How to Pray/ Learn the Qur'an

Assalaamu 'alaikum,

Alhamdulillah I have begun working on two new video series. The first is part of a larger series, Pillars of Islam. I already did a single video explanation of the Shahadah, and insha'Allah I am already planning out a series of a whole bunch of videos called Salah: How to Worship your Creator. Insha'Allah I want to cover every aspect of the prayer. One part of that is working with pronunciation and memorization of the Arabic. I have a method of writing out the English and Arabic that works for me very well, so insha'Allah I want to share it with everybody else. On top of that I insha'Allah want to do a series of videos on learning the Quran. in each video I would deal with one Surah, discuss the meaning and the tafsir, then I would teach the Surah and help the viewer to memorize it insha'Allah. I find there are two major difficulties with memorizing Qur'an or other Arabic for prayers. First of all, obviously, most people don't understand the meaning of the Arabic they are trying to memorize, which makes things much harder. Second, most people can't read Arabic script either, and so they have to use various transcriptions and transliterations into our Roman script. This presents many problems because there is a trade off that takes place. If you try to preserve the meanings of each word, to show each word by itself, or literally transliterate each letter, the result will be difficult to pronounce correctly. On the other hand, if you go overboard trying to make the Arabic really easy to pronounce, it doesn't even resemble words anymore, just a bunch of sounds, and for the person trying to learn, it doesn't connect with the meaning. So my solution to this is to have each verse in 4 parts: the first line has each word in Arabic broken up into individual boxes in a table, preserving the word in its natural form. The next line would have the corresponding English meaning (more or less) for each word in their own boxes. Then the next line would be the complete verse in Arabic, fully joined together for proper pronunciation, followed by the English translation of the meaning on the last line. This way, the person can recognize each Arabic word and relate it to what they are reciting, while still being able to retain the correct pronunciation, AND have a better grasp on the meaning, insha'Allah.

That was a lot of explaining. Here's a sample of what I'm talking about. Insha'Allah my plan is to pair this with audio in the videos, but to also have separate documents available here on the blog so people can have it separate from the videos themselves. Tell me what you think insha'Allah!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/27911249/Learn-the-Quran-Al-Fatiha

Your Muslim Neighbor

Assalaamu 'alaikum everybody!

So, as you may have noticed, I have been mentioning a website in some of my videos, YourMuslimNeighbor.com, as a place to get free copies of the translation of the meaning of the Qur'an in English or Spanish. The site was started by my friend Bilal, and we have been working to expand this Dawah initiative further, through printing our own booklets, handing out booklets in Times Square, hand-delivering them door-to-door, running Dawah booths and tables, and much more insha'Allah. Right now we are working on raising funds for this project. We keep getting requests, so it costs a lot just to maintain what we have now, so expanding will take a lot. Check out the video to learn more and find out how you can help too insha'Allah!

Muslim Hands

Dawah SHIRTS!

Assalaamu 'alaikum!

I wanted to share this site with all of my subscribers. It is a project I have been working on for about a year, and alhamdulillah it has been a success so far. I want to insha'Allah grow this site further, and so I am promoting it here. The shirts and products are designed to be a potential tool for Dawah, inviting to Islam. Dawah can be done with close friends or people you meet on the street. Sometimes, especially with strangers, it can be difficult to start calling to Islam out of nowhere, and many people may be turned off by this approach. These shirts are meant to be conversation starters. With many different styles and designs, you can find the perfect shirt that suits you and gets people all around you interested in learning more about Islam.

Check out the store for more Dawah Shirts!

NEW VIDEO! FAQ on The HAQ

Since many people may not know basic information about Islam, I decided to make a short video answering some common questions. Insha'Allah, this will generate interest and help viewers better understand and appreciate my other videos.

Pharaoh's Chief Architect mentioned in the Qur'an confirmed by archaeological study

Here is the first example of a random fact I want to share and save. I watched this video today. In this new episode of The Deen Show, Eddie has on two guests, one Catholic, one Muslim, to briefly discuss the Qur'an. It would have been great if they had about two hours to do this, but they did an excellent job with the time they had.

The part that I found most interesting, which starts at 26:21, is the mention of Haman, Chief Architect of the Pharaoh at the time of Moses (as), in the Qur'an. For centuries, Jewish and Christian scholars criticized the Qur'an for this mention, erroneously believing it to be a blending with the story of Babel in the Bible, which mentions a man named Haman. It wasn't until this century that Egyptologists discovered that Haman was indeed the name of Pharaoh's Chief Architect. This was learned by translating the ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics. This information certainly could not have been known my the Prophet Muhammad (saws) unless he was the true prophet of Allah! Check out the video insha'Allah, since I'm only telling you what I heard from this brother, and he explains it far more clearly than I do.

Bismillah...

Assalaamu 'alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu!

Ok, so, I've been thinking of starting a blog for a while, and now alhamdulillah I'm doing it. I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to be using this for, nor am I sure how often I'm going to be using it. If I had to guess at what this will be, I would say that, insha'Allah, it's going to be a place for me to keep you updated on new videos coming out, to post videos, articles, and links that I think are interesting and want to share, and a place where I can archive little tidbits of knowledge, small fragments of wisdom that I pick up from here and there that I don't want to forget. I have a lot of knowledge in my head, most of which I cannot reference. To be able to externally use what you know, you need to be able to know where you learned it. This blog will, insha'Allah, help me to keep track of random facts that I don't want to loose.

As for the rest, Allahu 'alam.