Islamic Prayer Beads

Ice cream for the soul

Here it's possible not just to recharge yourself spiritually but you can replenish household supplies of saffron, perfumes and prayer beads. In fact, you can shop until late and pray all night if you wish -- Mashhad's shrine to Imam Reza is open 24 hours a day, every day.

Imam Reza (Ali ibn Musa al-Rida) was the eighth Shia imam. Iranian Shias believe there are 12 imams, or leaders, who are direct descendants of the Prophet Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law Ali (who to Shias is the first imam). It is this core belief that separates them from the Sunni Muslims who dispute the right of Ali's descendants to be Islam's leaders. Instead, Sunnis believe that the prophet's followers and friends were the rightful people to select his successor.

To them Ali is simply the fourth Islamic caliph or ruler. Incidentally, the 12th imam is also known to Shias as the absent or hidden imam, who will appear again in the days of judgment and resurrection. Imam Reza, a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, was born in about AD765 in Medina. A charismatic man, he became the eighth imam when he was 35.

Shia Muslims believe he was poisoned by a rival spiritual leader, Caliph Ma'mun, in about AD818. His burial site (known as Mashhad, or place of martyrdom) quickly became a pilgrimage site, and today it's the most important in Iran. He is the only one of the 12 imams to be buried in modern-day Iran. More than 14 million Shias from all over the world visit it every year. Along with the shrine itself, the vast precinct contains religious schools, mosques, libraries and museums.

Mashhad, with its pilgrims and glittering shrines, is not actually the start of my 8000km journey around Iran following the routes plied by the caravans of old, but it represents the beginning of my love for Iran and my first steps on its soil.

Its significance is intensified for me because it is also close to the place where I met Reza for the first time -- a meeting that has led to a lasting and deep friendship.

When Reza brought me here that first time, I'd been in Iran less than 12 hours and was floundering in a sea of the unfamiliar. My memories of that visit include being refused entry to the shrine precinct by a wizened elderly lady on duty at the women's security gate. "Muslim?" she inquired.

On my reply, she waved me imperiously out the way I'd come. I'd felt unaccountably inadequate and had to summon Reza back from the land of the believers to sort things out. Non-Muslims are allowed into the massive shrine precinct; it's the inside of the shrine itself that is forbidden.

iSubha: Islamic Prayer Beads Reinvented, there's an app for just ...

You can make money off Muslims by creating just about anything, as long as it’s halal of course.

All you iphone lovers that are trying to get your dhikr on, well let me just say there’s an app for just about anything, seriously.

haha! This is definitely technological innovation, but is it religious innovation?

It’s called the iSubha , one of my friends had it on his iphone and I was initially surprised but then I realized if we have automatic wudu washers then come on, welcome to the world.

Anyways, whatever your opinion is on this, here are some screen shots of the app. I’m still a blackberry crackberry user, so I still do dhikr the traditional way =).

Search the app store, not sure where it is exactly.

hmm…i do like the sound of this but im not a techy and also i have something better for you InshaAllah. the following are 3 sound ahadith referred to by Imaan Al-Shawkaani, which show that using the fingers to count are much better and rewarded by Allah rather than using the beads or other facets of counting dhikr InshaAllah. I’m not saying that it is haraam because it isn’t haraam but there is that which is better and we should strive to do what is better InshaAllah.

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