Unfounded doubts and fears of action

Source: imamreza.net

By: Ayatullah Shaykh Husain Mazaheri

We have categorised waswasa (repeated, unfounded doubts and fears) into two kinds: waswasa of thought and waswasa of action. We have already dealt with the first category. Today we shall talk about waswasa of action.

Sometimes people get excessive doubts about the tasks they are doing. For example: while doing wudhu (ablution), performing the ritual bath (Ghusl),performing the prayers etc. They get doubts whether they have performed these actions strictly in accordance to the set norms or not. Such doubts are very harmful for homes. A person who nurses repeated doubts about his own actions becomes an outcast from the society. He can no longer feel love for his home. Those in the audience who have the tendency of doubting their own actions should give particular attention to this talk.

8 reasons marriages fail

Source: shapemindsoul.com

By: Kim Stern

When you enter into a marriage, you never think about the fact that a large percentage of marriages actually fail. Marriages fail for many reasons and if you’ve had a failed marriage your main reason for failure might be different than most others. However, there are some reasons that are consistent across most failed marriages.

Take a look at my list of the 8 reasons why most fail.

The Deen Show: How Muslims trust in God with Islam and achieve peace and happiness (Video)

 Who do you depend on and trust most in life? What happens when the Material things and people that you put all of your trust into let you down? Are you the type of person who says ” I trust in the Almighty Dollar?” or do you know people like this? How can you build trust in God as a Muslim in Islam and have peace and happiness in life. We’ll be talking about what it truly means to trust in God and some of the misconceptions about it in this weeks exciting show, enjoy!
More episodes…

Basheer Jones – Changing the world one young person at a time (Video)

 This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Understanding our youth, identifying their point of reference and relating to them.

Basheer Jones is a poet, speaker and author. As the founder of the “Be the Change” leadership series, his life’s focus has been to inspire young people to see beyond their current situation. Jones shares his life experiences with the hopes of inspiring them to be the change that they want to see. Born in New York, a graduate of Martin Luther King High School, and Morehouse College, he is trying to change the world one young person at a time.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
More lectures…

Astounding hypocrisy on brazen display in France

Source: informationclearinghouse.info

By: Michael S. Rozeff

Hypocrites up and down the line. Terrorists themselves. Leaders who have been stoking the furnace of terrorism themselves, creating terrorists, supplying them with arms, tolerating their education in Saudi Arabia. Hypocrites. All those leaders who have been attacking Muslim countries for years on end and supplying arms. Hypocrites. All those leaders who yell “terrorism” when it suits their grander schemes of domination. Now when there is blowback in Paris, they yell “extremism” and use the occasion to continue and enlarge the war on terror. They use it to strengthen police state surveillance and to frighten the populations under their control. The West’s leaders have created terrorism, intentionally and unintentionally, knowingly and unknowingly, depending on the person and situation, and now they again are seeking to benefit from an attack on western ground. These same leaders stand by while Netanyahu engages in slaughtering Palestinians. They dismember Libya. They supply arms in Syria. They attack and destroy Iraq and Afghanistan. They now bemoan deaths for which they bear responsibility, for it is they who have invaded one Muslim country after another.

The Paris shooting: 9 points to ponder

By: Omid Safi

Source: onbeing.org

As a person of faith, times like these try my soul. Times like these are precisely when we need to turn to our faith. We turn inward, not because the answers are easy, but because not turning inward is unthinkable in moments of crisis.

So let us begin, not with the cartoons at the center of the shootings at the office of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, but with the human beings. Let it always be about the human beings:

• Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnier, 47 (editor)
• Bernard Maris, 68 (economist)
• Georges Wolinski, 80 (cartoonist)
• Jean “Cabu” Cabut, 78 (cartoonist)
• Bernard “Tignous” Verlhac, 57 (cartoonist)
• Philippe Honoré, 73 (cartoonist)
• Elsa Cayat (columnist)
• Michel Renaud (a guest)
• Frederic Boisseau (building maintenance worker)
• Franck Brinsolaro, 49 (a police officer)
• Moustapha Ourrad (copy editor)… It’s not Muslims vs. cartoonists, as long as there are Muslim cartoonists.
• Ahmed Merabet, 42, (police officer)… A Muslim who died protecting the cartoonists from Muslim terrorists. Muslim vs. Muslim.

And brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, and Hamyd Mourad — the shooters, with a legacy of crime behind them.

I try to resist the urge to turn the victims into saintly beings, or the shooters into embodiments of evil. We are all imperfect beings, walking contradictions of selfishness and beauty. And sometimes, like the actions of the Kouachi brothers and Mourad, it results in acts of unspeakable atrocity.

Study: U.S. regime has killed 20-30 million people since World War Two

Source: countercurrents.org

By: James A. Lucas

After the catastrophic attacks of September 11 2001 monumental sorrow and a feeling of desperate and understandable anger began to permeate the American psyche. A few people at that time attempted to promote a balanced perspective by pointing out that the United States had also been responsible for causing those same feelings in people in other nations, but they produced hardly a ripple. Although Americans understand in the abstract the wisdom of people around the world empathizing with the suffering of one another, such a reminder of wrongs committed by our nation got little hearing and was soon overshadowed by an accelerated “war on terrorism.”

But we must continue our efforts to develop understanding and compassion in the world. Hopefully, this article will assist in doing that by addressing the question “How many September 11ths has the United States caused in other nations since WWII?” This theme is developed in this report which contains an estimated numbers of such deaths in 37 nations as well as brief explanations of why the U.S. is considered culpable.

THE BEGGARS OUTSIDE THE MASJID: MYTH AND REALITY

Source: muslimmatters.org

By: Hena Zuberi

A woman in her 30s in a headscarf hails the worshipers as they leave Eid salah. Feeling a curious mix of guilt and joy, most don’t hesitate in handing over some money. They have cash in their pockets and purses today, expecting to give it as gifts to the children in their own families.

Some have not paid their Sadaqah Fitr [charity due before Eid salah] and jump at the chance to give it in person. The woman looks like she is in need, she also knows the right things to say.

From New Orleans to London, beggars have become a part of the Eid and often Jumuah prayers. A set of seven or eight were outside a large East Coast masjid, says Sarah S., who was visiting family. Some are visibly Middle Eastern or from the Indian subcontinent, and many are supposedly Romani, often holding index cards asking for money.

Never losing the hope…

Source: blog.islamiconlineuniversity.com

By: Fareed Ahmad

The arabic word for sadness or grief is “Gham” – derived from the word “Ghaamama (the cloud) “. Although there’s no apparent relationship between sadness and cloud, there is a hidden one.  Just like how a cloud blocks away sunshine from lighting up the earth,sadness/grief also acts as a stumbling block, hindering man’s positive energy and performance.

Just like a cloud blocks all the sun-shine coming down to the earth, sadness or grief, one way or another, also acts as a stumbling block for a man’s positive energy and performance. 2

It is very natural that when a person is happy and everything is going according to his whims and desires and his own wishful thinking, his performance is at it’s peak, but when he is tested or acalamity strikes him, he becomes pessimistic and isn’t able to give a good performance.