Ramadan Kareem from MuslimGirl.net! We hope this is the best Ramadan for you yet and wish many blessings for you and your family insha’Allah. We’re so excited for the great feelings, great deeds, and, most importantly, GREAT FOOD!

But what we’re also excited about here at MG is the start of new projects celebrating the holy month insha’Allah- many projects that YOU can participate in!

Ramadan Project 2010

First, OUR ANNUAL RAMADAN PROJECT IS HERE! As you may recall, last year we covered the entire history of the Islamic Empire in the 30 days of Ramadan. This year, we’ll be covering the Life of Prophet Muhammad ! Keep an eye on the series here!

New Youtube Channel

We’ve just opened our new Youtube channel, MuslimGirlTV. To kick off its launch, we’re holding a promo contest with some really nice prizes masha’Allah. Help us get subscribers, and we’ll give you free stuff! Who doesn’t love free stuff?

Ramadan Recharge Challenge

MuslimGirl.net will be hosting a Ramadan Recharge Challenge on our new Youtube channel insha’Allah! Basically, we want to utilize our video cameras to make the most out of Ramadan. The challenge will be up in the next couple of days insha’Allah, so get your camera ready in the meantime and keep checking back!

That’s all for now, and again, Ramadan Kareem!

Many times he tried to approach her with evil intentions, but each time a divine interception caused a diversion.  And each time he grew scared that he was indeed after someone who was protected.   His fear led him to release Sara and, to be in their good favor, sent along Hajir as their helper.   The Prophet and his wife with Hajir continued their journey and Sara began to realize her inability to conceive.  Some time had passed and she had not received a child, and so she urged Ibrahim to marry Hajir.   That marriage led to a son, Ismael (Ishmael) (AS), and jealousy between the two wives.  At one point, Sara kicked Hajir and her son out of the house in pure rage.  It was then that Ibrahim told Hajir, “We are going somewhere.”

They started their long journey and ended up in a barren land.  There was nothing in sight, no fruit, no vegetation, not even water.  There was little water left with them when Ibrahim suddenly turned around and began to walk away, leaving Hajir and his son abandoned in the middle of the mountains.

His wife ran after him, “Wait!  Where are you going?”

He did not answer, and continued walking.   She asked again, “Where are you going?”  He again continued without saying a word.  She implored one more time, approaching him, and again he did not answer.  She only saw his back without an intention to turn back.  Was it the jealousy that has caused her husband to treat her this way?   Had something displeased him?

She then asked, “Did Allah order you to do this?”  Finally, there was a pause in his movement.  He answered, “Yes.”   Hajir stepped back and turned around to tend to her son.  When it was Allah’s Will, there was no need for her to worry.  They will surely be taken care of.  Her husband left on the command of Allah and slowly, the mother and son began to lose their provisions until they were left with nothing.

Little Ismael began to cry.  Mountains surrounded her, yet her conviction in Allah never wavered.   Ismael was hungry and there was nothing she could give him.  So in desperate need for food or water, she began running up and down the mountains, looking for any sign of any food that Allah has provided for them.  She ran seven times between what would later be known as Mount Safa’ and Marwa.   Her strong conviction and her act became so beloved to Allah that He magnified the rewards for it by having millions of Muslims carry on in her footsteps once a year until this very day.

As she ran in desperation, Angel Jibrael (Gabriel) appeared and struck the earth near Ismael’s feet with his wings, unveiling clear, gushing liquid in the middle of the moutainous region.  Seeing the water, Hajir ran back and hurried to make a makeshift pool so that the water would not be wasted.  Yet that water continued to gush out into the sand and she started telling it to stop, “Zam! zam!”

From far away, a tribe had been migrating, looking for a place to stay.  They began seeing the birds fly overhead and knew that they will lead them to water.  There sat a woman, with a child in her arms, standing next to the most precious commodity in the desert:  Water.

“May we stay with you?”  They asked.

“On one condition,” she replied with her wisdom, “We will have control of the water.”

These men were from the Jurhum tribe and there they settled, with Hajir and her son, Ismael (AS), as the sole owners of the well of Zam-Zam.

“May Allah bless the mother of Isma’eel for had she not stopped it, the water would have a stream flowing on the surface of the earth.” Prophet Muhammad (SAW).  [Sahih al-Bukhari]

“No story is told without wisdom.”  To be continued, insha’Allah (God Willing).

Other factors besides the recent flu and rain include overcrowding, a common problem amongst Muslims through each pilgrimage. Yet it is the zeal and passion that urges Muslims each year to not only fulfill one of the five pillars of Islam, but to also display their religious devotion to Allah .

German football club FC Schalke 04 has recently angered Muslims with the content of one of their club chants. The song, “White and Blue, How I Love You,”¹ mentions the Prophet Muhammad . The exact lyric, as translated from German, is as follows:

Muhammad was a prophet who understood nothing about football, but of all the lovely colours he chose [Schalke's] blue and white.²

Most chants sung by fans during football matches are usually intended to do nothing more than bolster the support of a team or encourage the players as they battle on the pitch. In fact, it is unclear when the line about Prophet Muhammad was first placed in the song, since the original lyrics were written in 1924, a time when Islam was certainly not as prevalent in the minds of most Western Europeans as it is today. Nevertheless, Schalke has since been inundated with hundreds of indignant e-mails from Muslims after Turkish media carried several reports about the subject.

In response to the complaints, Schalke has consulted an Islamic expert to decide whether the content of the song is offensive. While banning the song has not been formally discussed by either Schalke or any Islamic experts, it remains to be seen whether such an action is taken by the club.

¹ Spiegel, ‘Muhammad Knows Nothing About Football’: Muslims Angered by Verse in German Club Song
² BBC News, German football song irks Muslims

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Early this morning, two Palestinian families were forced to endure this terror when they were violently evicted from their homes in East Jerusalem.

The Al-Ghawe and Hannoun families awoke before dawn to Israeli police smashing through their windows.¹ The families of over fifty people and many children were forcibly removed from their beds at gunpoint and were not given a chance to take their belongings, while being taunted that they were “not in Palestine anymore.” ² At one point, Israeli forces were shouting at an elderly Palestinian woman and attacked a Palestinian man who tried to intervene.³

Later that day, a truck was used to remove the families’ belongings before Israeli settlers arrived to move into the homes.⁴

Aside from the illegality of moving settlers into the occupied territory, Israel has repeatedly promised the United States that “home demolitions, home evictions and other provocations against Palestinian Jerusalemites would be stopped.”⁵ Currently, about 28 families residing in Sheikh Jarrah are facing eviction.⁶

The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the homes belonged to Israel, despite the families living there since 1956. Their home neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah was established by the United Nations and Jordanian government as a shelter for Palestinians displaced after the War of 1948.⁷

¹ Katherine Orwell, “Two Palestinian Families Forcibly Evicted from their Houses,” IMEMC.
² Al Jazeera, “Israel Evicts Two Palestinian Families,” August 2, 2009.
^{3 4} Orwell.
⁵ Ben Hubbard, “Jerusalem: Two Palestinian Families Evicted,” Newser.
^{6 7} Orwell.