I know that there are a lot of adhan (Islamic call to prayer) devices out there and many Muslims use the Windows application Athan by IslamicFinder. But I recently installed Ubuntu ME, the Muslim edition of Ubuntu, a popular Linux OS distribution and it works well with one exception, I can't seem to to get Djihed Affifi's Minbar application to work. So I began looking for an alternative to the popular Athan since they do not support Linux.This search led me to a really nice find. Pray Times! is a Firefox Add-on to display daily prayer times. It has a very nice, but basic skin, and includes a number of features:

• Countdown to each prayer time

• Playing Adhan sound

• Various methods of time calculation

• Supporting all locations around the world

• Local calculation of prayer times (no connection to Internet is needed)

The latest version (1.1.2) was released on 12 June 2007 and can be used with Firefox 1.5 - 3.0a6 on any OS platform, isn't that nice. Its creator Hamid Zarrabi-Zadeh, a Computer Scientist and PhD candidate at University of Waterloo, has also included an extensive list of adhan recordings in mp3 format - I would have used Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) - by some of the most famous mua'dhdhin like Abdul-Basit, Saber and Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens). I am currently using this product and I am very pleased with it. However there are other Add-ons - though there are several bugs - for prayer reminders but Pray Time! is my choice.

Don't worry folks... I haven't forgotten about you. I have just had so much homework and research latley that I haven't had the time to really post anything. Please be patient, I'm not sure if I have any real fans who are starving for a juicy morcel of my writing but... if there is anyone who misses my posts. I have a decent one coming very soon.

The origin of the hippopotamus' name is greek; loosely translating to river horse or water horse. The animals natural habitat is land and water... it's amphibious! Its sexual preference is heterosexual and often hordes females in a harem-like group and fends off approaching males which may threaten the hippo's relationship with the females. Although its wild-life behavior seems similar a Sultan or a rapper the hippo's public service efforts are quite diplomatic.

For example, the most interesting fact about hippopotamii is that they often develop diplomacy between unfriendly countries and even go so far as to offer solutions to foreign policy which may not have surfaced without their support as in recent developments between Germany and Thailand.

Well it has finally happend, I have run out of interesting things to say. More often then not I have interesting things to say and write but just not enough time to post it. Well just the opposite is the case today and has been nearly all week. I have completely run out of interesting things to share. I would like to ask my slashdot friends for suggestions... what would you guys like to hear?

I have noticed many /. journals discussing Syria, Muslim's, Arabs and foreign relations. So I decided to add more to the pot. However, I wanted to lightly discuss an Islamic issue not related to current affairs but of Islam's highest principles, as I understand them.

By no means am I the most knowledgeable person on the subject of Islamic Law, however there are some basic things that I know and that is the fundamental principles of Islam are the Five Pillars of Islam (Submission) and they are:

The profession of faith in Allah (God) (Shahadah) - the declaration that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger.

Prayer (Salat) - establishing of the five daily Prayers.

The paying of alms (Zakat) - which is generally 2.5% of the total savings for a rich man working in trade or industry, and 10% or 20% of the annual produce for agriculturists. This money or produce is distributed among the poor. Also, one may give 25% of found treasure such as money won in a non-gambling lottery.

Fasting (Sawm) - refraining from eating, drinking or satisfying sexual needs from dawn to dusk in the month of Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic lunar calendar.

The Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) - this is done during the month of Zul Hijjah, and is compulsory once in a lifetime for one who has the ability to do it. If the Muslim is in ill health or in debt, he or she is not required to perform Hajj.

These fundamental principles are the heart and soul of practical life for Muslim's. There are many people who never have seen or heard of this before, so I thought I might post it in my journal so that those who are curious could read something about Islam that doesn't have to do with WTC, bombings or terror.

This is a peaceful post so please refrain from religious, political or anti-anything flames... I'm sure I'll give you another opportunity to flame me. Thank you.

This excerpt is from an essay that I am currently reading by Rene Descarte entitled Discourse on Method.

• The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.
• The second, to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its adequate solution.
• The third, to conduct my thoughts in such order that, by commencing with objects the simplest and easiest to know, I might ascend by little and little, and, as it were, step by step, to the knowledge of the more complex; assigning in thought a certain order even to those objects which in their own nature do not stand in a relation of antecedence and sequence.
• And the last, in every case to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I might be assured that nothing was omitted."
  

I find that these principles can be applied to the analysis of everything not only philosophy. Further more... if applied human dealings political and otherwise would be much better off. However, that is the problem with philosophy... it is always based on ideals... the calculated risks associated with certain action never quite have the same threat as that of risk occurring in real-time. So although calculation is necessary it is only by GOD's graces that calculated plans actually work.

"Histories make men wise; poets, witty, the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend" (Bacon).

I'm Meditating on Sir Francis Bacon's essay "Of Studies" and considering, at which of the 6 studies am I most skillful. If I were to place them in order... I think it would look like this:

1. Histories: wise
2. Natural Philosophy: deep
3. Poetry: witty
4. Moral: grave
5. Logic and rhetoric: able to contend
6. Mathematics: subtle

If you wish... in the comment section list the studies and their attributes as the apply to you.

The Club of Rome is a global think tank and centre of innovation and initiative. As a non-profit, non govermental organisation (NGO), it brings together scientists, economists, businessmen, international high civil servants, heads of state and former heads of state from all five continents who are convinced that the future of humankind is not determined once and for all and that each human being can contribute to the improvement of our societies.

The Club of Rome is to Slashdot as The NFL Hall of Fame is to Pop Warner Football.

"It is useful to know something of the manners of different nations, that we may be enabled to form a more correct judgment regarding our own, and be prevented from thinking that everything contrary to our customs is ridiculous and irrational, -- a conclusion usually come to by those whose experience has been limited to their own country" (Descartes).

Living in New York City allows me and I think others as well to appreciate and embrace social diversity. However, I don't think that other parts of the country are as fortunate in this regard.

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." (Cosby)

True story!

"Being a father... I can't help feeling that, by comparison with being a mother, being a father is rather abstract business" (Coetzee).

J.M. Coetzee couldn't have written it better... in my experience, being a father is truly abstract business. Most of the time I feel like the Moon in orbit around the Sun (Mommy). Hmmm... I always thought it was supposed to be the other way around, at least that's what astrology and society tell us.

Yeah... 3 comments I feel like a kid at Christmas (or Eid in my case) :)

I MUST BE REALLY BORING... I GET NO COMMENTS. Oh well *sigh* :(

"The wisest of you men is he who has realized, like Socrates, that in respect of wisdom he is really worthless." (Plato)

I feel strongly connected to this passage, firstly because I read, listen and recite its premise several times per day. In my own life I have experienced being puffed up in the glamour of discourse, my own and otherwise, only to beckon the wrath of The Abaser. As a result I've learned to quickly exhale when unjustly puffed.

I'm going to start regulary posting quotes from things I'm currently reading, mostly literature, however it could include a movie or song. I may even include a little blurb to get the comments started... that is if anyone finds the things I post interesting.