Google embraces Islam by releasing a tool for Ramadan
Today Google is specifically embracing Islam by releasing a tool for Ramadan. The unimaginatively named ‘My Ramadan Companion’, which will help Muslims to observe this very holy month.
“To help you get the most out of Ramadan, we’ve launched My Ramadan Companion (g.co/Ramadan), which gives you customized and locally relevant information, tips, and other content highlighting the richness of what the web can offer during Ramadan around you. You can find out the sunset time in your location, plan your day accordingly, check out the traffic in your area, navigate to the closest charity Iftar, find and share recipes, enjoy Ramadan content on YouTube ranging from drama series and comedy sketches, health tips to stay fit during the 30 days of fasting”, says Zain Kamal Masri, associate product marketing manager, Middle East and North Africa, Google.
Masri further explains, depending on your location Google now will show you a range of relevant cards with popular YouTube videos, latest Ramadan news and information, and recommendations for apps that alert you to wake up for Suhur, enable you to design greeting cards for Ramadan to share with the family, find Halal restaurants around you, and countdown to Iftar time”.
Google already makes a big deal about Christmas with its Santa Tracker apps and websites, so it is nice to see the search-giant focusing on Muslims too. Even if you are not Muslim, this tool may be a great way to learn more about the religion and its traditions.
Californian Muslims brace for Ramadan celebrations
Like Millions of Muslims across the world, Muslims in the US are preparing to observe the holy fasting month of Ramadan, which starts on Thursday, with a religious flavor.
At southern California’s multi-cultural mosque, the Islamic Society of Orange County, preparations are going on to host thousands of Muslims on the first Saturday of Ramadan.
A huge canopy is being installed in the courtyard of the mosque where a large celebration is to be held.
The heavy schedule of the mosque will focus on mid-day prayers along with evening celebrations after the fast is broken.
“When you go without food and drink for entire day, even for one day, you realize what you have given up, and you realize what you actually have that you had taken for granted,” Sheikh Mustafa Umar, of a southern California mosque, told Voice of America on Monday.
Sheikh Umar is one of southern California Muslims who are bracing for fasting, reflections and communal gatherings that mark the holy month.
“Every day here at the mosque, we actually break our fast together at sunset, so that is around 8:00 pm,” Duaa Alwan, the president of the Islamic Society of Orange County, said.
“There are free meals, free dinners here. A lot of the larger community are invited to that, a lot of our friends from different faiths, our neighbors.”
U.S. Mosque welcomes over 50 School District staff
About 50 teachers and administrators at one Pennsylvania school district attended a recent training session on Islam and Arabic culture, While there they learned about the practice of Islam, watched an afternoon Muslim prayer service.
The workshop in the town of Lebanon was led by a former district Arabic translator, Mohamed Omar, who “took time off from his new job as a case worker for the Department of Human Services in Philadelphia to share his knowledge of Islam with the staff,” the Lebanon Daily News reported.
Among the attendees: Superintendent Marianne Bartley and a handful of other administrators.
“I think this is the first time ever in the United States that a school district goes to a mosque,” mosque founder Hamid Housni told the Daily News. “Usually a representative of a mosque goes somewhere. We don’t have words to explain to you how we appreciate that. This is very, very special.”
The training session included a comparison-contrast of U.S.-Arab education, as well as a visit to a local mosque to learn more about the Islamic religion – and to join in the congregation’s prayer service, the news outlet said.
“We have so many students from different Hispanic countries, but slowly but surely the Arabic population is growing,” Omar said. “With Hispanics you have the language differences and certainly cultural differences, but there are similarities in their religious practices. Of course, the Arab language and the religion are very much different, but we are learning that there are also many similarities.”
Teachers and administrators removed their shoes at the mosque and mingled with the congregation, discussing God, Islam and Christianity, the news outlet reported.
“We believe we will be judged by God,” Omar said, at the mosque. “The more good deeds we do, God will forgive us in the end. … You must work. Faith without work will not be accepted.”
Teachers were given opportunity to ask questions and afterwards, called the event informative.
“It’s important that we educate ourselves about cultures that are different from our own and that we try to eliminate some misunderstandings,” said Lara Book, one of the teachers who attended. “And any way that I can communicate with my students … that makes it more meaningful or easier, it is a vital tool.”
Book also said: “Basically, although our cultures are different, the fundamentals of them are similar and we all want the same things, happiness for our families, health, and success. Although we might go about finding those things in our lives differently, from a cultural standpoint, we all want the same thing.”
Photos: Initiative to feed 30,000 displaced people a day, during Ramadan in Syria
[su_slider source=”media: 3385,3384,3383,3382,3381,3380″ link=”image” title=”no” target=”blank” pages=”no”]
Fasting and Patience
Ramadan is the month of patience as the person who observes fasting is patient regarding acts of obedience and avoiding acts of disobedience. He abstains from the permissible things he used to enjoy out of obedience to Allah the Almighty and in fulfillment of piety. Meanwhile, he stops himself from doing acts of disobedience and forces himself to do many righteous acts which bring one closer to Allah The Almighty, such as observing the voluntary night prayers, giving in charity, maintaining kinship ties, providing food for the needy and bearing the suffering of hunger and thirst.
The Qur’an has interpreted fasting as patience. There is a tradition in which Imam Sadiq (The Sixth Imam of Muslims) has been quoted to have said the following in the interpretation of the Almighty God’s statement “Seek help from patience and prayer”: What is meant by patience is fasting. When something really hard descends upon man, he should fast since God the Almighty says “seek help from patience” – that is fasting. So fasting strengthens people’s patience and such a person is able to resist withstand problems.
Social Healing
A man wrote a letter to Imam Askari (a.s) asking him: “For what reason did Allah make fasting compulsory?”
The Imam (a.s) wrote in reply: “God has made fasting compulsory so that the rich shall find the pain of hunger so they have a mercy upon the poor.” (Bihar al-Anwar Vol.96, p.339)
Starvation and its related diseases causes one person per second to die on this planet, 75% of them being infants and children under the age of 5.
Typically, stories involving deaths in Africa receive lesser coverage than those, which occur elsewhere. Nonetheless, let us read the following news.
Exodus newsmagazine in its July 22, 2001 issue reported: Starvation in Ethiopia, Help Slowly Arriving, Death Toll Cannot Be Determined by Howard A. Gutman
“A massive tragedy is unfolding in Ethiopia as thousands of starving people are expected to die. Without help, many expect the death toll to be in the millions. Yet little is being done in the U.S.”
According to the same newsmagazine in the last famine, there were approximately one million deaths.
Now compare the above news with the following:
‘More than half of U.S adults (20+) are overweight. Nearly one-quarter of U.S adults are obese.’ And the figures are drastically increasing. This is despite all weight-loss programs in these countries.
According to Wolf & Colditz in ‘Current estimates of the Economic Cost of Obesity in the US 1998’: “Economic cost in the U.S related to the overweight in 1995 was the total of $99.2 billion. And according to the same source Americans spend $33 billion annually on weight-loss products and services. This includes low calorie foods, artificially sweetened products; such as sodas and memberships to commercial weight-loss centres.
And if you want to know whether you are among those over-weight people in a time when starvation causes one person per second to die, here is your scale.
The biggest problem facing the world today is not people dying in the streets of Mumbai, Zimbabwe or Ethiopia; it is rather the lack of a sense of caring for those disadvantaged people whose rights have been usurped by others. Fasting provides the opportunity for the faster to feel and find for himself or herself the pain and agony that a poor person is going through. A fasting person can also keep his or her money, usually spent on lunch, away to feed a group of poor people with. Thus, Zakatul-fitreh is compulsory and is regarded as the compilation of fasting
Focus
With the constant demands of modern life, it’s all too easy to become lost and forget who we are, and so to unconsciously forget our divine purpose and destiny.
Without constant reminder, we become lost in the dream and disconnected from reality.
Fasting in Ramadan for thirty days is a powerful practice in restoring focus, direction, balance and purpose to our lives.
Simplicity and Non-Attachment
When living without discipline and restraint, life quickly becomes overly complicated, leading to a heavy burden that results in unnecessary stress, anxiety, unhappiness and difficulty.
By fasting in Ramadan, we limit excess and indulgence, facilitating the return to simplicity and non-attachment, releasing one from dependence on dunya and so contributing to psychological health and happiness