He is back

After closing down his previous blog, Omair is back with a new blog.

http://omairquadri.blogspot.com/

Welcome back Omair!

Hammadi words

1. You cant always ask why; but you do need to know when to ask why

2. Part of learning is learning what not to learn

3. The vision of your perfection is another one of your own imperfections

4. Look at the mirror before you look out of the window.

5. Love is a 2 way street; if traffic flows only one way, the street eventually closes down

Songs of Innocence

A lovely Nasheed:

And I sing my songs of innocence
To you my precious child as you lay on your bed
With your sleepy eyes and your heavy head
Rest and dream in peace till morning comes again....

Watch below:

Ramadan Mubarek--

Ramadan Mubarek to everyone.

Here is a good reminder from Imam Zaid in his Ramadan Mubarek message ( Click here to read)

Imam Zaid Shakir: One Faith, Many Voices

Taken from Q-news website. A lecture delivered earlier this year by Imam Zaid who really hits home on what our priorities as Muslims should be and how we should treat each other ( Muslims and Humanity).

Click Here to Listen

Clean hands, Pure heart ( Wudu anyone?)

Scholars say we should always try to keep our wadu and renew it right after it is broken.

Perhaps research agrees with that principle too. Here are findings from an interesting research study:

You don't have to take it from Pontius Pilate or Lady Macbeth. Guilty minds may really send people scurrying for the soap dish, a new study shows.

The study, published in Science, found that people who recall acting unethically are more drawn to cleansing products than those who remember behaving ethically.

Chen-Bo Zhong, who works for the Rotman School of Management at Canada's University of Toronto, and Katie Liljenquist, a graduate student at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, did the research.

"Daily hygiene routines such as washing hands, as simple and benign as they might seem, can deliver a powerful antidote to threatened morality, enabling people to truly wash away their sins," the researchers write.

They call the phenomenon the "Macbeth effect," after Lady Macbeth, who plotted King Duncan's murder in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth.

"Lady Macbeth's desperate obsession with trying to wash away her bloodied conscience while crying, 'Out, damned spot! Out, I say,' may not have been entirely in vain," the researchers write.

Silence: The Sunnah

A good article in the Christian Scinece Monitor about silence:

In this era of audio abundance, with myriad opportunities to sound off about the latest controversy, cultural crisis, or political provocation, it's important to remember that no law says we're all required to have an opinion about every issue churning through the current news cycle.

And it says in the Quran:

"Do not pursue what of which you have no knowledge of hearing, sight, and hearts will all be questioned." (17:36)

Allah says, "He does not utter a single word without a watcher by him, pen in hand." (50:18)

And a hadith ( related in Riyad us Salihin) states:

Abu Hurayra reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Anyone who believes in Allah and the Last Day, should speak good words or be silent." [Agreed upon]

SAF Space: Here I am my Lord

I have always wondered how it will be when I see the Kaaba for the first time, that is, if I ALlah belsses me with the means to make that possible. Perhaps I feel as Saffiyah felt?

Saffiyah describes her first expreince of seeing the kaaba with great eloquence.

Click here to read it

Sh Faraz North American "SunnipathTour"

Sheikh Faraz's North American "Sunnipath tour"

Dont miss it ( online or offline)

1) SunniPath Study Tour - New York, USA Foundations of Prophetic Guidance: The Hadith Jibril Explained

Tuition Rate:

OnSite: FREE
Online: USD$ 40
Student and Regional Pricing available

Teacher: Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and Shaykh Abdullah Adhami
Course Format: Live Weekend Program
Time: September 23 - September 24
Live Session Time: TBD Convert to your time zone

2)

SunniPath Study Tour - Austin, TX
The Key to the Garden: Understanding the Meanings of 'La ilaha illa Allah'

Tuition Rate:
OnSite: USD$30
Online: USD$ 40
Student and Regional Pricing available

Teacher: Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Course Format: Live Weekend Program

Time: September 30 - October 1
Live Session Time: TBD Convert to your time zone

3)

SunniPath Study Tour - Ontario, Canada
Lessons from Imam Al-Haddad's "Knowledge and Wisdom"

Tuition Rate:
OnSite: USD$30
Online: USD$ 40
Student and Regional Pricing available

Teacher: Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and Shaykh Talal
Course Format: Live Weekend Program
Time: October 6 - October 8
Live Session Time: TBD Convert to your time zone

4)

SunniPath Study Tour - Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The Fiqh of Life: How to submit to Allah in your social dealings, work, rest, and play

Tuition Rate:
OnSite: USD$30
Online: USD$ 40
Student and Regional Pricing available

Teacher: Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Course Format: Live Weekend Program
Time: October 7 - October 8
Live Session Time: TBD Convert to your time zone

Cricket on a golf course

I went golfing on Saturday. Compare my golf shot ( picture 1) to a cricket shot ( picture 2). Not too much of a difference eh? :-) ( Some of the balls I hit went more than 200 yards!Everyone just gasped at my wrong technique and my shot distance when the ball would go far). I have named my type of cricketing golf shot " the hammad".

The Water Melon story

So here goes my water melon story.What happened was that I bought this water melon a couple of weeks ago and it looked lovely. ( I love to eat fruit dont you?). You know green and all. The skin was smooth no bumps at all. I was happy and giggling to myself as I love to do.

Anyways I got it home. My apartement being on the 3rd floor meant that I had to pick up the water melon from my car and walk it up to the third floor while gravity was working against me. I stumbled though the door and safely placed the precious water melon on my counter. While going towards my room to change I took a peek at it and yes the melon did look lovely. As lovely as a water melon looks in a kitchen.

Like all other water melons I have had, I left this one on the counter for a couple of days. On the Monday I came back home from work and as soon as I entered I smelt something awful. It was like stink bomb. I walked into the kitchen and OH MY GOSH!!!!! The floor was wet with some fluid. On the counter top was a water melon with a huge hole in it. All that was left was a shell with "ugly looking and smelling gue" in it. Anyways, the counter was a mess as well. When I threw the water melon away the shell felt very week and gue started falling from the bottom . The melon barely held together. However I skillfully got my water melon into my garbage bag and threw it away. The smell of the melon stayed for a week after and I cleaned it up and all. But it was one ugly incident.

It was really messy. I looked it it up online and found out that the water melon explosion was caused by fermentation inside the water melon and it exploded due to gas build up!!! Isnt that awful!!!!

Lesson learnt: Dont trust Water Melons!!! The picture is shown below:

Hikam 1

From Ibn Atta illah's Kitab-al Hikam ( Hikam 1)

"One of the signs of relying on one's own deeds is the loss of hope when a downfall occurs."

Sh Hamza: Food for thought

Read by clicking here

BBC Heart and Soul: 99 names of Allah

From the BBC ( listen before next sunday):

The 99 Beautiful Names of Allah

God in Islam is known as the All-Compassionate, the All-Merciful, the Creator, the Praiseworthy, the Everlasting, and by many other names.

There are 99 such names in all, scattered throughout the Qur'an.

Listen as Muslims from different backgrounds reflect on these 99 beautiful names of Allah.

In the Islamic understanding, these names highlight different aspects or qualities of the Divine.

To Muslims, they can be a key that unlocks the meaning of life, or an incentive to overcome their own human weaknesses.

They can also help believers acquire a little of the qualities God has in abundance, such as patience or purity.

The practice of repeating and chanting these names is particularly important to Sufis, followers of the mystical branch of Islam.

Listen by clicking here.