Chill Yo Islam Yo

At least one Friday of every Month, their has to be one Muslim brother who does something stupid to annoy the Sheikh. The most recent one? A brother blocked a neighbors driveway so he could catch the Jumu’ah Salat with congregation, then the whole Salat we heard someone “honking”.

As a result, he ruined the concentration for all the brothers and sisters making the friday prayer, but more importantly he pissed the neighbor off.  Sometimes Shatan makes you think that your doing the right thing when it really backwards.

Islam teaches us to be considerate to everyone, more specifically to the neighbors who have certain rights in Islam.

So where is the proof? Let’s look at a few hadith and one ayah.

Related by Abu Hurairah (R.A.) the Prophet (PBUH) said:
“By Allah, he is not a true believer, By Allah, he is not a true believer, By Allah, he is not a true believer (three times). He was asked ‘Who?” Upon which he replied, “The one whose neighbors do not feel secure from his mischief and evil.

Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr: Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said:

“The best companion in Allah’s estimation is the one who is best to his companion, and the best neighbour in Allah’s estimation is the one who is best to his neighbour.”- Al-Tirmidhi, Number 1287 

More importantly here is an ayah from the Holy Qur’an:

Worship Allah and join none with Him in worship, and do good to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, (the poor), the neighbor who is near of kin, the neighbor who is a stranger, the companion by your side, the wayfarer (you meet), and those (slaves) whom your right hands possess. Verily, Allah does not like such as are proud and boastful;

There you have it, next time your headed to the Masjid, make sure you don’t block the driveway.

This is a little random, but I thought it was pretty good marketing. My cousin a.k.a blogger angrybrownguy got coupons from McDonald’s in Urdu! And this isn’t in Pakistan it’s in New Jersey.

Maybe this is one step closer for McDonald’s to start serving halal, since a good percentage of South Asians in North America are Muslims.

When I met Shaykh Hamza Yusuf at the ISNA convention this year, I told him maybe if McDonald’s and Burger King started serving Halal across the states, more Muslims would start eating it, more halal means less haraam. He said “it’s good it’s not halal, it’s bad for your health anyways, you shouldn’t be eating it regardless”.Ha-ha.

Check out the coupon below

“Taste zyada, price kum” means ” More tasteful, less pricey”

Mash’Allah! This should inspire us all.

7:31.O Children of Adam! Take your adornment (by wearing your clean clothes), while praying  and going round (the Tawaf of ) the Ka’bah, and eat and drink but waste not by extravagance, certainly He (Allah) likes not Al-Musrifun (those who waste by extravagance).

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (PBUH) said, “One who strives to help the widows and the poor is like the one who fights in the way of Allah.”

What you waiting for? Go donate!
Like DMX said “Y’all been eatin long enough now stop bein greedy
Just keep it real partner give to the needy”, haha =)

I was reading about the history of Islam in Spain and came across some pretty amazing facts. Surprised me at first, but yea real talk, read below on how much Muslims accomplished in Southern Spain alone:

Did you know that…..

•  Al-Andalus, which means, “to become green at the end of the summer” is referred to the territory occupied by the Muslim empire in Southern Spain
• The city of Cordoba had 700 mosques
• Some 60,000 palaces, and 70 libraries - one reportedly housing 500,000 manuscripts and employing a staff of researchers, illuminators, and book binders.
• Cordoba also had Europe’s first street lights
• It also had Fifty hospitals
• In the seven centuries Muslim ruled also known as “The Golden Age”, Muslims treated Christians and Jews with tolerance, this resulted in many of them accepting Islam! In fact, many Jews and Christians held government positions.
• All Jews and Christians were allowed to maintain their beliefs and live their lives as they desired as long as they respected their Muslim rulers
• In Muslim Spain, knowledge from Greece and Rome was preserved. Arab scholars produced encyclopedias on medicine and astronomy in 11th century, also including astrology, psychology, zoology, biology, botany, chemistry, physics, mathematics, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, etc., which Christian scholars acquired and translated.
• Muslims in Spain produced cotton, paper, salt, silk, satin, pepper, stamps, clocks, soaps, rulers, maps, globes, furs, velvets, described over 200 surgical instruments, and named over 200 stars with Arabic names.

Most importantly, their were certain factors that played a key role in the collapse of Muslim Spain

• The greed and self-indulgence that gripped its elites, the loss of a unifying religious vision
• The rivalries that weakened and divided the Muslims
• The loss of religious tolerance

Lesson learned -

I end with an Ayah from the Holy Qur’an

“and hold fast to the rope of Allah and do not be divided.” (Qur’an 3:103)

May Allah swt guide us to the straight path, keep us united, and give us the knowledge to excel in all spheres of life so we can help the World, Ameen!

Here is an essay I wrote for a class I took last semester called “Women in Islam”.

The topic I chose was “Islam and Mercy”, Send some halal feedback a.k.a constructive criticism.

Here is a sneak peek at the end of the essay where I quoted my favorite Hadith

“I end with a beautiful hadith by the beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) where he said, “Those who show mercy to their fellow beings will be shown mercy by the Merciful Lord. So, show mercy to those on the earth, and He Who is in the heaven will show mercy to you.” (At-Tirmidhi)

Click the link below to download

Islam and Mercy By Saad Ahmad (Chill Yo Islam Yo)

(You need Adobe Reader to view the file)

Alhumduillah this was a great session at ISNA this year moderated by Dr.Ingrid Mattson fea Shaykh Hamza Yusf, Imam Zaid Shakir and Yusuf Islam.

I was hoping someone recorded it and put it up on YouTube. I started searching today and I found it. So if you didn’t go to ISNA or did and missed it, watch it below. Enjoy!

I put 4 random parts of the whole session, watch the rest here on the ISNA convention videos page.

hmm….tasty!

Yup you heard it right, introducing Al Nassma, the world’s first brand of chocolate made with camels’ milk.

With 3,000 camels on its Dubai farm, the company sells chocolates through its farm-attached store as well as in luxury hotels and private airlines.

“We aim to be the Godiva of the Middle East,” Van Almsick ( GM of Al Nassma) said in an interview. “It’s a luxury product, so we will never be in supermarkets. The plan is to be in one mall in each UAE city.”

Don’t worry it’s coming to the west also, Al Nassma is also in talks with British department store Harrods and San Francisco’s Chocolate Covered to sell its products.

Oh and speaking of healthy,

All chocolates are produced without preservatives or chemical additives with a range of locally popular spices, nuts and honey, the company says.

Camel milk contains five times more vitamin C than cow milk, less fat, less lactose and more insulin, making it a good option for diabetics and the lactose intolerant, Van Almsick said.

Send me a sample Mr.Van, I’ll be your NY product tester =).

Oh yea, Godiva is now Muslim owned 

Enjoy! don’t get too fat though, remember your stomach and chest should always be flat, not looking like homer simpson.

Last week when I wrote a post about “Haram”- Officially A New English Word, I came across more words that originate from the Arabic language that are also in the dictionary of Merriam-Webster.

Sometimes when you do some research, you realize just how vast knowledge really is . More importantly, if you told some of these hardcore English/British folks alot of the words they speak come from the Arabic language, they would probably be shocked.

Anyways check out the words below, courtesy of zompist.com :

•  felafel - fala:fil
• hadith - h’adi:t ‘tradition’
• jinn - jinn ’spirits’, plural of genie
• orange - na:ranj - from Sanskrit
• sofa - s,uffah ‘raised dais with cushions’
• cotton - qutn
• caliph - khali:fah ’successor’ - khalafa ’succeed’
• algebra - al-jebr ‘reintegration’ - jabara reunite
• lime - li:mah ‘citrus fruit’
• mullah - mawla: ‘master’
• safari - safari:y ‘journey’ - safara travel
• magazine - makha:zin ’storehouses’ - khazana store
• mattress - matrah ‘place where something is thrown, mat, cushion’ - tarah’a throw

Pretty cool right? Now go spread the knowledge

Was’alaam Yo!

Shout out to MR!

Buy tickets l Official Event Website

Never thought this would happen.

A family in Saudi Arabia is taking a “genie” to court, accusing it of theft and harassment, reports say.

They accuse the spirit of threatening them, throwing stones and stealing mobile phones, Al Watan newspaper said.

The family have lived in the same house near the city of Medina for 15 years but say they only recently became aware of the spirit. They have now moved out.

A local court is investigating. In Islamic theology, genies are spirits that can harass or possess humans.

‘Get out of the house’

“We began to hear strange sounds,” the head of the family, who come from Mahd Al Dahab, told the Saudi daily. He did not want to be named.

Source