The Best Days of the Year

The Best Days of the Year - Ten Days of Dhul Hijah

Good deeds are more beloved to Allah

‏ ‏ ‏
‏ النَّبِيِّ ‏ ‏صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ‏ ‏أَنَّهُ قَالَ ‏ ‏مَا الْعَمَلُ فِي أَيَّامٍ أَفْضَلَ مِنْهَا فِي هَذِهِ قَالُوا وَلَا الْجِهَادُ قَالَ وَلَا الْجِهَادُ إِلَّا رَجُلٌ خَرَجَ يُخَاطِرُ بِنَفْسِهِ وَمَالِهِ فَلَمْ يَرْجِعْ بِشَيْءٍ ‏

"There are no days during which good deeds are more beloved by Allaah than these (ten) days." The Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam, was then asked: "Not even Jihaad in Allaah’s way?" He replied: "Not even Jihaad in Allaah’s way; except for a person who went out (for Jihaad) with his self and wealth and came back with none (i.e. lost all for Allaah)."[Bukhari 969]

Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali (may Allah have mercy on him) said,” It appears and Allah knows best that good deeds practiced during these ten days are superior to any other ten days during any other month” La’taif al Ma’rif

It's recommended to be involved in a lot Thikr.

وَيَذْكُرُوا اسْمَ اللَّهِ فِي أَيَّامٍ مَعْلُومَاتٍ

And mention the Name of Allah on appointed days [ Hajj 28]

Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali (may Allah have mercy on him) said, “The majority of the scholars view the appointed days as the ten days of Dhul Hijah.”

3. They are included in the days Allah appointed for Musa (peace and blessings be upon him)

وَوَاعَدْنَا مُوسَىٰ ثَلَاثِينَ لَيْلَةً وَأَتْمَمْنَاهَا بِعَشْرٍ فَتَمَّ مِيقَاتُ رَبِّهِ أَرْبَعِينَ لَيْلَةً ۚ

And We appointed for Musa (Moses) thirty nights and added (to the period) ten (more), and he completed the term, appointed by his Lord, of forty nights [Al-A’raf142]

4. Allah completed His religion on the 9^th

الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ دِينًا ۚ

This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favor upon you, and

have chosen for you Islam as your religion.[ Al-Ma’idah 3]5.

The sacrifice is done on the Eid and this is the Sunnah of Ibraheem

6. Allah frees slaves from the fire on Arafah more than any other day

نَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ‏ ‏صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ ‏ ‏قَالَ ‏ ‏مَا مِنْ يَوْمٍ أَكْثَرَ مِنْ أَنْ يُعْتِقَ اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ فِيهِ عَبْدًا أَوْ أَمَةً مِنْ النَّارِ مِنْ يَوْمِ ‏ ‏عَرَفَةَ ‏ ‏وَإِنَّهُ ‏ ‏لَيَدْنُو ثُمَّ ‏ ‏ يُبَاهِي بِهِمْ الْمَلَائِكَةَ وَيَقُولُ مَا أَرَادَ هَؤُلَاءِ

The Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said, “There is no day on which Allah frees more of His slaves from Fire than the Day of Arafah, and He verily draws near, then boasts of them before the angles, saying: ‘What do they seek?’” (Sahih Muslim1348)

· There is great virtue in Fasting on the 9^th.

سئل رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم عن صوم يوم عرفة فقال: "أحتسب على الله أن يكفر السنة التي قبله والسنة التي بعده”،

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about fasting on the Day of of Arafah. He said,” Fasting the day of `Arafah expiates the [minor] sins of two years: a past one and a coming one”. [Muslim 1162]

7. Eid Al-Adha is the 10^th

8. These are the days for Hajj

لْحَجُّ أَشْهُرٌ مَعْلُومَاتٌ ۚ

The Hajj (pilgrimage) is (in) the well-known (lunar year) months [ Al-Baqarah 197]* the other days are Shawwal and Dhul Qa’idah

9 Allah swears by these days.

وَالْفَجْرِوَلَيَالٍ عَشْروَالشَّفْعِ وَالْوَتْرٍِ

1By the dawn;

2. By the ten nights (i.e. the first ten days of the month of Dhul-Hijjah),

3. And by the even and the odd . [ Fajr 1-3 ]

The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “ The ten are the ten days of Dhul- Hijjah and the odd is the Day of Arafah and the even is the Eid [ Ahmed 3/ 327 and Bazzar 2286] Ibn Rajab graded the isnad of this hadeeth as being Hasan.

Taken from La’taif al Ma’rif and Tafseer ibn Katheer

Translated and compiled by Abu Aaliyah Abdullah ibn Dwight Battle

Doha, Qatar 1430 ©

Little Muslimah's Field Trip

Alhamdulillaah, as part of our curriculum this week "Allaah Created Nature" We combined Nature observation, Little Muslim's Field Trip Notebook, and Allaah Created, Nature Walk Activity found at A Muslim Child is Born, and had a wonderful time out doors masha Allaah.

We went to the beach and with a magnifying glass our little Muslimah did all the exploring and playing masha Allaah. She discovered that magnifying glass makes things look big : ), She looked at the sand, seaweed, shell, and bushes.

Then she collected some corals, sea shells, stones and brought home. We saw many many birds eating at the shore. It was a wonderful sight masha Allaah!

Play time at the beach

Next day early in the morning ( at about 6.30 am, because the sun is very strong after that over here) after her tea (she drinks tea now : ) we set out downstairs to take a nature walk. We looked at flowers that were still sleeping as these flowers bloom when the sun rises close upon mid day.

She touched and looked at the grass, it had some small flowers on it. A piece of grass was fallen so she took it and put it in her bag. Touched the bark of the date palm tree and she said it was hard.

Then she touched the soil and collected a little in a small bottle.

We saw a cat running and hiding under a car, she was thrilled and went behind it.

We also saw ants and their homes.

And lots of small birds chirping and pigeons. We spoke about how Allaah is Al Khaaliq and all other Attributes that she had learnt. It was a great revision out doors. The weather was wonderful as winter is approaching here, had a cool breeze too, she wanted to swing a little at the end...

We came home and made out of this torn paper (kind of hard board) bag the field notebook, rather a field scrap book. I have been enjoying reading Recycling, re using from our sisters Umm An Nu'man and Umm Sara and they have inspired me a lot. So this bag turned out to be a "Little Muslimah's Field Notebook/Scrap Book, masha Allaah!

Maimoonah is a bit bored with colouring after 6 weeks of loads of activities, so we wanted to make a difference. We used some kitchen stuff, collage, skin of grams and did arts and crafts!

Then we recorded all what we saw, explored learnt on the notebook. I asked her to tell me and I wrote while she was pasting the grass, shells, corals and all the stuff she has collected.

We also did a matching activity with pictures and real things before pasting the things collected at the beach.

These are the pics of the inside of the book!

The cover of the book looks like this!

Masha Allaah it turned out to a great learning experience and made a difference in the curriculum too! Summary of the week will come soon Insha Allaah!

Pre School Curriculum Weeks 7 - 12

Continuing with the "Islaam is my Life Preschool curriculum" which was outlined by our dear sister Umm Ibraheem Insha Allaah here is the curriculum plan for the next 6 weeks. Introduction to this and the first six weeks details could be found here Insha Allaah.

I have replaced the weeks 1 -6 file with the new file which has weeks 1-12 , and you can download it here Insha Allaah.

If you want to download the file weeks 7-12 only then you can download it here Insha Allaah.

The only change we have made is an addition in Aqeedah. I have finished with Brother Moosa Richardson's Aqeedah book so I hope to start on Basic Principles on the subjects of Tawheed, Fiqh and Aqeedah by Shaikh Aboo Abdur Rahmaan Yahya bin Ali Al Hajoori Hafidhahullaah. It is a good treatise masha Allaah in a form of questions and answers but you get details too. I hope to read and explain to Maimoonah as I feel she is capable of understanding. You can download the pdf of form of this file here Insha Allaah!

We will be covering the topics, Allaah lets me wake up each day, Allaah gives me food to eat, Remember Allaah through our day, What is the Qur'aan, I must obey my Parents and Allaah sees all.

Insha Allaah we hope to start this after Eid.

May Allaah reward sis Umm Ibraheem from talibiddeenjr.wordpress.com/ for all her hard work and my dear sister Umm An Nu'man from A Muslim Child is Born for all her valuable resources for this Curriculum and others who have helped me with this Insha Allaah!

Summary - Week 5 - Creations of Allaah - Animals

Alhamdulillaah we have completed Week - 5 and here is the summary.

Creations of Allaah - Animals and Birds

We did a lot of activities on this topic and I hope I remember all to record it here Insha Allaah. We read about Animal Kingdom, Animal life, Bird life, Animal behaviour and about how animals care for their babies from the Encyclopedia.

This also became a read aloud topic masha Allaah throughout the week. Explained to her that Allaah created all of this and brought in some of the Names and Attributes of Allaah which we have already learnt such as He is Al Baari - The Originator, Al Mussawwir - The Bestower of forms etc,etc.

We completed the Mini Work book which could be downloaded here Insha Allaah. Jazzakillaah Khayr sis Umm An Nu'man. She enjoyed the riddles masha Allaah. She did the coulouring and pasting too.

Then we learnt about Animals and their Babies. We did a small book which I got from here. She has learnt the names of the baby animals.

We read in the Encyclopedia how the animals care for their babies just like human beings and Allaah has created them to be merciful to their baby animals. I also gave her worksheet to match the animals and their babies.

We also learnt about Animal sounds. We used this online story book and she had fun masha Allaah with Animal sounds. I asked her to tell me the sounds each animal makes and she tried to imitate and it was funny alright!

We learnt about Animal Habitat and she did the Animal Habitat workbook from Arabic First. You can download this work book here Insha Allaah!

Explained to her what a habitat is and gave some examples. We also learnt about farm animals and wild animals.

She did this worksheet on habitat.

When I read about animal behavior explained to her that Allaah is the one who is teaching the animals how to do things for example the spider makes the web on its own and only Allaah is able to teach that to the spider.

We had a book on Birds and some facts about them masha Allaah we read the book and noted some facts.

When she looks at the book she could talk about the facts masha Allaah. She learnt that flamingo gets its pink colour from eating shrimps, Macaws may blush when they feel excited : ) etc,etc.

We spoke about being kind to the animals and birds and Insha Allaah hoping to do something more on this soon.

Loads of activities to do on farm animals could be found here Insha Allaah!

Qur'aan Memorization

Masha Allaah she memorized soorah Maa'oon and started on Soorah Al Inshirah. I also read the Tafsir of soorah Maaoon to her and explained to her about small kindness.

Asmaaul Husna

We did three Names of Allaah "Al Adheem - The and Al Qaadir, Al Muqdadir - All Capable".

Reading

Taught her to read some animals. Made some sentences and asked her to read and she did well masha Allaah. We read about Sulaiman alaihissalaam as our topic for the week was Animals and Birds.

I read to her about some Animals from the Encylopedia throughout the week.

Arabic

We could do more Arabic this week on the topic masha Allaah as we had good resources. She already knows the names of the animals in Arabic but it was a good revision. We read the Book of Animals from arabic first.

We watched this power point from Arabic first, she enjoys this since she was 1 year old masha Allaah.

We did the workbook on animal habitat.

Writing

We practiced letters "O,G,g" and Arabic letters "ha, za". I noticed she enjoys writing words than just letters. So I gave her to practice letters by tracing words.

Making words

Maths

Continuing with MEP, we learnt to spot differences and about hot and cold. She learnt to mark as per the instructions. example mark on the left side with red if its hot and mark on the right side with blue if its cold. Masha Allaah she did well. We did a bit of counting too.

Montessori Activities

Folding

Insha Allaah next week will be the 6th week and hoping to take a break after that and concentrate on Hajj Insha Allaah! Look out for the next 6 weeks of the Curriculum soon Insha Allaah!