For me the weeks and days leading to Ramadan are filled with hope, enthusiasm and determination. I look forward to the days and nights of tranquillity and a sense of unity among the ummah, worldwide.  I long for the shayateen to be locked up so I can begin my soul searching and be steadfast in my worship. Just the thought of having the chance to improve myself and gain both reward and forgiveness seems to relieve my heart and make me happy.

Amid all this positivity I can forget that Ramadan is not a magic pill. It’s not an overnight (or over 30 nights) cure for all my sins and negative personality traits. Nor does it necessarily mean that I will be able to continue the same level of worship throughout the month or after it.

Salaam,

Tune inevery night at 12:30am to the Let's Talk Show on Radion Ramadan Oldham on 87.9FM or listen live at http://www.radiomac.org.

Tonight's show: What is Islam?
Guest: Shaykh Bilal Brown

Saturday: Everything you need to know about Ramadan
Guest:Shaykh Haroon Hanif

Sunday: Zakat Q & A
Guest: Shaykh Haroon Hanif.

Monday: Where should we pay zakaah?
Guest: Brother Naseem

Tuesday: Islamic Education
Guest: Brother Qari Bilal & Brother Safi

Hello there reader and Ramadhan Mubarak!

A few weeks ago, I gave a talk to approximately 100 people at the institute where I study. I spoke about the importance and reward of salah and the consquences for not performing salah. Often this is a topic we think we know so much about and it can get a bit yawn-worthy because we've heard it all before. 

I wanted to give my audience something to take back with them and something which they could adopt and put into practice. I gave them some tips on how to overcome laziness towards salah, how we can prepare ourselves for salah and how we can enhance our concentration in salah. I thought it would be worth sharing with you too. 

Well, this news is surprising.

Apparently eating up to TWO bars of chocolate a day reduces your risk of heart disease and stroke.

So all of you that have been given dire medical predictions, repeat after me: omnomnomnomnomnomnomnom.

It will air live on Radio Ramadan in Oldham and maybe also the internet.

Tune in at 12:30am during Ramadan, listen in, call in and take part.

We are now at the starts of a leadership contest for the Labour party following the election defeat and Ed Miliband's resignation.

Today the nomination stage ended.

Unfortunately the biggest lesson from the election defeat has not been learnt: policies don't matter, image does.

If people had focused on the Conservtive party's policies, they wouldnt have done as well - they had massive policy gaps and a £12 billion black hole that will hit the poorest hardest.

However David Cameron was more photogenic.

None of the new Labout candidates are. Chuka Ummuna was, but he has already withdrawn.

Recently Asghar Bukhari of MPACUK posted online that he had lost a shoe from him home. The twist was that he thought it was some sort of intimidation campaign by zionists who wanted to show that they could get to him,

The twittersphere exploded with ridicule from The Quilliam Foundation's Majid Nawaz who started a twitter hashtag "#MossadStoleMyShoe" to other zionists who found it easy to capitalise on this conspiracy theory.

Asghar Bukhari then followed this all up with his response where he stuck to his guns, stated that other activists have also suffered such things and even a former US senator who was pro Palestine documented such behaviour.

Naturally this has just increased the ridicule, exposing a level of paranoia that seems unreal.

Maybe it is just me and I live a sheltered lifestyle, but all of a sudden, there seem to be articles about people leaving Islam and their "courage" that are doing the rounds in mainstream media.

A lot of Muslims will rather ignore this issue, but if it blows up in our face, we will all suffer.

">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeXKzLH8b80]

I've just heard on Noor TV that after a few meetings, some scholars have decided that in the UK it is best to allocate a specific amount of time for Maghrib and Fajr:

Maghrib time lasts an hour from sunset

Fajr time lasts 1 hour and 40 minutes before sunrise.

It is interesting and I wonder which scholars participated in this and if they and others will be going along with it.