مرحبا بقدومكم

أهلا وسهلا، نورت المنتدى بوجودك، وان شاء الله تقضّي معنا وقت ممتع ومفيد
"TOWARDS NURTURING THE APPRENTICE OF CONTEMPORARY EXPERTISE"

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The 'Golden 20' for Academic Success!


  1. Go to class.
  1. Be on time.
  1. Sit to the front and center of the classroom.
  1. Bring a pen, paper, notebook, and books.
  1. Dress like a student (not like an athlete, rap star, rock musician, or surfer).
  1. Show respect and enthusiasm to your instructors.
  1. Listen, listen, listen--you can't learn while talking to your peers during class.
  1. Pay attention--don't doodle, doze, or daydream.
  1. Try to contribute once per class period, with a question or contribution to discussion. Participation counts--and helps.
  1. Have clearly marked notebooks, with separate sections--or separate notebooks--for each class.
  1. Take notes.
  1. Use a dictionary. This will increase your vocabulary and teach you correct spelling.
  1. Have a partner/"buddy" system for studying. Have parents, friends, dormmates, etc. quiz you. Form study groups.
  1. Read, read, read. Read magazines, the newspaper, sports books, science fiction, anything you can get your hands on.
  1. Set aside at least three hours a day, six days a week, to study.
  1. Get some of your homework done during school. Use free periods, extra time between classes, and the time before sports.
  1. Sacrifice and work during times when you know other people aren't working. Work on a Friday night or Saturday afternoon. It will be worth it.
  1. Volunteer for extra credit.
  1. Get involved in extracurricular activities. Don't merely attend classes and go to practice. Join the Government Club or Cultural Awareness Organization, write for the student newspaper, give tours, etc. Get involved.
  1. Work hard and be proud that you are working hard and learning. Realize that education is a key ingredient to many great things that you will accomplish in life.

Beauty Tips for Muslim Sister

my dear sisters in Islam,

Please take a look at this advice, so that you can stay attractive and beautiful for the rest of your life.

1- To beautify your eyes, lower your gaze towards strange men; this will make your eyes pure and shiny.

2- To beautify your face and make it shiny, keep doing wudu minimum five times a day

3- To have attractive lips, always mention Allah and remember to speak the truth.

4- As for blush and rouge, “Modesty” (Haya) is one of the best brands and it can be found in any of the Islamic centers.

5- To remove impurities from your face and body, use a soap called “Astaghfaar” (seeking forgiveness of Allah) this soap will remove many bad deeds.

6- Now about your hair, if any of you has a problem of split ends, then I suggest “Islamic Hijab” which will protect your hair from damage.

7- As for jewelry, beautify your hands with humbleness and let your hands be generous and give charity to the poor

8- To avoid heart disease, forgive people who hurt your feelings.

9- Your necklace should be a sign to pardon your fellow brothers and sisters.

If you follow these advices given to you by the Creator, you will have a beautiful and attractive inner and outer appearance.

Abu Mas’ud ‘Uqbah bin ‘Amr al-Ansari al-Badri, radiyallahu ‘anhu, reported that the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam, said:

“Among the things that people have found from the words of the previous prophets was: ‘If you feel no shame, then do as you wish.’”

May Allah help us all, and show us the right path…Ameen…

KHALIFAH UMAR BIN ABDUL AZIZ

When the Khalifah died the Roman emperor is reported to have said: “I should not be the least surprised if a monk renounces the world and busies himself in worship behind closed doors, but I am simply amazed at this man who has a vast empire at his feet but he rejected it and lived the life of a monk...”



Umar ibn Abdul Aziz
is a person who is just well known by a few Muslims (those who are interested in the history of Islam).

After the death of Prophet Mohammed, for some years, is when he was born.

All Muslims nominated the leaders in Islam, who succeeded each other after Prophet’s death, unanimously, but before Omar was born, everything had changed due to worldly pleasures. That is the word DYNASTY was introduced, instead. And since Omar belonged to the reigning family, when his time for leadership came, he was given the opportunity.

Actually, the above is just a short summary of his introduction, but what impressed me hence calling him my hero, are the following reasons that were portrayed throughout his life span.

First, comparing his life before and after his leadership is that, he led a luxurious and royal life before, but he underwent a complete metamorphosis after his declaration. For example: Immediately when he became a leader, he dismissed all the governors who were known to be cruel and unjust to the servants. Therefore, the people were happier than ever.

Secondly, all the jewelry and valuable presents brought before him were deposited to the state treasury in a number of occasions, instead of taking it for personal treasury. Also he gave out all his wealth for the betterment of the society until he was remained with only one shirt. His people realized this when he was always late for Friday prayers as a result of waiting for his only one shirt to dry after washing it. Furthermore, at times there was no food in his house, hence, one day he saw his children hiding their mouth not to be open to their father, and when he enquired, he discovered that his children had taken onions as food and were hiding the smell from reaching him. He felt pity on them and made sure that they had enough food. This shows that, even the kids have taken after their father’s heroic nature of understanding the situation. Moreover he did not have enough money to go for pilgrimage despite the fact that, he was the leader of the mightiest empire in that time.

In his office he had two candles, if he wanted to write the state affairs, he would use the candle that belonged to the state and if he wanted to write his own personal letters, he would use the candle, which he bought from his own money.

Omar ensured that, his governors follow the same path. For example one of the governors brought a letter requesting for more candle sticks but Omar replied, “I remember we used to walk in the dark night without candle sticks and we survived, do you want to tell me that now you are in a worse condition?” This shows that he was against extravagance.

In another occasion, there were a request for papers, but Omar replied again, “Make the points of your pens thinner, and write small hand writings including your important matters and leave the details in very short and straight forward form. It was during his reign when all taxes were abolished. People commented that during the reign of other leaders the state treasury was filled up, but now there was nothing due to the abolishing of taxes and most of the savings were used to help the poor and the needy. He replied that the state treasury was not meant for the walls but the people, so why should they not be given?

Instead of taxes, he encouraged all the governors to argue people to practice agriculture and if anybody had a piece of land which he did not cultivate for three years, the land was to be taken and be given to somebody else who would cultivate, hence burning off laziness.

His fruitful achievements lead to the well being of his society, and even when the time for annual obligatory charity from came, no one accepted it, but was to be sent to other towns to raise other's standards of living. Everybody could assist his family without begging. This brought about jubilance among the people and loyalty towards their leader.

Omar's leadership cannot be compared to any other person's - it was so unique. Different leaders reigned before and after him but none could break his record. He died in the year 719 CE, after ruling for two years and five months. His subjects mourned in great pain, saying that, they would never have a leader like Omar.

HOW TO INCREASE ONE`S MEMORY ?

It is human nature to be forgetful, as the Arab poet said:

He is only called man (insaan) because of his forgetfulness (nasiyaan),

and it is only called the heart (al-qalb) because it changes so rapidly (yataqallib).

In the past they said that the first one to forget (awwal naasin) was the first man (awwal al-naas), meaning Adam, peace be upon him. Forgetfulness is something that varies from person to person according to each individuals nature; some may be more forgetful than others. Some of the things that may help to combat forgetfulness are the following.

1. Keeping away from sin, because the bad effects of sin result in a bad memory and the inability to retain knowledge. The darkness of sin cannot co-exist with the light of knowledge. The following words were attributed to al-Shaafiee, may Allah have mercy on him:

I complained to [my shaykh] Wakee about my bad memory, and he taught me that I should keep away from sin. He said that knowledge of Allah is light, and the light of Allah is not given to the sinner.

When a person commits a sin, it overwhelms him and this leads to anxiety and sorrow which keeps him busy thinking about what he has done. This dulls his senses and distracts him from many beneficial things, including seeking knowledge.

2. Frequently remembering Allah, may He be glorified, by reciting dhikr, tasbeeh (saying Subhan Allah),tahmeed (Al-hamdu Lillaah), tahleel (Laa ilaaha ill-Allah) and takbeer (Allahu akbar), etc. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning): {And remember your Lord when you forget} [Quran al-Kahf 18:24]

3. Not eating too much, because eating too much makes one sleep too much and become lazy, and it dulls the senses, besides exposing one to the risk of physical diseases. Most of the diseases which we see result from food and drink.

4. Some of the scholars have mentioned certain foods which increase the memory, such as drinking honey and eating raisins and chewing certain kinds of gum resin.

Imaam al-Zuhree said: You should eat honey because it is good for the memory.

As they mentioned, too much acidic food is one of the causes of laziness and weak memory.

5. Another thing that can help the memory and reduce forgetfulness is cupping (hijaamah) of the head,as is well known from experience.