Muharram dawns upon us again December 29, 2008

Yes, the time has come again for the remembrance of our beloved 3rd Imam – Imam Hussain (A.S.) and his close followers and companions who followed him through is grueling journey and experienced over the first 10 days of Mahe Muharram.

A short summary is below from Wikipedia (All credit goes there for the next extract)

Muharram (Arabic: محرم) is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four months of the year in which fighting is prohibited. Since the Islamic calendar is lunar, Muharram moves from year to year when compared with the Gregorian calendar. Muharram is so called because it was unlawful to fight during this month; the word is derived from the word ‘haram’ meaning forbidden. It is held to be the most sacred of all the months, excluding Ramadan. Some Muslims fast during these days. The tenth day of Muharram is called Yaumu-l ‘Ashurah, meaning, ‘the tenth day’, and it is a day of voluntary fasting. Fasting differs among the Muslim groupings; mainstream Shia Muslims stop eating and drinking during sunlight hours but do not eat until the evening. Sunni Muslims also fast during Muharram and on either the ninth or the eleventh day, the choice of which additional day being at the discretion of the individual.

Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Raajioon

“From God we come and to him we shall return”

Game delayed due to Qur’an Verses October 20, 2008

It seems that Sony and Media Molecule have seemed to make a ‘boo boo’ when it comes to a small song within their much anticipated ‘LittleBigPlanet’.

Sony have released a statement saying that although they are calling for a complete recall on all the games already distributed to stores, the whole of America will only have a 1-week delay which seems very surprising. However, this probably will still dampen the anticipation from growing any further.

But, both Sony and Media Molecule have released statements of apology to the public and especially stated that they did not mean any offence at all to Muslims.

To quench the curiosity of those who want to know the verses are as follows:

“Every soul shall have a taste of death”, “Kullu nafsin dhaa’iqatul-mawt”, Surah 3, Al-Imran, verse 185

“All that is on it [earth] will perish”, “Kullu man ‘alayhaa faan”, Surah 55, Ar-Rahman, verse 26

Yes I believe that one, it is wrong to include these verses into musical aspects of the game, and two, what type of verses are these to be used in a childrens game, regardless if they know arabic or not!

Thats the scoop this time,

See ya!

Arbaeen – 40th After Ashura =[ February 28, 2008

 Today, the day of Arbaeen is the 40th day after the tragic incident in Karbala of Ashura.
The following text is a summary of what Arbaeen is.

All credits and rights reserved to Wikipedia

 Arba’een (Arabic: اربعين‎, means “forty”), or Chehlum, as it is known by Urdu-speaking Muslims, is a Shi’a religious holiday that occurs forty days after the Day of Ashurah, the commemoration of the martyrdom by beheading of Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad which falls on the 20th day of the month of Safar. Husayn and 72 supporters died in the Battle of Karbala in the year 61 AH (680 CE). Forty days is the usual length of the time of mourning in many Islamic cultures.

The occasion reminds the faithful of the core message behind Husayn’s martyrdom: establishing justice and fighting injustice, no matter what its incarnation — a message that strongly influenced subsequent Shi’a uprisings against the perceived tyranny of Umayyad and Abbasid rule.

In the first Arba’een gathering in the year 62 AH, Jabir ibn Abdullah, a companion of the Prophet, was one of the people who performed a pilgrimage to the burial site of Husayn. Due to his infirmity and probable blindness, he was accompanied by Atiyya bin Saad. His visit coincided with that of the surviving female members of the Prophet’s family and Husayn’s son and heir Ali, who had all been held captive in Damascus by Yazid I, the Umayyad Caliph. Ali ibn Husayn had been too ill to participate in the Battle of Karbala, but looked on from the sidelines.

The city of Karbala in Iraq, the third holy place of Shi’a Islam, is the center of the proceedings where, in a show of humility, many crawl through the streets of the city while others fall on their hands and knees as they approach the Shrines of Husayn and his brother Abbas ibn Ali.

Observance of Arba’een in Karbala was banned for many years when Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the observance in April 2003 was broadcast worldwide.^[1]