Hm?

I used to enjoy blogging...
Now I don't know what to blog about??
I suck at writing!
haha

As salaamu alaikum :)

Ramadan Without Dates??

As salaamu alaikum!!

2 years ago some of you helped donate money to buy books and dates for Masjid Naim in Pereria, Colombia, alhamdulillah. Now we have a bigger project in mind, to raise money to buy dates for a few masaajid in South America and the Caribbean inshaAllah.

Barakah Dates Project is a non-profit organization collecting donations to purchase and ship dates to South American and Caribbean countries for Ramadan 2010!

Why is this so important? These countries do not import dates, and on top of that, the majority of these communities are too poor to even afford dates. Imagine never tasting dates before?! Dates are an essential part of Ramadan, let's share them with our beloved brothers and sisters, inshaAllah! Don't wait for the blessed month to arrive to start your sadaqah!

DONATE HERE using PayPal account OR credit/debit card: http://barakahdatesproject.chipin.com/

Follow the project's blog:
http://barakahdatesproject.blogspot.com/

Contact us for information on how to mail a check or money order.
Feel free to collect donations in your masjid/community/MSA!

Check out this video - the initial inspiration for the project, alhamdulillah!

How Long is Your Hand?

A'ishah, radiAllahu anha, was reported to have said...

Some of the wives of the Prophet (salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam) asked him, "Who amongst you will be the first to follow you (die after you)?" He said, "Whoever has the longest hand." So they started measuring their hands with a stick and Sawdah's hand turned out to be the longest. When Zainab bint Jahsh died first, we came to know that the long hand was a symbol of practicing charity, so she was the first to follow the Prophet (salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam) as she used to love to practice charity.

Al Bukhari (1221) and Muslim (4490)

This story does not only show how good charity is, but it's yet another example of the sweetness and wisdom of the speech of our Prophet, salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam. If he were to straight out tell them 'the one who gives the most charity will follow me first', they could have stretched their charity just for that sake, forgetting where their real intentions should be. But the real meaning of these words became apparent to them after-the-fact.

Never belittle any charity, and that's not just monetary, charity goes way beyond that.

Oops..

I really haven't been here since September?
My bad.. =/

As salaamu alaikum =)

Ramadan Drummer

Mohammad Boota, a Ramadan drummer in Brooklyn, plays to wake Muslims before their daily fast.

This is why you don't get tattoos...

I have a lot of old high school friends added on facebook, but I don't usually go to their pages. One friend mentioned in her status that she got a new tattoo and out of curiosity I wanted to see what it was.

I was surprised when I enlarged the pic to see a mess of Arabic letters on her shoulder. It was supposed to say 'black beauty' in Arabic... however, it looked more like this:

د و س ا ب ا ل ا م ج ل ا

That's exactly how it looks... spaces and all. The letters aren't even connected. The best I can make out is that maybe it said al-jamaal something. I asked her who translated it and she said her and a friend looked it up on a free translating site. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! LOL!! You're gonna put something on your body which will be there forever and you rely on some site to do it for you?? I feel bad for her, but hey, this is why you DON'T get tattoos. This is almost as bad as the girl I know who got her name tattooed in huge letters on her back, without giving the artist the spelling of her name... so instead of saying Juajnita it said Huaneeta hahaha! I shouldn't laugh... it's really sad.. but... wowwww..

The Souq's Free Eid Giveaway *update*

Alhamdulillah we have 60 subscribers, but need over 100 to do the giveaway.

Some brothers have expressed interest in subscribing, so the prize for brothers is $12 worth of halal snacks, yummm.

Again for those who don't know, www.shopthesouq.com will be giving away from free items to 3 random people on the 15th inshaAllah, so you have until then to enter! All you need to do is go to the site and simply subscribe to our newsletter and you'll be put into the raffle! Tell your friends, spread the word, if we don't get enough people we can't do the giveaway, boo.

Oh, we're also giving some things away free, for orders placed before the 18th... but we're already running out of free items, so act fast!

All pPrizes are from a wide selection of...
-An assortment of hijabs
-Swarovski crystal hijab pins (ooh la la) and other accessories
-Halal snacks: halal Doritos, halal Starbursts, and more!