AL-HUDA NEWSLETTER FORTNIGHT PUBLICATION

29 TH MAY 2009 ISSUE 2

Important dates
Event Date

Important Notices
Pakistan disaster relief fund

Current News

OMA AGM tonight after Magrib

Soccer tour- 5th July nament Food Festival Brothers Camp Sisters Camp 16th July 18th July 18th July

There are millions of Muslims fled from there homes because of the bloodshed in Swat North-West of Pakistan. They are in urgent need of help. Therefore, at the mosque foyer there is slot available for fund raising. Please generously donate to relief the pain of hundreds and thousands of Muslims that are being homeless.

Shikh Gamal Fouda leaving

Biography: Sheikh Gamal Fouda, graduate of islamic studies from Alazhar University Cairo,Egypt in 1998. Immediately after graduation he start teaching at Alazhar University. Later he decided to become an imam in a foreign country. After one years training he was seconded by the Ministry of AlAwqaf Egypt to work as an Imam in Palmerston North, New Zealand. He moved to Dunedin in June 2006. Sheikh Gamal joined the universitys college of education to gain a second degree in educational studies in 2007. At the same time he was performing his duties as the Imam of Al Huda Mosque. Finally, he graduated from College of Education University of Otago on the 23rd of May 2009. Now he is intending to look for a job in Dubai and visit his family in Egypt and he may or may not come back" to New Zealand . We always pray for him and wish him the best of both worlds.

OMA AGM tonight

The Otago Muslim Association (OMA) annual general meeting will be held at AlHuda Mosque tonight after Maghrib prayer. All Muslim brothers and sisters are invited to attend and give their opinions on how the association is currently operating.

Inside this issue

Letter from MUSA 2

Volleyball tournament 2 To be or not to be 3 Muslims and research Comparative religions 3 Muslim Behaviour Blog article 4 4

Invercargill new mosque cleaning & painting trip

The Southland Muslim Association welcomes the brothers from Dunedin/Otago to come and help cleaning up and painting the newly bought building which will be turned into a mosque inshaAllah. It is planned as a day trip from Dunedin this Saturday morning and in the evening. Food, and transportation will be provided inshaAllah. People who would like to stay the night: inshaAllah there will be accommodation provided. For those who are available, please kindly support this cause for the sake of Allah's blessings For more info, please contact Brother Kasri @ 021-02208210 or email kasri.abdulrahim@yahoo.com

Brothers Camp
Brothers camp location is now confirmed at Timaru. The camp is called Lindisfarne Camp. All brothers are encouraged to join the camp. Cost is $15 for MUSA members and $20 for non MUSA members. The duration of the camp is two days and a night.

ld pray s we shou ying for u He is pra

o for him to

Page 1

Letter from MUSA president

Assalamualikum WRB, Welcome to our 2nd edition of Al-Huda newsletter. InshAllah this year, MUSA intends to publish the newsletter fortnightly, so please keep an eye on it. Also, please send us your contributions if you would like to see them in the newsletter. The weekend before last, MUSA held its annual volleyball tournament. It was great fun. Thank you to all those who participated, as the tournament could not have been a success without you. I was very glad to see some non-Muslim faces, who gave me very good feedback about the tournament in particular, and our Masjid and brotherhood as a whole. Photos are now available on MUSA fan page on Facebook, and will hopefully be on MUSA website soon inshAllah. On a similar note, MUSA will be holding the annual badminton and soccer tournaments shortly, so keep an eye on those, and start forming your teams! This year also MUSA is trying to bring brother Abdulraheem Green over to New Zealand inshAllah. Initial contacts have been established, and we should be expecting him sometime late June/early July. So please stay tuned, and pray everything goes to plan. Also, please help us earlyorganising for this years Islam Awareness Week (IAW), via MUSA website or Facebook fan page. This was just to name a few activities MUSA is organising for its members this year. As always, if you have any question/suggestion/anything, please do email/text me. I am more than happy to listen to you. And for those who have exams coming up soon, good luck with those. May Allah help you and guide you to the best. JAK all, Wassalam
Yassar Alamri

Volleyball tournament report 2009

Salam All, Glad to inform you all that we have successfully conducted the MUSA volleyball tournament 2009. We got 10 teams to participate which assured 60-70 brothers attended the tournament, prayed, played and enjoyed. The competition was quite competitive and fair and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly (based on verbal feedback). It was good to see some of the very professional players as well as casual players jelled together to give the tournament a blend of fun and learning opportunity for most of us. There were a few non-Muslim brothers who enjoyed the tournament and appreciated the brotherhood and warmth of our community. We are grateful to everyone who supported us in every way to make this tournament a big success. We especially want to thanks Br Steve, Br Yasser, Br Amr, Br Faried, Br Sultan, Br Muadh, Br Ali Idris , Br Hashmat, Br Aimal and Br Mohammad Ibrahim for helping us with the organization without which it wouldnt have been possible for us to do so. SAUDI FALCONS and SPIKERZ. The semifinal games were quite high-energy and close encounters with each team giving their best to reach the finals. The two teams who reached the finals were KERIS BERANTAI (last years champions) and SPIKERZ (last years semi-finalists). The final was played on Sunday 17th May at 8.30PM in the presence of a large audience cheering for their favourite teams. It was a great game worth watching with the two best teams playing for glory. SPIKERZ won the finals in two straight set of 25-22 and 25-23. The prize distribution ceremony was attended by Shaikh Jamal, Dr Najeeb Lafraie, Br Steve, Br Salim and Br Yasser. Winners received a dinner voucher worth $70 for a premium restaurant. All finalists received team refreshments from MUSA and there was an encouragement prize for SHEBAB N DAD team who displayed the best commitment during the tournament.

A lot of players suggested holding such competitions twice a year and they were keen to attend more often. MUSA promised to come up with more sporting events in The format of the tournament was de- the near future. Photos of the event can be signed to make sure everyone got to play a found on the MUSA volleyball events allot of games so that they could enjoy irre- bum. spective of result. After first qualifying By Jonaid Alam rounds, we started knock-out rounds with 8 out of 10 teams qualifying for quarterfinals. The teams who made it to the semifinals where KERIS BERANTAI, OMANOONZ,

ll finali Volleyba

st teams

Page 2

Comparative religions
ISLAM Have you ever stopped to ponder what Muslim scientists are achieving in nonwestern countries? Why is it that no research emerges from Muslim universities to hit top journals such as Nature and Science? While in the past Islam experienced the development of science, the current situation is of isolation between west and east. Research occurring in western universities makes headlines as developments proceed while the Muslim world (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Somalia etc) is isolated. Break to reality: research is occurring but what is lacking is an integration of this information into modern media. In fact, many times one may hear of Muslim scientists discovering novel methods of utilizing the miraculous Quran to the development of medical treatments yet, for such information to truly benefit mankind (and guide them towards the righteous path), it must be disseminated worldwide. What are the barriers stopping this? There are many. Firstly, education in Muslim countries is focused on core knowledge and does not promote research. The result of this is that universities occupy a teaching role in stark contrast to the western CHRISTIANITY

Means : Submission Means: Believer in to the will of God. Christ (ISA (PBUH)) Believe: In strict Believe: In Trinity ( monotheism ( only three person in one God). God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit) Mohammad(PBUH) regarded as founder of Islam. However, Muslims believe Islam existed from the beginning of creation. Islam is the second largest religion of the word with 1.3 billion population. Afterlife: or hell. Christians believe Yeshua( Jesus) as founder of Christianity.

Waseem Alzaher

world where they are centres of research with teaching utilised as a revenue raising project. Secondly, the correct infrastructure and support must be set up to support and further ongoing research. Scientists who excel must be supported and not jailed (as sometimes occurs). Such a problem stems from the long history of colonialism and the resulting puppet leadership of Muslim nations. What is the way forward? It will not come from the kings or their Swiss bank accounts but rather it is from you, from us. We must put our mental narrowness behind us, unite in our faith and lead the way forward starting in Dunedin. With the gaining of knowledge comes a responsibility to make the Muslim world better in all aspects: lets lead the way forward in research.

Christianity is the largest religion of the world with 2 billion population.

Paradise Afterlife: Eternal heaven or hell (or temporary purgatory).

Texts: Quran (the The Bible (Old and word or God) and New Testaments). Hadith (tradition of prophet Muhammad) Practice: Five Pillers: Faith, Prayer(5 times daily), Charity, Fasting and Pilgrimage to Mecca. Practice: Prayer, Bible study, baptism, Eucharist, church on Sundays.
By Hikmat Noorebad

Quran Memorization Class

A Quran memorization class organised by brother Waseem Alzaher held at AlHuda mosque every Saturday after Magrib prayer. All brothers with any level of Quranic study can join the class. There are no other requirements except being on time.

Page 3

As Muslims, we have a responsibility to our deen. It is our responsibility to share the true message of Allah with the rest of the world. My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, our actions will always speak louder than our words. With every thought we think, every word we say, and every action we do, pleasing Allah must be our top priority. If we make our every move resonate with the love and beauty of Allah and His message, inshaAllah the rest of the world will see this

beauty and turn to His truth. But when we sit back and blame the stigma Islam has in the West on terrorism or the media, my brothers and sisters that is not good enough. We cannot change the actions of others. The only thing we have control over is ourselves, and every single little thing we do reflects back on Islam and its teachings, regardless of how correctly or incorrectly we have been following Allahs Will. In all of our frequent interactions with non-Muslims,

we should strive to please Allah. This is the only way in which we will ever clear the prejudices we are surrounded with daily. It is a difficult duty, no doubt, but dont we owe it to our Creator - He who has given us everything to lead others into His light? We cannot change the world, but when we improve ourselves according to Allahs wishes, inshaAllah, slowly, the rest of the world will follow suit. By: Chloe Baddeley-Idris

BLOG SUGGESTION AND REVIEW

My dearest Dunedin sisters, Here, and in every issue I will share with you a Muslimahs blog my fellow committee members and I think you might like. I will post an extract from a post they have made, and will give you the link so that you may check it out. This weeks blog is A Learning Muslimah From her post titled Good Innovations?

Notices
Islamic classes are held every Saturday at 9 am. Venue: Al Huda Mosque If you have any questions please contact sister Nural.

Continue of Good Innovations?...

Imaam Maalik, rahimullah , said concerning this verse: "He who innovates a new Bidah in Islam considering it to be something good is in effect claiming that Muhammad sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam did not fully convey the message of Islam So whatever was not a part of the religion at that time (i.e. the time of the Prophet and his companions cannot be considered as a part of the religion today) . Link: http://awakenedbytruth.blogspot.com/

Further enquires
For questions, suggestions or comments, please feel free to email me at: abdam996@student.otago.ac.nz Or contact any of the other sisters committee members.

This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favour upon I strongly recommend you take a look at this blog, you and have approved for you Islam as a especially to the article A muslimah in quest for ilm religion (Al-Maaidah:3) by sister Habayeb.

Muslim Students Association (MUSA)

Otago Muslim Association (OMA)

0481 774 :xaF 8381 774 :enohP .nidenuD ,tS edylC 12 , e u q s o M a d u H -l A nidenuD ,8826 xoB.O.P

moc.sserpdrow.asumogato//:ptth zn.gro.asuo.milsum@nimda:liamE nidenuD ,6341 xoB .O.P ,ASUO O/C

Page 4