Salam Alaikum: East Zone Conference 2008 is something I am really looking forward to. I am hoping it will jump start NJ’s youth. I wanted to publicize the event so here’s more info below. I will be posting my reply to the conference organizer soon and will share that with you under comments section. Don’t forget to submit your comments to NJMSA by Jan. 25th.

East Zone 2008 Conference Requesting Theme, Topic and Speaker input

Alhamdulillah we’ve enter the stage of put together the ‘Theme’ for the conference. We are requesting ideas for Themes along with a few sentences explaining your selection that you would like discussed (which may turn into main topics) and a list of speakers (local and non-local) and email them to Lubna and Amina insha-Allah. Please submit by Jan-25-2008 or sooner!!!

Program Chair – “Lubna Malik” <lmalik@princeton.edu >, Princeton University

Program Vice Chair – “Amina Esseghir” <aminaesseghir@gmail.com >, Rutgers University

Also if you have comments, concerns and thoughts of past experiences that we can learn from or thoughts and comments of what/how a conference should be designed and presented please post them to Lubna and Amina as well insha-Allah.

For those of you who are not aware of what MSA National’s East Zone Conference is; it is simply the largest student based conference in the United States not run in tandem with anyone else. MSA National hosts the East Zone Conference every year in the Spring insha-Allah.

Along with Theme Submission you may include the following to Lubna and Amina:

1. Topics

2. Entertainment ideas

3. Speakers

4. Quranic Reciters

5. Moderators

6. Entertainers

7. Possible Cost of them Coming to Newark, NJ – Finance Guy is reviewing everything to make this the best and most affordable conference for all the attendees Bi’idnillah!!!

If you are up for assisting in the conference please email – njmsas@gmail.com

For Bazaar – please indicate in subject Bazaar and then email njmsas@gmail.com

I remember few years back when the IT business was hit hard and a recession followed; many people had lost their jobs and savings in stock market. It was bad time. It affected the general mood of the community. However, no guidance came from the pulpit. Simply because Imams are not stock brokers

However, Dr. Ibrahim Buker shared with us a story of wealthy Muslim who told him that he lost so much money that he could have built not one but two Islamic centers with his wealth. The man was really in despair. Dr. Buker’s reply was simple. “Well! you didn’t build anything and lost everything!”. But he offered him a balm by stating “How many people were alive yesterday and today they are not with us”. He wanted the man not to overindulge in grief over money and pointed out that he was alive in good condition, a blessing ignored by many. So my point here is to go on with your life and enjoy the most precious thing you possess – your life. Money is not everything.

Stocks Plunge in Europe and Asia on U.S. Recession Fear

New York Times

PARIS — Global stock markets plunged on Monday as fears spread that the turmoil in United States mortgage markets is spreading. Indexes in Europe fell as much as 7 percent after a huge selloff in Asia.

“There’s something approaching panic in the market,” Holger Schmieding, the chief European economist at Bank of America in London said by telephone. “There’s been a reassessment in the market of the U.S. economic outlook, with most people now thinking that there will be a recession,” and investors are starting to reconsider the idea that the rest of the world “will remain aloof from U.S. problems.”

The selling began in Sydney, with Australian stocks falling nearly 3 percent for an 11th consecutive decline. Major markets in Asia followed suit, with the benchmark Nikkei 225-stock average in Tokyo falling 3.9 percent, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong falling 5.5 percent and the benchmark mainland Chinese index falling more than 5 percent.

European shares were on track for their biggest decline in more than four and a half years as United States recession fears rattled investors. In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 was down 5.7 percent. The CAC 40 index in Paris was down 5 percent, having fallen more than 7 percent at one point. The Dax 30 in Frankfurt was down 6.25 percent, and the FTSE 100 in London was down 3.7 percent…

Going Back…

Zubaida Foundation is taking a lead in supporting Islamic education in Trenton area. InshAllah there will be a fundraising event tonight with Imam Siraj Wahaj. I am looking forward to student’s presentation and an insight from Br. Farrukh who is utilizing the waqf model to generate funds for the school. I think in the future American Muslims will have to look for alternative ways to generate funds besides fundraising dinners. I recently read that Zaytuna was also developing their seminary based on waqf – endowment. It is unfortunate that this waqf tradition is almost destroyed by the centralized modern governments in the Muslim world.
We need to invest in our future if we want it to have a brighter morrow.

One Nation under God (((audio)))

Zubaida Foundation, Yardley, PA

by Faraz Khan

on Our relationship to God and responsibility to serve people.

“O People, exchange greetings of peace, feed people, meet with people, and pray at night when people are asleep, than you shall enter paradise with peace” (hadith).

Fasting of ‘Ashura (10th of Muharram)

just a reminder about fasting next two days (Friday & Saturday). In other ahadith the Prophet (s) prescribed fasting two days instead of one. Following hadith should help you understand the significance of fasting this day. If you have any questions/comments, just post online.

Abu Qatada (Radiyallahu ‘anh) relates that the Prophet (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) said that the fast on the 10th of Muharram atones for the sins of the preceding year. [Sahih Muslim]

Abu Huraira (Radiyallahu ‘anh) reports that the Prophet (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) said that after Ramadan, the fasts of Muharram have the greatest excellence. [Sahih Muslim]

ibn Abbas (Radiyallahu ‘anh) reports that the Prophet (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) arrived in Madinah and found the Jews observing fast on the day of ‘Ashura… They said: “It is the day of great (significance) when Allah delivered Prophet Musa (‘Alaihis-Salaam) and his people and drowned Pharoah and his people, and Prophet Musa (‘Alaihis-Salaam) observed fast out of gratitude. And we also observe it.” The Messenger of Allah (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) responded: “We have more right, and we have closer connection with Prophet Musa (‘Alaihis-Salaam) than you have”; so Allah’s Messenger (Sall Allahu alaihi wa Aalihi wa Sallim) observed fast (on the day of ‘Ashura) and gave us orders to observe it. [Sahih Bukhari and Muslim]

Al-Bayan Academy Fundraiser

The Lost Archive
Missing for a half century, a cache of photosspurs sensitive research on Islam’s holy text
By ANDREW HIGGINS
January 12, 2008; Page A1
– Munich, Germany

On the night of April 24, 1944, British air force bombers hammered a former Jesuit college here housing the Bavarian Academy of Science. The 16th-century building crumpled in the inferno. Among the treasures lost, later lamented Anton Spitaler, an Arabic scholar at the academy, was a unique photo archive of ancient manuscripts of the Quran.
The 450 rolls of film had been assembled before the war for a bold venture: a study of the evolution of the Quran, the text Muslims view as the verbatim transcript of God’s word. The wartime destruction made the project “outright impossible,” Mr. Spitaler wrote in the 1970s.
Mr. Spitaler was lying. The cache of photos survived, and he was sitting on it all along. The truth is only now dribbling out to scholars — and a Quran research project buried for more than 60 years has risen from the grave.
“He pretended it disappeared. He wanted to be rid of it,” says Angelika Neuwirth, a former pupil and protégée of the late Mr. Spitaler. Academics who worked with Mr. Spitaler, a powerful figure in postwar German scholarship who died in 2003, have been left guessing why he squirreled away the unusual trove for so long.