About chain letters

About ten years ago i read a hilarious rant by someone railing against email chains. I found it again today, and if you can stand some bad language and have a sense of humour, click here to read it (its the one at the top of the page, but the ones further down are equally funny).

Arsenal top 10 goals

Arsenal.com have a collection of 50 of Arsenal’s greatest goals asking viewers to decide on their top 10. The collection brings back some wonderful memories, Rocastle, Wright, Thomas, Bergkamp… Every great goal that i can think of in the past two decades is in there, except for one: Henry’s last minute goal at the Emirates against Man Utd a couple of seasons ago. I don’t think it would have been anywhere in the top 10 but a 93rd minute winner against Man Utd brings back great feelings.

The video used to be on YouTube but i can’t find it now …

Mosque Finder

I’ve been working on a project that had been in my mind for about a year before i got round to starting it.

Its a website that integrates the locations of masajid in the Western hemisphere (Australia included) with Google Maps. You can visit it by clicking on the following link:

http://www.mosque-finder.com

There are a couple of other websites out there that perform similar functions, but i want mine to be the most comprehensive there is, and Allah tells Muslims to race & vie with each other to attain Paradise.

At the time of writing i have over 1800 mosques listed on the site. What i really need now is for people to visit the site, find their local mosque and fill in the “update mosque info” page with details of their local masjid’s facilities, and preferably a photo too.

Fan making too much noise

For a while now the fan on my computer had been making loud noises within 5 minutes of the computer being switched on. This made it really difficult working late at night as the loud hum emanating from the computer would disturb my kids sleeping in the next room.

I did a quick search on the internet as to how to stop this, and the solutions i found ranged from resetting fan speed in bios, or download special software to control the speed, or simply to buy another one.

So yesterday i popped the cover off my PC, stuck the nozzle end of my vaccuum cleaner inside it, cleaned out a mountain of dust (using a cotton bud to loosen some around the fan) and hey presto the problem is gone.

Sky points to Mecca

When i’m out and about in London, and its time to pray without a mosque in sight, i’ve found a simple way to work out the direction of the Qibla. All i need to do is to look for a Sky satellite dish: the direction it faces is generally a very good indication of the direction of the Qibla. I checked this in East and Central parts of London and it holds true. If there are people from other parts of London reading this blog i’d appreciate it if you could confirm whether the same holds true for you too. And likewise people in other cities in the UK.

Shaking hands

I found an old article by Ed Husain on the City Circle site in which he says there is no real problem for men to shake hands with non-mahram women. He goes on to indicate that perhaps there might not even be a problem with exchanging a peck on the cheek, because, he argues, such gestures are social interactions, not sexual interactions.

For proof he cites a fatwa issued by Abdullah bin Bayyah. Unfortunately for Ed, someone produces the fatwa in the comments section in its original Arabic with a correct translation showing that bin Bayyah supports no such position.

Bin Bayyah basically says that the Hanafis allow shaking the hand of an old woman, but it might also be ok if refusing to shake hands will cause offence as long as shaking hands won’t be a fitna to the two people, nor if the woman you shake hands with is attractive.

Now if you follow this fatwa what would you do if you met two women at a work meeting, one of whom was attractive, and the other one not-so-attractive and they both knew of this fatwa…

Non-scholars for dollars

When i was at college i used to hear Ed Husain regularly insult Muslim scholars in the Middle East because of their ties to their governments, accusing them of not being impartial and towing the government line in their fatwas.

I think its a valid point, and you can’t deny that there could be a conflict of interest in such circumstances. However, to go around like he used to, naming specific clerics, accusing them of being “scholars for dollars” without presenting any real evidence was clearly silly.

So it was with much amusement that i read the following article in the Times last week:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5549138.ece

The brother(s) over at the Traditional Islam blog have done an excellent job of tracking Ed’s activities and I’ll let readers judge for themselves whether Ed is truly working independently, or whether he has  become one of those “scholars for dollars” that he used to accuse others of being a decade ago. (Though obviously Ed is no scholar).

UPDATE: I’ve removed the reference to Dilwar Hussain since – as Yusuf points out in the comments – he is not a contributor to Muslims Against Shari’ah as was mistakenly assumed.

Most religious leaders preach peace…

But don’t include the former chief rabbi of Israel Mordechai Eliyahu with them. In fact, he advocates the carpet bombing of men, women and children in Gaza:

“Eliyahu ruled that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings.”

Yes, that is every bit as hideous as it sounds. And perhaps even embarrassing for those who attach themselves to him. But then perhaps not. His son, another chief rabbi of sorts, clarified his father’s statement:

“If they don’t stop after we kill 100, then we must kill a thousand,” said Shmuel Eliyahu. “And if they do not stop after 1,000 then we must kill 10,000. If they still don’t stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop.”

The only excuse you could present for this old goat Eliyahu is that he is a very old man, hospitalised recently, and has perhaps lost his mind.

Here is an excellent piece by a HAMAS spokesman addressing the issue of who REALLY broke the ceasefire. I think the most significant point he raises to blow apart Israel’s claims that they have been the ones excising restraint during the ceasefire is as follows:

“No rockets have ever been fired from the West Bank. But 50 died and hundreds more were injured there last year at Israel’s hands, while its expansionism proceeded relentlessly.”

For the full article click here.

Pacifying those who are already sleeping

I was sent this link to a post discussing the reaction of Muslims to yet another publication that slanders the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Unfortunately, its another one of those apologetic-type posts that belittles other Muslims for taking an orthodox stance on an important issue, and its very similar to this posting on Muslim Matters.

The problem i see with posts like these is that the authors in their desire to have Muslims seem so super-duper civil start introducing dangerous concepts into their writings. The first author implies that playing politics is sometimes more important than following hadith:

Let me stop you in your tracks before you say “fear Allah brother, the hadith says we should x , y and z.” This is the type of simplistic reasoning in political Islam is the thorn in the side of the Muslims…

And the second author advocates that there is a limit to loving the Prophet:

Before anyone jumps me, I’d like to say that YES, loving and protecting the honour and reputation of the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) is something we should do even before loving and protecting our ownselves… but there’s a limit to everything.

Now thats not something i’ve heard before, and i think it goes against the fitra of being a Muslim; if you were to now go to any Muslim and ask him if there should be a limit to loving Rasulullah, what reply do you think you’re going to get?

Despite accusing others of simplistic reasoning, unfortunately, it is these authors themselves who employ a very simplistic type of reasoning and forget something that every little boy learns in the playground: when you let someone bully you and insult you, it won’t stop until you stand up and do something about it. At least on MM some brothers argued against these authors such as Abu Ilyas who wrote:

Besides, when does it ever work in life that an oppressor stops oppression because he is ignored? This is totally against human experience. This strategy of not giving them any attention is not right. Nobody respects weakness. It simply emboldens them.No hostile Kaafir will ever care if you ignore him, they are determined enemies.

And the question that comes to my mind is that if authors such as these believe that an insult to the Prophet is not good enough reason for Muslims to stand up and do something, then what event is good enough?

Link: The dust will never settle – a lecture by Anwar al-Awlaki discussing the rise in slander and defamation of the Prophet Muhammad (Right click and select “Save Target As…”)

Ibn al-Qayyim’s treasure chest

A couple of months ago a brother recommended that i read a section of ad-Daa wad-Dawa by Ibn al-Qayyim. Its a book thats been lying on my shelf for ages and i hadn’t got round to reading it before. Anyhow today i thought i’d have a quick flick through it and boy was it amazing. The feeling i had when briefly reading through different sections was like as if i had just opened a treasure chest and was picking through different jewels and examining one after the other.

I wonder if anyone has done a translation of it? Because if they haven’t, i’d like to translate bits from this marvellous book and share them with you.

Changing topic completely, i went to see Arsenal v Real Madrid two weeks ago and it was the first time i’d gone to see the Gunners. And while i enjoyed the match i was rueing the fact that i’d never bothered to go and watch Arsenal in the years when we had Henry & Pires. It must have been awesome to see the blistering pace & skill of Messrs Henry, Bergkamp & Pires up close.

Sad, sad, sad… but here is a 93rd minute clip to cheer anyone up…