http://news.ibn.net/newsframe.asp?url=http...glish/?id=12318


God's invisible hand’ saved Indonesia’s mosques


Indonesia's indestructible mosques defy colossal forces of tsunami under ‘God's invisible hand’.


By Victor Tjahjadi - BANDA ACEH, Indonesia


In Indonesia's tsunami wastelands on the northern tip of Sumatra island, little remains of whole towns lost to the colossal forces that came thundering in from the ocean.


But across these battered shores, dozens of mosques still stand, their minarets glinting defiantly in the sun - a phenomenon survivors in the deeply Islamic region credit as much to divine intervention as robust architecture.


"God's invisible hands prevents the mosque's destruction," said Mukhlis Khaeran, who saw the sea sweep away his home village of Baet outside the north Sumatran city of Banda Aceh, but leave the neighbourhood mosque relatively intact.


"He punishes us for our greed and arrogance but He will protect his house," Khaeran said, his arms covered with injuries sustained in the disaster that killed at least 100,000 people around the north Sumatran province of Aceh.


Mosques are an everyday sight in most of Indonesia, but especially in Aceh, credited with the being one of Islam's main gateways into the archipelago of islands which now forms the world's largest Muslim-populated country.


Despite a long-lasting independence struggle, Aceh, parts of which are under traditional Islamic sharia law, has remained a Muslim heartland for Indonesia, which mostly practices a very relaxed interpretation of the faith.


Spiritual beliefs in Aceh and around the Indian Ocean were tested to the limit on December 26 when an epic earthquake sent towers of water crashing ashore, obliterating virtually everything in their path.


But while some spoke of "God's wrath", hundreds turned to their mosques, in panic for shelter from the advancing tides and later for spiritual comfort in a time of desperate need.


In the village of Kaju, also outside Banda Aceh, hundreds of homes were annihilated while the local mosque suffered only a few cracks in the walls.


"There is a saying among Acehnese that a mosque is God's house and no one can destroy it but God Himself," said Ismail Ishak, 42, who was digging rubble from his crumbled house while searching for seven of his relatives.


In Pasi Lhok, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of the north Aceh town of Sigli, 100 frightened people sheltering inside their mosque were spared while almost every house in the surrounding five villages was pulverised, according to chief cleric Teungku Kaoy Ali.


In Meubolah, a town on Aceh's western coast less than 150 kilometres (95 miles) from the quake epicentre which bore the full force of the tsunami, leaving at least 10,000 dead, mosques stand sentinel over a vanished town centre.


Banda Aceh resident Achyar said when he saw the waves pounding in from the sea, his first instinct was to turn and run for the nearest mosque.


"I climbed the mosque tower and hung on to an electric wire until water receded," he said. "Many of my friends, many of them ethnic Chinese, died because they climbed to the second floor of their shops and were trapped there," he said.


Another, less divine, explanation for the survival of the mosques is that many are built much more sturdily than most of the other structures in the towns and cities of Aceh.


However one mosque in Sigli was made only of wood but still survived unscathed despite all the other buildings around it being destroyed.


Banda Aceh's grand Baiturrahman mosque suffered partial damage from the quake and tsunami, but proved invaluable to the city's survivors in the minutes, hours and days that followed the cataclysm.


For many it became a rallying place to search for missing friends or relatives, a makeshift hospital to treat the injured and a morgue to collect the dead.


With much of Banda Aceh likely to remain in ruins for months, residents were quick to repay their debt to their cherished religious buildings, working swiftly to ensure the Baiturrahman mosque was one of the first places restored.


On Sunday, some 300 survivors gathered for their first prayers since their five-times daily ritual was halted - a major step on the long road back to normality in Aceh.

Assalamu'alaykum....


sorry i can't frequent this forum anymore. now i'm really busy. i need some help from my brothers and sisters here.


1) if there's a new Web Application on Holy Qur'an, how would you like it to be? what are the contents that should be in there (i.e. recitation downloads, Q&A, Asbaab an-Nuzul etc.)


2) do you know any link where i can get the translation of Holy Qur'an in any language, as many language as possible, provided that the source is reliable
.


please send your reply to:


lifutushi@yahoo.co.uk


jazakumullahi khairan katheeran...


Assalamu'alaykum...

For all their differences, Israeli, Palestinian secularists and Americans consider the Islamic Resistance Movement an obstacle to their vested interests. This major Islamic resistance group’s name in Arabic is Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya, nicknamed Hamas.


Unlike the secular Palestinian Authority, which is trying to negotiate a ‘Bantu-state’ on the 20 percent of Muslim Palestine, the religion-based Hamas wants to liberate all of Palestine, not just the Occupied Territories. It considers Palestine to be a waqf (holy inheritance) and the presence of Zionists therein is an affront to Allah.


"The question of the liberation of Palestine is bound to three circles: the Palestinian circle, the Arab circle and the Islamic circle. Each of these circles has its role in the struggle against Zionism" (Art. 14).


To wage the struggle, Hamas encourages individual Muslims to join the jihad (struggle). Tactics include martyr bombings against Zionists and opposition to moderate Palestinians, like those of Yasser Arafat’s al-Fatah group, who want to negotiate a separate peace (piece?) with Israel.


Hamas militant resistance and absolute hostility toward Israel have caused the pro-Zionist mass-media to depict it along with the Hezbollah, al-Aqsa Martyrs, Brigade and Islamic Jihad as terrorist. Although this caricature is understandable, it is not accurate because it begs the questions of who is a terrorist and whether negotiations serve the Native Palestinian interest.


Despite scores of conferences, summits, resolutions and official statements, Israel still occupies Palestine, and Palestinians must endure humiliations and privations that beg allusion to the Nazis treatment of Jooooz, Gypsies, etc..


An examination of the historical records prove that Hamas is a legitimate resistance movement, and a more honourable champion of Palestinian rights than the Palestinian Authority.

Dr. Arnold Toynbee said: “Since the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe, over five centuries ago, the West has destroyed 16 civilizations out of 26. “


In other words, instead of ushering in peace, justice, solidarity and friendly co-operations, it produced massive wars, carpet bombing, weapons of mass destruction, and practiced double standards about democracy, individual freedom, and equality of races and genders in the eyes of law. To its long list of victims of invasions, Palestine, Chechnya, Iraq and Palestine are the latest additions.


The western intellectuals and most of its leaders know full well that the only source which can provide peace, stability, brotherhood, solidarity, and mutual understanding throughout the world is Islam. The other world religions – Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity and Judaism have been fossilized by the western secular onslaught and is easily assimilated into the pagan and secular western culture – whereas Islam rejects assimilation outright.


The western intellectuals and politicians are aware that Islamic Shari’ah can still provide real answers to the present-day global problems because unlike secularism that limits the human life to this world, Islam is not exclusivist. Islam is inclusivist in the sense that it is the only universal religion that accepts all the revealed truth from the first man Adam to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Furthermore, Islam is the only universal religion that produced genuine multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-national civilizations – such as, Muslim Spain, Mughal Hindustan, Muslim Palestine, etc., etc.

I can't belive how impossible it is to actually find any that work. I've searched through three pages of Google putting in "Islamic Screensavers" or "Quran screensavers" None of the links work, those that do the downloaded program doesn't work. So, does anyone have working on their PC right now an Islamic Screesaver, one with Quranic verses is what i'm looking for and it must work on <b>windows 2000</b>. If you have one working right now on your pc and <b>you're running windows 2000</b>. Can you please send me the link to where you got it from,


Jazakallahu khayran

Some 2 million Muslims from all over the world are converging on the Haramain to perform the Hajj, the assembly of the united Ummah that is also the greatest act of personal ibadah that any Muslim can perform. The Muslims that come to perform the Hajj come from every part of the world and from all sectors of the Ummah, to stand together in the same simple clothes, resembling the shroud in which we will one day be buried, standing equal before the Creator regardless of their wealth, power and social standing, and praying for forgiveness for their past deeds and errors. At least, that is how the Hajj is supposed to be.


The reality, unfortunately, is often all too different. For one thing, there is now little opportunity for Muslims from around the world to meet and mingle as a single Ummah, as the organization of the Hajj keeps them apart and they are encouraged to arrive as late as possible and leave as quickly as possible after the Hajj. While many Muslims make huge sacrifices to come to perform the Hajj, for other it is like a luxury holiday, as they use their wealth to purchase facilities and indulgences that separate them from the bulk of the Ummah, who are all too often exploited and abused by local officials, guides and tradesmen whose greatest honour should be to assist them. The fact that many of these hujjaj see these hardships as part of the test of the Hajj, and do not allow them to spoil what remains a remarkable spiritual journey for them, does not change the fact that the Hajj is routinely hugely mismanaged by the Saudi authorities responsible for it.


Even more serious than this is the fact that, under Saudi management, huge parts of the Hajj have been abandoned and virtually forgotten. The symbolism of the journey from Makkah to Mina and Arafat, as the march of the great army of Islam, has been largely replaced by personal religiosity. When Muslims gather stones at Muzdalifah and fling them at the shaitans at Mina, the stones represent the weapons of the Islamic armies, being wielded against the three jamarat, which represent not only Shaitan in the abstract but the shaitans in the world today. Also largely forgotten, linked to this, is the Qur’anic command that Muslims must proclaim their dissocaition from the mushrikeen at the time of Hajj (al-Qur’an 9:3). This is a command that had huge significance when it was revealed in the ninth year of the Hijrah, and is just as significant in the modern world that is dominated by the powers of kufr and their puppets in the Muslim world.


It is hardly surprising that the current Saudi regime prefers that these elements of the Hajj be forgotten. But they should know, as all Muslims should, that the Ummah awaits the day when, insha’Allah, the Hijaz is liberated and the Hajj can insha’Allah be performed properly, as it should be and as it was in the days of the Prophet, may the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him. (Muslimedia)

<b>"Rasulullah (SAW) explained: </b>If one of you were to be stabbed in the head with a piece of iron it would be better for him than if he were to touch a woman whom it is not permissible for him to touch." <b>(Reported by al-Tabaraani; see also Saheeh al-Jaami, 5045). </b>


This refers to the punishment for touching, so how about worse deeds, such as embracing and kissing, and even worse kinds of illicit activity?


<b>Rasulullah (SAW) said</b>, "Whenever a man is alone with a woman the Devil makes a third." (Al-Tirmidhi 3118, Narrated Umar ibn al-Khattab, Tirmidhi transmitted it as authentic) note:


So we should always try not to be alone with a woman who is not mahrAm to us and not even go close to Zina. The Same goes for us Sisters.


<b>Imaam al-Qurtubi (may Allah have mercy on him) said</b>: The ulama said that the phrase And come not near to unlawful sexual intercourse is more eloquent than merely saying Do not commit zinaa, because the meaning is, Do not even come close to zinaa. This means not doing any deed that may get close to zinaa or lead to it, such as being alone with a member of the opposite sex, touching, looking, going to evil places, speaking in a haraam manner to a woman to whom one is not related, thinking about and planning immoral acts, and so on.


<b>Touching a Strange Woman with Lust</b>


It has been reported that the person who touches a strange woman with lust, on the day of resurrection his hands
will be shackled to his neck. If he kissed
her, his lips will be cut off and thrown in the fire of Jahannum. If he committed adultery then his thighs
will bear witness to it and testify against him on the Day of Qiyâmat. It will say to him, "I was mounted for something impermissible." Allâh will look at him with anger. The flesh of his face will fall off and he will proclaim "What did I do?" His tongue will testify and say, "I spoke to whom it was not permissible for you to talk to." His legs will testify, "I walked towards something unlawful." His hands will testify "I held something which was prohibited for you." His eyes will testify "I gazed at unlawful things." His private parts will testify "I committed the act." An angel will say, "I heard it" while another will say, "I’ve written it down." Allâh will say "I was aware of it and I concealed it." Then Allâh will say to the angels "Let him taste of my punishment. My anger has increased on one who has no shame." (Kitâb-ul-Kaba’ir)


<b>Anas (RA) reports that Nabî (SAW) said:</b> "Imân is a garb with which Allâh clothes whomsoever he wishes. If a person commits adultery this garb is snatched away and if he repents it is again returned" (Kitâb-ul-Kabair).


<b>Rasûlullah said:</b> "…adultery of the <b>eyes </b>is when it looks at that which is Harâm; adultery of the <b>ears </b>is when it listens to that which is Harâm; adultery of the <b>tongue</b> is when it utters Harâm; adultery of the <b>hands</b> is when it touches Harâm; adultery of the <b>feet </b>is when it walks towards Harâm; adultery of the <b>heart</b> is when it desires and hopes for that which is Harâm; adultery of the <b>private parts </b> is when it succumbs to that which is Harâm." (Targhib wa Tarhî B )


From the above Hadîth it is clear and apparent that Islam forbids not only the act of adultery but all acts that invite and encourage the act of zina. Islam <b>shuts </b>the door to the root of every evil.

The old and new Muslims in the West represent a change that some narrow-minded and bigoted Jews and Christians view with certain irrational fear. Phobia and ethno-centric arrogance were two sides of the same coin. If Muslims were not toeing and imitating post-Christian and post-modern cultural norms, then they were threat to Judeo-Christian western civilization. Perhaps, there was also a subconscious sense of envy or inferiority that while they had long given up their common Abrahamic habits and culture of modesty and dignity, why should Muslims be sticking to theirs. This stark contrast served also, in a way, to saying to them that ‘the emperor had no clothes’.


This may probably hurt, but if it does, the best way to alleviate any such feeling of injury is simply to get ‘dressed up’ instead of blaming Muslim for not ‘modernizing’.

Asalamalaykum


Share your experiences and adventures of all the unusual and Strange places that you have prayed your salat. Please tell us about it , I always enjoy listening to such stories sometimes some of them are really amusing, like one Brother was telling my brother one time when it was time to pray azr he decided to pray salat in a corner in a busy parkinglot and suddenly this man came padding his shoulder asking him, what are you doing? Are you alright? And he was feeling disturbed asking Allah from his heart " please send him away". "Leave me alone please" "Just go". When he finished his salat, he explained to him what he was doing.lol


I have a few strange places I have made salat, will share too.


And now that we're at it I'd like to ask a question (I just didn't feel like starting a whole new thread solely for this question).


Can a woman pray in a public place when its time to pray salat? Keeping in mind that Allah dislikes the one who delays his/her salats.


Jezekelah khayr in Advcance

http://www.rense.com/general61/aalw.htm


Allawi 'National Guard'


Captain Speaks


Interview With Allawi 'National Guard'


Captain Who Fled Fallujah


By Muhammad Abu Nasr


Free Arab Voice


1-1-5


The correspondent of Mafkarat al-Islam in Baghdad met with Captain 'Abu Hasan' of the Madinat ath-Thawrah area in the Iraqi capital, a man who took part as an officer in the Allawi 'national guard' in the US offensive on Fallujah. Captain Abu Hasan was involved in the fighting just days ago as the commander of a detachment that fled from inside one of the northern neighborhoods of the defiant city.


Mafkarat al-Islam: Why did you flee from Fallujah?


Abu Hasan: I think that is a very hard word. But my withdrawal together with my comrades in arms was simply rationality itself. When I saw that the most powerful army on earth was running away like dogs, and I saw the armed men of the people of Fallujah and their allies shooting at us from everywhere, we get an idea of what the Resistance means. It seemed to me as if my comrades in arms and I were like little flies lighting on the head of a camel.


When the Americans hear the Mujahideen cries of 'Allahu akbar!' [God is greatest!] and 'Labbayk Allahumma, Labbayk!' they shiver with fear even before they get to them, from 300 meters away. Let me tell you something. Sometimes I used to rejoice within myself when I saw the Mujahideen butchering and killing lots of them [the Americans], because there's nobody who prefers an American over an Iraqi or an Arab Muslim.


Before you ask me why I volunteered for the 'national guard' let me tell you it was for the monetary compensation. I have a big family. But I am remorseful now, having seen what I saw in Fallujah, for the Mujahideen were not alone. We had to fight everything there from the stray black dogs - I guess you heard about that - to the sounds of the call to prayer and 'Allahu akbar!' By God, those are the equal of a thousand fighters.


Brother, they [the Americans] don't know Arabic. The don't know the meaning of the words uttered by the armed fighters. But as soon as they hear the sounds, their bodies shake with fear and they come to us and ask us what they mean, and we tell them, "It's the Qur,an," or "it's the words of Muhammad, our Prophet." And they come back with, "No, it's some kind of magic. You Arabs are famous for your magic."


Even when they capture one of the fighters, they're afraid to go near him even though he's unarmed. They tell us to go up to him. I tell you, I never used to say my prayers, but now, after feeling the fear that those words aroused in me and which I still keep hearing, I have started to pray. And I'm remorseful for fighting against the Mujahideen, because I'm convinced that God will punish me for that. The infidels had brainwashed us.


Mafkarat al-Islam: Is there anything you would like to tell us that the media have not reported but that you and your comrades in arms witnessed?


Abu Hasan: Until the last day when I left, the US military were bringing in priests and other Christian clergymen and even Jewish ones to give sermons and reassurances for their troops, because five Americans used their weapons to commit suicide after they went crazy or hysterical. Every night I would challenge them, I would challenge them a thousand times to remember that every night they would find ten or fifteen of their soldiers butchered. There was an American woman correspondent, who tried to report that news, but the US intelligence officers led her away and I don't know what became of her.


Mafkarat al-Islam: So they are suffering heavy losses, isn't that so?


Abu Hasan: Yes. They evacuate on average between 150 and 220 dead and wounded soldiers every day, and 80 percent of them are dead.


Mafkarat al-Islam: Can you tell us where you were in Fallujah and with what unit?


Abu Hasan: Sorry, I cannot. I have put my trust in you so don't make me have to back out.


Mafkarat al-Islam: What advice would you give to your comrades in arms in Fallujah?


Abu Hasan: To get out of Fallujah, because God is watching what we do. By God, all the money that I got in my monthly salary in the 'national guard' went to the doctor or nothing. I started to get lots of physical problems from where, I don't know. All my children are sick, now. I think it's God's punishment.


By God, if I thought they would accept me as one of them, I would go and fight with those armed Mujahideen but I'm a Shi'a and they are Sunni, although I don't think they would disappoint me.