Alhamdulillah: Results So Far

Dear LivingHalal fan!

Assalam alaikum,

We can't thank you enough but to say Jazakum Allahu khaira.

After the help of Allah, alhamdulillah, your help, dua, kind words, comments, suggestions, and spreading the words really made a difference.

May Allah surprise you on the judgment day with tons of rewards!

To give you a quick idea for the difference that you made in the Ummah, here is an update of LivingHalal's progress as of the end of 1428 (12/31/2007):
-LivingHalal Shahada clips has received tons of hits, and one sister used it to say her Shahadah!
-Similarly, for LivingHalal Hajj & Umrah supplications clips, alhamdulillah
-LivingHalal YouTube channel has received 148,001 video views
-Started an article syndication service, and our first article was carried by around 100 sites, including Islamicity.com
-Called to offering your Qurban locally (video featured on many sites)
-Organized its first school essay and drawing contest, with prize totaling $1000
-Helped promoting Muslim businesses at different events

Some of our on going projects,
-Working with two Hollywood producers/directors in an instructional DVD about prayer
-Launching LivingHalal life-changing teleconferencing service, topics cover halal life, health, success, marriage, and parenting.
-Launching GoodNewsBuzz service that helps sisters to work from a Halal environment at their convenience schedule.

If you want to work with us, sponsor any of our educational shows, or carry our contents, please contact us (livinghalal at gmail).

Keep us in your dua,

Again, may Allah reward you!

~LH

PS: You can help by joining our mailing list, subscribing to LivingHalal channel on YouTube, spreading the words, or joining LivingHalal facebook group.

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Review: Kid Content of IslamWeb.net

Islamweb.net is a Web site that has a considerable amount of Islamic resources, e.g. Quran audio with English translation, which LivingHalal has used in its videos.

May Allah reward them and help them to improve.

Below is a review that we received from a brother about the Kids corner of Islamweb.

Well, you are often collecting reviews and opinions on things. You now have your first review of "kids corner" on Islamweb.

Something funny just happened.

I was looking through Islamweb and found "kids corner". Excited that I can show it to Haniyah, I clicked through and started going through one of the illustrated stories. First, I was a bit disappointed that everything looked arcane, and I was sure Haniyah will find it "scary." Why is Islamic = Medieval?

Anyway, I continued. The name of the story was "who is the owner of the jar" (I was thinking it would be about a cookie jar but it wasn't!). Anyway... i clicked through the story which was about two men who couldn't decide as to who is the owner of the jar full of gold that one man finds buried in a land he bought. Neither wants to claim the gold. One says he sold the land with whatever was in it so the jar is not his. The other says he bought the land not the gold so the jar is not his. They go to the judge. And the judge says... check this out... "do you have children?" Conveniently, one has a son and the other has a daughter. So the judge tells them to marry their children so that both can share the gold... and they both are happy!

I mean... what the heck is that! What is going on here? Marry your children so that you can split the gold? What's the point, what's the message for the children or the adults for that matter...? Now... I don't know if the story is taken from a narration or someone just made it up (later seems to be the case) but whatever its genesis might be, it certainly doesn't belong to "kids corner" (or any corner for that matter).

By the way, I checked out one Nasheed as well (Galla Allah is the title). It's so poor even I can't figure out what the message is for half of it. I don't know how much it costed to create this site but it really is disappointing...

I once searched for and found some "Islamic cartoons" they were so scary that i didn't even ask Haniyah to watch them after five minutes. can't Muslims create something that is relevant to what kids experience these days? we live in LA and never see stars but even then twinkle twinkle seems more relevant for my daughter.

Seekh Kabab

The prophet (SAW) said: Eid Al-Adha plus the three following days are days of eating and drinking.

So, why not try this recipe for your Qurbani meat? :)

Ingredients required:
2lbs ground beef
1/3 cup cooking oil
2 tablespoons ginger paste
2 tablespoons garlic paste
1/2pkt Shan Seekh Kabab Masala (available at Desi stores)
[LivingHalal disclaimer: we are not promoting Shan :)) ]

Directions:
Mix all of the above ingredients except oil.
Make small meat balls.
Thread each meat ball through a skewer.
With a wet hand, flatten the ground meat mixture in a thin layer
around each skewer.
Pour oil onto a cookie sheet to coat the surface, and arrange the kababs on the cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 to 400 degrees until meat is cooked through.

This can be served as a snack or a dinner dish.

Recipe courtesy of aunty Nasreen Kakli for LivingHalal

My Sweet Memories from Hajj

A sister telling her sweet memories from her Hajj trip, some highlights:
-You can communicate without knowing the other person's language
-Hajj is like walking into the National Geographic Magazine
-Excitement about sharing Hajj stories with classmates
-Human generosity in action
-Hajj is what you make of it

Please post your comments so we know what you think... may Allah reward you.



**If you are a sound engineer and would like to give us some free tips about recording... please contact us. May Allah reward you.

Subscribe to our mailing list.

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What's your gift for Allah on Eid AlAdha?

The statement of offering

Back Story of Tuhfa's First Time Slaughtering

Below is an email sent from Tuhfa (of the above video) to his Qurbani-friends.

assalam alaikum

The first time I cut an Udhiyah is with Mohsin's Afzal-bhai-meat-vendor. (I think Eid 1425/2004).

I still remember, I didn't book any animals with you guys, but bought one on the spot (one lil secret, I didn't even pay from my pocket, I called a sister, "Hey, you want a qurban, so I can practice cutting." Well, didn't really confess that latter part to her, and subhana Allah, she agreed, and later I found out she already did one before I called, so may Allah reward her for paying for two Qurbans in that year.)

Anyway, since then, I've learned more about the virtues of Udhiyah, and started to practice and call others to do this worship every year. Alhamdulillah, every year I dedicate part of Jummah Khutbah about it, and more and more are doing it locally.

So, never underestimate the impact that you can make by simply taking someone along to this act of worship, or taking the initiative to organize this activity, or buying an extra Qurban so someone can practice this worship for the first time :)

May Allah reward all local Qurbani initiators and supporters, ameen.

-tuhfa

PS: For that sister who funded the learning experience, may Allah surprise you with tons of rewards in the hereafter.

PS2: I see Karim is leading people do the same up North!! May Allah accept from you!

LivingHalal in Action: Waste Concern

In the authentic hadith collected by Muslim:

عرضت علي أعمال أمتي حسنها وسيئها فوجدت في محاسن أعمالها الأذى يماط عن الطريق
It is presented to me my Ummah's deeds, the good and the bad, so I found that among the good deeds: removing the filth from the road.

Waste Concern, a waste management not-for profit organization in Bangladesh, recently got covered by Marketplace Philanthropy Series.

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LivingHalal in Action: Muslim helps attacked Jews

Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: they are the ones to attain felicity. [Quran 3:104]

Muslim helps Jews attacked on New York subway

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Muslim man jumped to the aid of three Jewish subway riders after they were attacked by a group of young people who objected to one of the Jews saying "Happy Hanukkah," a spokeswoman for the three said Wednesday.

Friday's altercation on the Q train began when somebody yelled out "Merry Christmas," to which rider Walter Adler responded, "Happy Hanukkah," said Toba Hellerstein.

"Almost immediately, you see the look in this guy's face like I've called his mother something," Adler told CNN affiliate WABC.

Two women who were with a group of 10 rowdy people then began to verbally assault Adler's companions with anti-Semitic language, Hellerstein said.

One member of the group allegedly yelled, "Oh, Hanukkah. That's the day that the Jews killed Jesus," she said.

When Adler tried to intercede, a male member of the group punched him, she said.

Another passenger, Hassan Askari -- a Muslim student from Bangladesh -- came to Adler's aid, and the group began physically and verbally assaulting him, Hellerstein said.

"A Muslim-American saved us when our own people were on the train and didn't do anything," Adler said. Watch Adler describe the altercation »

Adler pulled the emergency brake and the train stopped at DeKalb Avenue station, where police came on board.

The 10 suspects, ages 19 to 20, were taken into custody, said Brooklyn district attorney spokesman Sandy Silverstein.

Askari was first handcuffed alongside them, but he was released when Adler told police he was not an attacker, Hellerstein said.

Alder was treated at Long Island College Hospital for injuries that included a fractured nose and a cut lip that required several stitches, while Askari suffered a black eye, Hellerstein said.

The suspects are to appear in Brooklyn District Court on February 7 on charges that include assault, attempted assault, menacing, harassment, unlawful assembly, riot and disorderly conduct, Silverstein said.

The New York Police Department's Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident, and will determine whether the suspects will be charged with hate crimes, Officer Philip Hauser told CNN.

Source link





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Hijab Stories: Compare and contrast

Story 1: Muslim reverts having problems with their parents because of Hijab.

Below is the email exchange:

assalam alaikum

A sister is having a problem with her mom (and dad
too) for wearing Hijab. First, they said u can't wear
it inside the house, then they said you can't wear it
when going out with us, so she stop going out with
parents, now they are saying you are cutting family
ties.

Their relationship was good before Islam. Now, mom is
crying and dad is arguing and all that.

Any ideas?

Please pray for her.

Email Response:

Wa'alaikum assalaam...

Yeah, I started making dua for her as soon as I read that. SubhanAllah. As if it's not hard enough to start wearing hijab with everyone staring at you and asking questions, when your parents give you a hard time, too, it just wears you down. My mom used to call it my "garb", as in garb meaning a garment, but the way she said it to me it sounded like it was short for "garbage". :P My dad used to joke that people would think he was with a movie star in disguise or a cancer patient covering up her bald head. People would look at me in restaurants and he would keep whispering things like "see, they're all pointing at the poor little cancer girl." He lost his sense of humor over it after a while and won't go out in public with me anymore either. My mom is noticeably embarrassed, but has decided that life goes on and so we go out everywhere together now. All of us reverts get the same problem. My friend Yasmine's mom calls the hijab her "rags". I also got the same line a lot about cutting family ties (usually after THEY had refused to spend time with me, same story), but you have to just keep trying. It is sooooo important in our deen, and you know this already, that we can never break ties with our family, that we have to give them love and respect, and that especially we have to give our mom the highest respect and the best treatment no matter what. Chances are that they will get used to the hijab after a while, or least most of them will. It also helped in my case to try to maintain some of the same sense of style that expresses my personality that they are used to, for their sake and for my own. For example, they tend to freak out way more seeing me in jilbab and a black hijab than to see me wearing long skirts (which I always liked) and a flowery/lacy matching scarf. And when my mom would talk about religion with me and cry, I would just try to give a loving response and explain my reasons for my faith to her, even when I had already explained it again and again. It's not easy. Your family, who loves you more than anybody else, can also make you feel more uncomfortable than anyone else. It's a long process.

Amina

Story 2: According to news reports, a father killed his daughter for not wearing Hijab

Father says killed daughter in Canadian hijab case
Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:50pm EST
TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian teenager who was said to have clashed with her father about whether she should wear a traditional Muslim head scarf died of injuries late on Monday, and her father told police he had killed her.

Aqsa Parvez, 16, was found without a pulse in her home in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga earlier on Monday. She was resuscitated by paramedics, treated at two hospitals, and later succumbed to her injuries, police said on Tuesday.

Her father, 57-year-old Muhammad Parvez, has been charged with murder and was remanded back into custody after his first court appearance early on Tuesday.

"There was a 911 call placed by a man who indicated that he had just killed his daughter," Jodi Dawson, a constable with Peel Regional Police, told Reuters. "Everything else is evidentiary in nature and the investigation is in its preliminary stages at this point."

The victim's brother, Waqas Parvez, 26, was arrested and charged with obstructing police.

The story was on the front pages of Canadian newspapers on Tuesday. The newspapers quoted friends and schoolmates of the victim as saying she argued with her father over wearing a hijab, the traditional head scarf worn by Muslim females.

Photos of the teen retrieved from a social networking Web site show her in Western dress with her long dark hair loose.

"She was always scared of her dad, she was always scared of her brother," the Toronto Star quoted a classmate as saying.

Others were quoted as saying the girl wore traditional Muslim dress when leaving the house in the morning, but would change into other clothes in school washrooms.

Dawson said investigators will likely speak to the victim's schoolmates. The father will return for a bail hearing on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Peter Galloway)

Are you keeping up with your trust?

Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth." [Quran, Chapter 2: 30]

We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it; - he was indeed unjust and foolish; [Quran, Chapter 33: 72]

Our creator has assigned the Amanah (trust) to us to protect it and to be guardians on this earth... Part of our duties is to protect the earth, so what are some of the things that you can do to help protect our planet?

Well, as Muslims, we have to first learn then act.

Checkout this site: http://storyofstuff.com/




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Some News about Honey

[16:68] And thy Lord taught the Bee to build its cells in hills, on trees, and in (men's) habitations;

[16:69] Then to eat of all the produce (of the earth), and find with skill the spacious paths of its Lord: there issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colors, wherein is healing for men: verily in this is a Sign for those who give thought.

Honey works best to calm kids' coughs, study finds
Mon Dec 3, 2007 4:00pm EST

By Michael Conlon

CHICAGO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A spoonful of buckwheat honey quells a child's nighttime chest cold coughing better than the most common cough suppressant in nonprescription medicines, researchers said on Monday.

"Honey may be a preferable treatment for the cough and sleep difficulty associated with childhood upper respiratory tract infection," a team of investigators from Pennsylvania State University said.

Their study, paid for by the National Honey Board, an industry-funded U.S. Agriculture Department agency, compared honey to dextromethorphan -- or DM -- the most common cough suppressant in over-the-counter remedies.

Honey is not recommended for children under the age of one. Buckwheat honey is a dark variety that tends to have more compounds associated with honey's antioxidant properties, the researchers said. In addition, they said honey can sooth the throat and thus help control coughing.

The report said that neither the American Academy of Pediatrics nor the American College of Chest Physician backs the use of DM for childhood cough.

In addition the substance has been implicated in drug abuse among teenagers who use cough medicine to get high.

The study, published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, comes just weeks after a government advisory panel recommended that many nonprescription cough and cold medicines in use for decades should not be given to children under 6 until their efficacy can be proven.

That move came after a group of pediatricians and public health officials petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to restrict sales for children younger than 6 because of reports of deaths, seizures, hallucinations and other problems.

Makers have said the products are safe and effective, when given as directed, to children aged 2 and older.

The new study involved 105 youngsters age 2 to 18 who had been battling upper respiratory tract infections for seven days or less. Some were given 10 milliliters -- about one tablespoon

-- of buckwheat honey 30 minutes before bedtime, others got DM -- of buckwheat honey 30 minutes before bedtime, others got DM and others nothing at all.

Honey was found to make the best improvements in cough control and sleep followed by DM, while doing nothing showed the least improvement.

"Parents rated honey most favorably for symptomatic relief of their children's nocturnal cough and sleep difficulty," the study concluded.

"While our findings and the absence of contemporary studies supporting the use of DM continue to question its effectiveness for the treatment of cough associated with upper respiratory tract infections, we have now provided evidence supporting honey, which is generally regarded as safe for children older than 1 year, as an alternative," the authors said.

(Editing by Andrew Stern and Eric Walsh)

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A Traveler's request for Forgiveness

A very touching farewell email before Hajj.

Assalamoalaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh,

Inshallah this mail will find you all in best of your health and Imaan. It has been my honor to have known you and I feel humbled to share with you my upcoming trip to Mecca for Hajj. By blessing and will of Allah swt, I'll be leaving for the Journey of the lifetime on 4th of December.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for everything that you have done for me. I equally relish the joyous moments that I have shared with you and I pray to Allah swt that he increases love and brotherhood between us in the life to come.

I seek your forgiveness for my shortcomings and for anything that might have hurt you either knowingly or unknowingly. I ask you to consider my sincere apology and I pray to Allah swt to reward you for your kindness and generosity. Also please let me know if I owe you anything, that I can make arrangements for before I embark on my trip.

I ask Allah swt take me to his house with a clean and sound heart, free from any ill feelings. Please let me know if you would like me to make any duas for you or your family.

Jazakallahu khairan,

[Signature]

Tags: Hajj, Umrah, Omrah, Pilgrimage, Makkah, Mecca, 5th fifth pillar of Islam, well, goodbye, farewell