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. 

Imake Dua

PSYCH! QUICK POST!

I'm looking for a replacement app for Duas. The one I have is comprehensive (VERY COMPREHENSIVE) but is lacking in the navigation and user friendliness department. I'd also like it to be free. I came across this one:

Imake Dua (http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/imake-dua/id356925192?mt=8)

It's pretty, easy to read, and easy to navigate. It features a "Favorites" option, and (like the other one) takes it's material from "Fortification of the Muslim Through Remembrance and Supplication from the Quran and Sunnah" (GREAT book by the way).

The negative qualities however, are that the search option is more of an index page than a word search, and the home screen doesn't include every section of the book. It has "When waking up", "When leaving home", "Going to the masjid" for instance, but doesn't have a button for more random ones like making Wuduu, or in times of fear. I suppose that's okay though; they did put "Dua Throughout the Day" at the top of the home screen, and you can always add those to favourites.

If anyone knows of a better app, I'd like to hear about it! :D

Islamic Pins!

A little while ago I started thinking: "How many people pass me by? how many potential friendships do I miss? Simply because people can't tell I'm muslim?"

Now you're probably thinking, oh Th3luba you silly person, who can't tell you're muslim? My answer: EVERYONE. You see, as it happens, despite being raised muslim, I don't look it. AT ALL. One of my parents is of European descent and it looks like I got all their genes. (Fortunately, I was provided with a fantastic set of tanning genes from my other parent, so I suppose it balances out....or maybe not. But I digress..) I'll meet people and first they'll say "You're muslim!?" their next question is then "When did you convert?" And I die a little inside. SO, I decided to make myself a nice little pin to let people know I'm muslim! 

Nothing fancy, seriously. In fact, it couldn't be less fancy. The first pin I made was out of a bottle cap, a coke can tab, a safety pin, tape and a crescent moon and star printed on a bit of paper. The second one I made is a green moon and star on a white piece of paper, taped to a proper pin. I also made a pin that says "Born Muslim" which I keep on my backpack. 

So far the only person (who wasn't one of my friends) who noticed was a sweet old lady that didn't know what the symbol meant any more than she deduced I was muslim because my sister was (and she knew my sister. ) But we live in hope.....and I haven't been wearing it for very long, or around very far (I go to my college in university, and home. So I don't meet anyone new very often)

But I did a little online search for islamic pins and came across this website which has a few, rather entertaining ones!

http://www.zazzle.ca/islam+buttons

now some of the have to do with Obama and support for him, but there are some neat ones that say stuff like  "Relax! I'm Muslim!" or "Islam; all the cool kids are doing it!" or "Muslims wanted: it's a tough job but the retirement plan is unbelievable!" 

There was one on another site I thought was really funny, it said "Don't Panic! I'm Islamic!" Wear THAT through the airport! :P

So if you're like me and whiter than the untouched snow, looking to stand out to your muslim brethren or sistren (new word), why not try a pin!