Doing some work at uni on empathy and came across this. I thought it's worth listening to.

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11.30PM - I am extremely exhausted after a long and enjoyable day of shopping with one of my sisters. I eat, pray and fall asleep.

1.00AM - I am in a deep sleep though I soon find out that the house phone rang. Yes, a phone call at crazy o'clock, can you believe it? Why would anyone ring at such a time? How inconsiderate!!

A few minutes after 1.00AM - I am woken up by the sister whom I share a bedroom with saying that my youngest sister's school sent an automated message saying that my sister has been caught on CCTV doing something she should've have and that she must report to the head mistress first thing in the morning with her pencilcase and that she risks being excluded. 

The only way we can truly benefit from the Qur'an is to build a strong connection and relationship with it. So, how can we do this? My friend shared the following with me and it's worth reading.

1 - Every time we go to recite the Qur'an or touch the Qur'an, we should renew our intention, that we are about to take the step to speak to Allah ﷻ. Know the value of this Book of Allah. We have so many copies of the Qur'an around the world, in abundance, that we lose value for the Qur'an. Know that if this Qur'an was revealed on a mountain, it would crumble, perish, be destroyed. This is the true value of His Book.

Hello there reader and Ramadhan Mubarak!

A few weeks ago, I gave a talk to approximately 100 people at the institute where I study. I spoke about the importance and reward of salah and the consquences for not performing salah. Often this is a topic we think we know so much about and it can get a bit yawn-worthy because we've heard it all before. 

I wanted to give my audience something to take back with them and something which they could adopt and put into practice. I gave them some tips on how to overcome laziness towards salah, how we can prepare ourselves for salah and how we can enhance our concentration in salah. I thought it would be worth sharing with you too. 

As many of you are aware the situation in Gaza is escalating. I'm sure you'll agree with me when I say that the people of Gaza need urgent medical attention, food and resources through these difficult times. However it seems that certain people would like to restrict this. 

HSBC bank has decided to issue a two month notice to Ummah Welfare Trust to close down its bank accounts. This is similar to what Barclays did to Ummah Welfare Trust back in 2008. For those of you concerned, be reassured that there are other bank accounts that UWT use and will continue all their efforts.

Here is a list of things that YOU can do:

Channel 4 Dispatches have created a documentary looking at the influence and effect that faith communities have had on the way a school functions and the changes it has had to their approach on certain practices. As usual they went undercover. 

There were several issues that were brought up and I'd like to focus on a few of them. The first was no clapping in class or assemblies. Studying at an independent Muslim school (which is very different to a free school or state school), I was never taught not to clap, no teacher addressed the issue nor did any student bother to clap anyway. Not clapping didn't seem to be a problem to anybody.

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Educate yourself with this easy to understand and historically accurate video on why Israelis and Palestinians are fighting, why the US-backed peace process has been an impediment to peace, and what you can do to make a difference. This conflict is essentially about land and human rights, not religion and culture. Endorsed by Palestinian, Israeli and American scholars and peace activists.

“The supplication of a Muslim for his brother in his absence will certainly be answered. Every time he makes a supplication for good for his brother, the angel appointed for this particular task says: ‘Ameen! May it be for you too’.” [Muslim].

Since the dua of the fasting person is accepted this is the best time to do it. But here is how you make it unique:

1. Do it for someone who wouldn’t expect it from you without telling that person to make it most sincere and for the sake of Allah.

2. Diversify the duas and people you make dua for so that you can be given different things. So in particular think of a person in each of the following categories and make dua for them daily: