Ta’leef Collective is a new organization that we are involved with. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ta’leef Collective provides the space, content, and companionship necessary for a healthy understanding, embrace and realization of Islam. Ta’leef Collective is an expansion of the program formerly known as Zaytuna Outreach.

Ta’leef Collective hopes to serve:

• Seekers of knowledge
• Converts
• Muslim Youth
• Other under served populations

If you are in the Bay Area, we would like to invite you to join us and your community at our new location.

Date: Sunday, March 15, 2009

Time: 7:30pm

Address: 43170 Osgood Rd., Fremont, CA 94539

Program:

• Recitation of the Burda poetry (Classical poem about the characteristics of the Prophet Muhammad, may the blessings of Allah be upon him)
• Spiritual and practical pearls of wisdom from our teachers
• For those who would like to stay, we will be continuing our weekly Mawlid gathering later in the evening

Tea and sweets will be available.

For more information, please email: admin {at} islamcrunch . com

Website: http://taleefcollective.org/2009/03/grand-opening-march-15-2009/

Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Taleef-Collective/133124145555

The Rahmah Foundation is a new organization that has roots in the San Francisco Bay Area. An organization by sisters, for sisters.

MISSION STATEMENT
The Rahmah Foundation is an independent, educational organization that is committed to continuously designing retreats and educational programs that will address topics unique to Muslim women. Through the centuries, Muslims have preserved and protected the Quran and Sunnah through the rigorous Ijaza system of scholarly licensure and certification. The Rahmah Foundation realizes the critical need to safeguard Islam from extremism and deviation and thus commits itself to selecting thoroughly qualified teachers—women who have studied and trained to meet exact criteria in both their knowledge and practice–to disseminate sacred knowledge to the rest of our sisters.

Teachers dedicated to the Rahmah Foundation include: Ustadha Rania Awaad, Ustadha Shamira Chothia Ahmed and Ustadha Eiman Sidky . Ustadha Shamira blogs here: http://questforthedivine.blogspot.com/

We are honored that Rahmah Foundation asked MQube to design and develop the site. We hope that it will be a benefit to others.

Technorati Tags: muslim, women, sisters, blog, website, islam

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Their aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.

Their aim (and our aim) is to raise awareness of poverty. We would like to focus on poverty on a macroscale and on a microscale. Here are some examples of how YOU can contribute to reduce poverty.

Poverty on a macroscale

We previously posted about the Global Food Crisis. Read that post and help to feed the poor. Also, the Washington Post has a good platform discussing the food crisis.

Consider joining the Muslim team on Kiva: http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam/?team_id=890.

Kiva Muslims (Updated as of Oct 15, 2008 11:02 am)

Number of Team Members : 34

Number of Loans : 67

Number of Loans per Member : 1.97

Total Amount Loaned : $2,375.00

“Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding – not marketing material.”

For more info about the poverty on a worldwide scale, please visit: http://site.blogactionday.org/resources/

Poverty on a microscale

This is where YOU can really make a difference. Seek local organizations that provide relief to the impoverished in your region. Have some extra wealth? Donate with a good intention. Other ways to help besides finances? Volunteer! Work for the sake of our Creator, make the right intention and reap the rewards.

For Muslims, we know (or can easily find) the teachings of the benefits of charity. An eternal reward? Indeed.

For us in the San Francisco Bay Area, we are blessed with the Rahima Foundation, who handle the following:

• Monthly Food Distribution (basic non-perishable foods)
• Zakat and Fitra Distribution
• Meat Distribution (from Eid-ul-Adha / Festival of the Sacrifice & other occasions)
• Used Car Distribution
• Scholarship Assistance (limited)
• Referrals for family counseling & employment (limited)

How you can make a difference

Global Food Crisis

As the global food crisis persists, children are forced to drop out of school to work and help support their families. The United Nation’s World Food Program estimates that as many as 130 million people are being pushed deeper into poverty – children and women in the world’s poorest communities are the most vulnerable.

* More than 850 million people in the world are hungry.
* Every five seconds a child dies from malnutrition and hunger-related
causes.
* Poor nutrition and calorie deficiencies cause nearly one in three
people to die prematurely or have disabilities.

Global food prices have risen by 75% since the year 2000, while the price of
wheat has risen 200%. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), the world’s poorest countries can expect the cost of
their imported foods to rise 56%.

Out of the 37 countries currently facing a food crisis, 21 are in Africa,
where 2.9 million people already die each year because of hunger-related
deaths.

Read more here: http://www.irw.org/campaigns/globalfoodcrisis

Please donate now to help the millions of victims who are in desperate need.

Islamic Relief USA
6131 Orangethorpe Ave Ste 450, Buena Park, CA 90620
(888) 479-4968 * http://www.irw.org/ * info@irw.org
Tax ID#: 95-4453134

Muslims who can’t fast (elderly who are not strong enough to fast, very sick people, etc.) should give Fidya, a compensation for each missed day of fasting.  If however an old or sick person gains strength after Ramadan, it is recommended that he/she fasts to make up those days, and the Fidya they paid will count as a sadaqah on their behalf.

What Allah (swt) has said about paying fidya:

" . . . And as for those who can fast with difficulty, they have (a choice either to fast or) to feed a Miskîn (poor person) (for every day). But whoever does good of his own accord, it is better for him. And that you fast, it is better for you if only you know." (Al-Baqarah 2:184)

How does Hidaya distribute fidya?
Hidaya Foundation (www.hidaya.org) distributes Fidya on behalf of those who can’t fast in the form of meals for poor and deserving people..

What is the cost of fidya?
Fidya for each missed day of fasting is US$3.50 according to Hanafi school of thought or US$7.00 according to other major schools of thought.

To donate online via electronic check or credit card for Fidya, please visit:
https://donation.hidaya.org/donation.aspx?projectId=83

You can mail checks payable to "Hidaya Foundation" to:

Hidaya Foundation, P.O. Box 5481, Santa Clara, CA 95056

Sincerely,
Waseem Baloch*
Toll free: (866) 244-3292
E-mail: mail@hidaya.org

Hidaya Foundation is a US based non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization, with Tax ID # 77-0502583.  Its mission is to implement educational, health care and social welfare projects in economically depressed areas of the world.

*Sidi Waseem is a true hero. He is one of the hardest working super men we know. We were blessed to have worked side-by-side with him in the past.