We have 100 invites to give away to the new Islamic community portal, Mecca.com. To receive an invite, post an article or a link about IslamCrunch and Mecca.com* on your blog, your website, your MySpace profile, your Facebook profile, a forum or any place that you express yourself. Send us the link by sending us an email using the contact form above.

What is Mecca.com? Read our original post here.

More information about Mecca.com: The first global, comprehensive, and multi-lingual Islamic Community Portal, strives to unify more than 100 million online Muslims around the world.

Why join Mecca.com…?

• Mecca.com will bring you editorial content from the greatest scholars in Arabic and English, with more languages coming.
• Mecca.com will provide a wealth of information about Islam.
• Mecca.com will feature a forum community for you to make your voice heard.
• Mecca.com and our partners will bring you the services that every Muslim will need from an on-line portal and more.
• Mecca.com members will receive a prestigious email address (yourname@mecca.com)
• Mecca.com has created the first Islamic customized member’s instant messenger to chat online with all your friends, regardless of which IM they may have.
• Mecca.com will donate a share of its revenues to Islamic charities globally.

* Both sites must be listed, you can link to this article but you must mention both sites.

SeekSacredKnowledge.com is a new site that launched today. This site is a continuation of the Haba’ib group on MSN. Initiated by Sidi Khalil Moore, SeekSacredKnowledge is an expansion of the MSN group. Thus, the Message Boards seem the be the main feature on the site.

Quoting their home page, Seek Sacred Knowledge is

a central location for seekers of scared knowledge from all around the globe to come together and share their knowledge, experience, tips, and advice, and to ask questions of one another, all in the spirit of lending a helping hand and giving back to the worldwide community. Please join us on our journey!

Technorati tags: new, website, islamic, sacred, knowledge, khalil moore, msn, habaib

Mecca.com was introduced to us by a fellow web developer and activist (Thanks Amine!). Mecca.com’s goal is to unite online Muslims and to provide a variety of services. Some services include a branded email account, branded interoperable instant messaging, forums and quality travel offerings for Hajj, Umrah and other Middle East tours. More information about Mecca.com’s vision and goals can be found here.

They have also announced that Reza Aslan has joined their team as an advisor and contributor. This new site is currently closed to public registration and only available via invitations. Drop them a note and tell them that IslamCrunch sent you. We look forward to their launch and will continue to monitor their progress. Mecca.com is also available in a Arabic version. Here is a sneak preview of the Mecca.com portal:

Technorati tags: mecca, mecca.com, arabic, portal, reza aslan, hajj, umrah, middle east, email, instant messaging

We received an invitation code to APSENSE and wanted to share the invite with our readers. FIRST 2,500 5000 Members Will Get a Free VIP Membership Upgrade!

You’re invited to join the ApSense network of friends.

By joining Apsense, a newly launched business social network, you can connect with business indivduals with common interests, meet new friends or business associates, start your business blog, and even build your own private social network!
Please take a few minutes to visit our website, learn more about us and register for a FREE Membership.

The website address is:
http://www.apsense.com/invite/islamcrunch

Included in the membership is a desktop marketing tool, the ApSense Express, to advertise your service/product/business.

Please note that during this period, we are only accepting registration from our “Invite My Friends” invitation system. We are taking this opportunity to give our closest friends and their friends a chance to take advantage of our Social Network before the general public. This is our way of saying ‘THANK YOU” for your help and support during the development of this MOST ANTICIPATED Business Social Network Community!

Technorati tags: apsense, invite, free, social networking, business, prelaunch, membership, marketing, tool, desktop

We recently discovered a very good translation of a transcript of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf speaking at last year’s BBC World Service’s In Praise of God conducted in 2006. This is for all the Malay speaking readers: Scholarly Masterpieces.

Even though the blog cites Moez Masoud’s website as the original source for the transcript, we first read about the transcript on MereIslam’s blog, which can be found here: Mere Islam

English excerpt:

His overwhelming magnanimity of character led to a mass conversion among the citizens of Mecca. Even Abu Sufyan, his archenemy, embraced the religion of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. In the months that followed, almost all of Arabia dispatched representatives to swear allegiance to this Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and to enter in the faith of Islam. In a period of twenty-three years Muhammad, peace be upon him, had succeeded in uniting a feuding people trapped in cycles of violence into one people with a sense of destiny and a mission that would transform the world.

Malay excerpt:

Kebaikan budi pekertinya yang mengkagumkan itu menyebabkan penduduk Mekah beramai-ramai menukar agama kepada Islam. Abu Sufyan, musuh utama baginda, juga memeluk agama Nabi saw. Pada bulan-bulan berikutnya, hampir semua negeri-negeri Arab menghantar wakil untuk bersumpah setia pada Nabi saw dan masuk Islam. Dalam tempoh masa dua puluh tiga tahun Muhammad saw telah berjaya dalam meyatukan kumpulan-kumpulan bermusuhan yang terperangkap dalam dunia keganasan, menjadikan mereka satu kaum yang memahami kehendak takdir dan satu kaum yang hidup dengan satu misi untuk mengubah dunia.