Who loves football more in times other than the FIFA World Cup? Nobody, right? What a beautiful time of year again huh? FIFA World Cup 2010! From corners of the world, the best teams to compete one another. Thousands of fans flown to South Africa to support their country. Beautiful to see a big variety of cultures and skin colours presented in a peaceful manner on the field, right? WRONG! The movie below will show a side of football which has remained underexposed. Especially important at this moment in South Africa.

Over the new few weeks, you may have some advertising of a different kind on your travels.

http://inspiredbymuhammed.com/

Religious and non-religious advertising has become the norm in recent years, with anti-abortion Christian campaigns and Richard Dawkins infamous ‘God probably doesn’t exist’ campaign, but this is the first inspired by Muslims. Revolutionary?

Personally, I’d just be excited to see a women in Hijab on a poster, any poster. It’s good to see some positive movement, with emphasis on non-political affairs.

What are your thoughts on this initiative?

Can religion ever really win hearts with advertising?

9th of June, "The Prince of Wales aka Prince Charles delivered a speech titled "Islam and the Environment". He speaks about the inspiration that he sees in Islam to ensure 'the environment'. A passage:

"This ignores the spiritual teachings of traditions like Islam, which recognize that it is not our animal needs that are absolute; it is our spiritual essence, an essence made for the infinite. But with consumerism now such a key element in our economic model, our natural, spiritual desire for the infinite is constantly being reflected towards the finite. Our spiritual perspective has been flattened and made earthbound and we are persuaded to channel all of our natural, never-ending desire for what Islamic poets called “the Beloved” towards nothing but more and more material commodities. Unfortunately we forget that our spiritual desire can never be completely satisfied." Continue reading the full speech here.

Previously on Climbing Mount Everest

One of the things I remember fondly was the view at night. As we were high up, there was very little electricity and it was almost complete darkness at night. When we would look up in the skies our eyes would be filled with thousands and thousands of stars shining brightly above the mountains. We saw shooting stars and the view made us wonder about Allah’s creation in our galaxy and beyond it – what is it like in the heavens? His magnificence and the number of His creations just made us increase in His remembrance. When we prayed Maghrib and Isha outside on one of the nights it was so peaceful. We would say salams at the end and when we would look right and left we would have mountains in our direct view on either side. Most times it was a most peaceful prayer and when we prayed we didn’t want to stop.

One verse of the Qur’an that I always remembered throughout the journey was in Surah Hashr where Allah says:



“If We had sent down this Qur’an upon a mountain, you would have seen it humbled and coming apart from fear of Allah. And these examples We present to the people that perhaps they will give thought” (59:21). Continue reading "Climbing Mount Everest"...

Yesterday, I met Ustadh Usama Canon in The Hague at the Mawlid Festival 2010. He spoke about The Prophet (pbuh). When I looked him up in google, I came across a very interesting video, in the main Ta'Leef video I saw that a friend of mine, Ian Belcher (LA), embraced Islam with Ta'Leef Collective.

It's not hard to embrace Islam, but what then...? What happens after they've embraced Islam? Let them enter the wild world without guidance, friends, or a destination to reach?

NO! Then we're supposed to do something as Ta'Leef, have a look at the video below and see how people are introduced, settled, and commited to Islam. Continue reading "Ta'Leef! Hearts being united"...

Previously on Climbing Mount Everest

We would wake up everyday at 6 am and start trekking by 7:30. Some days would be really long and we wouldn’t get to the next lodge until 5 or 6pm, meaning we would be climbing for some 11 hours a day. I wouldn’t have imagined it but all of a sudden I was in bed by 9pm on most nights because of the early start and the long days we had ahead of us. This was definitely a point of reflection for myself. Back in the UK I genuinely found it difficult to wake up early but it was usually because I slept so late. There in the mountains, I really began to see the barakah of starting the day early and making the most out of it. We would leave just after fajr time, which proved to be a great time for some early morning adkhar and reflection. Seeing the sun rise high above the lofty mountains made it easy to focus on Allah’s wonderful creations; these were the most perfect moments, and it is these times that I miss the most. But that reflection period would be of no use unless I could go from strength to strength when I got back. Continue reading "Climbing Mount Everest"...

A socialist, a revolutionary, and a civil rights activist… A hero... these are just a few words to describe what el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz aka Malcolm X meant to people. Today, it's been 45 years since Malcolm X was shot to death in New York.

Malcolm X was born and raised in Nebraska at a time when there were deep division between whites and blacks (and in fact this is putting it mildly), black people at this time were violently persecuted for one reason alone ... namely the colour of their skin. Not only were black people at this time persecuted physically they were also ‘mentally’ persecuted; black children such as Malcolm X himself were made to think and believe that no aspirations or goals they had in life were realistic and that they would never ‘make it’ in terms of education and careers.

Recently I embarked on a journey of a lifetime when I set out to climb the highest mountain in the world – Mount Everest. It was a great experience with many unforgettable memories. There were moments during the trek, such as the pain of the low altitude and the difficulty in breathing, when I wondered why I was doing this. However, in retrospect, I would do anything to go back.

The journey came about as Islamic Relief, one of the biggest Islamic charities in the world, was undertaking different challenges worldwide by taking groups of people to different areas to raise money for various humanitarian causes. Being an active part of the organization, I always wanted to embark on a journey like this, so when the opportunity to climb Everest came about I felt it was one I could not miss. For me, helping the poor and needy in Africa have access to the basic essential need of clean water was the main motivating factor. I felt there was a greater purpose to the challenge, although at the same time I was fulfilling a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

When you talk to other people, and the religion topic comes up, what do you think might happen? If you tell the person you're a Muslim, they might think you're a turban-wearing, camel-riding fool, who has bombs in his back pockets. While some people are afraid to tell their religion, there is one guy, Muhammad, who is not afraid to tell his true origins...

Continue reading "I AM A MUSLIM"...

As I was reading a very interesting book, I came across a point which I would love to share with you guys. The book is called: ':59 Seconds. Think a little Change a lot' written by Professor Richard Wiseman. Richard Wiseman is also the author of the book Quirkology.

Basically, techniques described in this book demonstrate that effective change does not have to be time-consuming. In fact, it can take less than a minute and is often simply a question of knowing exactly where to tap.

The following paragraph is the point I wanted to share with you guys. It's a very interesting point and it makes you think how many actions in life are related to the story behind this paragraph and how you somehow instead of arguing or doing time-consuming actions, you can just have another way of sorting out your stuff. Continue reading "Effective change does not have to be time-consuming!"...