From OneUmmah.net:

A few narrations about how and when the Prophet (pbuh) used to fast.

Read it here.

Zekr 7 was released just in time for Ramadan, and there are some nice new features worth checking out.

For those of you who don’t know, Zekr is an cross-platform, free and open source, Qur’an study tool.  It allows you to read the Qur’an in Arabic, numerous language translations, transliteration, and audio recitation.

Two features that I’m realling digging are:

1. Searching arabic root words.
2. Searching arabic and english translation

Zekr will also recite line-by-line or continuous, which is really handy if you are trying to memorize a sura.

You can download Zekr for Linux, Mac, and Windows here.

Our condolences and prayers go out to all of the students, followers, family, and friends of Imam W.D. Mohammed, who passed away today in this holiest of months.

May Allah bless him, forgive him for his shortcomings, and have mercy on him, and there are none who are more merciful than the Most Merciful.

As with every Ramadan, I love the nightly lectures. This year, I’ve become quite fond of a young man named Ammar Nakshawani. He is a self-taught student of knowledge who delivers powerful and touching lectures filled with pearls of wisdom.

You can listen to his current lectures here.

Also, for other dynamite lecturers and scholars, see this site.

There’s all kinds of reasons why this might be a bad idea, but hopefully, if Google stays true to their roots, it will just be healthy competition.

The new Google web browser called Google Chrome, is currently available for download for Windows and will soon (we are told) be available for Linux and Mac OS X.

What could possibly go wrong you ask? Think Internet Explorer and ActiveX back in the 90s. When you already dictate a big chunk of the web, providing the browser to view can become a self-serving activity. Imagine opening Firefox and navigating to the new Google Music site (not saying there really is or will be one) and you get a nice little message stating, “We’re sorry, but this website is only viewable with Google Chrome 2.0 or later.”

As I mentioned, however, Google tends to be more open than that, but stranger things have happened. By the way, the new browser engine is based on Webkit, which is based on KHTML, which comes from KDE, which is free and open source software.

For whatever reason, during Ramadan, I tend to have more vivid dreams. In some cases I even become lucid, whereas that normally does not happen. I have no training in lucid dreaming, although I have desired it on occasion (and then chickened out).

This morning, my alarm clock did not go off or was not loud enough for me to hear. At that time, I was having a dream that a boy was supposed to come and wake me up, but he was absent that day (yes, as if I lived in a school). When I realized that, I fumbled around looking for my clock only to realize that I had missed suhoor.

Momements later, I realized, “Wait! I’m dreaming!” Then, as I gradually became conscious, I said to myself, “And it’s happening in real life!”

I woke up and reached for my clock to discover that I still had about 30 minutes to eat suhoor. Allahu Akbar.

I pray that all Muslims around the world have a Ramadan filled with blessings and good deeds.

Here is my formal greeting card to all of you.

Shake your wanny fanny funky song funky song

Shake your wanny fanny fu-unky song!

I’ll give a prize to the first person who can comment with the show where that song originated.

If you’re a person on the go but don’t want to get behind on your Ramadan Qur’an reading, there are a few free sites that offer audio recitation along with English translation.

Islamway radio

Qur’anEnglish.com

MP3 Qur’an Online

Any of these can be downloaded, installed on an MP3 player, or burned to several CDs.

If you have the money, there are also many Islamic bookstores that sell complete CD sets of Qur’an recitation in arabic with english translation. They run anywhere from $150 to $200. You can also buy DVD sets with added features.

Well, I started a new job at a new school, and that is part of the reason why I have not been blogging much. The other reason is that I’m just a bad blogger. Shame on me!

Today I’m blogging on my new EeePC (more on that later).

Also, Ramadan is right around the corner — truly excited about that. I just pray my health will be better than it has in the past few Ramadans. I suppose that’s a sign that I’m getting old.

Anyway, back to this job. It’s a great school with a brand new building. The Library (media center) is huge with nice wooden shelves, soft new carpeting, plush lounge chairs, built-in media devices, including a projector on the ceiling, HP computers, as well as macbook laptops. The entire school is wireless as well. And my office, don’t even get me started. It’s large, complete with a refrigerator, sink, and a microwave.

I have large windows overlooking a green field and a forest near the river. I’m still getting adjusted, and that has taken more of my time than usual.

There are many issues to blog about, so expect to hear more from me soon, insha’Allah.