Category Archives: Internet & Multimedia

Blog for SISTERS Magazine

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Sister Na’ima of SISTERS asked me to inform you about the magazine’s latest blogging initiative, open to both brothers and sisters. The deadline for submission is close, so get writing quick!

Bismillah
Asalaamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu!
Greetings from me, Na’ima B. Robert, and the rest of the team at SISTERS, the magazine for Muslim women.

I am writing to tell you about a very exciting development over at the new SISTERS website.

Every fortnight, we will be featuring an article from a blogger from out there in the blogosphere on a set of topics set by the SISTERS team. The chosen blog entries will be featured on the website, linked from our homepage, in our forum and receive a complimentary pdf of the latest issue.
But now we need your submissions!

So, to kick-start this new feature, we are asking you to ruminate and reflect on the following statements, each inspired by an article in the latest issue of SISTERS:

“Are we taught to be ashamed of our womanhood?”
“Cross-cultural marriages are more trouble than they are worth”
“Marriage in Islam is about duty, not love and romance”

Agree? Disagree? Get writing!
Submissions should be original, up to 600 words and in keeping with ISlamic guidelines. Other than that, feel free to air your views and, hopefully, get some healthy, enlightening debate going on our website.

I look forward to reading your entries. Deadline for submissions is 4th of July.

JazakAllahu khairan
Wasalaam

Na’ima B. Robert

PS. Please forward this to other bloggers you know or publicise it on your blogging community websites! Submissions are open to brothers and sisters.

Anwar Al-Awlaki: The Blog!

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I am sure many of you are familiar with the inspiring compilation CDs featuring lectures by Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki, who, by Allah’s grace, was released from imprisonment recently. With the help of some brothers, he now has his own blog – I love it when our ulema get with the times, alhamdulillah! :D

His latest entry is just as inspiring as his audio works, as he writes about the positive consequences of his imprisonment:

I was in an underground solitary cell made up of four concrete walls with an iron gate on one side and on the opposite side a small window -rather a hole- covered with iron mesh to allow for some fresh air to come in. I couldn’t see much from it because it was about four meters high. Then there was the roof with a bulb hanging from it which was on continuously day and night. Then the floor with a mattress 2-3 inches thick, a blanket, a worn off pillow, a plastic plate, a bottle for water, and an empty bottle “just in case”. And then there was a Quran…

In this environment there is nothing to do and nothing to read but the Quran, and that is when the Quran reveals it secrets. When the hearts are clean; when there is nothing clouding the spirit, the Quran literally overwhelms the heart.

Scholarly Dialogue: Shaikh Google and Wiki Islam

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How is the digital age reshaping our knowledge of deen? Today, it is increasingly common to query a search engine for a quick fiqh answer than to seek counsel from a scholar.

Yahya Birt analyzes this trend, and examines the differences between the Google and Wikipedia approach to Islamic knowledge. Which approach will pave the way for the future? Will these trends threaten the traditional process of sacred learning?

The nature of the mass media has changed for good. Whereas it used to be hierarchical, elitist, linear and declarative, it is becoming individualised, demotic, non-linear, and interactive. In the age of print, television and to a lesser extent radio, there used to be an editorial process and a relatively high economic cost to media exposure, but, in the digital age, samizdat multimedia has become the norm and not the exception. Anyone can now publish and project their views globally. They can claim to speak for Islam, issue a “fatwa”, proffer advice, and provide counselling or spiritual guidance. Religious leaders struggle too to project any measure of decorum or scholarly expertise in religious debate in the new media, for it is difficult to be both player and referee in the same game.