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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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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

parent hacks: ‘Fast Food Nation’ author comes out with new book for kids

You’re convinced about the deleterious effects of fast food. But what about your kids?

Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, has just come out with a new book aimed at 9- to 15-year olds. Chew On This: Everything You Don’t Want to Know About Fast Food
takes on the fast food and soda industries, the realities of meat
production, junk food additives, and the sorry treatment of fast food
restaurant employees. Kids get an inside look at the history of the
fast food industry, and enough information to start making wiser
choices about the food they eat.

The Perils of Soft Power

Any nation has an array of options for extending influence throughout the world: One is “hard power,” or military escalation. Another method, touted by a group led by Harvard Professor Joseph S. Nye Jr., is “soft power,” or cultural capital deployed across the globe. But soft power can produce antagonistic reactions. US movies, music and education may be popular in other nations, but world citizens do not necessarily rely on the US to shape their views on larger issues.

Ibnat Battuta: The Principles of the Spiritual Path - part I

Sheikh Ahmad ibn Ahmad Zarruq (Allah be well pleased with him) said: In the name of Allah Most Merciful and Compassionate: All praise be to Allah;

The basic principles of our order consist in five things: having godfearingness privately and publicly, following the sunna in word and deed, indifference to whether others accept or reject one, satisfaction with Allah in scarcity and plenty, and turning to Allah in happiness or affliction.

Godfearingness is attained by scrupulousness and uprightness.

Following the sunna is attained by caution and good character.

Indifference to others’ acceptance or rejection is attained by patience and trust in Allah.

Satisfaction in Allah is attained by contentment with what one has and submission to the will of Allah.

And turning to Allah Most High is attained by praise and thanks to Him in happiness and taking refuge with Him in affliction.

The foundations of all these consist of five things: high aspiration, maintaining due respect, giving goodly service, carrying out one’s spiritual resolutions, and venerating Allah’s blessings.

Whoever’s aspiration is high, his rank rises. Whoever maintains respect for what Allah honors, his own respect is upheld. Whoever gives goodly service is necessarily shown generousity. Whoever carries out his spiritual resolutions continues to have guidance. Whoever sees Allah’s blessings as great gives thanks for them, and whoever gives thanks for them has necessitated their increase by the Bestower of Blessings, by virtue of His true promise.

[Source: Invocations of the Shadhili Order, Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller)

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Stuff the kids

It bombards them with adverts, seduces them with merchandise - and then fills them with additives. In an exclusive extract from his explosive new book, Eric Schlosser reveals how the fast-food industry exploits its key audience - the very young

The 50 Year History of Play-Doh

50 years ago U.S. Patent No. 3,167,440 was granted to Noah McVicker and Joseph McVicker for a “plastic modeling composition”, (which was originally intended to be a wallpaper cleaner) now called Play-Doh. Little did they know that they had created the substance of childhood memories as well as many a childhood meal, unfortunately.

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Tough on crime, to hell with the causes of crime if they make money

Research shows a direct link between junk food and violent behaviour. But governments are in cahoots with the industry

Reason: What Good Are the Arts?: A brilliant case for literature by Nick Gillespie

As the nation’s lit departments go begging for students, they would do well to consult John Carey’s brilliant, funny, and insightful What Good Are the Arts? (Oxford University Press), which makes a compelling and persuasive case that creative expression—especially the written word—is central to a rich and thoughtful life.

copenhagen interpretation: pattern recognition

The abstract is made concrete by precise definition. This, the case with terms, is also true of art: form, rhythm and pattern.

Sunni Sister: Blahg Blahg Blahg » Blog Archive » Priceless

Ask any Muslim you know what is the most valuable thing we have to give one an other as an Ummah, and insha’Allah, she or he will say “Sacred Knowledge.” Sacred Knowledge gives us the deeper meanings of the Qur’an. It aids us in our study of the Sunnah and the Sirah. Sacred Knowledge teaches us how to make wudhu and salat, and tells us why we need to choose one particular methodology and stick with it. Sacred Knowledge lets us in on the deeper meanings of dhikr, on the best way to eliminate the ego. Studying Sacred Knowledge with a qualified scholar gives us two gifts: the knowledge itself, as well as the fact that we’re recognizing and honoring chains of transmission that sometimes go back to the Prophet himself (aleyhi salatu wa salaam). All of this to say that Sacred Knowledge is the means that allows us to become better servants of Allah ta’ala and better implementers of the Sunnah of His Beloved (sallalahu aleyhi wa salaam).

So how much would you pay for such a gift?

copenhagen interpretation: a minor on tradition and modernity

The question of tradition and its place in this “modern world” is one that vexes a minor number of Muslims in a major way. Not only in the West. But it is here, in the West, that the battle seems to rage at its fiercest. Especially since each of us is taught to believe that all tradition is evil, backward, oppressive: that success lies in ditching the “dead weight” of tradition whether by means of Protestant reform, Marxist revision, or fundamentalist recreation. Merely coming to grips with tradition and applying it seems far too dull. It is as if staircases, built pretty much the same old way for ages, have become an object of undergraduate philosophical debate.

Problem Solving: Teamwork May Be Best

A new study shows that complex problems are best solved by teams of three, four, or five people, compared to people who tackle the same problems by themselves or with one other person.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Stuff the kids

It bombards them with adverts, seduces them with merchandise - and then fills them with additives. In an exclusive extract from his explosive new book, Eric Schlosser reveals how the fast-food industry exploits its key audience - the very young

Telegraph | Connected | Alphabets are as simple as…

Writing systems may look very different, but they all use the same basic building blocks of familiar natural shapes, reports Roger Highfield

BBC NEWS | Health | Sex cues ruin men’s decisiveness

Catching sight of a pretty woman really is enough to throw a man’s decision-making skills into disarray, a study suggests.

TIME.com: How Germany Keeps Kids From Dropping Out — Apr. 17, 2006 — Page 1

The country’s thriving vocational education system gets students to stay in school - and prepares them for a solid career

Islam Online- India’s Madrasahs Beacon of Tolerance

Education Minister in India’s state of West Bengal Kanti Biswas said Tuesday, April 4, that Islamic religious schools (madrasahs) are promoting tolerance and communal harmony among different faiths in the multi-religious country.

“People find it difficult to believe, but our madrasahs … are reflecting modern aspirations and expectations of the community irrespective of religion,” he told Reuters.

IslamicaMagazine - Thinking Skills

Western education systems emphasize “thinking skills” either as a
program or as a strand ideally woven into all subject areas. In
Britain, for example, one factor behind the emphasis is a concern that
the national curriculum has abandoned the philosophy and practice of
holistic education and is dominated by a narrow concept of “schooling”
geared to uninspiring utilitarian objectives. Prime Minister Tony Blair
says that it is the provision of a “workforce” to drive forward
national economic performance, the top priority in his vision of
education.

The negative effects of this targetdriven schooling on the
morale of schoolchildren have been well documented. Disaffection and
truancy are rife, and self-harm, depression and even suicide are
increasing alarmingly among young people…. [read more]

Din seeking the Deen: Anger: An Islamic psychological perspective

BEDTIME-STORY CLASSICS-Alice In Wonderland BACKGROUND

The Background & History of Alice In Wonderland…

YouTube - 20/20 Stupid in America

20-20 investigation by John Stossel entitled “Stupid in America” highlighting some of the flaws with the education system in the United States.

7 Key Traits of the Ideal Doctor

What makes for an ideal doctor? Patients share their views in a new study.

Benjamin Franklin -  The 13 Virtues

Benjamin Franklin signed the founding documents of the United States, including both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself. When just 20, he had come up with a plan of life: 13 virtues he sought to uphold to the end of his life:

1. Temperance: Eat
not to dullness and drink not to elevation.

2. Silence: Speak
not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.

3. Order: Let all
your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its
time.

4. Resolution: Resolve
to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality: Make
no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.

6. Industry: Lose
no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary
actions.

7. Sincerity: Use
no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak
accordingly.

8. Justice: Wrong
none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Moderation: Avoid
extremes. Forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness: Tolerate
no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.

11. Chastity: Rarely
use venery but for health or offspring; Never to dullness, weakness, or
the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.

12. Tranquility:
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

13. Humility: Imitate
Jesus and Socrates.

He committed to giving
strict attention to one virtue each week so after 13 weeks he moved through
all 13. After 13 weeks he would start the process over again so in one
year he would complete the course a total of 4 times.

He tracked his progress
by using a little book of 13 charts. At the top of each chart was one
of the virtues. The charts had a column for each day of the week and thirteen
rows marked with the first letter of each of the 13 virtues. Every evening
he would review the day and put a mark (dot) next to each virtue for each
fault committed with respect to that virtue for that day.

Naturally, his goal
was to live his days and weeks without having to put any marks on his
chart. Initially he found himself putting more marks on these pages than
he ever imagined, but in time he enjoyed seeing them diminish. After awhile
he went through the series only once per year and then only once in several
years until finally omitting them entirely. But he always carried the
little book with him as a reminder.

Ben Franklin’s 13
virtues are unique and obviously served him well since he is one of the
most respected and most accomplished men in the history of the United
States.

Source: Flamebright

9 tips for running more productive meetings | 43 Folders

1. Circulate an agenda
2. Have a theme
3. Set (and honor) times for beginning, ending, and breaks
4. No electronic grazing. Period
5. Schedule guests
6. Be a referee and employ a time-keeper
7. Stay on target
8. Follow up
9. Be consistent

[read the details]

hikm: an attempt at wisdom :حكم » Blog Archive » The Middle East and the West: A Troubled History

In a special six-part series, NPR’s Mike Shuster examines the long and
turbulent history of Western inovolvement in the Middle East, from the
Crusades to the wars in Iraq.

Salikah: A Student’s Digest: SunniPath Academy - Registration for Spring 2006 Semester Now Open!

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Tafsir al-Jalalayn Explained

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