The firm I'm working for is supplying some materials for a Mosque. Normally I would be fitting, but this is supply only. But it got me thinking, the Health & Safety Executive in the UK would require us to wear safety boots, but I'm guessing that your not supposed to wear shoes in a mosque?


So if had been fitting would we have had to wear overshoes, or laydown a covering of some sort? Might sound a daft question, but if it comes up again in the future, and we end up doing the fitting it would be handy to know in advance :)

<b>The Relief of the Heart and Body Lies in Obedience to Allaah </b>


By Ibn al-Qayyim


Taken from Al-Fawaa’id; translated by Abu Rumaysah


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


<b>In this lies a great secret from the secrets of Tawheed.</b> This is that the heart cannot become firm, it cannot find satisfaction and it cannot find tranquillity except by reaching out to Him. Everything that is loved and desired besides Him then it must be desired for other than His sake. The One Who is desired, the One Who is beloved in and of Himself, with Whom all matters find their final goal is only one. It is impossible that the final goal be to two destinations just as it is impossible that the beginning of the creation be from two sources.


So the one whose love, desire, will and obedience ends at other than Him then it will be rendered null and void, it will disappear and split off from him no matter how great his need be of it. However the one whose love, desire, will, obedience, awe and reverential fear ends at Him, far removed is He from imperfection, <b>will find himself winning His favours, bliss and rapture, magnificence and splendour, and felicity for eternity.</b>


The servant continuously finds himself altering between the laws of commandments and the laws of decree. Therefore he is perpetually in need of aid to fulfil the commandments and in need of kindness and leniency at the onset of the calamity. <b>It is the extent to which he establishes the obligations that determine how much kindness the servant will receive at the onset of the calamity.</b> Therefore if he completes his obligations both inwardly and outwardly then he will attain kindness and leniency both inwardly and outwardly. If, however, he merely establishes the outward form [of the commandments] without establishing their reality [inwardly] then he will receive an outward kindness and his portion of inward kindness will [greatly] diminish.


<b>So if it is asked: what is this inward kindness?</b>


<b>It is what the heart attains of tranquility and satisfaction at the onset of the calamity and the removal of unrest, confusion and despair.</b> Therefore the servant surrenders and submits himself before his Lord and Master and he emerges in a state of complete rest and tranquillity - looking on at Him with his heart, and his soul at peace. His witnessing His Kindness has distracted him from the severity of the situation. His knowledge of Allaah’s excellent choice and decision for him diverts him from feeling the calamity just as does his knowledge that he is nothing but a mere servant upon whom the decrees of his Master take effect, and he can either be pleased with them or angry with them. So if he is pleased then he will attain Pleasure and if he is displeased then his portion is nothing save Displeasure. Therefore this inward kindness is the fruit of this inward action [of being pleased with the decree of Allaah], it increases with its increase and decreases with its decrease.


source: http://www.angelfire.com/al/islamicpsychol...t_and_body.html

<b>Why Calamities and Destructions are Happenning to Muslims?</b>


By: Mohamad Sharis Abdul Karim


:hawla:


Dear brothers, one question that may arise in our mind is why are these calamities, and destructions happenning to muslims. Yes, indeed the opressosrs are the wrong doers. They make destruction and kill muslims and steal their properties. On the other side, it is worth for us to look on ourselves so that we can improve our weaknesses. I would like to recite one hadith…and I don’t intend to elaborate on it. Let us hear and we judge it ourselves.


The companion ‘Abdullaah Ibn ‘Abbaas r.a., narrated that the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam said: <b>“Five matters result when five things happen: If people break their covenant with Allaah, He will send an enemy against them; If they rule by other than the Law of Allaah, poverty will spread among them; If they become deceptive in trade, Allaah will deprive them of crops and they will be struck with famine; And if they withhold the payment of Zakaah, they will be struck with drought.”.</b>


[At- Tabaraani]


In another narration he sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam said:<b> “If they break the covenant of Allaah and His Messenger, Allaah will send an external enemy against them who will seize some of their possessions; If they do not rule by the Book of Allaah, nor attempt to implement everything in it, Allaah will spread enmity among them.”</b>


Conversely, obeying Allaah and His Messenger sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam is the source of victory. Allaah says


<b>“O you who have believed, if you support Allaah, He will support you [by giving you victory].”</b>


[surah Muhammad Ayah 7]


Indeed, Allah give victory to those who deserve it. And most of the times defeat comes from ourselves.


One night, Sa’d Ibn Abi Waqqaas, may Allaah be pleased with him, was checking on his army during the battle of Qaadisiyyah. He passed by the tent of one group of soldiers at night and found the men inside praying Qiyaam, or voluntary night-prayer, and remarked: <i>‘Victory comes from such a tent’</i> then he passed by another tent and found the men inside sleeping and remarked: <i>‘Defeat comes from such a tent.’ </i> This was despite the fact that the men who were sleeping only missed a recommended prayer and not an obligatory one; yet Sa’d considered missing this recommended act to be a reason for defeat.


Let us avoid destructions, disasters and humiliation. Muslims have experienced to many appalling tragedy in their own land, It was Bosnia, and now Palestine, and tomorrow we never know whose turn.


The Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam was once asked: <i>“Would we be punished by disasters which befall us while we have righteous people amongst us?’</i> he sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam replied: <b>“Yes, if evil becomes widespread.”</b> Allaah says clearly on this issue in al Quraan:


<b>“And fear the Fitnah </b> (affliction and trial, etc.)<b> which affects not in particular </b> (only) <b>those of you who do wron</b>g (but it may afflict all the good and the bad people), <b>and know that Allâh is Severe in punishment".</b>


[surah Al-Anfaal Ayah 25]


Therefore, if Muslims truly wish for safety from destruction and given victory, then they must change and improve what is in themselves as Allaah says that which translates as:


<b>“For eac</b>h (person), <b>there are angels in succession, before and behind him. They guard him by the Command of Allâh. Verily! Allâh will not change the good condition of a people as long as they do not change their state of goodness themselves. But when Allâh wills a people's punishment, there can be no turning back of it, and they will find besides Him no protector.”.</b>


[surah Ar-Ra’d Ayah 11]


:hawla:

I've seen this a few time printed in magazines. I guess this is a Fatwa published in Al Watan. It's an edict for new rules for soccer.


In the name of God the merciful and benevolent:


1. International terminology that heretics use, such as "foul," "penalty", "corner," "goal", "out" and others, should be abandoned and not said. Whoever says them should be punished and ejected from the game.


2. Do not call "foul" and stop the game if someone falls and sprains a hand or foot or the ball touches his hand, and do not give a yellow or red card to whoever was responsible for the injury or tackle. Instead, it should be adjudicated according to Sharia rulings concerning broken bones and injuries.


3. Do not follow the heretics, the Jews, the Christians and especially evil America regarding the number of players. Do not play with 11 people. Add to this number or decrease it.


4. Play in your regular clothes or your pyjamas or something like that, but not coloured shorts and numbered T-shirts, because shorts and T-shirts are not Muslim clothing. Rather, they are heretical and western clothing, so beware of imitating their fashion.


5. If you have fulfilled these conditions and intend to play soccer, play to strengthen the body in order better to struggle in the way of God on high and to prepare the body for when it is called to jihad. Soccer is not for passing time or the thrill of so-called victory.


6. Do not play in two halves. Rather, play in one half or three halves in order to completely differentiate yourselves from the heretics, the corrupted and the disobedient.


7. If neither of you beats the other, or "wins", as it is called, and neither puts the leather between the posts, do not add extra time or penalties. Instead leave the field, because winning with extra time and penalty kicks is the pinnacle of imitating heretics and international rules.


8. Young crowds should not gather to watch when you play because if you are there for the sake of sports and strengthening your bodies as you claimed, why would people watch you? You should make them join your physical fitness and jihad preparation, or you should say: "Go proselytise and seek out morally reprehensible acts in the markets and the press and leave us to our physical fitness."


9. You should spit in the face of whoever puts the ball between the posts or uprights and then runs in order to get his friends to follow him and hug him like players in America or France do, and you should punish him, for what is the relationship between celebrating, hugging and kissing and the sports that you are practising?


10. You should use two posts instead of three pieces of wood or steel that you erect in order to put the ball between them, meaning that you should remove the crossbar in order not to imitate the heretics and in order to be entirely distinct from the soccer system's despotic international rules.


11. Do not do what is called "substitution," that is, taking the place of someone who has fallen, because this is a practice of the heretics in America and elsewhere.


---Are those rules in line with what the Quran teaches? If so is it something you'd agree with?

Maybe this has been done before but I always like to know where people are from...


I'll start:


Houston, Texas


Age: 25


Male


Married with 1 newborn daughter

Greetings. Or in Texas we say, "Howdy".


I am wanting to read the Koran. I need helping figuring out if there is a specific version or translation which is more accurate when translated into English. With the Holy Bible, there are several different interpretations...some are more accurate than others when translating the original text. Are there specific publishers or versions which I should seek?


Thanks in advance.

By ALLEN G. BREED, AP National Writer


Sat Apr 1, 1:04 PM ET


Don't tell the Rev. Randall Mitchell that Hurricane Katrina somehow opened people's eyes to the depth of poverty in this nation. Americans knew the extent of the problem long before the storm, he says.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060401...ogue_on_poverty


They'd just learned to live with it.


"They've come into acceptance of it," the preacher says from the apartment he evacuated to, in Dayton, Texas, 300 miles west of New Orleans. No, rather than revealing poverty to Americans, he says, the storm "exposed ... the people who maintain it. That's all."


When Katrina struck Aug. 29, thousands of people who had not known loss suddenly knew what it was like to be homeless and jobless. To taste hunger and feel thirst. To go without medical care or even toilets.


And those who didn't experience the misery and chaos firsthand saw it in graphic detail every day and night on television. The desperate, angry masses at the Superdome and convention center. The rampant looting. The floating bodies.


With much of New Orleans still under water, President Bush stood before the stately St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square and declared the nation had "a duty to confront this poverty with bold action."


Katrina was the cataclysmic event that was supposed to launch a vigorous "national dialogue on poverty." It didn't happen, many say.


"From my perspective, it's kind of like one hand clapping," says Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. "We'd love to have a dialogue, but there needs to be someone to have a dialogue with."


Not long after Katrina struck, the Census Bureau released figures showing that the poverty rate had climbed for the fourth straight year. More than 37 million Americans live below the federal poverty level (defined as an income of $19,000 for a family of four), including 12 million children.


Five million of those children live in families that earn less than half the poverty level.


Jane Knitzer, director of the National Center for Children in Poverty, says it's not so much that Americans don't know that poverty exists. They just don't want to think about it, because it's just too hard.


"Very often people feel that there's no solution to poverty, that's it's intractable," she says. "It's a secret nobody wants to deal with."


But how big a secret, really?


Stanford University researchers Emily Ryo and David Grusky, hearing pundits insist that Katrina "unleashed a newfound commitment among the public to take on issues of poverty and inequality," decided to measure this supposed awareness-raising effect.


The researchers analyzed data from Syracuse University's Maxwell Polls on Civic Engagement and Inequality, conducted in 2004 and shortly after Katrina. Ryo and Grusky divided respondents based on their answers to detailed questions on their attitudes toward poverty. They created four basic categories: "activists," "realists," "moralists," and "deniers."


Activists, defined as those who support state intervention to reduce poverty, went from 58 percent of respondents in the 2004 survey to 60 percent post-Katrina; and there were small gains for deniers, who believe poverty and inequality are "neither substantial nor growing" (from 21 percent to 25), and for moralists, who see poverty as a motivator, not a social problem (from near zero to 1 percent).


The most dramatic gain was among so-called realists, who don't believe in the state's ability to reduce poverty or inequality; their numbers nearly doubled to 11 percent.


Interpreting the findings, Grusky, a professor of sociology, says they show a majority of people already accepted that there was a problem and were doing something about it. The rest, he says, either see poverty as an individual problem or simply don't care.


"This idea that it's a dirty little secret, this poverty and inequality," he says, "just doesn't pass muster."


News coverage could partly explain the rise in denier and realist views. Some "did not take well to the liberal lesson that they no doubt regarded as foisted upon them," Grusky and Ryo wrote in their report, and so "the `call for action' story ... was countered by the equally powerful lesson that government intervention is all about inefficiency and ineptitude."


If President Bush, faced with falling support for the war in Iraq, has had little time to address entrenched poverty, there is activity on the state and local levels, says Bruce Katz, director of the metropolitan policy program at the Brookings Institution.


A growing number of states are passing minimum wage laws and adopting their own earned income tax credits, Katz says. And a lively debate has begun in places like Fresno, Calif., which was identified in a post-Katrina Brookings report as having the highest concentration of urban poverty in the country — even ahead of New Orleans itself. (That city has formed a task force on poverty and held a series of public meetings.)


"There's very positive momentum ... on a series of initiatives that, if pursued with vigor, alleviate poverty," he says.


But Katz and others say recent federal actions to reduce funding and flexibility in public housing programs, and proposed cuts to the federal earned income credit, threaten to undermine these efforts.


"Just about anything you can think of needed to address the needs of poverty is on the chopping block," says Avis Jones-DeWeever, study director for poverty, education and social welfare programs at the Institute for Women's Policy Research.


Jones-DeWeever says Americans were too preoccupied with the war and the budget deficit to be outraged when storm evacuees were kicked out of subsidized hotel rooms. Not only do Americans have short memories and attention spans, she says, but many believe that most poor people must have something wrong with them.


"This is a huge, cataclysmic event, and it's sad to say that even that is something that hasn't maintained a push or momentum to address poverty in America," she says. "I'm not sure what it would take."


In the storm's immediate aftermath, Jones-DeWeever says she saw "some of the best media activity I'd seen in years" on poverty. "I would have liked to see that effort more sustained."


But in our 24-hour news, iPod-obsessed society, "we've been benumbed" to the suffering that confronts us every day, historian John Hope Franklin says.


"It's not so much Katrina as a phenomenon as it's Katrina as a metaphor for what our society has become," says Franklin, an emeritus professor at Duke University who has written about and participated in some of the seminal moments of the civil rights movement. "It reflects; it's a mirror of what we've become — super-extraordinarily complacent."


Foscarinis gives Bush credit for including in his budget request money to reduce chronic homelessness. In his Jackson Square speech, the president proposed the creation of a Gulf Opportunity Zone where tax relief, incentives and loans would help jump-start job creation.


"It is entrepreneurship that helps break the cycle of poverty," he said.


Jones-DeWeever and others accuse the Bush administration of using the Iraq war and the Katrina recovery effort as excuses for not addressing poverty nationally. But Foscarinis disagrees.


War or no war, the homelessness activist says, "the needs of poor people are never at the top of the agenda."


"The president made that one statement," she says of his Jackson Square call to action. "I don't think it's realistic to expect him to be the one to lead this charge. I think there has to be a lot of pressure from political leaders, and I don't see that."


For his part, Rev. Mitchell is tired of seeing people beat up on the president and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.


Disabled in a work-related accident 20 years ago, the 56-year-old preacher turned his attention to social issues in New Orleans. He says the despair in parts of his city was just as deep during the two terms of Democrat Bill Clinton, and that elected officials in New Orleans have to accept some of the blame for money wasted and opportunities squandered.


"The national dialogue has to be an honest dialogue," says Mitchell, who lives on $600 in disability payments and $65 in monthly food stamps. "We have to look at ourselves first. That's honesty."


In the seven days between the storm's arrival and his own evacuation from his ruined Uptown apartment complex, Mitchell swam through the murky waters to the Superdome, and walked the trash- and corpse-strewn streets at the now-infamous Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He sees a lot of politicians and pundits "pimping" those images for their own agendas.


He says it's time for a little less talk and a lot more action.


<b>"Talk is cheap and costs nothing,"</b> he says. <b>"And something from nothing leaves us exactly that. </b>


"Nothing."

<b>Why Are We Being Tested?</b>


Allah - the Exalted - tests His believing servants with various types of crises and disasters in order to:


<b><i>1 - Reveal the Patient from the Impatient</i></b>


<b>{"And certainly, We shall test you with a bit of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits. But give glad tidings to the patient ones who, when afflicted with a calamity, say: "Truly! To Allah we belong and truly, to Him we shall return." They are those upon whom are the blessings, descend from their Lord, and they receive His Mercy, and it is they who are guided."</b>} [al-Baqarah; 155-7]


<b>{"And among mankind is he who worships Allah as if he were upon the very edge (i.e. in doubt); if good befalls him, he is content with it;. But if a trial befalls him, he turns back on his face. He loses both this World and the Hereafter. That is the evident loss."</b>} [al-Hajj; 11]


Sayyid Qutb said:


"So, it is a must for the souls to be nurtured by way of tests, and to be severely tested during the course of the battle between truth and falsehood with fear and hardship, and with hunger and decrease in wealth and life and fruits. This testing is a necessity so that the believer can give his share of what his belief requires; so that it becomes dear to him in accordance with that he gives for its sake of sacrifice and burden; so that it becomes dear to him in accordance with what he is willing to give for its sake! The bearers of worthless beliefs that do not require any type of sacrifice will not hesitate to abandon their beliefs at the first sign of hardship. So, the burden here is the personal price that one pays so that this belief becomes dear and valuable in the hearts of its bearers before it becomes dear to the hearts of anyone else. Whenever they experience pain for its sake, and every single time they are forced to give something up for its sake, it becomes even dearer and more valuable to them, and they become even more honored with it. With this, nobody else will realize its value until they see how its bearers are tested because of it and how patient they are upon such tests." ['Fi Dhilal al-Qur'an'; 1/145]


<b><i>2 - Remove Our Sins and Reward the Righteous</i></b>


<b>{"And, when he was old enough to walk with him, he said: "O my son! I have seen in a dream that I am slaughtering you, so what do you think?" He said: "O my father! Do that which you are commanded, if Allah Wills, you will find me to be of the patient." Then, when they had both submitted, and he had laid him prostrate on his forehead, and We called out to him: "O Ibrahim! You have fulfilled the dream!" Verily! Such do We reward the good-doers."</b>} [as-Saffat; 102-7]


Sa'ad bin Abi Waqqas reported that he asked the Messenger of Allah: <i>"Which of the people are tested most severely?"</i> The Prophet replied: <b>"The Prophets, then the righteous, then those who are most like them, then those who are most like them from the people. A man is tested according to his religious commitment. So, if his religious practice is sound, then his testing is increased, and if his religious practice is weak, then his testing is reduced. A servant continues to be tested until he walks the Earth without a single sin on him."</b>


[Narrated by Ahmad (1/172) and at-Tirmidhi (2398), and it is authentic]


<b><i>3 - Purify the Ranks and Distinguish the Righteous from the Wicked</i></b>


<b>{"Allah will not leave the believers in the state in which you are now until He distinguishes the wicked from the good."</b>} [Al 'Imran; 179]


<b>{"And when the believers saw the Confederates, they said: "This is what Allah and His Messenger had promised us, and Allah and His Messenger had spoken the truth," and it only added to their faith and submissiveness."</b>} [al-Ahzab; 22]


Sayyid Qutb said:


"Allah might make easy the affairs of the people of evil so that they may increase in sin and corruption, and so that they might increase in their buildup of sins and crimes. Then, he may deal with them in this World or the Hereafter - depending on His Wisdom and Decision - on account of this sinister buildup of deeds! On the other hand, He may also prevent them from ease so that they would increase in evil and sin and crimes and suffocation, eventually losing hope in the Mercy of Allah, resulting in an increase in their buildup of evil and misguidance.


Likewise, Allah can make easy the affairs of the people of good so that they may become established in their righteous actions and carry out as much of them as they can while increasing in their sustenance, so that they may thank Him for these blessings with their hearts, tongues, and pleasant actions. With all of this, they increase in a buildup of good deeds that they rightfully deserve with Allah because of their righteousness and because of the good that Allah Knows is in their hearts. On the other hand, he may also prevent them from ease in order to observe their patience upon this state, as well as their confidence and hope in their Lord, their relaxation at the realization of His Power, their being pleased with Him as their only Lord - and He is better than all others - resulting in an increase in their buildup of good." ['Fi Dhilal al-Qur'an'; 5/291]


<b><i>4 - Emphasize the Hardships of This World in Comparison to the Hereafter</i></b>


<b>{"Blessed is He in Whose Hand is the kingdom, and He is Able to do all things. The One Who has created death and life in order to test you and see which of you is best in deed, and He is the All-Mighty, the Oft-Forgiving."</b>} [al-Mulk; 1-2]


<b><i>5 - Expose the Reality of the Human Being</i></b>


<b>{"Verily, We have created man from drops of mixed semen in order to test him, so We made him hearer, seer. Verily, We showed him the way, so he is either grateful or ungrateful."</b>} [al-Insan; 2-3]


<b>{"Verily, We have made that which is on earth as an adornment for it so that We may test them as to which of them are best in deeds."</b>} [al-Kahf; 7]


<b>{"And it is He Who has made you generations after generations, replacing each other on the earth. And He has raised you in ranks - some above others - that He may test you in that which He has bestowed on you. Surely, your Lord is Swift in retribution, and certainly He is Oft*-Forgiving, Most Merciful."</b>} [al-An'am; 165]


"A human being is tested so that he may come to know the reality of himself and others. Life consists of constant testing; testing with what is bad, or testing with what is good. However, what is best for the believer may be found in what he hates, and what is bad for him may be found in what he likes. The true believer is the one who loves that which Allah has chosen for him. So, if He tests him with something that he loves, he thanks Him, and if He tests him with that which he hates, he is patient and thanks Him in this case, as well.


And Allah - the Glorified - gives the believer in accordance with what will lead to his happiness in either this World or the next. So, if it is better for him to have something, Allah gives it to him. If it is better for him not to have something, Allah prevents him from having that thing, just as one who is sick is prevented from too much food or water.


Therefore, it is upon a person to completely submit to Allah - the Glorified - in regards to what He has chosen for him, and to be pleased with what Allah has given him, and to understand that if Allah prevents him from something, then it is because Allah wishes to save him from being tested with that thing." [Mahmud al-Atrash's 'Haqiqat al-Ibtila''; p. 44]


<i>And Allah Knows best.</i>

So how many on here saw the eclipse?


I know it passed over Turkey, but I don't know how much was seen elsewhere. I would guess it must have been partially visible in Egypt.

Bismillah


As salam alykom all


As recently a number of new non Muslim members joined our board and they all share the same inquiries. They are seeking to know the truth about Islam.


In this attempt, I will try to explain what is the essence of Islam in a nutshell.


Islam is to turn from worshiping people and things to worshiping Allah and only Allah. Don’t u often hear one saying OOO I cannt live without him/her, or how can I leave my home and sell it I just cannt? Or someone is saying OO my job the place I worked in for 7 years? Muslims must try to learn to do without anybody /thing except Allah. We learn to detach except from Allah.


We learn that those who pass away, are not eliminated. They only got rid of the envelop that is keeping them away from meeting with Allah (the body) but the soul is certainly still alive. We learn that this life is not but a transit stop before we depart taking the same plane but the destination is what we work for all our lives.


We learn that divorce should not be the station where people break. But it could be seen as the role of both parties ended in each other's life and it is time to move on. Or when people are moved decision taken to move from one floor or premise to another within the work, it would be taken as a reason to meet other people, play a different role in their lives and receive other's input, perform prayer in different locations which will testify for the person in the Day After, and more. We learn that we should not be attached or receive our value through people or things that are certainly may fade away any time leaving the person without a floor to stand on. Whereas Allah Is Capable to Provide us with a floor to stand on all the time through means that we cannt imagine.


Due to this last phrase, we should not worship anything (wealth, power, position, fame, ..etc) or one except Allah.


This is what Islam is all about.