Assalama Aliekum Ummah,

Wow it seems just like yesterday that it was the New Year and now we are in March already! Is it me or is time just flying?

So here are a couple of our first designs with March 2010 ‘London’ prayer timetable.  Alhamdulillah spring is now here and we hope to bring it in with a great new, bright & fresh collection, so stay tuned & feel free to make any requests & please share your comments JAK.

Business Workshop: New ways of promoting your business online
(3rd of April, 2010. London, UK)

Mashallah, after the success of the first workshop, due to the high demand we decided to repeat our training on “New Ways Of Promoting Your Business Online” for those who missed it last time, inshallah.

Location: London. Venue to be confirmed.
Time & Date: Saturday,  April 3, 2010
Duration: 2.5 hours

To book your place please go to our web site WWW.UMMAH-DESIGN.COM or call us on 0800 6 11 8 108.

The seats are limited,  so HURRY!!!

If you think some of your friends would benefit from this course, please feel free to forward this page to them too.

Jazakallahu Khayran!

Wassalamu alaykum

This practical workshop will teach you all you need to get up & running with Twitter and how it can be applied to businesses like yours, inshallah. Therefore if you have a laptop with wireless internet connection then we recommend you bring it with you so that you can follow our instructor step by step.

Formal details

• Duration: about 2.5 hours
• Power point presentation, paper hand-out, live demos, drinks and refreshments
• Language: English
• Address: at our office at 9 Glenavon Road, Birmingham, B14 5DD, West Midlands

What Else?

• Opportunity for Business Networking. Meet other company representatives and increase your contacts. (Do not forget to bring your business cards with you to exchange with others)
• Plenty of time for questions and answers. Ask any questions regarding the topic.
• Nice refreshments
• Coverage of your business in one of our blog posts after the event, with pictures, logo and link to your website.

Seats are limited! So book your place now or for more information please go to: http://ummah-design.com/4-3-twitter-for-business-workshop-birmingham-event.aspx.

Please note that we are hodling the same workshop in London on April 3, 2010. For more info click here.

Click here to see our other workshops & seminars

Wassalamu alaykum

This practical workshop will teach you all you need to get up & running with Twitter and how it can be applied to businesses like yours, inshallah. Therefore if you have a laptop with wireless internet connection then we recommend you bring it with you so that you can follow our instructor step by step.

Formal details

• Duration: about 2.5 hours
• Power point presentation, paper hand-out, live demos, drinks and refreshments
• Language: English
• Address: London. Venue to be confirmed.

What Else?

• Opportunity for Business Networking. Meet other company representatives and increase your contacts. (Do not forget to bring your business cards with you to exchange with others)
• Plenty of time for questions and answers. Ask any questions regarding the topic.
• Nice refreshments
• Coverage of your business in one of our blog posts after the event, with pictures, logo and link to your website.

Seats are limited! So book your place now or for more information please go to: http://ummah-design.com/4-4-twitter-for-business-workshop-london-event.aspx.

Please note that we are hodling the same workshop in Birmingham on March 27, 2010. For more info click here.

Click here to see our other workshops & seminars

Wassalamu alaykum

This is a continuation of our ‘ Fiqh of Business Transactions’ series, originally taught by Sheikh Tawfique Chowdhury in his Real Deal course held on  Birmingham last year.

In the first part of this compilation we went through a prelude of Business Regulations in the shariah. We began with ‘Pillars of a business transactions’ and now we would like to continue on from where we left off Inshallah by looking into ‘The goals & purposes of shariah in Business transactions’ the second of the 10 matters mentioned in part 1 of this series.

The 3 main goals:

1. All business is permissible.

This is from the most important goals. The Shariah permits most contracts and only prohibits those few that fulfil certain conditions. Therefore every new contract is permissible except those that contain features or conditions in it that make it impermissible.

2. Prevention from oppression.

Allah has not decreed any oppression in His legislation, nor does He want us  to oppress each other, whether it is by mutual consent or coercion. (for example, the prohibition of selling that which is uncertain in its quality or quantity.)

3. Prevention of conflicts and disputes

Allah wishes to remove any matter that may cause us to have a dispute. (for example the prohibition of proposing to a sister for marriage, over the proposal of your brother.)

How does the Shariah legislate in a business?

It does so by either one of two ways:

1. By prohibiting the transaction
2. By allowing the transaction with certain conditions or within certain limits.

Many a times, a contract may have some sort of oppression in it, or may generally lead to conflicts and disputes, however it is still allowed due to the greater benefit that the Shariah perceives in allowing it.

Inshallah this will give us something to reflect on until the next post.

Wassalamu alaykum.

Our team today celebrates the launch of another site, we designed, developed & currently also hosting the official site of Jamatia Islamic Centre, (JIC) which is situated here, in the heart of Birmingham.

JIC was first founded in the late 1970’s, it’s gone through several phases of development eventually progressing to one of many iconic buildings known to the local Muslim Community. Despite this remarkable progress Mashallah, the JIC is still striving to grow as a Centre of excellence & Islamic Studies, offering vital services & catering for the religious, social & spiritual needs of Muslims living in the west.

And what better way of doing this than with their first official website with built in CMS where they are able to regularly upload and announce latest news & events, upcoming courses & talks. It’s an ideal platform of communication to their growing community and we wish them all the best with it inshallah.

Jamatia Islamic Centre, Birmingham

Please visit the website at www.jamatia-centre.org & share your comments with us.

Wassalamu alaykum.

Assalam Aleikum Ummah,

Ummah-Design.Com Team would like to present you with the updated wallpapers for February 2010, following on our winter collection. This time suitable to fit 1280/720px screen, our apologies for those who missed out last time because of size difference. (Although we managed to still make use of the side space for our icons ;- ))

We have added two additional new designs and hope will be more attractive for our younger brothers and sisters. And as usual, with and without timetables to suit your preference inshallah.

So enjoy & please don’t forget to leave your comments inshallah.

Wassalamu alaykum.

We are delighted to announce that the workshop we organised last week (full details are here) went very well. Everybody who participated in the workshop left very satisfied alhamdulillah.  It’s been such a wonderful experience to meet different Muslim business representatives, share their thoughts and network with them, mashallah.

The following Muslim businesses have participated in our workshop held on Saturday, 30th of January:

• Jobs Middle East

• The Islamic Establishment

• The Educational Hajj & Umrah Ltd

• Birmingham Central Mosque

• Al Hijrah Library

• Faith Old Coins

• Alhambra Networks

• Lightimage Photography Gallery

• Kreative Designer

• Al-Firdous Publications

• Green Globe

• Ummah Vouchers (Guest Speaker)

Our appologies for those who wanted to come for Saturday session but because of the space limitations could not book themselves in. Inshallah, we will be repeating the same course this month so please keep checking our website inshallah :- ).  To guarantee your place please send us your details to workshop{at}ummah-design.com and we will add you to our waiting list IA.

Here are some pictures from the workshop:

We will post the video from the workshop as soon as we get it ready IA. So stay tuned. :- )

Please let us know if you want to particiupate in our next training workshop inshallah.  Any comments, suggestions or feedback -  please let us know.

Wassalamu alaykum.

Assalamu Aleikum Ummah,

Bismillah & Alhamdulillah, we notice now the increase of Muslim Bloggers around the globe mashallah, and thanks to the websites like www.ijtema.net the team behind the Muslim Bloggers Directory as well as Topmuslimblogs.com we can now easily find any Muslim blog at any time anywhere around the world inshallah!

If there’s anything that hasn’t been showcased very often it’s definitely good Muslim Blog Designs! So when our team come across these directories it inspired us to provide our readers with a showcase of just that!

Below we present 15 beautifully creative & unique Muslim blog designs. The showcase features many individual and different designs from Muslim grunge to smart corporate ones. We hope this varied collection will contain at least some elements of inspiration for everybody’s liking inshallah, and if you don’t already have a blog this post should hopefully give you that push to go get one.

We would like to thank ijtema.net, Topmuslimblogs.net & all the featured bloggers, designers & artists featured in this showcase. May Allah (SWT) reward you all and help you achieve all your goals inshallah.

Style Islam’s Blog

We open our showcase with Style Islam’s blog biithnillah. They are a team of artists and designers implementing their work on clothing & various products. Their website/blog is a platform from where they display & sell their work. Styleislam create their own Islamic logos, icons and other design work. Their work is a fusion of eastern and western styles, which we assume is influenced by their background.

This is our team’s favourite, we love the simple user friendly  layout that works really well with their chosen colour scheme & islamified grungy background. Notice even their banners & cute twitter bird is ‘STYLE ISLAMIFIED’ and coordinating with their unique Muslim grunge theme. So as you can see, their work & creativity is definitely the highlight of it all, full of mind blowing, fresh & modern Islamic art… words cannot do justice to these guys, this site is a MUST see & speaks for itself.

StyleIslam's Blog - http://blog.styleislam.com

Ummah Film’s Blog

I haven’t heard or met anybody who hasn’t heard of the very popular Ummah Films starring the hilarious & much loved Baba Ali, but for the exception of that one or two that haven’t, they are a Muslim film company that strive to provide Halaal (Islamically permissible) entertainment to Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

The simple Jean textured logo together with the grungy torn paper effect revealing the coloured & more prominent Ummah Films text underneath, definitely adds the excitement to the simple clean cut background, not making it too busy or cluttered but instead very cleverly giving character to & enhancing the more important info.

Ummah Films Blog

MuslimMatters Blog

Muslimmatters.org began in 2007 as a collaboration between various Bloggers and Shuyookh in order to bring attention to issues faced by Muslims, especially in the West. They have more of a co-operate theme going, simple, clean and classically stylish. The blues work really well with their yellow logo & together with its outstandingly benefiting context, it’s definitely a blog to be bookmarked.

Muslim Matters Blog - http://www.muslimmatters.org

Young Muslims UK Blog

The Young Muslims UK, a fantastic idea of a site, our daughters are part of this youth club and enjoy every week of packed entertainment & socialising with fellow Muslim young ladies like themselves. It’s fun, Islamic & educationalMashallah, and their site communicates just that. When aiming a site towards the youth it’s crucial to make it attractive to their eye, as well as ours and Alhamdulillah we can see that The Young Muslims UK have successfully achieved that with this young, grungy but smart theme. The great pictures of group outings implemented on the header & banners fused with the retro style circles & swirls make it so alive and full of energy, it leaves any Muslim teenager wanting to be part of it!

Young Muslims UK - http://www.ymuk.net

Muhabbat ul Deen Blog

Muhabbat ul Deen is a personal blog where Hamza Jennings (the author) expresses his opinions & thoughts about latest events etc. Not only does this blog have a great original appeal to it but it’s also jam packed with the most amazing collection of Islamic literature, books & audios you can read, listen, watch or download.

There’s  no confusion as to why this blog is so popular, the knowledge compiled in it is like a soft light shining through your window in the morning. Amazingly enough we see a reflection of this when turning our attention to the header to find the colour green subtly  emerging  from the ivy against the black & white background.

Muhabbat ul Deen: http://www.hamzajennings.com

Mujahideen Ryder (MR) Blog

This must be the most talked about Muslim blog at the moment, its managed to attract so much attention from Muslims all over the world Mashallah, especially since our famous MR’s Blog recently announced the shocking news of his end! Could this be true? Devastating news to everyone and anyone who benefited immensely from the extraordinary random but highly benefiting & interesting blog posts this young Guyanese American brother had to offer. But you know what they say, once a blogger always a blogger. Hopefully he won’t be able to resist.

Mujahideen Ryder (MR) Blog - http://www.mujahideenryder.net

Halim Naeem’s Blog

Well this is definitely an original blog. I’ve never come across anything similar and much needed Mashallah, here Haleem Naeem highlights some interesting & very benefiting points on Muslim Masculinity and Manhood.

“This website was made a support for males on their journey to becoming men and for men to share the issues and concerns with maintaining Manhood.” Halim Naeem.

The design itself is just as distinctive as the context & very clearly represents the whole concept of the site.

Halim Naeem' Blog - http://halimnaeem.com

Muslim Mums Blog

Muslim Mums has a clean conservative look, light & fresh, really well laid out & user friendly blog. The aim  of this site is to provide readers with information on how to be a better person, better parent,  better Muslim,  and to assure you that there are people out there who can help you through those endless crying sessions, sleepless nights and the emotional roller-coaster that life is.

Muslim Mums - http://www.muslimmums.co.za

Emo Hijabi Blog

This is also another personal blog, Emo Hijabi is part of the Muslimness team (Muslimness.com) I come across her blog while browsing through their site. I’m not too familiar with the content but I adored the very imaginative & colourful theme she has going on giving out a peaceful calm, an additional expression of emotion alongside her Islamic poetry (which is great by the way), check it out!

Emo Hijabi - http://emohijabi.blogspot.com

The Submission Blog

I come by this one through TopMuslimBlogs.com. It’s the personal blog of brother AbdulBasith from India. He created this blog to spread the truthfulness of Islam Mashallah. The design has a formal flare to it that represents the seriousness of the information he uploads  rather well, but it’s simple theme & layout is fresh as well as welcoming.

The Submission - http://thesubmission.wordpress.com

Islam Crunch Blog

IslamCrunch.com was developed to showcase businesses, organizations and projects that involve Muslims. The team there have been involved with a variety of projects in the Muslim community and so amassed a large network. Through this network, they receive a continuous flow of information about new projects, so they decided to deliver this information and content in a centralized location. We love their logo Mashallah, it goes really well with their professional look.

Islam Crunch Blog - http://www.islamcrunch.com

Chill Yo Islam Yo Blog

This is a personal site of our young Brooklyn brother Saad aiming to give dawah to our youth. Saad empowers as well as amuses our young Muslim Brothers & Sisters through his great compilation of beneficial & very entertaining blog posts Mashallah. His cool innovative logo in addition to the whole theme he has going on, reflects his chosen name really well, “Chill Yo Islam Yo”. The clear user-friendly layout, chilled out colour scheme of blue & white along with his cute twitter bird enjoying a comfy cupa in the corner brings together a really refreshing, relaxed & welcoming atmosphere. Yet another Muslim blog well worth visiting.

Chill Yo Islam Yo - http://www.chillyoislamyo.com

The Muslim Bloger Blog

The Muslim Blogger.com is a blog that gives tips to help Muslim bloggers get more traffic, become better writers, and make money.The mastermind behind it all is brother Karim Baz that has been involved in blogging for some time now.  He’s launched multiple blogs in the past covering different topics & the more he blogged, the more research he did, the more he realized that he really wanted to blog about blogging. A smooth, clean cut & professional design with clear navigation & user friendly layout.

The Muslim Blogger - http://www.themuslimblogger.com

The following two are personal blogs & some good examples of how you can personalize templates.  All fastidiously girly blogs with youthful & Islamic entertaining content.

Modern Muslim Woman Blog

The Tales of a Modern Muslimah, thoughts on Islam, race, gender and more from a young Muslimah living in the Wild West.

Modern Muslim Woman's Blog - http://modernmuslimwoman.com/

Holy Crackers Blog

And last but not least – Holy Crackers Blog.

Holy Cackers Blog - http://holy-crackers.blogspot.com

So what do you think? Which one is your favorite? Or maybe you know of some that we haven’t included?

Please feel free to post your comments & share your views or any additional links Inshallah. JAK.

Wassalamu alaykum.

At The Course

A while back we mentioned that a member of our Team attended a 2 day course  called ‘The Real Deal’ focusing on ‘The Fiqh of Business Transactions’ taught by Sheikh Tawfique Chowdhury. We would like to carry on sharing with you the notes we took during this fantastic eye opening course and we continue the  series with the “Fiqh of Business Transactions In Islam”, inshallah.

The study of business regulations in the Shariah

A prelude to the study of the regulations regarding business entails the study of the following ten matters:

1. Pillars of a business transaction.
2. The goals and purposes of Shariah in business transactions.
3. Commodities and its types.
4. Trading competence.
5. Conditions of business transactions.
6. Conditions in business transactions.
7. Choice in contracts.
8. Contracts and its types.
9. Defects in contracts.
10. Profit and what is permissible from it.

Pillars of business

There are 3 main pillars;

1. The buyer
2. The seller
3. The commodity and its exchange

All of the following forms of exchange are permissible in Islam

• The buyer and seller are physically present and agree verbally to the contract.
• Silent transaction: where the money and the product change hands without verbal agreement. Such a contract is permissible according to the majority of the scholars of Islam.
• Modern methods of transaction: via the internet, phone, SMS, fax, telex, TV etc… take the ruling of the non-verbal silent transaction in permissibility

Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah says:
“it is not obligatory upon people to stick to only certain terminologies for the purpose of contracts. It is not impermissible for them to make a contract with terminologies that others use as long as the terminologies that are used pertain to their intended meaning – even if certain phrases are preferred over others.” [AlQawaid an-Nooraniyyah Al-Fiqiyyah (2/291)]

To be continued inshallah….

Wassalamu alaykum