Halal Mix Tape Vol. 1

I haven't laughed this much in a gazillion years as I did after watching this video by Lota-Pani Productions and Gandaghee. Young North American Muslims with a huge sense of humor!

A minox to Mecca...

...is the name of an exhibition photographer Aasil Ahmad held in Toronto, earlier in May, part of the A light unto the Nations exhibition with Muslim and Jewish photographers.

View the online photo gallery of what is a rare peak, due to photography in general being forbidden during the Pilgrimage, into what happens during the annual Pilgrimage to Mecca.

You've been hit by...a smooth Muslim!

Who said Muslims don't have humor? I certainly didn't. I stumbled upon a site called Maniac Muslim and a rather hillarious remix of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal. Ya3ni are you ok?

Watch the video here

Chinese Calligrapher

Haji Noor Deen Mi Guangjiang is a master of Arabic Calligraphy. He has taken it to another level incorporating his Chinese heritage into the way he writes Arabic.

Born in 1963 in Eastern China's Shandong Province, Haji Noor is one of roughly 20 million Chinese Muslims. The first Muslims came to China in 631 AD, sent by the second Caliph Uthman and settled peacefully with the natives due to the mutual values shared by the Muslims and the Chinese at that time; tolerance, respect and compassion. The Muslim settlers embraced the Chinese way of living which can be seen in the today more than 35 000 mosques, built in accordance with Chinese traditions.

Haji Noor has held workshops upon invitation all around the world including Harvard and Cambridge University as well as the Zaytuna Institute in California (founded by American Muslim Hamza Yusuf.)

To order handmade originals by Haji Noor online visit; Zaid's Online Store (that is where I ordered mine)

View Haji Noor's online galleries; Gallery 1 and Gallery 2

Craft at its finest

Taken of a mosque in Alexandria, Egypt on my last trip in January 2007.

Salam Café Australia!

A group of young muslims in Melbourne figured they wanted to give the people of Melbourne a window into being Muslim and started the tv chat show Salam Café. They are currently on season 3 and have had guests like Australian author and human rights activist Randa Abdel-Fattah and American comedian Azhar Usman and report with humor on life in Australia and highlight important events in Australia be it multicultural or interfaith based.

Watch highlights from different episodes here.

Watch an episode from season 3 featuring Azhar Usman here.

A.R. Rahman sings for the UN

Now playing on Al-Baal Café: Famous Indian Artist A.R. Rahman has produced a new track "Pray for me Brother" dedicated to the UN's millennium goals. Rahman released the single through his A.R. Rahman Foundation and Nokia.

Tinku's World

I have earlier blogged about American-Indian Muslim lawyer/comedian Azhar Usman and his hillarious ensemble of Allah Made me Funny. I recently stumbled upon a side project he has been working on with two short pilot episodes where he plays the character Tinku Patel, outsorced by a Chinese company from India to make a documentary in the US about the American Dream. Hillarious!

Episode 1
Episode 2

"I am an immigrant, I am a Muslim"

Earlier this month, two Bosnian artists Lejla Porovic and Alija Isanovic held an exhibition called "I am an immigrant, I am a Muslim" in Kista Shopping Mall, Stockholm. It was sponsored by the one and only anti-discrimination bureau in Sweden that has been established by Swedish Muslims.

Old man looking into a broken mirror in the video

In the middle of the shopping mall, you noticed a tv had been set up playing a film in black and white of different immigrant Muslims walking up to a broken mirror watching their distorted faces. Under the tv a thin film had been glued to the ground covered in black and white photographs of the very same immigrant Muslims.

To the right: Lejla and Alija discussing their work

I asked Lejla what the pictures on the ground signify;

-The feeling of being a newly arrived immigrant in a country is a bit like starting at the bottom, being stepped on, not noticed. And the video complements that feeling by showing how one looks in the mirror and not quite recognizing oneself anymore. The photos in black and white represent a feeling of nostalgia for our past. There are even coffee stains on them to give them that used feel.

First Pic: A visitor avoiding stepping on Alijah Isanovic

Second Pic: A visitor walking all over the whole foto display

The most interesting part was watching how the Mall visitor's reacted to the pictures on the ground. I found there were three types of people; the one that as he/she noticed the pictures, made every effort not to walk on the faces. The second type that would walk around the pictures. The third type that wasn't bothered at all and walked right over everyone.

The stamp of approval on Hijab

Sweden's new stamps feature two women wearing the headscarf in a very Swedish forestry environment. Notice the moose and pine trees? Artist Irina Gebuhr is behind the new design.

Would you see this in Muslim countries?

Keif al hal?

Screening at Stockholm's 17 th annual International Film Festival is Saudi Arabia's first feature film, Keif al hal? A comedy-drama shot in Dubai.

"The ultra-conservative Khaled wants his sister Sahar to marry his righteous and God-fearing friend Waddah. Sahar on the other hand has no plans what so ever to quit her job as a journalist and seems much more interested in Sultan, a director of experimental theatre and also a close friend of the family."
-David Fukamachi Regnfors

Watch the trailer here.

Happy Eid al-Fitr!

Written on the outside of this odd but cute mosque in Mostar, Bosnia is; "Bajram Serif Mubarek Olsun."

The Bosnian and Turkish word for Eid is Bayram.

I wish all readers and anyone else who is participating in the three day celebrations, a very happy, blessed and above all fun Eid!

Eid Mubarak!Ciid Wanagsan!Bayram Mubarek Olsun!

Yusuf Islam a.k.a cat Stevens in Dubai

In May this year I travelled to London and attended an evening of remembrance of the Prophet Muhammad, and at the event Yusuf Islam showed up unexpectedly and a video was played where he pulled out his guitar on stage which he had left in the closet for nearly 20 years and sang what was to me the most beautiful version of the old Arabic song "Tala' al badru 3aleyna" (the white moon rose over us).

A song that was sung by the people of Medina upon the arrival of the Prophet Muhammad to the city.

I have searched for the video on the net and today by chance I stumbled upon it, here it is, from his live performance in Dubai earlier this year.

The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam

One of the main characters in Amin Maalouf's Samarcand is philosopher, poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam of Persia. Born in 1048, he was to change the way people viewed the world. Not only did he calculate the number of days in a year accurately by six decimals, but his calculation has only one day error every 5000 years whereas the Gregorian Calendar has one every 3330 years. He also proved to people around him, among them prominent scholar and philosopher Imam Ghazali (see previous post about him), that the universe did not revolve around earth but that infact earth revolved on its own axis.

A lunar crater and an asteroid have both been named Omar Khayyam after him.

Films have been made about his amazing life. Back in 1957 a Hollywood film starring Cornel Wilde was made, and in my old copy of an Agatha Christie book (Death in the Air) from 1946, a book of poems by Omar Khayyam called Rubaiyaat of Omar Khayyam (meaning quatrains, referring to the style of four lines of poetry) was on second place of New Avon Library's Best Selling Titles of that year in America.

More recently however, in 2005 Iranian filmmaker Kayvan Mashayekh filmed and came out with a movie titled The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam with actors like Vanessa Redgrave.

View the trailor here.

Dervish

During the time I was away, you have been listening to the song Dervish by Iranian singer Shakila. She's a well known singer of the younger generation and is also famous for singing very spiritual songs often to the words of the poet Rumi. She is yet to be able to perform in Iran, so most of the concerts take place in the States where she lives.

Dervish

My Lord, help me not to neglect You

My Lord, help me, not to be a stranger and a beggar

Help me, the book of my heart be filled with love

Help me, not to be a piece of false paper

~

Chorus: In Your company, I am a monk, sacrificing me

I am the least valuable of all people, sacrificing me

~

As a bent branch of heaviness, I am full of desire

My Lord, what would I do, if I would not turn to You?

My monk’s heart, this evident wealth of fidelity,

which is Your munificent verse, how can I not be descended?

~

Chorus: In Your company, I am a monk, sacrificing me

I am the least valuable of all people, sacrificing me

~

I am only one drop and You are the beach of Life’s Ocean

I am less than nothing if I won’t be joined to You

My Lord the most precious result of my life is my heart

Help me not to be ashamed of my life’s result

~

Chorus: In Your company, I am a monk, sacrificing me

I am the least valuable of all people, sacrificing me

With many thanks to Hlejac's mother for translating it for me.

Salam

And the servants of (Allah) Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say, "peace!";

Chapter 25, verse 63
The Quran

*The Arabic word for peace is salam.

God in Bosnia

One of my all time favourite songs, Marta's Song by Deep Forest, an old folk song in ancient Hungarian led me to look into the meaning of a word that was sung: Istenem, Istenem, and after seaching for its meaning I found that it meant My God/Lord.

I pondered on the word a while, for I recognized it from somewhere; Bosnia. I remembered hearing a Bosnian song and hearing a similar word mentioned in Bosnian.

Today over coffee, at the same café where I saw Tweezer Woman, I asked my Bosnian friend if she recognized the word istenem, and if it meant anything in her language.

Apparently the word for truth, is istina. I asked her if there was any word close to istina or istinem that in Bosnian meant God, just like it does in ancient Hungarian. She explained that the word for God in Bosnian (and Serbian) was bog (very similar to Russian & Ukrainian Боr and боr) , however in everyday slang God is referred to as Istina.

Apparently there is a Bosnian saying that goes:

Istina je samo jedna
tr: The truth is only "one"

Being a Muslim country as such, it must have incorporated the spirit of this meaning in everyday slang thus translating Truth into being synonimical to God. For just as there is only one truth, there is only one God.

Another interesting Holy Linguistics fact.

Yusuf Islam in Dubai

Formerly known as Cat Stevens, Yusuf Islam will be in Dubai on May 11th at 5 pm, signing his new album Footsteps in The Light. For more information and directions click here.

The album is basically voice and drum only, a style he adopted when he became Muslim. However, he has now diversified his style in music using not only his trademark guitar but other instruments as well. This has placed him in the line of verbal fire among some Muslims unfortunately. He writes an interesting reflection on the subject: Music, a question of Faith or Da'wah?

Back from the Mawlid

Just got back from London today, attended the Mawlid at the Wembley Conference Centre. Was an interesting experience to say the least. Pakistani visitors definitely dominated the scene and all of a sudden Urdu was the default language among the crowd.

Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens was there which was a major surprise. My parents met him when I was a little baby. He had come to Sweden to talk about how he became Muslim. A lot of people don't know this but Yusuf Islam is half Swedish.

Anyway, he has taken up his guitar again and he played an amazing version of the old and famous Muslim spiritual song Tala al badro 3alayna (The white moon rose over us), a song that was sung by the people of Medina upon the arrival of the Prophet Mohammad* to the city. It was good to see him with his guitar again.

What was even more interesting were the people I met during the breaks at the Mawlid, and the stalls with all kinds of interesting books, clothes and crafts. In particular there were two calligraphy stalls of which I must write a separate post on.

Spiritual Poetry of The Subcontinent

Urdu Poetry by Mirza Ghalib

کہتے ہیں جیتے ہیں امّید پہ لوگ
ہم کو جینے کی بھی امّید نہیں

- They say people live on hope
we have no hope even of living

نہ گلِ نغمہ ہوں نہ پردۂ ساز
میں ہوں اپنی شکست کی آواز

- I am neither the rose of melody nor the tone of an instrument
I am the sound of my own breaking

Punjabi Poetry by Bulleh Shah*

Masjid dhaa de, mandir dhaa de,
dhaa de jo kuchh dhendaa,
Par banday da dil na dhaanveen.
Rabb dilaan vich rehnda.

Demolish the masjid, tear down the temple,
destroy everything that can be destroyed,
but do not break a person’s heart.
God Himself lives within people’s hearts.

*With thanks to Koonj