0 Ramadan 1436 (2015)

Subhanallah! We are awaiting for a great month, a most blessed month, in which is a night greater in values and goodness than a thousand months.

Kids are happy to meet the valuable month with their awesome bulletin board to be filled each day Insha Allah.

Sometimes it feels bored to make same kind of projects again and again but, these kinds of activities really makes it interesting for them to spend their time usefully in this blessed month for the purpose of filling the blanks to compete with each other as it will be displayed in the board. Also the activities may be the first time for my younger ones.

The Quran tree is with thirty leaves to be colored each day for each Juz Big sister has completed. The first juz leaf is colored with the hope that she will do it Insha Allah.

Then the Salwath and Dhikr chart to be filled by both, Big sister and Little princess. The things that nullify the fast and the Ramadan verbs are from dear sister Umm Maimunas Ramadan acivity pack which we used last year and thought that it will be familiar for them when it is visible in the board.

Little princess has to translate and fill each verb as she learns and the Saum tracker basket is to track how many she has fasted. Hope that the basket will be full with yummy cherries at the end of the month Insha Allah.

Oh, this is my little soldier’s beautiful Ramadan tracker in a car as the little boy is mad with cars. He is always curious, asking me how many days are left for Ramadan, and I know that he is going to repeat the same question with me asking how many days are left for eid to test my patience with my fast.

Yes, now he himself can have the track of the days Insha Allah.

Finally, our cute little sister’s lovely Ramadan balloon just to make her happy as she wants to do something when her siblings do.

May Allah help us reach this blessed month with sound health and fulfill our Ibadas in a way that will please our Lord!

1 Arabic Alphabet Craft (1)

Alhamdulillah, Little Soldier has completed the Arabic alphabets and moved onto combining letters. “Oh, now starts my great job”.  Any way I am convinced what the hadith says and I do hope that I will be listed among those who spend time for Quran about whom the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was proud of. Insha Allah.

I wanted to make the learning interesting by making alphabet crafts. But as the little boy is already familiar with the Arabic alphabet song which goes as:

Alif is for Allah
Baa is for Bismillah
Thaa is for Thaqwa etc…

Link to the video 

So, we couldn’t make appropriate craft for the word and finally ended up with this stuff which worked out well for him to remember each alphabet well and improve his fine motor skills too. The alphabet will be on the bulletin board until he is familiar.

Hope that the stuff what they make now will remind them of the past sweet childhood memories in future Insha Allah.

 (Click on the image for larger view)

May Allah bless them with a healthy, long life!

This is what was gifted by Abi for completing the alphabets.

May Allah accept our efforts and make us and our off springs among the followers of the Quran and Sunnah of the beloved!

3 Tajweed Resources

Or make it a little more and recite the Qur’an clearly with tartil (in a distinct and measured tone). [73:4]

عَنْ يَعَلَى بْنِ مَمْلَك رضى الله عنه، أَنَّهُ سَأَلَ أُمَّ سَلَمَةَ رضى لله عنها، عَنْ قِرَاءَةِ رَسُولِ اللهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم، فَإِذَا هِيَ تَنْعَتُ قِرَاءَةً مُفَسَّرَةً حَرْفًا حَرْفًا‏.‏

Ya'laa bin Mamlak رضى الله عنه says:"He asked Ummul Mu'mineen Sayyiditina Ummi Salamah رضى لله عنها about the recital of Rasulullah صلى الله عليه وسلم. She replied: "He recited every word separately and clearly". [Thirmidi]

Alhamdulillah all praise due to Allah for guiding and granting us the opportunity to learn and teach.

The Holy Quran, it the word of the mighty and it's every syllable is from him, it's recitation must be taken very seriously. The rights and dues of Quran are many, by learning Tajweed, Insha Allah we can perfect ourselves from making mistakes in the recitation of the Quran, as it is fard-ain (individual obligation) to recite the Quran with tajweed. 

Muhammed Al-Jazari رحمه الله the great scholar of Quran and Hadeeth of 9th century says in his famous poem detailing the rules of tajweed:

 "And applying tajweed is an issue of absolute necessity, who ever does not apply tajweed to the Quran then he is a sinner."

The proofs that scholars bring to show the obligation of the tajweed is that Allah says the ayah mentioned above. And of the rights of reciting correctly is reciting it in the way it was revealed, there are various ahadeeth showing us the importance of the tajweed.

Saeed bin Mansoor relates in his sunan that a man was reciting the Quran to Abdullah bin Masood رضى الله عنه and he recited. Innamas sadaqathu lil fuqarai wal masaqeen, then, He said this was not how the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم recited to me! So the man asked how did he read it to you Oh Abu Abdur Rahman? He said Innamas sadaqathu lil fuqaraaai wal masaqeen. He elongated the word fuqara and the knowledge of the different lengths of elongation (mudd) is also from the rules of tajweed.

The scholars have divided the types of mistakes one might fall into when reciting the Quran into 2 types:

1. Clear mistakes

2. Obvious mistakes (hidden mistakes)

The clear mistakes must be avoided by all, And to avoid then one must know the rules of tajweed. If a person falls into the clear mistake this is considered as a sin.  

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم used to recite the Quran in slow, measured, rhythmic tones as Allah has instructed him, not hurriedly but rather he would recite a surah in such slow rhythmic tones that it would be longer than it would seem possible. 

The lack of confidence comes partly from not knowing the rules of tajweed correctly, so let us work hard to learn the rules of tajweed and try our best to recite the Holy Quran as it should be recited to please the Creator. 

Alhamdulillah, we have used the following resources that helped us a lot.

1. Reach the Goal via Tajweed Rules by Maha Rasheed: Masha Allah a wonderful book that explains the rules of tajweed in an easy and simple way that can be understood well.

2. Murshidul Qaari (A Guide for the Reciter) by Sheikh Muhammed Saleem bin Ismail Ghaibi: Another marvelous book which explains the terms that really makes easy for a learner when he is learning the rules of tajweed.

3. Thufatul Atfaal by Sheikh Sulaiman Jamzuri - Detailed English Translation by Sheikh Muhammed Saleem bin Ismail Ghaibi: Here comes my next favorite and impressive book, I m astonished how well the poem is formed. The rules are presented in an interesting way, I really love it so much. May Allah accept the authors!

Tuhfatul Atfaal Arabic Text (PDF, 93kb)

Tuhfatul Atfaal video (MP4, 39mb)

4. Tajweed in English website videos, Masha Allah this Qaari explains very clearly the rules and the mistakes we are unaware of.

5. Tajweed untangled by learning roots: Recently came to know about this book but we couldn't get it down.

May Allah guide us and make us among those who ponder over the verses of Quran!

6 Teaching Arabic Alphabet

Alhamdulillah trying a new method of teaching Arabic alphabet to my 2nd daughter Fathimah inspired by safida34 YouTube channel. This method is very interesting and effective.

 Note: I didn't consider about the joining of letters as I wanted her only to be familiar with Harakaath. 

 Some videos from safida34 channel 

0 Balancing Acrobats (Science Activity)

 Did We not make the earth a container that collects, the living and the dead?  

(Al-Mursalat:25)

We did an activity from "50 Science Things to Make and Do". It was very interesting to teach them an activity along with a Holy Qur'anic ayah. To make them ponder over the verses of the Holy Qur'an. 

One of our approach to teach science from Holy Qur'an to make them faraway from secular (not concerned with or devoted to religion) in other words to cultivate non-secular to the pure heart of the innocent child.

Narrated Abu Huraira رضي الله عنه : The Messenger of Allāh صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “No one is born except they are upon Al-Fitrāh (instinct). His parents turn him into a Jew or Christian or Magian, just as animals produce their young with perfect limbs. Do you see anything defective?” Then Abu Hurairah, recite the verse if you wish, “this (faith) being the nature designed by Allah on which He has created the mankind. There is no change in Allah’s creation” (Ar-Rūm:30) [Sahih Muslim]

May Allah guide all of us on the straight path!

 

The word Kifatan [from the above Verse] is derived from the verb Ka-fa-ta – Yak-fi-tu – meaning to attract it and grab it and bind it. So, one of the attributes of the Earth is that it attracts, grabs and binds. These Verses clearly point to the gravity. Thus, everything is attracted to it, and the true weight of objects is their force of attraction toward the Earth.

2 How to Memorize Qur'an at Age 7

One Mother's Recipe on how she accomplished it with her daughter

My SMART Result

I was specifically aiming for her to memorize all the Qur'an in about 3 years (as I had heard that people normally finish in 3-5 years). However, she finished in 2.5 alhamdullilah.

I had different targets during this time. In the beginning I had no target. Once we got the hang of it (after about 5 juz) we targeted one juz a month (which was a page/day). By the end, though, my target was to do a juz a week.

Commentary

1.       Notice how even though it was her daughter that was memorizing, She adopted the goals as if it were her own. Awesome.

2.       Notice as well that she adjusted her specific results as time went by. She was flexible. When her daughter got stronger. She adjusted her results to match that strength.

My Purpose