Love Is Real Medicine - Health For Life - MSNBC.com Loneliness fosters cardiovascular disease. Fortunately, there’s an antidote.

Sunni Sister: Blahg Blahg Blahg � Blog Archive � Mawlana Rumi

I am the servant of the Qur’an as long as I have life.
I am the dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen one.
If anyone quotes anything except this from my sayings,
I am quit of him and outraged by these words.

NPR : ‘Green Light’: Arab Reality TV for Islamic Charity
Green Light, a reality television show produced in Dubai, aims to highlight Islamic values. The program features four young Arabs who attempt to do good deeds, one of the cornerstones of the Islamic faith, with no money and a limited amount of time. The show has earned a loyal following in Arab communities throughout the world.

Is Anger Sinful?

Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | Language matters
A new online translation service provides the west with an English-language digest of the Arabic press, writes Brian Whitaker

Holy Squid! Photos Offer First Glimpse of Live Deep-Sea Giant  Like something straight out of a Jules Verne novel, an enormous tentacled creature looms out of the inky blackness of the deep Pacific waters. But this isn’t science fiction. A set of extraordinary images captured by Japanese scientists marks the first-ever record of a live giant squid (Architeuthis) in the wild.

Review of “Sufism & Good Character”

The beginning of this book does place into context much of the rest of the text, as Imam Zafar Uthmani says, “As the object of this book [I’la’ al-Sunan] is to counter the charges of the literalists against the Hanafi scholars, we …

SPIEGEL Interview with Al-Jazeera Host Yusuf Al-Qaradawi: "God Has Disappeared" - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News Yusuf Al-Qaradawi reaches millions each week with his show televized on Al-Jazeera. SPIEGEL spoke with the 79-year-old sheikh about Islamist terrorism, the excesses of modernity in the West and why flying planes into buildings is unacceptable.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Muhammad Islam: I was a BNP activist … and converted to Islam I hated all foreigners but feared Muslims the most. I grew up in the 1960s in Gateshead, in a predominantly white area; I can’t remember seeing an Asian face there. As a family we were not religious. We only went to weddings, funerals and christenings. I was not interested in school, either. You didn’t need to stay on because you were more or less guaranteed a job in the mines, steelworks or shipyards.

Found through www.DeenPort.com 

Dealing with a disturbing and harsh Muslim brother - Ustadha Zaynab Ansari

Check Your Spelling in Firefox - Today’s Browser Tip - Download Squad

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Return of the time lord Stephen Hawking can only communicate by a twitch in his right cheek, yet his attempt to explain the universe to ordinary people has made him the world’s most famous living scientist. His 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, clung to the bestseller lists for 237 weeks. It sold one copy for every 750 people on earth - even if they didn’t all read it - and earned him cameos in cult shows such as the Simpsons and Star Trek. In a rare interview he talks to Emma Brockes about disability, why women can’t read maps and thinking in 11 dimensions

The great thrift shift | Economist.com America is spending while the rest of the world is saving. But for how long? Zanny Minton Beddoes investigates

Ghost Town, Thomas Dworzak openDemocracy - openDemocracy In collaboration with Magnum Photos, openDemocracy launches the first in a special series of interactive photo-essays. This week: Thomas Dworzak captures the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Islam in Sci-fi Literature
Just as the Cold War was ending Muslims or people from Islamic backgrounds were generally portrayed with negative conotations instories set in the near future but on the other hand characterizations of Muslims in the distant future were generally positive.

CANADIAN IMMIGRATION TEST

(Source: DeenPort Forum)

Mujibar was trying to get into Canada legally through Immigration. The Officer said, "Mujibar, you have passed all the tests, except there is one more test. Unless you pass it you cannot enter Canada."

Mujibar said, "I am ready."
The officer said, "Make a sentence using the words Yellow,Pink and Green."
Mujibar thought for a few minutes and said, "Mister Officer, I am ready."
The Officer said, "Go ahead."
Mujibar said, "The telephone goes green, green, green, and I pink it up, and say, ‘Yellow, this is Mujibar.’"

Mujibar now lives in Brampton, Ontario and works at the Bell Canada help desk.

We Built This City on La illaha illa Allah

Salaam ‘Alaikum As night draws to an end, there is the sound of a loudspeaker clicking on. Suddenly, the town is awakened by the call of the mu’adhan. “Prayer is better than sleep!” All over town, men, women, and older …

Slashdot | C-SPAN Interviews Wikipedia Founder "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales (aka Jimbo) was recently interviewed on C-SPAN’s primetime program Q&A. Topics included the origins of Wikipedia, governing philosophy, and criticisms from members of the print encyclopedia community." From the article: "I had the idea basically from watching the growth of the free software movement. So all of the software that really runs the Internet, Linux, Apache, the Web serving software, it’s all written by volunteers collaboratively working together using free licenses. And it’s really good quality stuff."

Language Log: Wikipedia on Simpsons words

The Wikipedia has a listing of 63 "memes, words and phrases" derived from the Simpsons. Some specific words also have their own pages — at least D’oh does. Inexplicably, several Simpsons snowclones lack entries, including "I, for one, welcome our new * overlords" and "mmm, *".

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | British imams to tackle radicals in mosques

The first ever national council of imams and mosques is to be set up to prevent them from being used by extremists, to set standards and to reduce reliance on foreign clerics, it was agreed yesterday. The council, which will bring together every Muslim tradition in Britain, will attempt to clear out the "old guard" of "overwhelmingly elderly and foreign-born men" who run the country’s 1,400 mosques and who are accused of being out of touch with Muslim youth.

The Observer | International | Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina
It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Telegraph: Women bypass sex in favour of ‘instant pregnancies’

Women bypass sex in favour of ‘instant pregnancies’ — Women are increasingly seeking inappropriate IVF treatment because they do not have the time or inclination for a sex life and want to “diarise” their busy lives. — …

The following hadith is cited in Sufism and Good Character:

It is reported by Nu’man ibn Bashir that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him abundant peace) said,

"Supplication is worship."
(Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Nasa’ and Ibn Maja; Tirmidhi deemed it rigorously authenticated [sahih])

I was reflecting on the meaning of these blessed words this afternoon. Supplication is worship. Du’a is ‘ibadah. How so? To make du’a as we should make it, is to recognize that Allah Subhanahu Ta’Ala is the only One who can grant us ease, blessings, and khayr, and it is He Alone who can lift hardships and tribulations. Yet we take things for granted…

The Conservative War on Poverty - Bring it on. By Jacob Weisberg

Since Hurricane Katrina exposed the ghetto poor of New Orleans to national view, stirring a national conscience that has been asleep for many years, the federal government has begun to re-engage with the problem of urban poverty. George W. Bush has made a strong rhetorical and financial commitment to rebuild the city in a way that does not re-create what was there before….

Unfortunately, the conservative war on poverty in New Orleans probably won’t take place in any concerted way, because Republicans and Democrats are equally terrified about what might happen. Conservatives don’t necessarily want their panaceas tried out, for fear their utopia might not be so dreamy after all. Liberals don’t want conservative ideas tested for a different reason. They’re afraid that some of them might actually work.

Guardian Unlimited Money | Work | Crisis of faith As firms adopt more sophisticated ways of keeping an eye on what you get up to in the office, Ian Wylie asks what has happened to the notion of trust between worker and employer

New Scientist Breaking News - When is a planet not a planet? Astronomers are arguing bitterly over how to define a planet, with some proposing that the term be abandoned completely in favour of more specific labels based on where objects are located. Two competing proposals are expected to be put forward to a formal task group on Friday, but astronomers say the debate could drag on indefinitely.

NPR : An American History of Disaster and Response

The Ummah is a stalled car

Think of how your group would behave if suddenly you were stuck on the road, while dozens of cars raced by. Would you be disappointed, disillusioned, dormant, or determined to get your vehicle running again?….

Very interesting to run into this article… I’d published it in The Muslim Voice some 12 years ago…

Christian man wants to convert for marriage

Answered by Ustadha Zaynab Ansari 

Women’s rights to sexual intimacy

Excellent response by Ustadha Zaynab Ansari 

When More Information Isn’t a Good Thing

Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "’Most of the time, speedier, cheaper information allows the economy to produce more from less, often by eliminating mistakes, cutting wasted effort and shrinking doubt,’ David Wessel writes in the Wall Street Journal. But …

Drunk on the Wine of Divine Unity - La ilaha illa Allah "We drank in the Remembrance of the Beloved an inebriating wine, our intoxication was from before the creation of grapes." -Lines from Ibn al-Farid (Allah be pleased with him)

Reporters sans frontieres - Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents

BBC NEWS | Technology | Blog censorship handbook released The media watchdog said it gives people who want to set up a blog tips on how to do so, how to publicise it, as well as how to establish credibility.

Bestseller in Mideast: Barbie With a Prayer Mat - New York Times Young girls here are obsessed with Fulla, and conservative parents who would not dream of buying Barbies for their daughters seem happy to pay for a modest doll who has her own tiny prayer rug, in pink felt. Children who want to dress like their dolls can buy a matching, girl-size prayer rug and cotton scarf set, all in pink.

The Oxford English Dictionary gives a very interesting definition for abbreviator:

2. spec. ‘An officer in the court of Rome, appointed as assistant to the vice-chancellor for drawing up the pope’s briefs….

Of course, briefs is being used in the sense of ‘a letter of authority’.

Sufism & Good Character - White Thread Press

The Messenger Muhammad (saw) said, "On the Day of Resurrection, nothing will weigh heavier upon the Scales than good character" (Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi). The scholars of the science of Sufism explained the way to live the guidance of the beloved Messenger of Allah (saw), outwardly and inwardly, and guided people toward the perfection of good character and spiritual realization.

In this work, Imam Zafar Uthmani presents key Prophetic sayings related to good character and explains their implications for those seeking the spiritual way. To further the benefit of the book, commentary on many of the hadiths has been added from the classic works of Mulla Ali al-Qari and Mawlana Ahmad Diya’ al-Din al-Kumushkhanawi.

About the Author

Imam Zafar Ahmad Uthmani was one of the greatest hadith experts of the 20th Century. His 18-volume work I’la’ al-Sunan, of which this work is the final chapter, is widely regarded as one of the very best presentations of the legal reasoning and proofs of the Hanafi school of Islamic law.

Translated by Faraz Fareed Rabbani 

Abridged too far from Guardian Unlimited: Newsblog

It is sometimes said that at the root of journalistic power is not what we report, but in what we decide not to, writes James Sturcke.

Keep that in mind while considering that a version of the Bible designed to be read in less than 100 minutes was published today.

A former headteacher, the Rev Michael Hinton, has managed to condense the 39 chapters of the Old Testament and 27 of the New Testament into a few pages which, the publishers claim, “picks out the principle [sic] stories of the life and ministry of its central character, Jesus Christ”.

California Wants to Serve a Warning With Fries - New York Times

Americans may have plenty of reasons to fear French fries. While they are one of the country’s favorite foods, they are soaked with trans fats, loaded with sodium and full of simple carbs, the bad kind. And, it turns out, they are also full of a chemical called acrylamide, which is known to cause cancer in laboratory rats and mice.

 

And Far Away…

George Orwell’s "1984" is a brilliant, brilliant work of political fiction, and it needs just the brilliant person(people) to create a brilliant concept. One brilliant concept that was delivered to the world was Apple Macintosh’s 1984 advertisement, and another brilliant concept that I recently became aquainted with is "Students for Orwellian Society" or SOS for short.

The SOS are going through current events with an America-centric look that fit into the 3 basic ideals expressed in the book "1984" - War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery and Ignorance Is Strength. (If you are not familiar with "1984", go here for a summary.) Here are some of my favorites….

Is it blameworthy to mention one’s good deeds in a specific situation?

…. And Dhu’n Nun al-Masri (Allah be pleased with him) said, "Whoever is careful about consequences remains safe," meaning that whoever looks carefully at the consequence of their actions before acting manages to attain unto benefit and ward off harm, by Allah’s permission through having followed the sunna of His Beloved Messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace).

The Writer Who Gave America Its Voice

Mark Twain’s achievement was to channel the energies, social conflicts and speech forms of the frontier, says Ron Powers in a new biography.

NPR : Stories from Iraq: ‘Night Draws Near’ The book culls stories from Shadid’s many visits to Iraq over the past eight years. In 2004, he won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.

Download Squad First it was free for a day. That day spilled into the next. And now those days are forever. Opera, once driven by either ads or fees, has decided to just forget about all that e-commerce hooey and just be free.

Opera is one of the better browsers around. Some swear by it; others are less passionate. 

Starbucks breaches Great Wall of China from Guardian Unlimited: Newsblog Today’s news comes five years after Starbucks penetrated the Forbidden City in Beijing, a move resented at the time by some Chinese who objected to the intrusion of such an instantly recognisable symbol of American consumerism inside the centuries-old palace complex and a national monument.

Sunni Sister: Blahg Blahg Blahg � Blog Archive � Verily, Allah Loves Kindness in Everything

An excellent post–please do read it…

Why is it that whenver a Muslim speaks with gentility and with love, then (s)he’s deemed a “liberal” or “soft on Shari’ah” or some other disparaging (or meant to be) name?

Resources for “Verily, Allah Loves Kindness in Everything”

The resources include:

Can we really be like the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)? Sidi Sohail Hanif gives you the good news.

Muslims in the West: Challenges & Opportunities An Interview with Shaykh Khalilal-Rahman Sajjad Nomani Nadwi

Love & Hate for Allah Excerpts from The Achievement of Love

What Are the Rights of Other Muslims? Of non-Muslims? A list from Behishti Zewar. Take note of #1, 3, 4, and 6.

Hating non Muslims?

Sheikh Nuh Keller: The Adab of Islam

Gentleness in Islam

Bad Opinions of Others

Prophetic Guidance on Forbearance, Patience, and Kindness

How to Advise Those Who Don’t Practice

Enjoining Good, Forbidding Evil from Imam al Bayhaqi’s 77 Branches of Faith

Commanding the Right & Forbidding the Wrong from Reliance of the Traveller

Commanding the Right & Forbidding the Wrong from Riyadh us Saliheen

Commanding the Good When I Don’t Do It?

Sidi Hajj Gibril Haddad: On Correcting Others, on non Muslim Friends

My Friend Committed a Big Sin… Do I Forgive Her?

Salaams to Sinful Muslims

Can We Give Bay’ah to a Sheikh?

Is Bay’ah Bid’a? No, seriously, is it an innovation? Two complete answers to two questioners

The Fiqh of Right and Wrong: Teaching Non-Hijabis, Commanding the Good & Forbidding the Wrong

My Brother Doesn’t Pray — How Can I Help Him? Notice the advice is devoid of things like “scream at him,” “tell him he’s going to Hell / a kafir,” and “shun him.”

Musical Convert: What to do?

Dealing with a “Deviant Soul”

Hijab, Niqab, and Compulsion

The Believer is a Mirror for the Believer

Implementing the Sunnah with Wisdom Although the questioner asks about college related situations, the advice is mostly general and applies to societal interactions in general.

Calling to Allah: From the Best of Spiritual Works

Shaykh Abdullah Adhami Live at SunniPath

SunniPath is happy to announce a live Q&A event on Tuesday, September 20th at 10 PM EST/7 PM PST/ 3 AM London time.

Slashdot | Wikipedia’s New Archnemesis

"Forget about Britannica, and meet Uncyclopedia. Formally the adoptive first cousin of Wikipedia, Uncyclopedia stands for everything Wikipedia cannot have: misinformation, satire, and lies. Does this prove that satire and humour can take off in a collaborative environment, a possibility often contested by grumpy Wikipedians? What many people don’t know is that the Wikipedia article on the Flying Spaghetti Monster was partly copied from the FSM article on Uncyclopedia. Will the confusion ever end?"

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan’s Youhana embraces Islam

Pakistani cricket star Yousuf Youhana says he has converted to Islam from Christianity after attending preaching sessions by a leading religious group.

Investing - The Dark Magic of Oil Sands - FORTUNE

Canada’s Alberta province has oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia’s, but they’re not a liquid asset. We visit Fort McMurray, the boomtown where oil-rich sands are mined-and a black-gold rush is on.