Pen Marks

Just had suhoor – a cup of hot chocolate. For some odd reason, I can hardly eat anything at all these days. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing..

I’d like to think week has been pretty productive. I remodeled my room (to some degree) made a gem board (after planning on making one two months ago) finished reviewing Surah Yusuf and most of Surah Maryam (I have to finish by the contest day, September 4 inshallah) and I was also working on the plans for the Ramadan workshop.

Yesterday (Monday) was the last day of the workshop, and alhamdulillah I think it went a lot better than last week. I don’t think I caught any kids complaining this time, which was great (I hate it when kids complain that they’re bored) So here’s a summary of what we happened yesterday.

12:30 PM

I called one of the Khalas (in our community, all the ‘older sisters’ (anyone with kids) we call them ‘Khala’ which is aunt in arabic) I was supposed to ask her if she had gotten some of the materials that we were going to need later on that day. And as we were talking, I mentioned my mom being sick (make dua for her plz!)

1:45 PM

I was typing up last minute preparations for the workshop when the same Khala called me and said that there had been a Janazah, and since they were fasting, all the sisters who were in the masjid at that time were trying to find a sick person to visit (see above hadith) So she asked if they could all come over for a few minutes and visit my mom. We said ok and started to do a hectic clean up downstairs.

2:45 PM

At first I thought only a few sisters would be coming with her, but when I opened the door I saw that they had all carpooled and they took up three cars. Ever see a porch full of shoes?

3:30 PM

I got to the masjid and started to get to work. The workshop was starting at 4 PM and we had to get everything ready. At the last kids seminar that we had, we used a group system… We placed all the kids into small groups and tried our best to make sure that there was kid of every age in each group. Then we would have the groups compete and work together to finish their projects and activities. And since it went so well last time, we decided to do that again. Only this time since the workshop was only 3.5 hours we weren’t going to have them compete as much. Each group had a color name (ex. group red or group blue) and they also had a volunteer group leader. Last time we had the khalas be group leaders and that didn’t turn out that great because well, kids like younger people. So this time we had a few volunteers help us out.

4:00 PM

The workshop began and all the little kids started pouring into the room. They would look around, find their name on the group poster and sit down under it.

Here are the activities that we had for last week:

Story circle

• I was incharge of this one. It wasn’t really much of a ’story circle’ it was more of a learning circle actually. I did tell them stories like the ‘Bi’thah’ and how the Quran was revealed. And we also went over what Ramadan is, how you can benefit, what kinds of good deeds you can do during ramadan and so on. I saw that they got bored as quickly as I started probably because it was information that they already knew.
• Lesson: Don’t assume that the kids don’t know anything. They are a lot (!) smarter than you think mashallah.

Board Games

• We actually made them by hand. My friend and I got together at the library and worked on them. Hers turned out a lot better than mine though We got the idea from online, but instead of just printing out the game we drew it out. But we did print the game cards out. Then we cut them out and glued them onto cardstock paper.
• We got the idea from this  blog, http://ummabdulbasir.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/ramadan-game/ the file is at the bottom

Quran Circles

• We had Quran circles for both days. I’m not sure how it went on the first day (I was busy getting the next activity ready)
• We grouped the kids into two circles, Juz Ammah and Juz Tabarak but they were reading from the Quran though. The groups sat in two big circles (Juz Tabarak group had to move to another room since the younger kids in the other group were getting loud) and every kid had to read one ayah. For example, they would start with surah Mursalat, kid 1 would read the first ayah, kid 2 would read the second and so on.

Jannah ladder

• The idea was for them to list as many good deeds as they can and to stick them onto their ladders (that would help them reach jannah) The ladders were made of rope that we hung from the ceiling (I had a few teen volunteers help me with that while the kids were busy with their Quran circles) We wanted them to write the good deeds on sticky notes but forgot them so we had to improvise. How? We grabbed my friends notebook and started to cut it up. All the papers in it were taken out and cut into long strips (the ladder steps).
• The kids came up with a lot (!) of good deeds, and they did it so quick I was really surprised mashallah.

Here are the activities that we had for yesterday:

Dua Circle

• My friend organized this one she even had worksheets mashallah.
• Basically it was a circle (45 min) to teach them how to make dua, when to make it, the adaab of making dua, and the best times to make it. It was very very interactive and she had them do a lot of little activities. One of them was to list all the things that they wanted. Then she asked each group to decide on one thing that they think they all wanted the most. And the answers are in the above pic. Clearly one group was very smart and decided on Jannah. When they said that you could see the other kids thinking ‘Aw we should’ve thought of that!’

Arts and Crafts

• We wanted the kids to make Eid gifts for their parents so we also had arts and crafts. One of the sisters came up with the idea of having them decorate old cd’s and then wrap them up. She even went as far as buying all the supplies barakallah feeha.
• The kids (specially the girls) loved them. And while the activity was supposed to take up only an hour, they used up two hours (which had us canceling the last activity – skits) They did make a big mess though (not surprising right?) I was too busy helping kids to get some good pics of this activity (and my battery was dying) but I did manage to catch this one. It was made by a cute little boy – 6 yrs old – mashallah. He wasn’t done with it but I took a picture of it anyways.

The last activity we did was Quran circles, which we had from 7:15 to until iftar time. Last week, we had a hard time with the juz Ammah kids because they were so many, so this time we devided them up into two groups. So now we had 3 groups, and I was in charge of Juz Tabarak this time. The kids in my group were all reciting ‘normally’, but there was one little boy who had the nicest voice mashallah. I should get him to recite for me again and record him

Overall we had a lot of fun but I don’t think I’ll be able to do something like this for a while. School’s coming up and this is my senior year so I’m going to be pretty busy. But I’m looking forward to the next time inshallah

Subhanallah I didn’t notice how long the post was! Here’s two last pics. The last picture is of the iftar we had yesterday.

This is my new hobby – making pictorials. (won’t last too long like usual) Is that what they are called though? Pictorials? Pictures with texts on them?

I woke up in the middle of the night yesterday feeling very cold. Ever since summer started late June, I had rearranged my room and placed the bed right under the window. My mom doesn’t like it but I can’t sleep with the window open in the summer (she says I’ll eventually catch a cold) Yesterday the weather was in the 90’s and I had left my window partially open like usual to let the breeze come in. Then last night it dropped from 94 degrees to somewhere in the 60’s. And today, well today is like one of those days you want to just go back into bed (even if it’s almost 2 in the afternoon) After a month of heat and sunshine, today looks like what you would imagine London to look like except there’s no rain.

I spent my day watching lectures yesterday and although I learned a lot, I think I should figure out a way to be more productive. A few days ago I told someone that I couldn’t wait until school started and they looked at me like I was crazy.

But it’s true, I’m counting down the days until school starts which is on Sept. 20 (and until I get my license inshallah - Sept. 16) Lately my schedule has been pretty much the same (with occasional events here and there), and I can’t stand that. I have to have something to do all the time (besides listening to lectures to pass time) Which is why I like it when school is open. I get busy with classes and registration and everything else during the day, and when I get home it’s study time. Then I get the nights for just relaxing.

I just remembered half of Ramadan is gone. Sad isn’t it? Depressing actually. But I’m excited about the last ten nights. Mostly because of the Tahajud prayers. There’s something about driving to the masjid in the middle of the night that feels so surreal. Usually there aren’t any cars in the street, and all the street lights are green. But then you get to the Masjid’s block and there are cars and people everywhere. Some are heading towards the masjid carrying food and drinks for Suhoor, others are carrying pillows and blankets to their cars. Sometimes I feel sorry for the neighbors who live around the masjid. It must be annoying to hear people outside your bedroom window at 3 in the morning.

Since the nights are so short this Ramadan, perhaps we will just stay at the masjid after Taraweeh and read Quran/pray until tahajud time. (I hope so!) I’m also hoping I can get a chance to pray Taraweeh at the other masjid in town (Masjid Bilal) I heard they pray 23? rakahs instead of the 11 that we Pray in Masjid Assaber so I want to go and see how that’s like. My aunt said the rakah’s over there are shorter then the ones here but either way it would be nice to pray in a different environment for a change

Random: Yesterday I made a long list of things that I annoy me, in the end I felt annoyed and amazed at how easily I was annoyed. (how many times did I say annoy now?) I won’t be doing that anymore lol

Assalamu alaikum,

What if you could catch your favorite AlMaghrib instructors on television at anytime of the day, any day of the week?

This Ramadan, we are excited to announce a new AlMaghrib milestone!

AlMaghrib WebTV launches today!

Sign in using your MyAlMaghrib profile and:

• Get 24/7 access to exclusive programs
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The past week has been one of my busiest ever. Half the time I spent it getting ready for the Ramadan workshop – we even made homemade board games! The first day was yesterday, and alhamdulillah it went ok, although it could have been better.

We were trying to do activities that would keep the kids occupied and having fun while at the same time wouldn’t leave us exhausted. But I learned one lesson from yesterday: Kids will exhaust you no matter what they’re doing.

Right now we’re thinking of rewriting the entire schedule for next Monday and making the entire event more of an interactive fun day rather then have them sitting half the time listening to us speak (which most of them found very boring and I don’t blame them)

Yesterday I saw first hand the benefit of suhoor. My little brother skipped out on suhoor and decided that he would be able to fast. My mom agreed but told him that he should tell her if he got really hungry or tired. The day went on and around 6:00 after asr we saw him lying on the ground looking very very sick. He got really hungry, and we gave him some food to break his fast.

Lesson: Don’t let little kids fast if they don’t get a good suhoor that morning. Even if they/you think that they’re/you’re strong enough to fast the entire day, they/you should still get up for suhoor. Why? Because it’s a blessing.

Anas reported that the Messenger of Allah said: “Eat Suhoor, for there are blessings in it.” [al-Bukhari and Muslim]

And since you have to get up for fajr, why not just set your alarm clock 10 minutes before adhan and go downstairs and get something to eat? Not that hard right?

On a different note, Ramadan seems to be flying past us so fast. Already we’re in the second ten days which means 1/3 of Ramadan is gone. Have we really benefited from those days? Allahu A3lam but I hope so!

The Prophet told us that the first ten days are of mercy, the second ten are of forgiveness, and the last ten are of being freed from hell fire. Let’s try and make the most out of the rest of Ramadan before it leaves us entirely.

Before I go, here a few resources:

I’m *really* enjoying the Ramadan Quran series from Hashiyaat. I’ve copied most of them down into my Quran Journal (which has been very useful this Ramadan)

And if you’re one of the very few people who haven’t heard of the Taraweeh Truffles (seriously?) then you’re really missing out. When you google ‘taraweeh’ the first suggestion you get is ‘taraweeh truffles’

Here’s the first video (He’s doing a video for each day of Ramadan)

And like I said a few days ago, the team over at Productive Muslim have recently launched a new project and website called ProductiveRamadan.com Go over there and check out their cool articles. Here are my favs:

How to Organize a Productive Iftaar Party

16 Ways to Kick Bad Habits

5 Ways to Give Physical Sadaqah

Learning from the Mistakes of Banu Israeel

There were many different bounties given to Banu Israeel, yet they were arrogant and were not thankful for these bounties.

They were ungrateful, for the foods which they were given, because they wanted vegetables, for which they were criticized – do you wish to trade the best for something that is worse?  They even asked that they see Allah, they would refer to Allah as the Lord of Moses, and not their own Lord, or how they refused to fight when commanded into the Promised Land. Also, when they were asked to slaughter the cow, their excessive questioning lead them in to their misguidance.

The one who incited them to this worship of the calf used as a da’wah technique the attribution of Musa (aleyhi salaam) as having worshipped the cow. They knew the truth, yet outrightly disobeyed it on several instances.

This is a lesson we should learn from their predicament: we should admit when we’ve been wrong and not fall into their footsteps. We often look at the Qur’an and wonder with complete amazement -how was it that they could be so arrogant in their denial of Musa (as)? How could one get so many signs, yet refuse to follow them? Yet we fail to realize that Allah has given us so many signs as well, that He has given us so much blessing as well, and yet we constantly disobey Him. He orders us with things and we don’t do them, He forbids us from things and we do them anyway. How, then, are we any better than them?

Allah mentions in them for us to better ourselves and learn from their mistakes. As the Arabic proverb says – the wise one is the one who learns from his own mistakes. But the one who is even more wise than him is the one who learns from other people’s mistakes.

Another lesson we can see from them is the way how Allah changed them into monkeys – somewhat like humans because they somewhat obeyed his laws. They didn’t fish on the Sabbath, they just put their nets out before, and took them out after. We should watch out, because a lot of time we do the exact thing – looking for loopholes and ways to get out of doing what we’re supposed to be doing. This comes from arrogance, which comes from the Shaytan.

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