Bismillah.

Alhamdulillah, we’ve been working in the background for a while to launch a new project. Jazakumullahu khayran to everybody who helped out, may Allah keep giving you reward for it insha’Allah long after your bones are dust–allahumma ameen!

First, check yourself, and fill out the poll below:

If you haven’t guessed, our new project is: Salah Support, a forum where you can find resources on salah–everything from videos on how to pray, to ebooks on khushoo’, to creative alarms for Qiaaym-ul-Layl.

We hope, bi idhnillah, that people will benefit–posting questions, and answers (with proofs, of course).

If you’re masha’Allah a regular musalli with your 5x fard salawaat secured, I request that you monitor the forums and help others get up to speed, insha’Allah. After all, the Prophet (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) said:

Jarir ibn Abdullah and Abu Hurayrah (radiallahu ‘anhumaa) reported that Allah’s Messenger (salallahu alayhi wa sallam) as saying: He who called (people) to righteousness, there would be reward (assured) for him like the rewards of those who adhered to it, without their rewards being diminished in any respect. And he who called (people) to error, he shall have to carry (the burden) of its sin, like those who committed it, without their sins being diminished in any respect. [Saheeh Muslim: book 34, #6466, #6468, #6469, and #6470]

So you can get the reward of people praying–five times a day, every day! But be careful, because the sin is multiplied, too–hence the importance of quoting sources and trustworthy shuyookh.

And if you need help, tips, support, then drop by–that’s what it’s all about!

May Allah allow us to benefit each other and ourselves from this project, and make it a way for us to extend our deeds until the day of Judgment–Allahumma ameen!

So check it out and see what you think!

And yes, there is a “sawm” folder too, for all things fasting-related; if it’s popular, we’ll keep it, otherwise, we’ll focus insha’Allah on just salah. Please give me some feedback in the comments, too, if there are any changes you need or ideas you have.

We are very pleased to announce that Ilm Fruits has now extended to Facebook and to Twitter.

Rather than, like other Islamic organizations and groups, following hype, we hope that this will allow us to solve the following problems:

1. Facebook Updates: Would you like to see new posts on Ilm Fruits immediately in Facebook? We’ve added a Facebook user to facilitate this; just add it as your friend.
2. Feedback: The point of our twitter user (and facebook user) is to allow people to give us more feedback, beyond just the blog commenting system.

So start using them! We hope this move will allow us to connect more with you, the end-users of our blog. May Allah put barakah in our efforts and accept them (ameen ya rabbi!)

P.S. for all twitter users who add us, we’ve added a link to a secret new project that we’re going to launch in Ramadan, insha’Allah! So hook up and check out the link!

We’ve been posting about tafseer of Juz ‘Amma for over a month now; and we’ve gone through about 10 surahs, walhamdulillah, and it seems like people are benefitting.

But … there are still 27 (!) surahs remaining. And as much as I would like to finish the series … it’s too long, by far, to have 37 posts on one series. Not to mention that it would take around 2 months.

So insha’Allah we’re going to do five more posts, one per day all next week; we’ll finish with Surah Fil, and then, bi idhnillah, the series will be done. finish the series, bi idhnillahi ta’ala, even if it takes a couple more months.

So if you have any feedback … now is the time to give it!

Wallahu musta’aan. We ask Allah to accept this effort from us (ameen!)

Bismillah.

As mentioned in the last post, we’re going to start a series insha’Allah Monday, April 13th on the tafseer of Juz ‘Amma, the 30th juz of the Qur’an.

Here’s what you can expect in the next while:

• The whole juz. As much as possible, I will post gems, points, tafseer, etc. from every single surah in this juz–even if it’s not necessarily the most actionable thing.
• Every single day. Insha’Allah I will write one post per day, albeit shorter posts. This will hopefully make it easier to focus on different aspects and learn in more manageable pieces.
• Arabic language. I will add points from the Arabic language–most probably explanations of words, but also perhaps some grammar–to each post. Please make sure you give me feedback so I know how much is too much or too little.
• Uloom-ul-Qur’an. I’ll mention, where it’s well-known with little difference of opinion, whether the surah was Mecci or Medini (i.e. revealed before or after the hijrah), and any reasons of revelation that may have occured.
• Gems. As per regular Ilm Fruits style, the core information will contain gems and actionable items, insha’Allah, for you to take away, in typical Ilm Fruits style :)
• Test your Knowledge. At the end of the series, we’ll have a short quiz or test on the material. This will help you know if you understand or don’t understand the material. Format will be decided later, but don’t be surprised if there is a short-answer or long-answer question on it :D

So with that, we’ll begin Monday, April 13th insha’Allah. Also, I want to stress that, because I intend to cover the entire juz, the series will NOT end at the end of April. It may take longer–a week, a month, I can’t say–but insha’Allah we will get it done.

Are you excited?

Posts in this Series

• The Beginning of Revelation
• Arabic Analysis for First Revelation
• Making a Statement
• Self-Sufficient?
• Du’a for Wealth and Poverty
• Ripped Limb From Limb
• Tafseer of Surah Lahab
• Painting a Picture… a Really BIG Picture
• Tafseer of Surah Al-’Ala
• You Choose the Path
• The Reality of Honour and Life
• Tafseer of Surah Duhaa
• Tafseer of Surah Inshrah
• The Reality of Time
• When the War-Horses Pant …
• Indeed, We Gave You Al-Kawthar
• Al-Hakumu At-Takathur …
• Do YOU Encourage Good?
• Those Who Show Off in Their Salah
• Say: O You Kafiroon …
• The Carpet-Bombed Elephant
• Tafseer of Surah Tawheed
• Tafseer Surah Abasa: What Really Matters?
• Tafseer Surah Qadar: What’s Better Than 1000 Months?
• Tafseer Surah Shams: One Man’s Sin
• Tafseer Surah Burjooj: Fitnah
• Tafseer Surah Tin
• Arabic Analysis of Surah At-Teen
• Tafseer Surah Qaari’ah: The Striking Calamity
• Arabic Analysis of Surah Qaari’ah
• Tafseer Surah Quraysh
• Tafseer Surah Balad, Part 1: Life is Toil
• Tafseer Surah Balad, Part 2: Iqtahamaa
• Arabic Analysis of Surah Balad
• Tafseer Surah Humazah: The Crusher
• Tafseer Surah Tariq: You Will Be Recreated
• Tafseer Surah Ghashiyah: Heaven and Hell
• Tafseer Surah Naba’, Part 1
• Tafseer Surah Naba’, Part 2
• Tafseer Surah Naba’, Part 3: Contemplate
• Tafseer Surah Nazi’at, Part 1
• Tafseer Surah Nazi’at, Part 2

Bismillah.

The results of the poll are in! And it’s … it’s …

It’s a four-way tie.

The winners are:

• Arabic Language
• Islamic Finance
• Uloom-ul-Qur’an
• Tafseer of Juz ‘Amma

I was really hoping for a clear-cut winner … but insha’Allah khayr. I spent a while thinking about it, taking shura from different people, looking at different factors (such as what information I can easily access and benefit from), and here’s what I decided:

• Arabic Language: It’s hard to come up with a curriculum of this where you can teach people in short posts, yet with benefit to them. But instead of rejecting it outright, I intend to integrate blobs of Arabic knowledge into each post, insha’Allah.
• Uloom-ul-Qur’an: After reviewing my notes, I find it difficult to come up with material that we can apply every day. This is an interesting and multi-faceted science, but one that’s difficult (in my view) to gem-ify and apply … so it’s out. It also contains issues like abrogation in the Qur’an and the compilation of the Qur’an that should be discussed in proper academic/Islamic environments, not just thrown up on a blog.
• Islamic Finance: This is one of my favourite branches, and one that I really love a lot and benefit from a lot. Despite the difficulty, the applicability and ubiquity in our lives is amazing! Yet, this, too, is not the winner. That leaves …
• Tafseer of Juz ‘Amma: I decided on this because, well, it’s the Qur’an. And every Muslim desires to learn more about and understand the Qur’an. Plus, these are surahs that many of us recite almost every salah; shouldn’t we, then, know the meanings and details of them?

So insha’Allah our series begins tomorrow on Tafseer of Juz ‘Amma. I will post up a curriculum insha’Allah of what topics we’ll study, and what benefits we hope to derive, bi idhnillah, in a day or two.

I want to say jazakumullahu khayran to everybody who participated, both in voting and in posting comments. Insha’Allah there will be khayr in all.

Action Items: Post a comment and let us know what surahs you are interested in learning more about, or what aspects, or whatever it is in Juz Amma that interests you and you’d like to learn at a deeper level.

Insha’Allah, starting April 6th (Monday), for the month of April, we’re going to have a series on a single topic. What does this mean?

• We’ll post on the same topic continuously for the whole month (and maybe beyond for a week or two). This way, you get more depth of knowledge.
• We’ll post critical points, or summaries of the key information in each topic.
• We’ll post action items so you can start implementing your knowledge immediately, insha’Allah.
• We will quiz you at the end with either a small quiz (ten multiple-choice questions?) or perhaps a longer test (ten short-answer questions?); this may entail a prize of some sort, depending on how it goes :)

And the most exciting part is … you get to pick the series topic! Below is a list of topics I feel comfortable teaching about (more or less all the classes I’ve taken). If you would like to learn about something additionally beyond this list, feel free to mention it in the comments.

Let the polling begin! Voting ends on April 5th at 11:59pm!

Alhamdulillah, it’s been three years since Ilm Fruits started as a fledgling blog–one of very few at that time–with a few posts here and there. A lot has changed over that time; the blog has evolved.

Now it’s your chance to give back. I want to hear from you, personally, what you liked and didn’t like, what kinds of things you want to see from the blog in the future.

You can comment on anything–the design, the types of things you’d like to see–and also what you want in terms of content. You can say things like:

• There used to be a big orange RSS button; bring it back!
• Email notification is very, very useful
• We want more polls/forums/etc.
• The podcasts were/weren’t good.
• Rating posts would be nice (1-5 star rating)
• We want to see the most popular and highest-rated posts on the front page
• etc.

Anything you can possibly imagine; anything you’ve seen on other blogs, even.

Please also mention content–what do you want to know more about? Arabic grammar? Stories of the sahaba? Fiqh of salaah? Marriage? Seerah? Aqeedah?

Insha’Allah we’re in the process of revamping, and we’ll take this very seriously. So go ahead–give me what you got.

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said the Muslim ummah is like one body–if one part hurts, the whole body feels it and responds.

Do you feel the pain?

There are countless websites, emails, etc. that speak about this. We’re not going to reiterate all the points. Read about it here. Those are your brothers and sisters, your mothers and fathers.

So what can we do? Surprisingly, a lot.

Action Items:

• Make Du’a. Learn about Allah’s Grand Name and use it. Ask Allah, Al-Mujeeb, the one who answers all calls, to alleviate their situation.
• Donate. Whether you can afford $1000 or $100 or $10, whatever it is, just donate it. Every dollar counts. A good organization to donate through is Islamic Relief Canada; their donation page is here. (Can someone post comments to other reliable organizations inside and outside of Canada?)
• Tell Your Co-Workers. If you work in a medium-sized or large-size company, email your Human Resources department and ask them if they will match donations. Summarize the cause, and when they reply, forward it to as many people as you feel comfortable with. And just tell people by word of mouth what’s going on!
• Donate Recurringly. Don’t wait for Israel to bomb again. Decide how much you want to give, and give it–even $10–monthly, or quarterly, or whatever suits your budget. Put reminders in Google Calendar, if you need to–it will email you when you need to donate again (steps to setting up a reminder in the comments).
• Sign the Avaaz Petition. Politicians and groups do notice these kinds of things–and it just takes a minute to sign. Add yourself to the petition here.
• Boycott Israel. Israel is not even a legitimate state, to begin with; but I digress. Read this great site here, it summarizes how to identify (and thus, boycott) Israeli products. Economic pressure is one of the most powerful pressures we can apply today.
• Spread the Word. If you don’t do anything else (except donate), do this. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said: The reward of someone who calls to good is the same as the one who does it, without either of them being decreased in it.

We ask Allah to help alleviate the sufferings of the people in Gaza, to grant them (and their families) sabar, to admit into Al-Firdaus Al-’Ala those who have died, and to use this incident to revive the true Islamic spirit in the hearts of the Muslims.

[Route 114 Newsletter]

One such project is Ilm Sieve, an Islamic search engine. Built on top of Google technology, it filters out non-Islamic and un-Islamic sites to give you only the best of Islam on the web. Some of the benefits of Ilm Sieve are:

• Signal-to-Noise: compared to searching on Google, almost all (if not all) the search-results you find in Ilm Sieve are from Islamic sites–so no more digging to find the Islamic sites in page five and six of the results!
• Qur’an and Hadith Search: type any snippet of text from the Qur’an or a hadith and you’ll likely find the source–the search engine covers the Qur’an (English and Arabic), Bukhari, and Muslim.
• Sensitive Topics: you can even search for sensitive topics like pornography (or any other topic you’re looking up) and you’ll find solid Islamic sites that talk about these issues! (If you searched it on Google, you’d find very different results …
• Firefox Integration: If you use Firefox, you can click on the little icon on the front page and search directly from Firefox!

Try it out and see for yourself, via this handy widget:

Islamic Search Engine