alsalam alaikum


[img]style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif[/img] my sisters and prothers hollw and how are are you iam sudania


my name is omash life in sudan fortunately i succeeded with existence chance to meeting


very thank admin and forum and all [img]style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif[/img]


regards


omash

Bismillah,


Is it mandatory for one who newly embraces Islaam to change his or her name?



al-hamdu lillaah.


He or she is not required to change his or her name unless it embodies the worship of someone or something other then God, Allaah. However, its amelioration by choosing a new Islamic name is legitimate and encouraged. The fact that he or she would change his or her name from a pagan or non-Islamic name to an Islamic one would be considered commendable--however, it is not mandatory.


Thus, if one's name is Abdul-Messiah, for example, or similar such names, then he is obligated to change it, as the Prophet (peace upon him) had people with the names Abdul-Ka'bah and Abdul-Uzzah change their names upon accepting Islaam.


If the original name does not comprise or imply anything forbidden in Islaam, then he or she is permitted to retain it (such as the name George, for example). As noted, though, it is preferable to change it to an Islaamic name, as this also distinguishes him or her from the kuffaar.


Note that if changing one's name in official documents and records poses a great inconvenience, it would suffice to change it among the people. In this case, he or she is called by his or her new name by friends, acquaintances, and the general public, while offical documents would retain the original given name.


(http://al-sunnah.com/convert/obligation_...ng_one.htm)

Bismillah,


When a non-believer becomes Muslim, should he pronounce the two testimonies of faith, al-shahaadatain, or perform wudu' (ablution) first?


He should say al-shahaadatain first, then he should purify himself for Salat and he can perform ghusl (complete bath) because the prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) ordered some of his companions to perform it when they accepted Islam.



(http://al-sunnah.com/convert/a_person_ju..._islam.htm)

Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups are alarmed by the horrifying experience of more than 140 Palestinian children who have been detained and tortured by Israeli security bodies since the beginning of the Intifada.


Fourteen-year-old Palestinian girl Sanaa' Amer saw the many faces of injustice when she was detained, tortured and sentenced to 12 month's imprisonment for a crime she did not commit.


Amer, along with her sister Abir, were accused of carrying a knife with the intent to stab an Israeli settler at the West Bank town of Hebron. However, as Amer recalls the events of her arrest: "I was standing away from my sister at the end of the street. Suddenly she went towards a settler and the soldiers arrested her. I was talking to a journalist about what happened and a soldier came and grabbed my arm and took me to a military jeep. He hit me on my cheek with a strong blow, so strong that my ear hurt for a week." And this was just the beginning of Amer's suffering.


An international, Geneva-based human rights group, Defence For Children International/Palestine section (DCI/PS), expressed grave concern about Amer's case in a statement issued last week. DCI/PS said the sentence passed against her on 12 July by an Israeli military court was "shocking as it did not take into account her age or the fact that she did not carry out any violent act whatsoever."


The group noted the sharp contrast between the sentence meted out to Amer and that passed on 37-year-old Nahum Korman, an Israeli settler, who received six months of community service last year for the brutal slaying of 11-year-old Palestinian boy Hilmi Shawasheh in 1996. Korman was originally acquitted by an Israeli court, but prosecutors sought a retrial because the sentence was "mild."


DCI/PS also expressed grave concern over Amer's detention conditions following her arrest on 20 February 2001. According to the statement, Amer was detained in Ramle prison, where she has been subjected to severe human rights abuses including beating and harassment by prison staff. Amer was detained along with nine other female Palestinian political detainees, seven adults and two children, who suffered the same maltreatment.


During a riot by prisoners in early June to protest the inhumane detention conditions, Amer was beaten with sticks on her arms and legs. Her arms were tied behind her back and she was kicked by Israeli soldiers in her stomach, inducing her to cough up blood. As of 12 July, Amer had received no medical treatment and suffered pain whenever she ate or drank.


Amer's case, although shocking, is only one of many cases which have brought to light the plight of Palestinian minors in Israeli jails, and Israeli violations of international law concerning the treatment of juvenile Palestinian detainees.


According to Palestinian sources, more than 140 Palestinian minors have been detained and tortured in Israeli prisons on suspicion of throwing stones since the Intifada began.


An Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, issued a statement on 15 July exposing the systematic torture and abuse of Palestinian minors detained at the police station in Gush Etzion, near the West Bank town of Bethlehem. The report stated that these practices were commonly carried out there by police officers.


In most cases, police arrested Palestinian children in their homes in the middle of the night and took them to the police station in Gush Etzion, where police interrogators tortured them until the morning to obtain confessions and information about other minors.


Methods of torture described in the report included forcing the juvenile detainees to stand in painful positions for prolonged periods; beating them severely for hours at a time with various objects; splashing cold water on the detainees in the facility's courtyard in wintry conditions; pushing their heads into the toilet bowl and flushing the toilet; making death threats and cursing and degrading them.


The report also included first-hand testimonies of 10 boys, aged 14 to 17, who have experienced these horrors.


More than one policeman was involved in the torture of 14-year-old minor Mohamed Sabatin. As Sabatin recalls, "A strong, dark-skinned man of average height ... beat me with great force, kicked me for about five minutes, and put me in a room where four policemen were seated. Two of the policemen bound my hands and feet, blindfolded me, and took me into a room which I couldn't see. The four of them took turns beating me for about four hours. They struck me with a mop stick, kicked me all over my body, and swore at me in filthy language."


The fortune of 15-year-old Sultan Mahdi was no better. His hands and feet were tied to a chair. When Mahdi denied throwing stones at army vehicles on the main road, he was taken to the bathroom near the interrogation room. "One of the interrogators grabbed me by the hair and put my head in the toilet. I was frightened. When they took me back to the interrogation room, I decided to confess. I told them that I threw five stones at a settler's vehicle. They wrote up a detailed testimony and forced me to sign it," he said.


Another victim, 17-year-old Isma'il Sabatin, was left hanging in the air with his legs up and his head down. "They removed the chair from under me and left me hanging in the air, with my handcuffed hands holding onto the pipe and the weight of my body hanging in the air, drawing my hands downwards," he said.


Sixteen-year-old Ibrahim Za'ul was ready to make a false confession to save a friend from torture. "They brought me to a room," he said. "Inside was an officer who identified himself as 'Ayub'. He said he was a merciless person and was ready to kill me if I didn't tell him the name of the youths who threw stones. Another guy opened the door and said in Arabic that Ahmed A'ref Sabatin had died during interrogation. The officer turned to me and said, 'What are we going to do with the body of Ahmed? Do you want to change places with Ahmed?' I was blindfolded. The interrogator said he was going to electrocute me and that I would die like Ahmed. I felt the sensation of two iron wires being stuck on me, but nothing happened. I was taken to the room where Ahmed Sabatin was. The interrogators began to beat him right in front of me. Ahmed began to cry and scream at the top of his voice. I asked them to stop because Ahmed did not throw stones, and I told them that I was ready to confess that I threw stones."

I thought that lying was wrong... period. Our God is not a liar, in His nature, so why should or would it be okay for people to lie?


God IS truth, thus to lie is to be opposite of what God is.


But I found out that Islam Ok's lying in certain circumstances and, because of the way Islam is, it could be reasoned that lying extends BEYOND these "certain circumstances."


So, my questions are:


1) How do you justify lying in your own mind, since your religion allows for it?


and


2) How can someone such as myself, a non-Muslim, really trust what Muslims say when it is permitted for them to lie to me? How can I ever be sure that the so-called "Muslim scholars" are being truthful, when they are allowed by Islam to lie?


<i>Just one example: Living Islam</i>

As-Salaamu-Alaikum


When is zakat to be paid? Can it be paid before a specified time?


What is the Maliki position on this issue? For more detailed articles


on Islam please visit us at:


http://lamppostproductions.org


Look in our "Article" section to see Ustadh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali's


translation of a section of Ibn Qayyim Jauziyah's "Zaad al-Ma'aad"


(Provisions for the Hereafter), to address the a growing social


problem....children born out of wedlock!


Was-Salaam


Question:


My understanding is that Zakat is due on specified wealth that one


has for at least one year. That means Zakat becomes due after a year.


I used to calculate my wealth at the begining of each Ramdan and


would make an assumption that I will have that amount till the


begining of the next Ramdan, that is, for a year. I distributed the


Zakat evenly on as needed basis through out the year and what ever


balance was less, I would distribute during the Ramdan.


My reasoning being that the need does not occur just during the


month of Ramdan but is there through out the year. And If my wealth


decreases during the year, it is ok, as I would have distributed


more than that was due.


Somebody told me that i cannot do it this way. I have to wait a year


and distribute the Zakat with in 2 months of it. i am quite confused


as to why is it so, if it is so.


Ustadh Abdullah's response:


The payment of Zakah has specific conditions for its validity. Of


those conditions is for one lunar year to pass over surplus cash


before it is considered compulsory to pay due to the hadith of the


Prophet (pbuh):


"There is no Zakah in wealth until the lunar year has passed over it."


[Daraqutni]


But, both Imams Abu Hanifa and Shafi'i consider it permissible for one


to pay Zakah before it is due (Bidayat al-Mujtahid; Mukhtasar


al-Muzani) while there are 4 different narrations about Malik.


One view is that Malik considered it invalid for one to pay before it


was due (Ibn Rushd).


The other three narrations are as follows:


- It can be paid one or two days prior to due date


- It can be paid one month prior


- It can be paid two months prior


[Al-Mudawwana al-Kubra]


The standard view among Malikis is that it can be paid prior to due


date, and that it is merely makruh (disliked) for one to pay it one


month in advance.


The stipulation that a complete lunar year pass over one's wealth


before Zakah is due is one of the signs of Allah's kindness and mercy


to us in that were we obliged to calculate and distribute the Zakah at


the very beginning of the year what we possibly or likely might have


of surplus at the end, it might happen that we'll suffer enormous


hardship later in the year if some unforseen misfortune occurs that


requires that additional cash.


Yes! It is true that the need to give to the poor exists during the


entire year. And one is free to give from one's wealth at anytime


during the year to help them with their needs. However, Zakah is an


obligatory tax demanded from us only when we have the means to do so.


And it is a pillar of our faith. And the reward of it can only be


achieved when it is executed according to all of its appropriate


conditions.


As for charity, one is also rewarded immensely for that - maybe even


more, since it is done of one's free will while Zakah is a duty that


one is subject to punishment for not executing.


And I do know that Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi alludes to the possbility


of calculating and distributing his Zakah at the beginning of the year


in his book, Fiqh al-Zakah. But this view is untraditional and is


counted by scholars today as one of his errors.


And Allah knows best.


Was Salaam


Abdullah


Ustadh Abdullah bin Hamid Ali is the first American to attend and


graduate from the University of Al- Qarawiyeen's Faculty of Shariah


The focus of his study was the understanding of the science of fiqh,


Usool al-Fiqh and`Aqeedah.


He has studied under some of the top scholars of Islam including Dr


Abdullah Ghaazeewee, Professor of Usool Al-Fiqh, Sheikh Muhammad At-


Ta'weel, Muftee, Scholar, and Professor of Usool Al-Fiqh, Sheikh


Muhammad Al-Ghaazee Husainee, Grand Muftee of Morocco and Professor


of Al-Fiqh Al-Muqaaran, Sheikh Ahmad Zweetin, Professor of Fiqhul-


Hadeeth and many others!


Please visit us at: http://lamppostproductions.org for more


interesting articles by Ustadh Abdullah!

As salamu aleiykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone!


Just saying hello and that I am new to Islam this week.I have read some about Islam off and on,but just recently said the Shahada to Allah and myself and accepted Islam as my beliefs..


I am a 38 yr old caucasian male(married) that was raised in the south(USA) in a Chrisitian background though my family was not religious.There Is alot I still have to learn(Insh a Allah )so bare with me please.


hmm How do you say the parting?


Salaamu!


Kareem

http://news.ibn.net/newsframe.asp?url=http...y.asp?S=2951368


CINCINNATI -- During an idle moment before a human development class, two University of Cincinnati students struck up a conversation about the basketball team's new point guard.


They weren't interested in his statistics or accomplishments. They couldn't get past his name: Jihad Muhammad.


"I heard one person say, 'Isn't that supposed to mean holy war or something?'" said Anwar Salahuddin, a junior sitting nearby.


It wasn't the first time someone had wondered aloud about the distinctive name. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the dreadlocked point guard from New Jersey has wound up explaining himself to fans who think the worst.


"They're like, 'Ooh, Jihad,'" said Muhammad, sitting in an interview room off the Bearcats' court after practice. "It's just the name, just the word that's scaring people. They really don't have a good understanding of it."


Few know what it's like to be a high-profile Muslim player in a country where insecurity rises and falls with color-coded alerts. The NCAA doesn't keep track of religious affiliation, so there's no count of Muslim players. Only a handful play major-college basketball.


Muhammad grew up in an Islamic community and attended Plainfield High School in New Jersey. The most unusual thing about his upbringing was the size of his family _ six brothers, seven sisters. He was the youngest boy.


"Basically, you learn to share," he said. "You learn how to relate to different personalities. Before I left home, I learned how to relate to 13 personalities."


That was nothing compared to the adjustment at San Jacinto Junior College in Texas. He developed into the top-rated point guard in junior college, learning to use his speed and long-range shot to full advantage.


He also learned about culture shock. In his first year, he met one other Muslim.


"That was real difficult," he said. "It was an adjustment I had to make within myself. I had to make a lot of prayers in my room or in the hotel when we were on the road."


His play attracted the attention of Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins, who desperately needed a point guard. Huggins quickly grew fond of Muhammad and his sincerity, dedication and eagerness to do well.


"He's a great kid," Huggins said. "He wants to be a good player. He listens, he tries."


Things have been much easier off the court in Cincinnati, where Muhammad is a junior majoring in criminal justice and finding out what it's like to be a prominent player on a basketball-crazed campus.


The Bearcats won back-to-back national championships in 1961-62. Huggins revived the program in 1989 and has coached the Bearcats to a Final Four and 13 straight NCAA tournament appearances, the third-longest streak in the country.


They were talking _ and wondering _ about Muhammad long before he arrived.


"I thought, 'Wow, I've never heard of any one person who had that name before,'" said Justin Shafer, a senior accounting and finance major who attends most games and is president of the student government. "Then I started looking at his stats and what he had done in junior college.


"I think some students were skeptical at first, as I was. We're all realizing what Islam is, and we need to realize it's a peaceful religion."


Muhammad doesn't mind sharing his story.


"A lot of people sort of stray from their religion," said Salahuddin, a health promotion major from Philadelphia who has become a close friend. "He was open about it. He even told Huggins when he first got here that it was a big part of him."


About 75 students are active in the student Muslim association, former president Rasheed Shamma said. The atmosphere on campus is cordial _ only a couple of hateful comments were made on campus after the 2001 attacks.


"Immediately after 9/11, there was less openness from the community," said Shamma, a senior majoring in industrial engineering. "Overall, there's been a positive effect. People are more open to it than before."


They're also learning what Jihad means.


"It's a struggle within yourself, not from me to you," Muhammad said. "It's a struggle to overcome wrongdoing. When I can correct it, I correct it. It's frequent, but I hope it's contagious. I hope I tell one person and they tell somebody else and we can kill the disease."


His father converted to Islam in 1959 and chose his son's name as a reflection of his spiritual state at the time.


"It means struggle," Ahmad Muhammad said, from his home in New Jersey. "At the time he was born (in 1984), that signified what I was going through, the changes I was going through."


His son hasn't heard any slurs at games, but that doesn't mean prejudice is gone. At a home game early this season one Cincinnati booster yelled an ethnic slur when Valparaiso's Ali Berdiel fouled out.


As the season went along, Muhammad found himself more openly accepted. Before one game, UC students held up a sign that read, "Thank God (Allah) For Jihad."


"I liked that," Muhammad said, a smile flowing across his face. "That was a lot of love right there. It made me warm when I saw that. It made me want to come out and play harder."


NBA Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson sits courtside for his alma mater's games. He appreciates the point guard's impact.


"I don't know where they'd be without him, I really don't," Robertson said. "He's done a tremendous job. I wish he could do a lot more."


Muhammad has struggled on the court lately. His defense and jumper have been erratic, prompting Huggins to drop him from the starting lineup. Muhammad made only 22.5 percent of his shots during a four-game stretch, dropping his average to 9.8 points and 2.8 assists per game.


Robertson, who endured racial slurs and segregation while growing up, senses that the community has embraced Muhammad, his name and his tied-back dreadlocks. Now, fans are more concerned with how he performs than with what he's called.


"I don't think anyone that goes to the games has any ill will toward Jihad," Robertson said. "I think they love him. I wish he'd shoot a lot more and take it to the basket more."


___


On the Net:


http://www.ucbearcats.com/

http://www.rense.com/general63/IRAN.HTM


<b>Scott Ritter Says US Attack On Iran Set For June</b>


By Mark Jensen


United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)


2-21-5


On Friday evening in Olympia, former UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott Ritter appeared with journalist Dahr Jamail. Ritter made two shocking claims: George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and the U.S. manipulated the results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.


Scott Ritter, appearing with journalist Dahr Jamail yesterday in Washington State, dropped two shocking bombshells in a talk delivered to a packed house in Olympia's Capitol Theater. The ex-Marine turned UNSCOM weapons inspector said that George W. Bush has "signed off" on plans to bomb Iran in June 2005, and claimed the U.S. manipulated the results of the recent Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.


Olympians like to call the Capitol Theater "historic," but it's doubtful whether the eighty-year-old edifice has ever been the scene of more portentous revelations.


The principal theme of Scott Ritter's talk was Americans' duty to protect the U.S. Constitution by taking action to bring an end to the illegal war in Iraq. But in passing, the former UNSCOM weapons inspector stunned his listeners with two pronouncements. Ritter said plans for a June attack on Iran have been submitted to President George W. Bush, and that the president has approved them. He also asserted that knowledgeable sources say U.S. officials "cooked" the results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.


On Iran, Ritter said that <b>President George W. Bush has received and signed off on orders for an aerial attack on Iran planned for June 2005</b>. Its purported goal is the destruction of Iran's alleged program to develop nuclear weapons, but Ritter said neoconservatives in the administration also expected that the attack would set in motion a chain of events leading to regime change in the oil-rich nation of 70 million -- a possibility Ritter regards with the greatest skepticism.


The former Marine also said that the Jan. 30 elections, which George W. Bush has called "a turning point in the history of Iraq, a milestone in the advance of freedom," were not so free after all. Ritter said that <b>U.S. authorities in Iraq had manipulated the results in order to reduce the percentage of the vote received by the United Iraqi Alliance from 56% to 48%. </b>


Asked by UFPPC's Ted Nation about this shocker, Ritter said an official involved in the manipulation was the source, and that this would soon be reported by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in a major metropolitan magazine -- an obvious allusion to New Yorker reporter Seymour M. Hersh.


On Jan. 17, the New Yorker posted an article by Hersh entitled The Coming Wars (New Yorker, January 24-31, 2005). In it, the well-known investigative journalist claimed that for the Bush administration, "The next strategic target [is] Iran." Hersh also reported that "The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer." According to Hersh, "Defense Department civilians, under the leadership of Douglas Feith, have been working with Israeli planners and consultants to develop and refine potential nuclear, chemical-weapons, and missile targets inside Iran. . . . Strategists at the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Florida, have been asked to revise the military's war plan, providing for a maximum ground and air invasion of Iran. . . . The hawks in the Administration believe that it will soon become clear that the Europeans' negotiated approach [to Iran] cannot succeed, and that at that time the Administration will act."


Scott Ritter said that although the peace movement failed to stop the war in Iraq, it had a chance to stop the expansion of the war to other nations like Iran and Syria. He held up the specter of a day when the Iraq war might be remembered as a relatively minor event that preceded an even greater conflagration.


Scott Ritter's talk was the culmination of a long evening devoted to discussion of Iraq and U.S. foreign policy. Before Ritter spoke, Dahr Jamail narrated a slide show on Iraq focusing on Fallujah. <b>He showed more than a hundred vivid photographs taken in Iraq, mostly by himself. Many of them showed the horrific slaughter of civilians. </b>


Dahr Jamail argued that <b>U.S. mainstream media sources are complicit in the war and help sustain support for it by deliberately downplaying the truth about the devastation and death it is causing</b>.


Jamail was, until recently, one of the few unembedded journalists in Iraq and one of the only independent ones. His reports have gained a substantial following and are available online at dahrjamailiraq.com.


Friday evening's event in Olympia was sponsored by South Puget Sound Community College's Student Activities Board, Veterans for Peace, 100 Thousand and Counting, Olympia Movement for Justice & Peace, and United for Peace of Pierce County.


--


NOTE: Dahr Jamail will make three more appearances in the Puget Sound area this weekend: (1) SATURDAY, FEB. 19, 7:00 p.m., at the Kirkland Congregational Church, 106 5th Avenue, Kirkland WA. Admission $5 -- Sponsored by Evergreen Peace & Justice; (2) SUNDAY, FEB. 20, 1:00 p.m. at the Vashon Land Trust. Vashon Islanders for Peace will be hosting Dahr Jamail and Bert Sacks on the subject of Exit Strategies from Iraq. For more information, contact: Kate Hunter, 206-463-5117; (3) SUNDAY, FEB. 20, 7:30 p.m. at UW Kane Hall, Room 120. Hosted by the Interfaith Network Of Concern for the people of Iraq (INOC), the University of Washington -- Department of Communication, the Iraqi Community Center of Seattle (ICCS), and the United Nations Association, Seattle. For more information contact the Rev. Richard Gamble at Keystone United Church of Christ 206 632-6021.


--Mark Jensen is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County.

For Ayman El Zawahri


Is there any way I can get in touch with him through a person who is multilingual? Surely there are agents who browse the forums that are in the security agencies whose job it is to monitor intel. And they probally have double agents as well. I am sayinf this because I am enamored with his yogic teachings and wish to meet him to work as his secretary and speech editor and have read lots of biographies about him. I seen the December 2001 video where he visited with his cousin Khaled Al Harbi for the breaking of the fast and I knew this is a slick production. I know I should have good qualifications to expect this. As was quoted on www.sabbath.org.uk only the best will come close (regarding him) so hopefully an expert in languages who is connected could assist me in arranging for my message to be posted on an Arabic forum or go to him directly. I am aware his mother is Omayma and his brothers are Zaiman and Mohammed and his cousin Ali used to run a horse ranch in San Diego. He has a great sense of style and a mysterious aura about him, and I could make a great secretary for him. I am a great writer.


Please if anyone can assist I reach out to you to help with this endeavor. My experience includes dictational work, tutoring and I enjoy multitasking and hope to get the offer to be his personal secretary. I am great at answering phones and taking messages. My e-mail is andrea_amber1@yahoo.com


Regards


A.Somers