Allahu Akbar: A Friday in Khartoum

I am having lunch at a restaurant close to a mosque in Sudan's capital. It is Friday in Khartoum and a day off. The streets are empty except when men and boys dressed in white are hurrying to the mosques in time for prayer. Drowsed by the heat, I hear the muezzin calling them to prayer from different corners of the neighborhood by chanting Allahu Akbar! God is Great! By chance I am catching the khutbah which is the weekly lecture by the imam. I am sipping to my coffee as I am listening to the local imam through the loudspeaker as he addresses his congregation inside the mosque.