FLV Player 2.0.25

FLV Player is a tool to play Flash FLV and H.264 (MPEG-4) videos with. This utility can come in handy when viewing many FLV and/or H.264 files. The installer comes with optional FLV file-association, so double clicking an FLV file opens and plays the file in FLV Player.

Version 2.0.25 adds 'video-only' mode (press [tab] to hide all FLV Player interface elements, note that you can still drag the video around), volume control with [arrow-up] and [arrow-down] keys, timer toggle (normal and milliseconds). Ability to skip forward with [arrow-right] key has been restored.

Most people don't need anything more than a Web browser and a Macromedia plug-in to watch Flash videos. However, if you want a hair's breadth more control over your viewing, this open-source freeware program will do the trick.

FLV Player's exceedingly simple controls allow you to navigate backward and forward through videos and play them in a loop. You can also adjust the volume, mute it, and adjust the size of the player. The Settings menu provides some basic control over program behavior, such as opening a new player window when double-clicking on an FLV file and remembering previous settings. And that's about it.

Our only major complaint is that the display window doesn't automatically resize to the size of your movie frame. We hope this problem will be remedied in future versions. FLV Player isn't a must-have by any stretch, but it's a decent tool for penny-pinching Flash developers.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0.173

AVG Free Edition is the well-known antivirus protection tool. AVG Free is available free of charge to home users for the life of the product. Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy to use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements. Highlights include automatic update functionality, the AVG Resident Shield, which provides real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run, free Virus Database Updates for the lifetime of the product, and AVG Virus Vault for safe handling of infected files.

This antivirus program offers rock-solid protection. AVG Free provides the bare necessities, including a real-time shield to prevent infections, anti-virus and anti-malware wrapped up in one engine, and a link scanner for Web surfing with care.

By default, the application is set to search for new virus definitions daily, but you always can use the scheduling tool to change this. Should a virus create serious system problems, AVG creates a rescue disk to scan your computer in MS-DOS mode. The program doesn't tax your system when scanning or when running in the background and always proved effective in our tests. The new interface is much easier to navigate than in previous version, with tabbed navigation on the left assisting users in drilling down to the tools they need.

Though the free version of this program will suffice for average folks, those who demand more control should certainly consider AVG Anti-Virus Professional.

Signs of the Last Hour

The following information is a summary of a lecture given by a scholar of Riverside, Gharm-Allah El-Ghamdy, around the fall of 1991. Editor's notes are in brackets []. It is hard to tell whether certain of these events have already occurred, or when they will precisely occur. Allah knows best.

Though Allah only knows when the Last Hour before the Day of Resurrection will come, He has given us 'clues' about its approach through information in the Qur'an and the hadith of the Prophet. The signs can be separated into two categories: minor and major. This article does not cover all the signs, but most of the important ones are here. All these signs are, of course, based on hadith and/or Qur'an, mainly the former.

Minor Signs (in no particular order)

1. "The coming of the Last Prophet, Muhammad ibn Abd-Allah (SAW)." [This has already happened, of course.]
2. "The slave will become the master."
3. "Shepherds will compete in the construction of tall buildings." [The modern ex-nomads of Saudi Arabia are an excellent example of this.]
4. "Knowledge of Islam will be taken away while ignorance will increase. This removal of knowledge will be because old scholars will die and fewer and fewer new scholars will replace them. The leaders of the Muslims will be chosen from ignorant people, and they will rule according to their whims." [Today, studying Islam formally is considered to be an inferior career in most of the Muslim world. The leaders of the Muslim world are more known for their political or military prowess (oppressive ability?) than Islamic knowledge.]
5. "Drinking and fornication will increase heavily."
6. "The population of men will decrease, and women increase till fifty women shall be for every man."
7. "Thirty people will claim to be prophets, followed by Al-Dajjal (the anti-Christ roughly)."
8. "There will be such an abundance of wealth that people will not be able to find recipients for zakat."
9. "Killing will increase."
10. "Time will be shortened so that a year will be like a month, a month like a day, a day like an hour." [This perception of the seemingly dwindling amount of time is very apparent, especially in First World countries.]
11. "Two great countries will fight and kill each other, both claiming the same thing."
12. "Earthquakes will increase in number." [Welcome to California. :-]
13. "A person will pass by the grave, and wish to trade places out of despair."

Major Signs (in rough chronological order)

1. "Al-Dajjal will come, claiming to be God holding Heaven and Hell. His purpose is to deceive, and unbelievers will follow him. He is short, red-faced, blind in the right eye, and has hair which sticks up. He will go around the world, but will be unable to enter Madinah or Makkah." [There are numerous detailed ahadith on this man.]
2. "Al-Mahdi will come at the time of Al-Dajjal. He will call to the true Islam, and will be a military leader. His name will be exactly like that of the Prophet: Muhammad ibn Abd-Allah, and his father's name will match the Prophet's father's name also. He will be descended from Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet."
3. "Isa (Jesus) will come at the time of Al-Dajjal and al-Mahdi as well. He will descend at the time of Fajr prayer on a masjid in Damascus, the capital of Syria. He is of medium height, red-faced, and his hair is as if he just took a shower. He will call people back to Islam, but he will also be a military leader. The People of the Book will revert to Islam, and wealth will be super-abundant. Isa will break the cross, kill the swine, and personally slay Al-Dajjal. He will stay on Earth for a long time thereafter, and then die."
4. "An animal will come and call people back to Islam." [A partial description of this animal is that it is very hairy, so much so that one will not be able to tell its front from its rear (Arabic: 'Dab-ba'). Reference to this animal is mentioned in the Qur'an.]
5. "Gog and Magog (two hidden tribes of people) will break free of the dam that holds them back, and ravage the earth. They will drink all the water, and kill people until Allah sends against them a worm which will wipe them out." [This is roughly before/during the time of Isa, although it is not entirely clear.]
6. "Three places in the world will sink and be swallowed up by the earth. One in the west, one in the east, and one in the Saudi Arabian peninsula." [This may refer to a series of giant, epic earthquakes.]
7. "Fire will come from the area of Aden in Yemen, and sweep northwards." [There are claims that this already happened in some medevial event.]
8. "The sun will rise from the west." [This description is not meant to be a symbolic one...but it is known that it is one of the last, if not the very last one before the following.]
9. "Smoke will appear all over the earth which will cause believers to catch something similar to a slight cold, whereas the unbelievers will be hit harder by it. Finally, a cold wind will come and kill all believers, leaving only unbelievers on the earth who will then witness the LAST HOUR. The angel Israfil will blow a trumpet, and the resurrection of all human beings will begin." [At this point, the Day of Resurrection commences in which the skies and earth are destroyed by Allah.]

This list is far from complete; there are many other signs. A couple more of interest are: Constantinople (Istanbul) will fall before Rome to Islam (note that this means Rome will indeed fall), and the Muslim political system will go from Prophetic leadership to a just Khilafah to a 'biting' authority to an oppressive authority and finally back to a just Khilafah. It seems that today we are in the next to last stage of this chain; now is a good time to actively work for the reestablishment of the Muslim state and Khilafah.

Finally, the Prophet has said that when the Signs start to come, they will come FAST - like a string of beads falling one after the other.

And Allah Knows Best.

Refer to the Qur'an and Sunnah

I've got from islamworld.net, hope can learned from it.

It is necessary to refer all matters of disagreement between Muslims to Allah
and His Messenger, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam. This is important for the
Muslim to know and implement because it indicates the complete submission to
Allah without which one would not be a Muslim.

Allah says, " If you differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to Allah
and His Messenger, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. That is best and
most commendable in the end" [4:59] also, He says, "And whatever you disagree
upon, its decision is with Allah" [42:10]

Ibnul Qayyim said, "Based on these verses, scholars have agreed that
referring to Allah means referring to His Book, and referring to the
Messenger, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, means referring to him in person when
alive, to his Sunnah after his death." The first verse of surah an-Nisaa
(surah 4), is also proof that the Shari'ah has been perfected and completed.
Ibnul Qayim commented on this verse, "It covers everything that the believers
may disagree upon concerning their religion, from the smallest to the
greatest, whether hidden or evident. And if there were not a clear solution
to their disagreement in Allah's Book and His Messenger's Sunnah, or if they
were not enough for that, then He would not have ordered us referral to them."

Shari'ah is the Judge and is not to be judged: This is its power and its
role. This means that the Shari'ah rules and judges whether people's sayings
and doings are correct or not. It judges between them when in conflict and
disagreement. It confirms the right and abolishes the falsehood. This fact
sometimes is violated through some wrong practices:

Fanaticism: The fanatics in the different Madha-hib, schools of thought,
judge the Qur'an and Sunnah by what their Imam say. For example, Abul Hassan
al-karkhy, a prominent Hanafi Imam, said, "Every verse 'in the Qur'an' that
differs with our Madh-hab's understanding is either wrongly interpreted or
abrogated, and the same applies to every hadeeth as well."

Democracy: Today, one of the ugly examples of people taking the Divine
Shari'ah into their own hands, is the one related to the so-called democracy
by taking people's opinion, directly or through their parliament, about
implementing the Islamic Laws. The essence of this is subjugating the
implementation of the Creator's Shari'ah to the will of His creatures or
rendering it to a mere choice like any human-set constitution or laws. This
is total and clear disbelief, Kufr.

In explaining the Islamic Aqueedah, Imam at-Tahawi said, concerning the one
who rules with other than Allah's rule, "If he thought that ruling in
accordance with what Allah has descended is not mandatory and that he has a
choice in it, or he belittled it, while certain that it is Allah's judgement,
then he has committed Kufr, disbelief." No one from this Ummah is faultless
except the Prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam. And so Allah ordered us,
when in conflict, to refer to Him and to His Messenger, sallallahu alayhe wa
sallam, and not to refer to anyone else's opinion or saying or laws. Hence it
is understood that there can be fault in anyone's sayings except the sayings
of Allah and His Messenger, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam. This also indicates
that the claim of some sects that their Imams are faultless is baseless.

Asserting this principle, Imam Malik said, "Any one's sayings may be
corrected except those of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam." And
similar statements were quoted from Abu Hanifa, Ahmed, Shafi'ee and others
although their exact words may differ a little. Allah says, " Had it been
from other than Allah, much discrepancy would have been found" [4:82]

The referral to the Qur'an and the Sunnah has to be done by those who qualify
for it, the scholars, Allah says, " If you do not know, ask of those who
possess the Message." [16:43]

With regards to asking the scholars and referring to them, we caution the
Muslims from two types of scholars:

1) Scholars who are deeply buried under their books and have lost contact
with the outside world. Ibnul Qayim said, "The Mufti and the Governor cannot
govern fairly unless they have two kinds of knowledge. The first is the
understanding of the reality, being totally involved in it and being able to
derive facts from what happened using evidence, indications and signs, until
they are totally informed. The second is the understanding of Allah's rulings
depicted in His Book or through the sayings of His Messenger, sallallahu
alayhe wa sallam, and understanding how to apply them to the reality under
consideration."

Also, Abu Batah al-Akbari said, "Imam Ahmed said, 'It is not acceptable for a
man to establish himself as Mufti unless he has five characteristics. First,
he must have the intention. If he does not have an intention, there will be
no light in him or in his speech. Second, he must have the knowledge,
tolerance, dignity and tranquility. Third, he has to be sure of his speech
and his knowledge. Fourth, he must be self sufficient (financially). If not
he will be used by people. Fifth, he must know the people."

Ibnul Qayim commented on this saying, "Knowledge of the people is a great
trait that every Mufti and Governor should have. They should be involved with
the people, be very knowledgeable in enjoining the good and forbidding the
evil, and then applying the one to the other. Otherwise they will do more
harm than good. If they are not knowledgeable about people, they might
mistake the oppressor for the oppressed and the rightful for the wrong-doer,
and vice versa. If they are ignorant of the people, their circumstances and
their customs, they will not be able to distinguish between the good and the
bad. They have to be very knowledgeable in people's cunning, deception,
fraud, customs and traditions. A fatwah is subject to change depending on the
time, place, customs and traditions and that is all from Allah's religion."

2) Scholars who sell themselves for worldly possessions. The Messenger of
Allah, sallallahu alayhe wa sallam, said, "Keenness on money and worldly
belongings will ruin someone's religion more effectively than a couple of
hungry wolves can ruin in a herd of sheep, if left alone with it." (Daremi)

Ibnul Qayim said, "When people of knowledge prefer this worldly life and love
it, they will definitely say what is not true about Allah, in their fatawa,
judgments, sayings and actions." This is due to the fact that Allah's rulings
are not always in accordance with people's desires especially those in
positions of power and those who follow dubious paths. Their needs are always
fulfilled in disagreement with the Truth. If the scholars and Governors have
a liking to power and follow dubious paths, they will have their way only by
using what opposes the truth.

Beware of these two types of scholars. Those who have lost contact with
reality and those who prefer worldly affairs especially in matters concerning
jihad, enjoining the good and forbidding the evil, and everything that
concerns tyrant rulers. Ibn Taymiyah has described both types of scholars in
one saying, "It is imperative, concerning jihad, to take the opinion of the
true religious people who have experience in real life, not the people who
love this world and whose views on religion are not in depth. Their opinions
and the opinions of those scholars who lack contact with reality and life
should not be taken."

by : Abdul Qadir Abdul Aziz
al-Jumu'ah Magazine