An opportunity HOSNA MUST NOT miss!

walaikum assalam, brother mandarina,

jazakallah bil khair for taking suggestions; sometimes you find people ask for input because that's the right thing to do, but aren't really that open to suggestions; may Allah bless this project

ok, i'm glad the poetry is in, but i'm not sure if i like the idea of making all the summaries in poetry form; we just need the variety to appeal to all different kinds of people out there; shaikh yaser had asked us to do summaries and the amirs/amiras of each group to submit the best ones; we can draw from there; all in all, i feel there should be bullet form charts, narratives, poetry, pictures, essays, etc. all in different styles (it just depends on the subject matter); we want to appeal to the "fun" side of things for those youth who think these things are boring, but also the "serious" side for those who are already kind of advanced in their studies, that they won't feel like they are wasting their time; the beauty of al-maghrib is that it appeals to the whole spectrum of students out there

as for the editing job, yes, that would definitely be something for me; i accept the offer

finally, i think it should be clarified on the forum here how interested people submit materials: it should just be posted on the thread here?

jazakallah bil khair for working so hard on this

also, within a few days if no one has stepped up to do any of the other tasks, you can just ask me to do what is needed; just be like, sister fatima, no one has volunteered to do _________ and we really want that done, could you please do it?

i am here to help

Jazaakum Allah hayr sister for your determination to make this project a success.

For submitting material, its probably the best do it right here on this thread so that we all can take a look at it. For those who do not feel comfortable with that, they can e-mail me at:

M mandarina M @ yahoo.com

(don't use any spaces)

You know, I was thinking...

What Hosna newsletter would be complete without a word from the Ameer of Qabeelat Hosna himself, IrtizaH?

I think he should write at least one article for the newsletter perhaps sharing his reflections of the class or the tribe in general.

Wa Allahu a'lam.

What do you think, Mandarina?

Originally Posted by al-Jilani

You know, I was thinking...

What Hosna newsletter would be complete without a word from the Ameer of Qabeelat Hosna himself, IrtizaH?

I think he should write at least one article for the newsletter perhaps sharing his reflections of the class or the tribe in general.

Wa Allahu a'lam.

What do you think, Mandarina?

I totally agree. In the very first post on this thread, where I outlined proposal for the newsletter format, I said we ought to have "...message from the tribe ameer...Then message from shaykh Yasser" in our "SECTION THREE: Reflections on the class." My idea was to have each of them write a few sentances, but I don't see a problem with something longer than that.

So...

=================================================

Shaykh Yasser and brother Irtiza:

I’d appreciate if you’d start thinking about the “message from the teacher� and the “message from the ameer� that we could include in the newsletter. This could be an actual “message to� the future students, or it could be just your impressions/reflections from the class. Please try to get it done no later then one week from today. Jazaakum Allah khayr.

assalaamu'alaikum brother. my corrections are in red. mostly its grammatical or spelling stuff that i fixed. some things i fixed out of opinion so if you or others don't agree with it, then thats fine . also when you say "Prophet Muhammed s.a.a.w." or "Allah s.w.t.", if thats the abbreviation we're going to use, make it like that throughout the WHOLE newsletter, personally i think it just looks more professional like that. same thing when you say "Al-Maghrib", always keep the spelling and capitilizations the same to make it look more consistent and professional. also at the end of the intro with ibn Hazm's story, i changed your last sentence just to make it a TAD BIT more of a "cliff hanger" type of thing. also what does the "X" thing mean?? sorry i was confused, maybe it was just a typo? i dont know... these are just my suggestions, i don't mind if they get turned down, its all good . overall, I LOVED IT. mashaAllah its very well written.

assalaamu'alaikum warahmatullah

Al-Maghrib Institute
Qabeelat Hosna
Diyaar Texas

Student Newsletter

The Code Evolved: Evolution of Fiqh

Once upon a time…

More than 300 years after the light of Islam started shining in the Arabian Peninsula, at the far edges of Muslim World there lived a wealthy and influential man. He went one late afternoon, between the time of Asr and Maghrib, to the masjid to attend the funeral of his colleague whom he respected very much. Upon entering the House of Allah he sat down only to immediately be approached by a person who instructed him to stand up and offer a prayer since the Messenger s.a.w.s. is reported to have said: “When anyone of you enters the mosque, he should perform two rak’ah (of voluntary prayer) before sitting.� (recorded by al-Bukharee and Muslim) Hearing these words the man stood up and performed a salaah, and then moved to another corner of the masjid. However, to his big surprise, he was approached by another man who started criticizing him for offering a prayer at that time of day (i.e. after salaat-ul-asr) since it has been reported that “the Messenger s.a.w.s. forbade praying after the fajr prayer till the sun rises and after the ‘asr prayer until the sun sets.� (recorded by al-Bukharee)

This incident left the man confused. He pondered over his embarrassing experience for some time after which he became determined not to allow himself to again be defeated by ignorance. This man, Ibn Hazm al-Andalusee, set out on a quest for knowledge and later became one of the greatest scholars the Muslim Ummah ever had.

About this Newsletter

Dear reader:

It is an undeniable fact that most of us Muslims today are quite confused when it comes to issues of fiqh, much like Imam Ibn Hazm was in the days before he eagerly dived into the vast sea of Islamic scholarship. This confusion of ours is result of nothing but our ignorance in the matters of our deen. We know very little; the resources we have available for studying are limited; and we’re so busy that we don’t have much time available for learning the deen.

In these difficult circumstances, and in times when we are constantly faced with new issues for which we’d like to find Islamic solutions, it is very easy for Muslims to lose spirit, to give in to the feeling of hopelessness and to be overcome by despair.

Well, we write this letter to you because we feel compelled to share with you some information about the enlightening and breath-taking experience we had with Al-Maghrib Institute’s recent class titled: “The Code Evolved ~ Evolution of Fiqh.� It opened our eyes, gave us hope, and deepened our resolve to persist on the path of seeking authentic Islamic knowledge.

Although, before we tell you more about this particular class, allow us to share with you a word or two about the institution which made this and many other high-quality Islamic courses available not only in our area but across North America and throughout the world.

Al-Maghrib Institute (based in College Park, MD) offers innovative and specially designed weekend seminars which meet the needs of today’s students and professionals who’s busy schedules leave very little room for prolonged and dedicated study of Islam. These courses are taught by highly qualified and passionate instructors who present the material in a way that Al-Maghrib students literally “fall in love� with the style, smoothness and level of sophistication with which they can acquire Islamic knowledge. Because by combining traditional teaching methods with all the gadgets of a modern classroom, al-Maghrib seminars leave its students longing for more.

Before witnessing Al-Maghrib classes we did not even imagine that this type of courses - which we thought existed only in reputable Islamic universities overseas - could be available at our doorsteps here in the West. What’s more, through its affiliation with American Open University (Fairfax, VA), the courses offered by Al-Maghrib are accredited by Al-Azhar University (Cairo, Egypt). This gives a chance to those more seriously interested in pursuing Islamic studies to have their coursework recognized at a university level! And with Al-Maghrib courses (now coming to) here in X, we KNOW that you don’t want to miss this great opportunity and blessing from Allah s.w.t.

To give you a glimpse at what we have learned in our last class, and hopefully motivate to take advantage of upcoming Al-Maghrib classes in your area, we present you with this short summary of the material that our teacher - Shaykh Yasser Birjas - taught us over the course of two weekends in May.

The Code Evolved ~ Evolution of Fiqh

As its name implies, the class dealt with the history of... and on we go with SECTION TWO

assalaamu'alaikum warahmatullah

sr. fatima- there's one more poet- br. Musa McGuire!... oh and also i think we recently picked up a few more poets like Oum AbdurRahman i think, correct me if i'm wrong.

br. mandarina- yes it didnt occur to me at first, but i agree, the info about almaghrib institute should be in bullet form. i also agree with sr. fatima that the summaries shouldnt be in poetry form, do it in regular paragraph form, BUT the poetry comes in as a recap of the class. we can put in a poem at the end of the newsletter as a recap of facts and feelings. inshaAllah.

assalaamu'alaikum warahmatullah

Jazaakum Allah hayr sister Basmah for taking the time to critique the text. You brought up some very good points, ma sha Allah! May He swt bless you!

assalaamu'alaikum

also, i forgot, y'all asked me to contact Daughters of Adam and Al-Manar newsletter people... i can insha'Allah contact both (i know the editor of DOA and a sister who contributes a lot to Al-Manar) but what is it specifically you'd like me to say? that we're working on a newsletter for al-maghrib and _____________________ what else??

assalaamu'alaikum warahmatullah

p.s. oh yeah, wa'iyyakum br. mandarina

Originally Posted by SisterBasmah

assalaamu'alaikum

also, i forgot, y'all asked me to contact Daughters of Adam and Al-Manar newsletter people... i can insha'Allah contact both (i know the editor of DOA and a sister who contributes a lot to Al-Manar) but what is it specifically you'd like me to say? that we're working on a newsletter for al-maghrib and _____________________ what else??

assalaamu'alaikum warahmatullah

p.s. oh yeah, wa'iyyakum br. mandarina

If they took the class, we'd like their help. Invite them to come to this thread to see what exactly we're doing and they can best determine how they can and would like to help. We could definitely use their skills and experience. Six summaries are still waiting to be written...

Also, someone at DOA/Al-Manar is probably very good at "newsletter design" (meaning how to organize/place texts, make them visually appealing etc.). We could definitely use such help as well.