatment for lung and stomach tumors.
