The Chimp-O-Matic

Had we to do it over again, we would look at the consequences of catastrophic success, being so successful so fast that an enemy that should have surrendered or been done in escaped and lived to fight another day.
--George w. Bush

telling Time magazine that he underestimated the Iraqi resistance

The Fast of Holy Ramadan

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ

"O who believe, fasting is decreed for you as it was decreed for those before you; perchance you will guard yourselves. (2:183)

Fasting in Ramadan is a part of the broader program that Islam prescribes for man to fulfill his moral and spiritual destiny in this world and in the Hereafter. It is the special worship designed to develop in man the ability to exercise self-restraint and patience for the pleasure of Allah, man's Creator, Lord and Nourisher. Its objective is to give man the power to keep in check his unruly desires and tendencies that make him prone to greed, revenge, anger, provocation and fear; that make him commit various sins, acts of aggression, cruelty and oppression. It seeks to free the human soul and lends it the moral and spiritual strength to promote beauty, harmony, kindness, peace, compassion and justice. The Qur'an says: "We sent Our Messengers with clear signs and sent down with them the Book and the balance (of right and wrong), that men may stand forth in justice." (57:25)


Fasting for Taqwa....

Prescribing fasting the Qur'an says: "O you who believe, fasting is prescribed to you as it was to those before you, that you may (learn) self-restraint." (2:183) The original Arabic word translated here as self-restraint is taqwa, which has a much broader significance. It symbolizes that basic mortal quality that demarcates the line between morality and amorality, and distinguishes humans from animals as moral beings. It represents love of good with an eagerness to respond to it, and a strong desire to keep away from what is evil and harmful. Those who are neutral or immune to questions of good and bad, justice and injustice, compassion and cruelty, loyalty and treachery are in the words of the Qur'an like the blind, deaf, and dumb cattle, whose only concern in life is to fill their stomachs."They have hearts wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not, and ears wherewith they hear not."


Developing Taqwa....

This moral quality is nourished and can be developed only by controlling and keeping in check one's desires, impulses, and emotions and that is precisely what fasting is prescribed to achieve.
The Arabic word for fasting used in the above verse is siyam which means to leave something or to avoid it. In the light of this Islamic fasting may be defined as the worship in which man willingly forsakes his quite legitimate needs like eating, drinking and other lawful pleasures in compliance with the commandment of god, every day for a whole month, Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. Thus Islamic fasting is not merely leaving all that is evil. The Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) said: "When one of you is fasting and someone abuses him or fights with him, he should tell him `I cannot respond to you for I am fasting.'" On another occasion he said "He who does not leave evil only gets thirst and hunger from fasting."
Through fasting we seek closeness to God by obeying him sincerely and carrying out his will in our daily life, our actions and thoughts, till our days and nights bear witness that He is dearer to us than anything else. Look at the time schedule of a believer during this month; getting up early before dawn for a light snack, stopping all eating and drinking all day, being anxious to devote himself to prayers and adoration of God, eagerness to do good and eschew evil, and during the nights of this month to stand in prayer for hours, sacrificing sleep and comfort, offering special extra prayers: more or less like one of a soldier under rigorous training. The only difference here is that it is not just one physical battle he is training for, but an all-comprehensive and continuous war against evil, both from within and without.

.........Muhyi al-Din Ibn `Arabi

Al-Hamdulillah, praise and peace be upon His Prophet Muhammad and on his Family, Companions and his Followers, inwardly and outwardly.

The Chimp-O-Matic

You've heard Al Gore say he invented the Internet. Well, if he was so smart, why do all the addresses begin with W?

--George w. Bush

A Goodly Tree

Allah (the Exalted and Almighty) has said:

See you not how Allâh sets forth a parable?

A goodly word as a goodly tree, whose root is firmly fixed,

and its branches (reach) to the sky (i.e. very high).

Giving its fruit at all times, by the Leave of its Lord,

and Allâh sets forth parables for mankind in order

that they may remember.

May Allah bless our Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him)and his family and companions, and those who follow them in truth

The month of Sha’baan

Sha’baan is the name of the (eighth) month, and it is so called because in this month the Arabs used to disperse (tasha’’aba) in search of water, or it was said that they dispersed to carry out raids and forays. Or it was said that it is so called because it sha’aba (branches out or emerges) i.e., it appears between the months of Rajab and Ramadaan. The plural forms of the word Sha’baan are Sha’baanaat and Sha’aabeen.

Fasting in Sha’baan

‘Aa’ishah (may Allaah be pleased with her) said:

“The Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to fast until we thought he would never break his fast, and not fast until we thought he would never fast. I never saw the Messenger of Allaah fasting for an entire month except in Ramadaan, and I never saw him fast more than he did in Sha’baan.” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, no. 1833; Muslim, no. 1956).

According to a report narrated by Muslim(no. 1957),

“He used to fast all of Sha’baan, he used to fast all but a little of Sha’baan.”

A group of scholars, including Ibn al-Mubaarak and others, thought that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not fast all of Sha’baan, but he fasted most of it. This is supported by a report in Saheeh Muslim

(no. 1954) narrated from ‘Aa’ishah (may Allaah be pleased with her), who said: “I never knew of him – meaning the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) – fasting for any entire month apart from Ramadaan.” According to another report also narrated by Muslim (no. 1955), ‘Aa’ishah said: “I never saw him fast for any entire month from the time he came to Madeenah, apart from Ramadaan.”

It was reported in al-Saheehayn that Ibn ‘Abbaas said:

“The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) did not fast any entire month apart from Ramadaan.” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, no. 1971, and Muslim, no. 1157). Ibn ‘Abbaas regarded it as makrooh to fast any entire month apart from Ramadaan. Ibn Hajar (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: “He observed more voluntary fasts in Sha’baan than in any other month, and he used to fast most of Sha’baan.”

Usaamah ibn Zayd (may Allaah be pleased with them both) said:

“I said, ‘O Messenger of Allaah, I do not see you fasting in any other month like you fast in Sha’baan.’ He said, ‘That is a month to which people do not pay attention, between Rajab and Ramadaan, and it is a month in which deeds are lifted up to the Lord of the Worlds. I like for my deeds to be lifted up when I am fasting.’” (Narrated by al-Nasaa’i, see Saheeh al-Targheeb wa’l-Tarheeb, page 425). According to a report narrated by Abu Dawood (no. 2076) she said: “The most beloved of months for the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) to fast in was Sha’baan, and his fasting in Sha’baan was continuous with his fasting in Ramadaan.” (Classed as saheeh by al-Albaani, see Saheeh Sunan Abi Dawood, 2/461).

Ibn Rajab (may Allaah have mercy on him) said:

“Fasting in Sha’baan is better than fasting in the Sacred Months, and the best of voluntary fasts are those that are (observed in the months) closest to Ramadaan, before or after. The status of these fasts is like that of al-Sunan al-Rawaatib which are done before and after fard (prayers) and which make up for any shortfall in the number of obliagtory prayers. The same applies to fasts observed before and after Ramadaan. Just as al-Sunan al-Rawaatib are better than other kinds of voluntary prayers, so fasts observed (in the months) before and after Ramadaan are better than fasts at other times.

thanks for reading this ..if you guys learnt any thing from this post, your comments will really be appreciated..

Jazak Allah o Khair

McAfee Programs may Explose Data

A report:

Consumer versions of McAfee Inc's leading software for securing PC'c is susceptible to a flaw that can expose passwords and other sensitive information stored on personal computer.

The vulnerability affects many of McAfee's most popular consumer products, including its Ineternet Security Suite, SpamKiller, Privacy Service and Virus Scan Plus titles...

Maiffret(Chief Hacking Officer) said that thaey have found a way to connect to PCs running the flawed McAfee products over the internet and make them run code of his choosing. The flaw, if exploited, would make it possible for a criminal to track bank account numbers, and access, modify and delete sensitive files and do other damage on machine running the McAfee products..

The News : [Thursday 3rd August]

A Hadith

Abu Hunaira Narrated that:

The Prophet (P.B.U.H) said, "Name yourselves with my name (use my name) but do not name yourselves with my Kunya name (i.e. Abu-l Qasim). And whoever sees me in a dream then surely he has seen me for Satan cannot impersonate me. And whoever tells a lie against me (intentionally), then (surely) let him occupy his seat in Hell-fire."

[Sahih Al-Bukhari: Volume 1, Book 3, Number 110]

Primitive Profession

Seeing as we seem to be rapidly destroying our world through removing our ozone layer and causing global warming, it got me thinking - if a scenario such as the film "The Day After Tomorrow" envisages did in fact happen, what would be the most useful skills to have afterwards?

I'm pretty sure that software engineers would not be high on the list. Doctors would probably come top - then, for a society to last longer than a few days (after we'd looted everything from the local Asda), we'd need farmers. Eventually, there'd be traders, etc. In fact it may not be too different from the original rise of civilisation.

Or would it? Have we learnt anything in the last X thousand years that would help us become "civilised" more quickly the next time around? Could we use pure knowledge to rebuild, or are we now so dependent on our infrastructure that without it we'd be crippled?

The Chimp-O-Matic

The woman who knew that i had a dyslexia....I never interviewed her.

..George W. Bush