US: Detroit Muslims donate $100,000 in post flood relief

By: Jen Hayden

Source: dailykos.com

Positive news for Detroit residents on the verge of having their water shut off:

Two Muslim organizations are donating $100,000 to provide assistance to Detroit residents facing water shutoffs or recovering from recent flooding.

The Michigan Muslim Community Council has partnered with Islamic Relief USA, the largest Muslim charity organization in the country, to help thousands of households at risk of having their water shut off. The grant will be divided between the Detroit Water Fund, United Way of Southeastern Michigan and Wayne Metro Community Council.

The organizations are hoping to encourage others to follow suit:

“We are hoping this is going to be contagious,” Anwar Khan, CEO of Islamic Relief USA, said in a statement. “The most important thing we have is not our money, it’s our energy and our enthusiasm, and it’s our people. … Also, it is important to us in our faith to help our neighbors. It is a part of our faith to help our friends.”

How France sees Muslims: Very positively

Source: i100.independent.co.uk

By: Matthew Champion

France is mourning the death of 12 people after three suspected Islamist extremists attacked the Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

The paper’s editor and cartoonists were all killed in the attack, believed to be in response to its historical publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohamed.

French president Francois Hollande condemned the shooting as an “act of indescribable barbarity”.

Joining the condemnation was France’s Muslim community. Imam Hassen Chalghoumi of the Drancy mosque in northern Paris arrived at the scene of the attack yesterday to say: “I am extremely angry. These are criminals, barbarians. They have sold their soul to hell. This is not freedom. This is not Islam and I hope the French will come out united at the end of this.”

Mathematical miracles of the Quran: Word Repetitions

Source: miraclesofthequran.com

Apart from the miraculous characteristics of the Qur’an which we have looked into so far, it also contains what we can term “mathematical miracles.” There are many examples of this fascinating Qur’anic aspect. One example of this is the number of repetitions of certain words in the Qur’an. Some related words are surprisingly repeated the same number of times. Below is a list of such words and the number of repetitions in the Qur’an.

The statement of “seven heavens” is repeated seven times. “The creation of the heavens (khalq as-samawat)” is also repeated seven times.

“Day (yawm)” is repeated 365 times in singular form, while its plural and dual forms “days (ayyam and yawmayn)” together are repeated 30 times. The number of repetitions of the word “month” (shahar) is 12.

The number of repetitions of the words “plant” and “tree” is the same: 26

The word “payment or reward” is repeated 117 times, while the expression “forgiveness” (mughfirah), which is one of the basic morals of the Qur’an, is repeated exactly twice that amount, 234 times.

When we count the word “Say,” we find it appears 332 times. We arrive at the same figure when we count the phrase “they said.”

The number of times the words, “world” (dunya) and “hereafter” (akhira) are repeated is also the same: 115

The word “satan” (shaitan) is used in the Qur’an 88 times, as is the word “angels” (malaika).

The word faith (iman) (without genitive) is repeated 25 times throughout the Qur’an as is also the word infidelity (kufr).

The words “paradise” and “hell” are each repeated 77 times.

The word “zakah” is repeated in the Qur’an 32 times and the number of repetitions of the word “blessing” (barakah) is also 32.

The expression “the righteous” (al-abraar) is used 6 times but “the wicked” (al-fujjaar) is used half as much, i.e., 3 times.

The number of times the words “Summer-hot” and “winter-cold” are repeated is the same: 5.

The words “wine” (khamr) and “intoxication” (saqara) are repeated in the Qur’an the same number of times: 6

The number of appearances of the words “mind” and “light” is the same: 49.

The words “tongue” and “sermon” are both repeated 25 times.

The words “benefit” and “corrupt” both appear 50 times.

“Reward” (ajr) and “action” (fail) are both repeated 107 times.

“Love” (al-mahabbah) and “obedience” (al-ta’ah) also appear the same number of times: 83

The words “refuge” (maseer) and “for ever” (abadan) appear the same number of times in the Qur’an: 28.

The words “disaster” (al-musibah) and “thanks” (al-shukr) appear the same number of times in the Qur’an: 75.

“Sun” (shams) and “light” (nur) both appear 33 times in the Qur’an.

• In counting the word “light” only the simple forms of the word were included.

The number of appearances of “right guidance” (al-huda) and “mercy” (al-rahma) is the same: 79

The words “trouble” and “peace” are both repeated 13 times in the Qur’an.

The words “man” and “woman” are also employed equally: 23 times.

Will they not ponder the Qur’an? If it had been from other than Allah, they would have found many inconsistencies in it. (Qur’an, 4:82)

The number of times the words “man” and “woman” are repeated in the Qur’an, 23, is at the same time that of the chromosomes from the egg and sperm in the formation of the human embryo. The total number of human chromosomes is 46; 23 each from the mother and father.

“Treachery” (khiyanah) is repeated 16 times, while the number of repetitions of the word “foul” (khabith) is 16.

“Human being” is used 65 times: the sum of the number of references to the stages of man’s creation is the same: i.e.

Human being 65

Soil (turab) 17

Drop of Sperm (nutfah) 12

Embryo (‘alaq) 6

A half formed lump of flesh (mudghah) 3

Bone (‘idham) 15

Flesh (lahm) 12

TOTAL 65

The word “salawat” appear five times in the Qur’an, and Allah has commanded man to perform the prayer (salat) five times a day.

The word “land” appears 13 times in the Qur’an and the word “sea” 32 times, giving a total of 45 references. If we divide that number by that of the number of references to the land we arrive at the figure 28.888888888889%. The number of total references to land and sea, 45, divided by the number of references to the sea in the Qur’an, 32, is 71.111111111111%. Extraordinarily, these figures represent the exact proportions of land and sea on the Earth today

Muhammad Ali hospitalised with pneumonia

Source: mwcnews.net

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali has been hospitalized with pneumonia and is expected to recover because the illness was caught early, a spokesman said.

Ali, 72, was admitted to a hospital in an undisclosed location Saturday morning and is being treated by a team of doctors and remains in stable condition, spokesman Bob Gunnell said.

“Because the pneumonia was caught early, his prognosis is good with a short hospital stay expected,” Gunnell said in a statement.

He declined to give any further details of the boxer’s condition and said Ali’s family was asking for privacy.

The boxing great, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, made a public appearance in September to attend a ceremony in Louisville, Kentucky, for the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards.

A three-time world heavyweight champion, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about three years after he retired from boxing in 1981.

#illridewithyou goes viral after Sydney siege

Anti-Islamaphobia campaign trends globally in solidarity with Muslims after cafe standoff raised fears of reprisal.

Source: aljazeera.com

Australians have taken to social media in solidarity with the country’s Muslim community to counter concern about an anti-Muslim backlash, after a gunman took an unknown number of people hostage at a cafe in Sydney’s financial and shopping district.

Amid uncertainty about the hostage-taker’s motives and fears of reprisals after a flag bearing the Islamic proclamation of faith, was raised in the cafe, some Australians created the hashtag,  #illridewithyou  in a bid to show solidarity with local Muslims who might feel threatened.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Thomas, reporting from Sydney, said there was some reported racist sentiments towards Muslims especially on public transport following the standoff at the cafe.

The hashtag trended globally on Twitter rapidly and in response, Australia’s race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane said he was heartened by the campaign adding, “let’s not allow fear, hatred and division to triumph.”

More than 40 Muslim groups condemned the siege, saying in a statement that they rejected “any attempt to take the innocent life of any human being or to instil fear and terror into their hearts”.

THE HONORED IN THE QURAN

Source: muslimmatters.org

By: Sh. Ahsan Hanif

Five times in the Qur’ān does Allah refer to the ‘honoured’ or ‘Al-Mukramūn‘. In part one of this two-part article we will be analysing these five passages as well as how we can work to be from amongst them.

Al-Anbiyā’, Yā Sīn, al-Ṣāffāt, al-Dhāriyāt and Maʻārij are the five chapters in which the honoured are mentioned in the Qur’an.

Book of Deeds: Fill It With Whatsoever You Wish

Source: http://blog.islamiconlineuniversity.com

By: Nasmira Firdous

Imagine this: You’ve just written one of the most amazing books, making it shoot into the best-selling list. You have your name plastered all across the world. You have just been given the most coveted literary award, after being generously appreciated by some of the world’s famous literary giants. The feeling of excitement and joy is palpable. (If you can’t imagine any of this, just think of yourself as J.K. Rowling :P)

But, stop. Just for a moment. What if I told you that one day you will indeed read a book which you and solely you were responsible for writing? What if I told you, on that Day, that book will have a record of ALL your words, thoughts, intentions, actions, every unspoken word and every wrong reaction? What if that book holds the keys to your eternal abode? Would you be eager to open it and gasp with happiness or would be perspiring and hoping you had righted the wrongs?

Hamas leader calls on Muslims to ‘defend’ Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque

Source: rt.com

Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal has urged Muslims to “defend” the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem after Israeli forces restricted the entrance for Palestinians. He accused Israel of trying to seize the site, which is considered holy for both Muslims and Jews.

“We call on all our people inside the country to hurry up to al-Aqsa to defend it,” Meshaal said in a statement from Doha, Qatar.

“We call on the nation to be angry and to send a message of painful anger to the world that the Palestinian people, the Arab and Muslim nation, will not be silent at the Israeli crime,” Meshaal added.

Donors pledge $5.4bn for Gaza reconstruction

Aid pledged at Cairo meet to rebuild enclave devastated by Israeli assault surpasses what Palestinians had asked for

Source: aljazeera.com

Global donors have pledged a sum of $5.4bn in aid to reconstruct the Gaza Strip amid warnings that the battered Palestinian enclave remained a “tinderbox” following its summer war with Israel.

“The participants pledged approximately $5.4bn,” Norwegian foreign minister, Boerge Brende, said during the closing statement at the Cairo conference which Norway co-hosted.