I've been here before. Buy new candy bar, forget to check ingredients because I just assumed it's all chocolate and nuts, and BAM there's alcohol in it.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Friday, December 9, 2011
Muslim Personality Test
A friend of mine posted a link to this website on Facebook, it's a Muslim Personality Test.
It'll ask you a few basic questions (age, gender, location, job, are you more religious or spiritual, liberal or conservative, etc.) then it gives you 17 sets of 4 words, and you have to rank them in order from most like you to least like you. Then, they give you another 17 sets of words and you have to choose the one word out of each 4 that best describes what you look for in a spouse.
Then it applies some fancy psychoanalysis and spits out a small report on your personality type. They also offer a comprehensive 25 page report on your personality that you can buy for $29. It's still kinda fun to do, so give it a whirl, I'm a gold personality! :D
http://www.muslimpersonality.com/index
It'll ask you a few basic questions (age, gender, location, job, are you more religious or spiritual, liberal or conservative, etc.) then it gives you 17 sets of 4 words, and you have to rank them in order from most like you to least like you. Then, they give you another 17 sets of words and you have to choose the one word out of each 4 that best describes what you look for in a spouse.
Then it applies some fancy psychoanalysis and spits out a small report on your personality type. They also offer a comprehensive 25 page report on your personality that you can buy for $29. It's still kinda fun to do, so give it a whirl, I'm a gold personality! :D
http://www.muslimpersonality.com/index
Friday, December 2, 2011
Hadith on Flower Giving
"He who is presented with a flower should not reject it, for it is light to carry and pleasant in odor." (Muslim)
I quite like this hadith :)
I quite like this hadith :)
Friday, November 25, 2011
Geektool Daily Hadith (Mac only, sorry)
I was going to do an article on a hadith I read, but then I thought, why give my readers a fish when I can teach them how to fish!
I recently became interested in a Macintosh tool called Geektool. It's a delightful little program that runs in the background and puts one of 3 things on your desktop:
1) the output from a script (i.e it'll execute a small program and display the result)
2) text from a file
3) a picture from a folder
and using just these three things, people have come up with the most amazing desktops! Just take a look at these!
more available here: http://smokingapples.com/software/15-geektool-desktop-inspirations-for-the-weekend/
It's customizable and pretty straightforward, but most people have difficulty writing the script ones. In this article, I'll teach you how to turn a twitter feed into an rss feed and using some programming, display it on your desktop using Geektool :)
1. Download Geektool: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/geektool/id456877552?mt=12
2. Install it, it'll show up as a preference pane.
3. This is the twitter feed we'll be using as our source of hadiths:
http://twitter.com/#!/DailyHadith
unfortunately, none of the programs on your mac can just take the text, so we have to convert it to an RSS feed (a type of simplistic, list approach to getting information from websites) EVEN MORE UNFORTUNATELY, the option to do this from this Twitter feed has been removed, so we have to use another website. I've already done that for you so the RSS feed you'll need will be:
feed://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=dailyhadith
4. Make a folder on your desktop called "Geektool Desktops" and within that folder, make another one called "Common". (just do it, because that's where mine is and it makes everything easier. You can probably figure out what to change if you want to move your folder somewhere else :))
5. Now, we need to write a bit of code to automatically download the latest hadith, and save it to a text file! So, open "Automator" on your mac. If you go to the little magnifying glass in the very top corner of your screen and start typing "Automator" it'll show up. It looks like a little robot holding a tube.
6. Choose to make a new application
7. Find the "Get specified URLs" command and drag it to the workspace. Then edit it so it looks like this:
8. Below this, drag the "Get feeds from URLs"
9. Below that, drag the "Filter Articles" (we only want the most recent one). And set the options to "Any of the following are true", "Date Published" "Since Yesterday"
10. Drag "Get text from Articles" below the box made in step 9.
***UPDATE**** if you're running osX Lion, it's possible to stop the text from appearing twice. Beneath the "Get Text from Articles" add a "Filter Paragraphs"box. Under conditions set the following:
that is a "- ", there's a space after the dash. That should only save the text of the article, not the title. :)
11. Finally, drag "New Text File" beneath step 10's box, and set it as shown:
12. Finally, save the application as "Get Daily Hadith" (as an application too) inside the folder "Common" within the "Geektool Desktops" folder you created earlier, on your desktop.
13. You can run it if you like, to make sure it's working! Just double click it, or click the "run" button if you still have it open in automator. Now, you're going to have to get your hands a little dirty, because we need to stop this app from interrupting your work whenever we run it. So:
13a. right click on your "Get Daily Hadith" app
13b. select "show package contents"
13c. go into "contents"
13d. find "info.plist"
13e. right click, move to "open with" and choose "other"
13f. change "recommended applications" to "all applications" and find "textedit" in your application folder and use that to open the "info.plist" file
13g. scroll down to the bottom until you find these two lines
LSUIElement
change that "false" to "true", but without the quotes:
LSUIElement
go to the file menu, and select "save" and close all the finder windows to get out of there. What you've done is told the application to open in the background. You'll still be able to tell because your work may hiccup now and then, but at least it's not going to stop everything to load.
14. Now the Geektool code. I have to tell you though, that even the code I'm using isn't perfect. It's was adapted from the code I used to put my facebook feed on my desktop, and it has a tendency to put the hadith twice. Once for the title, and another for the content. This is because of how an RSS is set up, the title is usually a duplicate of the content. The workaround? Make the box small enough to only view one :P
Okay, open up the Geektool preference pane in system preferences and make a religion category. Drag yourself a "Shell"Geeklet to the desktop and a nice greyish square should appear, along with another preference pane that looks like this:
save it, and close the little window. Hopefully the Geeklet hasn't gone into a tizzy and started executing every time you touch it, but if it does, just...click other geektool stuff until it stops. If you click and hold some part of it, it usually pauses. Try and make the geeklet as small as possible and put it out of the way.
17. Drag another shell geeklet to the desktop, we'll use this one to display the hadith! Set your fonts and colors and groups and names and refresh rates before adding the code (this one's not so bad because it can execute from within Geektool).
18. In the command box, copy and paste this underlined text:
head -n 300 ~//Desktop/Geektool\ Desktops/Common/Daily\ hadith.txt | tr -s '[\n]' '\n' |tr '-' '~'| sed 's/~~/ /g' | sed 's/~//g' | sed 's/+0000//g' |grep '[a-zA-Z]'|sed '/$/G'
That was adapted from another geeklet I have that posts my facebook feed to my desktop, and was obtained from another site. Still, the principle is the same, you can see the address of the file, and the rest is just formatting stuff. Now, one issue I noticed is that this code removes anything in quotations. Which is kind of irritating since a lot of hadith's are quotes. I believe this is because of the grep '[a-zA-Z]' command there, but I'm not sure. If you find yourself with a hadith with missing quotes, try changing the command to this instead:
head -n 300 ~//Desktop/Geektool\ Desktops/Common/Daily\ hadith.txt | tr -s '[\n]' '\n' |tr '-' '~'| sed 's/~~/ /g' | sed 's/~//g' | sed 's/+0000//g' |sed '/$/G'
and see if that helps.
***July 16, 2012 UPDATE****
here's a link to where you can simply download a geeklet that will do all the Geektool coding for you (right click-Save as):
Daily Hadith Geeklet
it's in my public dropbox folder though, so if it suddenly becomes unavailable, just let me know and I can put it back :)
19. Finally, save the command, resize the geeklet to fit, and you should now have a hadith on your desktop! :) It should look something like this:
If you're experiencing any difficulty with this, or something's not working. Let me know, I'll try and help. :)
I recently became interested in a Macintosh tool called Geektool. It's a delightful little program that runs in the background and puts one of 3 things on your desktop:
1) the output from a script (i.e it'll execute a small program and display the result)
2) text from a file
3) a picture from a folder
and using just these three things, people have come up with the most amazing desktops! Just take a look at these!
more available here: http://smokingapples.com/software/15-geektool-desktop-inspirations-for-the-weekend/
It's customizable and pretty straightforward, but most people have difficulty writing the script ones. In this article, I'll teach you how to turn a twitter feed into an rss feed and using some programming, display it on your desktop using Geektool :)
1. Download Geektool: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/geektool/id456877552?mt=12
2. Install it, it'll show up as a preference pane.
3. This is the twitter feed we'll be using as our source of hadiths:
http://twitter.com/#!/DailyHadith
unfortunately, none of the programs on your mac can just take the text, so we have to convert it to an RSS feed (a type of simplistic, list approach to getting information from websites) EVEN MORE UNFORTUNATELY, the option to do this from this Twitter feed has been removed, so we have to use another website. I've already done that for you so the RSS feed you'll need will be:
feed://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=dailyhadith
4. Make a folder on your desktop called "Geektool Desktops" and within that folder, make another one called "Common". (just do it, because that's where mine is and it makes everything easier. You can probably figure out what to change if you want to move your folder somewhere else :))
5. Now, we need to write a bit of code to automatically download the latest hadith, and save it to a text file! So, open "Automator" on your mac. If you go to the little magnifying glass in the very top corner of your screen and start typing "Automator" it'll show up. It looks like a little robot holding a tube.
6. Choose to make a new application
7. Find the "Get specified URLs" command and drag it to the workspace. Then edit it so it looks like this:
8. Below this, drag the "Get feeds from URLs"
9. Below that, drag the "Filter Articles" (we only want the most recent one). And set the options to "Any of the following are true", "Date Published" "Since Yesterday"
10. Drag "Get text from Articles" below the box made in step 9.
***UPDATE**** if you're running osX Lion, it's possible to stop the text from appearing twice. Beneath the "Get Text from Articles" add a "Filter Paragraphs"box. Under conditions set the following:
that is a "- ", there's a space after the dash. That should only save the text of the article, not the title. :)
11. Finally, drag "New Text File" beneath step 10's box, and set it as shown:
12. Finally, save the application as "Get Daily Hadith" (as an application too) inside the folder "Common" within the "Geektool Desktops" folder you created earlier, on your desktop.
13. You can run it if you like, to make sure it's working! Just double click it, or click the "run" button if you still have it open in automator. Now, you're going to have to get your hands a little dirty, because we need to stop this app from interrupting your work whenever we run it. So:
13a. right click on your "Get Daily Hadith" app
13b. select "show package contents"
13c. go into "contents"
13d. find "info.plist"
13e. right click, move to "open with" and choose "other"
13f. change "recommended applications" to "all applications" and find "textedit" in your application folder and use that to open the "info.plist" file
13g. scroll down to the bottom until you find these two lines
change that "false" to "true", but without the quotes:
go to the file menu, and select "save" and close all the finder windows to get out of there. What you've done is told the application to open in the background. You'll still be able to tell because your work may hiccup now and then, but at least it's not going to stop everything to load.
14. Now the Geektool code. I have to tell you though, that even the code I'm using isn't perfect. It's was adapted from the code I used to put my facebook feed on my desktop, and it has a tendency to put the hadith twice. Once for the title, and another for the content. This is because of how an RSS is set up, the title is usually a duplicate of the content. The workaround? Make the box small enough to only view one :P
Okay, open up the Geektool preference pane in system preferences and make a religion category. Drag yourself a "Shell"Geeklet to the desktop and a nice greyish square should appear, along with another preference pane that looks like this:
you can name it "get daily hadith" and add it to the "religion" group.
15. Set the font and color to whatever you want, and pick a big refresh rate, it IS called Daily hadith for a reason :P I set mine to about 14400 seconds. Do this all now, because frequently, once you tell it to open anything, it won't let you touch it again without freaking out and running it's command. It calms down after a while, I have no idea why, but still.
16. Now, click on the "..." next to command, and a window will open up. This geeklet will be used to run the app you just made to download the hadith!
In this newly opened window, you will copy and paste the following underlined text:
open /Users/username/Desktop/Geektool\ Desktops/Common/Get\ Daily\ Hadith.app
you have to type it this way, replacing "username" with whatever your username is. I'll tell you a hint though, a "/" means "subfolder" and a "\" means there's a space in the file/folder name. So this says:
open the folder "users" then the subfolder "username" then the subfolder "Desktop" then the subfolder "Geektool Desktops" then the subfolder "Common" then the application "Get Daily Hadith.app".
17. Drag another shell geeklet to the desktop, we'll use this one to display the hadith! Set your fonts and colors and groups and names and refresh rates before adding the code (this one's not so bad because it can execute from within Geektool).
18. In the command box, copy and paste this underlined text:
head -n 300 ~//Desktop/Geektool\ Desktops/Common/Daily\ hadith.txt | tr -s '[\n]' '\n' |tr '-' '~'| sed 's/~~/ /g' | sed 's/~//g' | sed 's/+0000//g' |grep '[a-zA-Z]'|sed '/$/G'
That was adapted from another geeklet I have that posts my facebook feed to my desktop, and was obtained from another site. Still, the principle is the same, you can see the address of the file, and the rest is just formatting stuff. Now, one issue I noticed is that this code removes anything in quotations. Which is kind of irritating since a lot of hadith's are quotes. I believe this is because of the grep '[a-zA-Z]' command there, but I'm not sure. If you find yourself with a hadith with missing quotes, try changing the command to this instead:
head -n 300 ~//Desktop/Geektool\ Desktops/Common/Daily\ hadith.txt | tr -s '[\n]' '\n' |tr '-' '~'| sed 's/~~/ /g' | sed 's/~//g' | sed 's/+0000//g' |sed '/$/G'
and see if that helps.
***July 16, 2012 UPDATE****
here's a link to where you can simply download a geeklet that will do all the Geektool coding for you (right click-Save as):
Daily Hadith Geeklet
it's in my public dropbox folder though, so if it suddenly becomes unavailable, just let me know and I can put it back :)
19. Finally, save the command, resize the geeklet to fit, and you should now have a hadith on your desktop! :) It should look something like this:
If you're experiencing any difficulty with this, or something's not working. Let me know, I'll try and help. :)
Friday, November 18, 2011
My Life is Arabic
There's a couple of websites popping up where people can post little anecdotes about how their life is something, the newest one I found out about is My Life is Arabic.
It's filled with a bunch of funny stories and experiences people have had that a lot of us can identify with, so take a look and share your own!
http://mylifeisarabic.com/
It's filled with a bunch of funny stories and experiences people have had that a lot of us can identify with, so take a look and share your own!
http://mylifeisarabic.com/
Friday, November 11, 2011
A Few Shiekhy Types who Know How to Treat the Ladies :P
Gents, take note:
Taking your wife to dinner is sunnah:
60 ways to keep your wife's love p1:
60 ways to keep your wife's love p2:
Cooking and washing is not her duty, it's her Ihsan:
Wife does not mean a servant to her husband
I was a little upset though, that I couldn't find any videos of muslim wives telling fellow muslimahs how to treat their husbands. I knew I couldn't post a video of a guy talking about this, most girls I know take one look at the speaker and think "CHAUVINIST!". So, if anyone knows of a video of a happy muslim wife sharing some tips for keeping your man happy, please let us know! :)
Friday, November 4, 2011
Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat
When I was little, a long long time ago, I used to listen to Broadway music as I went to sleep. Usually Andrew LLoyd Webbers best, one of which was a song called Joseph MegaRemix. That number was from his Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat musical. One day my mother (God bless her) found the entire CD and bought it for me. I've listened to it so many times I know nearly all the songs, and it was through that CD that I learned the story of Joseph (AS). Of course, it's the Christian version, but he (AS) is such a well known prophet that the differences are extremely minor, in fact it's pretty much religion neutral focusing more on his story, and his prophecies. Even the issue with Potiphar's wife is rated G.
Anyway, if you're looking for an educational gift for your kids, check this out! I've included a link to the version I have (there's a bunch of versions, all the same songs, but just different orchestras and singers), I like it the best.
http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Amazing-Technicolor-Dreamcoat-London/dp/B000002NWN/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1319302041&sr=1-1
Anyway, if you're looking for an educational gift for your kids, check this out! I've included a link to the version I have (there's a bunch of versions, all the same songs, but just different orchestras and singers), I like it the best.
http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Amazing-Technicolor-Dreamcoat-London/dp/B000002NWN/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1319302041&sr=1-1
Friday, October 28, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
We are Rich
You've probably heard the story before, about a poor muslim man complaining to a scholar about how he's poor and the scholar asks him if he'll trade his eyes for $1000, and the story goes on. Yes? Okay, but have you seen it in cavity-inducing chibi style??? No? Check out the comic below!
It was drawn by a deviantartist named Nayzak. They do a lot of chibi style drawings to promote peace and Islam so check out their page! ( Warning: page may contain one HECKUVALOTTA squee)
We are Rich by *Nayzak on deviantART
It was drawn by a deviantartist named Nayzak. They do a lot of chibi style drawings to promote peace and Islam so check out their page! ( Warning: page may contain one HECKUVALOTTA squee)
We are Rich by *Nayzak on deviantART
Friday, October 14, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
Smile for Charity
Just a quick little post, a friend of mine shared this page, and I thought it was pretty cool!
It's a neat little idea for a fundraiser, you 'like' the page, post a picture of your smile, and they donate $1 to Somalia! :)
Smile Facebook page
It's a neat little idea for a fundraiser, you 'like' the page, post a picture of your smile, and they donate $1 to Somalia! :)
Smile Facebook page
Friday, September 30, 2011
That Awkward Moment When
There's a funny website called http://thatawkwardmoment.net/ which is just filled with sentences that go:
That awkward moment when... *insert awkward moment*
As I sat in the Masjid one friday, I thought to myself, I bet there are a lot of awkward moments in Islam and in our daily lives! Let's see if I can name a few (can you figure out the references?)
That awkward moment when you're the only one not bowing to God's creation, as ordered.
That awkward moment when you, a virgin, are told you're about to have a baby.
That awkward moment when you lose wuduu in the middle of a congregational prayer and have to excuse yourself.
That awkward moment when you have to dodge the hug because male/female interaction is a no-no.
That awkward moment when you get up too early for fajr.
That awkward moment when you go to collect someone's soul and they give you a black eye.
That awkward moment when that shallow pool turns out to be glass.
That awkward moment when you go back to God to ask Him to reduce the number of prayers. Again.
That awkward moment when you realize the guy you've been working for for a hundred+ years has been dead for a while.
That awkward moment when you miscount the number of takbeers during Eid prayer.
That awkward moment when you can't remember if you prayed 3 or 4 rukaas
That awkward moment when you suddenly realize you are naked.
That awkward moment when you're told to take your little band of believers and leave a town of sodomy, but your wife has to stay.
That awkward moment when you go to deliver God's message and His chosen Prophet flees in terror.
That awkward moment when you can't pay the ransom for breaking fast because you and the Prophet (SAW) ARE the poorest guys you know.
That awkward moment when you hit the head of the guy behind you with your bum when returning from rukuu.
That awkward moment when you decide to read the ingredients after taking a bite and you realize it has gelatin in it.
That awkward moment when you come back and realize the people you fought to save have started worshipping a statue.
What other awkward moments have there been/are there in our deen?
That awkward moment when... *insert awkward moment*
As I sat in the Masjid one friday, I thought to myself, I bet there are a lot of awkward moments in Islam and in our daily lives! Let's see if I can name a few (can you figure out the references?)
That awkward moment when you're the only one not bowing to God's creation, as ordered.
That awkward moment when you, a virgin, are told you're about to have a baby.
That awkward moment when you lose wuduu in the middle of a congregational prayer and have to excuse yourself.
That awkward moment when you have to dodge the hug because male/female interaction is a no-no.
That awkward moment when you get up too early for fajr.
That awkward moment when you go to collect someone's soul and they give you a black eye.
That awkward moment when that shallow pool turns out to be glass.
That awkward moment when you go back to God to ask Him to reduce the number of prayers. Again.
That awkward moment when you realize the guy you've been working for for a hundred+ years has been dead for a while.
That awkward moment when you miscount the number of takbeers during Eid prayer.
That awkward moment when you can't remember if you prayed 3 or 4 rukaas
That awkward moment when you suddenly realize you are naked.
That awkward moment when you're told to take your little band of believers and leave a town of sodomy, but your wife has to stay.
That awkward moment when you go to deliver God's message and His chosen Prophet flees in terror.
That awkward moment when you can't pay the ransom for breaking fast because you and the Prophet (SAW) ARE the poorest guys you know.
That awkward moment when you hit the head of the guy behind you with your bum when returning from rukuu.
That awkward moment when you decide to read the ingredients after taking a bite and you realize it has gelatin in it.
That awkward moment when you come back and realize the people you fought to save have started worshipping a statue.
What other awkward moments have there been/are there in our deen?
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Most Effective Method for Learning a Language
I read an excellent website called Lifehacker fairly regularly, and I came across an article on learning another language. You can find the article here:
http://lifehacker.com/5839401/the-most-effective-method-for-learning-a-language-alone
Basically what it says to do, is get a hold of a book and audio that goes with it. Like an audiobook, but get the text version too. Sit down with a pen and notebook, and play the audiobook (the recommend using an application called Audacity to do this because it has the ability to repeat sections of audio). After each section you listen to, write down as best you can what you heard. Then, use the book to check yourself and repeat as necessary. They explain the benefits of this technique in the article so take a look if you're interested.
I'm a little embarrassed to say that for a split second I thought to myself "Where can I find an arabic audio book with the text to match?" Where indeed. :P
http://lifehacker.com/5839401/the-most-effective-method-for-learning-a-language-alone
Basically what it says to do, is get a hold of a book and audio that goes with it. Like an audiobook, but get the text version too. Sit down with a pen and notebook, and play the audiobook (the recommend using an application called Audacity to do this because it has the ability to repeat sections of audio). After each section you listen to, write down as best you can what you heard. Then, use the book to check yourself and repeat as necessary. They explain the benefits of this technique in the article so take a look if you're interested.
I'm a little embarrassed to say that for a split second I thought to myself "Where can I find an arabic audio book with the text to match?" Where indeed. :P
Friday, September 16, 2011
3 Elements of Personal Prayer
*updates might be a bit infrequent, as I've returned to school again*
Over summer I started reading some Quran, and I realized that there are 3 things we need to be doing on a regular basis
1) Being grateful to Allah (SWT)
2) Praising Allah (SWT)
3) Seeking forgiveness from Allah (SWT)
Being grateful
In the Mohsin Khan translation of the Quran, the word "grateful" appears 22 times. Yeah I know some of those times are in explanations (Mohsin likes his parenthetical explanations) but still, it started to stand out:
O you who believe (in the Oneness of Allah - Islamic Monotheism)! Eat of the lawful things that We have provided you with, and be grateful to Allah, if it is indeed He Whom you worship. (2:172)
....Allah intends for you ease, and He does not want to make things difficult for you. (He wants that you) must complete the same number (of days), and that you must magnify Allah [i.e. to say Takbir (Allahu Akbar; Allah is the Most Great] for having guided you so that you may be grateful to Him. (2:185)
Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is no more than a Messenger, and indeed (many) Messengers have passed away before him. If he dies or is killed, will you then turn back on your heels (as disbelievers)? And he who turns back on his heels, not the least harm will he do to Allah; and Allah will give reward to those who are grateful. (3:144)
And on and on. So one ought to pepper their days with "Alhumdlillah's", over little things like the light turning green, or not so little things like not tripping over your socks and plunging headfirst down the stairs and into Azrael's open arms.
2) Praising Allah (SWT)
Now a quick search of "praise" in the Quran doesn't turn up many ayat telling us to praise Allah, but we do get a bunch of Ayat reminding us how Allah (SWT) is "worthy of all praise". This also falls under the "keep a remembering tongue" category of stuff we ought to be doing. Personally, I find this one a little tricky. I can't toss out a "subhanAllah" at a magnificent sunset or upon reading about how bees can boil a hornet when defending their hive. It's not that I'm proud, it's just that when I say it, I feel like I'm saying it just to show off...it feels very unnatural. So, I do it the good old fashioned robotic way, with TECHNOLOGY! :D I whip out my iPhone and iSubha app and go to town after my prayers.
3) Seeking forgivness
Of all the 3, this is probably the one we should be doing the most. Getting rewards is fine and dandy, but we're just hindering ourselves by not asking forgiveness. We could think of asking forgiveness like earning reward in that we're no longer using our good deeds to nullify bad ones since the bad ones are being taken out entirely. The key element in seeking forgiveness however, is regret. We need to truly regret what we did and not want to do it again. We might do it again, but that's okay sinccne and it gets hard to ask for forgiveness when sometimes we can pretty much bet the farm we'll do it again, still, we live in hope.
I found this on a forum (http://www.ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?258973-When-does-Allah-stop-forgiving-a-person-who-keeps-repeating-the-same-sin)
Al-Bukhaari (7507) and Muslim (2758) narrated from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said that his Lord said: “My slave commits sin, then he says, ‘O Allaah, forgive me my sin.’ Then Allaah says, ‘My slave has committed a sin, but he knows that he has a Lord Who forgives sin and takes away sin. So I forgive My slave.’ Then he commits sin again, and says, ‘O Allaah, forgive me my sin.’ Then Allaah says, ‘My slave has committed a sin, but he knows that he has a Lord Who forgives sin and takes away sin. So I forgive My slave.’ Then he commits sin again, and says, ‘O Allaah, forgive me my sin.’ Then Allaah says, ‘My slave has committed a sin, but he knows that he has a Lord Who forgives sin and takes away sin. So I forgive My slave.’ …”
Which is reassuring (but not an excuse to keep sinning, mind you)
In summary though, these 3 practices are just ways of making sure we have all our bases covered.
Over summer I started reading some Quran, and I realized that there are 3 things we need to be doing on a regular basis
1) Being grateful to Allah (SWT)
2) Praising Allah (SWT)
3) Seeking forgiveness from Allah (SWT)
Being grateful
In the Mohsin Khan translation of the Quran, the word "grateful" appears 22 times. Yeah I know some of those times are in explanations (Mohsin likes his parenthetical explanations) but still, it started to stand out:
O you who believe (in the Oneness of Allah - Islamic Monotheism)! Eat of the lawful things that We have provided you with, and be grateful to Allah, if it is indeed He Whom you worship. (2:172)
....Allah intends for you ease, and He does not want to make things difficult for you. (He wants that you) must complete the same number (of days), and that you must magnify Allah [i.e. to say Takbir (Allahu Akbar; Allah is the Most Great] for having guided you so that you may be grateful to Him. (2:185)
Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is no more than a Messenger, and indeed (many) Messengers have passed away before him. If he dies or is killed, will you then turn back on your heels (as disbelievers)? And he who turns back on his heels, not the least harm will he do to Allah; and Allah will give reward to those who are grateful. (3:144)
And on and on. So one ought to pepper their days with "Alhumdlillah's", over little things like the light turning green, or not so little things like not tripping over your socks and plunging headfirst down the stairs and into Azrael's open arms.
2) Praising Allah (SWT)
Now a quick search of "praise" in the Quran doesn't turn up many ayat telling us to praise Allah, but we do get a bunch of Ayat reminding us how Allah (SWT) is "worthy of all praise". This also falls under the "keep a remembering tongue" category of stuff we ought to be doing. Personally, I find this one a little tricky. I can't toss out a "subhanAllah" at a magnificent sunset or upon reading about how bees can boil a hornet when defending their hive. It's not that I'm proud, it's just that when I say it, I feel like I'm saying it just to show off...it feels very unnatural. So, I do it the good old fashioned robotic way, with TECHNOLOGY! :D I whip out my iPhone and iSubha app and go to town after my prayers.
3) Seeking forgivness
Of all the 3, this is probably the one we should be doing the most. Getting rewards is fine and dandy, but we're just hindering ourselves by not asking forgiveness. We could think of asking forgiveness like earning reward in that we're no longer using our good deeds to nullify bad ones since the bad ones are being taken out entirely. The key element in seeking forgiveness however, is regret. We need to truly regret what we did and not want to do it again. We might do it again, but that's okay sinccne and it gets hard to ask for forgiveness when sometimes we can pretty much bet the farm we'll do it again, still, we live in hope.
I found this on a forum (http://www.ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?258973-When-does-Allah-stop-forgiving-a-person-who-keeps-repeating-the-same-sin)
Al-Bukhaari (7507) and Muslim (2758) narrated from Abu Hurayrah that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said that his Lord said: “My slave commits sin, then he says, ‘O Allaah, forgive me my sin.’ Then Allaah says, ‘My slave has committed a sin, but he knows that he has a Lord Who forgives sin and takes away sin. So I forgive My slave.’ Then he commits sin again, and says, ‘O Allaah, forgive me my sin.’ Then Allaah says, ‘My slave has committed a sin, but he knows that he has a Lord Who forgives sin and takes away sin. So I forgive My slave.’ Then he commits sin again, and says, ‘O Allaah, forgive me my sin.’ Then Allaah says, ‘My slave has committed a sin, but he knows that he has a Lord Who forgives sin and takes away sin. So I forgive My slave.’ …”
Which is reassuring (but not an excuse to keep sinning, mind you)
In summary though, these 3 practices are just ways of making sure we have all our bases covered.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Qamar Deen iPhone App
The latest revision of iQuran added an option to log your reading. However, it said it needed another app called Qamar Deen in order to do this. So I looked for it, and it's actually a pretty awesome app.
Qamar Deen
by Batoul Apps
Price: Free
http://qamardeen.com/
This little app helps you keep track of 4 things:
your prayers, your fasting, your charity, and your Quran readings.
It's very simple and easy to use, and it can be integrated with iQuran by Guidedways.
Prayers:
The Good: When you do a prayer, you open the app, and go to the Prayers tab and tap the appropriate prayer (choose from Fajr, Duha, Duhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha, Witr). A little menu will pop up and you can pick from 6 options (or less depending on the prayer):
Jama'a + Sunnah, Jama'a, Alone + sunnah, Alone, late or not set.
The Bad: No complaints here. You can even change your gender so that the image is of a hijabi instead!
Fasting:
The Good: It's the same way, go to the date, tap the screen, choose which applies: Fareedah (An obligatory fast, pretty much only available for Ramadan), Sunnah, Qada (for a missed/broken day of fasting), Kaffarah (for repaying a day of fast that one botched by having intercourse (fun tip: it's apparently supposed to be 60 days of continuous fast or feeding of poor people)), and Nazr (a vowed fast).
The Bad: You cannot adjust the hijri date. Today, it is Ramadan the 26th where I am, as well as being August the 26th. The app however believes it to be Ramadan the 27th.
Quran:
The Good: If you are using iQuran by Guidedways, simply tap and hold on the last ayat you read and select "log". Qamar Deen will open and show you the ayat, chapter and number of ayat read since either the last time you logged, or the beginning of the Quran (if you just started). That's for your daily readings, but it also has an option for you to log extra readings!
The Bad: The extra readings can only add full chapters, as opposed to chapters and ayats. It would have been nice if they had made it go: Extra readings: From X:Y to U:V instead.
Sadaqah:
The Good: The format is the same, pick your day, tap the screen, choose the charity. Now, obviously it cannot include every type of charity, but it does include the main ones: Money, food, clothes, other, but it also includes effort and even a smile! You can also select all that apply.
The Bad: You cant specify how much of something you gave, but that's probably a good thing. Charity is charity.
Settings:
Like I said, you can't change the hijri date which would have been nice, but you can turn on and off the extra prayers (Duha and Witr), pick your gender (affects the little icon), turn on password protection so your right hand doesn't know what your left is doing ;), turn on arabic mode, and even choose your Quran app (choose from Quran Reader, iQuran, or Al Mus'haf). Also, I just found out that if you turn your device sideways, you'll get a chart of your progress and summaries of your deeds (total prayers, total charitable days, total ayahs read, and total days fasted)!
The aim of the app is to help people see what kind of deeds they're doing and to hopefully encourage them to improve the quality and number. It's an excellent little app, and it's free, so I definitely recommend checking it out.
Qamar Deen
by Batoul Apps
Price: Free
http://qamardeen.com/
This little app helps you keep track of 4 things:
your prayers, your fasting, your charity, and your Quran readings.
It's very simple and easy to use, and it can be integrated with iQuran by Guidedways.
Prayers:
The Good: When you do a prayer, you open the app, and go to the Prayers tab and tap the appropriate prayer (choose from Fajr, Duha, Duhr, Asr, Maghrib, Isha, Witr). A little menu will pop up and you can pick from 6 options (or less depending on the prayer):
Jama'a + Sunnah, Jama'a, Alone + sunnah, Alone, late or not set.
The Bad: No complaints here. You can even change your gender so that the image is of a hijabi instead!
Fasting:
The Good: It's the same way, go to the date, tap the screen, choose which applies: Fareedah (An obligatory fast, pretty much only available for Ramadan), Sunnah, Qada (for a missed/broken day of fasting), Kaffarah (for repaying a day of fast that one botched by having intercourse (fun tip: it's apparently supposed to be 60 days of continuous fast or feeding of poor people)), and Nazr (a vowed fast).
The Bad: You cannot adjust the hijri date. Today, it is Ramadan the 26th where I am, as well as being August the 26th. The app however believes it to be Ramadan the 27th.
Quran:
The Good: If you are using iQuran by Guidedways, simply tap and hold on the last ayat you read and select "log". Qamar Deen will open and show you the ayat, chapter and number of ayat read since either the last time you logged, or the beginning of the Quran (if you just started). That's for your daily readings, but it also has an option for you to log extra readings!
The Bad: The extra readings can only add full chapters, as opposed to chapters and ayats. It would have been nice if they had made it go: Extra readings: From X:Y to U:V instead.
Sadaqah:
The Good: The format is the same, pick your day, tap the screen, choose the charity. Now, obviously it cannot include every type of charity, but it does include the main ones: Money, food, clothes, other, but it also includes effort and even a smile! You can also select all that apply.
The Bad: You cant specify how much of something you gave, but that's probably a good thing. Charity is charity.
Settings:
Like I said, you can't change the hijri date which would have been nice, but you can turn on and off the extra prayers (Duha and Witr), pick your gender (affects the little icon), turn on password protection so your right hand doesn't know what your left is doing ;), turn on arabic mode, and even choose your Quran app (choose from Quran Reader, iQuran, or Al Mus'haf). Also, I just found out that if you turn your device sideways, you'll get a chart of your progress and summaries of your deeds (total prayers, total charitable days, total ayahs read, and total days fasted)!
The aim of the app is to help people see what kind of deeds they're doing and to hopefully encourage them to improve the quality and number. It's an excellent little app, and it's free, so I definitely recommend checking it out.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Were Your Great^(some big number) Grandparents Zombies?
I was reading in that Islamic library App I mentioned about the story of Ezekiel (Hizqeel), and in it there was a little hadith that went like this:
According to Ibn Abbas, there was a place called "Damardan." It's people were inflicted with plague, so they fled, while a group of them who remained in the village perished. The Angel of Death called to the survivors: "Die you all," and they perished. After a long time, a prophet called Ezekiel passed by them and stood wondering over them, twisting his jaws and fingers. Allah (SWT) revealed to him: "Do you want Me to show you how I bring them back to life?" He said: "Yes." His idea was to marvel at the power of Allah (SWT) over them. A voice said to him: "Call: "O you bones, Allah commands you to gather up."" The bones began to fly one to the other until they became skeletons. Then Allah (SWT) revealed to him to say: "Call: "O you bones, Allah (SWT) commands you to put flesh and blood and the clothes in which you had died."" And a voice said: "Allah commands you to call the bodies to rise." And they rose. When they returned to life they said: "Blessed are You O Lord, and all praises are Yours." Ibn 'Abbas reported that the dead who were resurrected were four thousand, while Ibn Salih said they were nine thousand.
Now there's no mention that after this sign was finished these people died again. They could have gone on to lead healthy normal lives. Maybe even have kids. You know what that means (according to popular culture) many of us could be part zombie! :D
According to Ibn Abbas, there was a place called "Damardan." It's people were inflicted with plague, so they fled, while a group of them who remained in the village perished. The Angel of Death called to the survivors: "Die you all," and they perished. After a long time, a prophet called Ezekiel passed by them and stood wondering over them, twisting his jaws and fingers. Allah (SWT) revealed to him: "Do you want Me to show you how I bring them back to life?" He said: "Yes." His idea was to marvel at the power of Allah (SWT) over them. A voice said to him: "Call: "O you bones, Allah commands you to gather up."" The bones began to fly one to the other until they became skeletons. Then Allah (SWT) revealed to him to say: "Call: "O you bones, Allah (SWT) commands you to put flesh and blood and the clothes in which you had died."" And a voice said: "Allah commands you to call the bodies to rise." And they rose. When they returned to life they said: "Blessed are You O Lord, and all praises are Yours." Ibn 'Abbas reported that the dead who were resurrected were four thousand, while Ibn Salih said they were nine thousand.
Now there's no mention that after this sign was finished these people died again. They could have gone on to lead healthy normal lives. Maybe even have kids. You know what that means (according to popular culture) many of us could be part zombie! :D
Friday, August 12, 2011
"I Wonder", a Poem
This is a good poem I came across a long time ago, it was taken from The Modern Religion I WONDER If The Prophet Muhammad visited you, Just for a day or two. If he came unexpectedly, I wonder what you'd do. Oh, I know you'd give your nicest room, To such an honored guest, And all the food you'd serve to him, Would be your very best, And you would keep assuring him, you're glad to have him there, That serving him in your home, Is a joy beyond compare. BUT ... When you see him coming, Would you meet him at the door, With arms outstretched in welcome, To your visitor? OR ... Would you have to change your clothes Before you let him in ? Or hide some magazines And put the Quran where they had been ? Would you still watch R-rated movies, On your TV set ? Or would you rush to switch it off, Before He gets upset ? Would you turn off the radio, And hope He hadn't heard ? And wish you hadn't uttered, That last loud, hasty word ? Would you hide away your music, And instead take Hadith books out ? Could you let him walk right in, or would you rush about ? AND, I wonder ... If the Prophet spent A day or two with you, Would you go right on doing The things you always do ? Would you go right on saying The things you always say ? Would life for you continue As it does from day to day ? Would your family conversation Keep up its usual pace ? And would you find it hard each meal To say a table grace ? Would you keep up each every prayer Without putting on a frown ? And would you always jump up early For prayers at dawn ? Would you sing the songs you always sing And read the books you read ? And let him know the things on which your mind and spirit feed ? Would you take the prophet with you Everywhere you plan to go ? Or, would you, maybe, change your plans, Just for a day or so ? Would you be glad to have him meet your very closest friends? Or, would you hope they'd stay away Until his visit ends? Would you be glad to have him stay Forever on and on? OR ... Would you sigh with great relief, When he at last was gone ? It might be interesting to know The things that you would do If the Prophet Muhammad, in person, came to spend some time with you. |
Friday, August 5, 2011
Complete Islamic Library For iPhone/iPod Touch
8 Islamic Books
Cost: $4.99
Link: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/8-islamic-books-islam-quran/id402153726?mt=8
Although this app says it contains 8 Islamic books, it actually contains 8 Islamic Volumes of Books including:
"Seerat-un-Nabi" (A history of Prophet Muhammad (SAW))
"Sahih Al-Bukhari" (LOTS of hadith)
"Sahih Al-Muslim" (LOTS of hadith)
"Riyad-us-Saliheen" (Translates out to "Gardens of the Righteous", it appears to be a book on character)
"Fiqh-us-Sunnah" (A general rule book that I personally love)
"Stories from the Quran" (Stories)
"Stories of the Prophets (AS)" (Stories)
"Stories of the Sahaba" (Stories)
The good: It comes with Bukahri, Muslim, and Fiqh-us-Sunnah. The volumes are divided into their different sections, just like in their print counterparts, and they're easy to read. The stories of the Prophets, Quran, and Sahaba are a nice add too. I read through the Story of Ibraheem (AS) and Adam (AS) and Eve (AS), and they were pretty thorough. They were mostly formed using references from the Quran, but included a few additions here and there (but they said "or some version of the story say that..." or "some people think that...") if there was an unsourced bit. For example, in the Story of Ibraheem (AS) they said: "Abraham's father died before his birth and he was raised by an uncle whom Abraham called his father. Other traditions said that his father was alive and was named Azer". At any rate, they go through lots of Prophets:
Abraham
Adam and Eve
Daniel
David
Dhul-Kifl
Elia and Elisha
Enoch
Eekiel
Ezra
Hud
Isaac
Ishmael
Jeremiah bin Hilkiah
Jesus
Job
Jonah
Joseph
Lot
Moses and Aaron
Muhammad (SAW)
Noah
Saleh
Samuel
Shu'aib
Solomon
The People of Ar-Rass
The People of Yaseen
Zacharia and John
Nearly as many Sahaba, and stories from the Quran too! In summary, it's quite extensive, and also features a search!
The bad: no bookmarking, no multi-tasking support. So navigation looks like this:
Series selection (Bukhari, Muslim, Stories, etc), Table of Contents, Page with lots of scrolling. If you leave the app, you lose your spot and have to navigate to it all over again.
Final summary: if you can put up with having to dig through it every time you want to find a particular page in a particular book, it's excellent. I'm hoping they release a version with bookmarking soon, as it is quite a good app.
Cost: $4.99
Link: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/8-islamic-books-islam-quran/id402153726?mt=8
Although this app says it contains 8 Islamic books, it actually contains 8 Islamic Volumes of Books including:
"Seerat-un-Nabi" (A history of Prophet Muhammad (SAW))
"Sahih Al-Bukhari" (LOTS of hadith)
"Sahih Al-Muslim" (LOTS of hadith)
"Riyad-us-Saliheen" (Translates out to "Gardens of the Righteous", it appears to be a book on character)
"Fiqh-us-Sunnah" (A general rule book that I personally love)
"Stories from the Quran" (Stories)
"Stories of the Prophets (AS)" (Stories)
"Stories of the Sahaba" (Stories)
The good: It comes with Bukahri, Muslim, and Fiqh-us-Sunnah. The volumes are divided into their different sections, just like in their print counterparts, and they're easy to read. The stories of the Prophets, Quran, and Sahaba are a nice add too. I read through the Story of Ibraheem (AS) and Adam (AS) and Eve (AS), and they were pretty thorough. They were mostly formed using references from the Quran, but included a few additions here and there (but they said "or some version of the story say that..." or "some people think that...") if there was an unsourced bit. For example, in the Story of Ibraheem (AS) they said: "Abraham's father died before his birth and he was raised by an uncle whom Abraham called his father. Other traditions said that his father was alive and was named Azer". At any rate, they go through lots of Prophets:
Abraham
Adam and Eve
Daniel
David
Dhul-Kifl
Elia and Elisha
Enoch
Eekiel
Ezra
Hud
Isaac
Ishmael
Jeremiah bin Hilkiah
Jesus
Job
Jonah
Joseph
Lot
Moses and Aaron
Muhammad (SAW)
Noah
Saleh
Samuel
Shu'aib
Solomon
The People of Ar-Rass
The People of Yaseen
Zacharia and John
Nearly as many Sahaba, and stories from the Quran too! In summary, it's quite extensive, and also features a search!
The bad: no bookmarking, no multi-tasking support. So navigation looks like this:
Series selection (Bukhari, Muslim, Stories, etc), Table of Contents, Page with lots of scrolling. If you leave the app, you lose your spot and have to navigate to it all over again.
Final summary: if you can put up with having to dig through it every time you want to find a particular page in a particular book, it's excellent. I'm hoping they release a version with bookmarking soon, as it is quite a good app.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Quranic Ratios
From:
"Credits: Dr. Tarik Al-Suwaidan
The word (Sea or Water) mentioned 32 times, and the word (Landmass) mentioned 13 times in the Holy Qur'an, if we add them together we will get 45. Now let us do some calculations...
We will find what Allah (swt) said in His Holy Book 14 centaury ago that the ratio of water on earth is 71.11111111111%, and the ratio of landmass is 28.88888888889%, add them together and you will get 100%, and these are the real ratios of the Water and landmass on earth. So what do you think? Could it be a Chance?! Who do you think taught prophet Muhammad all of these? I am just telling you that " Nor does he say (aught) of (his own) Desire " so bow thankful to your Lord for being a Muslim, what you have read is a small part of the Numeric Miracles of the Holy Qur'an, there are big volumes about the miracles of the Qur'an.... And InshaAllah we'll meet again with more. Your Brother Hussain Yunus from Maryol Okrania" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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