BBC NEWS | Business | Mortgage debt nears £1 trillion

Mortgage debt has almost reached £1 trillion, according to figures from the Bank of England.

SunniPath Answers (http://qa.sunnipath.com):
Wishing your wife was dead so that you can marry someone else
Answered by Ustadha Zaynab Ansari

SunniPath Academy Course (Registration Open)
Approaching the Sunna with Shaykh Hamza Karamali

Through an introduction to the science of hadith methodology, increase your appreciation of the intricacy, depth, and sophistication of hadith science and our scholarly legacy, as well as understand the claims of orientalists and “Quran-only” proponents.

Further Details

SunniPath Answers (http://qa.sunnipath.com):
Faraz Rabbani shows to be need more substance and less kalaam

I have found some of your questions informative and beneficial and I have found some to be lacking in the basic discipline of wisdom and ‘ilm which brother Faraz has shown to be lacking. Either his personal hate of the Ahlul Hadeeth or the Salafiyyah jama’ah is getting in the way of objective criticism and analaysis or either he is not qualified to answer questions related to aqeedah and manhaj of the Messenger of Allaah SAW and the Sahabah RA.

Answer

More GreatNews - The RSS Blog

Shaun Orpen: I figured GreatNews must be something worth checking out. So I downloaded the installer (windows version),
and within minutes GreatNews was up and running on my PC after a
flawless and very easy installation. Next I exported the OPML file from
SharpReader and imported it into GreatNews, another easy process. Then
I closed down SharpReader, it turns out for the last time. GreatNews is
everything I ever wanted in an RSS aggregator.

http://www.curiostudio.com/

Randy: How many times have you read this in the last 12
months? It’s funny how the average Joe reader just loves
GreatNews. It’s even funnier how you’ll never see it mentioned on most
of the other RSS and Web 2.0 related blogs.
Since most everyone who has tried GreatNews thinks it’s the best, I can
only believe that they’ve never even tried it. They should!

Koonj: Shabana’s blog » Blog Archive » There is no “I” in parenthood

Hazrat Mirza Mazhar Jan-e-Janaan (RA) had a bad-tempered wife who was always scolding him. This same Hz Mirza was extremely sensitive by temperament. Someone asked him why he lived with this badtempered woman. He said that it was because of this same woman and her temper that God had been so generous to him.

(BTW I’d like this to be cited more often when it comes to talk of “rights and responsibilities” and “marriage in Islam”….

WHO INVENTED BODY ODOR?

In the 1910s and particularly the 1920s, advertising agents focused their attention on identifying—and often inventing—personal anxieties that could be resolved by the purchase of specific products. “Advertising,” wrote one commentator in a trade publication, “helps to keep the masses dissatisfied with their mode of life, discontented with ugly things around them. Satisfied customers are not as profitable as discontented ones.” Advertisers, as historian Stuart Ewen notes, tried to endow people with a “critical self-consciousness” directed especially at their personal appearances.

NPR : Iran’s President Renews Interest in ‘Hidden Imam’

It is said that in the 10th century, the 12th and last Imam of the Shiite branch of Islam disappeared. He is said to be hidden by God and will reappear at the end of history to lead an era of Islamic justice. But lately, actions by — and rumors about — Iran’s president have renewed interest in the 12th Imam.

Centuries ago, this holy person is said to have disappeared, hidden by God, but kept alive since then, to reappear at the end of history to lead an era of Islamic justice. The belief, which helped to inspire Iran’s Islamic Revolution 27 years ago, diminished in importance over the years.

Now it has found renewed inspiration in Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

India Uncut - England’s love for their newest folk hero, Monty Panesar

Mike Brearley examines England’s love for their newest folk hero, Monty Panesar:

Monty
and Manuel [the waiter in Fawlty Towers] are both from cultures that
are foreign to the majority, yet both are cult heroes. In feeling so
affectionate towards them, are we also compensating for our prejudices?
In falling in love with the chosen outsider, do we thus make a
convenient exception? I’ve heard people say if all blacks/foreigners/
East Europeans/Indians, etc were like ‘him’ there’d be no problem.

So
the racism or xenophobia stays intact, while the person chosen as the
exception becomes a more than honorary Englishman, whose name is turned
from Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, to dear old Monty (with the Panesar
pronunciation anglicised). But this may be cynical and pessimistic;
perhaps the popular attitude to Panesar humanises and moderates other
more paranoid feelings. I’m not sure.

The question of banning laptops in class: it’s academic, silly

In the early nineties, laptop in tow, I was almost always co-computing with at least two or three other people in every class. The real ubiquity of laptops in the classroom didn’t come until much later for me, when I was no longer taking classes but teaching them. In my own experience, it wasn’t the convenience of a laptop or its impressive capabilities that was driving student usage.

ScienceCareers.org | Scientific Success: What’s Love Got to Do With It?: Levine: 26 May 2006

Several years ago, Satoshi Kanazawa, then a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, analyzed a biographical database of 280 great scientists–mathematicians, physicists, chemists, and biologists. When he calculated the age of each scientist at the peak of his career–the sample was predominantly male–Kanazawa noted an interesting trend. After a crest during the third decade of life, scientific productivity–as evidenced by major discoveries and publications–fell off dramatically with age. When he looked at the marital history of the sample, he found that the decline in productivity was less severe among men who had never been married. As a group, unmarried scientists continued to achieve well into their late 50s, and their rates of decline were slower.

my occupied territory: The Hijab: The Pathway to Fame?

I watched with great interest yesterday the weekly program on LBC, الحدث (”The Event“).
The program, hosted by Shada Omar, discusses issues of interest to
Lebanon and the Arab region including those related to politics,
economics, and society at large. Yesterday’s show focused on what the
producers called a “new trend” on the small and big screen in the Arab
world: actresses, singers, presenters, and news anchors donning the
Islamic headdress, the hijab.
The topic of the show was not whether hijab is a requirement for Muslim
women, but whether the decisions of various popular female
personalities to dress this way was driven by a quest for more popularity and fame. Without a doubt, it was a heated discussion between the show’s guests because the issue involves fame, religion, women, and of course: “the veil”.

What Ph.D. students really have to fear. By Joel Waldfogel

Graduate students tend to be paranoid about aspects of their careers that are largely under their control: Will I ever finish my studies? Will I sufficiently impress my adviser? But if new research for academic economists holds up, students should also be freaked out by a factor they can do nothing about: the strength of the job market at the precise time they enter it.

The Most Beautiful Names of Allah

The Most Beautiful Names of Allah, with quotes from the Qur’an and from the words of Mawlana Rumi

SunniPath Answers (http://qa.sunnipath.com):
Feeling overwhelmed by makeup prayers

Question: I am a Muslim convert and without realizing it, I had learned the prayer wrong. I didn’t say the al-Fatiha and another surah for the first two rakaats of Zuhr and Asr, and I didn’t say them for the last set of rakaats in Maghrib and Isha. I thought one was supposed to remain silent and not say anything. My questions are 1) Do I still have to make them up? 2) I’m trying to make up my prayers but adding this to my sunnah and witr prayer is extremely difficult and 3) why is the witr prayer wajib in the Hanafi madhab? I feel my iman is drained and I have difficulty concentrating because of all the prayers I have to do.

Answer

fadtastic - a multi-author web design trends journal » Blog Archive » The end of an era for Times New Roman?

Times New Roman: it’s the Coke, the Kleenex, the Xerox, the Cheerios of typefaces. Times is a given. It’s natural. It’s expected. No one would ever look at a paper or article or memo and say, “Ew, why’d you choose Times New Roman?” Times is so ubiquitous that it’s invisible—it’s the Mao-poster of types.

How’d Times reach such saturation? Simple. It’s the default font on the world’s dominant word-processing program, Microsoft Word.

But no longer. . . .

Marginal Revolution: Myths about France

Why Your Boss Is Overpaid - Forbes.com

t is a typical “Dilbert” strip. The boss announces, “Our CEO has voluntarily slashed his pay from $6 million per year to $4 million. In a written statement, he said he wants to ’share the pain.’ Do you feel better now?” A downtrodden intern replies, “I make my underpants from sandwich bags.”

But that’s office life, is it not? Bosses make obscene sums of money, while downtrodden cubicle slaves toil almost without reward. It might seem insane, but economists have a surprise for us: The insanity reflects nothing more than cool economic logic. There is method in the madness.

Here’s how to make an invisibility cloak - Science - MSNBC.com

Researchers say they are rapidly closing in on new types of materials that can throw a cloak of invisibility around objects, fulfilling a fantasy that is as old as ancient myths and as young as “Star Trek” and the Harry Potter novels.

Unlike those tales of fictional invisibility, the real-life technologies usually have a catch. Nevertheless, limited forms of invisibility might be available to the military sooner than you think.

Brazil’s Pirahã Tribe: Living without Numbers or Time - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

The Pirahã people have no history, no descriptive words and no subordinate clauses. That makes their language one of the strangest in the world — and also one of the most hotly debated by linguists.

Disturbing finding from LSE study - social mobility in Britain lower than other advanced countries and declining - News archive - News and events - Press and Information Office - LSE

* In a comparison of eight European and North American countries, Britain and the United States have the lowest social mobility
* Social mobility in Britain has declined whereas in the US it is stable
* Part of the reason for Britain’s decline has been that the better off have benefited disproportionately from increased educational opportunity

Hadra dhikr with Shaykh Abd al-Rahman Shaghouri - Google Video

Shadhili hadra with the late Shaykh Abd al-Rahman Shaghouri. This video was shot in Damascus in 2002, two years before the shaykh passed away.

The fear haunting Europe Mats Engström - openDemocracy

The secret meetings of Europe’s political authorities are sanctioning public policies that feed racist sentiment, argues Mats Engström.

NPR : Baseball Teams Woo Christian Fans to Games

Faith Night has long been a popular promotion for minor league baseball parks — particularly in the South. Looking to capitalize on local church-going fans, more than 40 teams in minor league baseball and football have added Christian rock concerts and bobble-head dolls of biblical characters to their game-time entertainment.

Italians fear mosque plans - Islam in Europe - MSNBC.com

Mayor backs Islamic center’s construction, but residents are ‘very afraid’

NPR : ‘The Color of Wealth’: A Racial Money Divide

Farai Chideya talks to Rose Brewer, co-author of the book The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide. The book examines how government policies have affected wealth building in minority communities. Brewer is a professor of women’s studies at the University of Minnesota.

Should three-year-olds have televisions in their bedrooms?

“How do you feel about letting young children watch television every
day? If you’re like most parents, you feel a vague sense of guilt over
the practice, but you do it anyway. That’s the conclusion drawn by a new study
out from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The survey of more than 1,000
families shows that most parents have absorbed the message from their
pediatricians that extended television time in a child’s earliest years
should be avoided. Many Americans lead lives that are so busy, however,
that the TV becomes an almost essential parenting tool.”

Florence imam finds time for fashion - Islam in Europe - MSNBC.com

Muslim leader sells Italian leather jackets, designed women’s underwear

BBC NEWS | UK | Senior Asian policewoman honoured

The most senior Asian woman in the Metropolitan Police was among those honoured at awards to celebrate positive female Asian role models.  Ch Insp Parm Sandhu won the Public Sector Award - in part for her work in the aftermath of the 7 July bombings.

The winners of seven other awards were also announced at the Asian Women of Achievements Awards finals in London.

The managing editor of Muslim magazine Q-News won the Media Professional of the Year Award.

Fareena Alam also writes for the Observer and the Guardian newspapers.

SunniPath Answers (http://qa.sunnipath.com):
Is the new translation of Al Hidayah published by Amal Press a reliable translation?

I was wondering if the new translation of Al Hidayah published by Amal Press is reliable to use for hanafi fiqh?

parent hacks: Cohousing: the modern equivalent of a “village”

[A G]limpse into to cohousing — something I never knew existed. Amazing
stuff, especially given how many of us struggle with the pressures of
modern parenting in relative isolation, far away from extended family,
or in neighborhoods that aren’t conducive to distributing the childcare
load. Cohousing looks to be a fantastic alternative.

A Whirling Sufi Revival With Unclear Implications - New York Times

…. This is a zikr, the mystical Sufi dance of the Caucasus and a ritual near the center of Chechen Islam.

Here inside Chechnya, where Russia has spent six years trying to contain the second Chechen war since the Soviet Union collapsed, traditional forms of religious expression are returning to public life. It is a revival laden with meaning, and with implications that are unclear.

Achieve-IT!: 10 Steps You Can Take To Guarantee Failure

In the hustle and bustle of this technologically packed world you may decide you really don’t want to achieve any lasting success in your lifetime. Sure, you can find a lot of strategies and tips here that can help you increase your success rate. But what about the people who are perfectly happy not achieving anything? Is it fair that I keep pushing and prodding if someone is content leaving behind a legacy of debt and mediocrity? hmmm…maybe not. So this is for all the people who want to have goals but not achieve them.

Use a spreadsheet to keep a monthly budget

A monthly budget is an essential tool for personal financial success. Before one can know where to invest his money, he has to have a clear picture of where it’s coming from and where it needs to go. By using a spreadsheet to compose your monthly budget, you can make quick modifications at any time and stay confident that all of your totals are mathematically correct and absolutely up-to-date.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Majority of women in armed forces harassed

More than two-thirds of women in the armed forces are subjected to sexual harassment and nearly all find themselves exposed to sexualised behaviour, the Ministry of Defence reported today.

TheStar.com - Sky’s the limit for condos?

When it comes to highrise living, T.O. is tops in North America — at least for now

BBC NEWS | Middle East | The word in contemporary Islamic art

A new exhibition at the British Museum in London looks at contemporary art of the Islamic World.

Word into Art - Artists of the Modern Middle East, focuses on the way artists are experimenting with different approaches to Arabic script.

BBC News | In pictures | Three Gorges Dam | Introduction

China’s controversial Three Gorges Dam project hits a significant milestone on Saturday, when it is expected to reach its final height of 185m (607 feet).

Email: an author’s guide - Blue Flavor

Popular as it is, the web is not the most-used Internet application by transaction volume. Email is. It’s also the most misused. Since it’s such an important and often overlooked component of our online lives, I’m going to step away from preaching about the web for a moment and focus on simple steps to make your email discussions more effective.

TheAgitator.com: American Gulag: Comments

According to new data
from the U.S. Department of Justice, one in 136 Americans is behind
bars today, including an astounding 12 percent of all black men between
the ages of 25 and 29. The United States represents 4.6 percent of the
world’s population, but houses nearly 23 percent of humanity’s prison
population.

Insha’Allah Copying and Pasting Fi’Sabilillah

“…It is unimaginably different, and unimaginable, eternal bliss. Worry about getting there: then, you’ll have no worries…”

From: What will people do in paradise - SunniPath Answers

Akram’s Razor - Svend White’s blog on Islam, Muslims & America: Understanding Muslim Language

Some tips to journalists struggling to make sense out of the Middle East and Muslim world.

The key to understanding the Muslim discourse is to understand the following rules

Hamas vs. Fatah: Brothers at War - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

The Rajoub family is one of the most influential clans in the West Bank. Younger brother Nayef is a minister in the Hamas government. Older brother Jabril used to be Yasser Arafat’s security adviser. In the Rajoub household today, the growing divide between Palestinians goes right through the living room.

Comment is free: Which is the quack medicine?

Quite a lot of orthodox treatments are unsupported by firm evidence.

SunniPath Academy’s Summer Intensive Program

Are you seeking to spend your summer immersed in the Islamic sciences, but are unable to travel or need a flexible schedule? SunniPath Academy has a solution for you. As part of the Summer 2006 semester, SunniPath is offering an engaging summer intensive program, MoreKnowledge.

Designed especially for university and secondary school students on summer vacation, this intensive is perfect for anyone whose summer does not require the same level of worldly commitment as the rest of the year.

MoreKnowledge seeks to offer a balanced curriculum in four key subject areas, while allowing you the flexibility to choose the specific level or topic. You will be able to select four classes that fit into thefollowing subject areas: Belief, Fiqh, Methodology, and Enrichment. Courses will run from June 24, 2006 through September 24, 2006.

So, why are you waiting? Spend your summer seeking MoreKnowledge.

Full list of SunniPath Academy Summer 2006 Courses

“We the Japanese People” – A Reflection on Public Opinion

For more than 60 years following its devastation in World War II, Japan has held onto an intense fear of militarism, renouncing the right to wage war and limiting its self-defense force. A side effect of such pacifist policies, according to scholar Hikari Agakimi, is a carefree people who struggle to find a national identity. In a 2005 survey of high school students, only 13 percent reported feeling pride at seeing the Japanese flag, while in a opinion poll conducted by the prime minister’s office, 40 percent of respondents admitted that they did not know if they loved their country or not. An alarmed Japanese government has initiated a series of reforms aimed at reviving patriotism: One education bill aims to instill respect for Japan’s history and traditions, while a constitutional proposal calls for more military flexibility. Threatened by the military buildup of neighboring China and North Korea, Japan is undertaking a “grand social transformation,” an attempt to imbue nationalistic sentiments in an aging population without revisiting military ambitions of the past

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | With Turkey in the club, Europe can forge a fresh engagement with Islam

The state of Pakistan Irfan Husain - openDemocracy

Pakistan’s classification as a “failed state” reflects the collapse of Pervez Musharraf’s authority, says Irfan Husain.