Graffiti on tube door – “ROD ARAB”? Whaddat?

On the Central line going home today. What in the world is ROD ARAB? Or are these separate? ROD, and ARAB? Any ideas? Anyone knows who did this?

Graffiti spotted on Central line tube - "ROD ARAB"?

 

"ARAB"

Escaping London public bus woes

The DLR, as photograhed by The Evening Standard, when it was first launched in 2008

Yesterday I decided to skip the daily frustration and hassle of buses. I opted for the alternative

to London public bus inconvenience – the underground. A few tube and DLR stops later, I returned unscathed, and with a whole 30minutes to spare! Highlight of the journey? Woman sitting next to me on the DLR was reading – reading – a copy of the English dictionary. She was shaking her head, not happy with the definition of “already”, brandished a pencil and started making notes.

If tube fares weren’t so expensive I’d be on it everyday. But alas….

(Trying to) get around South London by bus

I’ve had woes. Woe is me taking public buses in and out of South London. Roadworks have been going on at Elephant and Castle, and that’s been a major travel-stopper. A few days ago a 168 bus driver stops 3 buses away, then refuses to open the doors at the actual bus-stop! The day after the normally reliable 122 was super delayed. Woe is public buses in London. Plus the warmer months always seem to attract more people onto buses, and the warmer air brings with it all sorts of (un)wanted odours. Sigh. But here’s a snapshot of one of the many recoveries in South London that strangely cheered me up walking to (yet another) bus-stop in South London.

Dubai and Canary Wharf

I was in transit in Dubai for all of 14 hours recently and took the opportunity to experience the city’s Metro. Arrived at Burj Khalifa and the Mall of Dubai. I felt like I was at Canary Wharf. Coincidentally three weeks after spending 14 hours in Dubai I found myself in Canary Wharf. I was wrong. Canary Wharf has nothing on Mall of Dubai and Burj Khalifa’s dancing fountain!

Not the Burj Khalifa!

Of sandy beaches and blue waters

I have been asked many questions in my life but I am still waiting for someone, anyone to ask me the proverbial “If you were stranded on a desert island what book would you choose to have with you”. My answer would be paint-dryingly ecstatistic. But since I have never ever been asked the question I am now brimming to the follicles  – the Qur’an!  Without a doubt and a complete no-brainer. I can’t think of another book so filled with history, drama, passion, emotion, grief, pain, joy, great story-telling, lyricism, rhyme, music, insight, you name it the Qur’an has it all. Kind and wise words are my sandy beaches and blue waters. My stranded-on-a-desert-island days will be filled with reading the Qur’an, re-enacting Hayy ibn Yaqdhan and wondering why I was stranded on a desert island without even a gazelle to my name. Happy Shawal. Remember the 6-day fasting recommendation

عيد مبارك

I cannot believe it’s already Day 30 of Ramadhan. Eid Mubarak to you and your families. May Allah bless us all with yet another Ramadhan next year.

Day 2 Ramadhan 1431 – Qur’an apps and widgets

It’s day 2 of Ramadhan 1431. Today’s Ramadhan recommendations are a few Qur’an apps and widgets that will get you started:

You can now get Mobile Holy Qur'an for iPad from zoosware

1. I use the free www.zoosware.com Mobile Holy Quran app on my iPhone that lets me download sura by sura, and include recitations by either Sheikh Ghamdi or Sheikh Husairy, or neither. This app is built specifically for the smaller mobile screen, allowing space for each ayat only. Recitation is synced with each ayat as it appears and you can read the Yusuf Ali English translation as you go along. You can choose to repeat ayat by ayat with their controls. Being Malay, I like that it also offers Malay translation! It also has ‘Notes’ that allows you to add your own notes for each ayat.

Zoosware have apps for everything – iPhones, Android phones, iPads, Palm Webos, as well as for non-mobile PCs and Macs. You can choose to donate to the company. I’ve never used it but their iPad Quran app looks fantastic. Do click on the image to check it out for yourself.

2. Paid apps – There are a lot of other Quran apps available, and if you search ‘Quran’, the iPhone apps store comes up with:

a. Quran Reader by Batoul Apps – £1.79 (as far as I can see the interface is more elaborate than my free zoosware ap)

b. YaSeen by Condetsoft – £1.19

c. Quran Urdu by Shaheen Soft – £1.19

d. Quran: Reading Plan for non-Muslims by Ian Vink – £1.19

e. AIMulk – The Sovereignty by Condetsoft – £1.19 (for the surah al-Mulk)

3. You can download the freeware Quran Cast Podcast Widget by Khaled Mohammad straight to your desktop/dashboard. I find it particularly useful as it’s handy if you want specific sura recitations and not the entire Qur’an. For some reason, though, the list of suras is reversed, so you have to scroll all the way down for Al-fateha. This is a podcast that you can subscribe to.

I like this Electronic Quran widget for Mac OS X Dashboard

4. A more complete widget for your dashboard is the freeware Electronic Quran by Mohammad Umairi. It offers an endless list of reciters and you can pause it as well. My only grouse about it is that its scroll doesn’t work and you have to click on the arrows to move up and down the lists.

Give some of them a try and stick with the ones that suit you best! Ramadhan is the month of the Holy Qur’an – read, listen, think and in sha’ Allah act accordingly. Thank you to all the developers for your generosity and work. Blessings of the good month from my family to yours!

رمضان كريم

يوم ١ في شهر رمضان

I got my (Tunisian) dates for Iftaar!

I have just realised that I have different sets of fajr, imsaak, iftaar and prayer times for Derby for Ramadhan 1431. The London Central Mosque website is quite possibly in meltdown due to high traffic and I haven’t been able to access it this evening. Will try ringing the nearest mosque here to get prayer times for Ramadhan. Makes me ask myself why I didn’t bag the prayer times I was reading at PAK Foods last week! I don’t remember it being quite this difficult last year. Must remember to start coordinating these things MUCH sooner for next Ramadhan in sha’ Allah!

Last year I had the privilege of interviewing Radio Ramadhan Glasgow about their broadcast for Ramadhan and I’m very happy to see that Radio Ramadhan is still on air. Radio Ramadhan covers a few major cities around the country so check out their website for all details. I could get to their Edinburgh, Glasgow and Luton pages but not the Birmingham one. Since Birmingham is the nearest city to me I’ll keep on trying! Would be nice to hear some ramadhan radio at 2am! I also had the privilege of speaking with the Islamic Relief people last Ramadhan about their Ramadhan campaigns and it’s on again this year. Islamic Relief was recently named runner-up at the The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’ charity finance award. Islamic Relief do very good work and they’re an incredibly well-run organisation. Do help with their Ramadhan campaign any way you can.

It’s been many years since I’ve spent Ramadhan with family. This year is the same. My parents are at Umrah and may Allah keep them well. My mother, who is the most stubborn woman on earth, was left dehydrated and sick when they were at Ramadhan Umrah last year but insists that this year she’ll be fine “except for her dodgy knee”. Well mum and dad, God keep you both well and Ramadhan Kareem!

A week to the opening of Ramadhan

Don't fuel the oppression - boycott Israeli products

In a week we welcome the holy month of Ramadhan, God Willing. Following the practice of our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) most Muslims break our fast with dates and water. For now, a simple reminder – Don’t break your fast with Israeli dates. For more information, visit the Check the Label website. The month of Ramadhan is also the good month when the first verses of the Holy Qur’an were revealed to the Prophet (pbuh). Take this opportunity, if you can, to read as much of the Qur’an . It is difficult to complete the reading of the book in a month, but as they say – practice makes perfect. I’m looking forward to Ramadhan. May Allah bless you and family in the coming good month! Ramadhan Kareem!

My view from the crowd: 5th June outside Israeli Embassy in London

I was at High Street Kensington on Saturday 5th June waiting outside the Israeli embassy for the protest march to arrive from Downing Street. Since

4 young Muslim girls leading the crowd chanting "Free free Palestine Israil terrorist"

moving out of London in late 2008 I had not participated in any public demonstrations or protests and was glad to be back amidst the crowds. As the approximately 20,000 protesters descended upon High St Ken I was struck by two observations. Firstly by how many young teenaged Muslims were in the crowd. Perhaps I never particularly noticed from past demonstrations the sheer numbers of such young protesters. Perhaps it is specifically the Free Gaza protests that have attracted so many young protesters who may have followed the unfolding of the massacre online. I don’t know the answers. I re-watched the 3-minute video I took just before the 20,000 crowd gathered round and was again struck by the boldness and forwardness of young Muslim girls running up the stage, taking hold of the microphone and leading the early-gathered crowds in anti-Israeli chants. It could well be just the difference in physical layout -  the last time I attended a mass protest it ended in Trafalgar Square where there is no chance of random protesters running onto the stage and grabbing the microphone. Regardless of the physical or logistic design of these protests, it was clear to me that there really has been an upswell of increasing popular support.