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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Earthquake

Posted by Watermark at 12:20 PM
There was a recent earthquake that hit the San Francisco Bay area in the US. Here is a friend's experience in his own words...

"...just experienced my first earthquake. i was pulling up at the parking lot of the masjid for isha [prayer], and i waited a second to shut the engine off and i was like “why is my car shaking like that?” — i took my foot off the brake and my car was still shaking. i got out of the car, walked away from it, puzzled at the shaking (the whole time i thought it was the car, i didn’t realize it was the ground).

i only realized after the salah [prayer] when the sheikh started talking about a verse 'You did indeed wish for death (Ash­Shahadah - martyrdom) before you met it. Now you have seen it openly with your own eyes.' (3:143) and saying how we’d just experienced being saved from death, and then the man said that people should go home and be with their families. so i asked my friend and he told me it was an earthquake.
5.6 on the Richter scale."


How many times do we inadvertently experience a close brush with death unaware how close it is to us. How many times are we given a renewed lease on life unawares. Our countless blessings unaware.

2 comments on "Earthquake"

Sara on October 31, 2007 at 3:10 PM said...

Subhan Allah, yesterday we had a similar experience here in Egypt. We had a small earthquake in Cairo that went nearly unnoticed. Our lives could end in a second, and without us knowing, we can leave everything we know and everyone we love.. What if I died yesterday, what shall happen to my world? and what shall happen to me?

I passed by a graveyard today, I always remind myself that I will end up here before I know it. I will not take with me anything except my few good deeds. No one and nothing else except the mercy of God would help me there. There is true loneliness if not prepared.

God's clear messages are everywhere, but we choose to shut our eyes and ears and hearts. He is the Refuge, He is the Refuge.

Peace on November 1, 2007 at 3:12 PM said...

My father once told me that one day I might choke to death. I often choke. And I was so close to death once. At another time, I lost consciousness. I remember that at both times it was the face of a very close and beautiful human being that gave me a reason to survive. I guess it is loved ones that I will miss, yes. But seriously, what is it about death that we fear so much? It is only the grief that we won't be able to go back and undo our mistakes may be. But is death really an abhorred phase? I found myself repeating in my prayers right after my father's recent death, "He is with You God now. We all left him in the ground but he has no one but You now. And You indeed love him more than we ever will. You are his Merciful Creator, so have mercy on him my Lord." So imagine with me, won't it be a relief from life's constant pains hassles? Aren't you keen to go meet Allah and be with Him alone? I know I am; if it weren't just for what I know and He only knows. But He is The Most-Merciful and He knows how much I long for the peace of His company. May God grant us all an end that pleases Him.

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2009 THEME: Islam in the West and Our Children (Discussion & Resources regularly updated)

There is increasing concern that second and third generation Muslims in the West are mostly no longer Muslims so they actually end up adding to the Christian or Atheist population of the West, albeit racially from a non-Western origin. Accordingly, the ratios mentioned in the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU) would be correct in regards to race or ethnicity but not necessarily to religion.

It is a grave danger facing our children and grand children from a real life stand point as statistically only 1/5 of the second generation stay really Muslims when they grow up and are independent and almost non from the third generation are Muslims. And that is why the Western authorities are still permitting the immigration of Muslims inspite of the figures provided in the above video. They know that on the long term the descendants of Muslims in the West leave Islam because their parents raised them up with an Eastern mentality in a Western society instead of an Islamic mentality that encompasses all cultures.

You can see more about that by Jeffrey Lang; an ex-atheist American Mathematics University Professor who reverted to Islam in 1982. He has also written 3 books that I highly recommend; "Struggling to Surrender", "Even Angels Ask" and "Losing my Religion; A Call for Help".
Now I will leave you to enjoy 2 short excerpts from one of his lectures followed by links to his most important full presentation regarding our children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmqN75NI0xg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT1KGyxBXC0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMANKaX8khw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgivQJKtQME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga2rIUWcPPs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYb2v3Yx1LY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhMN_TZavW0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHeM0H0EMAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD-YefJH9x0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2eVOKjOqHE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBQp7aZjxjc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4_xxQVGU44

Here is a solution that is yet to be implemented.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geRM4AlFBOU&NR=1

Raising children here is not an easy task ofcourse but if we do it the right way they will be true Muslims in shaa Allaah who are "Informed Muslims" rather than "Muslims by inheritance" like their counterparts in the East. Hopefully they will then be a much better generation than ours.

Quickly, I do believe that the best 4 authors (for example, there are many others but these are my favorite) who could guide us through this difficult process are Yahiya Emerick, Jeffrey Lang, Jamal Badawi and Dalia Mogahed.

Here are some links for future reference and for an ongoing learning process that I have started collecting slowly.
Please spread the below information to all your Muslim contacts in the West.

Jeffrey Lang:
http://meccacentric.com/jeffrey_lang.html I highly recommend the lecture titled "The Purpose of Life". It has true meanings that I have not come across in any Arabic literature.

Yahiya Emerick:
Articles:
http://www.islamicedfoundation.com/articles/articles.htm
http://www.islamfortoday.com/yahiyaemerick.htm I highly recommend reading and spreading the last article in this link by the name of "The Confusion of the Scholars"
Books:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_adv_b/?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&field-keywords=&field-author=Yahiya+Emerick&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=&node=&url=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-binding_browse-bin=&field-subject=&field-language=&field-dateop=&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=relevancerank&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=29&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=8 There are only 14 books, about half for adults and the other half for kids. The extra are just repetitions.

Jamal Badawi:
Many products including books, articles and lectures mostly for adults. You can find them by searching his name online. My favorite is;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMfWURGcvBI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HXGRYaUy6g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyMD_tE6U68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AixgiXpAFTY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WUgbgLgMXM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3VLRoQ3qUw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5UvvkCDrm4

Dalia Mogahed: (Obama's adviser)
Has one book so far but has a great potential. "Who Speaks for Islam".
You can watch her debate with Irshad Manji (an openly Lesbian Canadian Muslim who is distorting the picture of Islam in the name of "Progressive Islam")http://fora.tv/2008/07/01/Irshad_Manji_and_Dalia_Mogahed_-_Who_Speaks_for_Islam

Finally here is a website for a store that sells lots of Islamic products including Islamic cartoon DVDs in English and Arabic for kids.
http://www.astrolabe.com/category/17/Cartoons_and_KidVid.html?sid=ceb7c5cf8de15b8f1cb92ad29e183a44
 

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