Warning, without the necessary plug-in, your view below may be only a 2-D map. And you might have to zoom in yourself to see all the simulated 3-D beauty of the Haram. But believe me, it is more fun than staring at television.

View Larger Map

Yes, in the time it took this article to be published, I could have gone there and back in a (fast) boat, and maybe the whole world has discovered this neat plug-in already. Alhamdulillah, alaa kulli haal. It's still cool to me: I flew to Makkah without leaving my chair! And did I mention virtual tawaf? And no line to get up close to the virtual black stone? And zooming in so far (or too far) that you can see the virtual inside of the Kaaba?

Okay, what's a trip to Makkah without a trip to Madinah?

View Larger Map

And while we are at it…

View Larger Map

As for me, the labels on that third map would look better in Arabic.

A few decades ago, the thought of recording a local khutbah, talk, or lecture was unheard of in the Muslim world. Recording Islamic media was not only difficult and rare, it usually required very organized efforts to record and distribute Islamic talks, usually in the form of audio cassettes (and later CDs) that needed to be copied and almost always sold.

Fast forward to today in the age where high speed internet is readily available even on mobile phones and we find that recording an Islamic talk is not only much more common, it's a walk in the park to pull off. All one really needs is a small handheld recorder, and voila! Instant digital Islamic audio ready for benefit for yourself or the community at large.

But as the number of people recording Islamic talks continues to grow, many Muslims are finding themselves with questions on the best ways to do so. After running into faulty recording devices, issues with audio editing and cleaning, or just confusion on the best recording methods, the need for a reference guide on how to record Islamic talks is needed.

So inshaAllah the goal of this article is to act as a tutorial on how to record Islamic talks. By going over the logistical, hardware, and software & editing aspects to audio recording with an Islamic flavor in mind, MuslimMatters.org wishes to provide a one stop introductory guide for all Muslims wishing to record Islamic talks in order to help you along your way.

Logistical Tips

Before you begin recording away, there are some preliminary logistical concerns you should take some time to figure out.

Get permission

Make sure you have permission to record your speaker. Certain organizations, masjids, or speakers may have some rules regarding recordings, and it's best to get an understanding of them before you move forward. For example, some speakers do not allow any recordings of themselves at all (due to legal concerns, perhaps) while some allow it but simply request that they not be posted on the internet. Other speakers, however, are not only totally down with recordings, but even ask anyone who records them and send the material to them for posting on their own websites. Finding out recording preferences such as these before you record can be crucial in recording altogether.

Inform the speaker

You may need to inform the speaker that you will be recording their talk. Certain speakers appreciate knowing this ahead of time. This helps the speaker not only cater their delivery to audiences listening via recording, they appreciate being told to mentally prepare themselves to deliver as good a speech as possible for the purpose of spreading out via recordings. Additionally, this will set up a reminder to the speaker to repeat Q&A questions from the audiences for listeners of the recording to fully benefit from the questions as if they were in the audience.

Double-check your gear

Always make it a point to double-check if all your gear is all set for recording. Be it properly charged batteries, adequate recording space on the recorder, or even to remember if you brought your favorite clip-on mic, check to see if you are good to go before heading out to record. If your gear is new or this is your first time recording altogether, perform a test record to see if everything is working okay. Gain assurance in the readiness of your equipment, and you will find your recording to be smooth and sound.

Hardware

Depending on your price, target audiences, and personal preferences, there are many different types of recorders out there for you. Here's a few broken down into three major groups.

MP3 Players with a built-in recorder – $20 to $50

Some MP3 Player makers produce models with an innate ability to double as a voice recorder. This has been one of the biggest reasons why consumers go for these type of models over Apple's iPod, as it has always lacked an innate ability to record any audio, and almost always is cheaper in price.

What's Hot: The convenience of having an MP3 player and a recording device is what sells here. These types of players can not only handle files and MP3 playing great, and may even support video, but also have built-in internal microphones ready for recording right out of the box. What's more, some of the recorders can record at pretty high bitrates, meaning the quality of the recordings turns out pretty nice. The all-in-one package appeal is what makes it for these.

What's Not: Not all of these support external mics if you want to clip one onto the speaker, and additionally, suffer from poor battery life because of their use of AA or AAA batteries. Since the primary functionality of these units is for MP3 playing, the product and its hardware won't be as dedicated to recording as some may want.

The Verdict: Great for beginners and users wanting to make basic recordings who don't need the greatest quality or all the fancy bells and whistles and want a solid MP3 player with it. Recommended for beginners and easy personal recording.

Personal Digital Voice Recorder – $50 to $100

Here's where pocket voice recording all started, with these types of personal recorders made by Olympus or Sony. Olympus originally came out with the microcassette back in the late 60s. Since then, Olympus has always had a name for audio “dictation,” or the act of recording a speech and even today, in the digital world, Olympus still maintains an image as a standard for recording with it's digital voice recorders. Sony also offers some nice models, as well.

What's Hot: The internal mics these things use are really great at picking up speeches, especially from loudspeakers. These things are made to record voices, often equipping stereo microphones and almost always offering a port for external mics with high quality bitrate recording. Some of them even have two different modes of recording you can switch between: placing the recorder close up to the speaker style or recording in a large hall with loudspeakers farther away from the speaker. Additionally, I have found them to have great battery life, even when running on AAAs.

What's Not: The biggest downside to Olympus digital devices is that they record only in either DSS format, the Digital Speech Standard, a format developed by Olympus specifically for recording speech, or in WMA. Since most people want to end up with MP3 for sharing, this can be tricky to work with, although some Sony models can record in MP3. Also, it's rare to find one of these with a rechargeable battery, so while they tend to last long, you still have to eventually replace them.

The Verdict: Personal voice recorders are definitely a great option if you want to step up to a more serious level of audio recording, but best to get one that does MP3 out of the box. Ideal for recording series of lectures or classes.

Professional Quality Digital Recorder – $100 to $400

For serious audiophiles only. These babies pump out the best audio quality one can possibly get for the buck. Seriously, no joke, even with the amount you'd have to pay for one of these. Personally, I really like the MicroTrack II (pictured), while IbnAbeeOmar's weapon of choice is the Zoom H4 Handy Recorder which he used to record the Yasir Qadhi interview on Beards. Also very popular is the Edirol R-09HR.

What's Hot: The quality on professional recorders is simply unbeatable. I've used one a couple times and with the right combination of a microphone, the results were like that of a CD quality recording. Super crisp sound, minimal background noise picked up, and loads of options and inputs to mess around with. I recorded a Qari reciting Surah Qaf and when I listened to it I thought I was listening to Afasy from a purchased CD! Also, here is where you finally get models with built-in lithium ion batteries that you can plug in to charge more frequently. By far the cream of the crop.

What's Not: Not all of these have built-in mics. That means you have to use an external mic all the time. On top of that, some of these models are meant for being plugged in from an audio mixer, meaning they don't have what's called phantom power. In other words, depending on the model you get, you may have issues finding the right type of microphone. But that's all part of the fun in going “prosumer.”

The Verdict: There's a reason why you'll see the serious Muslims who are actively recording using these at events and conferences. Because they're amazing. If you're going pro to sell CDs, you simply cannot settle for less than one of these.

Recording Methods

One of the most common questions I get asked in regards to Islamic recordings is, “hey bro, how can I boost the volume of the Shaykh I recorded?” About 99% of the time, the answer lies in the method by which one recorded the lecture in the first place, where one can make or break the quality of a recording from poor to outstanding.

Understanding Microphones & Human Ears

Before anything else, we need to understand that the human hearing system is by far the best microphone you will ever come across. This is the case not only because it's better than any microphone you'll ever come across, but that's what we use as a frame of reference, and for our purposes what we will judge microphones on. In other words, the microphone was made to act like the human ear.

Since Allah (SWT) gave us an amazing sound reception system in our ears, we need to realize that just because we ourselves can hear the lecture properly from the farthest end of the room, doesn't mean the microphone on your recorder can. You simply can't compare microphones to the human ear, and that's why it's important to know the differences between different recording methods and which one is best for you.

On Table vs. On The Floor Methods – A Field Test (by ibnabeeomar)

There are two common methods to record using recorders with internal mics. One is placing the recorder near or close to the speaker, such as on a table at which they're sitting, while the other is on the floor further away from the speaker, like during a khutbah where you may be a few rows back. We conducted a field test of the two methods to show the difference between the two, and also used three different types of recorders to display their audio quality.

MP3 Player w/ Recorder – Samsung YP-T9JQB 2 GB Digital Multimedia Player

Personal Digital Recorder – Olympus WS-300M 256 MB Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player

Professional Digital Recorder – Zoom H4 Handy Recorder

We performed the tests in a typical masjid setting, first placing the recorder on the table, and then on the floor, with the three recorders were running simultaneously. They were on a table while the Arabic text of the hadith was read, and later brought down to the floor during the English portion.

Pay careful attention to how much background noise is picked up. See how it sounds when someone is coughing in the background, when papers are moving around, or people are walking around in the back. Try to turn up your speakers as much as possible and try to listen to all the sounds in the recording except the actual voice, and see the quality that comes in from each type of recorder.

• Samsung (on table):  [audio http://muslimmatters.org/audio/rtest/Samsung(ontable).mp3]
• Olympus (on table):   [audio http://muslimmatters.org/audio/rtest/Olympus(ontable).mp3]
• Zoom (on table):         [audio http://muslimmatters.org/audio/rtest/Zoom(ontable).mp3]

Now for what is closer to a 'khutbah' setting – recording on the floor near the speaker.

• Samsung (on floor):   [audio http://muslimmatters.org/audio/rtest/Samsung(onfloor).mp3]
• Olympus (on floor):    [audio http://muslimmatters.org/audio/rtest/Olympus(onfloor).mp3]
• Zoom (on floor):          [audio http://muslimmatters.org/audio/rtest/Zoom(onfloor).mp3]

The up-close table method is much more audible and clearer, while the floor method sounds more muffled and difficult to distinguish. It literally sounds as if one is closer and the other is further, and this serves to show how microphones work versus human ears.

Also, notice that while Samsung MP3 player gets the job done, it suffers from lots of white noise (background noise). The Olympus' recording quality is evidently much better than that of the Samsung's, although, with a little bit of white noise still audible. The Zoom takes the cake and records with the crispest, richest sound, whether on the table or on the floor, making the differences between the models very clear.

Direct Microphone Method

Nothing will beat having your speaker talk directly into a microphone, either by a lapel mic clipped directly onto him, or a microphone which he can speak into. Like it was mentioned in terms of nearness, using a direct mic means your speaker's voice will be as close to the mic as possible, and since such mics are made to pick up voice that close, you'll get the best quality recording.

Just think about it. The microphone is super close to the speaker, and the volume is adjusted so that even though it's close, the speaker won't be too loud. That means any other noises in the room take a seat compared to your speakers, and at a much lower volume. This makes the speaker's voice clear, background noises minimal, and provides a listening experience that sounds the best.

Here's an example of the difference between a direct mic versus a far mic. I have two tracks of the same talk by Yasir Qadhi, Journey of Worship, which I recorded for Wasat Studios at ISNA 2006. One is from an internal mic on the Panasonic DVX-100 camera I used to record the lecture, while the other is the mic he is speaking directly into recorded onto a professional recorder by IlmQuest. Here's the same clip but with two different recorders.

• Internal mic: [audio http://muslimmatters.org/audio/jow_comparison_internal_mic.mp3]

From the internal mic, Shaykh Yasir sounds echoey and further away, and in addition to lots of background noise, you can hear the coughing of the audience very clearly.

• Direct mic: [audio http://muslimmatters.org/audio/jow_comparison_direct_mic.mp3]

With the direct mic, however, Shaykh Yasir's voice is super crisp, with minimal background noise. Even the coughing from the audience is almost impossible to hear.

So from these tests, it's clear a direct mic can't be beat. If that's not doable, then a recorder with an internal mic that's placed closed to the speaker, either on a table if they're sitting or on the minbar during a khutbah. And the method with the poorest quality is that of keeping it far away on the floor.

Editing

The editing of audio is where one can either clean up the sound quality of their recording or make edits that can aid in its presentation.

Cleaning Up Background Noise

For quality sound on a recording, we already went over the different methods of recording and microphone placement. But you can take things a step further by cleaning up your recording on audio software programs.

The number one item that can be cleaned up is background noise. Background noise is additional sound captured on a recording during blank periods that come from outside the recorder. In other words, this is the “fuzz” or “hiss” you hear during the blank periods on your recording yet you don't find on professionally recorded media. It's also what you may remember from audio cassettes and you would try to reduce by pressing the “DD” Dolby Noise Reduction button and your player would partially eliminate.

Background noise can come from a variety of different sources. There may be powered machines turned on near your recording, such as a fan or air conditioning/heating unit or a computer or laptop of some sort. Usually it comes from these types of “outside” sources. Sometimes, though not often, certain recorders themselves by default add a noticeable amount of white noise, background noise that comes sometimes from the recorder itself.

Basic overall rule: the better quality (and pricier) the recorder is, the less background noise you will get from the recorder itself.

Most audio software have a plug-in or effect that processes the removal of background noise. Sometimes it's called white noise removal, other times it may be called noise reduction, hiss removal, or something similar to any of the terms mentioned.

The keys to background noise removal are three. Firstly, focus on a good, solid, direct recording method to make your recording. This will make the most difference in your work. Second, try your best to remove any noise makers in the background. This may be tough, because in some scenarios you can't necessarily turn off the local masjid or university room's ventilation system, but try your best to avoid these if you can.

Thirdly, and this is key, is to only remove a necessary amount of background noise. If you had a solid crisp recording, you only need the program to remove just a bit of white noise.

If your recording isn't that great and has lots of noises competing with your speaker, however, you can try to intensify background noise removal, but that will only intensify the removal of the voice of your speaker (which it's why it's key to choose a good recording method.) I've heard lectures and seen videos before where I can tell, “whoever edited this did way too heavy of white noise removal,” making the speakers voice sound muffled. Remove just a bit, and try your best to make it sound natural, not processed.

Audio Levels and Gain

Too often have we heard Islamic talks where either the speaker's voice is way too low and quiet, or is blaring so loud it makes your ears bleed. This happens because either the gain (think microphone's intake volume) is too high or the speaker speaks way too close/far to/from the mic, or simply because no one bothered to edit the audio levels.

In most editors, they'll give show your recording's soundwave levels going from 0.0 to 1.0 up and to -1.0 going down. I have found that, ideally, you want the levels to peak between 0.5 and -0.5. Not only is this what I've noticed on professional recordings of non-Islamic media, but also from professional Qur'an and lecture recordings, as well.

So what you want to do is find a good editing software of your liking and mess with the gain and volume settings to adjust your recording to good audio levels.

General rule of thumb? Think of it like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

[audio http://muslimmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/audio_level_too_high.mp3]
This one is too high.

[audio http://muslimmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/audio_level_too_low.mp3]
This one is too low.

[audio http://muslimmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/audio_level_good.mp3]
And this one's juuuuust right!

Removing Mistakes

Here is where lots of Islamic audio suffers. Editing out mistakes. Too often have we heard recordings where there are edits that could have been made, but aren't.

For example, I heard a CD of a talk delivered by Shaykh Yaser Birjas in which he referenced Ibn Al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on his soul. Shaykh Yaser accidentally began by saying “Ibn Tayimiyyah rahimu..,” caught himself, and then corrected himself by saying “Ibn Al-Qayyim rahimihullah said…” and moved on.

There is absolutely no reason why we should hear that mistake on a recording. Especially not on one that is sold in CD format all over the nation at conferences and lectures. That small mistake could have easily been edited on even the most basic audio editing software. If it were, it would have added to the quality of the presentation (and in this case, the product), removing any noticeable defects. Instead, it was left in for even the casual user to notice.

Admittedly, it's a small mistake. But that's the whole point. Not only are “the small things” what distinguishes between average and high quality, it's their trivial nature in the first place that makes one ask, “why wasn't something this small and easy to fix corrected?”

Now for your recording, do you need to edit out all mistakes your speaker makes in your recording? Not necessarily, because it depends on what your target audience is.

If you are recording your private sittings with your local Shaykh where the talk is informal, there are random breaks, interruptions for Q&A, phone calls from the Shaykh's wife, etc., it's only your circle of fellow students that will probably use it so editing out small mistakes is probably not a biggie. But if you plan to go public and put a picture of quality behind your recording, then this is definitely something you want to consider.

Either way, like with all things in our life and especially so with Da'wah, we want to implement Iḥsān , or excellence, in our efforts. While editing out mistakes or breaks in your recording may not be an absolute necessity, it certainly would be a sign of high quality effort in your already high quality recording.

Software

Since are dozens of audio editing software out there for you to choose from in performing edits, you might find yourself wondering which one is the best for you. There's a few things to consider.

Price

No doubt the thought of paying over a hundred bucks for audio editing software is daunting when compared to downloading an open source alternative for absolutely free. However, you will find that generally speaking, you get what you pay for.

That's why popular open source (free) programs might not have as good audio effects, such as white noise reduction or echo/reverb effects for Qur'an recitation, as a program that can cause $200 holes in your wallet. But, again, you get what you pay for.

With that said, here're some recommendations based on what may be your needs:

Audacity (Free)

Audacity is probably the most popular choice for free audio programs available on the Internet. Not only does it cost nothig, it's open source, which allows others to write up plug-ins for it. This is a great choice for someone who needs a program that does simple editing and white noise clean up.

Goldwave ($49)

I have been using Goldwave for my audio editing needs since 1997 when I was still in middle school. It is one of the easiest to use and has an excellent white noise reduction plugin and I find is hard to beat. It's not as well known as some of the other ones out there, but as my personal favorite, I'd definitely recommend it. It even allows you to buy a lifetime $40 key which you can use on any system you choose. Only con I can think of: not very good echo/reverb effects for Qur'anic recitation.

Sony Sound Forge ($50 – $200)

Sound Forge is for the serious audio editor that wants to step up editing a notch. It not only processes at great speeds, but it's very streamlined and offers what I have tested to be the best echo/reverb plug-in out there. I was able to turn a local recording of a Qari into what sounded like a professional studio quality Qur'anic recording from Jordan with the use of its built-in Reverb effect. For most Islamic talk purposes,  the $200 version is unnecessary, as a lot of the features are geared towards video syncing or music. Go for Sony Audio Studio, the $50 of Sound Forge. It's just as great and comes with the excellent Reverb effect.

Adobe Audition ($350)

When you go Adobe, you're basically going as pro as you probably will ever get. I have used Audition only a few times, but I have noticed that this is the choice of IlmQuest and EmanRush Audio when they record AlMaghrib seminars. Its benefits are probably suitable to only the highest and most professional needs out there, such as batch processing, creating and running macros, and providing wide db ranges. I would say only if you plan to produce super high quality recordings to produce onto CD for sales purposes should you consider this software.

Pirating Audio Software Illegally

You might be thinking, “forget the prices and thanks for the suggestions, I'll just download the cracked versions of these software from the torrents.” Before you continue on this thought, I would like to warn those of you who intend to do this.

You're performing Islamic work with this software, not editing your own personal music collection or whatever it is that you might use it for. Therefore, you want to think twice about using something that is considered stolen for the purposes spreading Islam. Would you steal audio recorders from the electronics store to record your Islamic talks? Of course not, that's out of the question, right?

Then why is it okay to steal software, which requires purchasing just like audio hardware, to edit Islamic talks? Just because it's mere digital data and, thus, easier to steal, doesn't make it okay.

How To Pay For Software

There are alternatives to stealing. Alhamdulillah, I myself was able to purchase a $1300 Adobe Creative Suite CS3 collection in 2007 for absolutely free. Not only did I use my student discount to knock the price down to $600, I found someone willing to donate the entire price because they knew it was going to be used for Da'wah. Now all the Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects work I did was not only inshaAllah awarded to that generous donor, I don't have to feel guilty or be held accountable for as well.

If you're recording for a masjid, MSA, or organization, talk to them. I'm sure they'll hook you up with an easy $50 to pay for software. But it requires you being proactive and not telling them “I got it, don't worry” when in reality you're doing Islamic work on stolen software.

Make du'a, be proactive and look for help, and Allah will find you a way to pay for the software inshaAllah.

Want to read more on the topic? See Using Pirated Software For Da'wah Purposes.

Conclusion

Recording Islamic talks can be a great form of Da'wah, and by following the tips in this tutorial, you can pump out some quality recordings for you and many others to benefit from. We hope you were able to benefit from this tutorial and truly enjoyed writing this piece, but now it's your turn.

There are definitely Muslim audiophiles out there who can offer some solid piece of advice themselves. If you're one of them, what advice can you offer for everyone who wants to record Islamic audio? We'd love to hear what you have to say.

Until then, happy recording. :)

*Discount coupon code at the end

A few months ago I got a copy of Al-Mudarris software. It's essentially a software that incorporates ayaat with multiple translations and audio recitations of each individual ayah. That is nice, however, what really prompted me to utilize the software is the notes and tafsir features.

The program gives you the ability to add your own personal notes for each ayah, and save it. You can save tafsir notes separately from your own personal notes. This is ideal for any student, or khateeb, to keep track of their own personal notes for each ayah.

That is the feature I like most, but it is also useful if you are doing hifdh, because it allows you to have it play specified ayaat at a fixed number of repetitions with a pause for you to recite after each ayah. There's tools for this online as well, but this can be used without any internet connection (i.e. directly from your hard drive).

The full feature list is on the website.

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi adds,

Al-Mudarris software is a fantastic way of learning the Quran and the art of tajwid. It is one of the best programs I've seen in this regard, and I have no hesitation in recommending it for others. Its so easy that even my kids learnt how to use it in no time.

There is a demo video online that you can view here and tutorials as well. One other feature is that upgrades to the software are free. Here's a list of the upcoming enhancements insha'Allah:

Get a copy here and make sure you use the special coupon code for MM readers to get $5 off

MMATTERS

StumbleUpon is a very interesting (and addictive) tool of social media, and it is used by a lot of people (their website boasts over 6 million users). As far as MuslimMatters is concerned, the Digg effect has nothing on StumbleUpon in terms of driving traffic to the site, and I know other websites have mentioned similar (e.g. MR).

So what exactly is StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon is an Internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos. It is a personalized recommendation engine which uses peer and social-networking principles.[wiki]

Here's how it works.

1. Sign up for an account
2. Download the toolbar

Web pages are presented when the user clicks the “Stumble!” button on the browser's toolbar. StumbleUpon chooses which Web page to display based on the user's ratings of previous pages, ratings by his/her friends, and by the ratings of users with similar interests. Users can rate or choose not to rate any Web page with a thumbs up or thumbs down, and clicking the Stumble button resembles “channel-surfing” the Web. There is also one-click blogging built in as well.

When you sign up for an account, you can also set your profile according to your interests.  The thing I like about their interests is that it actually has a higher level of detail than most other places. You can not only select “Islam” as an interest, but you can further specify “Sunni” if you wish. On the flip side, you can even choose “Paganism” as an interest. If you're a FOB (or European), you can even choose “cricket” as an interest.

Once you are done setting up your interests, you are ready to start 'stumbling' through websites. You simply hit the 'stumble' button on your toolbar and it will take you to a random website based on the interests you selected. You can then give the website a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Obviously, the more a website gets popular ratings in that channel, the more times StumbleUpon will display that website to other stumblers. According to their wiki, they have had over 1 billion stumbles in 2008 alone.

To get a feel for how this works, you can take their tour or try the demo.

Similar to other social media sites, you can also create a network of your own friends and you can send them a stumble that shows on your toolbar. You have the option to add sites to a favorite's list as well. This is particularly useful when you have a lot of friends, or fans (people who added you as a friend but you did not reciprocate) as they will “stumble” to sites that you have added to your favorites list.

Submitting Sites to StumbleUpon

In the last article, we covered how pretty much anything can be sent to Digg, and that it checks for duplicates. The process is a lot different with Stumble.

First, when you go to a website, there is an icon in your stumble toolbar that lets you know if anyone else has 'reviewed' this website, if they have, then you can simply give it a thumbs up or down when you are on it (even though you may not have arrived at that website through 'stumbling').

Whether submitting a new site or simply giving a thumbs up, please make sure to add a review of the website.  This is one easy way to help a site become more popular.

Second, when you submit a website, you have the option of 'tagging' it much like you do with a blog post. This helps provide keywords for people searching for content. As an example, if you were to submit Yasir Qadhi's Dorrito's article to Stumble, some good 'tags' would be: islam, fiqh, dorrito's, yasir qadhi, cheese. These tags are descriptive, and help identify the content for someone searching for something. Examples of bad tags would be things like: awesome, almaghrib, halal, jihad, gluttony.

Third, you can't just keep stumbling your own stuff. This one's important so please pay attention.

The StumbleUpon website says,

StumbleUpon recommends pages based on correlation and user clustering, rather than average ratings, so people rating their own sites as 'I like it!' cannot spam the database.

More specifically,

Members who repeatedly post from a particular site (often their own) find that some of those posts fail to appear on their blog pages.

We have a limit in place that prevents multiple posting from a single source. If you habitually post content from a small set of domains, you may have encountered this limit. You can verify this by thumbing a page from a site which you have not previously rated; if the rating fails only for the site which you have previously rated & reviewed, then it is likely that you have encountered the posting limit.

Note that, once encountered, the limit cannot and will not be lifted.

The only way around it is to purchase advertising. This is a huge difference from Digg, and it has its pro's and con's. The con is if you reached this limit without realizing it (like me). The pro is that it prevents a lot of watering down of content. As I mentioned in the Digg article, I personally don't feel that it's a good idea to just keep digging each and every article and trying to promote it (it becomes desensitizing after some time). However, it is something that Digg does allow for. StumbleUpon though is built to prevent this type of behavior. So if you're going to Stumble something, you need to make sure it is solid.

Additionally, you need to make sure you are stumbling a wide variety of things to be a “real contributor” to this online community.

Fourth, and this echoes the point above, is that Stumble is not a good tool for 'time specific' issues. Interestingly enough, one of the top stumbled articles on MuslimMatters is actually the post about Kaffiyeh Day.  It is a 5 month old issue, but we still get regular traffic on that posting because it is still being stumbled. Not that we're complaining mind you, but it just seems kind of strange. :)

Why This is an Important Tool

The obvious reason is the number of people using it. The other reason though, is that it is one of the few “mainstream” sites that has an Islam category built in. With the number of people using social media tools to get their information and find content based on their interests, it is essential to get representation of good Muslim websites in StumbleUpon.

Using These Tools with MuslimMatters

Similar to Digg, the stumble links are built into the top and bottom of each post.

At the top,

And at the bottom,

Social media are primarily Internet-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences. [wiki]

To put it another way, it's the ultimate “word of mouth” medium.

A blog (kind of like the one you're reading now :P) is a good example of this. But how do you go from simply getting the content online, to getting it seen by the masses? I'm going to write in more detail later, insha'Allah, about how to use these types of technologies in general in a future post after I finish a book I'm presently reading on the subject.

For now though, it's important to look specifically at the technologies that help content go viral.  I'm going to write about the sites that are seemingly most popular, and also the ones I'm most familiar with.  This post will focus mainly on Digg.com and Reddit.com.

Digg is probably my favorite of these types of sites. I have discovered tons of great websites and articles from it. In fact, I even have a gadget for it on my Google homepage.

How It Works [wiki for more info].

Users  submit (or “digg”) stories that they find interesting. This creates a page at digg.com with the title, a brief excerpt, and comments (if any) about that article/video/picture/whatever. Other registered users (registration is free) can 'digg' the article if they like it, or they can also 'bury' it if they think it's lame or not newsworthy. Users can also leave comments on the digg page of the article (example), which can also be 'dugg' or 'buried' with a thumbs up or thumbs down. The tally (thumbs up = +1, thumbs down = -1) displays next to each comment so you know how other users felt about that comment. I personally have my digg set up to only display comments with at least a score of +10, so I only read the comments that are “socially relevant” to the content at hand.

What Kind of Content?

Everything. It is entirely user driven. To get an idea though, of what the “digg community” usually finds interesting, you can get a good idea by seeing what topped Digg in the last:

• Week
• 30 days
• Year

Why Should Muslims Care?

Quite simply, it's as close to “mainstream” as we can ever get our content. Obviously, civil rights cases like Dr. Afia, Ali Timimi, and countless others will not be covered on CNN. Most non-Muslims will have no idea about what is going on. This is a way to make those issues socially relevant to the internet community at large. Just as an example, the story about the sister attacked in Elmhurst was the first MuslimMatters article to get more than 10 “diggs” at digg.com. The result? It *almost* got popular enough quick enough to hit the front page, but despite falling short of that target, referrals from digg.com on that article totaled over 500 direct hits (and all in one day).

To get on the front page, it needs to get enough diggs in a short span of time to be 'made popular.'

Put that number in perspective though.  CAIR could easily send an email about that to tens of thousands of people (if not more), however, how many of them open the email in the first place, and then actually read the contents of the whole email, and on top of that give any kind of due attention to one issue? On Digg though, it is safe to say those 500 people clicked on it because they were either interested in the article, wanted to go see what the 'buzz' was about, or glanced at the comments about it, and decided to go see the article for themselves. In all of these situations though, the article was not “spammed” to them or “shouted at them” but they looked at it from their own accord. This is much more powerful than simply “getting the message out” – it's making that message hyped up and/or socially relevant to the community.

When we find good, high quality, content that can make an impact, or communicate an important message, we need to spread that message across the mediums available to us.

Netiquettes

As with any social community online, it is important to follow the generally accepted practices of that community. You can't just barge in and do whatever you feel like doing. You have to observe how people interact on there. Here's a few tips to keep in mind:

1. Don't go crazy with submitting new content. It's tempting, but you really want what you submit to shine through, or really be important. There's already enough fodder on there, you don't want to add to it. Plus, if you are submitting a lot of articles, you can develop a reputation for good or bad articles. According to the Digg wiki, a small niche group of users are responsible for almost 25% of the content that hits the front page – meaning people are watching what they do.

2. Number 1 becomes more important with this step. Build your network. Add your friends so you can 'shout' diggs to them that are important to your network. I also feel this is the best way to promote things you want to 'digg.' While the occassional action alert might be called for, it is frowned upon by the community at large to have some kind of “organized” effort at getting something on the front page, because it goes against the nature of the site. The Digg Wiki also indicates some 'conspiracy' theories about this kind of behavior.

The friends network function is something built into digg for the purpose of letting your friends know about stuff. I'm a big proponent of utilizing what's designed for you as opposed to creating a new way (like a “muslims on digg” email list which I have thought about but ultimately decided against).  The friends network gives you the ability to share your diggs with others, while also letting them make their own decision (without pressure) about whether to digg it or not.

3. Appropriate content. One netiquette (that shouldn't apply to us alhamdulillah) is that if you are “diggin” something that you wouldn't want to pull up on your work computer, you should preface it with an NSFW tag (Not Safe For Work). This might be something you don't want to have up on your screen as your boss is walking by, or a video with some vulgarity, etc.

The other thing is to make sure the articles you submit are important to the community. Digging civil rights postings or islamophobia posts? DEFINITELY. Digging an article about Dorito's being halal? Great stuff, but not for digg. Remember who the audience is.

One way to know if your content is appropriate or not is to see how well it fits into the existing article categories on the site. Digg, for example, does not have a category for “religion” or “Islam.” That means, and I know this goes against some of the sentiment on MM lately about Digg, is that we should not be digging general articles about Islam. Digg is a tool, and to get the most benefit out of it, it needs to be utilized as it was designed.

Other tools, like StumbleUpon, do have Islamic sections, and we'll touch upon that in a future installment insha'Allah.

4. Take part. Don't just submit articles from only one website, or one subject. Check out what others are digging. Personally, I don't leave a lot of comments, but I do digg comments up and down occasionally, and I probably at least glance at 2-3 of the popular articles on a daily basis.

5. Site the original article. Let's say you go to MR's blog and he has a post that is just a YouTube video, or an article pasted from CNN without any additional comments. In this case, if you want to digg that content, even though you might want to help give traffic to a Muslim site, you should digg the “source” content instead of someone linking to it. So go back to YouTube and digg the link there, or digg the actual CNN article.

6. Don't submit duplicates. Digg has an algorithm to check for this, but people do it anyway. Please don't. It doesnt really serve a purpose except diluting the message of whatever it is you are trying to digg.

Reddit is basically the same thing as Digg (except that you vote things up or down), so the information above should still apply.

Using These Tools With MuslimMatters

We have tried to integrate these tools into our posts to make it easy to “digg” articles for example. At the top of each post is a small bar of text that looks like the picture below. This will alert you to see if anyone has “dugg” this article already, so people with Digg accounts (or if you are going to make one after reading this), take note. It should be sufficient to feature this on the site so we don't have to utilize the comments section for this purpose.

 

And at the bottom there is a bar that looks like this:

You can see the Digg and Reddit icons underlined in the photo above. Clicking on any of those is an easy way to submit something you like to either of those sites.

Next up, we'll look at some more of these sites, like the other icons in the picture above :).

Anyone who spends any time reading news or blogs on the Internet must have seen the term RSS thrown around, or seen this ubiquitous little icon:

And yet, many are still unaware what RSS means, what it does, and why you should be taking advantage of it. It’s simple, fun, and can save you a lot of time in your daily dallying on the wonderful world of the Internet.

So what is RSS?

The most common definition of RSS is “Really Simple Syndication”. Essentially, it is a standardized way of publishing frequently updated information. Many websites with frequently updated content will publish “RSS feeds” in order to alert readers whenever new material is posted.

As a standardized format, other applications can read and interpret RSS feeds, to present the data in any number of ways.

“Atom” is another format that serves essentially the same purpose. For the purposes of this article, any use of the term “RSS” should be considered interchangeable with “Atom”.

If you have your own blog running under Blogger, WordPress, Windows Live Spaces, LiveJournal, or any of the other major blogging platforms, your blog most likely will have an RSS feed enabled already.

How do I use an RSS feed?

An RSS feed is an “XML Document”. XML is a standardized notation that can be used to define different types of content; RSS and Atom can be considered as applications of the XML specification. As a standardized specification, anyone can write a program to read RSS feeds, and those programs can present the data in any number of ways. A program that reads an RSS feed can be called an “RSS client”, or a “feed aggregator”.

There are literally thousands of RSS clients out there; an RSS client can be anything from a desktop application, a website, or even a handheld device like the Apple iPod or the Amazon Kindle. When you add an RSS feed to one of these clients, you have “subscribed” to that feed.

Using an RSS client lets you read all the content that is interesting to you in one place, where you want and when you want. For example, the team at ijtema.net uses Google Reader, a popular web-based RSS client, to monitor the hundreds of Muslim blogs that we link to.

What kind of content is available as RSS feeds?

Almost everything! Most news sites, social networking sites, blogs, podcasts, and web forums publish their data as RSS feeds. Many blogs even offer RSS feeds for comments on the site, and many support category-specific RSS feeds. There is certainly no shortage of content out there, and RSS makes it easy to find the content most relevant to you.

How do I know when a site has an RSS feed?

As you navigate the web, you will notice the icon throughout your surfing. Also, depending on your web browser of choice, an RSS feed icon may be appear within the browser itself to alert you that the site you are visiting includes an RSS feed.

For Mozilla Firefox users, you will notice the RSS icon right in the address bar. The following screenshot is from Firefox 3 on Windows XP, however the behaviour would be the same whether you are using Vista, Mac OSX, or Linux.

Internet Explorer 7 has an RSS icon on the toolbar which lights up whenever the site you are visiting includes a feed.

Other popular web browsers, such as Apple's Safari, Mozilla's Camino, and Flock, all support RSS as well.

How do I subscribe to an RSS feed?

When a webpage contains an RSS feed, there are various ways to subscribe to the feed depending on your browser and RSS client. For this article, we will walk through the process of subscribing to the ijtema.net RSS feed through Google Reader. As the most popular browser that runs on all three major operating systems, we will focus our attention on Mozilla Firefox.

To access Google Reader, you first need to create a Google Account. If you have an @gmail.com address, you already have one. Simply navigate to the Google Reader website, and log in using your gmail username and password. If you don't have a Google Account, follow the on-screen instructions to create one.

Once you have your Google Reader account, there are a few ways to subscribe to ijtema.net. We will first describe the process of subscribing to the feed through Google Reader itself.

Subscribing using Google Reader

Once you have logged in, you will see a bar on the left-hand side which includes the “Add Subscription” function. (If you do not see this bar on the left-hand side, try pressing the u key on your keyboard – this toggles the view to allow you to maximize the space available for your content.)

When you click on “Add Subscription”, a text box will appear where you can enter the URL (the web address) of the site you are visiting. You can simply copy and paste the text www.ijtema.net from your address bar into the textbox, and then click the “Add” button.

Once you do this, Google Reader will tell you that you have been successfully subscribed, and show you the most recent posts. If you like, you can add it to a folder to keep your feed reader nice and organized.

And you're done! Whenever new content is published to ijtema.net, you will see it in your Google Reader shortly after it is published.

Subscribing using Firefox

You can configure the Firefox web browser so that it can automatically add feeds to your Google Reader account as you come across them, simply by clicking on the icon in the address bar.

Note that these instructions are for Firefox 3; the process is similar for Firefox 2, but I would highly recommend upgrading if you are still using that version.

First, navigate to the webpage you want to subscribe to.

Then, click on the RSS icon in the address bar. If the site publishes multiple feeds, you will be given a list of them. For this purpose, we will select the “RSS 2.0″ feed, but any of them would be fine.

After clicking on the “Subscribe to RSS 2.0″ option, Firefox will display a preview of the content of the feed, and provide you with some options for subscribing to the content.

Simply select “Google” from the dropdown menu, and click “Subscribe Now”. You can also click the “Always use Google to subscribe to feeds.” checkbox if you want this to be the default behaviour whenever Firefox encounters a site with an RSS feed.

Google offers two ways to subscribe to a feed – you can subscribe through the aforementioned Google Reader, or add it to your iGoogle homepage. When you click “Subscribe Now”, it gives you an option for both:

Adding it your Google Homepage would give you easy access to the headlines on a page where you can also view your latest e-mail, news, weather, and stock quotes. This illustrates the great flexibility of the RSS specification; it can be used and formatted in an unlimited number of ways, depending on the application and interface.

So there you go! Now you know the basics of the RSS protocol, and you can now surf the web in style. Many websites even include buttons that further simplify the subscription process, such as the one below, so becoming an RSS pro has never been easier.

—

Now you know how to subscribe in style, check out the following MuslimMatters feeds and never miss out ever again, insha'Allah!

• Subscribe to MM Posts and Comments via RSS
• Subscribe to the MM Podcast

And for those of you who still aren't convinced by the ease of RSS: you can also subscribe to MM content by e-mail.

Then last year, the launch of Facebook Platform – a framework for software developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook – allowed the creation of useful apps like Quran Verses, which you could proudly display on your profile, in hope that visitors may reflect on some Islamic wisdom as they posted yet another video on your 'Funwall'.

But over the past few weeks, something strange has happened. There has been an explosion in the release of new third-party applications that are specifically targeted at the growing community of Muslims on one of the world's most popular social networking sites. I know this, because my daily routine now includes sifting through a whole heap of add-requests!

Many of these new apps are virtual gift exchange programs based on Gift Creator, that allow users to send Islamic images to one another, such as the Names of Allah, photos of masjids, and Islamic greetings – there is even a special one for sisters called Muslimah's Wardrobe, where users can 'shop' for funky hijab pins and colourful scarves to give to their Muslimah gal pals.

A screen shot from the Gift Creator-based application, Almighty God “Allah”.

I have to admit that I do get a little annoyed – okay, a lot annoyed – by people who insist on cramming their profile page with a million app boxes that take a year to load, and eventually cause my browser to freeze up. However, I also feel that by adding these little apps, I may be doing my bit to spread awareness on Facebook, as the most popular ones are listed higher on the Applications page. That is why when faced with my daily list of new add-requests, I tend to click “Sure!” rather than “Ignore”, but then intentionally deselect every tick box on the following installation page (other than the first one), thus keeping my profile user-friendly, insha'Allah.

A screen shot from the Facebook installation page.

It's nice to see that people are making the effort to Muslimify Facebook. One hopes that upon seeing an ayah from the Qur'an, or an image of “la illaha illallah, muhammad-ur-rasoolallah” a Muslim would be reminded of Allah, and encouraged to behave with more decorum when interacting with their friend in Islam; or that sending a virtual gift to a brother or sister will increase the love between you, as it does in real life – although give me a real slice of chocolate cake, over the pixelated kind, any day!

So, what is your favourite Islamic Facebook app? Do you have one in mind that you'd like to create? And how effective are they as tools for nasihah and dawah?

["Facebook" Image credit: pshab]

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The Freedom and Justice Foundation: Texas Muslims Scholarship Fund.

******APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE NOW!!!*******

The Freedom and Justice Foundation announces that the Texas Muslims Scholarship Fund will be awarding its first set of scholarships! It will consist of five $2,000 scholarships for the 2007-2008 academic year.

Applicants MUST:

§ Be a US citizen or permanent resident.

§ Be enrolled in an accredited college or university in Texas for the 2007-2008 academic year.

§ Be pursuing a law degree or intend on majoring in political science, international relations, journalism, communications, or another public affairs related field in which Muslims are underrepresented.

§ After graduation, complete one year of community service benefiting the American Muslim community either as a voluntary board member of a Muslim nonprofit organization, volunteering at a civic nonprofit organization benefiting all society (with a special benefit to the American Muslim community), or by starting a nonprofit working to benefit the American Muslim community.

Scholarship recipients will receive an orientation session regarding the American Muslim community and its needs prior to beginning the community service requirement of the Texas Muslims Scholarship Fund in order to help them dedicate their time in the most efficient manner possible.
************************************************************

Applications and detailed guidelines are now available on the Freedom and Justice Foundation website. Applications must be completed and postmarked by June 30, 2007 to The Texas Muslims Scholarship Fund, The Freedom and Justice Foundation, P.O. 262366, Plano, TX 75026.

MashaAllaah, I was very recently informed of a major contribution to the online Islamic search tools. A brother at MIT has been working on this project for the past couple of years, and now, it is finally up, alhamdulillaah. The website (http://quran.csail.mit.edu) is an online Qur'an, but it is much more than that too.

When you click on a surah, in addition to the Arabic aayaat, the English translations, and introduction (the translation and introduction done the same way as on the USC website), you also get a transliteration of each verse and an Arabic jpeg of each verse, for easy reading. But that is not at all the amazing part… what is amazing is that you can click on each Arabic word in an aayah and you get the following information:

1. All other occurrances of this word in the Qur'an.
2. The three letter Arabic root of the word.
3. All other words in the Qur'an that also have the same three letter root.
4. All occurrances of these words in the Qur'an.

I am not sure if something similar to this has been done before, so if anyone knows of anything like this, please inform inshaAllah. Also, the website was not made by a scholar, so keep that in mind (but the introductions to the soorahs are from Mawdudi's Tafheem ulQuran, and the translations are from Yusuf Ali, Pikthal, and Shakir).

InshaAllah the website can bring Muslims much benefit. May Allah reward the brother for his efforts.

Wassalaam

Just Dial (720) 259 – 8956
Enter your ZIP Code, You will hear outside temperature, prayer times and mosque location. I called and seems that there are some errors on the mosque location… but still a great tool… esp. once fixed.