^Interesting. Can you cite the incidents in the history of Islam where khalifs changed / dropped the sharia for the purpose of maslaxa? Heck, who the hell is going to worship Allah or follow the religion when the basic component that allows such adherence to religion is totally dismantled? :confused: How you mean?

Waa iska xaal aduun, sis. Khayr Insha Allah, walaal. Sending you good thoughts and duco.

It is abdominal to poke fun at suicide bombing!! Haha.

LOOOOOL. Thanks for the laugh, 'Queen'. Allah made our hands delicate for cooking..maxaa kaa sii noqday markaa. LOL. p.s This one definitely has a BEARD.

Spicy kaluun ku margo, Oz. Muwahahaha!

And if they don't? I'll beat you with Malikas spicy fish.

I'd be careful about associating weight loss with Ramadan as it can mess with your niyah - fasting is for Allah. Full stop. Get ideas of weight loss, detox into a womans head and her subconscious is going to start doing silly calculations and before you know it Allah has a partner in this ibaadah. My point- iska raaxeyso, eat what you need and do the weight loss thing AFTER Ramadan. Give this month to Allah. p.s Some will lose weight, some will gain but this has as much to do with activity level( which tends to decrease in Ramadan), how your body adjusts to eating at night only - what foods you eat as much as how much you eat.

It as moved here, sis. Sophist suggested it gets moved to the section for serious debates.

LOL@ In laws in disguise. Saxibtay maxaa raaxada laga qaaday. Ahay ah.. Soo dhawooow Ardooy.

Maasha Allah.. niinow is a dady! Mabrook to you and the misus walaalo. May Allah bless and protect the baby always. Ameen. Hoping he turns out to be smart and useful like his old man.

The 5 Essential Tips for Your Fitness Program in Ramadan muslimahfitness.com With Ramadan just a few short weeks away many Muslims who exercise or who are concerned about their physical fitness find themselves wondering how and when to continue their fitness program during the month of Ramadan. This year Ramadan will fall in the middle of August and get further into the summer as the years go by. So besides the normal physical sacrifice of the fast, this year most people are concerned about fasting in the heat of summer and still having energy for their daily task which may also include exercising. When you are already exercising you do not want to stop all together because an entire month of inactivity can give you significant setbacks in strength and cardiovascular endurance. Not to mention the mental and emotional effort it would take to become consistent again. Here are 5 tips that will, Inshallah allow you to continue to stay active in Ramadan without over taxing your system and jeopardizing your fast. #1- Adjust Your Fitness Goals in Ramadan If your goals are to lose weight, get stronger or simply to become more physically fit put improvements on hold during this month. Make your goal simply to maintain where you are. Making fitness or weight loss improvements requires you giving your body a deficient of some sort which causes a reduction in energy, and often compromises the immune system. Both of these can significantly affect your ability to fast. So instead of overworking your system to get your body to change simply maintain where you are and prevent you self from going backwards. #2-Reduce the Intensity of your Exercise. Reducing the intensity of the exercise will allow you to stay consistent in working out without over taxing your energy reserve. If you normally run reduce to a speed walk. If you lift weights using 12lbs use 8lbs, and if you normally workout for an hour reduce your workout time to 30-45 minutes. The most important thing to do this month is to continue to exercise. Consistency is the key ingredient to maintaining your fitness level. #3-Combine Cardio and Resistance Training If you normally do both cardio and resistance training as a part of your workout and can’t find the time or energy to do both in Ramadan then combine them both into a resistance training circuit. Circuit training in general is one of the most effective ways to burn fat and it has the extra benefit of allowing you to burn more calories in a short amount of time. A circuit is performed by doing 3-6 exercises in a quick succession without stopping between each exercise. Doing this will allow you to build muscle and increase cardiovascular endurance all in one workout. Here is a basic circuit you can do at home – 10-15 pushups 10-15 squats 1 min jumping jacks (or walk in place) 10-15 Bench dips 10-15 lunges 1 min jog in place (or walk in place) Repeat 2-3 times or until you have exercises for 30 consecutive minutes (or longer if you would like) #4-Be Consistent, Even if it is Small To achieve and maintaining any fitness level or goal is 80% consistency. Being consistent in doing something will make the biggest difference in having a successfully fit Ramadan. With getting up at 4am to eat zahur, followed by a 12-14 hour fast, getting to the Masjid for Tawarih which may not end until 11:00 in some cases, finding the time to exercise may be a challenge. But taking a 20 minute stroll will go a long way towards helping you maintain your fitness level and allowing you to ease back into your normal routine after Ramadan in done. You don’t have to do your normal sweat n’ to the oldies routine or 60 minutes of all out cardio. Do what you can, when you can, to maintain consistency throughout the month. #5 Workout When it Works If you feel the need to fit a good workout in you may have to plan your workout in your day. Instead of exercising when it’s convenient choose a time when you have the most energy and it won’t compromise your fast. This may mean waking up just 20 minutes earlier than you would normally for Zahur so you can work out and then eat immediately. Some people find they have a renewed since of energy right before they break their fast and that may be the best time to exercise. Pay attention to your energy level during the first few days of Ramadan and find a time that works for you. Whatever time or day or night your energy level allows you to expend extra calories without becoming fatigued is the best time of day for you to exercise We must remember fasting the month of Ramadan is an obligation that Allah has commanded for his servant and no other priority should interrupt or sabotage the fast. It a time for the believer to get closer to Allah through doing something solely for the sake of the Lords of the worlds. Allah says “”Every action of the son of Adam is given manifold reward, each good deed receiving then times its like, up to seven hundred times. Allah the Most High said, ‘Except for fasting, for it is for Me and I will give recompense for it, he leaves off his desires and his food for Me.’ for the fasting person there are two times of joy; a time when he breaks his fast and a time of joy when he meets his Lord, and the smell coming from the mouth of the fasting person is better with Allah than the smell of musk.” [al-Bukhaaree]” Indeed there is no better health than the spiritual health and is facilitated by obeying Allah. Any mistake is from the author. May Allah forgive me and have mercy on me and any correctness or good is for Allah may he benefit us through it.-Ameen Written By Mubarakah Ibrahim AFAA Certified Personal Trainer Another good article from the same writer.. Why Ramadan is the Worst Time For Dietary Changes

Jaanka and Dabshid, Stop the aggression brothers, use this as an opportunity to address the issues he may raise, seek knowledge and give da'wah - which are all Fard. Even if the poster and others ask questions to cause confusion or offend. It's nothing new and there could be a silent reader that gets benefit from the discussion and Insha Allah you'll get rewarded for your efforts. This post and the differing reactions within it actually raised up the whole issue of Al-walaa wal baraa for me which I need to look up on. So I got some benefit from it.

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was reported to have said that there will come a time when holding onto one's faith will be as painful as holding onto a hot coals

Read, heard, remembered, got told.. an interesting hadith, Ayah, qoute? Don't hoard it.. share it. Yalla, we're waiting..

You were never a believer just a cultural Muslim. Yeah, there is a difference. Huge!

Salaams ladies (and Bilal). Thanks.

Does anyone know a good website for lecture downloads? Want to burn a few for my commute..

If you don't ask, how will you know.. and if you don't know, how can you believe? The Quran is full of stories of how the righteous people of the past struggled in their search for God. Our Messenger has spent many years in seclusion, questioning, contemplating about the Creator before Allah guided him. The Quran challenges to think, ponder and keep searching.. How do we know the prophet said these things? Is it not possible people could have fiddled with the quran? Is it not possible that the witnesses could have misheard or misinterpreted what the prophet said? I think this is the most important question of all. You need to have firm faith in the Quran first and foremost as you can find the answers to all the other questions in the Quran itself. Can I ask what lead you to question the validity / authenticity of the Quran? As for your Q. The Prophet (SAW)ensured that his companions knew and understood the Quran by: 1.Explaining the meanings of verses in the Quran.. 2. He practised it's teachings to the extent that Aisha described him as a 'walking Quran'. 3. He recited different chapters of the Quran in Salah. 4. He thought them how to recite the Quran correctly and encouraged those who knew to teach it to others. Every verse that as revealed was thought to the masses - who were encouraged to pass it on. 5. A number of companions have memorised the Quran and almost every Muslim had committed a few chapters to memory (as that's a requirement to establish prayer). 6. He also had scribes who would write verses of the Quran on bones, animal skin - leaves. The Quran was therefore eveywhere and part of the daily life of Muslims in the era of the Prophet (SAW)- It didn't just sit in a shelf collecting dust as is sadly the case in many Muslim homes - in our era. After the death of the Prophet (SAW), during the Khalifah of Abu Bakr it as decided that it was a necessity to record the Quran in book form. A committee made up Zaid (the Prophets chief scribe), companions who memorised the Quran and those who were with Him in his last Ramadan when he reviewed the whole Quran - came together collected all the various verses that were written down. They have compared what was written to what was memorised and it was recorded in order in a leather book. All the other copies of the Quran were made from that book/. Within the Quran itself - Allah has stated that he will preserve and protect it. This was not a promise that Allah has made in previous scriptures. The miracle of the Quran, it's contents which give details of scientific facts that made no sense in that age also negate the argument that it's of human authorship. Apply the quran to today’s standards? Why would god prevent us from evolving? Does he want us to follow rulings that were created for a different era and apply it to our current situation? First of all which standards? Are they universal? Who sets these standards and how permanent are they? Have our base human needs, desires, abilities really changed since the era of the Messenger? If so, how? You said you don't believe in God but not in the Islamic sense- what have you learned about the Islamic teaching of God - that has put you off? What are your parameters of what god is or isn't? I hope I'm not confusing you even more but Insha Allah - if you tell us your concerns then we can help you out / point you in the right direction ala books and sites.

My cue top stop talking food. Ramadaan Kareem, you too. Afur wacan.

Mulawax without oil? I make mine without Oil cos it makes me ill. You have to get one of those flat pancake pans - or it will stick and use fry light oil sprays. It's nice with strawberries.. Ymmm. Think that will be Suhuur. Kackac.. ma quraac aa?

Che.. Your suqaar is how they made it back home but bBesbaaskaa laga buuxin jiray as I recall. Yeah, kabsar caleen. It just kicks up the smell and taste. Try it. I can't cook Somali food without kabsaro and khamun (cumin). Aaliyah, Masha Allah. I'm from a large family too - though we got split up ages ago. I kind of miss fighting over sabusa. LOL I love suqaar though- make it every other day.. quick, tastey and goes with everything.

Salaams Aaliyah.. xageed ku maqneed? You sure make a lot of food, you must be part of a big family? Authentic suqaar doesn't consist of much vegs. Just add carrots and peas to make it healthy. Kamsaro and Green / Red / Yellow pepper just before you switch off the stove for colour, texture and taste.

I prefer Ramadaan in Muslim countries too. This will be my fourth in the gulf (in adulthood) and Ramadaan really is the most Islamic time of the year here. There are so many halaqahs, islamic awareness campaigns, charity and a general respect for Islam and the sharia even from the none Muslims. Alhamdulilah! I don't know about it being easier, you still have to fight your desires and everyday distractions (some of which the author pointed out) and it's very HOT!

LOL@ Val. Wax macdan uu eeg kumaan arag. Still a lovely place to visit. Ibts.. Qad goes well with my beloved qaraami dee. LOL. Roobleh, I doubt the trip is worthwhile.. better save on flights and hotel money and go NHS but Somaalida far uun baa loo tagaa.