Hadith

It is narrated on the authority of Abu Shuraih al-Khuzai' that the Prophet (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) observed: He who believes in Allah and the Last Day should do good to his neighbour and he who believes in Allah and the Last Day should show hospitality to the guest and he who believes in Allah and the Last Day should either speak good or better remain silent.

Luqman 31:18-19

Luqman 31:18-19

Do not treat people with contempt, nor walk insolently on the earth. Allah does not love the arrogant or the self-conceited boaster. Be modest in your bearing and subdue your voice, for the most unpleasant of voices is the braying of the ass.

Luqman 31:18-19

Aamus part 3

After reading the short report to his assembled cabinet The First citizen sat down in his overstuffed green leather chair and called for opinions and questions. The cabinet quickly exploded with questions and opinions.

“Aliens!” stated Sayuka Isoyama the petite Minister of Culture, her entire tiny body shaking with intense anticipation.

“I doubt that it is aliens” replied Josh Brolin the Minister of science and technology, his facial expression relaying to everyone in the room that he thought Sayuka was a few slices short of a whole loaf. “It is far more likely that in the several hundred years that have passed since this colony was founded that earth has made various technological advances which we are not familiar with.” He then sat down taking his glasses off to clean them.

“Invasion Sir, you should call up the military reserves and deploy our star fighters at once” demanded the rather frightened red faced Minister of Agriculture a man used to combating crop pests not the aliens who he was sure would begin landing soon.

“Well there are two problems with that plan, one we do not have any star fighters and two we do not have any star fighters. Now I do realize that it is the same reason but it such a big one that I felt I should mention it twice. Our space command entirely is made up of two asteroid defense ships and three shuttles which we use to put satellites up in orbit and only the Asteroid defense ships are armed.” Stated Gerhard Stoltenberg the bear like minister of defense while looking at the minister of agriculture with contempt. “And military intelligence has determined that the ship is too small to be carrying an invasion force. It has perhaps a crew two hundred.”

“It could be an Alien military reconnaissance vessel” retorted the Agricultural minister trying to regain some of his composure.

“It is not aliens, and why would anyone invade us?” Asked Minister Brolin.

“Earth is overpopulated, it was even so when our ancestors left hundreds of years ago. It has probably only gotten worse and they need to resettle the excess population” blurted out Minister Isoyama whom after the initial shock of the news had passed, had decided it was not aliens.

“It would be easier and cheaper then to just send out thousands of Ark ships” Stated the Defense Minister.

Just as the First citizen was thinking to dismiss the meeting before it turned into a fist fight a well dressed female Aide to the First Minister came in to the conference room and slipped him a hand written note. He read it quickly and after getting everyone’s attention announced that the ship was sending them a text message.

Recon photo taken of Sterns' world's space command center. The center is only accessible by air.

Sub-Commander Amr Diab turned the video monitor to the channel the video stream they had interpreted was on. The officers watched it for a few minutes when Captain Muhammad asked the question that had crossed all of their minds, “what is wrong with the audio?”

“Nothing sir, there is none “replied Sub-Commander Diab with a wily grin he continued, “We have looked at thirty seven video broadcasting streams coming from the planet and none of them have audio. Also we have been unable to detect any audio radio broadcasts coming from the planet.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, one of the first things colonies do is set up a radio station or two. “Said Lt. El-Saher in a confused tone.

“We had the same thought. Me and the boys in communications looked at the programs and while many news, sports and even science programs had text subtitles and narration running under the pictures. Many of the pure entertainment programs did not. Then we looked at everyone was doing with their hands and we realized that they were talking with their hands” said the Sub-commander who was becoming very enthusiastic.

“How did they all become deaf? Was their some sort of virus or chemical accident? I do not see how this could happen on such a large scale.” stated the captain a puzzled look on his face and in his tone.

“We do not know sir, but I am sure that it is not beyond Confederation science to reverse it. Such an offer of help could really help with the diplomatic overtures.” Replied sub-commander El-Saher.

“I am sure that the Confederacy will be happy to send medical teams from New Malaysia or New Kurdistan to help the people of …. What do the people call their world?” asked Captain Khalid Muhammad.

“Sterns’ World, Sir”

“Yes, Sterns’ World. Help the people of Sterns’ World.”

Aamus part 2

First Citizen Kenny Macaskill was feeling annoyed. It was dark outside of his office window and he watched as the rain poured down in sheets, the park across the street being lit up by the occasional flash of lightening. The Rain wasn’t annoying him as it was cleaning up the streets of the capitol city which were sorely in need of it after yesterday’s founders’ day celebration, something which consisted mostly of throwing powder of various bright colors on your friends, foes and people chosen by random in the crowd. As a boy and even when he got older participating with his own children, he had always enjoyed the annual Founders day festival, but now his aides had advised him that as First Citizen it would not be dignified and so he had gone to some official dinner, that had annoyed him. Not that the aides said it, but that he had listened to them. Of course that was not what was really bothering him nor the fact that his secretary had put sugar in his coffee again why the boy kept doing that as he was quite competent at everything else his job required of him.

No what was annoying the First Citizen was that instead of having a year or two of warning about a starship approaching the planet he was told that there was one already in the star system and then they only knew about it because some astronomy grad students studying the huge and violent storms of the gas giant Gallaudet and saw it pass by the gas giant. They had originally thought they had discovered a new comet or asteroid then observed it making a course change. The military trying to keep the news of the star ship hush was currently providing free room and board for all of the astronomy students.

The military had gone on to with, what the First Citizen found to be refreshing, extreme efficiency to commandeer the largest telescopes on Sterns’ world and had confirmed that it was most matter of fact a star ship. They had also managed to determine, according to the classified report on the First Citizen’s large metal and glass desk, that it was not an Ark ship like the one which had brought the original colonist from Earth to Sterns’ world. The report went on to say in clipped military language that the star ship was not only of unknown design but that they were not even sure how its propulsion system worked.

Two Kinds of Silence

Al-Hujwiri , " The Kashf al-Mahjub "

There are two kinds of speeches and two kinds of silences. Speech is either truth or a falsification, and silence is either fruition or heedlessness. If one speaks the truth, his words are better than his silence, but he who invents falsifications, his silence is better than his speech.

Al-Hujwiri , " The Kashf al-Mahjub "

Aamus part 1

Captain Khalid Muhammad sat feeling troubled in his ready room sipping his warm cup of tea and contemplated what his communications officer had told him earlier. He had been having a rather pleasant conversation with his first officer Commander Fadel Shaker whom he had served with for over 10 years now and the Sensors Officer Lt. Kathem El-Saher a young go getter from the planet Khalwat, over a dinner of spicy curried beef, rice and lemon grass soup, about the new star system they had just slid into. The crew was excited as the second planet’s surface was 65 per cent covered in oceans and had an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere. The sensors had also showed and abundance of plant life and with an average temperature at sea level on the equator of 26c. The sensors had also shown that the planet was teeming with life.

They had been joking about where they were going to build their retirement homes on the planet, which they were currently calling Aamus, with Lt. Kathem El-Saher saying he would want to find where the best ski slopes were on the newly discovered world and build a large home there, when Sub-Commander Amr Diab the communications officer had interrupted saying that he had just picked up some video transmissions coming from the planet.

“Aliens?” asked Lt. El-Saher eagerly his face bright with anticipation.

“No, not Aliens” replied Sub-Commander Amr Diab a no nonsense man in a slightly annoyed tone, looking at Kathem El-Saher he thought if the man had a tale it would be wagging right now. He had then gone on to explain further, it was this further explanation which was bothering the captain.

Blankets

Attar, "Rabi'a"

Rabi'a asked someone to buy a blanket for her, giving the person four coins. The person asked: 'Do you want a black blanket, or a white one?' Rabi'a took back the coins, threw them in the Tigris river, and exclaimed: 'Must we divide even blankets into distinct groups?'

-Attar, "Rabi'a"

Muhammed Ahmed Faris

Muhammed Ahmed Faris was born May 26, 1951 in Aleppo, Syria. He was a pilot in the Syrian Air Force with the rank of a colonel. He specialized in navigation when he was selected to participate in the Intercosmos spaceflight program on September 30, 1985.

He flew as Research Cosmonaut on Soyuz TM-3 to the Mir space station in July 1987, spending 7 days 23 hours and 5 minutes in space. He returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TM-2.

Muhammed Faris was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on July 30, 1987. He was also awarded the Order of Lenin.[1]

After his spaceflight, he returned to the Syrian Air Force and lives in Aleppo. He is married and has three children.

FLIGHT LOG; Manned three crew. Transported to the Mir orbital space station a Soviet-Syrian crew comprising cosmonauts A S Viktorenko, A P Aleksandrov and M A Faris to conduct joint research and experiments with cosmonauts Y Romanenko and A Laveykin. Maneuvered from initial 231 X 217 km orbit to Mir's 311 X 359 km orbit. Docked with rear Mir port at 3:30 GMT 24 July. Undocked with rear port 30 July and docked to forward port. Undocked 05:55 GMT 29 December. Returned Aleksandrov, Yuri Romanenko (Soyuz TM-2), Anatoly Levchenko (Soyuz TM-4) to Earth. Recovered December 29, 1987 09:16 GMT. Landed near Arkalyk.

NaNoWriMo

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

November is National Novel Writing Month. The goal for aspiring writers is to write a 50,000 word novel (about 175 pages) starting no earlier than November 1 and finishing before November 31.
By signing up at the National Novel Writing Month website (also known as NaNoWriMo), you can create a profile and access the participant forums, where you can finds tips, hints and helpful encouragement. You can post excerpts of your novel for others to read. When you are ready, you can submit your novel for an official word count, which is "read" by a computer. If you succeed, you get a certificate and the satisfaction in having finished a novel.
According to NaNoWriMo, the key to success is to worry less about the quality and more about quantity. The brute force method must work, because every year more and more people finish as "winners".

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/basics

Hasan Al-Basri in Nurbakhsh

Hasan Al-Basri in Nurbakhsh: Hasan Basri, 174

Good humor and character is manifested in a cheerful face, generous giving, and not imposing one's problems on others.

-Hasan Al-Basri in Nurbakhsh: Hasan Basri, 174

Malaysia's first astronaut

Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor was born Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Al Masrie bin Sheikh Mustapha on July 27, 1972 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sheikh Muszaphar attended high school at Maktab Rendah Sains MARA in Muar. He then went on to obtain a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India.

Sheikh Muszaphar is an orthopedic surgeon, and a university lecturer in medicine at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. In 1998, Sheikh Muszaphar worked at Hospital Seremban, followed by a move to Kuala Lumpur General Hospital in 1999, and was on staff at Hospital Selayang from 2000 through 2001. Sheikh Muszaphar is also a part-time model.
Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor is the first Malaysian cosmonaut to go into space. He was launched to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-11 with the Expedition 16 crew on October 10, 2007.Sheikh Muszaphar was flying under an agreement with Russia through the Angkasawan program.

Space experiments Sheikh Muszaphar will carry out experiments on board the International Space Station relating to the characteristics and growth of liver cancer and leukemia cells, the crystallisation of various proteins and microbes in space.
The experiments relating to liver cancer, leukemia cells and microbes will benefit general science and medical research, while the experiments relating to the crystallisation of proteins, lipases in this case, will directly benefit local industries.

Lipase are a type of protein enzymes used in the manufacturing of diverse range of products from textiles to cosmetics, and the opportunity to grow these in space will mean a possibility for Malaysian scientists to take a crack at an industry worth some USD$2.2bil (RM7.7bil) worldwide by producing these locally.

Spaceflight and religion Since Sheikh Muszaphar is a Muslim, and as his time in space will coincide with the last part of Ramadan, the Islamic National Fatwa Council drew up the first comprehensive guidebook for Muslims in space. The 18-page guidebook is titled "Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites (Ibadah) at the International Space Station", and details issues such as how to pray in a low-gravity environment, how to locate Mecca from the ISS, how to determine prayer times, and issues surrounding fasting. The orbit of the ISS results in one day/night cycle every 90 minutes,so the issues of fasting during Ramadan are also addressed. The guidebook will be translated into Russian, Arabic, and English.Anan C. Mohd, from Malaysia's Department of Islamic Development said that fasting while traveling is optional, so Sheikh Muszaphar could choose what he would like to do, but if he did decide to fast in space, the times would be centered around local time in Baikonur, where the launch takes place.Sheikh Muszaphar will celebrate Eid ul-Fitr aboard the station, and packed some satay and cookies to hand out to the rest of the crew on Saturday, October 13, to mark the end of Ramadan.

Rumi

Rumi, "Mathnawi"

Every prophet to the world came alone,
within him carrying a hundred unseen worlds.
The cosmos was charmed by his depth
and folded itself into his modest frame.
The foolish thought he was lonely and weak.
With the King as his companion,
how is he weak?

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

Muslim Astronaut

Sultan Salman Abdulaziz Al-Saud Payload Specialist
Born June 27, 1956, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Completed his elementary and secondary education in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He later went on to study communications and aviation in the United States. In 1982 he was appointed to the position of researcher in the Department of International Communications at the Ministry of Information in Saudi Arabia.In 1984 he served as Deputy Director for the Saudi Arabian Olympic Information Committee at the Olympics in Los Angeles, California. Later that year, when the Department of Advertising was created at the Ministry of Information, he was appointed its Acting Director.In 1985 he flew as a Payload Specialist on STS-51G Discovery (June 17-24, 1985). As one of a seven member international crew, which also included American and French astronauts, he represented the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (ARABSAT) in deploying their satellite, ARABSAT-1B.Upon conclusion of his space flight, he helped in founding the Association of Space Explorers, an international organization comprising all astronauts and cosmonauts who have been in space, and served on its Board of Directors for several years.In 1985 he was commissioned as an officer into the Royal Saudi Air Force. He holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and is qualified in several military and civilian aircraft.For several years he headed the Advisory Committee for the Science Oasis Project to be built in Riyadh.In 1989 and then again in 1992 he was elected to the position of Chairman of the Saudi Benevolent Association for Handicapped Children; where he also served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Prince Salman Center for Handicapped Research.In 1991 he accepted an invitation from the Board of Directors of the Saudi Computer Society to become Honorary Chairman, and in 1993 due to his special interest in architecture he agreed to serve as Honorary President of the Al-Umran Saudi Association (a society of specialists in the fields of the built environment).

Prince Sultan told a television interviewer that another big moment was when he had first glimpsed Saudi Arabia from space. "Once," he said, "I was woken up by some crew members who said: 'Come and see your country.' I was looking from the upper deck window. The earth was above us, and I saw the Eastern Province with its lights. It was a very moving sight."

At the same interview, Prince Sultan praised the team of Saudi scientists, who had been monitoring his experiments from earth. "We don't lack talent in the Arab world. We have plenty of it," the prince said. "All we need to do is give people the chance to prove themselves." Prince Sultan also displayed the small Koran he had carried into space; inside was a prayer dictated by his mother asking God to take care of travelers - and the prince's Saudi pilot's licence. "I was saying the prayer during take off," said Sultan. "And the pilot's license?" he was asked. "I took that with me in case we had to land somewhere and I needed to hire an areoplane."

Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jillani, "Fayuz E Yazdani

Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jillani, "Fayuz E Yazdani"

Have faith in God the Omnipotent,
the Eternal, the First and the Last,
who grants life and determines death.
He bestows bounty,
and only He can restore crushed hopes.
Have faith, do not lose hope, wait patiently.
He indeed will create a way
to deliver you from your hardships.

-Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jillani, "Fayuz E Yazdani

Tawhid

Junayd, "Tawhid"

Consider the way for ordinary people. They should believe in the unity of God. They should expel from their minds all ideas of other gods, or other beings which are similar to God; they should know that God has no equals. Yet equally they should realize there are spiritual forces which are opposed to God. They should trust God, and fear all that are opposed to him.

Junayd, "Tawhid

A Guideline of Performing Ibadah at the International Space Station

Assalam Alaikum

I found this document and felt i must share it with everyone so i am placing a link to it here. it is so very cool.

A Guideline of Performing Ibadah at International Space Station (ISS) is prepared by Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) as a reference for Muslim astronaut in performing ibadah at the ISS. With this guideline, Muslim astronaut is aspired to be focusing on their research at space and at the same time performing their obligations as a Muslim. Other than that, it also guide on how to fulfill the ‘al-maqasid al-syariah’ in any situation.


2. INTRODUCTION

2.1 Issues on ‘Performing Ibadah in Space’ were being arisen in conjunction with the announcement from the government on Jun 2003, to send the first Malaysia’s astronaut to the ISS.

2.2 Since the possibility of sending a Muslim astronaut to the ISS was apparent, lots of opinions and suggestions have been proposed by academicians and others regarding the issue of performing ibadah in space (at the ISS).

2.3 Issues on how to do istinja’ (washing-up), determining prayer time and the direction of Qibla, performing solat (prayer), defining time of fasting, caring for the deceased, and others, have brought concern within the Muslim community.

2.4 In conjunction with that, ‘Seminar on Islam and Living in Space’ had been organized by the National Space Agency (ANGKASA) in collaboration with the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) on 25- 26 April 2006 for the purpose of identifying related issues in performing ibadah in space (in particular at ISS) based on Islamic perspective, and more importantly proposing solution on them.

for more go to

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/files/a_guideline_ibadah_at_iss.doc

Islamic scholars produce guide to praying at 17,000mph

Islamic scholars produce guide to praying at 17,000mph
Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent
Wednesday October 10, 2007
The average astronaut has plenty to keep him busy. But when the first Malaysian man in space blasts off today from Kazakhstan, the Muslim doctor will have whole new layer of concerns dictated by the Koran.
For instance, how will Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, 35, pray towards Mecca when orbiting the earth at 17,000mph? In the closing days of the Muslim month of Ramadan, how will he observe the fast between sunrise and sunset?
Luckily, Malaysia's Islamic scholars spent a whole year finding solutions to these and other ticklish problems as Mr Muszaphar prepared for his nine-day trip to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,,2188006,00.html

EID MUBARAK

EID MUBARAK

RAMADAN MUBARAK

RAMADAN MUBARAK

Everyone

Hope that everyone is having a blessed Ramadan