The continuity of this site as you will have noticed, has been quite slum. However the quality and content will remain until further notice. This site will blossom soon until an, or the former, administrator is (re)established. Thank You.

-Brother Aktar

A dove moaned frailly in the dark one night
On a branch, while I was sleeping.
I have lied, by God’s house! Were I a lover,
Then doves would not beat me in weeping.
I claim that I am mad with love, fervent with longing
For my Lord, yet I do not weep and such animals are weeping.

-Anonymous

Good movie. Nothing but common sense, so everyone can relate and understand. Quite moving actually. How on earth does this relate to Islam? I don’t really know exactly how to tell you the truth, except that I’m sure that out of how someone feels for another, out of universal humanity, this is one thing that others should see, that others should propagate. I think that when one has Iman, that Iman leads people to unity, that indescribable summation of feeling faith, love, unity, beauty, simplicity, and greatness among the uncountable and infinite (beyond human understanding) amount of descriptions and definitions, makes Islam what it is. When people with all sincerity describe what they feel of this strange Islam, what they feel and love is incredibly similar to the feelings of others who encounter this strange Islam. Wouldn’t it be awesome if everyone felt Iman as a true Muslim feels it? It sure would, thats what a true Muslim’s goal is; it is their duty to spread and gift the beauty of Islam to all the world.

Now really, all these arguments between Muslims and Non-Muslims on this site makes me wonder: Why is everyone arguing? Its all more simply difference of value. Why not debate, if you will, on a more affectionate and sensible basis, and not just random blabing of things that we feel. I mean there is a dialog going on between people, but these arguments don’t end. You see, people become friends through compromising each others values. They find common ground, and then find friendship. When Islam came to Earth, and the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had begun striving for its existence all over the planet, did he really compromise values and beliefs that were held between Muslims and Non-Muslims? No, not actually. He held tightly to moral, and goodness. If you feel he didn’t, then please lets try to understand each others perspectives, and intake what is more important: common ground and friendship. The Jews and the Muslims have always walked together without much problem, even though they didn’t compromise each others beliefs. Even though they didn’t compromise each others beliefs! As did Muslims and Christians, and as did Muslims and Hindus! Wisdom and true humanity takes a person over when they fully understand that they, and the the person beside them, who ever they may be is the same. They think and do, they feel and see, they sleep and wake, they fiercely love and bravely fight. Why doesn’t anyone bother to try and live so that there may always be peace, even when someone makes a mistake? Why not? I think because thats just how life is when you start it. That everything is chaotic, you enter into a world thats outside the box, when everything you see and think is inside the box; everything outside is beyond and unconfined. No matter how well you think of yourself, you will be wrong when your wrong, but to prove that your wrong is nonsensical when everyone else can think the same exact way and have the exactly opposite opinion. Peace, not war.

-Peace, Brother Aktar.

Admin Note: I’m sorry, I’m probably late with this article since it was published September last year, however since I have just stumbled across it, I would like visitors to read it, its quite intresting!

by Uri Avnery

September 27, 2006

Since the days when Roman Emperors threw Christians to the lions, the relations between the emperors and the heads of the church have undergone many changes.

Constantine the Great, who became Emperor in the year 306–exactly 1700 years ago–encouraged the practice of Christianity in the empire, which included Palestine . Centuries later, the church split into an Eastern (Orthodox) and a Western (Catholic) part. In the West, the Bishop of Rome, who acquired the title of Pope, demanded that the Emperor accept his superiority.

The struggle between the Emperors and the Popes played a central role in European history and divided the peoples. It knew ups and downs. Some Emperors dismissed or expelled a Pope, some Popes dismissed or excommunicated an Emperor. One of the Emperors, Henry IV, “walked to Canossa ,” standing for three days barefoot in the snow in front of the Pope’s castle, until the Pope deigned to annul his excommunication.

But there were times when Emperors and Popes lived in peace with each other. We are witnessing such a period today. Between the present Pope, Benedict XVI, and the present Emperor, George Bush II, there exists a wonderful harmony. Last week’s speech by the Pope, which aroused a world-wide storm, went well with Bush’s crusade against “Islamofascism,” in the context of the “Clash of Civilizations.”

IN HIS lecture at a German university, the 265th Pope described what he sees as a huge difference between Christianity and Islam: while Christianity is based on reason, Islam denies it. While Christians see the logic of God’s actions, Muslims deny that there is any such logic in the actions of Allah.

As a Jewish atheist, I do not intend to enter the fray of this debate. It is much beyond my humble abilities to understand the logic of the Pope. But I cannot overlook one passage, which concerns me too, as an Israeli living near the fault-line of this “war of civilizations.”

In order to prove the lack of reason in Islam, the Pope asserts that the prophet Muhammad ordered his followers to spread their religion by the sword. According to the Pope, that is unreasonable, because faith is born of the soul, not of the body. How can the sword influence the soul?

To support his case, the Pope quoted–of all people–a Byzantine Emperor, who belonged, of course, to the competing Eastern Church. At the end of the 14th Century, the Emperor Manuel II Palaeologus told of a debate he had–or so he said (its occurrence is in doubt)–with an unnamed Persian Muslim scholar. In the heat of the argument, the Emperor (according to himself) flung the following words at his adversary:

“Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

These words give rise to three questions: (a) Why did the Emperor say them? (b) Are they true? (c) Why did the present Pope quote them?

WHEN MANUEL II wrote his treatise, he was the head of a dying empire. He assumed power in 1391, when only a few provinces of the once illustrious empire remained. These, too, were already under Turkish threat.

At that point in time, the Ottoman Turks had reached the banks of the Danube . They had conquered Bulgaria and the north of Greece , and had twice defeated relieving armies sent by Europe to save the Eastern Empire . On May 29, 1453 , only a few years after Manuel’s death, his capital, Constantinople (the present Istanbul ) fell to the Turks, putting an end to the Empire that had lasted for more than a thousand years.

During his reign, Manuel made the rounds of the capitals of Europe in an attempt to drum up support. He promised to reunite the church. There is no doubt that he wrote his religious treatise in order to incite the Christian countries against the Turks and convince them to start a new crusade. The aim was practical, theology was serving politics.

In this sense, the quote serves exactly the requirements of the present Emperor, George Bush II. He, too, wants to unite the Christian world against the mainly Muslim “Axis of Evil.” Moreover, the Turks are again knocking on the doors of Europe , this time peacefully. It is well known that the Pope supports the forces that object to the entry of Turkey into the European Union.

IS THERE any truth in Manuel’s argument?

The pope himself threw in a word of caution. As a serious and renowned theologian, he could not afford to falsify written texts. Therefore, he admitted that the Qur’an specifically forbade the spreading of the faith by force. He quoted the second Sura, verse 256 (strangely fallible, for a pope, he meant verse 257) which says: “There must be no coercion in matters of faith.”

How can one ignore such an unequivocal statement? The Pope simply argues that this commandment was laid down by the prophet when he was at the beginning of his career, still weak and powerless, but that later on he ordered the use of the sword in the service of the faith. Such an order does not exist in the Qur’an. True, Muhammad called for the use of the sword in his war against opposing tribes–Christian, Jewish and others–in Arabia , when he was building his state. But that was a political act, not a religious one; basically a fight for territory, not for the spreading of the faith.

Jesus said: “You will recognize them by their fruits.” The treatment of other religions by Islam must be judged by a simple test: How did the Muslim rulers behave for more than a thousand years, when they had the power to “spread the faith by the sword”?

Well, they just did not.

For many centuries, the Muslims ruled Greece . Did the Greeks become Muslims? Did anyone even try to Islamize them? On the contrary, Christian Greeks held the highest positions in the Ottoman administration. The Bulgarians, Serbs, Romanians, Hungarians and other European nations lived at one time or another under Ottoman rule and clung to their Christian faith. Nobody compelled them to become Muslims and all of them remained devoutly Christian.

True, the Albanians did convert to Islam, and so did the Bosniaks. But nobody argues that they did this under duress. They adopted Islam in order to become favorites of the government and enjoy the fruits.

In 1099, the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and massacred its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants indiscriminately, in the name of the gentle Jesus. At that time, 400 years into the occupation of Palestine by the Muslims, Christians were still the majority in the country. Throughout this long period, no effort was made to impose Islam on them. Only after the expulsion of the Crusaders from the country, did the majority of the inhabitants start to adopt the Arabic language and the Muslim faith–and they were the forefathers of most of today’s Palestinians.

THERE IS no evidence whatsoever of any attempt to impose Islam on the Jews. As is well known, under Muslim rule the Jews of Spain enjoyed a bloom the like of which the Jews did not enjoy anywhere else until almost our time. Poets like Yehuda Halevy wrote in Arabic, as did the great Maimonides. In Muslim Spain, Jews were ministers, poets, scientists. In Muslim Toledo, Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked together and translated the ancient Greek philosophical and scientific texts. That was, indeed, the Golden Age. How would this have been possible, had the Prophet decreed the “spreading of the faith by the sword”?

What happened afterwards is even more telling. When the Catholics re-conquered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted a reign of religious terror. The Jews and the Muslims were presented with a cruel choice: to become Christians, to be massacred or to leave. And where did the hundreds of thousand of Jews, who refused to abandon their faith, escape? Almost all of them were received with open arms in the Muslim countries. The Sephardi (“Spanish”) Jews settled all over the Muslim world, from Morocco in the west to Iraq in the east, from Bulgaria (then part of the Ottoman Empire ) in the north to Sudan in the south. Nowhere were they persecuted. They knew nothing like the tortures of the Inquisition, the flames of the auto-da-fe, the pogroms, the terrible mass-expulsions that took place in almost all Christian countries, up to the Holocaust.

WHY? Because Islam expressly prohibited any persecution of the “peoples of the book.” In Islamic society, a special place was reserved for Jews and Christians. They did not enjoy completely equal rights, but almost. They had to pay a special poll-tax, but were exempted from military service–a trade-off that was quite welcome to many Jews. It has been said that Muslim rulers frowned upon any attempt to convert Jews to Islam even by gentle persuasion–because it entailed the loss of taxes.

Every honest Jew who knows the history of his people cannot but feel a deep sense of gratitude to Islam, which has protected the Jews for 50 generations, while the Christian world persecuted the Jews and tried many times “by the sword” to get them to abandon their faith.

THE STORY about “spreading the faith by the sword” is an evil legend, one of the myths that grew up in Europe during the great wars against the Muslims–the reconquista of Spain by the Christians, the Crusades and the repulsion of the Turks, who almost conquered Vienna . I suspect that the German Pope, too, honestly believes in these fables. That means that the leader of the Catholic world, who is a Christian theologian in his own right, did not make the effort to study the history of other religions.

Why did he utter these words in public? And why now?

There is no escape from viewing them against the background of the new Crusade of Bush and his evangelist supporters, with his slogans of “Islamofascism” and the “Global War on Terrorism”–when “terrorism” has become a synonym for Muslims. For Bush’s handlers, this is a cynical attempt to justify the domination of the world’s oil resources. Not for the first time in history, a religious robe is spread to cover the nakedness of economic interests; not for the first time, a robbers’ expedition becomes a Crusade. The speech of the Pope blends into this effort. Who can foretell the dire consequences?

[Press Play While You Read!! Trust me, its BLISSFULLY SWEET!!]

I have a free summer for self-improvement, work, personal studying, and lots of other things you probably wouldn’t care about. But, I think, if your a frequent visitor to this site, that you’ll probably want me to do something about this site. I’ve gotten many comments about how my site is nice and worth-while, but I haven’t had enough time to commit any effort to make this site superb to its full potential. So, this summer, I will be working on this site to make it awesome, and you will love it. I can probably guarantee that (as much as I can guarantee we’ll be friends in Jannah ).

So, until the first of July, I need Suggestions. Lots and lots and lots of suggestions. I need your feedback, no matter who, where, or how your are. I do want to know about you, so link me your site, or your ‘about me’ on myspace or w/e, and I’ll be sure to take note about your personality and taste and try to accommodate your tastes. If you don’t think I’ll pull it off, you must be drunk or something or other– I WILL. I am filled with creativity as well as intelligence, not to brag or anything, I’m also filled with coffee right now 4:30 in the morning. I need some loyal readers, neighbor blogs, casual visitors, and first timers to criticize the life (and coffee) out of me. I’m serious, I’ll deliver. Even if you hate me, go ahead, be my guest, smack me with crisism (but if you perhaps dislike Islam, as a non-believer, take a chilll-pilll). I’ve always had ideas to make this site one of kind, awesome, and highly useful. I’ve already helped a student brother do his homework with a post I had a while back. Help me, Help YOU. If you like this site, suggest something you would like. What do you want? Do you want a forum, a better design, more accessibility, more audio, more books suggestion, more cool videos, or do you even want to help me run the site? If you own a blog, and you visit me sometimes, then maybe you can link me and help me out a bit? If you read this blog the tiniest bit, probably from a feed far far away, you can still help out, tell me something, leave a small comment. Maybe, just maybe, you like this site SOOOO much that you’ll give me detail to detail about things you would like, along with your friends’ opinions who you’ve dragged into helping too. Well not that far, but you get my drift. I’ll be going to Umrah this summer, YAY!! And I will be taking muchos muchos pictures for the sake of LOVE for deen. I’ll be taking A LOT of pictures. I’ll probably even take my skateboard there for some extra pic’s, which I thoroughly doubt will happen, but thats just me. I want to update the site so that when I get there, I can post. Post like I’ve never posted before. But what will interest you besides my personal account of the heart of Islam? I’ll be taking classes in the exclusive NY program named, Al-Baseerah. This will be their third annual trip, and it has been rumored (its actually true) that the students get exclusive privileges, like pray inside the Prophets Mosque during closed hours where there will be NO disturbances, and wholly intimate prayer with the Almighty in the sacred-est of sacred places. And also, I must announce, that once before (from the two times, which means its half possible!!) the exclusive privileges granted to students have permitted a once in a lifetime opportunity for some to pray inside the Kabaa. HOLY SNAP.

I’ll have lots and lots and LOTS to talk about and relate about and talk about. Yup, I’m going crazy, this is so awesome. So guys, my buddies like Mujahideen Ryder, Danya, Mona (Munzareen), Salim Ibrahim (aka THE MAN), my intelligent buddy at Islamicate, and all my other peeps on the blogroll, ch-ch-check it out. I want to make a site that will accommodate the needs of the average and above-average Muslim surfer in terms of reading, visuals, video, inspirations, and other lovely Islamic related interest. Heck, if we do good enough, I’ll probably try to start a magazine. But lets not get too ahead of ourselves, lets first make an awesome illustration of “The Brilliance of Islam.”

I’ll update with some more info. Btw, I love you all so much.

Youtube Excerpt:

“The emotional Dua by Shaykh Muhammad Al Mohaisany in Makkah, After Taraweeh Salah, Ramadhan 1422 AH/december 2001. HURRICANES!

He was subsequently arrested by the tyrannical taghout regime of Saudi Arabia immediately after making the dua.
This is a conversion by me to video of the excellent flash file made by Al Muhajiroun, with english translations / subtitles.
**Warning** = graphic images and very emotional! u WILL cry…”

Edit:

Okay, there might be some odd extremist notion in this video, but its all just how it is. I think, we needn’t worry about minimal differences and weep to Allah all the same!

I think its going to be a small series.

Source: Reel Opener

The following series will cover a glimpse of the life of Prophet Muhammad (sal Allahu alayhi wasallam). Each chapter of this series will open up as the days come. Today is the first chapter in Desert Rose, entitled “Read.”

Scientist from Czech republic explains his reasons for accepting Islam. He used to be an Atheist. [Youtube Author]

In the Name of Allâh, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

by Imaam Ibn al-Qayyim, Rahimahullaah

Ibn al-Qayyim said, in regards to the description of the Paradise and the delights that it contains:

“And if you ask about its ground and its soil, then it is of musk and saffron.

And if you ask about its roof, then it is the Throne of the Most Merciful.

And if you ask about its rocks, then they are pearls and jewels.

And if you ask about its buildings, then they are made of bricks of gold and silver.

And if you ask about its trees, then it does not contain a single tree except that its trunk is made of gold and silver.

And if you ask about its fruits, then they are softer than butter and sweeter than honey.

And if you ask about its leaves, then they are softer than the softest cloth.

And if you ask about its rivers, then there are rivers of milk who’s taste does not change, and rivers of wine that is delicious to those who drink it, and rivers of honey that is pure, and rivers of water that is fresh.

And if you ask about their food, then it is fruits from whatever they will choose, and the meat of whatever birds they desire.

And if you ask about their drink, then it is Tasneem, ginger, and Kaafoor.

And if you ask about their drinking cups, then they are crystal-clear and made of gold and silver.

And if you ask about its shade, then a fast rider would ride in the shade of one of its trees for a hundred years and not escape it.

And if you ask about its vastness, then the lowest of its people would have within his kingdom and walls and palaces and gardens the distance that would be travelled in a thousand years.

And if you ask about its tents and encampments, then one tent is like a concealed pearl that is sixty miles long.

And if you ask about its towers, then they are rooms above rooms in buildings that have rivers running underneath them.

And if you ask about how far it reaches into the sky, then look at the shining star that is visible, as well as those that are far in the heavens that the eyesight cannot possibly reach.

And if you ask about the clothing of its inhabitants, then they are of silk and gold.

And if you ask about its beds, then its blankets are of the finest silk laid out in the highest of its levels.

And if you ask about the faces of its inhabitants and their beauty, then they are like the image of the Moon.

And if you ask about their age, then they are young ones of 33 years in the image of Adam, the father of humanity.

And if you ask about what they will be hearing, then it is the singing of their wives from among the Hoor al-’Ayn, and better than that are the voices of the Angels and the Prophets, and better than that is the Speech of the Lord of the Worlds.

And if you ask about their servants, then they are young boys of everlasting youth who resemble scattered pearls.

And if you ask about their brides and wives, then they are young and full-breasted and have had the liquid of youth flow through their limbs; the Sun runs along the beauty of her face if she shows it, light shines from between her teeth if she smiles; if you meet her love, then say whatever you want regarding the joining of two lights; he sees his face in the roundness of her cheek as if he is looking into a polished mirror, and he sees the brightness from behind her muscles and bones; if she were to be unleashed upon the World, she would fill what is between the Heavens and the Earth with a beautiful wind, and the mouths of the creation would glorifiy, praise, and exclaim greatness, and everything between the East and the West would be adorned for her, and every eye would be shut from everthing but her, and the light of the Sun would be outshone just as the light of the Sun outshines the light of the stars, and everyone on the face of the Earth would believe in the Ever-Living, the One who Sustains and Protects all the exists.

And the covering on her head is better than the World and all that is in it, and she does not increase with age except in beauty; free from an umbilical cord, childbirth and menses, and pure of mucous, saliva, urine and other filthy things; her youth never fades, her clothing is never worn out, no garment can be created that matches her beauty, and no one who is with her can ever become bored; her attention is restricted to her husband, so she desires none but him, just as his attention is restricted to her so she is the sole object of his desire, and he is with her in utmost safety and security, as none has touched her before of either humans or Jinn.

And if you ask about the Day of Increase (in reward) and the visit of the all-Mighty, all-Wise, and the sight of His Face – free from any resemblance or likeness to anything – as you see the Sun in the middle of the day and the full Moon on a cloudless night, then listen on the day that the caller will call: ‘O People of Paradise! Your Lord – Blessed and Exalted – requests you to visit Him, so come to visit Him!’ So they will say: ‘We hear and obey!’

Until, when they finally reach the wide valley where they will all meet – and none of them will turn down the request of the caller – the Lord – Blessed and Exalted – will order His Chair to be brought there. Then, pulpits of light will emerge, as well as pulpits of pearls, gemstone, gold, and silver. The lowest of them in rank will sit on sheets of musk, and will not see what those who are on the chairs above them are given. When they are comfortable where they are sitting and are secure in their places, and the caller calls: ‘O People of Paradise! You have an appointment with Allaah in which He wishes to reward you!’ So they will say: ‘And what is that reward? Has He not already made our faces bright, made our scales heavy, entered us into Paradise, and pushed us away from the Fire?’

And when they are like that, all of a sudden a light shines that encompasses all of Paradise. So, they raise their heads, and, behold: the Compeller – Exalted is He, and Holy are His Names – has come to them from above them and majestified them and said: ‘O People of Paradise! Peace be upon you!’ So, this greeting will not be responded to with anything better than: ‘O Allaah! You are Peace, and from You is Peace! Blessed are You, O possessor of Majesty and Honor!’ So the Lord – Blessed and Exalted – will laugh to them and say: ‘O People of Paradise! Where are those who used to obey Me without having ever seen Me? This is the Day of Increase!’

So, they will all give the same response: ‘We are pleased, so be pleased with us!’ So, He will say: ‘O People of Paradise! If I were not pleased with you, I would not have made you inhabitants of My Paradise! So, ask of Me!’ So, they will all give the same response: ‘Show us your Face so that we may look at it!’ So, the Lord – Mighty and Majestic – will remove his covering and will majestify them and will cover them with His Light, which, if Allaah – the Exalted – had not Willed not to burn them, would have burned them.

And there will not remain a single person in this gathering except that his Lord – the Exalted – will speak to him and say: ‘Do you remember the day that you did this and that?’ and He will remind him of some of his bad deeds in the Worldy life, so he will say: ‘O Lord! Will you not forgive me?’ So, He will say: ‘Of course! You have not reached this position of yours (in Paradise) except by my forgiveness.’

So, how sweet is this speech to the ears, and how cooled are the righteous eyes by the glance at His Noble Face in the Afterlife…

{Some faces that Day will be shining and radiant, l ooking at their Lord…} (al-Qiyaamah:22-3)

[from the amazing and beautiful book Haadi al-Arwaah ilaa Bilaad il-Afraah by Ibn al-Qayyim, pg. 193] [Kalamullah.com]

By CARLA POWER

For Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the stock image of an Islamic scholar is a gray-bearded man. Women tend to be seen as the subjects of Islamic law rather than its shapers. And while some opportunities for religious education do exist for women — the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo has a women’s college, for example, and there are girls’ madrasas and female study groups in mosques and private homes — cultural barriers prevent most women in the Islamic world from pursuing such studies. Recent findings by a scholar at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies in Britain, however, may help lower those barriers and challenge prevalent notions of women’s roles within Islamic society. Mohammad Akram Nadwi, a 43-year-old Sunni alim, or religious scholar, has rediscovered a long-lost tradition of Muslim women teaching the Koran, transmitting hadith (deeds and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) and even making Islamic law as jurists.

Akram embarked eight years ago on a single-volume biographical dictionary of female hadith scholars, a project that took him trawling through biographical dictionaries, classical texts, madrasa chronicles and letters for relevant citations. “I thought I’d find maybe 20 or 30 women,” he says. To date, he has found 8,000 of them, dating back 1,400 years, and his dictionary now fills 40 volumes. It’s so long that his usual publishers, in Damascus and Beirut, have balked at the project, though an English translation of his preface — itself almost 400 pages long — will come out in England this summer. (Akram has talked with Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to the United States, about the possibility of publishing the entire work through his Riyadh-based foundation.)

The dictionary’s diverse entries include a 10th-century Baghdad-born jurist who traveled through Syria and Egypt, teaching other women; a female scholar — or muhaddithat — in 12th-century Egypt whose male students marveled at her mastery of a “camel load” of texts; and a 15th-century woman who taught hadith at the Prophet’s grave in Medina, one of the most important spots in Islam. One seventh-century Medina woman who reached the academic rank of jurist issued key fatwas on hajj rituals and commerce; another female jurist living in medieval Aleppo not only issued fatwas but also advised her far more famous husband on how to issue his.

Not all of these women scholars were previously unknown. Many Muslims acknowledge that Islam has its learned women, particularly in the field of hadith, starting with the Prophet’s wife Aisha. And several Western academics have written on women’s religious education. About a century ago, the Hungarian Orientalist Ignaz Goldziher estimated that about 15 percent of medieval hadith scholars were women. But Akram’s dictionary is groundbreaking in its scope.

Indeed, read today, when many Muslim women still don’t dare pray in mosques, let alone lecture leaders in them, Akram’s entry for someone like Umm al-Darda, a prominent jurist in seventh-century Damascus, is startling. As a young woman, al-Darda used to sit with male scholars in the mosque, talking shop. “I’ve tried to worship Allah in every way,” she wrote, “but I’ve never found a better one than sitting around, debating other scholars.” She went on to teach hadith and fiqh, or law, at the mosque, and even lectured in the men’s section; her students included the caliph of Damascus. She shocked her contemporaries by praying shoulder to shoulder with men — a nearly unknown practice, even now — and issuing a fatwa, still cited by modern scholars, that allowed women to pray in the same position as men.

It’s after the 16th century that citations of women scholars dwindle. Some historians venture that this is because Islamic education grew more formal, excluding women as it became increasingly oriented toward establishing careers in the courts and mosques. (Strangely enough, Akram found that this kind of exclusion also helped women become better scholars. Because they didn’t hold official posts, they had little reason to invent or embellish prophetic traditions.)

Akram’s work has led to accusations that he is championing free mixing between men and women, but he says that is not so. He maintains that women students should sit at a discreet distance from their male classmates or co-worshipers, or be separated by a curtain. (The practice has parallels in Orthodox Judaism.) The Muslim women who taught men “are part of our history,” he says. “It doesn’t mean you have to follow them. It’s up to people to decide.”

Neverthless, Akram says he hopes that uncovering past hadith scholars could help reform present-day Islamic culture. Many Muslims see historical precedents — particularly when they date back to the golden age of Muhammad — as blueprints for sound modern societies and look to scholars to evaluate and interpret those precedents. Muslim feminists like the Moroccan writer Fatima Mernissi and Kecia Ali, a professor at Boston University, have cast fresh light on women’s roles in Islamic law and history, but their worldview — and their audiences — are largely Western or Westernized. Akram is a working alim, lecturing in mosques and universities and dispensing fatwas on issues like inheritance and divorce. “Here you’ve got a guy who’s coming from the tradition, who knows the stuff and who’s able to give us that level of detail which is missing in the self-proclaimed progressive Muslim writers,” says James Piscatori, a professor of Islamic Studies at Oxford University.

The erosion of women’s religious education in recent times, Akram says, reflects “decline in every aspect of Islam.” Flabby leadership and a focus on politics rather than scholarship has left Muslims ignorant of their own history. Islam’s current cultural insecurity has been bad for both its scholarship and its women, Akram says. “Our traditions have grown weak, and when people are weak, they grow cautious. When they’re cautious, they don’t give their women freedoms.”

When Akram lectures, he dryly notes, women are more excited by this history than men. To persuade reluctant Muslims to educate their girls, Akram employs a potent debating strategy: he compares the status quo to the age of al jahiliya, the Arabic term for the barbaric state of pre-Islamic Arabia. (Osama Bin Laden and Sayyid Qutb, the godfather of modern Islamic extremism, have employed the comparison to very different effect.) Barring Muslim women from education and religious authority, Akram argues, is akin to the pre-Islamic custom of burying girls alive. “I tell people, ‘God has given girls qualities and potential,’ ” he says. “If they aren’t allowed to develop them, if they aren’t provided with opportunities to study and learn, it’s basically a live burial.”

When I spoke with him, Akram invoked a favorite poem, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” Thomas Gray’s 18th-century lament for dead English farmers. “Gray said that villagers could have been like Milton,” if only they’d had the chance, Akram observes. “Muslim women are in the same situation. There could have been so many Miltons.”

Carla Power is a London-based journalist who writes about Islamic issues.

[NY TIMES]

One of the most intresting videos I have ever seen.

Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, a minister, says he is God. De Jesus preaches that there is no devil and no sin. His church claims thousands of members in more than 30 countries, who mark themselves with 666, the mark of the beast. [CNN]

Hilarious. Personally, I don’t think this is news, its just intresting to see such malarky. Follow the citation to read up on what he says. By the way, he claiming to be God, or trinity or w/e, also claims the ANTI christ to be GOOD. He also drives a lexus with a rolex on his wrist…hmm, how would we ever find out the truth, oh yes, rationality.

Download it for free here!

This week, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) introduced a resolution requiring President Bush to gain new congressional authorization before escalating the War in Iraq.

President Bush, however, says that he is going to send more troops to Iraq no matter what Congress does. Watch an excerpt from his 60 Minutes interview tonight … [Here]

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of the ruling Palestinian movement Hamas has urged national unity after weeks of deadly feuding. He went on TV to say that Palestinian infighting, which has claimed about 30 lives, was utterly unacceptable. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads the rival Fatah party, made a similar appeal two days ago. Meanwhile, government workers called off a strike over unpaid wages, saying they had been assured of payment. Mr Haniya called on the Arab League to implement its promise to break the Western- and Israeli-led economic embargo, which has prevented the government from paying its employees’ wages.

[Cite: BBC NEWS]

(Book) Introduction:

The entire edifice of Shi`ism is raised on the single basis of HATRED FOR THE SAHAABAH of Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam). Right from the inception of Islam to this day, there has not been a Kaafir, including Rushdie, who has displayed so much hatred and who has spat so much venom and vituperation against the Sahaabah. The Ummah has not seen such implacable foes of the Sahaabah as the Shiahs, whose wird and wazeefah are ‘la-nat’ for the Sahaabah (radhiallahu anhum).

In Shi`i ideology da`wah is directed only towards the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama`ah — the followers of the Sahaabah. The Shi`i concept of dawah and tableegh does not bring Kuffaar, i.e. other Kuffaar besides the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jam`ah, who are ‘Kuffaar’ according to Shi`ism, within its ambit. It is for this reason that history has not observed any Shiah muballigheen inviting Kuffaar in general to Islam. That is because Shiahs have no true Islam to follow. The thrust of their ‘tableegh’ is directed to only the Ahlus Sunnah whom they conspire to convert to Shi`ism by intrigue, corruption, fitnah and deception.

In the chain of deception which Shiahs had originated from the earliest time of their birth is the publication of falsehood in the attempt to lure ignorant and unwary Sunnis into their fold. Every now and again, especially since the rise of Khomeini`ism, books and pamphlets containing all their falsehood are circulated to deceive the Ahlus Sunnah. A variety of stratagems is employed in their literature to make their falsehood palatable to ignorant members of the Ahlus Sunnah. This category – ignorant members of the Ahlus Sunnah – constitutes the most fertile ground for planting the seeds of Shi`i schisms and the baatil of their religion.

In this book which has been prepared by the Fadhl of Allah Ta`ala, most of the falsehood, slanders, fabrications and accusations against Rasulullah (sallallahu alaihi wasallam) and the Sahaabah (radhiallahu anhum) are answered. It is essential that the followers of the Sahaabah study this book carefully to ensure that they are equipped with adequate knowledge to rebut the slanders and calumnies of those whose chief occupation is to revile the Sahaabah. May Allah Ta`ala accept this humble effort of these sinful servants who have pledged to protect the honour of the noble Sahaabah and of Islam.

Was-salaam
MUJLISUL ULAMA OF SOUTH AFRICA
Muharram 1421
April 2000

[Cite: Shi'ism Exposed (Entire Book)]

Canadian Muslims demand Gov. Intervention in possible hate speech by Christian group

    I hope someone would organize talks titled something like “Be afraid, be very afraid: The frightening facts about Christian right extremism.” I would definitely attend because I’m really scared. For your info, this site talks about the similarities and differences of Islam and Christianity.

[Read the Rest: Chinese in Vancouver]

No sound or image so captures the spirit of what Samuel Huntington of Harvard calls “The Clash of Civilizations” between Islam and the West as the adhan, the haunting daily call to prayer heard thoughout the Islamic captials of the world. The Daily Galaxy editorial staff views the adhan as the emerging icon of the 21st Century.

Adhan is called out by the muezzin from a minaret of a mosque five times a day summoning Muslims for fard (mandatory) salah (prayers). There is a second call known as iqama that summons the faithful to line up for the beginning of the prayers.

[Cite: The Daily Galaxy]

Ummah Films – Season 2

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A U.S. gunship attacked suspected al Qaeda targets in southern Somalia, a senior Pentagon official said Monday.

The AC-130 flew its mission within the last 24 hours, the official told CNN. The operation was launched based on intelligence that al Qaeda operatives were at the location, but there was no immediate indication of how successful the strike had been.

[Continue Here]

I wonder who else is terrorizing…

Reminding you that your in danger, and your in need of protection, by drilling it into your head. Constantly. Repeatedly. Stratigically. WMD’s were never found, Bin Laden was never found. Thousands of innocent lives of Americans and Muslims have been lost for the sake of a single (doubtful) video of a man who appears as Bin Laden admitting to the acts of 9-11. Alot of facts point elsewhere. That reminds me, keep a watch out for LOOSE CHANGE: FINAL EDITION, set to come out this month.

The main annual conference of the American Astronomical Society began this morning, and it didn’t take long to roll into action. In one of the very first sessions, Glennys Farrar of New York University described some startling hints of a fifth force of nature, on top of the Fab Four: electromagnetism, gravity, and the two forces that govern atomic nuclei. The idea of a fifth force has a checkered history, and experiments seem to rule it out. But those experiments apply only to ordinary matter. They say nothing about dark matter…[Continue Here]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 — The Bush administration is expected to announce next week a major step forward in the building of the country’s first new nuclear warhead in nearly two decades. It will propose combining elements of competing designs from two weapons laboratories in an approach that some experts argue is untested and risky.The new weapon would not add to but replace the nation’s existing arsenal of aging warheads, with a new generation meant to be sturdier, more reliable, safer from accidental detonation and more secure from theft by terrorists.The announcement, to be made by the interagency Nuclear Weapons Council, avoids making a choice between the two designs for a new weapon, called the Reliable Replacement Warhead, which at first would be mounted on submarine-launched missiles.

The effort, if approved by President Bush and financed by Congress, would require a huge refurbishment of the nation’s complex for nuclear design and manufacturing, with the overall bill estimated at more than $100 billion.

[Source: NY Times]

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.

The attack would be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb.

[Source] Read the rest Here.

Advice for Young Wives:

“In this age of western liberalism which has been adopted by Muslims, the very same evil trend of marriages collapsing and ending in divorce for sport and fun, has overtaken the Muslim community. No longer is Nikah and the home regarded as the holy institutions which Islam has ordained. In addition to the evil of western liberalism another factor which is increasingly contributing to the break down in marriages is the misconception of their rights which girls gain from girls madrasahs.”

Hajj: The Essential Journey: CNN Coverage

“More than 2 million Muslims from more than 70 countries journey to the holy city of Mecca to make the spiritual pilgrimage known as The Hajj. The pilgrimage is one of the five Pillars of Islam that form the framework of Islamic life. It is a journey that all Muslims who are physically and financially able are expected to undertake at least once. This year, The Hajj began on December 28 and ended on January 2.”

Muslim History in Europe: Video

Zakir Naik on Hijab and Atheism: Video

The Sudden Death: Video

A Kafir calls for unition (under ignorance): Video

Insight Magazine

Creation Museum

Check ‘em out!

I don’t hate or have anything against Americans or America, this is just funny, enjoy!

Diamond star thrills astronomers

Twinkling in the sky is a diamond star of 10 billion trillion trillion carats, astronomers have discovered. The cosmic diamond is a chunk of crystallised carbon, 4,000 km across, some 50 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Centaurus.

It’s the compressed heart of an old star that was once bright like our Sun but has since faded and shrunk.

Astronomers have decided to call the star “Lucy” after the Beatles song, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Twinkle twinkle

“You would need a jeweller’s loupe the size of the Sun to grade this diamond,” says astronomer Travis Metcalfe, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the team of researchers that discovered it.

The diamond star completely outclasses the largest diamond on Earth, the 530-carat Star of Africa which resides in the British Crown Jewels.

The huge cosmic diamond – technically known as BPM 37093 – is actually a crystallised white dwarf. A white dwarf is the hot core of a star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon.

For more than four decades, astronomers have thought that the interiors of white dwarfs crystallised, but obtaining direct evidence became possible only recently.

The white dwarf is not only radiant but also rings like a gigantic gong, undergoing constant pulsations.

“By measuring those pulsations, we were able to study the hidden interior of the white dwarf, just like seismograph measurements of earthquakes allow geologists to study the interior of the Earth.

“We figured out that the carbon interior of this white dwarf has solidified to form the galaxy’s largest diamond,” says Metcalfe.

Astronomers expect our Sun will become a white dwarf when it dies 5 billion years from now. Some two billion years after that, the Sun’s ember core will crystallise as well, leaving a giant diamond in the centre of the solar system.

“Our Sun will become a diamond that truly is forever,” says Metcalfe.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/3492919.stm

Published: 2004/02/16 15:31:25 GMT

© BBC MMVII

UMMAH FILMS 

Presents

THE ANTICIPATED SEASON 2 PREMIERE

of

“The Reminder”

{via UmmahFilms}

Thanks for the Post Mujahideen Ryder, its Delightful.

Source: http://www.mujahideenryder.net/2006/12/14/a-meeting-with-allah/

An Intresting Muslim’s Message to the World:

The following video is the analysis of a man who apparently tries to prove why God can be a Man. Quote:

Muslims are always attacking the principal that God cannot become a man. They say, however, that God is omnipotent and can do anything. Yet by saying he cannot become a man, they take away his omnipotence, which is an internal contradiction. I think we need to stop telling God what he can or cannot do, imposing our own criteria on him. God’s word tells me that my God, Yahweh, became a man many times throughout the Bible, proving he was big enough to do so. Maybe the Allah of the Qur’an is not big, or omnipotent enough to become a man. If that is what you think, then come on home to a bigger God, Yahweh, who did become a man right at the beginning, walking and talking with Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, and most recently as Jesus Christ!

So watch what this man preaches:

Bollocks. Watch what this other man, Peter, asks, “If Christianity is true, why is Islam growing?”:

More Bollocks. Foolishness. I’m tired of this pointless reversing. Keep it straight, don’t make believing in The One critically complicated.

The man from the first Video, Jay Smith explains this posts title:

Malarky, without solid logic. Watch the following:

This Jay Smith guy is intresting. He has a number of videos that argue his *ahem* points, I would like to really discuss them, but time is a valuble asset I’m missing….studies brothers and sisters, I’m sorry I haven’t been posting anything. I’ll try to keep up. Jazakallahu Khair.

DUST IS MY BED

It might look like I’m doing nothing, but at the cellular level I’m really quite busy.

I’ll Update when things cool down…JazaKhair!

Some of Islam’s Famous Architecture!

America is at war for claiming that Saddam Hussian had so called “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” AND each day 100s of innocent people are dying in both sides.

While ignoring the FACT that The most criminal state in the face of earth, Israel, not only has “Weapons of Mass Destruction” but also Chemical and Biological Weapons, where the “Criminal Government of Israel” is using it each day over innocent Palestinians who don’t even have a knife to defend themselves. While almost all the nation’s of the World has closed thier eyes and are ignoring their (Palestinians) innocent cries……..We, the followers & Supporters of Truth along with those who still can SEE and HEAR the INJUSTICE say to all those people who are fighting for “Justice & Peace” that “You are not Alone, We are Standing by You – As long as We achieve Success or Perish in Process.”

*By PrinceAfghan, (Making effort to) “Deliver the Truth to the World.“

Shawwal is the tenth month in the lunar calendar, as mentioned earlier. The first of Shawwal is Eid ul Fitr. After the festivity of Eid it is recommended to observe six days of fast. This fast may be observed continuously non-break, or it may be observed one day at a time. If you observe it continuously, you may start on the fourth day and end on the ninth of day Shawwal, or you may select days at random, provided you complete six days before the end of Shawwal. For instance, you may observe the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, 14th and 15th days. Abu Ayyub Al-Ansari (raa) related the Messenger of Allah, (saas), said:

“Whoever observes the Ramadan fast and follows it with six days of fast in Shawwal, it is as if he has fasted Dahr (the whole year).” (Bukhari)

It has been mentioned earlier that Dahr means the whole year. Possibly it may also mean forever, or for life.

Analyzing this hadith, our jurists (`Ulama) explained how according to this hadith, a Muslim who fasts during Ramadan every year and follows it with six days fast of Shawwal, will be credited for fasting a whole lifetime. The Jurists correctly said: a good deed (hasanah) is rewarded a minimum of ten times its equivalent. It follows, then, that one Ramadan is equivalent to ten months of fasting, and the clincher, six days, is equal to two months, (6×10=60). That undoubtedly completes the year’s twelve months. Thus, we see the wisdom and the reason why the Prophet (saas) mentioned six days after Ramadan in Shawwal, not five or seven.

Source: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/pillars/fasting/tajuddin/fast_32.html”

Part 1 & 2: 

 Interesting…reminds me about Kim Peek, that Rain man dude. If only these dudes were wise, i mean their smart, genius actually, but not wise, they haven’t discovered Islam. May Allah Bless those who benefit Islam. Ameen.

“Kim-puter, The Real Rain Man”

Theres a vareity of genres in here. And wow, theres Rap too! Mujahideen Ryder would love this.

I don’t even want to talk about it.

Hmm. I don’t know.

Here’s the link for their website: http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/

*Yawn* Radical Islam is already recognized. But I wonder, what’s the purpose of a movie to come out for the rest of the world to see, Radical Islam is already known by a huge majority around the planet. How? Well radical Islam is…what’s the word…RADICAL. They blow things up for attention or w/e, governments declare a motive for bloodshed and blah blah blah. But a movie to pour emotion’s and irrationality into the hundreds of, I guess, millions of people against (radical) Islam is totally…..I have to say the right word…eh, whatever.

I hope whoever is reading this is trying to understand what I mean. Radical Islam and Islam is totally different. But Ignorance…any well educated person can tell you it’s common amongst the Lay. Reality is spiced up when there’s music in the background with added suspense (*irrationality*), thrill and whatever a propagation (i think that can be advertisement, production) manager thinks.

I’m such a critic. Reality is what’s around us, its what we trust our governments to show us. C’mon. Whats your opinion? Is this propaganda or what? Its not playful gander.

I hope you like it!

Masha’Allah a child reciting Surah Yassin wonderfully!!

http://www.kidsmedia.net/

Muslim Heritage

Ibn-Sina, or Avicenna as he is known in the west, was born in the year 980 CE in Afshana near Bukhara in Turkistan, which is now called Uzbekistan. He left Bukhara when he was 21 years of age, and spent the rest of his life in various towns in Persia. When he died in the year 1037 he was known as one of the greatest philosophers in Islam, and in Medicine he was highly regarded and was compared to Galen, so he was known as the Galen of Islam. Because of his great celebrity, many nations disputed and competed to celebrate his anniversary. The Turkish were the first who revived his anniversary in 1937, when they held a great meeting for the occasion of nine hundred years since his death. Then Arabs and Iranians followed them by holding two festivals in Baghdad in 1952, then in Tehran in 1954. To appreciate his contribution in developing the philosophical and medical sciences, in 1978 UNESCO invited all its members to celebrate the anniversary of one thousand years since his birth. All the members participated in the celebration, which was held in 1980.

[Read the Rest]

When Pope Benedict XVI made a speech, written by himself, to a largely academic audience at the University of Regensburg in Germany, few would imagine that it held much interest outside a small, learned clique. But Pope Benedict’s address included a provocative quote from the 14th century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus (“Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”) Outside of a reference to the emperor’s “startling brusqueness,” there was nothing to imply that the pontiff did not agree, since a theme of the speech was the inappropriateness of violence in conversions (pdf). Within days, the Muslim world was in protest, with the firebombing of churches in Palestine linked to the crisis (the killing of a nun in Somalia has been linked but remains unclear). Qatari scholar and Al-Jazeera personality Yusuf Qaradawi called for a “day of anger,” as he did during the Danish cartoon crisis earlier this year (though it seemed like weeks). Similar to that crisis as well was the occasional show of support from other religious scholars and institutions, noting the marked contrast with Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who built unprecedented bridges with other faiths (he was the first to enter both a synagogue and a mosque) and whose death was mourned by even the most conservative Muslims. Eventually, the Pope responded. “I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims,” he said five days later. “These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought.” Benedict’s unprecedented apology satisfied most Muslim representatives around the world, themselves wary of escalating a conflict with the leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics. But as analysts start to pick through the rationale, there are signs that the choice of words may be political as much as theological, with a pattern of questionable behaviour on display since his ascendence. Jews were disappointed earlier this year when Benedict offered defensiveness and discredited opinions during a visit to Auschwitz. Muslims were disappointed when he opposed Turkey’s potential ascension to the European Union to protect Europe’s Christian character (though he is still scheduled to visit that country in a papal first). He had also invited controversial Italian journalist and Islam critic Oriana Fallaci for a “pastoral” meeting before she died last week. Ultimately, the issue is a test for both communities to find their way back to the respectful dialogue of the John Paul era. There are still numerous hotspots around the world where Muslims and Catholics live in close proximity (Nigeria, the Phillippines). Any further tensions could result in more than a war of words.

By Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of alt.muslim. He is based in London, England.

Muhammad, the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him is the the Prophet of Islam. He was born in the Arabian desert in Mecca.

Towards Prophecy:

The Revelation:

Medina and the Law:

Power and Mecca:

The Qu‘ran:

This documentary made by National Geographic is interesting, true to life and informative. The plot is based on the stories of 3 people traveling to Mecca to perform hajj. Preparations, troubles and religious insights of the Muslim professor from the States, black journalist from South Africa, and the businessman from Indonesia are disclosed during their journey to Mecca and their actions in Mecca. It was interesting to find some facts about the city, religious rituals. Racial problem. In one episode the black man even in Mecca suffers because of his color in Mecca in the tent of his countrymen, therefore he decides to leave it. Also it was interesting to see satellite photos, religious Western paintings associated with famous religious figures associated with Mecca, also comments by the religious which were used in this movie.

Former Guantanamo prisoner talks about his life and treatment by the US forces.

Check it out…

May Allah forgive us, and save us from this fitnah! The Day is coming closer.

JEDDAH, 26 August 2006 — The proposal to shift the prayer place of women within the circumambulation area (mataf) to two places inside the Grand Mosque, away from the Holy Kaaba, has drawn mixed reactions from both Saudis and expatriates. Some said the move was discriminatory while others said it would reduce overcrowding in mataf and facilitate tawaf (circumambulation).

Opponents of the proposal urged authorities to provide women wider areas inside the mataf instead of denying them the right to pray close to the Kaaba. According to the proposal made by a committee set up by the Presidency for the Two Holy Mosques Affairs, women will be given two wider prayer areas on the ground floor, in the northern part of the mosque overlooking the Kaaba; the first between Al-Fatah and Al-Nadwa gates and the second between Al-Madinah and Al-Hudaibiya gates. [Read the Rest]

A certain Michael Lemonick, of Time Magazine wrote the followig in his Blog:

Is Prayer useless?

My colleague Sora Song has just posted to our DailyRx blog about a new study showing that anonymous prayers from a remote location has no effect, at best, on post-bypass-surgery complications–and that it actually makes those complications worse if the recipient of the prayers knows for sure they’re happening.

It would be tempting for militant nonbelievers to declare that prayer has therefore been proven worthless, but that would be unfair, on several levels. First, the people who ran the study–a mix of medical doctors and clergy–looked only at the effect of prayers offered by strangers to the patient. But they didn’t forbid prayers by family members or friends. Maybe those did have an effect; the study didn’t address that question. Second, the prayers were specific requests for a speedy recovery–but many believers think that sort of prayer is inappropriate, that God shouldn’t be treated like the genie from Aladdin’s bottle. Maybe some of the patients would have been aghast at such prayers if they’d heard them.

And finally, prayer could just be ineffective in the situation under study–when the prayers are remote and anonymous. In person, delivered by loved ones, they might work a lot better, either because God is actually there and listening, or because, as some of the doctors suggested, because they’re calming to the patient’s mind. Reducing post-operative mental stress could very plausibly reduce complications, with no God involved.

The bottom line for me is that science isn’t the best method for addressing spiritual questions, any more than religion is the way to get at the workings of the natural world.

—M.L.

Blah blah, there is no Atheist in a Fox Hole.

Check it Out.

A great website that explains Islams view on things.

A few months ago, I had written an article on the Justification on the Denmark Cartoons that literally and obviously insult Islam. The Denmark cartoonist’s claim this to be their right of speech and press. However in that article I had compared this to their own negation of someone who refutes the occurrence of the Holocaust. They shut him up and they say that he’s just a conspiracy theorist. David Irving, again and again is refuted by those who are offended by his words, claim them to be anti-Semitic. But of course this is stupid, because if words in black and white are intolerable to the Jews then clearly images, more vivid and understandable to anyone, in color, is clearly an offense to the ever inevitably significant Muslims all over the world. Will they not be completely offended by images portraying insults on our beloved prophet. The Denmark Government refutes such claims and still holds its grounds to be a ‘free speaking’ nation. Well woopdi-doo, today the US government is clearly against islam. Now wait just a second and read the following article from the Washington Post.

First cartoons and images of Muhammad (s) and now clear intentions of images of ALLAH, this time from the US government itself.

Here’s a link to an article from the washington post which was featured on the Loose Change Documentry:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/dotmil/arkin020199.htm

Which states the following:

“Allah on the Holodeck”

Pentagon planners started to discuss digital morphing after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Covert operators kicked around the idea of creating a computer-faked videotape of Saddam Hussein crying or showing other such manly weaknesses, or in some sexually compromising situation. The nascent plan was for the tapes to be flooded into Iraq and the Arab world.

The tape war never proceeded, killed, participants say, by bureaucratic fights over jurisdiction, skepticism over the technology, and concerns raised by Arab coalition partners.

What if the U.S. projected a holographic image of Allah floating over Baghdad?
But the “strategic” PSYOPS scheming didn’t die. What if the U.S. projected a holographic image of Allah floating over Baghdad urging the Iraqi people and Army to rise up against Saddam, a senior Air Force officer asked in 1990?
According to a military physicist given the task of looking into the hologram idea, the feasibility had been established of projecting large, three-dimensional objects that appeared to float in the air. But doing so over the skies of Iraq? To project such a hologram over Baghdad on the order of several hundred feet, they calculated, would take a mirror more than a mile square in space, as well as huge projectors and power sources. And besides, investigators came back, what does Allah look like?
The Gulf War hologram story might be dismissed were it not the case that washingtonpost.com has learned that a super secret program was established in 1994 to pursue the very technology for PSYOPS application. The “Holographic Projector” is described in a classified Air Force document as a system to “project information power from space … for special operations deception missions.”

[Dot.Mil]

Is this not an insult, is this not anti-Islamic? Not that it seems so fictional or anything, but the fact that a government official of the great United States of Imperialism is well supported, clearly by how this dude, respectively, is a General.

Time Magazine recently published an article, written by Lev Grossman, on the Sept. 11 issue that answers, rather foolishly, “Why the 9/11 Conspiracies Won’t Go Away“. One might ask, ‘why is this a foolish question?’. Simply because its an article that flat out denies the honestly tremendous amount of suspicion involved in the events of 9/11. Of course these suspicions are caused by facts, and are not the rants of movie goers, as ‘conspiracy theorists’ are constantly ridiculed of. Here are a some videos collected by a fellow muslim writer, videos that are convincing, not because what our professional Lev Grossman says, not because of what untrustworthy politicians say, but because of what has, slowly, fact by fact, become obvious. The Ommisions and Distortions of the 9/11 collapse that was widely investigated by another professional David Ray Griffin, who along with many more professionals all across the nation and the world, deny what is the ‘fact’ given by the 9/11 commision.

Now this is all a confusing of dispute of what is fact and what is fiction. Wait. Why is there any confusion in the first place? Maybe because the Gov. spent $600,000 on the investigation of this even that completely changed a nation filled with many honest people. However, even though that may seem like alot, $120,000,000 was spent on the Clinton Investigation. Rates are facts.

Coverup? Possible. But how would we know for sure? ‘The important thing is to keep asking questions’ [Einstien]. Now seriously, what understanding must we have when investigating, on our own intuition, and the intuition of Physicist’s and Scientists that have graduated from well respected Colleges. Former CIA opperatives like Ray McGovern. Understanding that something is wrong, that box cutters couldn’t have killed thousands of people in mere seconds.

Logic that approves video’s, and accounts against the Bush Administration, and the 9/11 commision Report. Videos like ‘Loose Change‘ that have easily gained Five Stars all across by the world Public on Google Video. Lev Grossman simply says the usual that these ‘conspiracy theorists’ usually hear. Why can’t these theorists get plain answers that will shut them up, if what the commision, and the Government says is true. Truth prevails, always, but this time it may take time.

Lev probably watched only the credits of the documentry. Research reveals facts. Thats why the government spent so much money on investigating the Clinton Affair. The ‘Louder than Words’ production, Loose Change spent…well, loose change. And uncovered only what is the cause of suspicion. Why isn’t the US looking for answers, even today? Their solid, they all want to find the, not yet found, Weapons of Mass Destruction. The nation that spent so much cash on the investigation of Clinton, didn’t have the ability to find the WMD’s.

I like thinking logically, cause the rest of the world is accustomed to it, and logic is fact. Most of the people who know at least some of the things that both sides say, accept that 9-11 commision lied, somewhere at least. So yea, I just wanted to post this because of Mr. Grossman’s recent article.

Check it Out

Hour 1: Einsteins Dream

Hour 2: Stings the Thing

Hour 3: Welcome to the Eleventh Dimension

Pretty old documentry, but still very intresting. Enjoy.

Song by Sami Yusuf

http://nihari.blogspot.com/2006/08/shaykh-ul-quraah.html

Note: This Video is Not AntiSemitic or Racist. Please Do not Judge without Watching. It is an important Documentary for creating better understanding between different communities. And For Educating those who are unaware of Islam.

Schleifer served as NBC News radio correspondent and TV producer/reporter in the Middle East from 1970 to 1983. Initially based in Beirut, Schleifer was the NBC News Cairo bureau chief from 1974 to 1983. During that time he conducted or produced numerous television interviews with Arab and Islamic heads of state, including Egypt’s President Mubarak, the late President Sadat, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, the late King Hussein of Jordan, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, the late President Zia El Haq of Pakistan as well as with leading political, cultural and religious personalities throughout the region. He covered every major conflict in the region, all Arab and Islamic summits, the Indo-Pakistani War, the rise and fall of the Palestinian fedayeen, Egypt’s post-war political and economic “Open Door” policies and the oil development boom in Arabia.

Schleifer left NBC News to join the AUC faculty in the fall of 1983 as an Honorary Senior Fulbright Fellow and as a full professor but with the title Distinguished Lecturer. He was described at the time of his AUC appointment by then NBC News President Reuven Frank as “the most competent Cairo bureau chief we ever had and clearly our most encyclopedic expert on the Middle East.” Tom Pettit, NBC News Executive Vice President at that time, said: “Abdallah Schleifer has been a scholar in reporter’s clothing, even though he’s probably covered more wars, revolutions, hijackings, assassinations and general chaos in his region than anyone else I know.”

When Schleifer joined AUC he was charged with the mission to establish a TV news-training center. The result-The Adham Center for Television Journalism-has been hailed by voices as diverse as Muhammed Jasim Al Ali, managing director of Al Jazeera satellite channel; Joe Foote, director of the Walter Cronkite Center for Journalism and Broadcasting at Arizona State University; Al Hayat newspaper; Peter Einstein, CEO of Showtime Arabia; Egypt Today; Sheikh Saleh Kamel, President of ART; Middle East Broadcast and Satellite, Digital Studio and other trade magazines, as the outstanding training center for television journalism in the Middle East.

Schleifer also serves as director of the Sony Gallery for Photography, which is part of the Adham Center, and as publisher and senior editor of the electronic journal TBS (Transnational Broadcasting Studies), which is produced biannually by the Adham Center and which has been acclaimed widely in both academic and industry circles.

At the same time Schleifer has managed to maintain an active relationship with the broadcasting industry in general and TV journalism in particular. In the summer of 1984 he served as a special field producer for NBC coverage of the Hajj-the first-ever American network coverage, which Schleifer secured for NBC.

In 1988 Schleifer was retained by CNN International as their Cairo representative to secure access for CNN in Egypt. As a result CNN was the first channel to be transmitted, in 1990, by the Egyptian private sector “wireless cable” company Cable Network Egypt (CNE). Schleifer has served on the board of directors of CNE since its formation.
From August 1990 until university resumed in mid-September, Schleifer again served as a special field producer for NBC News, this time in Saudi Arabia covering Desert Shield, the build-up of US and other Allied forces immediately following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. In mid-January 1991, during AUC’s mid-year recess and on the eve of the air war, Schleifer again returned to Saudi Arabia as executive director of the World Muslim News Service (WMNS), established by the Rabitat Al-Alam Al-Islami as a special unit providing TV, print, and photo coverage of the Gulf War to international news organizations.

In 1997-8, on sabbatical leave from AUC for the academic year, Schleifer signed on for a one-year assignment to reorganize along professional lines the ART Broadcast and Production Center outside of Rome as its managing director, reporting directly to ART’s chairman, Sheikh Saleh Kamel.

Prior to his joining NBC News in 1970 as a radio and TV reporter based in Beirut, Schleifer was Middle East correspondent for Jeune Afrique and a special correspondent for The New York Times in Jordan and the occupied territories.

A frequent contributor of articles on mass media as well as Arab and Islamic affairs to scholarly and specialist journals, Schleifer’s controversial book The Fall of Jerusalem-an eyewitness account of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War-received critical acclaim in the mid-seventies. Schleifer was working in Arab Jerusalem as managing editor of Jordan’s English-language daily newspaper The Jerusalem Star/ Palestine News at the time of the 1967 war.

Schleifer is former chairman of the Foreign Press Association, Cairo and he serves on the board of trustees of educational and publishing foundations in England and America devoted to Islamic studies and he has published and lectured extensively on Hassan Fathy and Islamic architecture, particularly in the occasional journal Art and the Islamic World.

Schleifer’s academic associations are broad: he served for many years as a member of the Advisory Board of the World Media Association in Washington DC and has participated as a speaker at several World Media Conferences held by the WMA over nearly two decades. He is an Associate Scholar of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, in Philadelphia where he has frequently led seminars or spoken at FPRI luncheons. Most recently HM King Abdallah and HRH Crown Prince Hamza personally appointed him as a full member of the royal Jordanian Islamic think tank, the Aal al Bayt Foundation for Islamic Thought.
He has also guest lectured at Middle East Studies, Political Science, Journalism and Religious Studies departments at leading universities in Europe, America, and the Arab world including Al Azhar, Oxford, Cambridge, SOAS, Columbia, Pennsylvania, Georgetown, George Washington, University of California and others as well as in a wide range of seminars and conferences at the Institut du Monde Arabe, the Haj Research Center, and most recently the First World Congress for Middle East Studies.

Schleifer, a frequent guest on Egyptian TV talk shows, has published op-ed pieces in newspapers such as Newsday and the Philadelphia Inquirer and over the past year has been frequently interviewed by and/or appeared via satellite as a guest for CNN, PBS, BBC, and other European as well as Japanese television news programs. He has also participated as an open-line telephone guest on numerous public affairs radio talk shows originating in Europe, the UK and the USA; including three NPR affiliates.

Born in New York and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (BA 1956), Schleifer received his MA from the American University in Beirut in Islamic Political Thought 1980. He worked for Young & Rubicam Inc., the international advertising agency, in the mid- fifties but left to became a freelance writer and regular contributor of literary journalism and social criticism to The Village Voice, Dissent, Monthly Review, The Nation, Film Culture and Studies on the Left and published poetry in a number of “little magazines” in the early sixties. He visited Cuba on three occasions for extended periods of time and wrote extensively on the Cuban Revolution. Prior to coming to the Middle East, Schleifer served as editor of Kuchur, a quarterly journal of literary and social criticism reflecting the “Beat Generation” and New York/Black Mountain Poets perspective and he participated in the experimental film movement in New York and Havana.

Schleifer is married to a Sudanese-US dual national, Tayba Hassan al Khalifa Sharif, who is currently serving as a Protection Officer for UNHCR and the International Rescue Committee. They live in Egypt and the United Kingdom.

اشهد ان لا اله الا الله واشهد ان محمد رسول الله

I bear wtiness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Messenger.

[TurntoIslam.com]

Check it out here:

http://slim-net.com/2006/08/18/a-scholars-answer/ 

This groundbreaking and well analyzed documentary of how governments and politics in general have used fear tactics for gain and greed was banned in the United States for obvious reasons. As is shown in the film, terrorism has far less to do with religion and more to do with politics. From the days of the Cold War to today’s “War on Terror” political leaders and radicalized religious extremists on all sides have used fear to play into their hands without a thought of the consquences or safety for the well being of ordinary civilians often caught in between. The movie dives heavily into the mindset of both Jihadists and Neo-Cons alike without the usual namecalling and familiar political jokes associated with left wing politicos. Power of Nightmares also includes a historical background on what led to the “War on Terror” and “Clash of Civilizations” between the West and the Middle East by rexamining to the Cold War era through the eyes of rising Islamic movements in Algeria and Egypt, known as the birthplace of radical Islam to many in the West. The War on Terror is new to many, but its origins remain obscure to most of the general public. Must see. Unavailable in the United States.

A film by John Pilger is a no nonsense, unapologetic and unforgiving look at the U.S.’s use of state terrorism and consquential interventionalism in many countries throughout the world since it first appeared as a dominating power in the middle of the 19th Century. From the School of the Americas, the U.S. has trained hundreds of Latin America’s most notorious dictators from Allende in Chile who was ironically overthrown by the U.S. on Sept. 11, 1973 to Panama’s now despot leader . Not only Latin America but other regions of the world such as South East Asia have long suffered under the heavy hand of U.S. supported dictators with some of the worst Human Rights abuses in the world. Consquently, U.S. supported warlords in Afghanistan and Somalia and giving nuclear weapons during the years of the Cold War to other nations which today the U.S. deems as “Rogue States,” have proceeded to the worst humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan as the government remains mostly powerless and unfunded to provide for their citizens against the onslaught of warlords. From the closing days of the Cold War to the current “War on Terror” little is mentioned of the use of state terrorism by the U.S., presented to the general public in the form of “Democracy,” “Liberation” and “Freedom” as pretexts for invasions and what most in the world see as unprovoked militarism by a country who sets double standards and speaks hypocriscy when dealing with terrorists all the while ignoring its own use of terrorism on the world stage. Must see…Unabvailable in the U.S. (unless on online.)

Stumbled across this video. The Beauty of Hijaab in Malaysia. Oh yes, and smoking kills.

A Category just “For the Kids“. Nice Islamic Cartoons and beautiful childrens Qiraats. May Allah grow the Ummats children to great Mo’mins with amazing love for Him and Our Beloved Rasul. Ameen!

Enjoy!

A trailer-esque montage spectacle of Hollywood’s relentless vilification and dehumanization of Arabs and Muslims. Inspired by the book “Reel Bad Arabs” by Dr. Jack Shaheen.

[Note: Sorry for the derogotory Chuck]

An Islamic Documentary featuring a group of children in a North England city who are attracted to Islam and spend much of their time at the mosque near there home. Please Link back to this video using the following site: www.turntoislam.com Downloads are also available from there.

Moroccon Child in Germany in front of Masjid Abu Bakr in Frankfurt. Mashallah!

This is an animated story of Obaid, a boy who tries to teach his people to worship Allah alone, but is opposed by a powerful and arrogant king. While Obaid is the apprentice of an evil sorcerer, he learns about the oneness of God from a pious monk. The boy struggles to teach this truth to others, but his wicked king tries desperately to kill him.

The story is taken from an authentic narration of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) which explains the reference to ‘The People of the Ditch’ (Ashab-ul-Ukhdood’) in Surah Burooj (Qur’an 85:4)

This film is about the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, the world’s second largest religion and it takes the viewer through the early stages of Islamic history and the birth of Islam. Excellent for all ages.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites–oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others–work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported. Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how–through the use of language, framing and context–the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel’s PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics.