What is Prayer?

A man's daughter had asked the local Mulana to come and pray with her father.
When the mulana arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows.
An empty chair sat beside his bed.
The mulana assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.
"I guess you were expecting me, he said.
'No, who are you?" said the father.
The mulana told him his name and then remarked, "I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up,"
"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man.
"Would you mind closing the door?"
Puzzled, the mulana shut the door.
"I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man.
"But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At Mosque I used to hear the Imam talk about prayer, but it went right over my head." I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man continued, "until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me,
"Yusuf, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Allah.
Here is what I suggest."
"Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith speak to Allah on the chair.
It's not spooky because he promised, 'I will be with you always'.
"Then just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now."
"So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day.
I'm careful though If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."
The Mulana was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and returned to the Mosque.
Two nights later the daughter called to tell the Mulana that her daddy had died that afternoon.
"Did he die in peace?" he asked.
Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?"
The Mulana wiped a tear from his eye and said, "I wish we could all go like that."

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Tags: Prayer, God, Islam, The Criterion, Muhammad Karim

A Balanced Attitude

"Beware, do not adopt extremism, because your predecessors got annihilated by adopting extremist attitudes in deen." - Muslim

Islam enjoins wisdom, balance, moderation and tolerance in all affairs, and it condemns excessiveness, extravagance and fanatical attitudes. To achieve a balanced attitude, Muslims need to understand the objectives of Islam, stay close to Islamic guidance, and give as much weight to an aspect of Islam as the noble Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him) and his faithful Companions gave, no more and no less.

Extremist attitudes, practices and customs, make their entrance into an organisation, community or groups, through various ways:

• through views based on ignorance,
• superficial knowledge,
• imbalanced understanding or
• impatience.

Extremism is bred when certain verses of the Quran, sayings of the noble Prophet or certain of his deeds are exaggerated or understood out of their context. It even arises from exaggerated love or hate of someone or something.

Extremism is a disease and leads to intolerance, disrespect, inflexibility and cause conflict amongst people. These, in the long-run, destroy communities and are, therefore, alien to Islam because Islam is the "middle" way.

Source:
"Building A New Society" - Zahid Parvez, pp. 200-201

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Technorati Tags: Hadith, Balanced Attitude, Extremism, Islam

Sunrise @ Pumula Beach.

Subhanallah.

Video Game about Islam's first 100 Years!

This is so Cool.


DAMASCUS, SYRIA - Inside the frosted glass doors of Afkar Media, located in Damascus's newly-built free-zone, software developers are trying to rebuild a civilization inside a video game.

Set to be released in September, "Al-Quraysh" is a strategy game that tells the story of the first 100 years of Islam's history from the viewpoint of four different nations - Bedouins, Arabs, Persians, and Romans.

One can choose to command any of the armies of the four nations or lead the army of the main character, Khaled Ibn Waleed, a Muslim warrior who defeated the Roman and Persian empires and never lost a battle. Or one can play the role of the Bedouin sheikh, who must earn the respect of his tribe. The player has the task of building and protecting trade routes and water sources, building armies, conducting battles, and freeing slaves.

It's just one of several new games produced in the Middle East with the idea that video games, like other media, play a role in shaping young minds and impacting self-esteem. The makers hope "Al-Quraysh," named after the prophet Muhammad's tribe, will help to correct the image of Islam, alleviate tensions with the West, and stoke pride among young Muslims.

<"Al-Quraysh is going to help people in the West better understand the people who are living in the East," says Radwan Kasmiya, an avid gamer and the executive manager of Afkar Media. "We want to show that this civilization was a sort of practical and almost heavenly civilization." "I get very embarrassed by the way we are showing our civilization," says Kasmiya. "There were rational laws that were governing Muslims at that time. This allowed this civilization to last for a long time and to accept the other civilizations that they came in touch with. It was not a conservative or sectarian civilization. But people have stopped taking the ideas behind the laws, and are taking the laws themselves. They do not understand the essence of the laws." Afkar Media has already produced two games, both dealing with the plight of the Palestinian people. One game released last year, "Under Siege," was born out of frustration with the prevalance of Arabs and Muslims portrayed as terrorists in Western video games. The creators of the game say the story line counteracts the biases in some Western games by showing the Palestinian struggle from an Arab vantage point and creating Arab and Muslim characters who are fighting in self-defense. As chaos ensues, Ahmed must disarm Goldstein and turn to fight Israeli soldiers. Killing civilians - Israeli or Arab - will make him lose his stamina. Maen is armed with a slingshot and must help the ambulance, which is being blocked by Israeli forces, reach the mosque. Critics say the game merely inverts stereotypes - replacing extremist caricatures of Muslims with extremist caricatures of Jews, like that of Baruch Goldstein, and using the violent "shooter" format common to many video games. But by giving young Muslims and Arabs the chance to see themselves in "the good guy" roles, Kasmiya hopes the games will bolster self-esteem among the region's children. "Most video games on the market are anti-Arab and anti-Islam," says Kasmiya. "Arab gamers are playing games that attack their culture, their beliefs, and their way of life. The youth who are playing the foreign games are feeling guilt. On the outside they look like they don't care, but inside they do care. But we also don't want to do something about Arabs killing Westerners." Both "Al-Quraysh" and "Under Siege," which cost roughly $100,000 to make, have been funded and released by Dar al-Fiqr, a publishing house that distributes a wide range of conservative to liberal voices on topics related to Islam. An estimated 100,000 copies of "Under Siege" have been distributed around the Arab world. "People believe that only their heritage will help this nation," says Mr. Salem. "We believe that this nation needs a new vision, new people, new blood to study, read, and then think about Islam. We believe in this line, not the old line that only reads old books and believes in the past." But Dar al-Fiqr and Afkar Media's toughest challenge may be getting serious gamers to play. Weak copyright laws in the region limit a company's ability to profit from such games, which sell for about $10 a copy. And games like "Al-Quraysh" must compete with the sophisticated graphics and game plots of a multibillion-dollar gaming industry. Mohamad Hamzeh, a 26-year-old gamer, says he bought "Under Siege," but that he would not play it instead of other popular games like "World of Warcraft" or "Counterstrike" because he says the plot lines are not convincing. "We do want to put Arabs in games and show that we have a civilization, we respect other people, and that we are not aggressors," says Mr. Hamzeh, who develops video games himself. "But it's hard to really get into a game like 'Under Siege.' When you are in 2005 and you find a game that was released in 1995 that was much more advanced, it is not good. You must feel the challenge in the game. They are paying so much attention to the political and religious part, they are not concentrating on the technical parts of the game." Link

Wealth in Islam.

“Wealth in Islam is divided into two categories:

First the public wealth that is not owned by individuals, but rather they are the property of the entire nation. Such wealth includes oil, minerals, water depth… etc. Islam has instituted a detailed program of running these resources by the legitimate religious ruler or his deputies, who would carry on their task without any wronging on injustice.

The second kind is the wealth owned by individuals or groups, as a result of their work or inheritance. This kind of wealth is also governed by a detailed program. For although Islam did not take a negative stand regarding personal property, it hindered its accumulation in the hands of few people. It was concerned through its tax system and inheritance to ensure that the wealth is distributed among the biggest number of people, Imam Ali says in this respect: “No poor man is hungry except by what the wealthy man enjoys”. He also says: “I have never seen an accumulated wealth, that there is not a usurped right beside it”.” (Ayatullah Fadlullah)

more here

via Al Musawwir

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Tags: Wealth, Islam, The Criterion, Muhammad Karim

Show me.

"whatever happens
to the world around
show me your purpose
show me your source

even if the world
is Godless and in chaos
show me your anchor
show me your love

if there is hunger
if there is famine
show me your harvest
show me your resource

if life is bitter
everywhere snakes everywhere poison
show me your garden
show me your meadow

if the sun and the moon fall
if darkness rules the world
show me your light
show me your flame

if i have no mouth
or tongue to utter
words of your secrets
show me your fountain

i'll keep silence
how can i express
your life when mine
still is untold"

-- Rumi, Ghazal Number 2144, translated by Nader Khalili

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Love... by Rumi

I am not that luckless lover, to flee from the Beloved; I do not hold that dagger in my hand to flee from battle.

I am that plank with which the carpenter has much to do, I do not shrink from the axe or flee from the nails.

I am unselfed like a plank, I think not to oppose the axe; I am fit only for the flames if I flee form the carpenter.

I am as a worthless and cold stone if I do not journey oft to rubiness; I am as a dark and narrow cave if I flee from the Companion of the Cave.

I do not feel the kiss of the peach if I flee from leaflessness; I do not catch the scent of Tartary musk if I flee from the Tartar.

I am distressed with myself because I am not contained; it is meet, when the head is not contained, if I flee from the turban.

Many centuries are required for this fortune to emerge; where shall I find it again, if this time I flee?

It is not that I am sick and unmanly, that I shun the fair ones; it is not that my bowels are corrupt, that I flee from the vintner.

I am not mounted on a packsaddle to remain then in the arena; I am not a farmer of this village to flee from the Prince.

I say, “My heart, have done”; my heart replies, “I am in the quarry of gold, why should I flee from the lavishing of riches?”

this is poem number 174 from “Mystical Poems of Rumi” (Poems 1-200) by Jalal al-Din Rumi, translated from the Persian by A.J. Arberry (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1991)

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: Rumi, Art, Love, The Criterion, Muhammad Karim
: Rumi, Art, Love, The Criterion, Muhammad Karim
: Rumi, Art, Love, The Criterion, Muhammad Karim