Donate to Haiti Earthquake: 6 ways to help from home

Haiti suffered a devastating earth quake recently. If help was ever needed badly, it is now in Haiti. Houses are smoothed to earth. More than 100,000 dead (officially feared). Many people without shelter, food, medical treatment. Haiti needs your generous helping hand. There are ways you can help from home, like

1. Pray for the people of Haiti
2. Aid agencies are accepting donations for Haiti. Google is also going to help, see here : http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/
3. Provide people with a platform for donating online.
4. Give people news of the disaster.
5. Create a transparent system of donating to funds used in Haiti disaster within your community
6. Think up creative ways to help Haitians.

The following organizations are accepting SMS donations in the US only:

• SMS text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts
• SMS text “YELE” to 501501 to Donate $5 to Yele Haiti’s Earthquake Relief efforts

See the disaster with your own eyes:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2010/01/13/candiotti.quake.damage.copter.cnn

Religion and Climate Change

Of whatever religion you are, you can give support to stopping climate change activities. All major religions, including Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jewism give great importance to nature. So your passion for your holy faith is a passion for stopping climate change.

Read this post from Personal Nature: http://blogs.edf.org/personalnature/2010/01/08/religion-and-climate-change/

What is Islam: All About Islam

The Truth about Islam.

ISLAM-Explained

Islam is based on the worship of One God (Allah). Muslims believe that everything in the world was created by God and that as the creation of God, it is our duty to worship our Creator. Allah is the same God of Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (may peace be upon them all). With more than 1.2 BILLION followers world-wide, Islam is the world’s fastest growing religion.

The Basis of Islam

The belief in Allah is crucial to Islam. Allah is Perfect and not in the need of his creation. Allah is not in the need of a parent, grandparent, uncle, cousin, sibling, daughter or a SON! Allah was not born to anyone, nor does Allah have any children as the Holy Quran states, “Say: He, Allah, is One. Allah is He on Whom all depend. He begets not, nor is He begotten. And none is like Him” (112:1-4).

Muslims worship Allah alone as Islam is truly monotheistic! There are no intermediates in Islam. Worship of Prophets (e.g. Jesus or Muhammad), saints, or idols is strictly prohibited. To get to Allah, one goes directly to Him without the use of a priest or prophet.

Who is Muhammad?

There have been hundreds of Prophets sent to mankind over time including Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Jesus. Muhammad is the seal of the Prophets. Just as Moses and Jesus were from the descendents of Abraham (through his son, Isaac), Muhammad is also from the descendents of Abraham (through his other son, Ismail). Some might claim Muhammad was just a very creative human being propagating himself. However, the Quran actually mentions Jesus and Moses more than it mentions Muhammad. Muhammad was known as a very humble and righteous man in the Arab worlds even before he received prophethood at age 40.

So No Trinity?

The belief in One God is innate in mankind. If you were to ask a three year old girl, “Who is your creator?” She would respond with her name for Allah or attempt to describe this One Supreme Being. No one would come up with the idea of the trinity unless they would be taught such a belief.

The oneness of God was also the original belief in Christianity as Jesus never stated he was the son of God. The belief that Jesus is the son of God did not come to surface until more than three hundred years after Jesus’ death. Ask yourself, is the trinity 1 in 3 or 3 in 1? The Bible itself never explicitly mentions the trinity, rather only subtly hints at it in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” However, this verse was added in the sixteen century and still the verse does not mention the trinity explicitly. David also mentions he is the child of God in the Bible. Why then do we not accept David as the son of God? No other prophet has been known to have preached or mentioned the trinity, including Moses.

Also, consider the belief of Jesus as the son of God. If this were the case, ask yourself, was Jesus around before time and did he know of the future and want to die for the sins of people then? The answer would have to be yes. Then, ask yourself, why were Jesus’ last words while at the Cross, “Oh God, why have You forsaken me?” Also, when Jesus died for three days, how many gods were there? Jesus, like Muhammad and Moses, was a human being and a prophet, who had human tendencies that included eating and sleeping.

Jesus in Islam

Jesus is greatly loved and respected in Islam. The belief in Jesus in Islam is that he was a Prophet of God, not the son of God. Jesus’ birth was a miracle as his mother was the Virgin Mary. Mary was a righteous servant of God and is considered one of the best women in history. Jesus preached the truth, the belief in One God as his message was distorted after his birth. In fact, Jesus mentions the coming of Muhammad by name in the Gospel of Barnabas. In Islam, the concept of one person dying for another person’s sins in unacceptable as Muslims don’t believe in ‘original sin’ as the Holy Quran states “No bearer of burden can bear the burden of another” (53:38).

What is the Quran?

Every Prophet had miracles. For example, Moses parted the Red Sea and Jesus could cure. Muhammad’s greatest miracle was the Holy Quran, the Muslim holy book. The Quran is the word of God and is recorded in Arabic. Even today, the Quran has not changed even one word from its context. The Quran is considered to be the Quran only in Arabic as people can differ over words and meanings lost when translated as has been the case with the Bible in the past. English versions of the Quran are often referred to as the translation of the meaning of the Quran.

The Five Pillars of Islam

1. Testimony of faith as one has to sincerely believe in the Oneness of God and the Prophethood of Muhammad.

2. Prayer as Muslims pray to Allah five times a day.

3. Charity to those less fortunate.

4. Fasting the month of Ramadan where Muslims abstain from food, water, and sexual intercourse from dawn until dusk.

5. Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca to commemorate Prophet Abraham. Hajj is only required to be done once in a lifetime if one has the means and ability to go.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Do Muslims believe in Heaven and Hell?

A. Yes, Muslims believe in Heaven and Hell and they believe that those who are righteous and follow the truth will be rewarded with

paradise. Those who disobey the rules of Allah will be punished with Hell-Fire.

Q. Aren’t most Muslims just Arabs?

A. No, actually Arabs only comprise about 20% of the Muslim population. The largest Muslim country in the world is actually Indonesia. There are more Muslims in China than Egypt! The largest race of Muslims in the United States is that of African-Americans.

Q. Why is Islam the world’s fastest growing religion?

A. Once one learns about the basics of Islam, it is very easy to understand why the truth always prevails. The belief in One God is innate and natural to human beings.

Q. What if I don’t believe in organized religion?

A. If you believe in God, then surely you believe that God is All-Just. Being All-Just, don’t you think that God would send proper guidance to mankind?

Q. But religion causes war and death, right?

A. A religion does not necessarily represent the people who practice it. It should be noted that greed and money has caused more death and war than religion with a prime example being World War 2

Ask yourself, what is the purpose of life? Is it to make lots of money, get old and depressed, and die? Or it is to worship our Creator, be thankful to God, and to follow His Guidelines being truly content with life.

A friend or family may be interested? Do them a favour by sending this post/link by email to them or let them know by anyother way ie facebook, twitter, blogging etc.

Want to learn more about Islam? Check out www.beconvinced.com or email Whyislam101@gmail.com to learn more about Islam!

From Bangladesh to Indonesia to China to Brazil to USA to Copenhagen

Bangladesh….

Scientists tell us that the most profoundly damaging impact of climate change in Bangladesh will take form in floods, salinity intrusion and droughts, all of which will drastically affect crop productivity and food security. We will also face riverbank erosion, sea water level rise and lack of fresh water in the coastal zones. The prognosis is more extreme floods in a country already devastated by floods; less food for our country in which half our children already don’t have enough to eat; and less clean water for where waterborne diseases are already responsible for 24 percent of all deaths.

Were the Earth to warm by just one degree Celsius, 11 percent of Bangladesh would be submerged, putting the lives of 55 million people in danger.

In its Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), published on 2 February 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that, without further action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the global average surface temperature is likely to rise by a further 1.8-4.0°C this century.

Indonesia…

Forests can store an estimated 300 billion tons of carbon or the equivalent of 40 times the world’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Destroy the trees and you release that carbon into the atmosphere, putting the great challenge of our age. Forests destruction accounts for 15% of global emissions by man activity, far outranking the total from vehicle and aircraft combined.

Forests are disappearing so fast in Indonesia that, incredibly, this developing country ranks third in emissions behind industrial giants China and the U.S. According to Greenpeace, more than 182 million acres (740,000 sq km) of Indonesian forests have been destroyed.

China….

China did set a attractive looking goal but still there is that old math trick of 2005. A reduction of 2005 level is considerably smaller than that of 1990 level, the original base line many countries follow. China can do more, experts say, and China has to do more on climate issues.

Brazil….

Brazil, the land of Amazon, is home to the world’s largest tropical rain forest. Brazil has a lot to do: from protecting amazon to reducing emissions.

Brazil has lowered deforestation rates 64 percent since 2005. This remarkable achievement was possible through a government crack-down on illegal activities in the region. In December of 2008, this nation declared that it would cut deforestation to 20% of its historic level by 2020.

Finally, United States of America…

Barack Obama’s “yes we can” is slowly turning into silence and then “no, we can not”. The US is the leading carbon emitter; the world expects them to do the most but they are doing the least to fight climate change. Its not only about saving the world but also cleaning your dirty footprint off the otherwise green floor.

The US keeps hiding behind weak numbers, made to appear stronger by shifting the “baseline” date to which they’re compared. A reduction of 17 percent of 2005 levels is really a reduction of four or five percent of 1990 levels, the base year all other developed countries are using. Using 2005 as a base year is the kind of cheap math trick we expect from the Bush administration, not from a President who was elected promising he was going to get us out of the climate crisis. Moving the goal posts to pretend you’re scoring is a nice way to spin your speeches, but science doesn’t work that way. We can’t change the science – we have to change the politics, which is not the way Obama is going right now.

In order to keep global temperature increases below two degrees, developed countries have to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from the base year 1990. Anything less, and we face catastrophic climate change. The target of 40 percent emission reduction on a baseline of 1990 for industrialised countries is taken from the International Panel on Climate Change’s scenario. This is not a political target, it is the minimum needed to keep the global average temperature at a safe level. You can’t negotiate with science.

Copenhagen

One of the last chance of a climate agreement is closing in. Unless someone does something, we will be in big trouble. Things will get out of the hand of human beings. Millions of lives are at stake, civilization is at stake. Always remember, in history one man’s wrong decision ruined millions of lives, may be billions. There will always be doubts but isn’t it better to keep on the safe side? If someone said there is a man-eater tiger in the forest, what will you do? Play the damn -care and take a stroll in the forest or avoid it if you can? Intelligent people don’t take incalculable risk. Ignoring climate threat is such an incalculable risk. We will never go back if we take the wrong decision.

I will end here with a question: why, it seems, everything is failing in the new world? May be the Creator is not happy with the new world. Why? I will leave that to you to ponder. But if the Creator is not happy, neither should we be.

E-dawah Thriving in Brazil

In a vast country like Brazil, the internet is emerging as the most effective tool to spread the message of Islam, says Al-Sadiq Al-Othmani, head of the Islamic Affairs Department at the Centre of Islamic Da’wah in Latin America, in the South American nation. Othmani, a Moroccan who has lived in Brazil for the past seven years, believes the internet can be particularly helpful for Muslim preachers in Brazil. Othmani, a renowned imam in Sao Paulo, cites his own personal experience. “In 2007, I delivered a sermon themed ‘Islam and slaves freeing’ in a Sao Paulo mosque, and it was appealing to the few attending worshippers,” he recalled. “After I finished, some of the attendants asked me to translate the sermon and post it on the internet, and I did.” The sermon was posted on the website of a young Muslim who established a website to introduce Islam to Brazilians. “To our surprise, the sermon got 800,000 hit in just one week,” said Othmani. “We also received a flood of letters and e-mail from many people asking for more information about Islam, and many of them later converted to Islam.” Othmani later embraced the idea of online Da’wah and established an online magazine that introduces Islam to Latin Americans.

Eid-ul-Adha 2009: What Muslims do on Eid-al-Adha

Eid ul adha is the eid of sacrifice. Muslims sacrifice animals to please Allah, the architect of the universe. First a animal is bought. Cows, goats, camels, dumba etc animals are sacrificed. When the animal is bought it is fed, well tended and taken care of. On the morning of Eid, after the salaat of Eid, the animal is slaughtered in the name of Allah: creature sacrifice to follow the command of the Creator.

The act of slaughtering is done by the Muslim or else by a profession with a sharp tool so that it is done effectively. If it is done by someone else, he has to be paid to satisfy him.

The blood of the animal is let free to run. Then the skin is shriveled and taken off. Most of the times the skin is given free to the poor or donated to local mosques or orphanage or madrasa. Or else the skin is sold and the money obtained is given to poor or donated.

The butcher who is called to chop the meats in some places has to be paid to satisfy him. Islam places a greater emphasis to satisfy the needy and the poor.

 

The meat is gathered and divided into three equal parts.

1. One part is kept for the Muslim himself.
2. One part is kept for relatives.
3. One part is distributed among the poor.

The part for the poor is given to the poor and needy. The part of the relatives is sent to the houses of relatives. The part kept for the Muslim himself is cooked and eaten with family and children.

Technorati Tags: Eid-ul-Adha

Islamic Beliefs on Life After Death/Dead

Is there life after death/dead? What happens after death or what happens to the dead? Will there be reincarnation/resurrection? What are Islamic views/ideas/beliefs/teaching on afterlife? Is life after death eternal? What will happen to Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Hindus after death according to Islam? What is the experience of after life? What are the stages of death according to Qur’an? All these questions are answered briefly in this post. Death is not the end.

The uncertainty of what lies beyond is frightening. It may be that of all religions, Islam, provides the most graphic details of what comes after death and lies beyond. Islam views death to be a natural threshold to the next stage of existence.

Please read on or jump to any of the subsections by clicking below:

Life after death exists

After Death

Description of Life after death

God states in the Quran about the events of the Day of Judgment

Reasons to believe in life after death

Life after death exists

The very fact that all the Prophets of God have dealt with this metaphysical question of life after death so confidently and so uniformly – the gap between their ages in some cases, being thousands of years – goes to prove that the source of their knowledge of life after death as proclaimed by them all, was the same, i.e. Divine revelation.

For example, when the idolaters of Makkah denied even the possibility of life after death, the Quran exposed the weakness of their stand by advancing very logical and rational arguments in support of it:
And he (i.e. man) presents for us an example (i.e. attempting to establish the finality of death) and forgets his [own] creation. He says, “Who will give life to bones while they are disintegrated?” Say, “He will give them life who produced them the first time; and He is, of all creation, Knowing.” [It is] He who made for you from the green tree, fire, and then from it you ignite. Is not He who created the heavens and the earth Able to create the likes of them? Yes, [it is so]; and He is the Knowing Creator. (Quran, 36:78-81)

On another occasion, the Quran very clearly says that the disbelievers have no sound basis for their denial of life after death. It is based on pure conjecture:

And they say, “There is not but our worldly life; we die and live (i.e. some people die and others live, replacing them) and nothing destroys us except time.” And they have of that no knowledge; they are only assuming. And when our verses are recited to them as clear evidences, their argument is only that they say, “Bring [back] our forefathers, if you should be truthful.” Say, “God causes you to live, then causes you to die; then He will assemble you for the Day of Resurrection, about which there is no doubt,” but most of the people do not know. (Quran, 45:24-26)

Faith in life after death is one of the six fundamental beliefs required of a Muslim to complete his faith. Rejecting it renders all other beliefs meaningless.

After Death

Muslims believe that the present life is a trial in preparation for the next realm of existence. When a Muslim dies, he or she is washed and wrapped in a clean, white cloth (usually by a family member) and buried after a special prayer, preferably the same day. Muslims consider this a final service that they can do for their relatives and an opportunity to remember that their own existence here on earth is brief.

Description of Life after death

The dead have a continued and conscious existence of a kind in the grave. Muslims believe that, upon dying, a person enters an intermediate phase of life between death and resurrection. Many events take place in this new “world”, such as the “trial” of the grave, where everyone will be questioned by angels about their religion, prophet, and Lord. The grave is a garden of paradise or a pit of hell; angels of mercy visit the souls of believers and angels of punishment come for the unbelievers.

Resurrection will be preceded by the end of the world. God will command a magnificent angel to blow the Horn. At its first blowing, all the inhabitants of the heavens and the earth will fall unconscious, except those spared by God. The earth will be flattened, the mountains turned into dust, the sky will crack, planets will be dispersed, and the graves overturned.

People will be resurrected into their original physical bodies from their graves, thereby entering the third and final phase of life. The Horn will blow again upon which people will rise up from their graves, resurrected!

God will gather all humans, believers and the impious, jinns, demons, even wild animals. It will be a universal gathering. The angels will drive all human beings naked, uncircumcised, and bare-footed to the Great Plain of Gathering. People will stand in wait for judgment and humanity will sweat in agony. The righteous will be sheltered under the shade of God’s Magnificent Throne.

When the condition becomes unbearable, people will request the prophets and the messengers to intercede with God on their behalf to save them from distress.

The balances will be set and the deeds of men will be weighed. Disclosure of the Records of the deeds performed in this life will follow. The one who will receive his record in his right hand will have an easy reckoning. He will happily return to his family. However, the person who will receive his record in his left hand would wish he were dead as he will be thrown into the Fire. He will be full of regrets and will wish that he were not handed his Record or he had not known it.

Then God will judge His creation. They will be reminded and informed of their good deeds and sins. The faithful will acknowledge their failings and be forgiven. The disbelievers will have no good deeds to declare because an unbeliever is rewarded for them in this life. Some scholars are of the opinion that the punishment of an unbeliever may be reduced in lieu of his good deeds, except the punishment of the great sin of disbelief.

The Siraat is a bridge that will be established over Hell extending to Paradise. Anyone who is steadfast on God’s religion in this life will find it easy to pass it.
Paradise and Hell will be the final dwelling places for the faithful and the damned after the Last Judgment. They are real and eternal. The bliss of the people of Paradise shall never end and the punishment of unbelievers condemned to Hell shall never cease. Unlike a pass-fail system in some other belief-systems, the Islamic view is more sophisticated and conveys a higher level of divine justice. This can be seen in two ways. First, some believers may suffer in Hell for unrepented, cardinal sins. Second, both Paradise and Hell have levels.

Paradise is the eternal garden of physical pleasures and spiritual delights. Suffering will be absent and bodily desires will be satisfied. All wishes will be met. Palaces, servants, riches, streams of wine, milk and honey, pleasant fragrances, soothing voices, pure partners for intimacy; a person will never get bored or have enough!

The greatest bliss, though, will be the vision of their Lord of which the unbelievers will be deprived.

Hell is an infernal place of punishment for unbelievers and purification for sinful believers. Torture and punishment: for the body and the soul: burning by fire, boiling water to drink, scalding food to eat, chains, and choking columns of fire. Unbelievers will be eternally damned to it, whereas sinful believers will eventually be taken out of Hell and enter Paradise.
Paradise is for those who worshipped God alone, believed and followed their prophet, and lived moral lives according to the teachings of scripture.

Hell will be the final dwelling place of those who denied God, worshipped other beings besides God, rejected the call of the prophets, and lead sinful, unrepentant lives.

God states in the Quran about the events of the Day of Judgment:

Then when the Horn is blown with one blast, and the earth and the mountains are lifted and leveled with one blow [i.e. stroke] – Then on that Day, the Occurrence [i.e. Resurrection] will occur, and the heaven will split [open], for that Day it is infirm (i.e. weak, enfeebled and unstable). And the angels are at its edges. And there will bear the Throne of your Lord above them, that Day, eight [of them]. That Day, you will be exhibited [for judgment]; not hidden among you is anything concealed (i.e. any person or any secret you might attempt to conceal). So as for he who is given his record in his right hand, he will say, “Here, read my record! Indeed, I was certain that I would be meeting my account.” So he will be in a pleasant life – In an elevated Garden, Its [fruit] to be picked hanging near. [They will be told], “Eat and drink in satisfaction for what you put forth (i.e. literally, advanced in anticipation of reward in the Hereafter) in the days past.” But as for he who is given his record in his left hand, he will say, “Oh, I wish I had not been given my record, and had not known what my account is. I wish it [i.e. my death] had been the decisive one (i.e. ending life rather than being the gateway to eternal life). My wealth has not availed me. Gone from me is my authority.” [God will say], “Seize him and shackle him. Then into Hellfire drive him. Then into a chain whose length is seventy cubits insert him.” Indeed, he did not used to believe in God, the Most Great. (Quran, 69:13-33)

Reasons to believe in life after death

Thus, there are very convincing reasons to believe in life after death:

1) All the Prophets of God have called their people to believe in it.

2) Whenever a human society is built on the basis of this belief, it has been the most ideal and peaceful society, free of social and moral evils.

3) History bears witness that whenever this belief is rejected collectively by a group of people in spite of the repeated warning of the Prophet, the group as a whole has been punished by God even in this world.

4) Moral, aesthetic and rational faculties of man endorse the possibility of the life after death.

5) God’s attributes of Justice and Mercy have no meaning if there is no life after death.