Mohamed Siruhan

Veteran broadcaster Larry King has announced that he will be ending his nightly show on CNN in the autumn. Over 25 years of the show, King, famous for wearing braces, has conducted more than 40,000 interviews. Larry King Live recently made it into in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running show with the same host in the same time slot. READ MORE

It is one of the most exquisite views we have ever had of the Earth. This colourful new map traces the subtle but all pervasive influence the pull of gravity has across the globe. Known as a geoid, it essentially defines where the level surface is on our planet; it tells us which way is "up" and which way is "down". It is drawn from delicate measurements made by Europe's Goce satellite, which flies so low it comes perilously close to falling out of the sky. Scientists say the data gathered by the spacecraft will have numerous applications. One key beneficiary will be climate studies because the geoid can help researchers understand better how the great mass of ocean water is moving heat around the world. The new map was presented here in Norway's second city at a special Earth observation (EO) symposium dedicated to the data being acquired by Goce and other European Space Agency (Esa) missions. Europe is currently in the midst of a huge programme of EO devel...

Even non-techies like me will find something interesting about the recent move by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to create a virtual ‘red-light district’ on the internet. The idea is to assign a special .xxx domain name for websites with pornographic content so that they can be easily marked and filtered out. Sounds like the days of accidental exposure and subsequent addiction to pornography on the internet are numbered? Think again. According to industry analysts, “only 10 percent of the adult sites on the web would adopt an .xxx domain name […] for schools, parents, and anyone else who wants to regulate how much pornography kids see online: [the development boils down to] nothing. Even some large religious groups opposed the creation of the .xxx domain, suggesting that the creation of such a domain would actually encourage online pornography.” Those of us who live in places where online adult and inappropriate content is filtered, tend to underestimat...

Veneration of the Qur’an is done by learning and teaching it, memorizing and respecting its laws and provisions, knowing thereby what is permissible and what is forbidden, also by honouring those who understand and have memorized it, and by making oneself aware of Allah’s promises and threats which inspire weeping. Allah has said: “Had We sent this Qur’an down upon a mountain you would have seen it humbled, rent asunder from the fear of Allah.” (Qur’an, 59:21) “Assuredly, it is a generous Qur’an, in a book kept hidden, which none touches save the purified; a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds.” (Qur’an, 56:77-80) “Had it been possible for a Qur’an to cause the mountains to move, or the earth to be torn asunder, or the dead to speak – but Allah’s is the whole command.” (Qur’an, 13:31) The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “The best of you is he who learns and teaches the Qur’an.” (Al-Bukhari) He also said, as reported by Al-Bukhari and Muslim on the authority of Abu Musa Al-Ash’ari:...

It was said to one of the Salaf: (our righteous predecessoros) “Does the heart prostrate?” And he said: “Yes, by Allah. It prostrates such that it doesn’t lift its head until it meets Allah.” Ibn Al-Qayyim said: “This points to the humbleness of the heart, its humility, repentance and closeness to Allah wherever it may be and it points to its constant regard (for Allah) in solitude and when with others.” (Asrar Al-Salat)The first sajdah of the heart is when it submits to its Lord and recognizes His Lordship, subsequently entering into a state of complete Islam and Istislam (submission and surrender). Thereafter the heart continues to prostrate and this causes the limbs to follow suit – bringing one to physically perform sujood day and night in prayers. What is the case then of the one who has been commanded to bow, but their heart refuses to bow? They’ve been ordered with Sajdah (prostration), but their forehead never touches the ground in worship? Such is the case of those who abandon...

When the American-Palestinian textile enthusiast and art teacher Joy Totah Hilden moved in 1982 to Saudi Arabia, where her husband Robert had been appointed as an English teacher at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Dhahran, she embarked on an intensive exploration of Bedouin weaving. Hilden’s interest in weaving and textiles had begun at an early age. She was born in Jerusalem in 1935 to a Palestinian father and an American mother from the mid-West. Her paternal grandfather was a village weaver, and Bedouin wove on ground looms near the family orange grove in Gaza. She spent her early years in Palestine, and when her family went to live in America, she got to know the work of her mother’s ancestors in sewing and quilting. During the 12 years she and Robert spent in Saudi Arabia, Hilden traveled widely to observe the working practices of Bedouin weavers, most of them women. As she puts it: “The search for weavers and their secrets of spinning, weaving and dyeing...

Muslims are 23 percent of the world’s population. There are over 170 million Muslims in Indonesia, over 70 million in China and over 54 million in the former Soviet States. The majority of Muslims, according to population studies, are youth and children. Children below five years of age represent 43 percent of the Muslim world! By the year 2020, our population is expected to reach 2.5 billion, Insha Allah. In Canada, startling statistical data has been released. One in three children born in Canadian hospitals today is from a Muslim family. What does this mean to us?The future is bright for Muslims if we make the right choices today. We are blessed with amazing riches in the Muslim world. Over 40 percent of the mineral wealth of the planet lies under Muslim countries. We have thousands of doctors, engineers, scientists and intellectuals. We spend billions in technology, especially for the military. But we still are humiliated and destroyed. We cannot wake up in the morning and forget ...