Hijab Box

Friday 12 November 2010

Qur'an Addict

Salaam Aleykum

I have started a new "blog" which is not really a blog It is called Qur'an Addict. Inshallah I am going to save all my Qur'an searches and search results, so that it will help others, inshallah, to find words or phrases in English / Arabic / transliterations. For example, you might be looking for the topic of Modesty or Dress Code but need to know others words to look for to pull up the relevant or related verses, such as chastity, immodesty, modest, chaste, adultery, beauty, adornments, khimar, jilbab etc etc.

I use Qur'an Search Engines such as Quranix.net and IslamAwakened.com and then I use corpus.quran.com which finds the Arabic root word and links up all the words that come from the Arabic stem word.

Has this ever happened to you:

Sometimes, you know you have read a verse or you know the topic is in there somewhere but can never seem to find it again?
Sometimes, you hear a phrase or command/law so often you come to believe it is from the Qur'an but you want to check, just to make sure?
Sometimes you hear/read a phrase that is "from the Qur'an", but they do not mention the chapter and verse numbers so that you can verify?
Sometimes the words are correct but when you find the verse in reality, you realise they are set in a different context?
When you ask for advice, you are told another hadith but still no chapter or verse number?

Sometimes anti-islamic articles / newspapers / sites will quote from the Qur'an out of context. If you know what the theme / topic is, and you know where to find the relevant verses in the Qur'an, you can get to the bottom of the matter. For example, one site said that the Qur'an claims "There is no God". A trick on words involving omission of the "except" clause. Apologies for the dumb example but this kind of trick or (sometimes genuine error) is used a lot where "except" is missed off, or people don't read the rest of the verse and surrounding verses.

I am not a qualified islamic scholar. My previous searches and own personal Qur'an Study over the past few years have made finding what I am looking for in the Qur'an somewhat less of a daunting task than it used to be when I was new and didn't know where to start. Alhamdulillah! I still have a long way to go, but let's learn together as we go along, inshallah!

Disclaimer: The search is only as good as the keywords I search for, and the search engines I use. Insh'allah the keywords and links and roots I post to the blog are correct to the best of my knowledge. Always verify information independently. Allahu Alim.

When in doubt, check the Qur'an out!

Please be gentle, it is only a couple of days old! :o) Suggestions for themes / topics / keywords welcome.

http://quranaddict.blogspot.com/

Thursday 16 September 2010

French senate passes face-veil ban

Amplify’d from deftmag.com

French senate passes face-veil ban

he French senate has voted in favour of a bill to ban face-covering veils in public, a proposal that has sparked fierce debate in a country that is home to Western Europe’s largest Muslim population.
Read more at deftmag.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/alue

Thursday 9 September 2010

Many faces under hijab-Photographer aims to educate about those who wear Muslim headscarf

Amplify’d from muslimmatters.org

Many faces under hijab-Photographer aims to educate about those who wear Muslim headscarf

In the photo, Heba Abbasi has just emerged from the water after one leg of the Chicago Triathlon. Wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pants, she contrasts with the athlete in spandex shorts and a form-fitting tank top ahead of her.

Both women cover their hair. Abbasi, though, isn’t wearing a swim cap but the hijab, the traditional headscarf worn by Muslim women.

“Hijab is not meant to limit me and stop me from doing things,” said the 34-year-old Chicago woman, who lives on the city’s West Side. “I do like challenging the stereotype and letting people see me in a way they don’t think of Muslim women.”

Abbasi is one of about 70 Muslims featured in a photo book called “iCover: A Day in the Life of a Muslim-American COVERed Girl,” by photographer Sadaf Syed. The women profiled include a dentist, public school teacher, boxer, actress, homecoming queen, mothers and more. The aim of the book, released in July and now in its second printing, is to change people’s perceptions about women who wear headscarves.

There are about a half-million Muslims in the Chicago area, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, most residing in the city and southern region. Heavy concentrations are found in south suburban Bridgeview, Villa Park in the western suburbs and Rogers Park on the city’s North Side.

Syed, who lives in west suburban Willowbrook, said inspiration for the book built gradually. A freelance photojournalist and wedding photographer, she wanted to use her craft to “touch people’s hearts, educate them and inspire them.”

As a Muslim woman who wears a headscarf herself, Syed is particularly concerned with the misconceptions of Muslim women who choose to cover their hair and dress modestly. Typically, girls start wearing the hijab when their bodies start maturing, Syed said, but added that some women choose to start later in life.

“After 9/11, I noticed people were confused, not wanting to learn but just going on what they see in the media,” said Syed, 36. “The impression it leaves is … that Muslim women are being oppressed, suppressed, abused and forced on — everything that Islam does not stand for. Islam respects women. We are a love-thy-neighbor people just like the other Abrahamic religions.”

The Muslim holy book, the Quran, instructs both men and women to dress modestly. The headscarf for women is a reflection of that requirement, which Syed described as a way for women to “honor and respect God and themselves.”

But anti-Muslim sentiment has fueled harassment, especially of women who are more obvious practitioners of the faith, said Syed, and confusion about something as innocuous as a headscarf can lead to hatred.

Amina Sharif, spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago, said It is common for Muslim women to have their headscarves yanked off. But they don’t usually report it, said Sharif, whose organization advocated for a 28-year-old woman whose scarf was pulled off in a Tinley Park grocery store days after the Fort Hood, Texas, shootings in November. The 54-year-old woman who pleaded guilty to pulling off the headscarf was fined $2,500, put on probation and ordered to attend an anger management course focusing on diversity.

“Those who have negative opinions of Muslims generally haven’t met one,” said Sharif, who called “iCover” a groundbreaking book that should be in every public school and community library. “I felt very empowered when I was flipping through the book. I felt very proud to be a Muslim woman.”

Syed hopes her book fosters similar sentiments in others. According to a Gallup poll released last year, Muslim women are more educated than Muslim men and the general U.S. population. Almost 60 percent of Muslim-American women hold jobs, which is slightly higher than working women in the general U.S. population, according to Gallup.

Like Syed’s photo book, the statistics defy common perceptions of Muslim-American women as oppressed, Sharif said.

For Sarah Bakhsh, 29, of Naperville, her government job as a nuclear reactor engineer took her to power plants and industrial sites where she became the target of suspicion. When she goes on inspections for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, she said she’s met with a look that says, “These are the type of people we’re supposed to protect this country from.”
Read more at muslimmatters.org

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a1pw

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Hijab

Let's all do this! What a phenomenon! A traveling Hijab !!!

Amplify’d from projecthijab.blogspot.com

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Hijab

Do you want to be part of this game? Sisterhood of the traveling hijab. This is a way for us to stay connected and share something in common.

1- I will get a notebook/scrapbook
2- I will write about something I wanna share about me or where I live, or my family....+Put my city's postcard
3- I will buy a hijab online
4- I will send you the notebook+hijab
5-When you receive it,you can keep it for a week,write about something you wanna share, something that happened to you when you wore the hijab,.....
6- Wash the hijab, mail hijab+scrapbook to the next person on the list
7- Let's see how far the hijab will get and how many places this hijab will see.

Let me know if you're interested to be part of this project. I will create a separate blog about it if enough people are interested. We can all be in different parts of the world, this Hijab will be the symbol of our sisterhood. Our special sisterhood connection!

Rules:
1-The first time you receive the scrapbook, you will paste a postcard about your city.
2- You have to be willing to mail the scrapbook+hijab to the next person on the list regardless of where they are located.
3-You have to wash the hijab before sending it to the next person on the list
4. You have to wear the hijab that week
5. Only the people on the list can wear the hijab. You can't let your friends and/or family wear it if they are not on the list.