Get Smarter: 2015

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Seerah of the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) by Sh. Yasir Qadhi compressed mp3 download

Salaam Alaykum (Peace be upon you),

Thanks for visiting this page, if you are looking for Seerah(biography) of the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) by Sh. Yasir Qadhi compressed mp3 download, this is for you. There are few other websites that provide audio/video downloads, but none I found were compressed.

I downloaded the original videos from YouTube and then used a software to compress. One reason was that this way I could compress the whole seerah into 2 CDs. The other reason was to save disk space on mobile phones. So, here you are, go ahead download them onto your phones, listen them while walking, working out, cooking, driving, waiting for someone. Don't forget to burn CDs and distribute among your friends, relatives. May Allah(s.w.t) accept from all of us.

Do leave your comments if you find any mistakes. I will update rest of the episodes depending on the interest/response from the netizens, in sha Allah

NOTE: To download, just click on the links/titles below. The first 50 episodes take 444MB

001_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 1 - Specialities of Prophet Muhammed - Yasir Qadhi _ April 2011.mp3

002_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 2 - Specialities of Prophet Muhammed Part 2 - Yasir Qadhi _ May 20.mp3

003_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 3 - Why study the Seerah_ & Pre-Islamic Arabia - Yasir Qadhi _ May.mp3

004_1Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 4 - Religious status of the world before Islam - Yasir Qadhi _ Jun.mp3

004_2_Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 4_2 - Genealogy & Year of the Elephant ~ Dr. Yasir Qadhi - 14th Jan 2015.mp3

005_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 5 - The Birth of Prophet Muhammed & Why Arabia_ - Yasir Qadhi _ Ju.mp3

006_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 6 - The early childhood of Prophet Muhammed - Yasir Qadhi _ June 2.mp3

007_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 7 - The early manhood of Prophet Muhammed - Yasir Qadhi _ Septembe.mp3

008_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 8 - Marriage to Khadija & Re-building Kaa'ba - Yasir Qadhi _ Sept .mp3

009_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 9 - Zayd ibn Harithah & Beginning of Revelation - Yasir Qadhi _ Se.mp3

010_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 10 - The Second Revelation - Yasir Qadhi _ October 2011.mp3

011_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 11 - Declaration of Prophethood - Yasir Qadhi _ October 2011.mp3

012_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 12 - Opposition from the Quraysh - Yasir Qadhi _ October 2011.mp3

013_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 13 - Torture and persecution of the weak - Yasir Qadhi _ November .mp3

014_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 14 - Torture to the Prophet & Abyssinia - Yasir Qadhi _ November 2.mp3

015_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 15 - The Incident of the Satanic Verses - Yasir Qadhi _ November 2.mp3

016_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 16 - The second migration to Abyssinia - Yasir Qadhi _ November 20.mp3

017_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 17 - Conversion of Omar & Hamza and Boycott - Yasir Qadhi _ Decemb.mp3

018_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 18 - Death of Khadija & Abu Talib - Yasir Qadhi _ January 2012.mp3

019_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 19 - Incident of Ta'if - Yasir Qadhi _ January 2012.mp3

020_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 20 - Night Journey & Ascension to Heavens 1 - Yasir Qadhi _ Januar.mp3

021_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 21 - Night Journey & Ascension to Heavens 2 - Yasir Qadhi _ Februa.mp3

022_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 22 - Night Journey & Ascension to Heavens 3 - Yasir Qadhi _ Februa.mp3

023_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 23 - Planting the seeds for Yathrib - Yasir Qadhi _ February 2012.mp3

024_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 24 - The Covenant of Women & War protection - Yasir Qadhi _ Februa.mp3

025_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 25 - The Early Emigration to Madinah - Yasir Qadhi _ March 2012.mp3

026_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 26 - The Hijrah - Emigration to Madinah - Yasir Qadhi _ March 2012.mp3

027_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 27 - Lessons from Hijrah Blessings of Madinah - Yasir Qadhi _ Marc.mp3

028_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 28 - Introduction to the Madani Phase - Yasir Qadhi _ March 2012.mp3

029_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 29 - The Beginning of the Madani Era - Yasir Qadhi _ April 2012.mp3

030_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 30 - Building of the first Mosques in Islam - Yasir Qadhi _ April .mp3

031_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 31 - The People of As-Suffa - Yasir Qadhi _ April 2012.mp3

032_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 32 - The Treaty & Constitution of Madinah - Yasir Qadhi _ May 2012.mp3

033_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 33 - Change of the Qiblah & Abrogation in Qur'an - Yasir Qadhi _ M.mp3

034_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 34 - The Preparation for Badr - Yasir Qadhi _ May 2012.mp3

035_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 35 - The Battle of Badr 1 - Yasir Qadhi _ 10th October 2012.mp3

036_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 36 - The Battle of Badr 2 - Yasir Qadhi _ 17th October 2012.mp3

037_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 37 - The Battle of Badr 3 - Yasir Qadhi _ 24th October 2012.mp3

038_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 38 - The Battle of Badr 4 - Yasir Qadhi _ 31st October 2012.mp3

039_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 39 - The Battle of Badr 5 - Yasir Qadhi _ 7th November 2012.mp3

040_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 40 - The Battle of Badr 6 - Yasir Qadhi _ 14th November 2012.mp3

041_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 41 - The Battle of Badr 7 - Yasir Qadhi _ 28th November 2012.mp3

042_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 42 - Events between Badr & Uhud - Yasir Qadhi _ 5th December 2012.mp3

043_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 43 - Assassination of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf - Yasir Qadhi _ 12th Dec .mp3

044_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 44 - Summary of Meccan period - Yasir Qadhi _ 9th January 2013.mp3

045_Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 45 - The Battle of Uhud Part 1 - Yasir Qadhi _ 23rd January 2013.mp3

046_Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 46 - The Battle of Uhud Part 2 (with Maps) - Yasir Qadhi _ 30th Ja.mp3

047_Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 47 - Martyrdom of Hamza _ Uhud Part 3 - Yasir Qadhi _ 6th February.mp3

048_Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 48 - Muhammad Injured _ Uhud Part 4 - Yasir Qadhi _ 13th February .mp3

049_Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 49 - The Battle of Uhud Part 5 - Yasir Qadhi _ 20th February 2013.mp3

050_Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 50 - Massacres of Al Raji & Bir Ma'una - Yasir Qadhi _ 27th Februa.mp3

051_Seerah of Prophet Muhammad - Background of the wives of Muhammad - Yasir Qadhi _ 6th March.mp3
52 - Expulsion of Banu Nadheer - Yasir Qadhi - 13th March 2013.mp3
53 - Expedition of al-Muraysi & Banu al-Mustaliq - Yasir Qadhi _ 20th March 2013.mp3
54 - Return from Al-Muraysi' & Slander of Aisha P1 - Yasir Qadhi _ 3rd April 2013.mp3
55 - The Slander of Aisha (ra) Part 2 - Yasir Qadhi _ 10th April 2013.mp3
56 - The Battle of Khandaq_Ahzab - Dr. Yasir Qadhi _ 17th April 2013.mp3

057_Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 57 - The Battle of Khandaq_Ahzab p2 - Dr. Yasir Qadhi _ 24th April 2013.mp3
058_Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 58 - The Battle of Khandaq_Ahzab p3 - Dr. Yasir Qadhi _ 1st May 2013.mp3
059_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 59 - the_battle_of_khandaq_ahzab_p4_dr_yasir_qadhi_8th_may_2013.mp4.mp3
060_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 60_the_tribe_of_banu_quraytha_dr_yasir_qadhi_15th_may_2013.mp4.mp3
061_Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 61_minor_expeditions_between_khandaq_hudaybiyyah_dr_yasir_qadhi.mp4.mp3
Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 62_between_the_battle_of_khandaq_hudaybiyya_p1_dr_yasir_qadhi.mp4.mp3
Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 63_the_treaty_of_hudaybiyya_part_2_dr_yasir_qadhi_11th_sept_2013.mp4.mp3
Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 64_the_treaty_of_hudaybiyya_part_3_dr_yasir_qadhi_18th_sept_2013.mp4.mp3

065 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 65_the_treaty_of_hudaybiyya_part_4_dr_yasir_qadhi_25th_sept_2013
066 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 66_the_treaty_of_hudaybiyya_part_5_dr_yasir_qadhi_2nd_oct_2013
067 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 67_the_battle_of_khaybar_part_1_dr_yasir_qadhi_9th_oct_2013
068 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 68_the_prophet's_marriage_to_zaynab_dr_yasir_qadhi_23rd_oct_2013
069 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 69_the_battle_of_khaybar_part_2_dr_yasir_qadhi_30th_oct_2013
070 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 70_letters_to_various_rulers_dr_yasir_qadhi_6th_november_2013

071 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 71_umrah_al_qadah_dr_yasir_qadhi_13th_november_2013

072 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 72_battle_of_mu_39_tah_part_1_4th_december_2013

073 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 73_battle_of_mu_39_tah_part_2_11th_december_2013

074 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 74_recap_battle_of_dhat_al_salasil_5th_feb_2014

075 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 75_the_conquest_of_makkah_part_1_19th_feb_2014

076 Seerah of Prophet Muhammad 76_the_conquest_of_makkah_part_2_26th_feb_2014

Friday, April 24, 2015

87, 89 and 91: Which fuel grade?

- Wanted my car to run longer, so even though my car manual suggested to use 87 grade fuel, I had used 89 for 3 years. On one fine day, decided to search more on the net and found that the best way to go forward is to use 87 grade instead as suggested. I have learned that using higher grade fuel is not going to benefit the engine because of the way it's designed.

So which fuel grade do you use? Do you follow the car manual? Do you think higher grade fuel helps the engine? Do share your comments below.

Boost your online productivity

- Enough said about browser wars and enough jokes on IE. In this blog I will be talking about browser extensions I use and how they can help boost your productivity and potentially save some bucks.

For those who are new to browser extensions, they are neat little programs that can be added to your browsers and are designed to do some specific task. I mostly use Chrome browser and it's extensions can be downloaded from here. Following are the ones I am using currently.

LastPass: Free to use on Desktop/Laptop but costs you $1/mo on mobiles. This utility frees you from the burden of remembering all your passwords. It also generates strong and unique passwords for you to use, so that you don't have to have one password for various logins. You don't even have to type the passwords during login, LastPass does it for you automatically. I find this especially useful on mobile phones since I am a heavy mobile phone user for browsing. Why don't you try it out here?
Cloudy Calculator: As the name suggests, this is a simple calculator add-on where in you can do your calculations and also see your calculations history. I find this better than doing it in the browser omnibar
Chrome Notepad: How many times have you scrambled for a paper to write down your friend's number or address? And how many times have you misplaced it? This is why I find this extension to be very useful, to jot down to refer later.
PriceBlink: You are shopping for a smartphone on Amazon and what if you are told that the phone is cheaper by $50 on eBay? Wouldn't you buy from eBay? This is what PriceBlink does. It tells you promptly if the same product is being sold for cheaper somewhere else or if you have found the best price, so that you don't get into buyer's remorse later.
WebOfTrust: Remember those distracting ads on your favorite website for weight loss? Or the

get rich quick secrets? Once you click those ads, they will not cut to the chase and instead throw crap at you. Worse, if you are having a bad day, your system might even be infected with malware/virus. Web of Trust (WOT) helps you in this regard by letting you know how trustworthy and safe the website is. You can even add your rating, comments for others to be safe.

Check the reputation before you browse
Adblock Plus: What if there is a way to block the above mentioned annoying ads altogether which you routinely see on your favorite websites? Adblock Plus is one such extension which blocks ads on most of the websites and keeps you focused and safe.
Ebates and FatWallet: These extensions make it easy for you to earn cashback while shopping online. To learn more about these extensions, please refer to my earlier post on how to earn cashback.
Hover Zoom: This extension helps you zoom into the pictures without clicking on them. Very useful if you just want to briefly look at a picture without annoying new browser windows.
Camel Camel Camel: One of the best apps to shop at Amazon. This app tracks most of the product prices since their inception on Amazon. So the next time you shop at Amazon, you can easily find out if the current price is the lowest or highest and postpone your purchase. You can even set price drop alerts so that you can buy them for lower price.

CamelCamelCamel: Your ticket to save on Amazon

There are few other extensions like Flag for Chrome, which provides country or region name, Google PageRank, Alexa Rank for the current website and Honey which shows you coupons for the site you are currently shopping. I do not use them often though.

So, which of the extensions do you use ? Do mention them in the comments below.

Save on your auto insurance and utilities

- Who does not want to save money on their utilities?

I pay about $1K per year for auto insurance, but it used be higher. One obvious way to reduce is to avoid bad remarks on your driving history. Other option is to combine your auto with rental insurance. I use one other less known approach. Most of the auto insurance companies (well, at least two that I know of) give you the option to track your driving habits over a few months using a plugin device. Depending on the driving times, speed, number of hard brakes, they classify you as a safe/careless driver and then give you a discount on the policy. The first time I tried, I got over 25% discount. But the sad part of the story is that they offer you this discount only once, meaning when you renew, they will not allow you to get further discount on top of the existing discount.

So what I do is switch to a different provider for a few days even though the new quote is higher. I will then move back to the initial provider who provided the above discount and enroll in their discount program. This way when you start off the second time, your base rate will be near to the first time's discounted price. So, you can get deeper discount. Sometimes providers try to tell you that the longer you stay the "premium" member you are and hence cheaper the quote, but I found this benefit to be far worthless than the above approach. But you might want to check that too.

Another utility that I hate to pay too much is Internet connection. Sure, the more you bundle, the more you save. But I don't use cable, home phone. So not much options for me in those terms. What I do is switch internet providers once a year or so. Most of the times, when there is no monopoly, providers run special offers like $19.99/mo for the first 12 months and on contract. So, I hunt for such offers each year and signup. At the end of the contract, I call the customer loyalty department to cancel my service since they now jacked up the price. Often times, they provide you with an offer to retain you. Like I got $29.99/mo for another 12 months contract. Which is much better than $54.99 regular price. So, the next time your provider increases the price, call the customer loyalty department

Regarding electricity bill reduction, I have one BKM. Sure, you can install solar or use less power but this is not possible for all. In my case, I signed up for Time-Of-Day plan, which essentially charges a premium for your usage from 3-6pm. So I try to avoid heavy usage in this period [sure, your wife does not care :) ] This saves a few $$.

So, what's your BKM? How do you save money on your utilities? Please share them in the comments.

Credit Score and free money

- As you know, you can request your free creditscore once an year from each of the three credit bureaus at www.annualcreditreport.com. But, most of us need to know our score more than once a year for, let's say your mortgage, credit card application etc. For these reasons, I suggest you two great websites: creditkarma.com and creditsesme.com. Both provide your creditscores more than once a month, so you get to know your score whenever you want for free. They also provide free alerts like bill dues, charges, deposits etc. I certainly recommend them if you have not yet used. This way you are not in the dark regarding your credit history.

I consider anything above 750 to be a good score, however there are about 34% population with score 750 and above. Now that you know your creditscore, why not use it for your good? If you have not opted out yourself from www.optoutprescreen.com, you should be receiving credit card offers in your mail. But don't just apply for each and every card for one you will be damaging your credit score and secondly, they might not deserve you. Most of the credit cards offer signup bonus when you open a new account. So keep checking your mailbox for such offers.

Look no further if you want huge signup bonus

If you have been discarding such mails, I suggest to look into Chase Freedom offer of $150 cashback after you spend $500 in the first three months. You can sign up here. If you have a score of about ~720, there are good chances to get approved. The best part with the Freedom card is 5% cashback on categories that change each quarter, so in no time you will start earning on your favorite purchases.This card does not carry any annual fee

Or, if you rather prefer 1.5% cashback on all purchases, you have Chase Freedom Unlimited. This card too offers $150 cashback after you spend $500 in the first three months. You can sign up here

If you want to go big, you can apply for American Express Premier Rewards Gold card. It will earn you 25,000 Membership Rewards® points after you use your new card to make $2,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership. You can apply here

Signing up for creditkarma.com and creditsesme.com accounts gets you personalized offers like 0% apr, if you are planning to make big purchases.

Your personalized credit offers

You can make similar bonuses through bank accounts as well. For example, Chase often sends out $100-$200 bonus offer in mail if you open their checking or savings account.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Earn while shopping!FREE $25

- How often have you read/seen/heard people couponing to the penny ?! Well, not that I suggest you do the same due to the effort involved. However, there is an alternative, not to save but to earn, while shopping.

When I first heard about 'earn while shop', like most people, didn't bother due to the assumption that the earnings would be pennies. True, the earnings would not be much most of the times. But the pennies add upto dollars in no time, trust me. Anyway, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a 1000 words, here is a picture of my earnings:

Ebates Cashback in 2 years

Here you go, $700 in about 2 years! So, how does it work? Simple.You need to shop through the below mentioned cashback websites. Just search and click your shopping site(ex: Amazon) in your favorite cashback website (eg: Ebates) and then make your purchase.

There are numerous cashback websites. Some give you direct cash. Some reward you with points, which then can be redeemed for gift cards, cash. Most are free, some are paid.

Here are the ones I use, which pay cash and free to join:

Ebates: My favorite, most reliable and 'generous'. Free to join and they even reward you with $10 gift card or $5 cash when you use them. Customer service is great too.

Free $10 gift card when you join & use ebates
TopCashBack: Free to join but not so good to track the cashback activity. I had to contact customer care to get the missing cashback. New users get $5 Amazon gift card bonus
BeFrugal: Get $10 when you join and use the site. Free to join as well.

So, you will get FREE $25 if you join the above mentioned websites and shop!

Another reason I use so many websites is that the cashback amount varies across them. So I look through all of them to see which one's offering the best cashback, especially when making a big purchase, and then shop through that site.

Do leave a comment below if you got any question or like to share your experience.

What in the world is a BKM?

Is my solution the best out there?

- I am starting this blog to let the world know (and remind myself) some of my best known methods (BKMs) ranging from travel to shopping to computers troubleshooting and everything in between.

Since no human is omniscient, I will be posting my unresolved problems/issues here so that others can share their BKMs as well.

Here's to the many BKMs to come