This is ProductMuslim.com’s first review on e-Alim Digital Quran.

The device is really cool (I actually ended up buying two of them). Very handy for taking on public transport as well as courses and lectures. Aside from Quran, Tafseer and Hadith Books, it also contains some useful extras like Riyadh-us-Saaliheen and Hisn-ul-Muslim. Makes a great gift. Look forward to your comments!

Design – 4/5 Stars
Usability – 3/5 Stars
Content – 4/5 Stars
Price – 3/5 Stars
Overall – 3.5/5 Stars

For more on e-Alim visit: www.moon-tech.com

When Marshal Mcluhan said “Medium is the message” he was wrong! It’s not what it is, it’s what you do with it. And if you don’t believe me, I can always throw the rusty knife example (no pun intended) at you. It goes like this: A knife is bad if you kill someone with it, but it’s good if you cut an apple with it.

So why am I ranting about something that makes no sense? Maybe because I want to start converting aluminum cigar holders into fancy Miswak Holders with Arabic calligraphy on them. Now that I’m getting emails and phone calls from all around the world, saying “Haram brother!” “Bida brother!” you understand why I had to give such a lengthy and defensive introduction to this concept.

You have to admit it will be pretty useful. I’ve seen brothers carry their Miswak in their dirty pockets, dashboards, mouths and other places which might not pass the censors – have some concern for hygiene ikhwati fillah!

Comment and let me know:

(1) How this idea flies with you?

(2) How much you would pay for it, with or without Miswak inside?

(3) Would you get it as a gift for someone else?

Stop rolling, start tapping!

Ever been really excited about something, and then your friend says:

“Isn’t that haram?”

Yeah it can be a real downer. I was telling my friend about our new found love for Monopoly and the epic games that had been taking place downtown Toronto, when he quoted a pretty solid hadith about the use of dice. It goes like this:

“He who plays with dice will be deemed as a person thrusting his hands in pig’s blood.” (Reported by Muslim on the authority of Buraydah)

http://www.islamonline.net/english/In_Depth/Religious/SportsinIslam/PlayingSports/Articles/05.shtml#ixzz0dGo4plqV

Yeah, I know all you super chilled out, Islam is love, peace and goodwill people are going “How extreeeeme! Dude, this is not what our deen is about!” However, the least we can do is to read the hadith a couple of times, let it sink in and get some scholarly opinions about it. OR, we can just go invent a Random Number Generator (RNG). This is one of the best things about the Shariah, it forces you to be creative and think outside the box. The RNC will not just be a bareboned LED Digital Clock (like some of you NON-creative people would have come with), it will actually be embedded in the middle of the boardgame (as shown in the picture). All you have to do is tap the interface and it will come up with a random number for you – Genius eh!

Anyone wishing to contribute to the development of this product, comment below with improvements and additions. It’s going to make millions!

Happy rolling, umm… tapping!

Good things come in small Pakis

I sat on my Aunt’s couch in North York checking mail as usual when my cousin walked into the house and threw something at me:

“Check this out. What do you think? I got it at Noor Cultural Centre.”

For a minute I thought I was holding up a rumpled Pakistani flag in my hand and then realized it was a T-shirt that said, in bold white letter across the front:

“Good things come in small Pakis.”

The simplicity in design, effective play with words, and a touch of color genius using deep green and white colors (which immediately made my mind connect with the Pakistani flag) brought a smile to my face.

I don’t think a single day has passed when I’ve worn this shirt (usually at the gym) when people don’t come up to me and say something like:

“Hey, nice shirt dude/man/buddy.”

(surprisingly its not FOBs who come up to me but mostly CBCDs – pardon my acronyms).

After acknowledging undeserving compliments on the shirt for about a year now (I didn’t even buy the darn thing!), the icing on the cake happened when I attended a Muay Thai class in Karachi, Pakistan and I got the same reaction from a local brother. I finally decided that enough was enough – this called for a review on ProductMuslim!

Moral of the story – Hijabman is a genius because his work is universal, catches attention, and stimulates the intellect. Check out more of his work like ‘Make Chai Not War’ and ‘Whoops… there goes my wudu’ on Hijabman.com.

Hijabman, we hope to see more great things emanate from your brand – let us know how we can support you.

Fi AmanAllah!

Yes, its true. A publication by the name of “The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality” actually exists. How did I come across this? Here’s the story:

I was recently in one of my favorite classes in the Master of Entrepreneurship program studying about commercializing high-tech ventures. The Professor, who is a famous researcher across North America, brought up the topic of Business Ethics. The class discussed a number of issues around this topic, and how they relate to entrepreneurs, but I was most interested in discussing the “circularity” of Business Ethics in the West. When dealing with ethics, the problem is that there is no real conclusion in the West because you aren’t allowed to make any definitive statements (some food for thought for Freedom of Speech Advocates). You can refer to Aristotle, or Jesus (peace be upon him) or Mother Teresa, but you can’t end the discussion at any of their philosophies because nothing is supposed to be absolute. When life is all about relativism, personal truths and individualism, how can you possibly arrive at a universal conclusion?

Islam on the other hand is different. Truth is clear from falsehood and with the Mercy of God, the ensuing scriptures, the Quran and Sunnah, actually address day-to-day issues. For this very reason, I propose the writing of new piece of literature called “The Little Book of Islamic Business Ethics.” Through this book, readers, especially Westerners, will be able to get a glimpse into the wisdom, depth and vastness of Islamic Business ethics and how tough decisions can be made simply and beautifully using treasures of knowledge from the past.

I propose the following topics to be included in “The Little Book…” and I will be adding to the list as YOUR comments come in.

May Allah reward you for your contributions:

(1) Valuations

(2) Intellectual Property

(3) Buying and Selling

(4) The Profit Motive

(5) Social Responsibility

(6) Bargaining Power

(7) Lending

(8) Ownership

(9) Partnerships

(10) Market Research

(11) Your suggestion

(12) Your suggestion

(13) Your suggestion

Thanks for reading,

Mak.

Assalamo3laykum:

If you are reading this post, you have either been forwarded this link by me or by a friend who considers you a noteworthy Muslim Entrepreneur, consider yourself special mashAllah!

Ever since I got involved with the entrepreneurial community in North America I have been carrying a baggage around with me. By baggage I don’t mean anything negative, it’s just something that has been on my mind and I haven’t been able to put it on paper. Now is the time to act!

There are definitive commands, injunctions, principles and philosophies in the Quran and the Sunnah that make Muslims great entrepreneurs – the proof is all around us. With your help I want to start a discussion through which we can answer this question by using solid evidences from the Quran and Sunnah, linking them to current-day business best practices. Right now you’re probably thinking “What the heck is he talking about?” So let’s look at an example.

It is narrated in Saheeh Muslim:

“There are seven categories of people whom God will shelter under His shade on the Day when there will be no shade except His.  [One is] the just leader.”

It goes without saying that leadership an essential part of entrepreneurship and that entrepreneurs are required to be leaders at some point in their careers. I find that knowledge about the hadith above, supplemented by a firm belief in Allah (subhanuhu wata3la) can single-handedly make a Muslim entrepreneur act with justice when leading ventures and projects. Thus, a sense of “Justice in Leadership” makes Muslims great entrepreneurs and we have seen the proof of this in the hadith.

In a more organized fashion:

Quality: Justice in Leadership

Verse/Hadith: “There are seven categories of people whom God will shelter under His shade on the Day when there will be no shade except His.  [One is] the just leader.”

Interpretation: Leadership is an essential part of entrepreurship and justice is an essential part of great leadership. Muslims make great entrepreneurs because they have a strong sense of justice and accountability within them whether they are in public or private.

I hope you will all contribute at least 1 comment each to this discussion so that we can compile an extensive list of relevant qualities and related Verses or Ahadith, that show why Muslims make great entrepreneurs. These can all be compiled into an inspirational presentation which can be shown to Muslim communities all over the world.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

The question:
The too-cool Sheikh asks the question on how to educate the community about Islam in new and innovative ways

The rules:
Write your suggestion on a sticky note and stick it on the board, if your suggestion has already been posted before you have to think of a new one – only one note per suggestion

The result:
Despite the rules above, atleast 4-5 notes posted on the board spoke about having T-shirts with Dawaa/Solidarity messages on them to promote education about Islam in the community.

My thoughts:
I found this whole exercise and the result of it quite interesting. As I walked through the seminar room I saw a brother with the T-shirt shown in the picture above. It was something that wasn’t laugh out loud but it still made me smile and amused me.

Do you have any quirky, intelligent, thought-provoking or funny ideas for T-shirts that would engage the community? Share your ideas and maybe we can work together to make it happen.

Prayer rug links high-tech, spiritual worlds
eRug has built-in sensors that alert the user to prayer time

May 15, 2008
Shauna Rempel
Toronto Star

Name: Wael Aboulsaadat
Age: 36
Program: Fourth-year PhD student, department of computer science at the University of Toronto.
Thesis: Computer user interfaces for religious practice.
The device: Aboulsaadat has designed a prototype of a digital device called eRug that Muslims can use to enhance their daily prayers. The rug has built-in sensors, lights and a display screen to show scripture, alert the user to the next prayer time and find the direction of Mecca. “It will increase their understanding of the scriptures and the quality of the prayer,” says Aboulsaadat.

Full Story: http://www.thestar.com/living/article/425375 

While on my flight back from Karachi to Toronto I was browsing through the in-flight, consumer product catalogue. Initially my eyes stopped at the Travelling Prayer Mat and Qibla Finder package, not because it seemed like such an awesome product, but because it was the only thing I could really afford! I decided it would be a nice experiment purchase and decided to purchase one. It turns out it was one of the best $5 I had ever spent. The package contained a prayer mat, made out of a fine material that neatly folded up into a small rectangle and a qibla finder that was easy to hang to my car keychain – it is surprisingly accurate. A few months after I landed back in Toronto, a friend of mine saw the Qibla finder dangling from my key chain and loved it so much that he asked me if he could have it (that doesn’t happen much!). 

Anyway, this is an awesome product and could be a great gift for Muslims. I would highly recommend grabbing a few of these when you are on a Muslim airline (I learnt that Saudi Air offers this product as well when I did a google search). They are also useful to keep in the car for when you’re on the road.    

This is a demo video of our Muslim Prayer in Progress Sign concept, see original article here.