Church to Church, Teenagers Seek Faith That Fits - New York Times
“Christmas ain’t about presents, yo! The true meaning of Christmas is my main man: J.C.”
Sabbah’s Blog » Tunisian Official Criticizes Muslim Attire
Tunisia’s religious affairs minister has criticized Muslim women’s practice of wearing head scarves, saying it does not fit with the North African country’s cultural heritage.
Aboubaker
Akhzouri said the government of the moderate Muslim country also
rejects Muslim tunics like those worn in Persian Gulf states and the
practice of men wearing long beards.
“It’s
regrettable that we don’t respect our specificity,” he was
quoted as saying in Assabah newspaper on Wednesday. He said the head
scarf is “foreign” and “an intrusion,” and
recommended a traditional Tunisian Islamic tunic known as the jebbah.
Merry new year.
SunniPath Answers:
The Hijab between Human Thought and Sacred Law - Shaykh Isam Eydoo
Why Hijab? - Shaykh Nuh Keller
Concerning the standard explanation of the verse of hijab - Ustadha Zaynab Ansari
Technorati Tags: hijab, tunisia, fiqh, shariah, women, islam
A Rihla to the City of the Beloved: Wird of Imam Nawawi, recited by Shaykh Abdallah al-Kadi in Makkah during the Rihla
A beautiful recording of the Wird of Imam Nawawi by our esteemed Shaykh Abdallah al-Kadi was made in Makkah, during the Rihla in July 2005.
Please remember those who facilitated this effort in your duas.
Click here to download the recording (13 mb), which includes:
- Introduction
- Biography of Shaykh Abdallah al-Kadi
- Introduction in English by Shaykh Abdallah on the wird of Imam Nawawi
- Recitation of the wird of Imam Nawawi by Shaykh Abdallah
- Arabic commentary by Shaykh Abdallah
Very beautiful. The introduction is by Sidi Abdul-Rehman Malik. Someone from Chicago confused me for him at the mosque here in Kharabsheh (Amman) a few nights ago.
NPR : Slate’s Jurisprudence: The Year In Law
Farai Chideya talks with Slate legal analyst Dahlia Lithwick about the year in law, including the controversies over President Bush’s power to conduct wiretaps and detain suspects without access to courts in the so-called “war on terror.”
copenhagen interpretation: A Poem by Shaykh Abd al-Rahman al-Shaghouri: From Beauty Is My Wine
From the beauty of Being is my wine
I tasted it – pure, licit
It’s of the traits of my full moon
It has taken on that perfection
A face came in glory
Creation flew from its radiance
If you would meet Him
Heart, make your passion His passion…
This isn’t our worldly wine. It is the wine of Divine Unity.
[Read this beautiful translation of a poem by Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Shagouri. Yusuf Zanella © 2005]
Technorati Tags: sufism, poetry, islam, shadhili
The Black Iris of Jordan » Men Are From Google, Women Are From Yahoo
On the Internet, as in life, men and women have different motivations for doing what they do. According to a recent report from Pew Internet and American Life, women view the Internet as a place to extend, support, and nurture relationships and communities. Men tend to see it as an office, a library, or a playground–screw the community, this is about function not family.
I’m not from Google. I’m from… hmmm… well, Pakistan or Canada… or…
Writing, Clear and Simple - Notebook - Don’t take the shortcut: “and/or”
When you write whatever it is you write, there will be times that you are tempted to use both and and or at the same time. The usual result of that temptation is and/or, a miserable little textual pushme-pullyu that isn’t able to make up its minds about what it actually is. So don’t use it.
Technorati Tags: english, usage, writing
BBC NEWS | Technology | Gender gap alive and well online
Gender divisions persist online but it is no longer about whether more men or women use the net, research shows.
Technorati Tags: gender, web, net
Guardian Unlimited | Modern identity is not all black or white - it’s a beige thing
My experience of ticking the ‘mixed race’ box makes me hope that a better understanding of ethnicity will evolve
Technorati Tags: identity, race, society, culture
NPR : What Do We Call This Decade?
We had the ’70s, the ’80s, the ’90s. But as we approach the halfway point of this decade, we still have no name for it. What do we call this decade?
Technorati Tags: decade, news
حياتي في الأزهر الشريف » Time Out To Ponder
hope to dedicate one spot a week towards Qur’anic reflection. I will try my best to make it as quick as possible. However, even though the article will be short, I’m sure you’ll all leave, inshallah, with full hearts and a greater love for the Qur’an. Let’s start with something very simple. In fact, a chapter that we’ve all memorized.
Minor Wisdom: For writers (legal and otherwise), a suggested New Year’s resolution
If you resolve to improve your writing in 2006, I have a few books to recommend to help you keep your resolution. All of these books focus on the structure of writing. Read them, and you’ll see that good writing is a science more than an art: anyone can learn how to do it…. [read more]
NPR : Classes Help Convicts with Parenting Skills
A number of programs around the United States offer parenting classes to convicts serving long sentences. The classes are designed to help inmates be better parents both while incarcerated and after they return to society. James Chambers, who is serving a 30-year prison sentence, is among the students. From member station KUOW, Andrea Smardon reports.
Writing, Clear and Simple - Notebook - Speaking a foreign language
Strip out the jargon, the corporate-speak, the buzzwords. Learn to connect with people using plain, simple, clear English. You’ll catch your audience’s attention like a cool breeze on a stifling day.
This applies to writing on Islam as well. How often do we see sentences like, “You have to have tawakkul, yaqeen, and absolute thiqa in Allah in order to be someone of true taqwa and istiqama.”
What language are we writing in? Whom are we trying to communicate to? (If its Arabs, why not just write in Arabic?)
Washington Post - The Elephant in the Room - U.S. Zoos Struggle With Question of Keeping Pachyderms [ya`ni: Elephants and the like] in Captivity
…. in Philadelphia, as in zoos around the country, the question of whether elephants should be kept at all zoos — or maybe even any zoo — has almost abruptly become a sensitive one.
Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Zoe Williams: Gluttony is good for you
Eat up. The fatter you are, the less likely you are to get depressed and commit suicide
Note: I don’t agree with everything I post on the blog. Moderation, please.
NPR : What Was, and Wasn’t, on the Public’s Mind in 2005
Hurricane Katrina, soaring gas prices and events in Iraq captured the attention of the American public the most in 2005, according to an analysis of public opinion trends from the Pew Research Center. Pew Director Andy Kohut discusses what the public was and wasn’t thinking about this past year.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Muslim burial for Malaysian hero
A Malaysian mountaineering hero will be buried as a Muslim, against the wishes of his Hindu wife, who denied he had converted to Islam before his death.
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Muslim burial for Malaysian hero
A Malaysian mountaineering hero will be buried as a Muslim, against the wishes of his Hindu wife, who denied he had converted to Islam before his death.
Islam Online- Muslim “Couscous” Vs. “Racist Soup” in France
The Le Secours Islamique (Islamic Relief) group in France is planning to distribute plates of delicious Moroccan couscous (hard-wheat semolina) as Christmas cheer among the poor and displaced in France irrespective of their religion or ethnicity in response to what is known as “racist soup” served by an extreme-right group for Christians only.
Technorati Tags: couscous, france, muslims, europe, racism
NPR : S. Pearl Sharp: The Art of Conflict Resolution
Black and Latino students at Jefferson High School in South Central Los Angeles have been experiencing ongoing racial tension. Commentator S. Pearl Sharp offers this essay on teaching kids the art of conflict resolution.
Technorati Tags: conflict, resolution, race, LA
حياتي في الأزهر الشريف » USA TODAY ARTICLE - Move Over Barbie
This holiday season, as girls in the West find neatly wrapped Barbie dolls under their Christmas trees, Arab girls in the Middle East will be gifted Fulla dolls for the Islamic Eid al-Adha holiday in early January. Children are usually given new clothes, money and toys during this four-day celebration, which marks the end to the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
Imam Suhaib Webb is quoted in this article:
Suhaib William Webb, an American-Muslim convert, an imam and Islamic law student at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, says, “Our religion does not forbid us from engaging in a free market economy.”
There is nothing wrong with marketing toward Muslims, Webb says, but companies should be making positive contributions to society. “If you’re going to make money from us, at least put some profits back in the community,” he says, “whether in Muslim or non-Muslim communities.”
Islam calls for social responsibility, allowing the faithful to purchase anything from Islamic and non-Islamic sources, as long as companies and products do not harm people, for example, by producing items in sweat shops or by child laborers.
Webb warns against buying into a system that violates the five main principles of Islamic law, which call for protecting life, honor and property. As he puts it, “We should always look at the free market system through an ethical lens.”
Article by Souheila Al-Jadda, originally published in USA Today.
Technorati Tags: suhaib, webb, barbie, fulla, muslims
Engineering: Is the U.S. Really Falling?
Numbers cited to prove that graduation rates in India and China dwarf those in the U.S. may be flawed. But the fear is all too real
Technorati Tags: engineering, US, india, china
Akram’s Razor - Svend White’s blog on Islam, Muslims & America: Why European women are turning to Islam
I’m not one of these Muslims who measure Muslim “success” or Islam’s validity by conversion rates, but I found this article enlightening: “Why European women are turning to Islam” by Peter Ford.
Technorati Tags: islam, conversion, europe, women
TheStar.com - Canadians flood shopping malls
Boxing Day retail bonanza brings out the worst in some shoppers
Technorati Tags: boxingday, canada, toronto
EconLog, College Illiteracy, Arnold Kling: Library of Economics and Liberty
The Washington Post reports:
Literacy experts and educators say they are stunned by the results of a recent adult literacy assessment, which shows that the reading proficiency of college graduates has declined in the past decade, with no obvious explanation.
“It’s appalling — it’s really astounding,” said Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association and a librarian at California State University at Fresno. “Only 31 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it. That’s not saying much for the remainder.” [read on]
Technorati Tags: college, literacy, university
Minor Wisdom: Says they
As I wrote a few weeks ago, use of masculine singular pronouns to refer generically to both sexes is not as acceptable as it used to be. Writers often struggle to avoid sexist-sounding language, while at the same time not appearing to try too hard to be politically correct. Their problem is that English lacks sexually generic third-person singular pronouns.
Or does it? Linguist Henry Churchyard says that, like you and your, the pronouns they, them, and their enjoy a venerable history of singular usage. He also gives 75 examples of "the singular their" in Jane Austen’s writing, plus a slew of additional examples from other respected sources, including the OED, the King James Bible, and the writings of Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, and other writers.
Technorati Tags: english, usage, sexism, language
What Can a Nation Do? Taming the Globalization Monster - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News
Unemployment epidemics, capitalism bashing, Europhobia: Unease over the borderless economy is spreading, and globalization is beset by crisis. Are nation states impotent in the face of market forces, or can the global economy be remastered?
Technorati Tags: globalization, europhobia, capitalism, economy
Mulla Nasruddin on a husband and wife from heaven
One day, Mulla Nasruddin looked at his wife and said, “Do you know that both you and I are from the people of Paradise?”
His wife was confused by this sudden statement and asked, “How come?”
Mulla Nasruddin replied, “Well, when I look at you and how ugly Allah has made you, I’m patient… and the patient are people of Paradise.
“Likewise, when you look at me and how handsome Allah has made me, you’re thankful… and the thankful are people of Paradise…”
[from a short (serious) work by Mufti Rafi Usmani]
BBC NEWS | Reading ‘cuts childhood injuries’
An upsurge in interest in reading among children is preventing them from suffering accidents, researchers say….
A friend sent this to me, and wrote: "Here’s an interesting article to silence all Harry critics on this planet…"
Technorati Tags: harry potter, books, reading
Mere Islam: The Qur’an and Higher Criticism
Here’s an excellent piece from the late Dr. Isma’il R. Al Faruqi in regards to so-called “higher criticism” of the Qur’an.
Technorati Tags: Qur’an, Islam, Christianity, Bible
Arabesque Rhabsody » Would-be Israeli brides leave intimate offering for rabbi
Hundreds of young Israeli women hoping to find themselves a husband have been placing their underwear on the tomb of a venerated rabbi in the hopes that their marriage prayers will be answered
حياتي في الأزهر الشريف » [Imam Suhaib Webb:] Candy Drops from the Prophet (sa)
Hadith One: Easy actions and great rewards
Abu Mas’ud Al-Badri, may Allah be pleased with him, narrated: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said:” Anyone who recites the two verses at the end of surah Al-Baqarah at night, they will be sufficient for him.” A Sound Hadith Related by Al-Bukhari and Muslim
Explained…
Marginal Revolution: Crossing the Sahara is costly
A Rough Calculation of Expences to convey Major Laing & Party to Tombuctoo & the termination of the Niger
Mosques monitored for radiation: report - Yahoo! News
U.S. officials have secretly monitored radiation levels at Muslim sites, including mosques and private homes, since September 11, 2001 as part of a top secret program searching for nuclear bombs, U.S. News and World Report said on Friday
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For French Muslims, It’s Christmas Time
When it come to the now quite commercial holiday, it turns out that France’s Muslims aren’t that different from their countrymen
Merry merry.
CBC Toronto - Muslims can be searched after conference: N.Y. judge
American Muslims attending a major religious conference in Toronto on Friday are concerned they’ll be subjected to extraordinary searches and delays by U.S. border guards when they return home.
Reviving the Islamic Spirit Convention 2005
http://www.revivingtheislamicspirit.com
