Saturday, July 30, 2011

Writing Guidelines For Moderators/Authors

1)  All of the articles should begin with بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم to insya Allah, receive the reward and blessings from Allah by taking His name.  We should also, for that reason, end our article with Allah's invocation (eg. And Allah knows best, or All that is good is from Allah and that which is not, is from our weakness). 


2)  Always try to use the 'Jama' Mutakallim' (ie. we/us/ours) pronoun while writing the article to avoid demeaning and belittling the readers.  This also is a good practice to ensure that any form of pride would not enter the writer's heart while writing insya Allah.

3)  Use double spacing after full stops and close brackets to make the sentence more eligible.  This can be done by pressing the space tab twice after the full stop and close brackets.  Let's try to get used to this habit as it would give a more professional approach/feeling of the article to the readers insya Allah. 


4)  Please avoid controversial issues such as politics, ikhtilaaf of 'Ulamaa etc.  We want our readers to unite by means of our articles and not become angry, frustrated and disunited by reading our articles.  If anyone wants to know the legal ruling of a certain masalah, then guide the person by providing the correct reference which can be found on the site.  After all, 
من حسن إسلام المرء تركه ما لا يعنيه
"From the goodness of one's Islam is to leave what does not concern him." [At-Tirmidhi, 2317] 

5)   Our focus should be more on articles based on the mercy of Allah and His Messenger (sallallahu 'alaihi wasallam). Naturally, people get really drawn to such articles/bayans and they are the ones which have the most impact on people compared to those that relate to other matters (eg. Fiqh, Hukm).  We should also bear in mind that during the early years of prophethood, the revelation that was sent down focused on tawheed, inner and outer purification and what was to be expected in the Hereafter.  It was many many years later that Islamic law was revealed.  


6)  The articles should preferably be referenced wherever possible especially if it's an educational material.  One way of referencing is by providing the link of the website that we've taken the quote from, if it is online.  Otherwise, if we're using a book, quote the book title, author and page number.  Quranic verses and ahadeeth should be clearly referenced too. 


7)  For lighter articles such as jokes and poems care should be taken to not post jokes/poems that are degrading, racist, lewd and insulting.  Jokes such as the wife belittling the husband or husband insulting the wife and of similar nature like 'dumb blondes' should be avoided at all cost.  For one thing, we are Muslims and we do not need to stoop so low for jokes.  A simple joke like this 'My mother taught me logic:  Because I said so, that's why.' should be good enough. Remember, as Muslims, our purpose of life is not entertainment but the pleasure of Allah and His Messenger (sallallahu 'alaihi wasallam).  We do not see our Nabi (sallallahu 'alaihi wasallam) as one who was excessively engrossed in entertainment and found pleasure in entertainment.  So, we should emulate this trait of his (sallallahu 'alaihi wasallam).


8)  With regard to images, nasheeds and videos,  author should stick strictly to Shari'ah and avoid controversial ones. 

a) Any nasheeds which have instruments other than the duff will not be posted on the blog nor any videos depicting animated living objects.  
b) Moderators and authors are kindly requested to use non-living object pictures for profile images (if you want to use pictures) rather than that of living objects, even if it be an eye (ie. a woman in niqab but only her eye(s) can be seen). 


9)  Last but not least, make sincere doa to Allah that by means of our blog, people want to come closer to Allah, insya Allah.  Amin. 

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