Are you prepared for Ramadan???

Assalamu Aalikum Everyone, A special Dua for all Allahuma Balighna Ramadan {O Allah Allow us to Reach Ramadan}

Are You Prepared????

Let's do it together inshaAllah. Alhumdullillah, the blessed month of mercy, Ramadan is approaching us very soon once again this year, inshaAllah. Just like when we have special guest coming over we makes lists of things to make, to clean and to do with them, the same way, we have to prepare ourselves (bodies and souls), our families and our homes for this month of mercy. InshaAllah in the next few posts I'll be sharing some ideas on how to Ramadan ready

Last year I had the opportunity to organize a Ramadan workshop for children 7 and up with a dear friend Aasiya's Homeschool in Toronto, Canada. This year since we have moved to a new place, we are planning things according to where we are inshaAllah.

This was the layout of workshop from last year, for those who may be interested.

• Virtues of the month of Ramadan
• Caring about our food, body and environment
• Mindfulness in Ramadan
• Spirituality and Connecting with the Quran, (since this is the month of The Quran)
• A small take home project, goal sheet, and acts of kindness sheet

This year the group of children I am working with are all under 9, but an extraordinary bunch mashaAllah. We also have a very unique situation, so we are trying to get our minds around how we can make the most out what we have and where we are inshsaAllah. 

So with a peak inside what we did last year (which I wasn't able to blog about) and touch of what we plan to do this year Be'eznillahi Tala... I will end.

Stay tuned...

Prioritizing & Reconnecting at deeper level with the Quran

Starting  each day with the recitation of the Quran puts ones heart at peace and in a state of calmness. This helps one to take on the challenges of the day and stay focused on the important things. The most beautiful part is every time one opens the Quran there are lessons and reminders for one to hold on to and work on for the day. 

The goal should be quality not quantity. Reading half a page, a page or two, but reading with understanding is important. If one doesn't understand Arabic then reading a translation can be useful. Trying and testing different amounts and seeing what works best can be helpful. 

As Muslims parents everyday we strive to instill in our kids the love of Quran and the Sunnah. What we forget is... If they don't see us loving Quran - by spending "one on one time" with it (I am sure we as parents are very familiar with this phrase) how exactly  do we expect them to love it.  If they don't see us turning to the Quran when we are overcome by negative emotions so we can return to our normal states. How will they learn to channel their emotions in a positive manner, or control them. To function at our optimal level we have to first and foremost connect ourselves with Allah and Quran. Having this spiritual connection can help us see this world and the people around us from a whole new lens.

I just have too much on my plate and that is the case of most moms. So I have set a goal to read one double  sided  page a day no matter where I am and how busy the day ahead might seem. I feel so dependent on it that if I miss it I feel out of place in all my roles as a woman, Or more like everything feels out of place. 

Every time before sitting with the Quran I just remind the kids that it Mama's time for what Allah created us for, if they need something I will listen to them after I am done. Of course, it took them some practice but now Alhumdulillah it so amazing,  while iI recite they quietly listen Mashaa-Allah. Before I use to explain in simple words to them that "Allah SWT created us only to worship Him, pray to Him and to read understand and implement the Quran. There are other important  things that we have to do but before all that comes Allah. And when pleasing Allah is our goal then Allah SWT helps us with everything " 

Here is a glimpse of the reminder I got from my time with Quran today. 

He said, "I only complain of my suffering and my grief to Allah , and I know from Allah that which you do not know. {Yusuf:86}

How is that you spend time with the Quran and make it an important of your day?

A beautiful reminder!

In the recent years we have heard a lot of talks about what is happening around us, our homes, people, envoirnment, and children, most of which are tangilbe. We/others can see them and  feel them, therefore we are easily pulled to focus on them. On contrary our inner state, our soul, is intangible and we tend to very easily forget about it. The only one who knows about our inner state is us and Allah SWT.  We often find ourselves too busy trying to appear clean and neat, watching out for what our bodies consume and what's in our environment. We are too busy with purifying/cleaning/cleansing our external and in that busy process we conveniently neglect our internal purification/cleaning/cleansing. What is this internal purification?? The Purification of our Souls and Hearts.

It's VERY important to remember that as Muslims all our outward actions are always a means to our inward purification. The actions we do with our limbs (tangible) leave a lasting effect on our hearts and souls. Let us be true to ourselves... and accept that a LOT of times we tend to focus souly on our external on the expense of our inward. A good example of this could be, we delay our prayers to the LAST moment in order to complete a (tangible) task at hand.

Salah (prayer) is one of the first steps to purifying oneself internally. So if we try to perfect our Salah our internal soul will inevitably be purified and be at peace. Salah purifies us in many ways from sins, evil thoughts, diseases of hearts, and helps us attain the pleasure of Allah SWT, which should be our primary focus.

There is no harm in focusing on the external, what needs to be understood is that the outward actions are only a means to obeying Allah SWT, and attaining His pleasure. We have to purify our intention for every act we do. Salah is one thing that lets us connect to Allah SWT, when we say Takbeer Ihram {Allahu Akbar} we cut ourselves from this duniya and focus only on Him Azawajllah. We should always be mind full of Him, pause here for a second and ask yourselves...How many times is that the case with us in this fast paced lifestyle we have adapted.

Is there anything wrong with purifying/cleaning/cleansing our external? No, absolutely not.  Allah SWT says in the Quran "Allah Loves those who purify themselves" {9:108}. Prophet Muhammad SAW said: "Purification is half of Faith" {Muslim}. What we have to remember is that these purifications also refer to the internal cleanse, the cleanse of our soul and heart.

Let us try to perfect our Salah and focus more on our inward then outward... and you will be AMAZED to see how Allah SWT makes all your outward/external matters fall into the right place.

7 steps to a successful prayer

This is a small and beautiful reminder a friend had posted, which provoked a lot of these thoughts in my mind and heart. Lets us try to treat Salah as our getaway from this duniya and not a chore of our fast paced life. Lets us run after Allah SWT and not this duniya. Let us be Dynamic in our Salah!

As our beloved Prophet SAW said "...coolness of my eyes is in prayer". I ask Allah SWT to make the coolness of our eyes the prayer as well and not this duniya and its fame. Ameen.

I have a game plan to try to perfect my Salah inshaAllah, I want to make short but consistent goals with the permission of Allah SWT. I'll let you all know inshaAllah.

What are you going to do to perfect your Salah? Please share and let others benefit as well.

Adam (a.s)

So we started off with Adam (a.s). Here are the things we covered.

1.    Read Adam (a.s) story books (we have 2 from Darussalam)

2.    5 Questions

• Who was the first human Allah (swt) created?
• Adam (a.s)
• What did Allah (swt) make Adam (a.s) from?
• Clay
• What did Allah (swt) teach him?
• Names of everything (I used the Ayah as well from Surah al-Baqarah
• Who did not do sajjdah to Adam (a.s)
• Iblees
• Who is Ibees?
• Shaitan
• What did Allah (swt) made shaitan from?
• Fire
• Who was Adam (a.s) wife?
• Hawa (a.s)
• Where did they live?
• In Jannah
• What did shaitan do?
• He made them disobey Allah, and took them out of Jannah.
• Where was their new home?
• On the earth.
• What did Adam (a.s) do after he made a mistake by listening to shaitan?
• He did Tawbah (asked Allah to forgive him and his wife)
• Did Allah (swt) for give them?
• Yes, Allah is Ghafurur-Raheem. He forgives everyone who repents to him sincerely (explained sincerely)
• Who is our GREATEST enemy?
• Shaitan

3.   Watched the Habeel and Kabeel Youtube video

4.   Listened and read some ayat from the Quran that covered the story of Adam (a.s)

• Important note: I did not force him to read or listen. He read until he didnt want to read anymore and then I just read the rest trying to make sure he could hear me.

5. Craft

• For the craft I want to keep it to something related to the story we are doing. So for this we worked with clay and talked about different types of clay and how Allah (swt) has made us with clay. 
• We made a Hand print in clay for AR. I had been wanting to make this for keepsake for a really long time, this worked as a good opportunity.
• We also made a small car, since AR loves cars.

AR chose this color although I did not like it but I let him tell me how he wanted it. In his room most of his things are olive greeny...it still has a green hue!! He did most of the work, but the things that he was not able to do I helped him with them or guided him to do them. 

He wanted to add a white hand print. I still have to make our daughters, InshaAllah when I do that I will post pictures of it as well.

  

Please do advice for any thing we can add/change/subtarct for next time.

Hiifz Tree

I have been wanting to keep a log for AR's Hifz and Dua memorizing. So here is what we decided to do for his Quran hifz. This idea popped in my mind after I saw a Juz Amma hifz tree on Muslim Stickers. I would love to have it but I don't have any ways of getting it until the summer. So I decided to make our own hifz tree!!

We made a tree out of construction paper and stuck it on his wall in his room.

We will write the names of the surahs on these little foam clouds InshaAllah

Still thinking of some creative way to log his duas. Please share how you keep a log of your children's memorization.