Kitaba is a new website promoting the needs of visually impaired Muslims in their search of sacred knowledge. IslamCrunch is a big supporter of sacred knowledge and we would like to highlight the efforts of Kitaba. Check out their mission statement:

“We have established a social enterprise community project dedicated to empowering and promoting the growth and well-being of visually impaired Muslims and their communities through meeting their religious, educational and developmental needs, thereby advancing accessibility and awareness. Our primary focus is on providing accessibility to information and knowledge relevant to their Islamic needs. We also support families, teachers and other service providers who are supporting Muslims with a visual impairment.”

And about Kitaba:

“We at the Islamic Texts for the Blind believe that all people with visual impairments should be empowered and should be able to participate fully in cultural, community and religious activities. We recognise that Muslims with visual impairments have to overcome many barriers.”

To support Kitaba, become a member – it’s easy to do and it’s free. Membership is open to our service users, volunteers, network agencies, partners, voluntary organisations and mainstream service providers. As a member, you will be kept up to date with all the latest news and events and you will be invited to the Annual General Meeting.

To find out more about Kitaba, visit http://www.kitaba.org and add Sidi Adnan Tariq on Facebook (read his inspirational story here: http://www.kitaba.org/Stories/AdnanTariq.aspx). You can visit his personal blog here: http://www.adnant.wordpress.com/

HalfDate is a new endeavor that is a platform for sadaqa promotion. Users submit a cause or charity that they want to promote. HalfDate chooses a project to promote every month. No funds are collected by HalfDate, all proceeds go directly to the project.

More info can be seen at their site:

"Each Hijri month, you will suggest a specific cause (specific goal and due date) and HalfDate.com will feature it as a DateDrive. For example, through HalfDate, Muslims around the globe (from Trinidad to California) have:

• Donated over $5,127.54 for textbook
• Showed their care for convert Muslims
• Expressed their appreciations to halal businesses, and
• Donated to publish five teacher study guides for children books

As you can see, HalfDate is not only about monetary donation drives, because in Islam, the concept of sadaqa (charity) is much broader than that.

HalfDate.com is a charity/cause site, every month, you and the Ummah come together to solve one issue, at least get one specific goal done using our collective resources and efforts.

Please tell the brothers and sisters in your company/community about
HalfDate.com, the upcoming BIGGEST Sadaqa promoter on the net (not yet
there, but in-sha-Allah). So far, Muslims from CISCO, Google, EDS, MathWork, Cap Gemini, New York Times companies, … are all educating themselves about HalfDate."

There is an opportunity for HalfDate to acquire $20,000 in funds which they will donate to children and/or education causes.

So, here are the consequences for achieving or missing this drive’s goal (deadline: July 27, 2008).

1. If we achieve 20,000 subscribers to the mailing list, in-sha-Allah, a group of Muslims (HalfDate founders and friends) are pledging to give $20,000 to children or education causes.
2. If we miss the goal, we have to cancel next month’s drive as a sign of failure.

Sign up for their mailing list to find out about their monthly sadaqa projects.

Count Me In!

The Zaytuna 1,000 Monthly Donor Campaign.

A message from Zaytuna Institute:

Zaytuna Institute, we’re happy to report, is busier than ever. Now, we’d like to count on you to help us create an exciting future for Islam in America.

All the rapid growth we’ve been experiencing recently—growth you can read about in our Quarterly Newsletter—means we need to work harder to raise money to finance Zaytuna’s increased activity. What we need is financial stability so we can have planned growth. And that means developing a base of donors who see the wisdom of giving a regular monthly donation.

With that in mind, we have launched this new “Count Me In!” donation campaign with the goal of developing 1,000 monthly donors.

Can We Count on You?

It’s a campaign that everybody can participate in—whether they can afford $10 a month or $100 a month or $1,000 a month. What’s important is the consistency of giving. Please help us reach our goal of 1,000 donors—and, if you’re already a monthly donor, please consider increasing your contribution.

What Does My Monthly Donation Support?

Your monthly donation will help Zaytuna:
• Develop Premier Academic Programs. We have already launched our Summer Arabic Intensive, an eight-week residential program in Berkeley, which will also be a prerequisite for entry into our seminary program. Our goal is to make this the best summer Arabic program in the nation.

• Provide Thought Leadership. We are working hard to change the public discourse about Islam in America. We do this through our Contemporary Issues Series, which brings together Muslim voices with leading intellectuals of other perspectives; through our books, such as our latest publication, Submission, Faith, and Beauty, an important introductory work that aims to correct distortions about Islam; and through our acclaimed Seasons journal.

• Make Education Accessible. We just kicked off a new round of courses for our online Distance Learning program, which has already enrolled 1,400 students. We soon hope to add high-quality educational content from the inspirational Summer Rihla Program. We’re also taking our popular Minara weekend workshop to more and more cities. The program has served more than 5,000 people already, and we’re preparing for exponential growth.

Check out a special offer here: http://www.zaytuna.org/monthlydonor/

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani has just announced (via the ever-popular Facebook status) that his new venture is SeekersMedia. After recently leaving Sunnipath, questions about where Shaykh Faraz would surface were rampant on our minds. Now we know.

What is SeekersMedia?
SeekersMedia is an online media portal for Islamic and inspiration, through downloadable media. There will be educational media, quality Qur’anic media (with translation and commentary), and inspiring Islamic songs available, insha’Allah. We will also offer some courses, such as the current courses on Islamic law (Mukhtar Dars) and beliefs (Kharida Dars)
We also have plans to give high priority to an Islamic Answers Service (SeekersAnswers.com) which will be forthcoming, insha Allah.

Source: http://seekersmedia.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=26

More info can be found on their FAQ page. Their structure is very similar to the Zaytuna Distance Learning program (which the faqir manages, alhamdulillah): Register, login, access your weekly course file, additional files uploaded throughout the remainder of the course.

Shaykh Faraz informed us that this is just the beginning and that there are bigger things planned.

There are two current courses available:

• Understanding Islamic Law: Mawsuli’s Mukhtar Explained (Part I: Worship)
• Understanding the Way of Islamic Beliefs: Imam Dardir’s Kharida Explained with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Shaykh Faraz also teaches at The Razi Institute in Toronto.

It is with great honor to announce that Shaykh Abdul-Kareem Yahya is visiting the San Francisco Bay Area during the months of May and June, 2008. He will be teaching and lecturing at various venues during his visit.

Shaykh Abdul-Kareem will be teaching about the Seerah of our Beloved Prophet Muhammad (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) at the Hayward Halaqah gatherings.

• Session 1: From birth to prophethood
• Session 2: Makkah
• Session 3: Madinah

Shaykh Abdul-Kareem will also be teaching from “The Book of Assistance” at the Zawiya in Fremont on Sunday evenings after Maghrib.

His first public lecture will be conducted on Sunday, May 25 at Masjid Abu Bakr in Hayward from 5pm  - 7pm. Here is a link to the Facebook events page.We will continue to provide updates as we finalize the details.

IslamCrunch is honored to be working with the Hayward Halaqah team and the Zawiya Outreach Program.