Subhana’llah: Toucan Bird (IMAGES)

 Although they spend a lot of time in trees, they are not very good at flying. Toucans mainly travel among trees by hopping. When they do take flight, they flap their wings vigorously and glide, traveling only short distances.

Source: http://www.animalfactguide.com/

HalalTrip wants to be every Muslim’s handy travel guide

Source: techinasia.com

By: Enricko Lukman

The Muslim tourism industry is huge. A study estimates that the “global Muslim tourism market in 2011 was US $126.1 billion in outbound expenditure 1” or 12.3 percent of the global outbound tourism expenditure in that year. It’s estimated that the Muslim tourism market will grow an average of 4.79 percent year-on-year until 2020.

This explains why Crescent Rating, a ratings company for halal friendly travel services behind that study, decided to launch a B2C Muslim tourism service called HalalTrip.

Launched in December 2013, HalalTrip will sell three travel services to Muslims online: the booking of flight tickets, hotels, and tour packages (to be launched this week). All three are offered in cooperation with travel companies Wego (flights), Booking.com (hotels), and Kuoni (travel packages).

What makes the site special however is that it offers travel recommendations based on the halal friendliness of each product 2. The “halal friendliness level” is derived from the parent company’s database of halal tourism ratings. The website also carries a directory of halal friendly restaurants and mosques.

Towards The House: Protocols for The Pilgrim

Hajj has external and internal protocols. In this short piece, I hope to draw your attention to its subtle ones that touch your soul, and enhance your faith.

1. You should choose a righteous person to travel with, ensuring that your income is from permissible sources. Pure sources illuminate your heart, and a righteous companion reminds you of good and keeps you from evil

2. You should avoid business transactions while in route because they will weaken your focus and scatter your thoughts

3. You should be generous while traveling, feeding others with an open heart and picking the best words when speaking with others

4. Avoid arguments, shouting matches and speaking about worldly matters. You should limit your speech, after your basic needs, to reciting the Qur’an and the remembrance of Allāh

5. You should be pleased with your expenditures and the hardships you encounter, viewing them as a sign that your pilgrimage is accepted, considering them all as rewards for you in the Hereafter.

Abridged by Suhaib Webb from al-Ghazzāli’s writings

Nouman Ali Khan Interviews Mujahid Fletcher (VIDEO)

 Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan Interviews Mujahid Fletcher Founder of IslamInSpanish (http://www.IslamInSpanish.org) a non-profit organization specialized in producing Multimedia Audio and Video in the Spanish language to educate Latinos about Islam worldwide. After traveling to Mexico, Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan found out about the great need for Spanish material to educate about Islam in Latin American which lead to the partnering of Bayyinah and IslamInSpanish to bring about awareness and support via IslamInSpanish’s Dallas Fundraising Banquet “Celebrating 10 Years of Service”. Check out the other 4 parts below:

A NEW GREAT AWAKENING: TRAVELING SCHOLARS, RESIDENT IMAMS, AND MOSQUES

Source: http://muslimmatters.org/

The Muslim community has experienced a wave of intellectual revival of faith in the last five to ten years. More and more Muslims are re-introducing themselves to Islam in various capacities of their lives. Through a combined glance at American history, traveling preachers, and revolutionized clergy, we will examine how faith was revived in the lives of the colonists living in America in the 1700s. We will also compare how the Muslim community is experiencing a comparable revival today in a very similar fashion.