Muslim Apple is on vacation until the second week of August and after much prodding from friends has just joined Facebook.

Leaving today for Ottawa, I’ll be back next week in sha Allah.

Most women who give birth here in the United States should be familiar with perineal bottles because they are offered in hospitals to mothers after they give birth (at least that’s what I’ve been told by women in the know).

I ordered 50 perineal bottles from the Medical Supply Company for about $25, that’s 50 cents a bottle not only to use at home, but to keep one in my bag for when I’m out and about or traveling, and in my car.

I hope to convince some local masajid to begin using perineal bottles in their bathrooms as they are small enough to fill in the sink, come with tops that close to prevent accidental spills, are small enough to fit in and maneuver effectively with one hand, and are dirt cheap. I mean what else can you buy for 50 cents that doesn’t come in a gumball machine?

The ubiquitous flower watering cans that are now in use in many masajid as well as other plastic containers of varying size are often too large and unwieldy to fit in the regular bathroom sinks, are not that portable, are not easy to clean, and are prone to spill because there is no top or cover to prevent waterflow.

I hope to start a campaign for perineal bottles to be used in the masajid and during Muslim functions at hotels and schools. So watch out, perineal bottles may be coming to a bathroom in a masjid near you.

I was tagged by Umm Suhayb and am dutifully responding even though I find tags to be a bit more revealing than I would like.

8 Facts or Habits about Me:

I like to read the newspaper in order, section by section, and as I finish each section to place and fold it neatly in the same originally alphabetized order that it came in even if I’m just going to put it in the recycle bin.

I can be quite the contrarian even if I do not necessarily disagree with what someone is saying and this can be quite annoying and sometimes I recognize myself that I am being a pain and annoying and giving the other person a hard time just for the exercise of critical thinking.

I do not like to see anything in the kitchen sink. If there are dishes in the sink, I feel a compulsive need to do them before I use the sink or do anything in the kitchen like cook or sit down to eat a meal. And I like to arrange the dirty dishes in the sink and on the countertop before I wash them. Continue reading →

For those using Mozilla Firefox, the easiest way to download and save most online video is by using an add-on like DownloadHelper. DownloadHelper can save video from most of the major online video sites like YouTube and GoogleVideo to your hard drive with minimal effort.

On non-Firefox browsers a site like KeepVid will also allow you to capture video from most online sites just by entering the url.

I love Mac but one issue that keeps me from making the full switch to Apple Macs for our home computers is the poor support for Arabic fonts. One recurring issue revolves around Arabic letters appearing disjointed which makes it hard to read when one is used seeing the letters in the words connected together in their various forms.

The reason for the appearance of disjointed letters varies but is common after installing Microsoft Office for Mac. A complete install of Office includes about 70 fonts. Disabling the Microsoft Office Arial and Times New Roman fonts in the Font Book should clear up the disjointed letters issue in most applications although sometimes the issue is more complex.

After reviewing just how many fonts I use on a regular basis which total about 5, I decided to delete all of the fonts installed in my local user directory by Microsoft Office and reverted to the default Mac fonts that are located in my system folder and this also cleared up the disjointed letter issue.

Occasionally though in PowerPoint presentations, Arabic sentences become jumbled such that the words at the end of a sentence come before the words at the beginning. The PowerPoint presentation displays correctly on my PC so I have yet to locate the exact issue with the Mac.

Amani asked and I have a hard time saying no to sisters but you don’t have to continue reading if you don’t want to.

1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before? Drove in NYC.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn’t make new year’s resolutions, but I did make a Ramadan dua list for the things I want or want to change before next Ramadan.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes.

5. What countries did you visit? Canada

6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006? More patience.

7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? None specific but the day my grandmother died and the hot summer day I was locked out of the house for more than 5 hours waiting for a locksmith will probably stay with me.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Finishing Juz Amma and starting on Juz Tabarak.

9. What was your biggest failure? Conveying to my family especially mother why I declined to attend my grandmother’s wake and memorial service.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? A bout of food poisoning and had my remaining wisdom teeth extracted. Continue reading →

I am not good at finding header images, which is the main reason I switched from the Cutline theme to Unsleepable but now I am trying this one out until I find something better. I don’t really like three column themes because my eyes naturally only focus on the center column and on one sidebar preferably on the right-side of a page.

I admire the header images employed by some others and always feel mine is lacking as I don’t have an eye for the arts, fashion, or decorating. I am currently using the top of an image I found over at the Age of Jahilyah. I think the whole image is fantastic but cut up into a header image it appeals to me mainly because I’ve seen the entire image.

By the way, I was thinking of using my real name instead of Muslim Apple on my blog. It seems that the people that know me, know me and those that don’t, still won’t either way.

If you know of a header image that would be good here, let me know in sha Allah.

The Prophet Muhammad sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam said, “whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should say good or remain silent.” [Bukhari and Muslim]

No comment.

From my incoming Google searches, I see that someone has been diligently looking for a picture of Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia and I replicated their searches and it seems they might not have had success so I’ve uploaded a picture from the masjid’s website, which has had this slow script issue for as long as I can remember. Click here or on the image to enlarge it.

On Fridays, I used to frequently attend the 11:15 jumu’ah with Shaykh Hanooti, because he’s not long-winded, his lectures are focused and to the point, we’re usually finished by 11:50 but always before 12pm, and the 11:15 service is the only one where if I come early I can park in the parking lot unlike the 12:15 or 1:30 services, which are HOV-3. The police that are assigned to the masjid on Fridays to help with traffic flow and congestion are usually very nice, they stand outside in all kinds of weather and hold the traffic for us as we cross the street from a funeral home’s parking lot to get to the masjid.

I haven’t been there in a while but on many Fridays, you could catch the family of Yusuf Estes selling some wonderful homemade pies, cookies, soaps, and CD’s. Dr. Anwar Hajjaj has excellent free and open classes on Sundays on the second floor at Dar al Hijrah. The current Imams at the masjid are Shaykh Hanooti, Imam Johari AbdulMalik, and Shaker Elsayyed. Previously, Anwar al-Awlaki was also an imam at this masjid. Don’t forget him in your duas as he is as far as we know still in detention in Yemen. Also, the masjid pictured in the Ramadan film is Dar al Hijrah.

My main complaint about Hijrah is that the sister’s entrance is in the back of the masjid where you are greeted by a dumpster, a flight of steps just to get into the building, and then another flight if you want to pray upstairs in the balcony area, which is actually quite nice, has some of the softest carpet around, looks down upon the courtyard area, and has several closed-circuit monitors so you can sit back and watch the khutbah, and I guess there is an overflow area for mothers and children downstairs but I’ve never been down there. Continue reading →