Ramy – Bay’ah

By starrymag | June 1, 2020

By: Ariba Bhuvad

 

 

Season Two picks up with Ramy (Ramy Youssef) back in the United States after his trip to Egypt. He’s not looking too happy. He is extremely distraught as he splurges on buying candy with the cashier looking at him strangely. Ramy then proceeds to get into his car and begins watching porn and masturbating. 

 

Things don’t get any better from there for Ramy who can’t get out of bed until his friends Steve (Steve Way), Mo (Mohammed Amer) and Ahmed (Dave Merheje) show up to taunt him and get him up. Mo has to carry Steve in because there isn’t a ramp for him to bring his wheelchair in and bring his oxygen along with him. Steve isn’t too flustered with all of that because he just has one question for Ramy–whether or not he slept with his cousin in Egypt (remember the awkward Season One cliffhanger?). Ramy immediately denies it and apologizes for not being around, but he is processing everything – something he states is just the grief of his grandfather’s passing.

 

Ahmed is concerned about Ramy’s spirituality and is curious whether or not Ramy has been praying five times a day and why he hasn’t attended Friday prayers. Meanwhile, Mo just wants to know if he’s been masturbating since he hasn’t been doing anything else. Steve asks him to get his s**t together. 

 

Ramy decides to go to talk to Imam Khaled (Alok Tewari) at the mosque after Ahmed and his mother convince him. The Imam is certain that Ramy’s grief is a result of his grandfather’s death; however, Ramy says that he resorts to sexual relationships and watching porn every time he tries to figure himself out. The Imam is disturbed to hear Ramy being so candid and immediately asks him to read verses from the Quran to help keep the devil away and to remain in a state of Wudu (ablution) so he is pure and clean. He believes Ramy’s best bet is to follow the example of the Prophet. Ramy is quick to point out that the Prophet didn’t have porn as a distraction, but he’s shut down pretty quickly by the Imam.

 

On his way out Ramy runs into Michael (Michael Chernus) who reveals he is going to be switching mosques and going to another one, specifically a Sufi center. He finds them to be more chill and really like the Sheikh in charge there. Ramy had gone to a Sufi circle in Cairo so he’s familiar with the practices, but tells Michael he cannot join him for the hadra (Sufi practice). 

 

Ramy finally returns to work at the jewelry store with Uncle Naseem (Laith Nakli) who tells Ramy that he was going to fire him as soon as he got back from Egypt. But, in his absence, Naseem learned that all the customers really like Ramy and asked a lot about him when he was gone. Naseem realizes that times are changing and people want someone more like Ramy, someone more relatable. He’d like Ramy to take over in a bigger capacity at the store and, as a result, he has something he’d like to show him. 

 

In a very shady manner Naseem takes Ramy to the bathroom and hands him a gun. Ramy doesn’t want anything to do with it, but Naseem believes he’ll need it if he’s going to be dealing with money, etc. Overwhelmed once again, Ramy stays back in the bathroom and masturbates. 

 

Later that night, Ramy joins his mother Maysa (Hiam Abbass), father Farouk (Amr Waked) and sister Dena (May Calamawy) at dinner with Farouk’s boss, Warren (Paul Fitzgerald) and his wife, Mary (Jessica Blank). The dinner feels rather awkward as the family learns that Farouk goes by Frank at work and is willing to do anything to assimilate, including drinking alcohol which is forbidden in Islam. 

 

Maysa is trying her best to fit in after Mary compliments her on her eye makeup. She shares that she got it from a woman in Houston selling Honest Beauty products by Jessica Alba. The only thing is that Maysa thinks Jessica Alba is Eva Longoria and keeps mentioning the woman from “Desperate Housewives.” Finding himself in a weird situation once again, Ramy goes to the bathroom to masturbate but is interrupted before he can begin because Warren’s father (Madison Arnold) strolls in. He washes his hands, wipes them and sees Ramy’s gun on the table. He picks it up, first aiming it at Ramy and then at himself. Luckily, Warren calls out for him before something bad happens and he walks away with it in hand. 

 

After the dinner Ramy realizes he’d like to visit the Sufi center and goes with Michael to meet Sheikh Ali Malik (Mahershala Ali). Ramy isn’t confident about sharing everything with the Sheikh, but Michael insists that he does. A special connection with the Sheikh can result in something called “bay’ah,” a spiritual contract or as Michael puts it, “a direct connect to God.” 

 

Ramy’s first impression of the Sheikh is an interesting one as they walk into the Sheikh asking a fellow member of the congregation, Amir (Babak Tafti), to push him off the ledge. He was trying to teach a lesson on backbiting, something this member had participated in and directed towards another member of the center. Ramy finally meets the Sheikh afterward and is eager to get his help, especially after the night he’s had with his father and the dinner. The Sheikh isn’t interested in Ramy’s father; however, because they are not there to pass judgment on Farouk. He thinks maybe Ramy should come back when he’s ready, but Ramy isn’t ready to walk away and insists on getting the help. 

 

Ramy begins to open up about his struggles and tells the Sheikh that he feels like there is a hole inside of him that has always been there. He has been using sex and porn to fill that hole and as much as he has tried to connect to God he doesn’t know how. Ramy felt that maybe by watching porn it would help his urges and stop him from having sex before marriage. Feeling increasingly frustrated that the Sheikh isn’t responding to anything he’s saying (including the revelation that he slept with a married woman during Ramadan), Ramy blurts out that he slept with his cousin in Egypt in the midst of their grandfather’s death. 

 

The Sheikh’s response to this is that Ramy reminds him of himself when he was younger, not so much the sexual part, but the part that is driven by ego and desire. He asks Ramy to think about the actresses he watches in the porn videos and asks if he has thought about their plight, their pain and their feelings. But Ramy confesses that not only has he ever not thought about something like that, but he’s not ever thought about anyone but himself. The Sheikh once felt like that too, until he met someone that helped him reframe his feelings. 

 

Ramy wants that sort of guidance as well and he wants it from the Sheikh, who has a concern about Ramy’s intentions. Is he just another one of Ramy’s desires? Someone to unload his troubles and problems on and absolve him of dealing with anything? However, Ramy insists that he does want guidance and wants to take the bay’ah as he wants to be rid of the desires and just wants to focus on God. 

 

And, with that, the Sheikh officially binds them with the bay’ah which involves love, compassion and honesty. It basically means Ramy can never lie to the Sheikh, so Ramy must take the commitment very seriously. With their bond official, the Sheikh asks Ramy to pray alongside him as long as he’s showered since he last masturbated.