Our Role Models - Sahaabah Scrapbook - Abu Bakr As Siddeeq رضي الله عنه

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

We started our scrapbook on "Our Role Models - The Sahaabah". This approach is working well so far for us and I like the fact that we are able to cover many aspects of our dheen this way. We do not go into detail in our study here as the aim here is to make familiar the best noble individuals of this Ummah and create the love and a passion for imitating them to gain success in this world and hereafter Inshaa Allaah. Also this is something that will be continuously studied each year of course with more details Inshaa Allaah. 

We learnt the following using this and this (more could be found here)

• The Definition of a Sahaabi
• The singular and plural in Arabic for sahaabah
• How do we call a male and female companion in Arabic
• The Merits of the Sahaabah
• Some Traits of the Sahaabah
• Who are the Muhaajireen and the Ansaar
• Foremost amongst the sahaabah
• Who are the Khulafaa ur Rashideen
• We also used this site and copied some of the Aayahs of the Qur'aan and the sayings of the Messenger of Allaah about the sahaba.

This is the cover page of the Scrapbook. 

I explained to her the meaning of "Our Role Models". This I think is very important at this time especially because I feel that she is exposed to more reading materials and more information, Alhamdulillaah. As we all know you cannot find a large collection of quality Islaamic Books for kids, our kids are reading materials from others. And I sometimes fear that these characters and happenings even if they are true and innocent would make an impact on the kids no matter how much we try to justify ourselves. So the best is that we introduce our true role models to them and instill love in their hearts for them Inshaa Allaah. While explaining Role Models I also mentioned we name our children after the names of the Prophets and the Companions mainly because we want them to be like them and achieve success in this life and the hereafter.

These are the inside pages.

 

Abu Bakr As Siddeeq رضي الله عنه

We completed Abu Bakr As Siddeeq رضي الله عنه as our First Role Model -  Companion. We used the following Resources for this.

• The Golden Series of the Prophet's Companion - Abu Bakr As Siddiq - The First Caliph of Islaam
• The Age of the rightly Guided Caliphs - Abu Bakr As Siddiq
• Saheeh Al Bukhari - The Merits of Abu Bakr Siddeeq رضي الله عنه (most of the hadeeth we read from the Saheeh Al Bukhari could be found here )
• Companion Quest
• A Concise Children's Encyclopedia of Islam

 

This is a brief description of how we get about this Inshaa Allaah.

To instill love in the hearts of the little ones you need to keep talking, really! You need to constantly narrate and tell them the stories or incidents involving the sahaabah to get them really interested. So this is what I try to do. We took turns and read all the above mentioned books. And Noted down the following and recorded on the scrapbook.

• His Birth - when, where?
• His true Name
• His Kunya
• Special Names - Here we discussed each incident why he was given that particular name
• His Parents' Names
• His Wives
• His Children
• His Death

Then I asked her to describe as to how he looked. She was to write them down but instead asked me to write them for her.

 We used the Companion Quest and played the game on Abu Bakr As Siddeeq  رضي الله عنه while learning the important facts about him. After which we wrote them down on the scrapbook making the same circle shape as the Companion Quest. We further read from other sources and noted down more facts about his Khilaafah and other incidents.

 After talking and discussing about Abu Bakr and explaining some of the incidents from the seerah I asked her to now explain to me "How is he a Role Model for you?" . This is the fruit of the whole subject Alhamdulillaah, she was able to tell me this and write them down.

Then I asked her to explain to me each incident of what she has written that makes him a role model. Example, she said he was truthful - The incident of Al Israa and Mi'raaj, He was the Strongest in Eemaan - The incidents of the Cow and the Wolf talking, He was brave - He fought in all the battles and fought the False Prophets and those who refused to pay Zakaah, He was Generous - Freed the slaves and gave his wealth to Islaam and so on. 

So that was the end of the lesson. Please note all of the above are not done in one day. We do Our Role Models Once a week, and some days we only read and other days we write some parts of it and other days we only discuss. So it may take three to four lessons or more to complete depending on the amount of information and of course the mood. 

Some sisters ask me if she retains the information as we are doing many things. Well children as well as adults need revision and consistency, so after we finish a lesson we always go back to it again every now and then to refresh the information. Scrapbooks makes revision easy because it would take only less than 10 minutes to go through the 2 pages but there are plenty of information over there and reminds us all what we did in detail before.

Essential Lessons for Every Muslim - The Declaration of Faith

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Continuing with Imaam Bin Baaz's Essential Lessons for Every Muslim, we completed the Lesson 2 on The Declaration of Faith - The Shahaadathain.

We covered the following:

• Reading the Shahaadah in Arabic
• Saying it clearly in Arabic
• Learning its English Meaning and saying it correctly
• Using this Sheet and learning the meaning of the each Arabic word of the Shahaadah (more posters on the topic could be found here)
• We Learnt that the Shahaadah has 2 Parts
• The Linguistic and the Shariah meaning of the first Part of the Shahaadah "Laa ilaaha Illallaah"
• The Pillars of "Laa ilaaha Illallaah"
• The Proof for the Pillars of "Laa ilaaha Illallaah"
• The Status of "Laa ilaaha Illallaah"
• The Virtues of "Laa ilaaha Illallaah"
• The Meaning of the second Part of the Shahaadah "Muhammadur Rasoolullaah"
• The Shariah meaning of "Muhammadur Rasoolullaah"
• The Pillars of "Muhammadur Rasoolullaah"
• How is the Messenger of Allaah, distinguished from the other Prophets and Messengers
• The 7 Conditions of the Shahaadathain.
• Learning to Write the Shahaadah in Arabic

Here are the pages from the Scrapbook

  

Islands - Geography plus Islaamic Studies!

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

We have been doing the Oxford Geography Success Starter book. I particular like this book as it gives practical information in a clear manner and has some easy activities to do which are based on day to day encounters.

What I want to mention today is about the Chapter "Islands". Nothing much really when it comes to geography  but what is worth mentioning is that this study of Islands led us to a very beneficial discussion and a study by itself.

So we learnt the definition of the Island, islets, and isles along with archipelago, the biggest island in the World is Greenland. We also learnt about the Island of Mull.

 

 

As for the activities she coloured some of the Islands on the World Map.

Then I told her to write the definition of the Island on her book. She drew the Island and wrote about a country which is also an Island. Can you guess which one she wrote about!!!?

This is what it says!
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is a nice island. It has lots and lots of cats and trees. Men fish there too. Have you been to Sri Lanka? If you go there you will say "Nice". Visit Sri Lanka!

Now comes the important part. When we were studying about Islands I also mentioned to her that according to the hadeeth of Tameem ad Daari radhiyallaahu anhu that Dajjaal is also chained and kept in an "Island". So she wanted to know more about it. So we read and discussed the the Hadeeth of Tameem Ad Daari meeting Dajjaal.

We used this Khutbah to discuss the incident. She was curious to know where is this island on the world map!! So I had to mention to her the below hadeeth and say we stop where the Messenger of Allaah stopped! 

Alhamdulillaah a simple study of Islands in Geography turned out to be a very fruitful study of the dheen where we learnt the Fitna of Dajjal and how to protect ourselves from his Fitna.

He  (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam). said: By Allaah. I have not made you assemble for exhortation or for a warning, but I have detained you here, for Tamim Dari, a Christian, who came and accepted Islam, told me something, which agrees with what I was-telling, you about the Dajjal. He narrated to me that he had sailed in a ship along with thirty men of Bani Lakhm and Bani Judham and had been tossed by waves in the ocean for a month. Then these (waves) took them (near) the land within the ocean (island) at the time of sunset. They sat in a small side-boat and entered that Island. 

There was a beast with long thick hair (and because of these) they could not distinguish his face from his back. They said: Woe to you, who can you be? Thereupon it said: I am al-Jassasa. They said: What is al-Jassasa? And it said: O people, go to this person in the monastery as he is very much eager to know about you. He (the narrator) said: When it named a person for us we were afraid of it lest it should be a Devil. Then we hurriedly went on till we came to that monastery and found a well-built person there with his hands tied to his neck and having iron shackles between his two legs up to the ankles.

We said: Woe be upon thee, who are you? And he said: You would soon come to know about me. but tell me who are you. We said: We are people from Arabia and we embarked upon a boat but the sea-waves had been driving us for one month and they brought as near this island. We got Into the side-boats and entered this island and here a beast met us with profusely thick hair and because of the thickness of his hair his face could not be distinguished from his back. We said: Woe be to thee, who are you? It said: I am al- Jassasa. We said: What is al-Jassasa? And it said: You go to this very person in the monastery for he is eagerly waiting for you to know about you. So we came to you in hot haste fearing that that might be the Devil. He (that chained person) said: Tell me about the date-palm trees of Baisan. We &aid: About what aspect of theirs do you seek information? He said: I ask you whether these trees bear fruit or not.

We said: Yes Thereupon he said: I think these would not bear fruits. He said: Inform me about the lake of Tabariyya? We said: Which aspect of it do you want to know? He said: Is there water in it? They said: There is abundance of water in it. Thereupon he said: I think it would soon become dry. 

He again said: Inform me about the spring of Zughar. They said: Which aspect of it you want to know? He (the chained person) said: Is there water in it and does it irrigate (the land)? We said to him: Yes, there is abundance of water in it and the inhabitants (of Medina) irrigate (land) with the help of it, He said: Inform me about the unlettered Prophet; what has he done? We said: He has come out from Mecca and has settled In Yathrib (Medina). He said: Do the Arabs fight against him? We said: Yes. He said: How did he deal with him? We informed him that he had overcome those in his neighbourhood and they had submitted themselves before him. Thereupon he said to us: Had it actually happened? We said: Yes. 

Thereupon he said: If it is so that is better for them that they should show obedience to him. I am going to tell you about. myself and I am Dajjal and would be soon permitted to get out and so I shall get out and travel in the land, and will not spare any town where I would not stay for forty nights except Mecca and Medina as these two (places) are prohibited (areas) for me and I would not make an attempt to enter any one of these two. An angel with a sword in his hand would confront me and would bar my way and there would be angels to guard every passage leading to it; then Allaah's Messenger (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam) striking the pulpit with the help of the end of his staff said: This implies Taiba meaning Medina.

Have I not, told you an account (of the Dajjal) like this? 'The people said: Yes, and this account narrated by Tamim Dari was liked by me for it corroborates the account which I gave to you in regard to him (Dajjal) at Medina and Mecca. Behold he (Dajjal) is in the Syrian sea (Mediterranean) or the Yemen sea (Arabian sea). Nay, on the contrary, he As In the east, he is in the east, he is in the east, and he pointed with his hand towards the east. I (Fatima bint Qais) said: I preserved It In my mind (this narration from Allaah's Messenger (sallAllaahu alayhi wa sallam).

http://www.sahihmuslim.com/sps/smm/sahihmuslim.cfm?scn=dspchaptersfull&BookID=41&ChapterID=1217

Grammar Mini Office!

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Today we put together this Grammar Mini Office. Maimoonah is advancing on Grammar and I thought its time to have something like this to retain the information. 

We used 2 file folders to make this. If you are not too familiar with Mini Offices, directions to make it could be found here. We have almost covered most of the grammar mentioned here and we added the ones that were not available but what we have studied so far like the Synonyms, Antonyms, Homonyms, Contractions, Compound Words and the list of Adverbs, Prepositions and Adjectives. And as we go on we can keep adding Inshaa Allaah. This is easy to store and revise every now and then.

This is the Cover

This is how it looks when opened up!

Detail view!

  

 

Eidul Adhha 1434

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Assalaamu Alaikum!

Taqabbalallaahu minna wa minkum! Hope and pray all of you had a blessed 10 days of Dhulhijjah and a wonderful Eid. We had a much needed long Eid break. Alhamdulillaah! Inshaa Allaah we would get back to homeschooling starting tomorrow.

We had a lovely Eid gathering right after Eid salaah in a beautiful Family Park, with the expat families here and it turned out to be so wonderful Maashaa Allaah. Maimoonah had a nice time and received few surprises from Abi and Friends too. Alhamdulillaah. Here are some pics.

Hajj Scrapbooking at the Library!

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

We had a Hajj Scrapbooking session at the Library today! Alhamdulillaah it was a well attended event. We had around 21 kids participating along with their Moms. A black scrapbook and contents were given to each child. 

We had a story time first. The sister read the Darul Kitab Learn About Series Book "The Story of Hajj". Then we got on with the Scrapbooking Session. There was lot of cutting and pasting to do and the moms helped the kids with all of this. Kids from 3 to 9 years participated  We did each page together and also awarded the kids a well done mini Award at the end of the session.

The Scrapbook Includes the following:

• Cover Page 
• The Islaamic Months and the Calendar for the Month of Dhul Hijjah
• The First 10 Days of Dhul Hijjah
• Hajj Day by Day
• Hajj Map
• Udh hiyah
• Eid ul Adha 
• Takbeer
• The Story of Hajj for older kids and colouring page of the Ka'bah for younger kids
• A Review Game
• Well Done Mini Award

 It was nice to get together and it was beneficial too. This is Maimoonah's scrapbook.  I liked the story she wrote independently after listening to the story time Maashaa Allaah!