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.