Alhamdulillah! We are happy to announce that MuslimahSource won an Honorable Mention in the Best Female Blog and Best Series category. Jazakillahu khair to all of you who voted for us! We look forward to your continued support.

The Falaha event was postponed due to a strenuous circumstance for the coordinators. However, they have promised to keep us updated for the next scheduled event!

Stay tuned to this up and coming organization for business networking and entrepreneurial opportunities for Muslimahs!

]]> http://www.muslimahsource.org/new-from-our-experts/approaching-a-guy-about-marriage/feed/ 17 http://www.muslimahsource.org/new-from-our-experts/losing-my-faith/ http://www.muslimahsource.org/new-from-our-experts/losing-my-faith/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:06:25 +0000 Muslimah Source http://www.muslimahsource.org/?p=1251 I am a revert and practice Islam for more than 3 years now, I am now losing my faith because I found out that nearly all miracles of Quran were actually known 1000 years earlier by Greeks and that was why I convert to Islam in the first place. Now i wonder if it was from real (starghfallah) Allaah. I am sooo confused, please help me! really give me faith again. Please.

Without going into what the Greeks knew and predicted 1000 years before Islam and how right or wrong they were, I like to ask you a question:

If you have been practicing Islam for over three years now, has it brought any change in your life; has it made you a better person, a better wife, a better mother, a better daughter, a better sister, and a better neighbor; has it brought you inner peace and contentment better than the Greeks; has it made you contemplate upon the purpose of your life here and the life hereafter? If your answer to all these questions is a flat ‘NO’, and you believe that you could have gained all of these things being a Greek or whatever else, then most certainly you can go back to whatever you were before coming to Islam.

But, if your answer is a definite ‘YES’, then know that Islam is not about predicting future. Many other religions, fortune-tellers, magicians, palmists, etc., predict the future, most of the time wrong and sometimes even correctly. You can choose to follow any of them whoever appears more convincing to you about predicting the future of your life and future of this world.

I sincerely pray that you will ponder upon what I said. May Allah (swt) protect your Iman and grant you the true understanding of what Islam is all about. Ameen.

Answered by Dr. Mohammed Sadiq

But we want to make this Ramadan/Eid a blast with beautiful and creative da’wah (outreach).

We know our actions speak WAY louder than our words, and we’ve already exhausted our vocal chords at every opportunity–describing the wonderful and colorful ethnic foods, community gatherings, and heightened worship for Muslims in this amazingly blessed month with our co-workers, neighbors, and friends of other faiths.

We need positive, kinesthetic activities that provide opportunities to celebrate and learn about Ramadan for our children at home, our local youth groups, and even charity organizations…and did I mention we’re still on a budget?

We need to promote hunger awareness, find an attractive means to explain what Islam is all about, and find some halal fun time with our girlfriends who are fasting alongside us in this joyous month.

And our wonderful Prophet asws taught us words that are reiterated by so many of the wisest Muslims in our blessed community—Tahaado, Tahabbo… “Give gifts to one another and you will love one another” (Bukhari).

So, the answer?

Make Some Edible Da’wah!

Step 1 – Consider the questions below when creating your overall theme:

- Who are you making these treats for? Coworkers?  Co-Muslims?  Neighbors?  The relationship you have with the recipients of these beautiful gifts should, in part, dictate your overall theme.   Also, who are you making these treats with?  If you’re doing this project with children, take their opinions into consideration!  Do they have a favorite theme they’d like to use?

-  What is the message you are trying you promote? Would you like to simply wish a blessed Ramadan, include a few key pearls of Islamic wisdom for your fasting siblings in faith, or explain what Islam is all about in a few words to your neighbors?  Please keep in mind that for legal reasons you should not proselytize (openly promote faith) in the workplace.  The below example I made for my co-workers and my students and I kept the message universal (world hunger) and steered well away from any religious language.

-  What tiny treat would you like to use for your crafts? Do you bake ooey-gooey should-be-world-famous brownies?  Mouthwatering fudge?  What about lemon tarts?  I used baklava because I have a great family recipe (photographed below), but anything homemade gives a very sweet impression (pun intended), although I’m sure you could get away with just buying a bunch of fresh sugar cookies at your local deli.  Also keep in mind your time concerns and budget—baking an already-prepared box of cupcake mix is much easier, cost-effective, and foolproof than making baklava from scratch!

-    What color theme would you like to use? Oh, don’t we love colors!  The best thing about these fun treats is that you can actually make them as professional—or as fun and cute—as you’d like.  A lot depends on what kinds of supplies you choose to purchase and make sure to pay attention to the details!  The below examples are more whimsical, as I work at a community college and the atmosphere is pretty laid back.

Step 2 – Gather Supplies.

Ok, so now that you’ve set a theme it’s time to get the goodies.  What you’ll need:

-    Prepared bakery food of choice

-    Colored Cellophane Wrap

-    Matching Napkins

-    Ribbon

-    Of course, scissors, hole puncher, and access to a printer

Step 3 – Design your gift tags!

I’m not much of a graphic designer myself, but if you search the web you can find many appropriate pieces of artwork that you can use to design little gift tags on your computer with a simple Ramadan Message.  Take your computer art to your local Kinko’s or print them on your home printer (I put eight to ten on a page), cut, hole-punch, and you’re almost ready to begin with the fun!

Remember to keep your theme in mind as you’re creating your template.  You can use a more ethnic theme, like the one to the bottom (image used from a screen saver found at www.imuslimz.com):

Or, you can have a little fun with color with something like this quirky design to the bottom (the Ramadan buttons were taken from www.silverenvelope.com):

You can also use photographs of flowers, nature, or even personal pictures that you have taken.  If you have kids, I recommend having them draw up Ramadan art cards and then scanning their artwork (if you can).  When you scan their work onto the computer, you can then use it as a colorful backdrop to create very personalized Ramadan tag’s for the family—and I’ve tried it…they come out looking gorgeous!

One thing to keep in mind when making your design is to always leave room for where the hole-punch will go.  In the above green design, I punched holes to tie ribbon at the bottom left hand corner, which is why it’s blank in that region of the design.  In the colorful design to the right, I simply left enough space at the top to hole punch right in the center of the corkboard above the button.

Just keep in mind that whatever your design is will basically make or break your overall theme—so if you’re going for a professional black-and-white, you may not want to find fruity pictures or images that may be beautiful but are mis-matched.

Step 4 – Get bakin’!

For this craft escapade, I made two trays of baklava: one with roughly thirty pieces and one with forty.

In all honesty, I’ve tried using our secret family recipe and trying low-fat or non-sugar (Splenda, gah!) variations of this blessing-from-Allah-of-a-sweet, but nothing does it justice.

My advice?  DON’T experiment with new creative recipes or variations of tried and true recipes at the last minute.

I went with classic ingredients and the tray you see to your left was dubbed by my diabetic-slash-former-chef father the “best ever made.”  Now, I know he’s A. Biased because I’m his daughter and B. Previously deprived of baklava for years now because of his condition, but the feedback certainly gives you warm fuzzy feelings.

So think of those warm fuzzy feelings while you bake, and good luck making a recipe of something that rocks—even if it’s those oh-so-easy-to-make-gooey-(halal)-crack brownie boxes!

Step 5 – Prepare Supplies.

This is the part where you cute squares of cellophane a little larger than the size of your napkins, like so:

Then, you cut pieces of ribbon and, if you’d like, curl them with the scissors, as displayed below.

You also prepare your little gift tags—cut, hole-punch, and thread with the ribbon:

And—one of my favorite parts—roll up your little napkins like scrolls and make sure to tie them before they unroll!  The image to the left is the little napkins, and what I found out the hard way is that most people eat their baklava, throw away the napkins assuming they’re just scrolls for décor, and then approach me asking if I have any (yes, you guessed it) napkins.

Spare yourself the heartache and tell your gift recipients right off the bat that the decorative scrolls are also functional.  Please.  You didn’t spend that dollar in the Party City clearance rack for nothing, did you?

Step 6 – Make a Demo:

I always make a demo before I get started, just to make sure I’m not missing something.  Here’s the first little before:

…And then a little after!  If you’re the kind of person who wants to make sure everything is absolutely perfect, you may want to make your demo before Step 5 so that you can make sure you’re cutting the cellophane at the right size, using the right colors, etc.

Step 7 – Portion out your sweets and begin wrapping!

The wise will heed—it’s much more time efficient to set up an assembly line type of workstation for these sweets.  This way, if you’re working in a group you can also delegate various tasks to different people and everything should go like clock-work.

Step 8 –Trouble Shooting:

Running out of ribbon?  Gift tags?  Anything is possible.  I ran out of colored cellophane and guess what I had to use (hint: look above).

…Can you find the oddball out?

The main thing to keep in mind is that these are fun and you can’t be too picky.  I wished mine had come out more uniform, more photo-worthy, more “insert-random-criticism-here.”  But the main thing is to lighten up and appreciate your work, regardless of how “perfect” it could have, would have, or should have been!

Step 9 – Lastly, enjoy your work and happy gifting!

And more colors!

The End

]]> http://www.muslimahsource.org/wellness-health/edible-dawah-crafting/feed/ 7 http://www.muslimahsource.org/announcements/professional-women%e2%80%99s-networking-event-oct-29th-2009/ http://www.muslimahsource.org/announcements/professional-women%e2%80%99s-networking-event-oct-29th-2009/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:55:49 +0000 Muslimah Source http://www.muslimahsource.org/?p=1137 A recent survey in Money magazine (July 2009) states that the way $200k -plus earners are finding jobs now is through networking. A whopping 73% of people find networking significantly more advantageous to their job search than any other endeavor. Just take a look at the statistics, which don’t even come close:

How are $200k+ earners finding a job now?

* 1% send out their resumes en masse
* 3% target specific companies
* 9% maintain an online profile on social media sites such as Linked In
* 14% are looking for jobs online
* 73% are NETWORKING!

As stated in Money magazine, “It pays to know someone: Referrals are by far the best route to a high-paying job.”

You may be having trouble finding a platform to network in a professional environment. Maybe you carry around your business cards at weddings, graduation parties, halaqas, aqeeqas but you feel awkward pulling it out in those situations.

This October 2009, Falaha is organizing a professional networking luncheon for women business owners, managers, and other professionals as well as those who are looking to build a professional network for themselves, creating business contacts or looking for a well-paying job.

Seating is limited, so if you are interested in purchasing your ticket, send us an email to register@falaha.com or call 773-671-3211 for more information. You can also buy tickets on our website by clicking on the Networking Event page.

We hope to see you there!

http://falaha.com/

I had this in mind when I joined the support team of the Baton Rouge, LA chapter of ICNA Relief USA. This local branch largely operates to implement disaster relief programs to victims of the region’s storms in addition to providing assistance to local Muslims that have come upon hardships.

During this time, my fellow colleagues and I were impressed by the positive difference that was made by the groups of young volunteers many of whom not old enough to vote that traveled to our region to work on rebuilding projects for days at a time. These teams came representing their faith and various Christian churches that organized these missions. I wondered what motivated these youngsters to volunteer so much of themselves what kind of skills were required to do what they did, but even more I wondered “Why not us?”

Inspired by these groups, fellow support team members Yasmeen M., Zainab H., and I aimed to create a local volunteer database consisting of active young Muslims that will be ready to respond to the call of duty when the need arises. We wrote letters, sent emails, orally spread the message, and even borderline harassed people into signing up. The reply was hardly as enthusiastic as we were hoping it would be, but that didn’t discourage us.

Our first assignment came out of an emergency situation that involved an elderly, disabled Muslim brother. This brother is a war veteran who moved from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and his current residence needed a substantial amount of work before it can even be considered livable. We had days to form a team out of our generated list of contacts. On the morning of Sunday July 19, 14 cheerful volunteers showed up at the agreed meeting spot outside of the ICNA Relief offices. Many of them weren’t sure what we were doing exactly; some even came wearing expensive designer shoes and bright lip glosses. However, the most obvious accessory adorned was the ready-for-anything attitude! It was definitely an encouraging site to see.

“It was extremely touching to step back for a moment and look around the room at our team subhanallah we were a group that embodied the beauty of the ummah through our diversities in race, age, and background and we were all coming together to work hand in hand for the sake of Allah (swt). It was nice to see that despite the fact that none of us knew the brother personally before that day we felt a strong connection to him and desire to help him because of our bonds to him through Islam alhamdulilah” recalled co organizer Zainab H.

The small team moved to our destination on a street that just the week before was the site of a fatal shooting. Across the street from the brother’s home was a Methodist church whose congregation was beginning to disassemble and go home. The sight of us encircling the brother’s home to survey the property and generate a game plan caught their curious attention.

During the next 6 hours the volunteers under the instruction of a volunteer professional carpenter pulled nails, stripped walls, removed debris, and nailed sheet rock to the walls. They were on ladders, squatting to the ground, and working hand-in-hand to get the job done. For most of us the experience was different from anything else we’ve participated in the past.

One of the most rewarding aspects as co-organizer was realizing that the experience created awareness of the importance of community service as Muslims in the hearts and minds of these volunteers. “This is my first time volunteering with a project like this. This experience made me more open-minded in doing more projects in the near future” stated volunteer and University of New Orleans senior Rhonda S. Recent high school graduate Aysheh Z added “I recently helped package senior boxes at the local food bank with a group of friends from school but the experience I had working with ICNA really did change my outlook on volunteering.”

Despite the material difference the team was able to make at the end of the day, it was obvious this job was far from done. Although the volunteers were definitely exhausted, their resolve was never stronger. After having spent half of their day on the site the volunteers couldn’t help but internalize the mission and made it their own. This fueled an undeniable urge to want to come back and finish the job, their job!

The volunteer team returned to the same site two weeks later as the second volunteer project. It was inspiring to witness some of the new young faces brainstorming and initiating discussions regarding future projects that could be done to benefit our community. It felt great as organizers for us to be able to step back and let the creative juices of the younger generation flow and take on proactive roles in these efforts as they discussed potential projects for the future.

During a later discussion the volunteers were asked what they would like to communicate to other communities interested in getting involved in such projects. LSU Sophomore Razan A. stated “Other communities should know it isn’t that hard to get the community together and set up a volunteer project, get a few to spread the word, set a date, and watch how you’ll enjoy having your community work together in a beneficial way.”

Co-organizer Zainab H later reflected upon the projects. “These type of activities are almost of more benefit to the worker than to the one the work is done for, because it creates a sense of fulfillment within you to do something this for the sake of Allah (swt). As Muslims we see our brothers and sisters live under hardship and difficult conditions overseas, but we tend to forget that there are people who we need to reach out and help in our own communities especially since our religion emphasizes taking care of your neighbor. It’s also a part of our religion to reflect on the blessings we are given and to be thankful, and an experience like things make you realize how much you take for granted and how much you have to be grateful for.”

To find out more about past or upcoming projects check out the ICNA Relief USA Volunteers Facebook group page. If you’re interested in starting a similar volunteer team and projects in your own community and would like some guidance, feel free to contact us at support.la@icnarelief.org.

Facebook Group: ICNA Relief USA Volunteers

Asma Alsalameh

Wa Alaikum Salaam, Sister:

I hope and pray that you are well, Insha Allah.

Wife abuse often occurs in situations where a man is otherwise incapable of maintaining his leadership and control of his family effectively. Such men are often highly anxious, have a low self-image and self-confidence. Anger and violence is their way of feeling strong and in-control. They also tend to be quite dependent and parasitic. They need help, but often won’t accept it unless they are forced into, often by the law, or when they truly fear losing their family.

If the husband is not willing to seek counseling, then the wife needs some counseling and guidance for emotional support and to look at the alternatives and how to pursue them in a healthy way. Often, the wives stick it out for the sake of children, or for the sake of family’s honor, and for many other reasons; and therefore continue to suffer. But, there are other ways to deal with these types of situation, and more healthy ways of dealing with them.

Hope this helps, Insha Allah. I pray for your health and well being. Insha Allah Khair.

Answered by Dr. Mohammed Sadiq

If you have an idea of what the answers to these questions are, this is for you!

http://www.handsalongthenile.org/events/HandsEssayContest.pdf

THE 2009 ESSAY CONTEST (Deadline July 4th)

Applicants are required to submit an essay (no more than 2,500 words) on the following topic:

How is community development in the Middle East important to the U.S.? Why is it particularly crucial to focus on Egypt?

Awards:

First Prize $5,000
Second Prize: $2,500
Third Prize: $1,500
Two Honorable Mentions: $500 each

Eligibility: Must be a registered full-time graduate or undergraduate student at an accredited college or university in the United States at the time of entry. Must be a US citizen.High school students or graduate students entering college, or starting graduate studies in the fall of 2009 are also eligible for entry into the contest.

Hanaa Gamal graduated salutatorian from Al-Azhar University in Egypt with a bachelors in Tafseer and Quranic Sciences. She has completed all coursework for her masters in Tafseer and Quranic Sciences and is currently working on her thesis. Hanaa Gamal is also the founder of Al-Azhar Institute (Houston, TX) as well as main instructor. She teaches all of the arabic, tajweed, tafseer, and hifth classes.