Islam - The Identity

As-salamu Alaikum! (Peace!)
Thank you for visiting! I hope you enjoy your stay and make it back often.
This site was first started elsewhere in 1994. Its relocation here started on thanksgiving eve (Nov. 26, 1998 - Sha'baan 6, 1419 AH). The main theme of this site is to provide a simple starting point. You won't find an index of all Islam-related pages here, but you'll find a selection of sites that are both rich with resources and unlikely to disappear over night. May Allah reward all those who put the effort in the pages linked below and many other pages which are not linked here (you can reach them through the links below).
Please refer to Finding Islam/Muslim Resources if you are looking for an item and can't find it easily and quickly.

Web hosting for this site is provided by arabic2000.com - a good source for Arabic teaching software, Arabic html and other services.

General Articles (unless stated otherwise, these were written by the site maintainer)

What is Islam, anyway? (Islam on the back of a No. 3 envelope)
Towards a Better Understanding of Islam
Islam according to MS BookShelf
The Family Part of the Islamic system
Islam Vs *ism (Islam and other invented labels)
Welcome Ramadaan! (the month of fasting)

Qur'an, Hadith and Prayer Resources

Surat al-FatiHa (Ch.1) and the last three Suras (online pronunciation and free PC/Mac program) - on this site
Listen to the Qur'an in real audio (USA site and UK site, index by sura)
Search the Qur'an (English, German, Spanish, French, Dutch. Also includes a sura index - from MSA at Oregon State University)
Qur'an: another site (with index, introductions and search)
Sunnah and Hadith (includes full translation of Bukhari and partials of a few others. Also has search.)
Prayer times around the world (if your city is not in the list, you need to know the latitude and longitude - the site has the needed links)
Islamic Finder Use this resource to find local mosques and Islamic centers/organizations in your area as well as prayer times)

Other Resources (see Finding Islam/Muslim Resources if you can't find it)

Dr. Yusuf Qaradawi's pages (in both Arabic and English - an excellent site. Dr Qaradawi is the author of "Al-Halal wal-Haram fil Islam i.e. lawful and unlawful in Islam")
The Islam Page - has a great collection of resources arranged by topic, includes resources in different languages.
Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) (news, reports, magazine, alerts, resources, vendors etc)
Muslim Student Association of USA and Canada (conferences, networking, awareness, resources, local chapters, masjids etc ..)
Islamic Assembly of North America (conferences, media station, fatwa's etc ..)
Sound Vision (islamic books, software, videos, audio and more)
Islamic Information Network (Islamicity) (commerce, community, education, devotion, news, media and others)
Homepage of Dr. Abu Ameenah (Bilal Philips) (articles, info and publications)
www.jannah.org (a wealth of resources and links in a number of categories. Also has many resources for sisters)
The first Steps to Islam (for women) (a collection of resources)
Musalman.com (categorized index with search engine)

Finding Islam/Muslim Resources (I don't see what I am looking for - What shall I do?)
Well, the easiest and shortest way is to put a little effort and do an advanced search. There are a number of search engines and you can focus on the most popular ones.
Each search engine has its own tips and rules (look for links called tips, help or advanced next to the search box). Be sure to familiarize yourself with those and try to use more than one search engine.
Let's take an example:
Suppose you are looking for a Muslim name for your newborn. In fact, the links above will lead you there but which link and where? If you don't want to browse (or don't have time), then use a search engine. Try infoseek (www.infoseek.com) and search for "muslim names" (include the quotes to return only pages that have the exact phrase). Try it and see the results!
Infoseek also allows you to narrow your search by searching within the results. If the above search returns many pages, you can search within these for "female" to get pages with girls names ... you got the idea.
Infoseek is not the only place to try. There is AltaVista and Yahoo and many others.
There are cases in which your answer is not easy to find or you just want to get in touch with a human being for one reason or another. In this case, you can e-mail people who take care of muslim sites especially if they encourage visitors to send e-mail. Please keep in mind that people whom you e-mail may be out of town, busy, have too much e-mail to reply in time or the page you visited is outdated. Don't be discouraged if your e-mail is not answered in time - try another resource and please be specific in the subject of your message. Also, make sure you include your e-mail address especially if you use forms or your friend's machine!
May Allah help us and guide us all!

Last updated: April 1, 1999
site maintainer