11 MOBILE APPS I USE AS A JOURNALIST AND AS A MUSLIMAH.

Screen shot of some of my Apps

Getting a good and effective apps to use as a journalist and as a Muslim can be very challenging and overwhelming. As a mobile app nerd I cannot count the number of times I have had to wipe off my phone in order to restart with some applications again. Several times a month, I’m doing what many Android users only do a handful of times: logging into a clean phone and downloading the critical apps I need to get things done (I have free Wi-Fi at work lol). I don’t have time to re-install those once-in-a-blue moon apps, so I only bother with the most important (and useful) apps, which I’ll now share with you. This is my list of the essential apps that every Muslim and a journalist should install.

 

1. IQURANPRO

The screen shot of some reciters on IQuranPro

Apart from reminding on Friday to read Suratul Qahf. Iquran pro is very good for hifz and quran recitation (plus Tajweed too). Provides verse by verse audio playback, repeat functions, unlimited bookmarks, search, excellent navigational controls, several translations and reciters and much more. I found the playback feature to be top notch. There are eight reciters to choose from, which is a fun bonus. This is one of my best app for reading and memorizing the Quran on mobile.

 

2. FLIPBOARD AND GOOGLE NEWS STAND

It is hard to choose between the two. So I would just add both instead. While Flipboard allows you flip through articles reformatted into a magazine style, with very readable text and large images, Google’s Newsstand app rolls up the magazine-like reading experience, along with easy access to your digital magazine subscriptions. You can also discover news stories by browsing the Read Now or Explore sections. Of course, it includes sharing features for when you find something really interesting. And I follow a lot of stuff on google news stand like “Off the shelf, Patheos, mashable etc.

 

 3. GOOGLE DRIVE AND DROPBOX

Errm just like I did earlier, I love both Dropbox and Google drive. While google drive gave me 16 gig free, drop box gave me only 4gb free. However, If you ever need to take down some notes on the go, Drive and drop box ensures they’ll be waiting for you in the cloud later.

When i installed my drive, it came with Google docs which means i no longer needed the Polaris viewer anymore for typing my document on mobile. Thank You Google Drive.

Also, Automatically sync your photos, documents and videos across all devices — including your phone — when you save an item to your Dropbox and google drive account. They both make it easy to stay organized. Access your files from any web browser as well as your mobile device. This makes all of your important content more secure — if your phone or laptop breaks or gets lost, you still have everything backed up.

 

4. SLEEPBOT

For those Tahajud and Qiyam moments, sleep bot has allowed me to be able to know what time is best for me to wake up, after a stressful day at work. Also if you’re curious about what goes on while you’re snoozing, SleepBot has all the answers. Leave your phone in bed with you, and SleepBot will track your movements and nocturnal noises using your Android’s microphone and accelerometer. But SleepBot is more than a mere tracker; it is designed to wake you up during the lightest part of your sleep cycle, promising better sleep and more wakeful mornings.

 

5. POCKET

if you are a writer or a student who does a lot of research, Instead of wasting work time reading articles, save them for later with Pocket. No longer do you have to read all the article at once as pocket lets you save articles, images, and videos for later. I especially like how it reformats articles for more comfortable reading, and how it syncs between all my devices.

 

6. GOODREADS

My friends already know how much I love good reads, I get a lot of book recommendations from there. Also with a community of more than 8 million readers, I draw a lot of inspiration and suggested readings from an enormous catalogue of suggested books. While I prefer to use goodreads on my laptop, I still use it once in a while on my android device.

 

7. EVERNOTE

To be honest, this is supposed to be my number one app, as I use it a lot. There is no day I don’t make use of Evernote to take notes during meetings, press conferences, events, create a shopping list, and stay productive. Evernote is my digital notepad, I have all my duas before entering the bus, before entering the mosque, before entering the market and every other important duas saved on my evernote. The app makes my notes searchable, allows me to capture photos and record voice reminders as well.

 

8. DUOLINGO

And if you want to learn another language, this is the app for you! Duolingo gamifies language learning with bite-sized lessons, and a friendly interface. The more you use the app, the more you unlock and—with practice—the more you learn. I am very sad though that duolingo only supports Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese. I wish they would add Bahasa, Bengali, mandarin, Arabic and Hausa real soon. I am currently learning Spanish, you guys can find me on duolingo “zaynabtyty” (no pervs please)

 

9. GOOGLE TRANSLATE

Probably my biggest fear as a blogger and a traveler is being unable to communicate with other people. Google Translate takes a bit of the edge off, quickly translating either written text or spoken words. You can even use the app to do the speaking for you, and input text through your camera or handwriting. Unfortunately, you’ll need a data connection to perform the translation, but it’s the next best thing to actually learning another language.

 

10.VSCOCAM

I love vscocam because it doesn’t over edit photos like other photo editing apps. Am not much of a photographer, but vscocam has made me appreciate the “finer side” of photography.

 

11. QUORA

I just started using quora after my co-worker suggested it to me. The concept of Quora is simple, you ask a question and you get so many awesome responses. The questions asked on Quora are very different from other Q&A sites. Instead, questions and answers offered on Quora are either incredibly informative or thought provoking – and sometimes even both!

Think of it like a Yahoo Answers forum, but with more of a focus on responses by professionals and experts in specific fields. There’s even a sort of gaming element involved, which lets you earn and spend Quora credits based on your activity. Also Users can easily hop from question to question and add their own answers and opinions to the questions of other users.

 

 

I’ve tried to include a little bit of everything with this list. It covers mostly on news gathering, reading articles and catching on what Is happening in the world today. I added a little bit of productivity and entertainment too (for travellers like me). Ideally, if you download these apps on your phone, you should be able to tackle just about anything in shaa Allah.

But these apps are just my opinion, feel free to send me your apps too via the comment box, twitter or instagram or send me an email. I would really love to read your responses.

 

Twitter : Zaynabtyty

Instagram: Zaynabtyty

HOW WE UNDER-DEVELOPED OUR IMAMS

This title is not meant to insult or ridicule our imams rather this article is written to throw more light on our imams and their poor meagre salaries.

All I have done is to add my own voice to this issue, which we have successfully neglected in our discussions in our various Islamic fora. Despite its tone, I am not anti rich people or anti anything. I am just speaking my mind, our commentators have through false modesty and perhaps because of fear of looking too materialistic not pointed out this anomalies in our masjids and in our muslim communities as a whole.

Having made this disclaimer, I was reading the UnMosqued Series on patheos when I came across a well written article on imams and the low salaries they earn in America. It was quite disheartening as this article dives into the deeply discomforting question of why Millennials, Generation Xers, reverts and women seem to be giving up on American mosques, and the third spaces they are creating in the absence of regularly attending mosques.

Here is a Link for those interested in following the unmosque discussions on patheos, it is hoped that we would all learn a lot and find solutions and ways to revive the role of the mosque.

Moving to the issue at hand, although no research has been carried out on how much an average imam makes here in Nigeria, but we all know that they end ZERO and NADA compared to their Christian counterparts that can afford to buy a private jet in the blink of an eye.   We all seem to believe that since imams (and their families) are working fi sabilillah – in God’s way they should sacrifice financial security. But, while Islam does frown upon extravagance, it does not require its adherents to take a vow of poverty.

A critical look at our mosque system in Nigeria reveals a decline, I have heard so many Muslim youth complain about the fact that they don’t have access to good and beneficial lectures in their community. Why? Because our Islamic scholars and commentators have been looking for consolation rather than the resolution of the various dilemma we face in our various Muslim communities. Examples are so abundant that I can’t even bother with particular instances.

Apparently our imams who seem as the only ones who possess the tools and possibly the insight to build our Muslim communities are constrained even sometimes without their knowing it, by certain provincialisms like poverty and cowardly inability to challenge mosque boards.

Unfortunately, many of these imams are also struggling with busy schedules and are ill-equipped to deal with the challenges facing their congregations in  a productive and culturally sensitive manner which is one of the reasons why so many people especially youth are becoming unmosqued.

I remember at a very young tender age of 15 while I had so many questions bothering me about Islam, I had no imam to answer my questions as some of them were unequipped despite their our vast resources (the Quran, and the Sunnah), scholars of ilm etc. to answer my atheism questions and they took the escape route of saying “we dont ask questions in Islam, we hear and we obey!!”

WHATTTT!!?? This is an answer unsuited for a generation like ours.

From my perspective and a thousand others I think, the title of a great imam should not be limited to one who recites the Quran with great tajweed and a mashaa Allah voice but rather one with sound and sober Islamic knowledge, an imam that totally understand the cultural intricacies of Nigeria, an imam that is concerned about the emotional and psychological welfare of his audience. Someone who understands the nature of structural tribalism and religious bigotry in this country and challenges it among his congregation. Someone who knows how to respond to a survivor of domestic violence or sexual assault, who can give advice to a teenager confused about marriage without judgement, who can comfort an audience suffering from depression, who can help frame the questions a person struggling with atheism is asking without spiritual abuse. Someone who would speak the truth and remind us about our temporary the dunya is. Yes, this might be a tall order, but I think that guy would be worth a lot and would need our support.

According to the Unmosqued series, One way to attract an imam with that kind of temperament is to offer him competitive salary, a salary that may siphon away some of the young men in our communities from medical, law or engineering schools, but really, how many more doctors, lawyers and engineers do we need? We do, however, critically need more imams who care for the needs of others, promote justice and are creative thinkers. I don’t want our communities to joke anymore about the kid who couldn’t get into medical or law school and went to the madrassa instead. We need more people like him in our society.

We must invest heavily (both human and fiscal capital) in building Muslim seminaries for imams and other religious leaders. We must develop a nationally recognized imam certification process which will help to keep imams accountable to their congregations. We must protect the rights of imams who are usually employed “at will” and at the mercy of their mosque boards. And we must pay them competitive salaries, in order to both attract the most qualified candidates and to mitigate the needs for imams to take on second or third jobs to support themselves and their families.

Also we should ensure that the voice of the imam is not dwarfed by the voice of the owners of the mosque. This happen in so many cases when the people who built the mosque dictate whatever happens in the mosque including the prayer times. Subhann Allah this is totally wrong, the mosque is the house of Allah and we all should refrain from referring to mosques as our own personal properties.

And I think I should also address the issue of the prayer times here too, it is very upsetting that after all the explanations about the prayer times subject to change some mosque still insist on praying Zuhr at 2pm and Asr at 4pm, This is very incorrect.

The lesson is clear, and in the words of Hind Makki “Being an imam is an emotionally draining job. We must acknowledge that as a community. There are many imams who frankly should not be in their positions – they have neither the temperament, nor the educational background for it. We must acknowledge that as a community. The solutions to these challenges are multifaceted and include developing religious educational institutions that serve our needs and paying our religious leaders better for the critical services they provide our communities.  We deserve better and so do our imams”.

For if we treats our leaders better, there is hope for us as a community and in shaa Allah Islam would perhaps lead the way again.  

BE YOURSELF

“When you are in rome, you behave like the romans”

Since my resumption of duty In this village I have been assaulted with this quote a number of times, with everyone including other fellow corps members telling me “you got to loose up a bit”  “scarf/cap is okay too must you cover everything up” and so many other hilarious comments.

I have taken them in good faith and “when you are in rome, behave like the romans ideology/ philosophy is alien to islam and the muslims. When you are in rome you either change the Romans to Muslims or you get out of rome ASAP !

Allah’s messenger has said “everyone of you should desist from walking with every traveller. He should not say that he is with the people,  and that if the people do good deeds, he would also do good deeds and that if they would do bad deeds then he would cooperate with them. You should prepare yourself to cooperate with them if they do righteous deeds and to keep away if they do wicked deeds”.

May almighty Allah strengthen our Iman (faith) and allow us to stand for something positive and also stand as a Muslim. Ameeen.

P.s for sisters asking me questions on pertinent issues in Islam,  am a student of ilm (knowledge) and I am still learning. It would be better if you ask someone well vast in the Quran and Sunnah.

May almighty Allah hold me not for what you don’t know about me. Ameen.

Asallam alaykum ♥♥♡♡