Sh. Bin Bayyah on Holidays Free of Religious Overtones posted on www.suhaibwebb.com

“The holidays which are forbidden [for Muslims] to observe are those with religious overtones [such as Christmas and Easter*] not the festive gatherings people observe due to certain events. Therefore, people are allowed to celebrate wedding anniversaries, birthdays or any occasion as such celebrations are not related to religious holidays. It is imperative that we work to remove the confusion surrounding this misunderstanding and the doubts that have affected many people [regarding this issue]. [Because of this misunderstanding] people find hardship and difficulty in their religion. Especially when a religious minded person holds [such non religious celebrations] to be from the major sins or rejected acts when, in fact, they are not.

Understanding an Important legal maxim [The origin of things is permissibility unless there is a text to the contrary]

The origin of things is permissibility so there is no problem with you attending such an event. The school of Ahmed [Hanabliah] allowed the celebration of al-’Atirah which was a sacrifice, during the month of Rajab, observed by the people who lived prior to the advent of the Prophet [may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him]. Although the school of Imam Malik [Malikis] considered it disliked, since it was a practice from those days, the school of Ahmed allowed this practice since there was no text [from the Qur'an, Sunna or Consensus] that explicitly forbade it. Thus, this practice remained upon its original ruling, permissibility [here the sheikh is showing us how the scholars utilized the legal maxim mentioned above]. So, if people gather together to sacrifice there is no objection for them to congregate, celebrate, enjoy themselves and commemorate the independence of their country. Therefore, there is no hardship in celebrating such occurrences.

With regards to the statement [of the Prophet may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him] that “Allah [The Exalted] has given you better than those (feasts): Eid al-Adha (Sacrificing) and the ‘Eid al-Fitr”, then “those feasts” were those with strict religious over tones: one a Christian holiday and the other a pagan one. In addition, the Prophet [may the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him] mentioned that the Islamic holidays were two: ‘Eid al-Fitr and ‘Eid al-Adha. But it is not understood from this that he [may the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him] forbade people from gathering and celebrating [other non-religious occasions]. Even if a person considered [such gatherings] disliked there is no need for him to bother others by making things difficult that were not prohibited by the Qur’an, the Sunna, the consensus [of the scholars] and where no agreement was reached within the schools of Islamic law.

This is because ease in matters [such as these where there is no prohibition and the origin is that of permissibility] is a must, and those statements that create hardship and burden [related to such matters], that are not based on explicit texts [that prohibit them], are weak. Thus, there is nothing that prohibits us from facilitating such matters for the people and giving them some breathing room because ease and facilitation are from the foundations of Islam: Allah says, “And He did not make any hardship for you in religion.” [Surah al-Hajj 78] and “Allah wants to lighten your burdens.” [Surah al-Nisa V. 28] and “Verily, with hardship there is ease. Verily with hardship there is ease.” [Surah al-Sharh V. 5-6]. The Prophet [may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him] said, “Facilitate [things] and do not make things difficult. Give glad tidings, and do not cause others to flee.” In closing, we reiterate that the foundation of Islam is ease and the independent interpretation of the legal sources [ijtihad of scholars] is respected but is not [equal to] texts from the Shari’ah [Qur'an and Sunna].”

May peace be upon you
Dr. Abdullah Bin Bayyah

GPGshell is a graphical interface for GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard). It requires an already working installation of GnuPG v1.4.x (v1.4.9 or later), because it does not have any cryptographic code itself, and some basic knowledge about the GnuPG command-lines and functions. Included translations: CS, DE, FI, EN, ES, IT, NL, NO, PL, RU, SV, ZH Additional or updated GPGshell-related files (incl. translations) may be available here.

Examining statistics of indexes is useful for optimizing the performance of queries. Statistics help us determine the usage and worth of indexes. There are many different methods to determine their usability; , which gives core statistics of indexes. The first article in the index-related DMVs and DMFs series discussed the output of sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats, while this, the second of the series, will explore some output columns of the sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats DMV.

According to astronomical calculations, the month of Zul Hijjah will begin on November 18 and thus the expected date of Eid ul Adha is Friday, November 27. The final decision will be posted after receiving the announcement of ‘Arafah date by the Hajj authorities in Saudi Arabia.

The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) Majlis Ash-Shura, the highest policy making body of ISNA, has resolved to follow the position of the Fiqh Council of North America on the issue of determining the beginning of the Islamic lunar months for North America.

Muslims in America as well as in many other parts of the world hold two different opinions about the observance of Eid ul-Adha. Some observe it on the 10th of Zul Hijjah according to their local lunar date and others follow the announcement of Hajj by the authorities in Makkah and celebrate this Eid after the day of ‘Arafah. After much careful study and consideration, the Fiqh Council has reached the conclusion that Eid ul-Adha will follow the Day of ‘Arafah as announced in Makkah. This is also the conclusion of the European Council of Fatwa and Research (EFCR).

The Fiqh Council does not, and does not intend to, force its decision on anyone or on any Muslim community. People should follow the decision of their Imam and their Masjid. Moreover, people should do so with great respect and avoiding unnecessary disputes and arguments.

Input Director is a Windows application that lets you control multiple Windows systems using the keyboard/mouse attached to one computer. It is designed for folks who have two (or more) computers set up at home and find themselves regularly sliding from one system to the other (and wearing out the carpet in the process!). With Input Director, you can share a single keyboard/mouse across a set of systems. You switch which system receives the input either by hotkey or by moving the cursor so that it transitions from one screen to the other (in a very similar fashion to a multi-monitor setup). The idea being that you can position the monitors from two or more systems in a row and use a shared keyboard/mouse to control all of them.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the system: one finger means you have to pee, two mean you have to poo. Yaty and I find this inadequate. Sometimes there are things that need to be done outside of the parameters that a simple number system works well with. Here is our proposal:

1. Pee
2. Poo-Poo
3. Diareah
4. Vomiting
5. 1-4
6. Total Jerk

You'll see that 1-4 each have as many syllables as their number, for an easy mnemonic. Number five is the dreaded one through four. That one's tough and makes you drive like crazy in traffic. Thus we assume that most bad drivers in traffic are either a #5 or #6. Also to this list #0 constipation and #7 everything else. #0 should be obvious, and #7 is just borrowed from the recycle numbers.

Apparently while I wasn't paying attention, Sony made pages for Playstation Network profiles:

Playstation Profile DKFour

Props to Kooshmoose.

...you have to go to Tasks -> Settings -> General -> Automatic Download Options in Media Center and then click the button to run the update manually. Then, a new option for Netflix shows up under the Movies section and the prompts guide you through an easy Netflix installation.

It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion. On your right to disagree “In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude; every man will speak as he thinks, or more properly without thinking.” George Washington