Worker Safety

Bismillah

Worker safety is not a high priority in many parts of the developing world. Jeddah is not an exception. Two workers hang off the  back of a dustbin truck as they wait for the lights to go red at an intersection in Jeddah.

Workers travelling through Jeddah traffic

Body Scanners -The Emperor’s New Clothes

When the emperor was desperate and looking for a way of telling who was wise from his courtiers he began to look to experts to solve his situation. As usual there are always ‘experts’ waiting in the wings ready to offer a technology that would expose the faults of others. And so he was literally and figuratively lulled into their spin on technology and soon had embraced the technological marvel of clothing that could only seen by the wise. Of course as charlatans they had stitched nothing but the emperor had convinced himself of their truth and ‘saw’ the invisible air as beautiful clothes and had quickly divested himself of his clothes and was parading around naked in front of all to see. Until a small boy not yet influenced by the pogrom of spin asked the simple but profound question: ‘ Why is the emperor riding his horse stark naked’.

The rapidity with which body scanners are being introduced after the underwear bombing attempt is alarming and raises many questions and concerns with both Muslims and non-Muslims…

Changing Tides

Bismillah, alhamdulillah.

I had an interesting conversation with an elderly Saudi gentleman the other day. He was reminiscing about the time his mother who had nine children would look after all of them and she had no maid to help her carry out the daily chores in life.

Her life was very simple she would wash her children’s clothes with Tide. When it came to the time to wash the house whe would reach for her Tide. When it came to bathing time she would also use her Tide.  Life was very simple and the large number of detergents were not available. Despite the lack of assistance she had time for  her relatives and would spend time with her children.

Shifting back to the present the man carried on speaking about a simple shopping trip nowadays in Saudi Arabia. There was a special washing powder for particular types of clothes, one for coloured, one for whites. Then there is a soap for your body and another for your hair. Ofcourse there is one for your kitchen, one for the bathroom and another for general cleaning. And the list had now become bewildering. To cap it all off now wife’s had fewer children, maids to help them and had less time than ever before.

Tide as a brand has been around since the 1940′s and would have been one of the first few products imported from the USA to Saudi Arabia.

I have started to twitter

Bismillah, alhamdulillah.

I have decided to start using the Twitter service to start penning down my jottings under emuslimtweets. It allows you to write 140 characters at a time and people can follow the micro-blogs or tweets as they are known. Blog entries can also be added to the tweets using a service such as twitterfeed.com. You can follow (limited countries) a tweet and tweet from your own mobile phone.

Apart from personal bloggers it has proved to be a vital real time communication tool for major agencies such as the CDC co-ordinating emergency health information etc. Other people are using it to provide a summarised hadith on a daily basis (twitter.com/dailyhadith).

It is a very useful way of communicating for organisations with their employees or where breaking information is important. In a dawah sense it would be a good source of alerts – the Muslim Council of Britain have also decided to use it as an advertising source.

Perhaps some more useful ideas on using twitter would be:

1. Localised twitter for charities i.e. appeals for local poor persons.

2. Localised twitter for the unwell and requests for duas etc.

3. Localised twitter feed for events in masjids

Some of my first few tweets are below:

____________

• SAUDI Shopping – Where can you buy a camping stove in Jeddah? SACO, one on Andalus St the other on Tahlia near the Al-Baik near Aziziyah. 5 minutes ago
• Bismillah: Example of delusional belief: Tony Blair ‘I do genuinely believe that the world is safer as a result (of the war against Iraq)” 9 minutes ago
• Bismillah: ‘Dad what is a kangaroo court?’ After answering I wondered where the term came from – erratic US judges in the 19th century! 22 hours ago
• Bismillah: iPAD? Why would you buy an iPAD & an iPHONE it would be plain iMAD. When are we getting a folding screen?! 22 hours ago

A Sinner’s Death

Bismillah, alhamdulillah:

How will you be, wonder I
When he becomes visible to your eye
One moment sitting care free
Then he appears, other unable to see

Your heart quickens with fear or hope?
As you realise your life’s diminshed scope
Disease, murder, accident whatever
Excuses to mark the start of forever

Arrived you have at your stop last
The miserable moments of your life flash past
What lies beyond mirrored in his face
Light and bright or a menacing grimace?

His hands stretch forth to your face,
Do you rush forward to greet the embrace?
Or squirm caught in your body’s cell
Afraid of the nineteen from Hell

Let me go! One moment you try to buy
With that practiced lie
Five times I will pray!
Just let me go today!

Disbelief till the end, but now
I shall change and show you how
Twenty four hours please
Let me pass today with ease

Music again I shall not listen
With haraam my lips will not glisten
From usury and deception I shall depart
Impede me not! Have you no heart?

Cold hands touch your lips
As your soul rips
Caught in the agonal haze
As you slip into the barzakh phase

Is the Quran created?

بسم الله الحمد لله

• Quran is God’s command Q42:52.
• God’s command is distinct from creation Q7:54.
• QED

والأدلة على أنه غير مخلوق قوله تعالى : ( ألا له الخلق والأمر ) فجعل  والأدلة على أنه غير مخلوق قوله تعالى : ( ألا له الخلق والأمر ) فجعل الخلق شيئاً والأمر شيئا آخر

لأن العطف يقتضي المغايرة والقرآن من الأمر بدليل قوله تعالى : ( وكذلك أوْحَيْنَا إليك روحا من أمرنا

ما كنت تدري ما الكتاب ولا الإيمان ولكن جعلناه نوراً نَهْدِي به من نَشَاءُ من عبادنا ) الشورى /52 ، فإذا كان القرآن أمراً وهو قسيم للخلق ، صار غير مخلوق ، لأنه لو كان مخلوقاً ما صح التقسيم فهذا هو الدليل من القرآن . شيئاً والأمر شيئا آخر

Source: islam-qa

Can we say we are the children of God?

يسم الله الحمد لله

• A weak hadith implies this.
• If literal it is kufr.
• If metaphorical it is permissible for dawah only.
• If implies all religions are acceptible it is kufr.
• If implies brotherhood between Muslims and Disbelievers it is false.

• حديث البزار ضعيف : لخلق كلهم عيال الله ، فأحبهم إلى الله أنفعهم لعياله

Source: islam-qa

Does Satan whisper to Christians in prayer?

Waswaas = whispers. Khanzab is a devil who whispers in prayer, removed by spitting (Muslim). Increase concentration by: Reflecting on the meaning of the Quran, worship Allah as if He is looking at you, look forward to prayer, decrease deisres and attachment to things. Jews and Christians do not get waswaas because the devil does not interfere with a house in ruins.

Source: islam-qa

Who was the first man to say (أم بعد) amma ba’d?

Bismillah, alhamdulillah.

Came across this lovely speech which is attributed to Qus bin Sai’dah Al-Ayyaadee (قس بن ساعدة الإيادي), known as حكيم العرب (Wisest of the Arabs). He is also the first person to have used the now famous phrase أم بعد (amma ba’d and to proceed) when giving his speech.

The first boy – son of Ismail

Bismillah, alhamdulillah.

The young boy entered the masjid with his notebook tucked under his arm. Sitting cross legged he looked up at the Shayk giving his lesson. The hadith lessons were being eagerly memorised by other students in the class, most were much older than him, but his mother made sure he came and he felt he wanted to come.

The Shaykh was known as the مؤدب (muaddib or inculcator of manners). He asked the young boy, how many hadith have you written?

The boy answered with a quiet, ‘Two hadith.’

The other boys in the masjid started to laugh at him, ‘Just two!’

The muaddib rebuked them saying, ‘Do not laugh at him. Perhaps one day this boy will laugh at you.’

The boy was Muhammad bin Ismail Al Bukhari, the famous muhaddith. The names of the other boys in the class who had laughed have been lost in the long corridors of history.

[Source: نبيل العوضي]