Slate - Dismal Scientist - March 20, 1997

Bad jobs at bad wages are better than no jobs at all.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Secret report brands Muslim police corrupt

A secret high-level Metropolitan police report has concluded that Muslim officers are more likely to become corrupt than white officers because of their cultural and family backgrounds.

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | Review: Preemption by Alan M Dershowitz

Louise Christian is horrified by US lawyer Alan M Dershowitz’s book on reshaping international law, Preemption

Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | A kind of magic

Although Walter de la Mare’s gothic whimsy and goblin language was at odds with the realism of his contemporaries, Ezra Pound and TS Eliot, he became one of the nation’s best-loved poets and storytellers. James Campbell looks back at his life and work on the 50th anniversary of his death

Sahl ibn Abd Allah al-Tustari said,
“One doesn’t attain unto the reality of faith until one has four traits:
(1) Fulfilling one’s obligations, in accordance with the sunna
(2) Eating the halal, with scrupulousness
(3) Avoiding prohibitions, both outward and inward
(4) Remaining steadfast on this, until one’s death.”

[Ghazali, Ihya `Ulum al-Din, 2.91]

وقال سهل التسترى لا يبلغ
العبد حقيقة الإيمان حتى يكون فيه أربع خصال أداء الفرائض بالسنة وأكل الحلال
بالورع واجتناب النهي من الظاهر و الباطن و الصبر على ذلك إلى الموت

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Spike ‘wrote world’s best joke’

Comedian Spike Milligan was the author of the world’s funniest joke, a psychology professor has claimed.

The SunniPath Academy presents:
The Hadith Jibril Explained - The Foundation of Prophetic Guidance
A free mini-course (in three lessons)

Learn how this hadith relates to your life. 
The text of the
hadith, commentary, and related readings will be provided. Lessons will
be live & interactive - you can ask questions at any time.

Course Starts Saturday, June 10th.
View a multimedia presentation about the course, or Download. [Updated]

Ajnabeeyeh: Well, well, well . . .

What a shocker! “Muslim Women Don’t See Themselves as Oppressed,” reads the New York Times headline.

When
asked what they resented most about their own societies, a majority of
Muslim women polled said that a lack of unity among Muslim nations,
violent extremism, and political and economic corruption were their
main concerns. The hijab, or head scarf, and burqa, the garment
covering face and body, seen by some Westerners as tools of oppression,
were never mentioned in the women’s answers to the open-ended
questions, the poll analysts said.

And
don’t you know, the hijab has everything to do with it. The article
even has to mention that the Gallup poll’s strategic analyst wears one.
Thanks for telling us, guys–it certainly makes a world of difference.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Reviving Malaysia’s hi-tech dreams

It is difficult to overestimate the impact that Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed had on his country during his 22 years in power.

Arguably the most impressive of his achievements was to be among the first of the world’s leaders to grasp the potential of the internet, all the more striking because he was already 70 years old at the time.

Ibnat Battuta: The Complete Hanafi…

The Complete Ablution (Wudu)

The Complete Purificatory Bath (Ghusl)

The Complete Hanafi Prayer

Also of benefit, as a primer on beliefs, worship, and life:

The
Absolute Essentials of Islam

A Basic Hanafi
Primer on Faith, Prayer, & the Path of Salvation. Allah has
commanded us to worship and obey Him, with sincerity, out of reverence [more]

The Big Picture: Google vs Microsoft: Now We’re Getting Serious

Naming the Beautiful Game: It’s Called Soccer - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

The English roll their eyes when Americans talk about “soccer.” But actually, it’s what the game should be called. And it’s a British word.

MoorishGirl: Third Time’s The Charm for Zadie Smith: On Beauty wins Orange Prize

As has been widely reported, this year’s Orange Prize was awarded to Zadie Smith for her novel On Beauty. The chair of the judges praised the book for its “extraordinary characterisation” and “seemingly effortless plotting.”

Marginal Revolution: The macroeconomics of Superman

Let’s say we had an altruistic and incorruptible Superman, how
should he allocate his efforts to improve the macroeconomy?  He is
really strong, he can fly very fast, leap tall buildings at a single
bound, has incredible vision, and somehow he is immune from Einstein’s
theory of relativity and time dilation at near-light speeds (his most impressive achievement, if you ask me).

Yes he should save the world from evil madmen, but fighting ordinary
crime hardly appears worth his trouble.  Criminals seek pure
transfers, and Superman’s policing doesn’t lower our (inefficient)
investments in locks enough to make a difference in the growth
rate.  It’s about as silly as having Superman sub in for FedEx
when the skies get crowded over Memphis.

Is (He who knows himself, Knows his Lord) a hadith of the Prophet?
from SunniPath Answers

YouTube - Hamza Yusuf on Muslim Youth - MYNA Program at ISNA 2000

YouTube - A man is with the one he loves… - Habib Ali al-Jifri

Sheikh Hamza Yusuf was in Malaysia @ Critical Thoughts

Sheikh Hamza Yusuf
was recently in Malaysia for his current project involving a
documentary on Muslim women in Muslim countries and he is touring some
countries in order to interview them (to counter some negative
perceptions about Muslim women being “oppressed” or “under apartheid”
as claimed by some). I was told that Zainah Anwar, leader of Sisters in
IslamShaitaan (SIS) refused to be interviewed by him, heh. Marina Mahathir, though, accepted the opportunity.

He was hosted by MPF recently. See the pictures here.

New Scientist Letting babies cry will only end in more tears - News

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More Being Human Stories

* Letting babies cry will only end in more tears
* How to live to 100… and enjoy itPremium
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* Explore: being-human
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Click here

PARENTS of bawling babies take note: comforting them may work better than leaving them to cry - at least during the first few weeks of life.

Boudders’ Worlds Fastest Growing City slideshow on Flickr

In many areas, it is not easy to see Dubai’s sky without at least one crane in your view; Industry experts cautiously estimate that 15 to 25 per cent of the world’s cranes are in Dubai. Some US$ 90 BILLION are on-going in Dubai alone.

Seed: Scent of a Terrorist

Scent of a Terrorist

Taking the lead from man’s best friend, the military wants to turn odor recognition into a science.

New Scientist Breaking News - Drinking coffee makes you more open-minded

The coffee you drink as a pick-me-up in the morning could also make you more open to persuasion, researchers say. Evidence from a new study suggests that this happens because caffeine revs up the brain, not because it generally boosts mood.

John Updike’s ‘Terrorist’ Imagines a Homegrown Threat to Homeland Security - New York Times

John Updike writing about terrorism? The bard of the middle-class mundane, the chronicler of suburban adultery and angst, tackling Islamic radicalism and the call to jihad?

Guardian Unlimited Books | Extracts | Did the CIA give Iran the bomb? Extracts from New York Times reporter James Risen’s new book

In an extract from his explosive new book, New York Times reporter James Risen reveals the bungles and miscalculations that led to a spectacular intelligence fiasco

The Oil We Eat (Harpers.org)

The journalist’s rule says: follow the money. This rule, however, is not really axiomatic but derivative, in that money, as even our vice president will tell you, is really a way of tracking energy. We’ll follow the energy.

Critical Section - People over 30 should be dead

According to today’s regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, or even maybe the early 70’s probably shouldn’t have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.)

TIME.com: Are Americans Suffering Diversity Fatigue? — Page 1

People are willing to be tolerant, but only to a certain point. And from California to the Midwest and Florida, signs of exclusionary thinking are popping up all over.

SunniPath Answers (Audio):
An Active Heart: Answers for a Student in Activism But Struggling Spiritually   

These are recorded answers to questions from a Muslim student involved in Islamic
activism, but struggling spiritually.

Audio: An Active Heart: 01 - Presence of Heart in
Prayer

Audio: An Active Heart: 02 - Waking up for Fajr

Audio: An Active Heart: 03 - Leaving Activism
for Prayer

Audio: An Active Heart: 04 - Fear of wrong
motivation when doing the good

Audio: An Active Heart: 05 - Can the thought to
keep doing more be from the Devil?

Makli Tombs (4×4 Offroaders Club Karachi)

This is one of the most visually stunning archaelogical sites in Pakistan. Covering 15-1/2 sqaure kilometers, and said to contain over one million tombs, it is considered to be the world’s largest necropolis. The tombs and mausoleums are seen as the most substantial remains of Sind’s greatness between the 14th and 18th centuries, with many belonging to kings, queens, saints, governors, military commanders, philophers and poets.

Makli Tombs (4×4 Offroaders Club Karachi)

The Perils of PC Posture - Yahoo! News

We’re going to take a shot in the dark and assume that you are sitting in front of a computer monitor while you read this article.

Attention-Juggling in the High-Tech Office - New York Times

TECHNOLOGY is having a double-edged impact in the workplace, says Ed Reilly, president and chief executive of the American Management Association. It improves productivity, he says, but it may also be a distraction that prevents high-quality thinking. Here are excerpts from a conversation:

In a Solidly Conservative State, a Loyal Core of Support for Bush - New York Times

PROVO, Utah — Here in what may be the reddest city in the reddest of states, where Democrats sometimes gather like lost souls at the one Starbucks, most people are standing by President Bush.

TheStar.com - Most arrested from GTA

A group of Canadian teenagers and young men in their 20s, accused by police of being members of a suspected homegrown terrorist cell, will appear in court this morning to face accusations that they plotted to attack Canadian targets, the Toronto Star has learned.

Some members of the group allegedly attended a “training camp” north of the city where they made a video imitating military warfare, and the suspects allegedly had acquired weapons and listed targets in Ontario, sources told the Star.

May sanity prevail.

la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah

10 Rules for Avoiding Emotional Infidelity

Keeping members of the opposite sex out of your intimate way is crucial to the success of marriage. In today’s world, it takes focus and planning. Consider the following ten rules of avoiding potentially damaging relationships with members of the opposite sex.

The article mentions the following ten rules–you’d think they’re taken straight from the advice of our ulema:

10 Rules for Avoiding Emotional Infidelity

1. Keep it all business in the office.

2. Avoid meetings with members of the opposite sex outside the workplace.

3. Meet in groups.

4. Find polite ways of ending personal conversations.

5. Take particular care not to have regular (perhaps daily or even weekly)
conversations about your life outside work.

6. Don’t share your personal feelings.

7. Be unflinchingly honest with yourself.

8. Avoid cordial kisses and hugs, or dancing with members of the opposite
sex.

9. Don’t drink around the opposite sex.

10. Show your commitment to your spouse daily.

Nadwi: Talking of Madinah

Friends have invited me to give a talk on Madinah, describing what I saw there, and I have readily agreed. As a Persian poet has said: “To talk of the beloved is no less pleasant than to meet him.”

Dream Zone: AUDIO: The Happiness of Man - Habib Ali al-Jifri, translated by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad

Shaykh Habib ‘Ali
beautifully elicidates how to overcome the lower-self, understand why
we were created and live a life of true happiness in this world and the
next.

Live translation by Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad (TJ Winter).

AUDIO: Track 1 - Track 2 - Track 3 - Track 4 - Track 5 - Track 6 - Track 7 - Track 8 - Track 9 - Track 10 -Track 11 - Track 12 - Track 13 - Track 14 - Track 15 - Track 16 - Track 17 - Track 18 - Track 19 - Track 20 - Track 21 - Track 22

Audio on the Guidance Media website (www.GuidanceMedia.com)

BBC NEWS | Help | RSS | RSS Feed (Really Simple Syndication)

In a world heaving under the weight of billions of web pages, keeping up to date with the information you want can be a drag.

 Wouldn’t it be better to have the latest news and features delivered directly to you, rather than clicking from site to site? RSS allows you to see when sites from all over the internet have added new content.

You can get the latest headlines and articles (or even audio files, photographs or video) in one place, as soon as they are published, without having to remember to visit each site every day.

I’d wholeheartedly recommend GreatNews as the best RSS Reader around. And its completely free.

Do gyms breed terrorists? By Brendan O’Neill

There have been three major terror attacks in the West over the past five years—9/11, the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, and the 7/7 suicide attacks on the London Underground. For all the talk of a radical Islamist conspiracy to topple Western civilization, there are many differences between the men who executed these attacks. The ringleaders of 9/11 were middle-class students; the organizers of the Madrid bombings were mainly immigrants from North Africa; the 7/7 bombers were British citizens, well-liked and respected in their local communities. And interpretations of Islam also varied wildly from one terror cell to another. Mohamed Atta embraced a mystical (and pretty much made-up) version of Islam. For the Madrid attackers, Islam was a kind of comfort blanket. The men behind 7/7 were into community-based Islam, which emphasized being good and resisting a life of decadence.

The three cells appear to have had at least one thing in common, though—their members’ immersion in gym culture.

» Gmail in Arabic and Hebrew | Googling Google | ZDNet.com

Google is about to announce two new languages being rolled out for
Gmail — Arabic and Hebrew.  You can find the announcement on
their “What’s New” page.

Gmail in two more languages
Now you can also use Gmail in Arabic and Hebrew. There are even some specially-designed features for right-to-left languages.

Along with these new languages comes a couple new tools
to use when composing messages in right-to-left languages.  These
tools basically give the sender the option on a paragraph by paragraph
basis to change the direction of text.

NPR : A Homeless Father’s ‘Pursuit of Happyness’

mothers struggling to raise their kids against incredible odds, and with little help. But rarely do you hear of single fathers going through the same struggle. Chris Gardner is one of those fathers.

NPR : Satellite Imagery Shows a Sinking New Orleans

Parts of New Orleans are sinking faster than anyone previously thought. realized. Satellite imagery is showing sinking that previous ground level measurements missed.

The Oft-Recited Suras with Shaykh Sohail Hanif

Through an in-depth study of Surah Kahf, Yasin, and Waqiah, recognize the beauty and wisdom behind these oft-recited surahs. Become spiritually alive and feel connected with Allah through developing a living relationship with His book.

The Oft-Recited Suras

charles hugh smith-The New Road to Serfdom: A Negative-Equity Mortgage

he current issue of Harper’s features a lead article entitled “An Illustrated Guide to the Coming Real Estate Collapse” by Michael Hudson. Here is a precis of the piece.

Akram’s Razor - Svend White’s blog on Islam, Muslims & America: Virtually Islamic

Thought I’d share a very interesting blog that charts the intersection of Islam and the Internet called Virtually Islamic.  It’s by Gary Blunt, the author of a number of cutting books and articles on Muslims and the Internet.