Apologies to those who read this blog through the feed, it hasn’t looked good for some time. I tracked the culprit down to the podcasting plug in I was using and had to do some actual debugging and code updates. Pictures, and decent formatting should come through now.

I’m also working on a look and feel update.

We received Honorable Mention from the Brass Crescent Awards:

Thanks to everyone who voted for this blog! InshaAllah I will work harder to improve the quality of the content here and together, with Allah’s permission, we can make a difference for a few souls.

This blog is being interrupted for a special service message.

This blog contains a special secret, a ‘podcast’! If you have ITunes or an IPod w/ ITunes, or any other software that accepted podcasts, you can listen to the 20+ Audio files I offer from my podcast category. As I post new ones, you will receive them automatically into your mp3 player or computer.

To subscribe, just give the podcast software (i.e. Itunes) this url:

http://yursil.com/blog/?feed=rss2&cat=27

Instructions for Itunes:

You can subscribe to virtually any podcast in the known universe by dragging its URL into your podcast playlist, or by typing the URL into “Subscribe to Podcast” under the Advanced menu.

If you don’t have a MP3 player, you can always click on the PODCAST category to the right to hear all the great audio.

Tell all your Muslim friends that have IPod’s!

Normal service resumed….

I have updated the mission statement of my blog (in my mind), changed the looks, and applied a few new policies.

Purpose of the Blog:

The purpose of this blog is to present my views on everything that I care about. I use my real name in all I do, because I am writing on my behalf not a trademark or a ‘personae’. Although I have associations with many Islamic organizations and continue to volunteer and maintain good ties with them, nothing I say or do here represents their views in any way.

With regards to my Tariqa, this is my passion and my love. The lessons I learn influence what I write. When I will (and indeed I have and will) write something incorrect, it is from me and my weakness in learning properly as seeker and student.

I also desire to share the tradition of Sunni Islam by capturing audio, video, and photographs wherever I am. I will share those on this blog as often as possible.

This blog is going to tackle strong issues. I will also be heavily commenting on other peoples sites.

Looks:
I was a bit tired of the last look and found it extremely hard to read. This is much more clearer and still attractive. The looks will still be changing colors here and there but this will be the general theme for some time.

I threw my picture up there for a few reasons. One is to reflect that this is my personal blog, and nothing that I say or do officially represents the organizations and such that I love and cherish (so as they may not be tainted by my words when I go astray).

I also enjoy remembering the feeling I had when this picture was taken, Hyder had talked me into taking a trip up the mountain and I enjoyed it very much. I will find other pictures and rotate them but they will be pictures of meaning to me.

Links Policy:

My links were out of control in the last version. It was one of the reasons I went with a smaller font. I will make a separate page with all the blogs that I read and watch at some point.

However, I also had many links on my front page to Brothers and Sisters who never reciprocated the favor or have not updated in months. I therefore have removed their links. I am still monitoring and reading their blogs, but right now I can only afford the space to those who care enough to link back to this site.

I will kindly add those back who desire to be linked on my site, leave a comment and add a link and it ’shall be done’ (inshaAllah).

I have left those in which I have recently added.

Finally:

Things have been moved around but inshaAllah and with support I will make it even better yet.

The word about true traditional Islam has not spread far enough, and we are not going back into ‘whatever hole we came from’.

We are Islam, and we are for peace, tolerance, tradition, strength and righteousness.

We are lovers of the spiritual without watering down an ounce of the importance of Shariat and the legal aspects of Islam.

We are knowers of our past and carriers of the torch for the future.

Welcome to those who come and farwell to those who leave. Wassalam.

Updated the reader software at http://www.yursil.com/reader … You can read what I read.  Though I did wipe out the database as of today as part of the upgrade, so only entries from now going forward will show there.

Realized the site looks terrible in firefox. Will make the adjustment during the day, expect strangeness while I work on it.

 Bismimg2

Added a page to the right to discuss how to get the audio files as a Podcast.

Upgraded to Wordpress 2 as well as chose a new theme.  I will be adjusting it as well.  Hope you like.