I was sitting in a library in Cleveland with a Moroccan brother and sister, and their nephew.  The brother was an entrepreneur in Cleveland, and his sister was from Sale, presently a university  French teacher.  Both had both feet planted firmly in the 21th century, and had brought their nephew to the US, as they felt he'd have a greater chance of material success in life if educated and living around Cleveland.  I was asking them all about writing Arabic, henna, and the nephew carefully wrote words in Arabic for me.  His uncle would then correct him by rewriting them in a longish shorthand.  I asked them what the word was for "blessing".  They all looked quite perplexed.  I finally said, "How do you write 'Baraka'?"  The nephew still looked perplexed.  The uncle rolled his eyes and said ,
"Oh.  That stuff we USED to believe in!"

The Arabic word in this hand is "Baraka".  Baraka mean "blessedness", and henna is traditionally regarded as having the slightly magical quality of blessedness.  Baraka was always considered one of the crucial properties of henna ....the blessedness that is somewhat purifying.  Wool has baraka, eggs have baraka, precious metals have baraka, the color blue has baraka.