I attended the janazah of the late Imam W. Deen Mohammed, rahimuhullah. There were THOUSANDS of people at our masjid, Islamic Foundation in Villa Park, IL. Literally thousands. Cars parked all over a 1-mile radius and, again, thousands there for the janazah prayer. I ask that Allah accepts our prayer for him and that the brother is forgiven any and all mistakes he made in his life.

Before the janazah, we had to make multiple jama’at for Dhuhr due to the sheer size of the influx of people coming from 11am until 2:15pm when the prayer actually began. Due to the number of the attendees, the janazah later took place outside of the masjid on the nearby soccer field, loud speakers attached and all. Abdul Hameed Dogar, Islamic Foundation’s director, lead the janazah prayer.

There’s lots of coverage on the janazah and death of the late Imam as it is, so I won’t say much about it. However as a typical suburban middle class Desi Muslim kid who hasn’t really seen much of the world, I feel the need to say a few things. Read the rest

After a long hiatus, Khana Korner is BACK! To make things fun, here’s something my wife made a few weeks ago. I know this edition is coming out during Ramadan, so if you can’t handle this during fasting, well, come back in a few weeks. But if you go ahead, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

During our trip to the Smoky Mountains, we had something called grilled cream cheese pound cake. It was quite delish. What they did was take a piece of very premium cream cheese based pound cake, literally grilled it, and voila, instant amazingness. There’s something about grilling up a piece of pound cake that truly transforms the soft and fluffy cake into a more packed and moist one with a nice crunchy caramelized shell. That something made me want her to make it herself.

So she did. All it took was some simple ingredients and a little improvising. She didn’t exactly have quick access to cream cheese based pound cake or a grill at the time, so check out what she did.

First some pound cake. Read the rest

I work with Wasat Studios, who from time to time records Islamic lectues and other interesting little videos. At the 2008 45th Annual ISNA Convention, we filmed a tiny short Ramadan Shoutout for AlMaghrib Institute. The video was supposed to be a short reminder sent out to all the students of AlMaghrib to give them a little bit of encouragement for the month of Ramadan.

How it all happened

At ISNA this past year, three AlMaghrib instructors were there invited to speak: Yasir Qadhi, Yaser Birjas, and the latest addition to their line up, Imam Suhaib Webb. With all three of these guys there, we decided, “hey, why not get them together and film a lil’ somethin somethin. Nothing long or formal, but like an informal little fun video.”

So we asked the two Yasirs after Maghrib salah on Saturday if they’d be down to shoot something after midnight when Imam Suhaib finishses a late night MYNA session, and they said they’ll see how things go. In all honesty, I personally didn’t think it was going to happen. They looked really tired, and trying to get Imam Suhaib to do something after his own midnight session, things were looking grim.

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Shopping

We bought gifts for our family members. Tons of different stores. What was really nice was “The Village“, a european looking old village inside downtown and tons and tons of shops. Lots of shops there.

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Things to do in Gatlinburg

We did a lot of things. Most of them cost money, except one. Sales tax is HIGH in the area, like 11%.

Aquarium of the Smokies: Awesome aquarium, better than the one I’ve been to in Chicago. It’s $22 a person.

Was skeptical if it was worth it at first.

Frog chillin’ session.

SubhanAllah, what colors, man!

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