Al-Qalam Issue 2, 2010

Page 1

Al-Qalam

issue 2 | may 2010 | jumada al-awwal 1431

a publication by UMIS

“Let’s stop and reflect...”

INSIDE THIS ISSUE Time - Why do we take it for granted?

3

Why Hijab?

4

An Invitation to Adab

6

History - Know our Scholar

7

Colours

8

Islamic Banking & Finance

10



3

TIME -

Why do we take it for granted?

figure in our bank account. But do we feel the same way with regards to time? Do we do the best we can to make the most of our time? Do we do the best we can to prepare ourselves for the Hereafter? Do we keep track of our time to ensure that we do not miss out on our daily 5 prayers? Do we use the magine having a bank best of the time we have in search which credits us with $86,400 evof knowledge and wisdom? ery single day. It carries no balance from day to day, in which every night at 11.59pm, it deletes everything which is remaining in the bank account.What would you do if thats the case? Spend as much of the amount as we can of course!

ments. But sometimes, we become too overly obsessed and commited with the worldly issues that we act like as though we are going to live on this world forever.

I

Well, my dearest brothers and sisters of this blessed and perfect religion of Islam. Do you know that we actually do have such a bank? The only difference is that instead of crediting us with money every single day, it credits us with an even more precious thing - TIME. Every morning, it credits us with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever we have failed to invest to good purpose. With that in mind, honestly ask ourselves this question. How much of the 86,400 seconds in which we have invested for good purpose?

Clock is ticking, make the most of each day!

My dear brothers and sisters, do acknowledge and realise that we are already entering the end of time. If you were to do your own research, you’ll realise that we are already in the Dajjal era and it will be a matter of time, the Day Of Judgement arrives. Allah s.w.t knows best. But the signs are already spread out for us to see and remind ourselves each and everyday that time is If the 86,400 figure is to be a repshort. There should no longer be resentative of Singapore Dollars, we thoughts such as ‘Oh, I’ll start praywould be finding high and low for ing when I’m abit older.’, ‘There is ways and will to spend as much of still time for me to read the Quran the amount as we can.We will not be in the future.’ Yes, we are all tied to satisfied till we get rid of the 86,400 our own personal worldly commit-

Thus it is very crucial that we remind ourselves, and the people around us, about the importance of time. We are fortunate to be still given this Bank full of credits by Allah s.w.t when we wake up in the morning. But this bank will be taken away by God one day. So until that day comes, let us make the most of what we have. So that we will be among the righteous people, along with our beloved Prophet Muhammad s.a.w in the Hereafter, insyAllah. The clock is ticking, make the most of each day! By Harith spider_harith@hotmail.com




Invitation to ADAB I

spoke

to a colleague and friend recently and she commented on my writing style; the way I tend to ‘invite’ people to change their point of view or to think about things in a different manner. Alhumdilillah, a greater compliment I could not have a received. See, it got me thinking about invitations. The first time I encountered invitations as a social grace and formal mechanism was in Islam – not that this happened to me in an explicit way – but Muslims will often ‘invite’ non-Muslims to our faith.

Never before had I encountered such a formal mechanism that is so simple in its structure and so coordinately used by a people. And yet, despite being the height of good manners – inviting someone to Islam neither pushes them nor commands them – the mechanism is nonetheless a propagation method, anchored in a religious imperative. I think my initial encounters with the invitation to Islam had a profound subconscious effect on me. As the invitation is a social grace, a propagation method, the height of good manners and a religious imperative, it is no wonder that I have developed a fond attachment to a concept that is, in its essence, true Islamic Adab. It is with great displeasure then, that I wonder what is the Islamic imperative, the proper Adab, by which Muslims in By Euginia Flynn http://eugeniaflynn.wordpress.com genie_fly@yahoo.com.au

Originally published in ‘Native Matters’, ‘The Crescent Times’, 16th Issue, February 2010.

“… I invite you to the proper Adab of living on a stolen land…”

Australia can appropriately deal with the legacies of colonisation in this country. For me, the biggest invitation which has lacked since the day that Australia was invaded has been the invitation from Australia’s First Peoples, my people, to come in to our country and share in our land and wealth. As this invitation has never been extended, nor has there ever been a mere asking from the majority, Australia as it is today is a stolen wealth, a stolen land. Muslims in this country are no different to the rest in this: they have had no invitations extended to them, in general they have not asked to enter and yet every day Muslims enjoy the benefits of stolen wealth and land. Muslims in Australia, although being people of colour as well, enjoy the fruits of colonisation in what is now called Australia. As stated many times before by me, unless you are fighting for what is just and right for my people in this country, you continue to be complicit in the ongoing oppression of us. Put more simply, Muslims in Australia continue to lack the ultimate proper Adab. It is with all this in mind, that I invite you to think about another type of invitation – I invite you to the proper Adab of living on stolen land.


7

IBN SINA - Doctor of all Mankind By Monzur Ahmed (Monzur@bigfoot.com)

Abu Ali al-Hussain Ibn Abdal-

lah Ibn Sina was born in 980 C.E. at Afshana near Bukhara.The young Bu Ali received his early education in Bukhara, and by the age of ten had become well versed in the study of the Qur’an and various sciences. He started studying philosophy by reading various Greek, Muslim and other books on this subject and learnt logic and some other subjects from Abu Abdallah Natili, a famous philosopher of the time. While still young, he attained such a degree of expertise in medicine that his renown spread far and wide. At the age of 17, he cured Nooh Ibn Mansoor, the King of Bukhhara, of an illness in which all the wellknown physicians had not been able to. On his recovery, the King wished to reward him, but the young physician only desired permission to use his uniquely stocked library. On his father’s death, Bu Ali left Bukhara and travelled to Jurjan where Khawarizm Shah welcomed him. There, he met his famous contemporary Abu Raihan al-Biruni. Later he moved to Ray and then to Hamadan, where he wrote his famous book AlQanun fi al-Tibb. Here he treated Shams al-Daulah, the King of Hamadan, for severe colic. From Hamadan, he moved to Isphahan, where he completed many of his monumental writings. Nevertheless, he continued travelling and the excessive mental exertion as well as political turmoil spoilt his health. Finally, he returned to Hamadan where he died in 1037 C.E. He was the most famous physician, philosopher, encyclopaedist, mathematician and astronomer of his time. His major contribution to medical science was his famous book al-Qanun, known as the “Canon” in the West. The Qanun fi al-Tibb is an immense encyclopaedia of medicine extend-

ing over a million words. It surveyed the entire medical knowledge available from ancient and Muslim sources. Due to its systematic approach, “formal perfection as well as its intrinsic value, the Qanun superseded Razi’s Hawi, Ali Ibn Abbas’s Maliki, and even the works of Galen, and remained supreme for six centuries”. In addition to bringing together the then available knowledge, the book is rich with the author’s original contribution. These include such advances as recognition of the contagious nature of phthisis and tuberculosis; distribution of diseases by water and soil, and interaction between psychology and health. In addition to describing pharmacological methods, the book described 760 drugs and became the most authentic materia medica of the era. He was also the first to describe meningitis and made rich contributions to anatomy, gynaecology and child health. His philosophical encyclopaedia Kitab alShifa was a monumental work, embodying a vast field of knowledge from philosophy to science. He classified the entire field as follows: theoretical knowledge: physics, mathematics and metaphysics; and practical knowledge: ethics, economics and politics. His philosophy synthesises Aristotelian tradition, Neoplatonic influences and Muslim theology. Besides Shifa, his well-known treatises in philosophy are al-Najat and Isharat. Ibn Sina also contributed to mathematics, physics, music and other fields. He explained the “casting out of nines” and its application to the verification of squares and cubes. He made several astronomical observations, and devised a contrivance similar to the vernier, to increase the precision of instrumental readings. In physics, his contribution comprised

the study of different forms of energy, heat, light and mechanical, and such concepts as force, vacuum and infinity. He made the important observation that if the perception of light is due to the emission of some sort of particles by the luminous source, the speed of light must be finite. He propounded an interconnection between time and motion, and also made investigations on specific gravity and used an air thermometer. In the field of music, his contribution was an improvement over Farabi’s work and was far ahead of knowledge prevailing elsewhere on the subject. Doubling with the fourth and fifth was a ‘great’ step towards the harmonic system and doubling with the third seems to have also been allowed. Ibn Sina observed that in the series of consonances represented by (n + 1)/n, the ear is unable to distinguish them when n = 45. In the field of chemistry, he did not believe in the possibility of chemical transmutation because, in his opinion, the metals differed in a fundamental sense. These views were radically opposed to those prevailing at the time. His treatise on minerals was one of the “main” sources of geology of the Christian encyclopaedists of the thirteenth century.


colours I

have always been inter-

ested in colours. Yes, life would be terribly dull without them. But we have been tuned to perceive colours as the material object, instead of realising the mechanics of our colour perception and what we cannot see. Colour is a perception that arises from the responses of our visual systems to light in the environment. They are distinguished by the light’s wavelengths, and our brain processes this information to produce a visual display that we experience as colours. This means that colours only exist within the brain, it is light that is travelling from the object to our eyes. Visible light that we see is merely a small part of the full electromagnetic spectrum, which extends from cosmic rays at the highest energies down through the middle range (gamma rays, X- rays, the ultraviolet, the visible, the infrared, and radio waves) all the way to induction-heating and electricpower-transmission frequencies at the lowest energies. In simple words, our eyes and brain do not provide visual perception of the non-visible light from the sun.

However, some animals can de different than us. Here are some examples;

1. Bees The colours bees see are blue-green, blue, violet, and ultraviolet, with research showing our purple followed by our violet then our blue as their favourites. WE see Red

BEES see Black

Add in UV Uv purple

Orange

Yellow/green

Yellow

Yellow/green

Green

Green

Blue

Blue

Uv violet

Violet

Blue

Uv blue

Purple

Blue

White

Blue green

Black

Black

Uv purple

2. Dogs Instead of seeing the rainbow as violet, blue, blue-green, green, yellow, orange and red, dogs would see it as dark blue, light blue, grey, light yellow, darker yellow (sort of brown), and very dark grey. In other words, dogs see the colours of the world as basically yellow, blue and grey.

3. Birds Birds typically can see far better than humans can.Their colour perceptions are those of humans plus uv rays.

4. Deep sea fish Until recently it was believed that deepsea fish were unable to see red light, as these wavelengths are filtered out before reaching deep water. It turns out that a variety of these fish fluoresce in red, and this fluorescence is visible for short distances.

5. Snakes Certain species of snake have thermal pits in addition to their eyes, extending their spectral range into the infrared.

6. Bulls Interestingly, bulls are not able to distinguish colour and would see the bullfighter’s red cape in shades of grey. They follow its movements, but do not perceive it as red - the red colour is only useful in its effect on the human spectators.


9

A recent debate was initiated by

Liz Elliot, when Liz Elliot claimed that pink is not a colour, since it does not exist in the spectrum of visible light ie the rainbow. She goes on to explain that when red and violet light (longest and shortest wavelength) enters the eyes at the same time, our brain processes these two extremes by inventing a new colour halfway; which is pink. When people see new colours, they tend to ask, “Has someone invented a new colour?” Well, they have not, but they certainly have invented new materials that produce colours that people could not make before. Things like new paints, new inks, new kinds of televisions. However, when we experience new colours, we tend to think that they a r e invented. That is because colour is truly a perception that is unique to you and any new colour experiences could be considered “inventions”.

We even dream in colours! And why wouldn’t we? What we see in dreams

is believed to be stimulation of the visual areas of the brain from the brain itself rather than from our eyes. If those areas of the brain can help us perceive colour based on the signals from our eyes when we are awake, why shouldn’t they also be able to produce colour perceptions when stimulated by the brain? Now come to think of these, if different beings can see different and limited sets of colours their whole lives, then the colours we are not exactly there, right? And, if there are colours like pink, are totally invented by the brain itself, then, that colour does not exactly exist right? And, when we can even perceive colours when asleep and with our eyes close, then those colours don’t exactly exist right? In the midst of our varied ability to perceive different wavelengths, Allah SWT has stated in the al Qur’an, “No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision” (surah al An’am; 103), signalling how our Creator knows the differences in the visions of His creations.

by Fatimah Zahra gatokiperz@yahoo.com

No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision (surah al An’am; 103)


&

Islamic Banking

The

Islamic banking and finance (IBF) system is a small but

growing sector in the finance industry which is gaining popularity due to its ability to present an alternative banking system. Globalisation and the rising number of faithful Muslims has made it advantageous for the Australian finance market to tap into the IBF industry and gain the endorsement of the Australian Government, Islamic banking principles are important not only due to the number of international investments taking place in the Middle East, but also because of the large number of Islamic banks and corporate clients that the Australian financial and legal industry may interact with. In particular, it has been reported that the Islamic finance industry is worth US$1 trillion and although it is still relatively small compared to other banking industries, the Islamic banking and finance industry has growth rates of 10-15% in the past decade. Furthermore, steps are being taken towards setting up Islamic products in Australia with the Islamic Council of Victoria and the National Australia Bank offering Islamic financial products such as benevolent or no interest loan scheme (NILS). NILS is based on the concept of circular community credit. They are targeted at meeting the financial needs of people with low incomes who cannot access normal credit. Through this program, low income consumers are provided with access to funds so that they are able to purchase essential household items such as fridges, washing machines, or beds. NILS also enables

Finance Services

people to meet health or educational needs.This may include credit for dentures, computers or other essential educational needs. Loan amounts vary, but typically they are in the range of $800 to $1200 and repayments are made fortnightly over a period of 12-18 months on a no interest and fee basis. This article seeks to provide an overview of Islamic legal principles, the features of the Islamic commercial system and the nature and types of Islamic finance, as well as developments in Australia.

Islamic Legal Principles In order to understand Islamic banking, it is important to appreciate Islamic law (Shari’ah). Unlike the Western law, Shari’ah covers all aspects of a Muslim’s life from political government to the sale of real property,from hunting to the

etiquette of dining, to worship and prayer’. This means that all banking and finance transactions have to be in compliance with Islamic law. Shari’ah is derived from the Qur’an, the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and Islamic schools of law.

Islamic Commercial System Islamic law governing commercial transactions (mu’amalat) have the following major differences to the conventional commercial system. Firstly, Islamic finance is asset based as opposed to conventional finance which is debt based.This means that each transaction has to be tied to a ‘tangible, identifiable underlying asset’.According to Shari’ah law, one is allowed to purchase or sell items with payment deferred and the resultant debt is treated as ‘amount receivable’ by the creditor. This can be contrasted to a lender in conventional finance where the focus is on the debt arising from the transaction and the ongoing service of the debt for financial gain. Secondly and most importantly, all forms of interest (riba) are strictly forbidden according to the major schools of Islamic law.


11

Thirdly, Islamic banking prohibits uncertainty (gharar) and the terms and conditions of any risk flowing from transactions must be clearly understood by the parties to any transaction. This means that the sale of probable items with uncertain existence cannot form the subject of a contract under Shari’ah law. For example, this would include the sale of fish in sea, or unborn animals. Contemporary examples of such a prohibition include trading in futures and derivatives and purchasing insurance. Fourthly, it is also important that money should only be invested in industries that are acceptable to Islamic law. Investment in alcohol, pornographic, gambling and pork industries are strictly forbidden.

Islamic Methods of Financing Most Islamic scholars claim that the prohibition of interest is the reason for the alternative framework of banking and finance. This framework is reflected in three major forms of equity based profit loss sharing methods within Islam known as mudaraba (trust financing), musharaka (participating finance) and murabaha (cost plus trade financing). These three methods of financing are discussed below.

Mudaraba (Trust Financing) Mudaraba is a trust financing method in Islam where one partner provides the investment (rab-ul-maal) and the other partner invests this money in a commercial enterprise (mudarib). The profits are shared through a pre-determined ratio. A mudaraba transaction may consist of two or more parties comprising the investor (rab-ul-maal) who provides capital and develops a partnership with the working partner (mudarib) who contributes their skills and expertise. This investor usually provides capital to the working partner so that the skills and expertise are used to earn profit. The profits are shared according to a fixed ratio and the capital provider bears the losses. In practice, mudaraba financing is often limited in Islamic banking activities because it is based on good faith and banks are often reluctant to enter such contracts due to the risks involved.

Musharaka (Participating Finance) Musharaka literally means ‘sharing’ and is a form of joint enterprise through which the partners share their profit according to a pre-determined ratio. Musharaka is differ-

ent to mudaraba because it requires that losses are strictly shared according to the proportion of the respective contribution. This arrangement accommodates partners who wish to pool their financial resources in order to undertake a commercial transaction. A variation of musharaka, known as declining musharaka, has recently gained popularity and is often used to finance the purchase of a house. The declining musharaka is also known as musharaka mutanaqisah (diminishing partnership) and in Australia, it goes by the name of ijarah muntahiyah bittamlik. This transaction accommodates financial intermediaries who do not wish to involve the bank as a permanent partner in the venture and prefer liquidity in their investments. Therefore, in the diminishing musharaka venture, the bank’s share in equity is diminished annually through the partial return of capital. The bank’s periodic profits are based on its reduced equity shares and as the shares increase over time, the client eventually gains complete ownership of the asset.


Murabaha (Cost Plus Trade Financing) Murabaha is defined as a contract of sale in which a customer requests the Islamic bank to purchase goods from a supplier and resell them to the customer at the original purchase price plus expenses and a negotiated profit, on agreed terms. This financial structure is one of the most commonly used methods by Islamic Banks and financial institutions. In fact, 66% of Islamic transactions worldwide are conducted through the murabaha structure. Since the Qu’ran permits trade but forbids usury (which is lending money at an exorbitant rate) , murabaha sale is seen as a valid form of sale. According to Islamic law, the buying and selling of goods for a profit in the process of trade is permitted. Whilst it should be noted that some jurists classify the profit mark-up in a murabaha sale as ‘interest’, the majority of Islamic scholars argue that the profit mark-up is different to ‘interest’ because the purchase price (included expenses and profit) is known in advance to the parties involved. Furthermore, the following rules for murabaha need to be satisfied for the transaction to take place: • the subject of the transaction must exist at the time of the sale and identified to the buyer; • the seller must possess the subject matter at the time of sale and the sale must be instant, absolute and unconditional; • the subject matter should be a property having value; • the subject matter should be considered permissible by Islamic jurists and can not

include prohibited subject matters such as alcohol or illegal drugs; • the delivery of the commodity to the buyer and the price must be certain.

awareness of Islamic finance in Australia and to promote opportunities for Islamic finance in Australia.

A popular form of murabaha is known as bai bithaman ajil (BBA), which is a form of sale where the payment of price is deferred to a future date. It is one of the most popular Islamic financing products and has been approved by Islamic jurists worldwide. BBA involves the deferment of payment and whether the cost and mark-up price are known to the parties is irrelevant whereas traditional murabaha requires both parties to the transaction to know the cost and profit/ mark-up.

Developments in Australia The Australian Government is very keen to promote Islamic banking and finance in Australia, and thinks that Australia can play a greater role in this market segment. Later this year, the Assistant Federal Treasurer Nick Sherry will be travelling to Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE to promote Australia’s financial centre status. With the Middle East being an obvious major source of savings funds, sovereign wealth funds and Islamic finance, the Australian government is keen to be able to provide a safe, stable and Shari’ah compliant venue in which to invest.The Australian Government is currently considering the tax treatment of investments to ensure compliance with Shari’ah standards for investment flows into Australia.

Conclusion The global Islamic banking sector is gaining widespread recognition in the Western world. It is ironic that while some aspects of the Shari’ah are shunned by the non-Muslim community, when it comes to money and finance, entities like the Australian Government and the major Australian banks are falling over themselves to become Shari’ah compliant and Muslim friendly for overseas investment. This leads to the ‘elephant in the room question: all this is great for Muslims in the GCC and elsewhere around the world, but apart from the few products currently being offered, what else is being done to provide Shari’ah compliant services for Australian Muslims?

By Maria Bhatti & Hyder Gulam

In addition, in early 2010, the Australian Government released a seminal publication on ‘Islamic Finance’, which is available at the Austrade website. The purpose of this publication is to raise public BA(Islamic Studies)/LLB (Hon). Maria Bhatti is a LLM student in international commercial law at the University of Melbourne and the recent recipient of the National Australia Bank Scholarship in Islamic Banking 2009. Reference available upon request.

Hyder is a lawyer with Logie-Smith Lanyon Lawyers, Melbourne. Hyder practices mainly in the areas of Commercial & Corporate, Defence Procurement and Islamic Finance. He is a registered nurse, a qualified lawyer, an accredited mediator as well as a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing in Australia. He has post graduate qualifications in business/management, law and nursing.

**This article is for educational and general information purposes only and should not be relied on as (or in substitution for) legal, accounting, financial or other professional advice.


13

Well, this happened on...

One day, on Facebook, a friend

imaan

changed his status update to a question that struck me. It said: “Can books alone solve our problems in life?” Of course, there were many who immediately clicked on the “like” button, including myself, indicating that yes, books alone can solve our problems in life since they are indeed a source of knowledge. Nonetheless, acting upon such knowledge is also essential and quite another step from merely reading. Indeed, it is the implementation of what we read in books that is most important.

Thus, we need the scholar of Islam who have not only have mastered the Arabic language but also the holy scriptures. Then, we may explain the word Imaan by saying it involves truthfulness at the heart, that is, to utter the Truth through the lips and to practice it through actions through the guidance of the Quran and sunnah - the prophetic tradition. So, in short, imaan is not merely knowledge and belief in the heart and lips but also at the action. It is then incumbent upon us to practice and act upon what we read. Only through the unification of those elements can we be regarded as the successful ones.A book then, it seems, is not enough. To make the knowledge within the book come alive is crucial in order to perfect the meaning of the book itself.

I love Islam. I believe Islam is not just merely a series of organised theories but it is indeed something which can be always related to the real. As a believer who wants to draw closer before Him, to find where Wa Allahu ‘alam. Islam could answer the question is equally Allah knows the best. as important as to solve the problems in life.

The interesting point about Islam is that it regards the successful person as the one who has Imaan. In the Quran, it refers to alMukminun - from the word amana - which later gives birth to the popular terminology ‘Imaan.’ Imaan is hard to define when we replace it with a word in English. In fact, as said by my Arabic teacher here in Melbourne University, it is not possible to adequately encompass the total meaning of even one single word from the Quran into English. In this case, the usual English translation of the word Imaan i.e. ‘those who believe’ is not enough. by Za’im Yusoff zaimyusoff@gmail.com

I love Islam. I believe Islam is not just merely a series of organised theories but it is indeed something which can be always related to the real.


LOL! presents:

Muslim Mobile at Record Growth! NEW YORK – The world’s fastest-growing cell phone

provider aimed specifically to the Muslim population is now the second largest cell phone provider in the entire world. “This is the beginning of something extraordinary” said Naureen Shah, CEO of Muslim Mobile. “We are constantly getting so many people switching their services to Muslim Mobile that it’s hard to keep up.” Muslim Mobile launched a little over 14 years ago to improve the quality of cell phone services. “Before we felt people were using their cell phones in a lacklustre manner and the quality was terrible” said Shah. “It was as if their messages weren’t getting through”

The provider boasts clear call quality and neat packages like free call display and plenty of daytime talking minutes. It also has unlimited Muslim-to-Muslim talking minutes and an emergency Imam hotline. Pervez Akram, a 38-year old Pakistani Muslim Mobile user loves the emergency hotline feature. “Sometimes when I’m lonely I’ll call up the emergency Imam hotline and usually some Imam keeps me company. He tells me fiqh jokes. I love Imams.”

Other users enjoy a feature that many Muslims grew to love: the fact that it’s not being overheard or tapped by government employees. “I found that extremely annoying when I was with other cell phone companies” says Farhana Sheikh, a frequent cell phone user from the United Kingdom. “It’s not like I have anything to hide… I don’t. It’s just that one time a random guy who was tapping my phone line started to intrude on the conversation and offered tips when I was giving my friend some recipes for Halal Rice Krisipie squares. His tips were good but I found it annoying to hear his heavy breathing all the time.” Although Muslim Mobile continues to expand and now has a user base of over 1.4 million users, it still continues to get its share of criticism. Muhammad Nasruddin of Egypt doesn’t like some of the “hidden” disadvantages of the service. “What they don’t tell you in those fancy ads is that Muslim Mobile has one of the worst dropped call rates than any other cell phone network” said an unhappy Nasruddin. “They have this feature where if you say one swear word during the call it automatically disconnects” Nasruddin found this feature troublesome, as he is the number one pitcher on Egypt’s national baseball team and he has trouble pronouncing the name of his own position. “Okay, so I can’t pronounce the letter ‘P’. Big deal. I’m not swearing I swear.” Muslim Mobile also features free daytime minute swapping between users who backbite about one another. “I lost 300 free minutes last month because I couldn’t stop talking trash about this guy from my school” said an anonymous user. “And apparently he now has 300 additional minutes thanks to me! Ugh! I hate him so much LOL!” Muslim Mobile also has an anti-gossip alert where if gossip is being spread in a conversation it automatically starts beeping rapidly, deafening the people on the line.

The company might have some complainers but it was able to successfully rebound after a smear campaign by rival cell phone companies. Seven years ago, a small group of fanatical users of Muslim Mobile destroyed two major telecommunication towers of a rival company, causing widespread panic and backlash against Muslim Mobile. Rather than losing customers, Muslim Mobile actually increased its growth rate even after the heinous fanatical attacks on the towers. “We turned lemons into lemonade. Sweet, delicious lemonade.” says CEO Shah. “People need to stop talking smack about us,” she continues “because Muslim Mobile is here to stay for a very long time. The long distance package is great.” maniacmuslim.com


15


“O my Lord, all praises be to You as it should be due to Your Might and the Greatness of Your Power”


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.