User:Ramomu/Slmuslims
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Type of site | Community/Religious/Not-for-profit |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Created by | Three volunteer founders |
| Revenue | Funded by founders and other volunteers, and limited number of advertisements. |
| URL | http://www.slmuslims.com |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | 11th July 2007 |
SLMUSLIMS.COM also known as SLMUSLIMS and Community Portal of Sri Lanka Muslims is the largest Sri Lankan Muslim community related website. It includes news updates, weekly Jummah schedules, weekly Jummah sermons and comprehensive set of sermons/lectures delivered by leading scholars in the country and some from overseas.
The Purpose and Content
[edit]
The purpose of the site is to act as a community portal by enhancing Islamic knowledge, news updates, providing information and an avenue for interaction among the Muslim community in Sri Lanka and abroad. In tackling Islamic knowledge, the site provides a browsable and searchable online Qur'an with English translation, weekly Jummah Schedules, downloadable Jummah sermons from various Masaajid (mosques) and downloadable lectures/bayans on Islamic topics from leading Ulema and daily prayer times & prayer time tables. There is a separate section for featured article as well as pages on Hajj & Umrah, events and programs and many other Islamic downloads – currently (as of September 2009) the site holds over 400 lectures and other useful downloads. A mini directory is also available with important and useful telephone numbers.
History
[edit]SLMUSLIMS was officially launched in July 2007 by three individuals in order to serve the Sri Lanka Muslim community living in Sri Lanka and abroad. It was started and operated as a [not-for-profit], volunteer-based service well supported by the members of the Ulema (scholars) community and Muslim professionals. It grew and gained wide acceptance among the community thanks to many volunteers who supported in many ways. SLMUSLIMS remains essentially a volunteer run operation and aims to continue the same way with the great support it receives from the community. This site was entirely reliant on contributions from keen voluneers, some leading ulema and others who spend their valuable time in providing information and guidance.
SLMUSLIMS has continued to grow aided by its popularity for its contents and downloadable sermons and speeches. It currently boasts over a million unique visits since it was launched and around 5000 page views per day. It is continually improving its traffic ranking [1].
Features
[edit]Weekly Jummah Schedules
[edit]One of the main reasons for its popularity amongst muslim community in Sri Lanka was the updating of Weekly Jummah schdules respective (leading) Masaajid (mosques) in Sri Lanka, where it provides the details of the Masjid and the Alim who would deliver the Jummah sermon on that Friday. This schedule is updated by every Thursday evening. This is considered one of the unique and important feature that SLMUSLIMS disseminate via this website, where it is the only place people can find out who's delivering the sermon at which masjid. This service is facilitated by the Ulema community and some masaajid; they send their individual schedules to SLMUSLIMS representatives in advance.
Jummah Recordings
[edit]Complementing with Jummah Schedules, the visitors are keenly following the Jummah sermons that are available for listening and downloading. Usually SLMUSLIMS representatives do their own recording at Colpitty Jummah Masjid (Colombo 03) and at times in various other Masaajid in and around Colombo every Friday and soon after the Jummah prayers are over it is uploaded to the website. This feature of the site has the most keen following amongst the community, equally among men and women of all ages. These sermons are downloadable in MP3 formats and they do not have any copy rights, where visitors could distribute at their will, without making any changes to any contents.
Events & Programmes
[edit]SLMUSLIMS publishes important events and programmes related to Sri Lanka Muslims in its Events & Programmes section. Various mosques, community organisations, islamic schools, etc. contact SLMUSLIMS in advance and provide relevant details to be published in this section.
Lecture Series
[edit]The website facilitates series of lectures conducted by various scholars in the country by recording the lectures and making them available for download. Some of them include Thafseer, Thajweed lessons, etc.
Daily News Updates
[edit]The site is updated with community and Sri Lanka related latest news from various sources on a daily basis. It also has category of featured articles, which provides some interesting articles written by well-known jounralists and personalities. This section provides news of wide variety covering Sri Lankan political issues, middle eastern news, sports news and regional news. Although currently it does not have its own team of reporters/jounalists it provides important news to the visitors from other sources, essentially acting as an online news portal[2] as well.
Sri Lanka Prayer Times
[edit]A precise Prayer Time table for Sri Lanka is available on this site which is an interactive version of the prayer timetable produced by All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulema (ACJU)[1]- the Council of Islamic Theologians (the apex body of Islamic scholars in Sri Lanka). This timetable is said to be the most accurate prayer timetable for Sri Lanka.
Weekly Newsletter
[edit]The site also issues a weekly newsletter, which has proven success especially popular among the Muslims in Sri Lanka for its informative content. The Jummah schedules and headlines of recent news items in the site are included. Subscription to the newsletter can be done online on the home page of the site.
ACJU Halaal
[edit]One of the other main attractions of the site is that the site provides details of companies/products certified by the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulema (ACJU). SLMUSLIMS publishes all details pertaining to the Authority in a section of their site. New certification/renewals or removals are updated as soon as the details are received from the Halaal Certifying Authority. This page was considered the official presence of the ACJU Halaal Certification Authority on the web, until recently the official Halaal Certifying Authority website was launched.