Practical Tips in Preparation for Ramadan (from soundvision with added links by moi)

Ramadan is an event that occurs in the life of the faithful, as individuals and as an Ummah, once a year. It is intended by Allah to help us to recharge our spiritual batteries and thus prepare us for the great mission of realizing His will on earth. Therefore, in order to benefit from Ramadan, we may do well to prepare for it by opening our hearts and minds to embrace it. Let me offer a few tips:

1. We should empower ourselves by learning as much as we can about the precise laws as well as the benefits of fasting. Fiqh of Fasting Hanafi, Basics of Fasting – Shafi’i, Maliki book on Fasting, Fiqh us Sunnah on Fasting, general

2. We should ensure that we gain true benefits from our fasting, let us make sure to realize the spirit of fasting: this can only be done by abstaining, not only from food, drink, and sex, but also by strictly restraining our minds, hearts as well as our eyes, ears, hands, tongue, and so on. Inner Dimensions of Fasting by Imam al Ghazali

3.We must embrace the spirit of fasting as stressed in Hadith: to be charitable and compassionate as much as we can. The Concept of Charity in Islam, Muslim Character by Muhammad Ghazali

4. We should strengthen our relationship with the Qur’an; for Ramadan is the month of the Qur’an. Way to the Qur’an, Ulum al Qur’an

5. We should engage in dhikr and condition ourselves to make it second nature. My page of dhikr resources

6. Last but not least, we should build up our community through acts of charity and compassion and extending help to those in need as much as we can. Agenda to Change our Condition

Let us pray that we come out of Ramadan with our faith recharged, gaining strength in our faith and commitment and relationship with Allah.
 

On the authority of Ibn ‘Umar (ra), who said: The Messenger of Allah (saws)took me by the shoulder and said:

“Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a traveler.”
[Al-Bukhari]

What does this mean to me? That this dunya is not our ultimate destination. A traveler does not make himself at home for too long at any one place along his journey. A stranger is always strange to his surroundings. If he becomes too familiar with them, he is no longer a stranger.

We are not to become too friendly with this dunya.  Doing so will distract us from our ultimate destination – Allah (swt) and Jannah, inshaAllah.

So what is my goal in this life?  To make the people around me happy?  Not if it is at the expense of my deen.  That’s my ticket to my ticket to my final destination, thank you very much.  Certainly, we are kind to those around us, but if they want us to shed aspects of our religion that displease them, be it clothing, jihad, daily prayer, eating zabiha, we can do without them.

They would love to see you deny the truth even as they have denied it, so that you should be like them. (4:89)

Allah (swt) tells us that they will never be happy with us until we are like them. So if we give up a piece of the deen here, a piece of the deen here to appease them, eventually we’ll have nothing left.

Islam is our path and reaching Allah (swt) is our goal. Is every action you take for Allah (swt)? If your actions aren’t helping you along that path, then why are you doing them?

We begin our series with the first line we find when we open our modern mushaf (granted of course that we open it from the correct direction, if it’s a right to left facing book).

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Three short words, yet they (should) permeate every facet of our daily life.  I’ve most often seen this phrase translated as “In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate,” but as it usually is with translation, these words fail to grasp the majesty, the might, the expanse of Allah (swt)’s Rahman and Rahim.

A teacher once translated this verse as “with the name of God.”  I found this translation to be incredibly useful.  It takes the phrase and makes it the key to our lives.  With the name of Allah (swt), I do this.  With the name of God, I do that.  In every action, I take it as my key to open the door.  If I wouldn’t want to open that action with the name of God, I sure as heck better not be doing that action.

In translation:

Ahamed, Syed Vickar – In the Name of Allah, the All Merciful, the Ever Merciful

Ali, Ahmed – In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful

Ali, Abdullah Yusuf – In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Arberry, A.J -In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Asad, Muhammad – In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace

Bewley, Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley -In the name of Allah, All-Merciful, Most Merciful

Cleary, Thomas -In the name of God, the Benevolent, the Merciful

Fakhry, Majid -In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Jeffery, Arthur -In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Khan, Muhammad Zafrullah -In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Ever Merciful

Saheeh International -In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful

Shakir, M.H. -In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Unal, Ali – In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate

ir-Rahman = All Merciful, most benevolent, Most Gracious, the Merciful, the Most Gracious, All-Merciful, the Benevolent, the Compassionate, the Entirely Merciful, and the Beneficent.

ir=Rahim = Ever Merciful, ever-merciful, Most Merciful, the Compassionate, the Dispenser of Grace, the Merciful, the Especially Merciful, and the All-Compassionate

In the notes: Read the rest of this entry »

As I may have mentioned in the past, I have this thing about english translations of the Qur’an.  I can’t get enough of them!  I’ve always been a person who has loved owning books.  If I did well on my report card, my mom would give me $5 to spend on a new book.  I had shelves and shelves of books, the entire Baby Sitter’s club and Sweet Valley High collections, and as I grew older, every new Star Wars novel as it was released.

When I started to explore Islam, I picked up my first Qur’an at a local new age  store, translated by M.H. Shakir.  Tangentally, it is a little odd that they would have a small section on Islam, even if most of it was devoted to sufism.  Islam is inherently the antithesis of new age spirituality.   Shortly thereafter, I acquired my second from half.com, translated by A.J. Arberry.

My book obsession had found a target – Allah (swt)’s word.

Over the years, I’d kept adding more.  Highlights include my massive Muhammad Asad and thrift store Bewley find.  I recently added a few more, including an exciting new thrift store find that I’ll be blogging about in the future inshaAllah.  My total english Qur’an collection now stands at 17.  There are a few duplicative translations in different formats, so the actual different translation count is 14, not including the ones I have downloaded from the internet.   In the order dictated by the Chicago Manual of Style as best as I remember it:

• Ahamed, Syed Vickar, trans., English Translation of the Message of the Quran. Lombard, IL:  Book of Signs Foundation, 2006.
• Ali, Ahmed, trans.,  Al-Qur’an. Princeton:  Princeton University Press, 2001.
• Ali, Abdullah Yusuf, trans., Roman Transliteration of the Holy Qur’an. Dehli: Adam Publishers & Distributors, 1996.
• Ali, Abdullah Yusuf, trans., The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an.  Beltsville, Maryland: amana publications, 2001.
• Ali, Abdullah Yusuf, trans., The Qur’an. Elmhurst, New York:  Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, Inc., 2001.
• Arberry, A.J, trans.,  The Koran Interpreted. New York:  Touchstone, 1996.
• Asad, Muhammd, trans., The Message of the Qur’an. Dubai: Oriental Press, 2003.
• Bewley, Abdalhaqq and Aisha Bewley, trans.,  The Noble Qur’an – A New Rendering of its Meaning in English. Norwich, England: Bookwork, 2005.
• Cleary, Thomas, trans., The Qur’an – A New Translation. Starlatch Press, 2004.
• Fakhry, Majid, trans., An Interpretation of the Qur’an. New York: New York University Press, 2004.
• Jeffery, Arthur, trans.,  The Koran – Selected Suras. New York: The Heritage Press, 1958.
• Khan, Muhammad Zafrulla, trans.,  The Qur’an. New York: Olive Branch Press, 2003.
• Muhsin Khan, Muhammad and Muhammad Taq-ud-Din Al-Hilali, trans., Interpretation of the Meaning of the Noble Qur’an. Riyadh: Darussalam, 2001.
• Saheeh International, trans., The Qur’an. Jeddah:  Abul-Qasim Publishing House, 1997.
• Shakir, M.H. trans.,  The Qur’an. Elmhurst, New York: Tahrike Tarshile Qur’an, Inc., 1999.
• Unal, Ali, trans., The Qur’an with Annoted Interpretation in Modern English. jSmoerset, New Jersey: Tughra Books, 2008.

In the front, you’ll notice a green Qur’an.  That’s the arabic only Qur’an AbuS gave me as a wedding present.

Now, that’s a mighty tall stack of books, doncha think?  For the most part, I don’t do much with most of them.  I’m currently attempting to read my way through by Bewley translation, and on occasion, I’ll pick up a few translations to try to get a deeper understanding of the meaning.

So what’s a girl to do with all these Qur’ans?  Why not start a blog series?  Here’s what I’m thinking – pick a selection, a short surah or a few ayat, and write out all the different translations.  That way I’m forced to read them all, forced to think about them as I type and perhaps have a conversation about them with blog readers.  Even if no one comments, I’ve still spent a considerable amount of time with Allah (swt)’s book.

inshaAllah I’ll start typing things up this weekend and will get a post published each week.  Surah al Fatiha is up first.  Let me know if you think that a whole surah is too much, especially with 14 translations.    Maybe just a single ayat would be better?  Let me know what you think.

From Sunnipath, reproduced here to clear up the formating issues.  Excerpt:

The essence of Salat comprises three basic elements. It is composed of

a) Feeling of respect, reverence and awe in the heart totally,

b) Remembrance of Allah by tongue (word),

c) Showing bodily (physical) respect and reverence to Allah at the utmost degree.

Full article below the cut

Read the rest of this entry »

If you know me in the real world and/or have followed my blog for awhile, you’ll know I’m all about making grand plans and goals.  Ramadan rolls up, ooo I’m gonna read a juz a day, pray all my prayers on time, and go to taraweeeh 3 times a week at least inshaAllah.  Two weeks into Ramadan, I’m barely able eek out the faraid, let alone any extra acts of ibadat.

Why?  Because I haven’t taken the time to invest in building a foundation for my deen.  Sh. Abdul Sattar goes into this concept in depth in his talk building a foundation.

Basically, look at a small child building a tower out of blocks.  They’ll stack one block on top of another, until it all tumbles over.  Why?  Because they have  small foundation of a single block.  Over time, they’ll learn that if they build a wider base, they’ll be able to build a taller tower.

It’s the same with ibadat and our deen.  I get all motivated after listening to a lecture, attending an event or in preparing for Ramadan.  I have a million things I want to do for Allah (swt).  But, I’ve got nothing to build on.  My preparation of shoddy and the foundation is shaky at best.

So it’s obvious what I have to do next right?  Start laying a solid foundation, so that when the time comes, be it Ramadan, or an inspiration from Allah (swt), I’ll be able to build up my deen.

I have a small foundation laid out with my fard prayers alhamdulilah.  The first step to expand it will be to add daily quran reading inshaAllah.  Nothing huge, nothing that I’ll look at it a week from now and be like, I can’t do this.  Nope, for now, it’s just 10 minutes of reading the Qur’an each day, in english. 

Wish me luck and if you want to join me in securing your foundation, leave me a note in the comments

Juz30

Check out this program, uber spiffiness.  You can set your preferences – repeat each ayah, pause after each ayah, listen to only a portion of an ayah, repeat a certain section of the surah, etc etc etc – then read and recite along with your choice of three qaris.  The default english translation isn’t my favorite, but you can install saheeh international, which I find easier to read and less distracting.

I’ve got it downloaded at home and plan to spend at least 15 minutes with it each day inshaAllah.  It’s embarrassing how little Qur’an I have memorized after being muslim for this long.

Alhamdulilah, I dug the ipod out of my book bag and plugged it in to the new computer.  Alas, that means losing everything I’d previously purchased, but at least now I can escape the news.  I still can’t give it up completely, but when a story on the economy comes up, I can fast forward right on through

So on my ipod, I have:

• The Only Word Quran application – mp3s and text files so you can listen to and read from the Qur’an
• Assorted NPR podcasts – religion, wait wait don’t tell me, shuffle, most emailed and foreign dispatches.  Of interest this time around:
  • Michael Pollan on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me
  • Juan Cole’s book defending Saudi Islam
  • Concern over Proliferation of fatwas in Egypt
•  Sh. Faraz’s podcast – search “seeker’s guidance” in itunes.
• Lectures and khutbahs by Sh. Abdul Hakim Murad

by eenisee at deviantart

Read!

I cannot read!

Read!

I cannot read!

Read!

I cannot read!

Read! In the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created,

Created man, out of a clot of congealed blood:

Read! and thy Lord is Most Bountiful,

He Who taught (the use of) the Pen,

Taught man that which he knew not . 

…for myself as much as for my readers:

Allah (swt) says in the Qur’an:

“Guard strictly As-Salawat (the prayers) especially the middle Salat.” (2:238)

Ibn Mas`ud (ra) reported: I asked the Messenger of Allah (saws): “Which act is the best?” He (saws) said, “As-Salat at their fixed times.” I asked, “What next?” He (ra) said, “Being dutiful to parents.” I asked, “What next?” He (saws) said, “Jihad in the way of Allah.” [Bukhari and Muslim]

Jabir (ra) reported: The Messenger of Allah (saws) said, “Between a man and disbelief is the abandonment of Salat.” [Muslim]

Jabiru (ra) reported: The Messenger of Allah (saws) said, “The similitude of the five Salat is like a river running at the door of one of you in which he takes a bath five times a day.” [Muslim]

Sorry to go MIA.  I’ll respond to comments soon inshaAllah.

Happy 1430/2009!  As always, I make resolutions, but perhas this year, I can actually keep them?

Dunya:

• Walk every week day during my lunch hour, if even for 15 minutes
• Do ab exercises everyday
• Lift weights 3 times a week
• Only spend $20 on eating out each month
• Learn Caribbean and Vietnamese cooking
• Show Squeaky in the HHP category at a TICA cat show.

Akhira

• Complete the 40 grand and keep on going inshaAllah
• Never leave a salat without doing x amount of dhikr
• Learn a new ayah every week
• Leave ____ sin (sorry, that one’s private)

As always, inshaAllah inshaAllah inshaAllah.

“God does not burden any human being with more than he is well able to bear: in his favour shall be whatever good he does, and against him whatever evil he does.”O our Sustainer! Take us not to task if we forget or unwittingly do wrong!”O our Sustainer! Lay not upon us a burden such as Thou didst lay upon those who lived before us! O our Sustainer! Make us not bear burdens which we have no strength to bear!

“And efface Thou our sins, and grant us forgiveness, and bestow Thy mercy upon us! Thou art our Lord Supreme: succour us, then, against people who deny the truth!”

Qur’an 2:286

Translated by Muhammad Asad

There is almost nothing quite as satisfying as a great find at a used book store.  Ok, perhaps that betrays what a boring and uneventful life I lead, but if that’s how it is, so be it.

Usually the Islam section at used bookstores are skewed heavily towards the “omg islam is evil11!!1!” genre and books that are written about Islam from an outsiders perspective.  Qur’ans are usually NJ Dawood, with the occasional AJ Arberry thrown in.

Imagine my suprise then, when I found the following books during my weekend book browse.  It was all I could do to stop myself from doing a happy dance and making sajda shukr right there in the store.  Book reviews will be forthcoming, after I finish reading inshaAllah.

When I listen to Qur’an after a period of time where I have not, I’m overwhelmed.  My gets this weird full sensation and I’m just swept up in it.  It’s like nothing else I’ve ever felt.

7:26 O CHILDREN of Adam! Indeed, We have bestowed upon you from on high [the knowledge of making] garments to cover your nakedness, and as a thing of beauty: Asad(7,17)   but the garment of God-consciousness (taqwa) is the best of all. Herein lies a message from God, so that man” Asad(7,18) might take it to heart.

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THEY WILL ASK thee about intoxicants and games of chance. Say: “In both there is great evil as well as some benefit for man; but the evil which they cause is greater than the benefit which they bring.” Quran 2:219

Sure, getting drunk can be fun.  Walk through any college campus on a Friday night and you’ll see students having tons of fun. 

Then go and talk to someone who’s had a loved one killed by alcohol.  Which is greater, the fun of the college students, or the anguish that someone was lost too soon?

The driver who killed Dawn and injured Hatem was drunk – at 11:45 a.m.  Did his benefit outweight the evil he caused?

inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’oon

to God we belong and to Him is our return

“Alif Lam. Ra. Asad(10,1) THESE ARE MESSAGES of the divine writ, full of wisdom.”  Quran 10:1 Asad(10,2)

Iqra!

The first word revealed to our beloved Prophet  was a command – iqra – to read, to recite.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, the Quran was what drew me to Islam.   I read it voraciously at first, and sought to own as many copies as I could afford.  I’m reluctant to admit, but now more often than not, my extensive Qur’an collection sits and gathers dust.  Rarely have I picked them from their place of honor on the top shelf of my religious books collection and engaged with them. 

Every once in awhile, I’ll vow that I’ll read the entire quran.  But, inevitably I’ll fail.  I’m a fast reader, and over the years, I’ve perfected a form of skim reading that allows me to get the gist of a novel or textbook without actually having to read each word.  However, this method does not translate well into Iqra or into understanding.  I’ll turn page after page, only to realize later that I have no clue what my eyes just passed over.  I’m aware of the problem and will conciously try to slow down, but the habit dies hard.  Eventually, I get frustrated and quit.

In an effort to break the slump, I’ve decided to WRITE! while I read.   Everyday, inshaAllah, I’m dedicating 20 minutes to the Qur’an.  Half of that time, I will read x number of ayat, first in the Muhammad Asad translation with commentary, then in one or 2 other translations.  I have a journal I bought specifically to become my quran diary, and in it, I’ll write about those ayat.  Questions, thoughts, reflections, how these ayat relate to my life, it just has to be something related to the verses.  The second 10 minutes will be dedicated to reading the ayat in arabic. 

I know 20 minutes isn’t a terribly long period of time.  Heck, I spend more time each night watching television.  But, I figure that if I set a larger block of time out, like an hour, that when things get busy, I’ll just shuffle quran reading time down to the bottom of the list and skip it.  By chosing a shorter period of time, it’s more managable and inshaAllah that means I will be more likely to do it every day.  

The goal then, will be to read the entire quran in english and arabic, AND to understand it.  What good is it if I skim through, and when I’m finished I gain nothing?  inshaAllah with this endevour, I’ll develop my relationship with the book and with it’s author, Allah .

Want to take this journey for yourself?  Here are some resources that may help you along the way:

• The Qur’anic Journal: why and how?
• al Tafsir
• Soundvision’s Qur’an Page
• Easy Dictionary of the Qur’an
• The Qur’an: A user’s guide

Dear readers, please share any resources you have or any thoughts on how you engage with the Qur’an, and how you seek to understand it better.

In the midst of a chaotic world, God’s words are there, solid, unchanging, to provide a firm ground upon which to stand.

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We verily created man and We know what his soul whispereth to him, and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein (50.16)

Ya Allah, be close to me today!  Provide me solice in this storm!

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/16116652.html

Odds are there’s no ‘holy war’ in Qur’an

By JEFF STRICKLER, Star Tribune

February 29, 2008

Want $1 million? All you have to do is find a reference in the Qur’an to “holy war.”

The offer is being made by Jamal Badawi, professor emeritus of management and religious studies at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His only requirement is that the reference be in the original Arabic, not an English translation of the holy Islamic text.

Is that $1 million Canadian or American? “It doesn’t matter,” Badawi said. “It can be a million Canadian, a million U.S. or even a million euro [which would be worth almost $1.5 million]. I don’t have that much money, anyway. I’ve been making the offer ever since 2001. I’ve never had a taker, and I never will.”

Badawi was in the Twin Cities a week ago as part of a continuing effort to combat negative stereotypes about Muslims and violence, especially terrorism. He said that one of the biggest misconceptions he encounters is that the Qur’an promotes war, especially against those of different faiths.

“There is nothing in the Qur’an that says you should fight someone because they are of a different religion,” he said. “Just the opposite is true. In its writings on other faith communities, it encourages dealing with them with kindness and justice.”

The only time war is mentioned is in passages saying that believers can defend themselves from attack or oppression. Asked if a Muslim who sees the West as a threat could interpret that as an endorsement of a preemptive attack, Badawi said, “Humans have an inexhaustible ability to justify the wrong they’re doing. It’s no different than a Christian who is opposed to abortion using that as justification for bombing an abortion clinic. He’s not indicative of Christians as a whole. He’s a religious extremist, and the same term applies to anyone who plants a bomb in the name of their god. … The ends do not justify the means in Islamic philosophy.”

Badawi also mentioned the news media’s misappropriation of the term “jihad,” often using it as a label for Muslim aggression.

“It means to exert maximum effort, to strive to the utmost of your ability,” he said. “It is not a synonym for war.”

 By Tariq Ramadan

Far from being a prison, or a constraint, revelation is an invitation to mankind to reconcile itself with its deepest essence, and to find there both the recognition of its limitations and the extraordinary potential of its intelligence and its imagination. To submit ourselves to the order of the Just One and of his eternity is to understand that we are free and fully authorized to reform the injustices that lie at the heart of the order or disorder of all that is temporally human.

I’d been searching for something to recommend to those interested in an introduction to the Qur’an, and now in a span of 2 days, I’ve found 2 things:  this article and Farid Esack’s The Qur’an, a user’s guide.  Awesomeness

So, I was surfing the itunes store last night looking for the Asma’u Allah (which isn’t there btw).  However, I did happen upon something a billion times better – theonlyword.   How did I not know about this before now?  It’s an mp3/notes combo of the quran for your ipod – now I can listen to AND read the Qur’an right on my ipod.  SubhanAllah, may Allah (swt) bless the creative people behind this FREE program.

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Download it here. His biography is here.

Hmmm, looks promising. InshaAllah going to test it out over the weekend.

http://itajweed.org/

Alhamdulilah, the long copy and paste nightmare is over! Courtesy of transliteration.org, I now have a word document that consists just of the Qur’an as translated by Yusuf Ali and a transliteration of the arabic into roman letters.

A common site at taraweeh prayers (at least at the masjids I go to) is for the congregants to hold little booklets containing one juz (1/30th) of the Qur’an, so that they may follow along with the imam during the prayer. Unfortunately, all the ones I’ve come across are simply in arabic, and since my arabic reading and comprehension skills are sorely lacking (one day inshaAllah!), I decided to make my own quran for taraweeh this year.

I copied and pasted the transliteration and translation from the website listed above into a word document. I plan to print it out, 3 hole punch and put it all in a large binder. Then, each night during Ramadan, I can take out one juz, stick it in a smaller binder and read from that during taraweeh. I think if I stick my backpack in front of me, during sujood I can stick the book on it so that the quran is not on the floor.

If anyone would like a copy, please leave me your email address, and I’ll email you a copy inshaAllah. It’s kind of long at 600+ pages, and not very pretty format wise, but it’s functional.

Alhamdulilah, only a month until Ramadan!

ps – It’s valid to read from a quran in the shafi’i school, so long as you don’t fidget with it too much I believe. inshaAllah will look in my fiqh books when i get home to post the specifics

This tajweed podcast looks interesting, and hopefully, promising. I did tell the husband recently that I’d like to learn at least the basics of tajweed, so inshaAllah with his help and with this podcast, I’ll be on my way.

From his blog, here’s some info about the creator of the podcast:

khaled Bouchafaa
has been teaching Quran and Tajweed for the last 20 years in various Islamic colleges and masjids. He has been authorised by the Qurra to teach this sacred knowledge of tajweed and Quran. He began his studies of Qiraat in Algeria (from Sheikh Sharati rhm who was the student of the famous Sheikh Abdul-Aziz abul Uyun as Sud and from Sheikh Ahmed Ma’but who was the student of Bakri at Tarabishi) and acquired further knowledge from eminent Scholars of Qiraat in Damascus (Sheikh Abu Sulayman az Zabibi, Sheikh Abdur Razaq al Halabi and the Imam of Jamia al Qitat Sheikh Abu Usamah Basha). In addition, he has studied with Egyptian qarris (Sheikh Hassan Marzug al Jizzi). Sheikh Khaled recites Quran with riwayat Hafs by the Shatibiyah tariq and riwayat Warsh by the Al-Azraq tariq. Currently, he is a teacher of Quran in the largest Islamic School of Australia, is a volunteer Imam and provides tajweed lessons in English and Arabic in his local area.

These are some other tajweed related sites I’m planning on looking into when I have more time:

• About Tajweed
• Tajweed.com

*skips along singing* …it’s the most wonderful time of the year…it’s the hap -happiest season of all…with those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings…when friends come to call It’s the hap – happiest season of all!

Yup, the most wonderful time of year is coming in 2 months, and I’ve already got the fever. No, not santa claus time, silly, it’s Ramadan, baby, yeah! Gotta get my goals sorted out and my stuff in order so I can make the best of the month inshaAllah.

Before Ramadan:

1. Pray all 5 fard with at least 5 minutes of dua and dhikr after.

2. Read through the Qur’an. I have an excellent arabic/english quran podcast on my ipod. The translation is the saheeh international version, which just so happens to be the same translation as my little travel zippy quran (which they apparently don’t sell anymore, much to my dismay after I’ve recommended it to several people who’ve been unable to find it). So, I can sit on the bus, listen to the arabic, and then read along with the english translation. inshaAllah my goal is to get through the end of the podcast, which is now at surah 66.

During Ramadan:

1. Pray witr every day.

2. Pray at least one taraweeh at the masjid a week. This is something I loved to do in college, but have slacked on since graduating and getting married. The husband holds the opinion that praying taraweeh at home is better than at the masjid, so he hasn’t been too enthusiastic about going. But, inshaAllah this year I’m going to make the effort to go, even if it is on my own.

3. Go to the iftar potlucks. So far, I’ve only been a moocher at the community iftars, coming on Saturday and Sunday when people volunteer to make food. But inshaAllah this year I’m going to go to the potlucks that are on Friday night. I’ve been cooking more, and I think I have a few recipes that will satisfy the diverse community at the masjid.

4. Read the entire Qur’an in arabic and english. Since my ability to read the arabic script still sucks, I will rely on my most excellent Muhammad Asad translation, that has the arabic script, roman transliteration, english translation and extensive footnotes. I figure I’ll pick out a recitation I really like, recite along with it for a page (using the transliteration), then go back, read the english translation and go over the footnotes. I figure this will take up a huge chunk of time, so I’ll have to set aside blocks and commit to it. Unfortunately, the book is too large to take on the bus, but maybe I can find just a smaller transliteration, and do the arabic listening/reciting quietly on my hour long commutes to and from work.

I’ve always had reading the entire quran as a goal, but after an initial burst of energy, I peter off. Anyone want to be my quran reading buddy? We can hold each other accountable. Since my available time varies day to day, I thought rather than say a juz a day, the goal could be 7 juz in a week, so that it would be possible to catch up/work ahead on the weekends when there is more time available.

*note, all pictures in this post are from deviantart. Click on the pics to find more from these talented artists*

Last night, I began, once again, my attempts to learn arabic. I’ve had several fits of starting and stopping over the years, starting with a semester of independent study at college, all of which I have forgotten. More recently, I went on a spree and labeled everything in our apartment in arabic. Well, it’s been a year, and I still don’t know the word for cupboard.

fisabilillah.org has a number of free books that are available to read online. And, if you right click, copy and paste each page image into a word document, the books become portable. Imagine that, knowledge you can take with you anywhere There is no copy right to any of the material in the books, so copy and paste away.

Via Seeker’s Digest

On occasion, Sunnipath will hold free live sessions for all to attend. These sessions have covered a wide range of topics, from the Qur’an to extremism in our community. Now, some of these courses (and a mawlid event) have been recorded and are available to view anytime on their website. Definately check them out when you have a chance! I hope they put some of their earlier ones online as well.

Mawlid – with Shaykh Anas Khalifah
Pride & Humility – by Shaykh Abdul-Kareem Yahya
Reality of the Spiritual Path – by Shaykh Nuh Keller
The Opening: An Explanation of Surat al-Fatiha – by Shaykh Sohail Hanif

Via Visual Dhikr:

The British Library’s online gallery of their sacred texts exhibit.

The Ma’il Qur’an is one of the very earliest Qur’ans in the world, dating back to the eighth century. Not only that, but it also probably hails from the Hijaz region of Arabia – a region which contains the holy places of Mecca and Medina, homes of the Prophet Muhammad.

Qur’an, Mecca or Medina, eighth century.

Chapter 26, al-Shu‘ara’ (The Poets), verse 183 to Chapter 27, al-Naml (The Ant), verse 3

BL Or. MS 2165, ff. 76v–77

Copyright © The British Library Board

This very rare early Hebrew Bible shows the influence of Islamic art in its decorative elements. It is named after a previous owner, Dr Moses Gaster (1856-1939), a scholar and spiritual leader of Sephardic Jews in London.

First Gaster Bible, perhaps Egypt, ninth or 10th century. Psalm 64
BL Or. MS 9879, f. 14v
Copyright © The British Library Board

The husband and I had a long and winding conversation yesterday that eventually led us to these verses in the Qur’an:

And they feed, for the love of God, the indigent, the orphan, and the captive,
(Saying),”We feed you for the sake of God alone: no reward do we desire from you, nor thanks.
We only fear a Day of distressful Wrath from the side of our Lord.”
But God will deliver them from the evil of that Day, and will shed over them a Light of Beauty and (blissful) Joy.

76:8-11

If we really loved God like we are suppose to, and we followed the letter and spirit of this verse, if we sought to help each other, as a means to express our LOVE for God, imagine the good we could do.

Surah Al Ikhlas recited 10 different ways. The last few recitations are ones I don’t know if I’ve heard before. Absolutely beautiful.

Whoever recites Surah al Ikhlas 10 times, Allah (swt) will build for him (or her) a palace in paradise (Ahmed)

My favorite translation of the Qur’an is the Muhammad Asad translation put out by the Book Foundation. SubhanAllah, it’s a gorgeous book, something that is beautiful to look at as well as to read. The translation is easy to understand, has excellent footnotes, and it has accurate transliteration in addition to the english and arabic. If you don’t have this book, put it on your list and get it!

The Book Foundation has also published a number of other books that are well worth checking into. If you don’t have the $100+ it would cost to buy them all at the moment, the Book Foundation has kindly put up the first parts of each of these books online, mashaAllah. I printed them all out yesterday and have started to read through them. They all get a thumbs up from me thus far.

The Book of Revelations, Selections and Interpretations from the Holy Qur’an, Kabir Helminski, Editor – this is the one that’s first on my list to buy. My husband is always telling me to THINK about the Qur’an, not just plow on through. He’s excellent at doing that. He’ll stop on a verse, pause for a moment, and then expound on it, going on and on and on, tying it to other verses and other subjects for as long as I’ll listen to him. This book has 256 verses from the Qur’an with interpretation afterwards. I think it would help me with the thinking and reflecting

The Book of Character, Writings on Virtue from Islamic and Other Sources by Camille Helminski – second on my list to buy. If I could chose to be a scholar of anything, I would be a scholar of adab. Somehow, I feel that most of the world’s ills are rooted in the fact that human beings treat each other like crud much of the time. We need a little more adab in this world.

The Book of Language, Exploring the Spiritual Vocabulary of Islam. Kabir Helminski, with Prince Ghazi Bin Muhammad

The Book of Nature, A Sourcebook of Spiritual Perspectives On Nature and the Environment, Camille Helminski, Editor

The Book of Essential Islam by Ali, Aisha, and Aliaa Rafea

The Fragrance of Faith, The Enlightened Heart of Islam by Jamal Rahman

The 30th part of the Qur’an by Sheikh Ali Hani. It’s such a unique recitation. I don’t know anything about different styles of recitation. Anyone know what this is called?

It has some weird popping noises that I didn’t notice when I listened online, but still, it’s beautiful, subhanAllah.

via Seeker’s Digest:

The recording of the first Course Lens live event we had last weekend, The Opening: Understanding Surah Fatiha with Shaykh Sohail Hanif, is now available. You can view it here

Predictably, I’ve made some goals to accomplish this year. In the dunya side of things, I’m eating breakfast at least 4 times a week, because, um apparently, it’s good for you. I’m also going swimming once a week, and to the gym 3 days a week. We get a deal at the local Y through our health insurance, but we have to go 12 times a month, or no deal. Thus, because I’m cheap, I’m forced to exercise or pay big $$$. Huzzah!

Slightly deen-y related, I’m in contact with the lady who runs the SplashGear website about getting some swimpants custom fit for my short stubby legs. She has been uber nice and responded to all of my questions with lengthy and informative answers. She gets an A++++ in the customer service department from me. Once I get the swimsuit and take it for spin, I’ll give a full review.

It’s been forever since I’ve gone swimming. I passed through the highest level of swim lessons our school district had to offer and passed the life guarding test at the youngest age I could take it. I wasn’t a particularly fast swimmer – I was on the swim team for one year before I figured out I was really really slow – but I could swim for hours without getting tired. I loved being in the water. Unfortunately, after I took a job as a lifeguard, I developed very strong self conscious feelings about how I looked in a swimsuit. I wasn’t fat. I was just a little on the chubby side, but all the other life guards were svelte athletes.

So, I didn’t sign up to lifeguard again. I stopped swimming. A few years passed, and I converted to Islam and after that, started wearing hijab. I attempted to go to sisters only swimming sessions, but whenever I went, no one else was there.

Hijabi geared swimwear has been popping up, and I’ve been looking for something decent. The turkish stuff looks a wee bit too much like a rain coat for me, while ahiida looks pretty good, but it’s really expensive coming from Australia. I do believe though, that I’ve come upon the perfect swimwear at the SplashGear website. I’m getting this outfit in black (I think), although I’m now wavering between that and this navy blue. Anyone have any thoughts?

Ok, totally deen-y, my goal this year is to learn all the surahs that MountHira creates tutorials for. I also have arabic on my plate again. I’ve dabbled in it before, taking a semester in college, and attempting to teach myself, but I’ve forgotten just about everything. inshaAllah husband will be helping me this time around

In addition to envisioning an Islamic Art gallery in my future house, I also have a dream to build an Islamic library that includes every english language translation of the Qur’an. I’m well on my way with Asad, Shakir, Yusuf Ali, Arberry, Khan, Saheeh International, Ahmed Ali and Cleary.

The Muhammad Asad translation is by far my favorite, partly for the translation, partly for the commentary and party for the beautiful presenation. This book is enormous, heavy and beautifully decorated. I’ve always looked longingly at the beautifully calligraphy of arabic only Qur’ans. The new Asad translation conveys a similar feel to that. Watch half.com, because they come up cheap on occasion, since CAIR has been handing them out and people reselling them to make a quick buck. Their loss is our gain.

I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve had this translation for almost 7 months and still haven’t read through it all yet. But, I finish my paralegal certificate tonight (yaay!) and inshaAllah I’m going to set asside some time every night to read it.

Some of the many Qur’an related books on my wishlist to add to my library:

Transliterated Tajweed Qur’an by A. Nooruddeen Durkee
The Majestic Qur’an
Mufti Taqi Usami’s translation and tafsir on the Qur’an
Illuminated Discourses on the Holy Qur’an
Qur’an Made Easy

I was gifted with a beautiful iPod nano in honor of the completion of my paralegal certification, forthcoming in 2 weeks. This has opened up a whole new segment of the online ummah to me – podcasting. In addition to traditional islamic downloads like the Qur’an and lectures in mp3 format, several ingenius brothers and sisters have created excellent weekly/occasional audio files available for download on a variety of subjects. I’ve stuffed my 2 gig beauty full to the gills, and still have more lectures and quran waiting in iTunes.

Currently on my iPod:

The Qur’an – I’ve got probably 15 full recitations of the Qur’an by different people on cd. Choosing at random, I’ve uploaded Zaki Daghistani. I think I may upload Abdul Baset next, but I’m not sure.

Qur’an Weekly Podcast – A portion of the Qur’an made available each week for download, with arabic and english recitations. Perfect for the non arabic speaking muslim on the go.

Mecca One Radio – recordings of an excellent muslim radio show out in California. Their website has the programs available to listen to online.

Somewhat on a tangent, they used to sell awesome iPod parody shirts. I never got a chance to order one. *sigh* One of their designs is at the beginning of this post. Scroll through the gallery at deenport for a thumbnails of 2 others.

AlHambra Productions – from the folks at Zaytuna Institute. These guys always have something brilliant to say subhanAllah.

Radical Middle Way – Search for it on iTunes. If youre not lucky enough to live in England so that you can hear these amazing talks in person, they’re also available on their website.

Waiting to go on my iPod:

ADAMS Qurtaba Institute
Ihsan
altMuslim

Any suggestions for other good islam related podcasts? Since I’ve gotten my iPod, my commute to work (one hour each way) and and my workday have seemed much more fruitful. Stressed? Plug in the headphones and there’s the quran, at my fingertips.

I ordered my first Qur’an, an A.J. Arberry translation, from Half.com in the summer of 2001. But, I got impatient, and rather than wait for it to arrive, I went out and bought a Shakir translation from the local new age store, hehe. Both Qur’ans still reside on the top shelf of my religious books bookcase, along with nearly a dozen other Qur’ans I’ve aquired over the years.