Let's learn how to do Wudhu

This time, instead of doing 3 or 4 different things, we focused on learning just one thing. We learnt how to do wudhu.

I began by demonstrating the steps of wudhu myself. I also showed them pictures from a Darussalam book called 'My Wudu Book'.

Then I asked a few of the kids to come forward and show the rest of us how to do wudhu. I helped them if they missed something and I asked questions while they were demonstrating.

Next we saw an animated video of a boy performing wudhu.

Lastly, we did an activity that reinforced what we had learnt. The wudhu sequence game is a wonderful way to see how much the child remembers and what step comes after each one. You can download the file from this blog. There's a lot more you can find on that page, since the game is part of a wudhu lapbook, which I think is a brilliant activity for kids who are learning to do the wudhu independently.

Here is a picture of the sheets I distributed to each child. It had pictures of the wudhu steps but not in order.

I asked them to arrange the pictures in order on the sheet, show them to me (to confirm if the order was correct), number them and then paste them on the sheet. Then they could colour in the pictures.

After they were done with that, I asked them to flip over the sheet. Four things that nullify wudhu were mentioned on this side. I explained these and then they coloured this as well.

Movie and Popcorn on a Sunday Morning

I didn't post this last month because our classes had a lot of revising of our past classes. But for story time during one of the classes, I narrated the story of when Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam) first got the message of prophet hood while he was meditating in the cave Hira. The week after that I had a mini quiz on the story to see how much they remembered. Off the top of my head, here are some of them:

1. How old was the beloved Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam) at the time of this incident?

Answer: 40 years old

2. What was his first wife's name? (Also, the first woman to accept Islam)

Answer: Khadijah (RA)

3. In which month of the Islamic calender did the incident take place?

Answer: The holy month of Ramadan

4. What was the name of the mountain mentioned in the story?

Answer: Jabal Noor

5. What was the name of the cave in that mountain, which the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam) would frequently visit?

Answer: Hira

6. What would he do there? And why?

Answer: Meditate, pray and fast. He was disturbed by the ignorance and cruel behaviour of the Meccans during that time. The women, slaves, poor, orphans and widows were treated badly. It was a dark period of society and this upset the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam) greatly.

7. What was the name of the angel who appeared before him in the cave?

Answer: Angel Jibril (Alaihis-salam)

8. What did the angel say to the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam)?

Answer: IQRA! (Read!)

9. What did the Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam) reply?

Answer: I do not know how to read.

I think these questions about covered it.

This Sunday we did something fun, in connection to the story. I found this amazingly well made animated movie on the net - Muhammad - The Last Prophet. 

Since we have the class in our living room, we put some blankets over the curtains to darken the room, we played the movie on our TV screen with speakers and served popcorn as well! I wish I had time to make pretend movie tickets too. It was good fun and we learnt a lot too! We only played half the film because, given the age of our class kids, we had to keep pausing the video and explaining the scene and dialogues. InshaaAllah next week, we plan to do a quick recap of what we saw and then continue from where we stopped.

I must mention here that this whole pause and explain process was an eye-opener. As we did this, we (my husband and I) were reminding ourselves of long forgotten facts of Islamic history, relearning teachings of the holy Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam) of Islam, unconsciously and consciously connecting our lives and day to day situations to what happened over 1400 years ago and judging whether we really take react according to the teachings of Islam.

During the course of watching the film by ourselves, before we showed the kids, my husband pointed out the fact that our beloved Prophet (sallalahu alaihi wa sallam) preached in secret for three years before openly preaching Islam. This teaches us the importance of strategy and approaching a task with a well thought-out plan. When he did start openly preaching, the Muslims were boycotted by the disbelievers of Mecca for another three years. The patience of the Muslims, who suffered greatly during this period, is a lesson for all of us. How do we react on one of our 'bad days'? How do we respond to a critic? Are we truly patient during the tough times?

InshaaAllah may we all be among those who constantly strive to learn and act upon the teaching of the Sunnah.

Back from a refreshing holiday

Alhamdulillah, we just got back from an awesome two-week holiday at my parent's place. From there we got to travel a bit and visit my aunt who lives in a village close by. It was wonderful to take a break from city life and experience the beauty of nature in a rural environment. The kids had a blast, from playing in the front yard, visiting the beach, making sand castles, playing with animals, and running around all day. The holiday reminded me of the importance of family holidays. Even if it isn't possible to travel someplace far, taking a short break and doing something different as a family is such an enriching experience, SubhanAllah. This was a long over due holiday for us but we are so grateful for it. We have returned refreshed, energized and bursting with enthusiam.

I was able to conduct a 'Pillars of Islam' session for about 14 kids while I was at my parent's place. And, alhamdulillah it was a success! I can say that with certainty because at the end of the class the kids told me how much they enjoyed it and a couple of them requested that I come back soon for more such sessions. Makes it all worthwhile when I see kids enjoying learning about Islam. ALHAMDULILLAH! May Allah give me the courage and capability to continue with even better work.

At the end of the class we did a Pillars of Islam colouring sheet which I modified from Umm Abdul Basir's Creative Corner blog's awesome Pillars of Islam folder game. Here is one of the finished colouring sheet.

Eid reflections and writing therapy

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks. But I did think about it every single day. Inshaa Allah I hope to try giving the blog some more time in the future and instead of just hurriedly jotting down posts about my Sunday class, I want to make it a little personal by letting you into my mind a bit. Lots of things bubbling up there and this is the perfect sounding board to pour those thoughts and ideas on to. Writing always helps the thought process by making things clearer. Putting them out there in black and white. You can pour out your heart and then look at those nuggets of your heart from all angles and decide which ones you want to pick and take forward with you in life, which ones you want to throw away, and which ones you want to keep dormant for a while and pick up later. It's therapeutic, this art of writing. I hope inshaa Allah to instill the habit of writing in all the kids in my Sunday class. That just gave me an idea of an activity for the older kids! See what I mean?! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Eid with your loved ones. We had a fun filled but a super hectic Eid, this time. We had neighbours, friends, and family over and most importantly lots and lots of kids! By the time the last guest has left the house looks like a tornado hit it. SubhanAllah! No matter how much I sulk while cleaning up the gigantic mess, I know I wouldn't have it any other way. Eid just wouldn't be Eid if the kids didn't have a blast. I try my best to make Eid the party of the year for them! Inshaa Allah, may Allah give me the strength to continue this self-inflicted tradition year after year! :P

As I mentioned, we had neighbours and friends (Muslims and non-Muslims) as well, so I made both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. This is what my Eid menu looked like:

1. Jeera rice
2. Chicken Angarey
3. Mutton Koftas
4. Malai chicken kabab
5. Paneer chili fry
6. Bhindi fry
7. Tamatar Baingan
8. Dahi wada
9. Raita
10. Sheerkurma

Yes, yummy! And yes, my legs were killing me when I was done. :)

The Sunday after Eid we had a potluck party after the class. The kids were so excited about getting something yummy from home. It was lovely to see them all gather around and share a meal together. I hadn't taken down my Eid party decorations so that they get the feel of Eid and we played a few beautiful nasheeds, just loud enough so that the neighbours don't complain. :)

Preparing for Eid ul Adha!

Lots of excitement in the air during these wonderful 10 days of Dhul Hajj. In my Sunday class too we spoke about Eid ul Adha, the different names it is known by in our country (Bakri Eid, Qurbani Eid, Badi Eid), about doing ghusl on the morning of Eid, wearing new lovely clothes, going to the masjid or eidgah for Eid salaat, about the yummy food prepared on that day. I told them a fun and silly way of greeting everyone this Eid. Since the sheep has a lot of significance for us on Eid ul Adha, I told them to greet like a sheep! Eid Mubaaaarak! :)

I told them the story of Eid. Ibrahim alaihi salaam's great sacrifice and why the sheep is significant. The younger ones then did a sheep craft which they enjoyed a lot, as they bleated Eid Mubaaaarak to each other!

We began learning the meaning of the Surah Al Fatihah - ayah by ayah. We covered the first four ayat today and in shaa Allah hope to finish the rest next week.

Next week in shaa Allah the class will be shortened to an hour, since we will have a pot luck Eid party after that!

Until then, here's wishing all the Muslim's around the world EID MUBAAAAAARAK!!!

Prophet Muhammad Sallalahu alaihi wa sallam

I couldn't post last week since we had a busy Sunday. We had a family picnic with R's family and boy! did we have fun! I thought I would put up the post any day during the week but have been swamped with work, alhamdulillah. One blessed and wonderful addition to my days is a Tajweed class I have begun at my home for women, every Tuesday evening. Unlike the kid's Sunday class, Tajweed is not something that I imagined I would teach. The first reason being that I am no expert. But I have learnt Tajweed from my mother. And when I spoke to a mom of one of the kids in my class, I learnt that there were a few people interested in learning. My first thought was to find a proper learned instructor who would teach us. But this looked unlikely. So I settled for Plan B. I began relearning and revising the rules of Tajweed in order to teach 'basic' Tajweed to these women. And alhamdulillah, in the process, teach myself and my kids proper Qur'an recitation. All of you reading this, please please make dua' for me and pray that I will be able to do a decent job of this new responsibility. InshaaAllah!

Now coming to our Sunday class, last week we had a surprise quiz. I quizzed them on the things we had already learnt. The questions were very basic but things that need to be engraved in the heart of every little Muslim.

1. Who is Allah?
2. Who is your Lord?
3. Who made everything that exists?
4. What is the name of the last Prophet of Allah?
5. What is the name of our Holy Book?
6. Which language is the Qur'an in?
7. How many pillars of Islam are there?
8. What are the pillars of Islam?
9. What is the Shahadah?
10. What does it mean?
11. What is meant by Salaat?
12. How many Salaat in a day?

It was very rewarding to hear the little ones stand up, as their name was called out, and then answer the question.

The children have often heard the name of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw) and I have taught them to say Sallalahu alaihi wa sallam. But learning about the Prophet's (saw) life and listening to stories about him is an important way of instilling love for him and true iman into our hearts.

So I told them the story of Prophet Muhammad's (saw) birth. We talked about the desert's of Arabia in the old times, about the people, the clothes they wore, their livelihood, the animals, the scarcity of water, the heat, the customs and traditions of the time and the ignorance of the people. Then we spoke of his birth and how the desert sky lit up that night, as nature celebrated the arrival of this special little baby boy, who was named Muhammad - The Praised One.

As an activity related to the story, we had a camel colouring sheet. We spoke about the camel - the ship of the desert and how it could go many days without food and water because of its humps.

Second Pillar - Salah

Today I gave an introduction to the second pillar of Islam - Salah.

Namaz is the word they are more familiar with but I tried to repeat the word Salah or Salat enough times throughout the class for them. Here's a summary of what we learnt:

1. There are five prayers (Salah) in a day.
2. They are prayed at certain prescribed timings which fall during the morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and night.
3. These prayers are compulsory for a Muslim because Allah had commanded us to perform them.
4. The names of the five prayers are Fajr, Zohr, Asr, Magrib and Isha.
5. We can pray at any clean place. (I showed them a prayer mat that we use to pray at home.)
6. To pray, we face towards the Kaabah (showed them a picture and explained)which is in Makkah, a city in Saudi Arabia.

7. We find the Qibla, or direction of prayer, with the help of a compass or Qibla finder (I passed around a compass for them to see the needle move).
8. Salah involves certain postures including the Rukoo and Sujood. (All the kids had a go at demonstrating the Rukoo and Sujood on the prayer mat).

We also spoke about how Salah benefits us:

1. To bring people closer to Allah
2. To keep human beings from doing indecent, shameful and forbidden things
3. To purify the heart, develop the mind and comfort the soul
4. To remind people constantly of Allah and His greatness
5. To develop discipline and will power
6. To guide people to the most upright way of life
7. To show equality, unity and brotherhood
8. To promote patience, courage, hope and confidence
9. To train people in cleanliness, purity and punctuality
10. To develop gratitude and humility
11. To show obedience and thankfulness to our Creator

We then sang the following song to learn the names of the five prayers (to the tune of Bits of Paper):

Fajr, Zohr
Asr, Magrib
And Isha
And Isha
I pray five times
I pray five times
In a day
In a day.


Then it was time for an activity related to these names. I found the activity sheets here.

The five daily salaat book ,illlustrates the position of the sun for each prayer.

As usual, we ended this wonderfully productive class with yummy, healthy dates!