mandazi

Simply by looking and comparing the websites of BarackObama.com and JohnMcCain.com, one can clearly see which candidate’s campaign chooses an up to date website design in the Web 2.0 world.  As a web developer (still a newbie, less than a year of work experience), I am more drawn to Barack Obama’s website rather than John McCain’s for several reasons (none being political).

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All empires must fall…and rise again!

Last 10 days of Ramadan are upon us.  Didn’t watch much football.  Just a few minuts here and there, but it was a crazy week.  Here’s my recap:

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots

We no longer have to worry about the Patriots.  Randy Moss is nothing without Tom Brady.  Ronnie Brown scored 5 touchdowns!  Patriots defense is weak.  Let’s move on.  This game isn’t worth it.

Dolphins: 38 – Patriots: 13

Cincinnati Bengals at New York Giants

The Bengals took us to overtime?  What is going on here!  That was embarassing.  Even though we won the game, I am disappointed in the performance of the Giants.  They should have obliterated the Bengals back to Bangladesh (even though Bengals has nothing to do with Bangladesh).  Anyways, thank you Derrick Ward for your yardage.  Eli Manning, keep throwing those yards up.  And thank you John Carney!

Giants:26 – Bengals: 23

Arizona Cardinals at Washington Redskins

Redskins imprssed me.  I didn’t think they would have beat the Cards, but they did.  I think Campbell, Moss and Cooley are finally getting into their own groove.  I loved that Santana Moss TD in the 4th. 

Redskins: 24 – Cardinals: 17

Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens get no credit for this win.  The Browns are horrible.  We’ll see what the Ravens will do with the Steelrs in Week 4.

Ravens: 28 – Browns: 10

New York Jets at San Diego Chargers

Chargers finally earned a win.  They should be 2-1 instead of 1-2.  Favre isn’t good anymore.  Jets made a bad move.

Chargers: 48 – Jets: 29

Other notes:

Peyton Manning and the Colts lost again.  NFC East is the best division.  Buffalo, Dallas, NY Giants, Denver and Tennesse are all undefeated.

Russian warships have set off for Venezuela for joint exercises unprecedented since the Cold War.

Source: BBC News

This is a promo video of the organization called ONE which is trying to put an end to worldwide hunger and poverty. They are reaching out to the various faiths in trying to mobilize each religious community to join and help the fight against hunger and poverty through out the world. The sad reality is that many of these poverty stricken people are Muslims but yet there is a lack of Muslim help on such a large scale like ONE. Imam Johari Abdul Malik and Native Deen’s, Naeem Muhammad, are featured in the video.

So week 2 turned out to be much better than the 1st week for many teams but also disappointing for others.

New York Giants at St. Louis Rams

It was a blow out!  Eli Manning, Amani Toomer and Plaxico Burress took the ram out of Rams.  Our defense even stepped up with that interception turning it into a touchdown.  We obliterated the Rams in the 4th quarter.  We face Cincinnati (0-2) next.  Shouldn’t be a problem.  Even the Ravens beat them the 1st week.

Giants: 41- Rams: 13

New Orleans Saints at Washington Redskins

Why is it that Jason Campbell can throw 321 yards and have posession of for 34:14 and yet win by less that a touchdown (5 points)?  Although they won the game with the amazing play by Santana Moss, I feel that Campbell still did not play his best in this game.  Also, Reggie Bush is not that great again.  Drew Brees looked good in the 1st half but seemed hopeless in the 2nd half.  Anyways they got the win and guess what they now have the same record as the Philadelphia Eagles.  Enjoy it while it last, because this will probably be the only time the Redskins will have that honor.

Redskins: 29 – Saints: 24

New England Patriots at New York Jets

Brett Favre needs to step up more and improve his thinking process when throwing.  Matt Cassell, the up and coming Tom Brady?  Not really, but I picked him up in Fantasy Football and he’s racking up a few points.  I really wanted the Jets to win this game, but it seems that even with out Brady, the Patriots still look good with the help of Randy Moss of course.

Patriots: 19 – Jets: 10

San Deigo Chargers at Denver Broncos

Chargers should have won this game.  The refs blew an incomplete pass and turned it into a fumble.  I must say though that the Broncos were pretty amazing at the end in those final minutes scoring the touchdown and then going for the 2-point conversion.

Broncos: 38 – Chargers: 38

Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys

Where the heck was the defense in this game?  I was hoping the Eagles would sack Romo a couple of times and get him injured, but that didn’t happen.  After watching both teams play, I now realize that either the Giants and/or the Redskins will not be going to the playoffs this year.  Unless Romo/Owens/McNabb/Westbrook are injured and out for the season like Brady.  Allah knows best.

Cowboys: 41 – Eagles: 37

Other notes:

Peyton Manning is struggling.  Buffalo, Green Bay, Tennessee and Denver are 2-0. Pittsburgh barely won against Cleveland.

Half of Ramadan is over…

Alhamdulillah!  My wife and I sponsored an orphan through Islamic Relief.  We just recieved the bio data and photo of the young child we sponsored.  Due to privacy laws and policies of orphan sponsorhip we can’t share details, but I’d want to point out the blessing of sponsoring an orphan especially since it was not expensive at all.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

“I and the caretaker of the orphan will enter Paradise together like this, raising (by way of illustration) his forefinger and middle finger jointly, leaving no space in between.” [Sahih al-Bukhari]

Wallahi, when you receive the biodata info about the young child, your heart just softens up and you want to sponsor as much orphans as possible.  The cost is about 2-3 monthly cable or cell phone bills depending on your usage.  In other words it varies beteen $200-$500.

Click here to sponsor an orphan.  If you can’t then make the intention, inshaAllah.

May God protect the innocent around the entire world. Ameen!

May Allah be pleased with him.  May Allah forgive him.  May Allah open the doors of jannah for him. Ameen!

Who was Imam Warith Deen Muhammad?

• People of Faith: Warith Deen Muhammad – PBS
  Short biography
• Biography of Imam Warith Deen Muhammad – Atlanta Masjid of al-Islam
• Articles by Imam Warith Deen Muhammad

Tributes to him on his death from around the blogosphere:

• Imam Dawud Walid
• Zaytuna Institute – Sh. Hamza Yusuf & Imam Zaid Shakir
• Imam Suhaib Webb
• MuslimMatters.org – Sh. Yasir Qadhi, Sh. Yasir Birjas and others
• Sh. Faraz Rabbani
• W. D. Muhammad – A Witness to True Islam – By John Esposito
• A tribute to Imam Warith Deen Muhammad – IslamCrunch

I will update this post as I find more links, inshaAllah.

These are just the reviews of the games I watched.  Ramadan obviously took up more of my NFL time, which is good.

Washington Redskins at New York Giants

Giants won!  Although the game was not as good as I expected for us.  The Redskins suddenly started to play in the 4th quarter which may have been due to the Giants being lazy at the end.  I was disappointed Eli Manning through an interception.

Giants: 17 – Redskins: 7

Dallas Cowboys at Cleveland Browns

The city of Cleveland was lively and the streets were crowded, but the stadium was practically empty.  The Cowboys invaded and eliminated.  I really hate the Cowboys.  If I was an Imam, I’d pass a fatwa against those who are Cowboys fans.  Clearly this is why I am not an Imam.  As much as I hate Romo, I must say he is a really good QB.

Cowboys:28 – Browns: 10

Chicago Bears at Indianapolis Colts

Wow!  The Bears defense is insane.  Peyton Manning took two timeouts and still was unsuccessful in scoring a touchdown.  Colts are not looking like they should be, but then again it is just the first week.

Bears: 29 – Colts: 13

Other notes

Eagles?  What are they eating!  38 – 3! The NFC East is by far the toughest division in the league.  Hands down.  NY Jets are winning?  Oh wait they have Favre now.  That’s why!  That must mean GB will probably lose.  Oh wait!  They won.  So Jets with Favre win and Packers without Favre win.  It’s a win-win situation! I wonder if those who love Favre will become Jets fans now, especially those..cough cough…who live in…cough cough…New York.

Games I’m looking foward to win Week 2:

• NY Giants vs. St. Louis Rams – Sun. Sep. 14 at 1:00 PM on FOX
• Philadelphia Eagles vs. Dallas Cowboys – Mon. Sept 15 at 8:30 PM on ESPN

I’ll miss the Eagles – Cowboys game due to tarwaeeh but I might do that “8-rakat” and watch the last quarter of the game.

PS – Tom Brady is injured and out for the season!  Alhamdulillah!