Archive for July, 2006
07.31.06
Posted in Personal, Current Events at 10:48 pm by Abbas
America has repeatedly put all of the blame on the Resistance in Lebanon regarding the current conflict, where the Zionists have been targeting deliberately and indiscriminately women and children (Qana massacre) and UN Peace Forces (like Kofi Annan claimed).
I found this pattern of accusing the victim or the oppressed also in the time of Muawiyah (l).
In the Battle of Siffin, Muawiyah slaughtered and amputated and beheaded the head of Ammar Yasir (r), one of the greatest companions of the Prophet (a) and Imam Ali (a). Ironically, Muawiyah also accused Imam Ali (a) of killing Ammar Yasir (r) for letting and allowing him to fight in the front lines.
I find a very easy comparison between the United States of America and Muawiyah ibn Sufyan (l). Do you?
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Posted in Personal at 10:14 am by Abbas
Not feeling to well. Don’t know why. Just thought I’d share this quote.
The seventh Imam, Musa ibn Ja’far (a), said: “The likeness of this world is as the water of the sea. However much (water) a thirsty person drinks from it, his thirst increases so much so that the water kills him.”
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07.29.06
Posted in Personal at 12:09 pm by Abbas
I borrowed this from Davidon (http://duncandavidson.com/essays/). For all you Mac haters, eat this 
. It’s an excerpt and summary of why Macs are inevitably better than the typical PC (btw, I was a die-hard PC lover).
# Mac OS X is the first real desktop Unix with end user applications. I can hack a Python script, run a J2EE server, develop a Cocoa GUI app, keep track of things in Excel, write proposals in Word, tweak images in Photoshop, and listen to music in iTunes. All at the same time. In fact, I’m my desktop is showing that I’m doing exactly that. And it’s a native Unix, not some glommed on thing like MKS or Cygwin (with all due respect to the accomplishments that those products bring to the Windows platform).
# Apple is providing a rich set of technologies on top of Unix upon which ground breaking applications are being written. Some of these apps were written first on the Mac and are now showing up on Windows. Others, like SubEthaEdit are ground breaking and are yet unmatched on any other platform.
# Even though you shouldn’t believe the reports that Mac OS X is invincible, it is a fact that because of its Unix heritage, along with at least a passing thought that security is important, that makes it a more secure platform than Windows. John Gruber says it better than I can in his article Broken Windows. I can tell you that until a few weeks ago, I was oblivious to the whole spyware problem on Windows. It was while I was on a client site where they were reporting over 200 spybots on a single machine that I came face to face with the problem for the first time.
# Software Update. Point blank: I don’t ever want to recompile my kernel again. Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt. It was fun while it lasted, and I don’t regret it at all. But I’ve got better things to do with my time now.
# Unix. Did I mention this already? Let me make this clear. I’m a developer. I’m a hacker. Unix is a developer’s and a hacker’s wet dream. It doesn’t get any better than this. Because it’s Unix I have access to the largest collection of tools to get my job done ever assembled.
# Innovation. Apple is innovating harder than anybody else out there in the personal computer landscape. They’ve been pushing the state of the art through the downturn of the last few years when other PC vendors innovations have all revolved around… well, what the heck have they been doing? For example, wireless has become the biggest buzz this year, after being a pretty big buzz last year. Yet I’ve been doing it since 1999. It’s been part of my life (and the lives of lots of people around me) since 1999 because of Apple pushing the tech first. Rendezvous. Sync. Bluetooth. The list goes on. And the hits keep on coming.
# Excitement. There is a palatable excitement around the Mac. It’s so powerful that people get seriously bummed when Steve doesn’t announce enough cool stuff every time he gets on stage. Every developer I know that was at both JavaOne and WWDC this year talked about the difference. Sure, the developer-to-developer interaction at JavaOne was as happening as ever, but the conference itself?
I rest my case.
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Posted in Personal at 10:45 am by Abbas
When one tries to cleanse him or herself in order to please Allah (swt), it is a beginning of a journey that will ultimately lead to salvation. When one tries to forget and let go of old habits, change their way of thinking for the better, and try to spiritually uplift themselves to serve God, he or she will be greatly rewarded and will ultimately succeed. We will be on trial and we will be tested greatly. We will be put in situations where we feel helpless and feel like giving up, but we must be persistent and continue the struggle. The key word is persistence. We must be consistent with whatever we try even if its something very minute. And we must also remember, God will never test us if we are not capable of succeeding. Just the fact that we are striving, will mean that we will be successful, inshaAllah.
With that being said, the month of Rajab has begun, alhamdulillah. Rajab marks the beginning of the spiritual season of every believer ending with the end of the fasting month of Ramadan with the Eid Al Fitr. These three months are unmatched in their importance.
Praise be to the Almighty and thanks to Him for granting us yet another opportunity to cleanse ourselves of our sins and oversights.
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07.28.06
Posted in Personal at 12:29 am by Abbas
Do you know what really annoys me? People whom you are supposed to trust and look up to acting like overgrown babies. They whine, complain and cry. They do not respect other people’s personal decisions and they try to make the worse out of it. It is like the “my way or the highway” concept. The sad part is they have no legitimate concerns or reasons. Maybe they have envy? Or maybe they feel threatened? Or maybe they are arrogant? Why can’t they respect and live by the decisions that have been made. We all need to grow up and learn to respect one another … if we do not we will have to learn the hard way, unfortunately. May we all live in peace. Ameen!
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07.27.06
Posted in Current Events at 11:22 pm by Abbas
Please recite this du’a for the people of Lebanon. It was actually requested by the resistance. Jawshan al-Sagheer is a du’a narrated by Imam Musa al-Kadhim (a) and it is recited during the month of Rajab and during times of war. May Allah make the believers victorious.
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My Allah, many an enemy drew up the sword of hostility against me, honed the dagger’s edge, sharpened the arrows’ points, made ready deadly poisons, levelled his bow at me, and, keeping an eye on me, harboured evil thoughts to force me to swallow, against my will, the deadly bitter
poison.
You came to know that I am too weak to bear hardships and too exhausted to withstand misfortunes, and took notice of my shortcoming that I cannot confront the enemy who had planned to attack me, and perceived my isolation amid the multitude of gathering enemies, sitting in ditches, ready to pounce upon me, while I gave no thought to sitting in ambush and retaliating.
So with Your might, You came to stand by me, and Your help made me strong and disappointed him in spite of the larger number [of his forces], by rendering his weapons unserviceable. And You gave me the upper hand over him by catching him in the very trap he laid for me, and threw him into the abyss he dug for me, and gave no hand to his grudging deed, and did not allow him to assuage the fury of his anger. Biting his thumb, he turned back on his heels, and his comrades, ashamed, dispersed in haste.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Personal at 3:04 pm by Abbas
This studying is really draining me out! It now getting overwhelming. The theoretical stuff is fine, but going over the programming examples and understanding every little thing and making it work on my computer is a pain in the butt! I feel as if all my brain cells are dying! Please pray for me!
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Posted in Personal at 10:44 am by Abbas
We discussed verses 1 to 10 of Sura Baqarah. The discussion was a bit quicker, because the author was pretty repetitive. We had a lot of distractions though, but that is okay .
The first part the author talked about how the Quran is both kitab ul takwini and kitab ul tashri’i was pretty confusing. But, alhamdulillah I think we understood the concepts. The Quran is divine and was always there and the Quran also has a physical, visible form and legislation.
Then the discussion went on to explain taqwa or God-consciousness. Then the commentator explained the word salaat, which we thought was amazing. The author explains,
“The literal meaning of salat is the middle of the backbone. When used as a verb, it means the bending and unbending of the backbone. It is particularly employed when an animal is curved at the time of delivery. Figuratively, it was used for a bending posture at the time of giving or taking something. From this, it was adopted for prayer, to signify a submissive attitude.”
We also mention how Imam Ali (a) mentioned the part of prayer where we are closest to Allah is during prostration or sajdah. Hence, we should try to prolong that part during prayer because our taqwa should be the highest at that point.
The author continued on describing shirk and the three different type of shirks (jalliy, khafiy, and ahkfa). We talked about how a lot of us do the third type of shirk (akhfa), which means most concealed. Our people usually are so much into music, celebrities, etc that we unintentionally idolize them and adore them to the point where it effects our ability to perform for Allah (swt).
We ended the discussion with the analogy of Agha Pooya uses to describe the mission of Islam. It is like a heavy shower coming down from heaven. It feels good, and we know it will help us and lead to salvation, but it will be tough. There is a lot of lightening, winds and darkness (or struggle), but at the end of the day we will be victorious, inshaAllah.
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07.26.06
Posted in Personal at 6:17 pm by Abbas
Just installed a program called Ecto (http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/). Now I can update and make changes to the blog right from my desktop. It is compatible with most popular blogging services (ie. wordpress). If your a blogger.. check it out - its pretty cool.
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Posted in Personal, Current Events at 3:33 pm by Abbas
We had a great event this past Sunday on the “Importance of Muslim Solidarity.” We had Shaykh Safdar Razi. He first defined what “unity” was, which is not compromising our beliefs but respecting and caring for one another. He gave many examples of how the Prophet (a) and the holy Imams (a) upheld unity in the Ummah. Even if we disagree or dislike, we must show our akhlaq or manners. I hope that Muslims can get over these small issues and focus on worldly and more important issues and work together, inshaAllah.
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07.25.06
Posted in Personal at 9:50 pm by Abbas
My fiance and I have started a new endeavor. We are reading ten verses per day with commentary of the Quran. Then we discuss with one another and try to reflect. As Muslims reflection and contemplation is a necessity in order of our well-being, especially in a society that tries to sway us from the path of Allah (swt).
We are using Shakir’s translation and Agha Pooya Yazdi’s commentary/tafsir because its easily and readily available. So this was our first day and we completed Surah al-Fatiha, which was relatively easy. I will attempt to just summarize what we discussed, inshaAllah.
In the beginning the surah just discussed the importance of the phrase Bismillah. It is so important that if it is not recited during prayers, your prayers become baatil, or invalid! Every action we do should start with Bismillah. We must remember Him in all aspects of life. Now, we realize why we as children were drilled about saying bismillah before we eat, say alhamdulillah after we sneeze, and saying inshaAllah when we plan on doing something. We remembered (actually my fiance did) an analogy a scholar once used. Being God-conscious is like driving. We know the speed limit and we obey it, and if we think we are slick and we can trick the cops we usually break it. And sometimes we get away and sometimes the cop forgive us and lets us go, but sometimes we get hit with a hefty fine and ticket. At this point, it is too late to plead and apologize. The same can go for the laws of Islam. We can obey them. We can disobey, and if we get “caught” (caught being death) we are screwed and it’ll be too late to repent.
We also discussed how many opportunities and avenues there are to reach Him. He has given us so much. He is so close. We just need to take a few steps towards Him and He will do the rest, alhamdulillah. Then the surah (and commentary of it) went on how merciful and forgiving God is. The commentator mentioned how the Prophet and the holy Ahlul Bayt (a) were created for us, and as a mercy to mankind. They were created and chosen as humans so we can relate to them and follow them. Not that it is easy, and not that we can be anything like them, but we can try to mold our lifestyles around them and try to achieve what they have.
Lastly, the surah talked about tabarrah (or disassociation from the enemies of Islam). We should not take from those whom do evil and try to cause discord. I remembered a hadith from the Prophet where he advised us not to make friends with those that cannot influence us positively or those whom we cannot influence positively. Meaning the environment we make and put ourselves in make us who we are. We also must distant ourselves from those that hurt the Prophet (a) and his Ahlul Bayt (a).
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Posted in Personal at 7:15 pm by Abbas
Sorry for not updating the blog for awhile. Been really busy with the youth activities here. I am also swamped with work from the Salk Institute; they gave me a great deal of material to read and study. I will try to post more often, inshaAllah. Please keep me your prayers and du’as.
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07.18.06
Posted in Current Events at 1:21 pm by Abbas
I admit that I may not personally know many of you to whom Im sending this message. But I do know one thing and that is we all need to pray for Lebanon. I have been in Lebanon for more than two months now. I was scheduled to fly home this Wednesday but in light of recent attacks on the country I may not be going anywhere for a very long time.
When my parents, friends, and family periodically call to check in on me they ask me if Im scared. Am I scared? Well I sleep at night with Israeli jets flying over head., A sense of calmness comes over the city and then BANG! My body jumps, and my heart begins to race. I hold on tight to the covers and wait for the next bomb to drop. I feel like Im playing with a jack in the box. But scared? NO IM NOT SCARED, IM SAD! They have ruined my country, they have killed my people, they have isolated us and crippled our economy. For a country that has come so far and been through so much, the hands of time have been turned back in Lebanon. < BR>
They have bombed every bridge and all the roads that lead anyone to safety. I dont think you understand..I literally mean EVERY bridge. The Israelis tell us to get out of cities and villages 2 hours before they attack but they have left us with no streets to get to safety. You see nothing in America compared to what we see on arabic news stations. On T.V. I see dead bodies, body parts in the streets, mothers, fathers, and children crying cause their families are dead. Its not a fair fight. We dont have ships, or jets. The American embassy is telling us to stay put while the Italian and french are evacuating all their citizens. They tell us if they do evacuate Americans the only way to get them to Cyprus where its safe is on a road near Syria that is under fire. And once in Cyprus, if we dont die on the way it may be weeks before we return home .
The mood here in Beirut is NOTHING compared to what it was a week ago. The streets should be filled with people, cars beepin g in traffic jams and downtown packed with tourists. But the streets are empty. Its as if the whole city is at a funeral. I feel bad to laugh or even crack a smile. I feel like this is all a dream. I can never describe to you the noise of the bombings here. Its so terrifying. To anyone from Bint Jebail, I hope you had a chance to see your village in prior years because it is currently nothing more than a cloud of dust.
So the purpose of this email is to get you all to stop what your doing now and say a quick prayer on behalf of Libnan and all its people that are suffering. Thank you and please forward to as many people as you can.
Al-Fatiha
Kamila Dakroub
July 17, 2006
Beirut, Lebanon
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07.15.06
Posted in Personal, Current Events at 2:55 pm by Abbas
Allamah Hassan Turabi, a well-known Shi’a alim in Pakistan, was martyed after attending a pro-Lebanon, pro-resistance rally. He spoke to a mixed Sunni-Shi’a crowd and was assasinated along with his 11 year old nephew at his home by a suicide attack. Its chaotic in Pakistan (people burning shops, gas stations, cars, etc). Allamah Turabi was very active and my family knew him really well. He was a revolutionary. And Alhamdulillah, he got the greatest gift any believer could receive, which is becoming a shaheed (martyr). May Allah grant his soul paradise and alleviate his family from any suffering.
I need to re-iterate this again but also please pray (and continue to pray) for the people of Lebanon. ‘Israel’ is deliberately targetting women and children. I have friends in Lebanon as well. Please pray for the safety of the oppressed and pray for the defeat of Injustice.
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Posted in Personal at 2:48 pm by Abbas
inshaAllah, I will be working at the Salk Institute (at least for three, four months) near the end of august! The primary goal of the work is to study genome-scale problems such as genome-wide gene regulation and functional analysis. The is done with powerful lab techn like liquid handling robots and full genome tilling arrays combined with computer analysis. I would be working on the software development aspect. Some of this work would be functional genomics (ie automating the data pipeline, writing robot scripts for automating wet lab set ups). I will also help on designing algorithms for novel analysis of genome scale data sets (microarrays, etc). And finally it I may be involved with some cgi/web stuff.
The nice part is, that in the fall the Institute will get these brand new sequencing technologies (Solexa) that are advertised to produce a whole genome sequence in 48hrs for 12K (that is really amazing!). We will be one of the first labs in the world to work with this potentially revolutionary technology.
For all those (most of you) who probably are confused about my future work I am pretty much going to do research at this top-notch research facility. Can’t wait ’till I start!
They gave tons of stuff to read, so I will be busy with that. Plus I need to review and revise on a lot of things . Oh and by the way, I will be driving (its approximately 3000 miles), so I am looking for a companion for a road trip!
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