Being Better Worshippers

Children aged 6-8 made weaving prayer mats as part of their lesson on being better worshippers.

Age group 9-12 we learnt that;

Any act of worship must be purely for
Allah alone, otherwise it is not valid.

Sincerity means that you are acting truly

and not just doing something for the
sake of it.

For any deed to be accepted it must be

done in accordance to the Sunnah of
the Prophet (SAW).

we painted and decorated wooden 

door hangers.

Meaning of Salaah 

‘Ibaadah (worship) in Arabic means submission and humbling oneself.

 “And I (Allah) created not the jinn and mankind except that they should worship Me (Alone)”

[al-Dhaariyaat 51:56] 

The pillars of Ibaadah

Ibadaah has three pillars, without which the worship is fruitless and unacceptable.

1. Purity of intention: the Prophet (SAW) said
              “Actions are but by intention alone….”
               We, must do our ibadaah purely for Allah’s sake, otherwise our good deeds are not accepted
2.              Sincerity: We must have sincere resolve, where we strive to obey Allah and His Prophet          (SAW). Avoiding evil forbidden things.
3. Following the Messenger: Worship must be in accordance with the actions of the Prophet 

Ihsaan

Ihsaan means to worship Allah as if one sees Him, and even though one does not see Him, He sees all. Hasan al-Basree said, “By Allah, in the last twenty years, I have not said a word or taken something with my hand or refrained to take something with my hand or stepped forth or stepped back, except that I have thought before I have done any action, ‘Does Allah love this action? Is Allah pleased with this action?” So when one is fasting, one should gain this quality of watching oneself and also staying away from riyaa’ (showing off).

Allah said in a hadeeth qudsi, "Fasting is for Me and I reward it." [al-Bukhaaree] Allah singles out fasting from all other types of worship saying, "Fasting is for Me", because no one knows whether you are fasting or not, except Allah.  

Masjid At Taqwa Children and Youth Mosaic Mural project, Ramadan 2013

Goals/Good Deed Boxes

Instructions

We used cardboard box templates, but you can use any small cardboard box.

We covered ours with a Decopatch technique-just to make it more fun!

We wrote out a list of goals/good deeds, which needed to be  SMART(an acronym for, Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time bound).

We finished off by thinking through the goals/good deeds we would like to achieve. We discussed them and then wrote them onto pieces of paper and put them into our boxes as a reminder.

Here is an example of smart goals

Specific:

A goal that is specific is CLEAR. It is clear as to what is to be done. So rather than saying: “I will be more helpful to my mum” you would say: “I will clean my room every day.”

Measureable:

A measurable goal has a quality that you can measure, like a certain number of actions or a quantity. So instead of a goal that says: “I will raise money for charity”, you would say it more like this: “I will raise £10 for Gaza by the end of next week.”

Actionable:

An actionable goal is one that – yes, you’ve guessed it-needs an action to be taken. So instead of saying: “I will be a better sibling”, you would say: “I will give my sibling a genuine complement at least 5 times a week”  or “I will count to 10 before I respond to my sibling, if he/she says something that makes me angry.”

Realistic:

It’s great to set huge goals, but if there isn’t a chance that you can achieve them, then it could be a waste of time.

It’s also  a waste of time to set goals that are too easy or for something that you don’t  normally do anyway.

 A realistic goal should motivate and encourage you to do something that will take effort, but will be really rewarding when you achieve it. So instead of saying: “I will stand in prayer all night”, make your goal realistic and say something like: “I will get up one hour before Fajr to pray 2 Raka`ah (units of prayer) and Witr and then read the Qur’an until Fajr” or “I will pray all the obligatory prayers within half an hour of the time coming in for the prayer”

Time-bound:

A time-bound goal is one that has a deadline in it. You will have noticed in all the SMART goals above that there is some ‘time’ included in them.

The goals without a deadline will be part of a larger longer-term goal, such as: "I will improve my memorisation of the Quran so that I can complete surah Baqarah by next Ramadan." Remember to set a review alongside any goal so it can be reviewed to make sure you’re on track.

Assalamu alikum. We launched our Two week Ramadan club yesterday (missed two weeks due to school)
Anyway, Alhumdulillah, we're back again, and we've got an exciting two weeks ahead of us.

This year we will be learning the first 10 Ayahs of Surah Kahaf and have a jam packed schedule of all the other lessons and activities we intend to cover.
Here's what week one looks like

	Main Learning outcome		Related activities
	Learning objectives and out comes		Ages 6-8 years		Ages 9-12
Day 1	Gaining Taqwa “Fasting is a shield from the (Hell) fire like the shield of one of you in battle.” Understanding What Taqwa is Has this fasting day made us draw closer to Allah?		Children make a shield to represent the Hadith studied		Make good deed boxes. Children write a variety of good deeds which they can increase in doing over the next couple of weeks and place in a decorated ‘Good deed box’
Day2	Drawing closer to Allah Get closer to Allah by reciting and reflecting on Al-Qur’aan during night and day. “Whoever stands (for prayer at night) during Ramadaan, with faith and seeking reward, he will be forgiven for his previous sins.” [Al-Bukhaari and Muslim] Remembering Allah, sitting in circles of knowledge . “verily, in the remembrance of Allaah do hearts find rest” [13:28]		Children write out their dream duaas and share with their group.		Children given practical tips on how to complete the recitation of Quran. Maths challenge to calculate the rewards of Faatihah based on  the Hadith: "Whosoever read one letter from the Kitaab of Allah (Qur'aan), will be granted one reward for it and one is equal to ten. I do not say that Aleeef, Laam, Meem is one letter but Aleef is one letter, Laam is one letter and Meem is one letter. " [Tirmidhi]
Day 3	Having Patience and strong will Fasting teaches you to control  and restrain yourself because you have to keep away from food, drink and other wordly desires Patience and victory are twin brothers, for victory comes with patience, relief comes with distress and ease comes with hardship. The reward of patience is victory!  “Verily, I have rewarded them this Day for their patience; they are indeed the ones that are successful” [al-Mu’minoon 23:111]		Children play a variety of challenging games to test their patience.		Children are given some basic resources to build the tallest tower in a given period of time. It’s a race against time. Can they work in a team and have what it takes to complete the challenge.
Day 4	Checking our character IDENTIFY parts of character that need work, do you lie, cheat, gossip or backbite? Make dua, seek Allah's help and work hard to your bad manners. The Prophet (SAW) said, "I was sent to PERFECT good manners." [Maalik]		Children make mirror art. The identify parts of character that need work and talk about improving them.		Character Vision boards. Children brainstorm their character and come up with a range of characteristics they aspire to. They will use positive words to make a vision board.
Day 5	Remembering the poor and needy Raising Money for charity  APPRECIATE  Allah’s blessings To be grateful and GIVE THANKS for what you have.	Today children decorate pre made fabric pouches. They use fabric paints/pens. They will fill their money pouch over the week and donate their collection to charity.		In groups children come up with strategies to fund raise for charity. They must come up with a name for their group and plan a radio advert to help them fundraise. Children also make posters to advertise their cause. Over the next week they will aim to raise as much money as possible for children who are less fortunate than themselves

Ramadhan Club - Boys 12-16 First Post

The older boys Ramadhan club kicked off a couple of days ago. We have started to learn about Taqwa. We also made some name badges, with an Islamic art theme. Below is an example.

Learning the meaning of Salah

At Ramadan club we've been learning the word for word meaning of Salaah.
Here is the meaning of a supplication at the start of the prayer after takbeer.

وَ	اسْمُكَ	وتبَاركَ	كَ	بِحَمْدِ	وَ	اللّٰهُمَّ	كَ	سُبْحَانَ
and	name	and Blessed is Your	To You	Praise be	and	O Allah	you	How perfect are
			غَيْرُكَ	إِلٰهَ	لَ	وَ	جَدُّكَ	تَعَالٰى
			Except You	God/Deity worthy of worship	no	and	Your Majesty	High is

Assalamu alaikum.
We've been really busy over the last few days-Alhumdulillah.

Age group 6-8 years
We've decorated cube money boxes to collect sadaqah as well as make Islamic art patterns, learnt the dua for laylatul Qadr and made a dua list for some special duaas during the last 10 days.

Age group 9-11 years
We designed and made shields based on the hadith from Bukhari that fasting is a shield from the fire.
We also talked about how Allah loves us more than our parents-we made a dua for our parents and  beautiful heart cushions as gifts.
We've also been working on the Mural-It's messy work, but really good fun.
pictures to follow soon inshaAllah