Date: February 12, 2015
Alexander, a French pilgrim who embraced Islam and adopted his Muslim name, Hamza is recently blessed by King Abdullah to do Haj as his guest. The King was in great happiness and proud of Hamza’s sacrifice to Islam religion that he drove 7,000 km in his car with his wife to perform Umrah in Makkah. He is s now in Makkah as the guest of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for Haj. He was in search for the truth and found that Islam is the religion of peace and truth and the man is now happy to embrace the world’s great religion. As there are millions of devotees across world who wish to perform Umrah/Haj in Makkah, Hamza was in the last queue to have an Umrah visa. But his devotion and sacrifice to Allah helped him to be in the golden list of King’s guests. And now he is in the divine route to pray at the Grand Mosque in Makkah. It was the entire Almighty’s compassion that we have been selected as one of 1,000 guest pilgrims of King Abdullah to perform Haj this year. I could not believe my ears.”- Says Hamza. Hamza intends to study Islamic law to gain more knowledge about the religion and spread its message among others.
Asalam-o-alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatahu. Uthman bin Affan (R) reported: عَنْ عُثْمَانَ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ عَنْ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ خَيْرُكُمْ مَنْ تَعَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ وَعَلَّمَهُ صحيح البخاري كتاب فضائل القرآن باب خيركم من تعلم القرآن و عَلَّمَهُ The Prophet, peace and blessings upon him, said: “The best of you are those who learn the Quran and teach it.” Sahih al-Bukhari 5029 https://www.alim.org/hadith/sahih-bukhari/6/ Alhamdulillah! The journey of the Alim Foundation Inc. started in early 1991 on a CD-ROM followed by its transition to the Alim.org online platform in mid-2010. Since then, the Alim Foundation has been consistently delivering authentic Islamic knowledge resources – Quran (Arabic, Translations, Tafasir), Ahadith, Islamic History, Islamic News and Articles – to the global community through its web and mobile resources. During our analysis of the incoming traffic and user demographics of our audience worldwide, we realized we could use this time to upgrade our web platform to meet the next level of usability and accessibility demands. To achieve these performance metrics, we have renovated the design, layout, and technology of this valuable resource for your benefit. We have also ported the website to a better infrastructure, while retaining all the existing Islamic Knowledge resources we have been known to provide. We have done the platform migration to make Alim.org faster and more user-friendly. In accordance to the request of many users, our new layout offers a smoother design and clean UI . All the sections in the old site – Arabic Quran, Mushaf, Quran Translations, Quran Tafasir, Ahadiths, History and News and Views – are implemented in our new and improved site. There are navigation menu items that lead to all the sections and you should be able to access your desired content within a few hours. Here are the URLs for a few regularly visited sections: Quran home page for all sections including Arabic Quran, Mushaf, Translations, and Tafsir: https://www.alim.org/quran/ Quran with translation: https://www.alim.org/quran Mushaf: https://www.alim.org/quran Asad Translation: https://www.alim.org/quran Tafsir Ibn Kathir: https://www.alim.org/quran Hadith home page: https://www.alim.org/hadith/ Sahih Bukhari: https://www.alim.org/hadith/sahih-bukhari/1/ Sahih Muslim: https://www.alim.org/hadith/sahih-muslim/1/ Islamic History home page: https://www.alim.org/history/ Khalifa Abu Bakr (RA): https://www.alim.org/history/khalifa-abu-bakr/before-and-after-conversion-to-islam Please continue to use the new alim.org(https://www.alim.org/) and as you become familiar with the new navigation. We will quickly make it easy to locate and access your desired sections, insha Allah. Please feel free to let the alim.org team know regarding any issues that you may encounter. We truly value your feedback and suggestions. The Alim Foundation is at your service to facilitate this excellent resource for you as quickly as practically possible. Additionally, the Alim team requests that you please share Alim with your family, friends, and relatives. As always, your user and financial support makes this blessed endeavor possible, inshaAllah. Stay tuned for bright things in the coming future! May Allah SWT Guide us all to attaining and spreading His Knowledge, ameen. Walaikum Asalam. The Alim Foundation, Inc.
Read MoreThis is a wonderful article on suicide and its haram in Islam. The author of this article Saba Malik shares some knowledge he got from a depression mastery seminar by a prominent Muslim Shaykh, eight years back. Suicide is a sin in Islam. But the author still wonders that by knowing the fact that suicide is a bad activity, why Muslims still tries to kill themselves. Once the seminar finished, the author went up and asked the Shaykh that if a Muslim attempts or commits suicide, what happens to him. The Shaykh answered that definitely, he will go to hell. Mental illness, hallucinations, diseases, financial conditions, family problems etc. can cause one to commit suicide. Depression can be treated with some of the tools practiced in our day to day life and concentration. Following steps are helpful to avoid depression. 1. Regular salah 2. Medication 3. Psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy 4. Regular exercise 5. Healthy eating 6. Good sleep hygiene 7. Keeping up with physical hygiene 8. Active and meaningful social relationships 9. Support groups or blog 10.Giving back to your community Dr. Al-Khater says that apart from the above tools, situational depression can be alleviated by practicing the following tools: 1. Using the Islamic creed 2. Doing righteous deeds 3. Offering salah and reciting prayers 4. Contemplating the worst cases 5. Having good opinions 6. Living with a realistic – not idealistic – point of view 7. Behaving well towards other and yourself 8. Having hope Above all, prayer and preach Allah is the best solution to forget the thoughts about committing suicide.
Read MoreFasting during Ramadan is one of the five fundamental pillars of Islam and mandatory for all healthy adult Muslims to fast from sunrise to sunset for a period of a month. During fasting, Muslims are required to refrain from all intakes of food, water, beverages, smoking and from sexual intercourse. Ramadan fasting causes many physiological, biochemical, metabolic and spiritual changes in the body. Ramadan Fasting increases the Red Blood Cells (RBCs), White Blood Cells (WBCs), platelet (PLT) count, High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (HDL-c), and decreases the blood cholesterol, triglycerides, Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (LDL-c) and Very Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol (VLDL-c). Moreover, it reduces body weight, waist circumference, body mass index, body fat, blood glucose, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and anxiety levels. Furthermore, Ramadan fasting decreases the inflammation, pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1b, IL-6, tumour necrosis factor a and cancer promotion. Among healthy adults, there are no adverse effects of Ramadan fasting on the brain, heart, lung, liver, kidney, haematologic, endocrine profile and cognitive functions. Ramadan fasting is a healthy non pharmacological means for minimizing the risk factors and improving health. Although Ramadan fasting is safe for all healthy individuals, but those with various illnesses such as diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, renal and eye illness should consult their physicians and firmly follow the scientific recommendations.
Read More"When a person dies, his works end, except for three: ongoing charity, knowledge that is benefited from, and a righteous child who prays for him."
Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)
"The best of what a man leaves behind are three: a righteous child who supplicates for him, ongoing charity the reward of which reaches him, and knowledge that is acted upon after him."
Sunan Ibn Mājah
"Every day two angels come down from Heaven and one of them says, 'O Allah! Compensate every person who spends in Your Cause,' and the other (angel) says, 'O Allah! Destroy every miser.'"
Sahih Bukhari