Please ENTER NOW for a chance to win greeting cards, bookmarks, and discount coupons. The contest entry period ends on July 26, 2010, with the drawing on July 29, 2010.  All who enter will receive a 15% discount coupon. Visit the Giveaway contest site for the official rules and entry form.

Everyone at Sakina Design would like to thank the organizers and attendees at the 2010 RIS (Reviving the Islamic Spirit) Convention in Long Beach, California. We had a great time meeting everyone. It was an incredible experience meeting new friends, old friends, and even long-lost friends. Insha Allah RIS becomes a fixture of the Southern California community.

We were blessed to have a booth, surrounded by great organizations. Across from us, were our friends at CAIR, working hard to protect the civil rights of Muslims, and build strong bridges with the broader American community. Please keep up the great work! Also across from us were the brothers and sisters from Al-Maghrib. A special thanks to them for entertaining our daughter and her friend! And next to us was Sandala Productions, formerly known as Alhambra Productions. It was great meeting both Shaikh Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir!

We even met some of the RIS organizers from Canada. Thanks for the kind words, insha Allah we have the opportunity to join you all in Toronto one day.

If you didn’t have the opportunity to be a part of RIS this year, please make sure you plan to attend next year. If they return to California, we will see you there insha Allah!

We will be unveiling two new lines of wall art and a set of bookmarks. These items will be exclusively for the RIS attendees to purchase.

Everyone will enjoy a tax free orders this weekend, whether you come to RIS or not. Enjoy!

Hope to see you there, insha Allah!

Mokhtar Maghraoui – Peace with the Environment

The following verse from the Qur’an also helps us to understand the importance of avoiding waste and over-consumption.

O Children of Adam! wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer: eat and drink: But waste not by excess, for Allah loveth not the wasters. (Qur’an 7:31)

Change is never easy, but we hope this information has inspired some. The Prophet (SAWS) advised us to always make changes that are easy and easy to maintain, so we suggest the following small changes that can have a large effect if we all participate.

• Recycle your paper and switch to recycled paper products – Paper waste accounts for approximately 1/3 of all household waste. This paper would otherwise go to the landfill.

• Change to electronic billing – This will also help us to minimize the amount of paper thrown into landfills.

• Use only the amount of water necessary to make wudu, shorten showers, and water lawns at night – Fresh, clean water is becoming more and more scarce, and we can help by not wasting this valuable resource.

• Turn off lights and electronics when not utilizing them, and change to energy efficient light bulbs – Remember that power plants create waste and pollution to provide that unused/wasted energy.

• Walk or ride a bike when performing local errands – Not only does this save gas and wear-and-tear on your car, but it’s also healthier.

We hope you find this helpful!  Please share your ideas and suggestions with everyone!

With Peace and Tranquility.

Whatever your plans, we thought we would take advantage of this opportunity to share some knowledge with you.

As you may know, the Prophet (SAWS) said, “The best speech is the Book of Allah (Qur’an), and the best way is the way of Muhammad (Sunnah) … ” (Bukhari). In light of this we suggest using ayat from the Qur’an and du’a of the Prophet (SAWS) in your greeting cards. So, if you know anyone getting married in the near future, maybe you can use one of these suggested greetings:

“And among His Signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that you may dwell in tranquility with them, and He has put love and mercy between your (hearts); verily in that are Signs for those who reflect.” (Qur’an 30:21)

— OR —

‘May Allah bless for you (your spouse) and bless you, and may He unite both of you in goodness.’ (Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah)

We hope you find this helpful!

In light of this we suggest using ayat from the Qur’an and du’a that the Prophet (SAWS) taught us in your greeting cards. So if you know anyone having a baby or who just had a baby, maybe you can use this suggested greeting:

“May Allah bless you with His gift to you, and may the receiver give thanks and reach the maturity of years and be granted piety.”

[The reply is to say]

“May Allah bless you, and shower His blessings upon you, and may Allah reward you well and bestow upon you its like and reward you with open hands.” (An-Nawawi)

We hope you find this helpful!

We were curious if our business decisions have done anything to help our planet. So we looked at our choice to use 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled paper versus “regular” paper. Could we really have an impact in such a short time?

Thankfully, our paper company provided us with a convenient calculator to help us determine our impact. Just by choosing to use 100% PCW paper, we have saved:

Because the paper was also made with 100% renewable energy, we saved:

Source: Neenah Green Eco-Calculator, Savatree.com, H2Ouse.org, EPA.gov.

In light of this we suggest using ayat from the Qur’an and du’a that the Prophet (SAWS) taught us, in our greeting cards. So if you know anyone going through a difficult time, maybe you can send them a card and use this greeting:

“The strong believer is better and more beloved to Allah, than the weak believer and there is goodness in both. Strive for that which will benefit you, seek help from Allah and do not despair. If a mishap should happen to befall you then do not say ‘If only I had acted….such and such would have happened’. Rather say:

‘Allah has decreed and what He wills, He does’ … for verily ‘If’ lets in the work of the devil.” (Muslim)

We hope you find this helpful!

We at Sakina Design do our best to combine the contemporary and traditional, creating a unique and elegant look. This concept goes beyond our products, permeating our entire company, including  our name and logo. Judging from the response, we’ve been successful … if not a bit confusing. Some have even asked if we’re Turkish, to which we reply … hayir.

Joking aside … we do want to spread some clarity on this issue. We’re a U.S. company based out of southern California. Our approach is to pull on traditional Islamic art and give it a contemporary look.

To represent the traditional we have taken the name ’sakina’, which is the transliteration of the Arabic word for ‘tranquility’.

And to represent the contemporary we use a very clean and modern font. The connection to the original Arabic is retained by keeping the corresponding dots of the Arabic letters. The letter ‘a’ at the end of ’sakina’ is also reversed to make it look more like its corresponding Arabic letter. All this gives our logo a somewhat Turkish appearance. A society which also bridges the eastern and western worlds.

We hope this helps to answer your questions and clarify any confusion.

With Peace and Tranquility!

In light of this we suggest using ayat from the Qur’an and du’a that the Prophet (SAWS) taught us in your greeting cards. So if you have the opportunity to thank someone, maybe you can use this suggested greeting:

Jazaakallahu khairan

‘May Allah reward you with goodness’

…then you have indeed excelled in praising him.’ (At-Tirmidhi)

We hope you find this helpful!