I visited a blog recently and found this video. I really enjoyed it and thought I would share it here:
Some important matters to note:
Imam=someone who leads in prayer. This particular imam in the video is also a Shaykh.
Shaykh= someone who is learned in Islamic matters, through schooling and training through an Islamic institution.
Allah= The One God, not just of the Muslim faith. If *you* believe in One God, then you believe in the existence of Allah. Surah Ikhlas (a chapter of the Koran) explains it:
“Say: He is Allah, the One and Only! Allah, the Eternal, Absolute; He begetteth not nor is He begotten. And there is none like unto Him.”
Click here to go to a website that has the Koran in Korean.
I went gardening today at Golden West College’s native garden. For more info on their garden, click here. If you want to volunteer, just show up on Tuesdays or Thursdays (or both days!) around 10am and just ask if there is anything that needs to be done. If you are like me, you will have found your new hideout zone (well, since I just told you, it’s probably not a ‘hideout’ anymore).
I found this Muslim lady who makes really cute comics about Muslim stuff. Her website can be found here.
I posted some of her comics on my facebook as well.
Now, here’s my attempt at a comic.
Since Muslims are not allowed to “date” in the Western sense, they have come up with various ways to find out more about their prospective mate. Among these include getting parents involved or perhaps a more complicated approach: asking a friend to go through a friend who might be friends with the friend of the prospective mate=)
Enjoy!!
* Halal means permissible and it refers to the permissibility within the Islamic guidelines.
This past winter quarter, I got a tour to the UCI Arboretum for a class. I wish I had known about this place earlier; I would have spent most of my UCI life here! We had the tour on Monday, February 22, but I am putting up the pictures now.
Note: I do not know the names of these plants.
Enjoy the pictures:
This was my favorite! I LOVED the swing=)
For more information about the arboretum, click here.
If someone wants to become Muslim, all they have to do is recite the above words in Arabic* and believe in their heart that those words are true. This is usually done amongst at least one other person as witness. Quite simple.
However, I was sitting just now pondering over whether I should study for developmental and cell biology laboratory final (which is tomorrow!) and a thought came to my mind: How would a person who is deaf say his/her Shahada? (There goes the studying…)
First of all, they cannot hear it. It would have to be conveyed through sign language (and yes, there IS Arabic sign language), but that person would have to KNOW Arabic sign language. Then, they would also have to know what they are saying in their own sign language as it cannot be said without understanding.
In other words, someone would need to explain to this person about the Shahada in the language of this ‘prospective Muslim’ and then they would have to ‘repeat’ it in Arabic sign language.
So I googled.
But I did not find anything at all useful. Instead, I found a website called GazaMom. It sounds unrelated, but she had a link to a website about an organization that works with men and women who are deaf in the Palestinian occupied territory. For more information, click here.
Then, I youtubed.
No luck.
So, now I am guessing that very few converts are from the deaf community and we should definitely look into that. Note to self: become an interpreter for people that are deaf. Golden West College in Huntington Beach offers a certificate course in this (more info here).
*why Arabic? Because the last Messenger came from among the Arabs. If Allah wanted to reveal a Quran in English, to bring about a miracle of prose and poetry, etc., He could have done that. *But still ,why everything in Arabic? This is a unifying element that remains in Islam. Wherever Muslims go, they can pray together. Ex. If a Muslim from Sri Lanka visited Beijing, and if they called out the Azaan (which is the call to prayer) in Chinese, the Sri Lankan would not know that it is time for prayer. (The mosques in China and Sri Lanka do not look alike either, by the way).
