The Most Powerful Night

In a blink of an eye, we are almost into the last ten nights of Ramadan which starts on Wednesday night inshaa Allah. Don’t leave too quickly, Ramadan 😢

During our last lesson on Al Ghazali Mysteries of Fasting for Children, I asked the children if they knew the significance of Nuzul Al Quran and Laylatul Qadr. I found out that not everyone knew the significance of these great nights or they got them mixed up. 

So I read this book to them, The Most Powerful Night, which is the latest addition to our Ramadan books. It is a story of a girl named Layla who learns about the most powerful night of Ramadan, the Laylatul Qadr, from her mother. Along with it, she learns about the significance of the night, why she should strive for it, and what she could do on the last ten nights of Ramadan. I hope it would increase the children’s zeal, and mine too, to look for the Night of Qadr and be in worship inshaa Allah.

And we reached the third and last chapter of the Mysteries of Fasting which is on the inner practices of fasting. Previously, they had learnt the outer obligatory and sunnah aspects of fasting. In the last chapter, the children learnt that there are 3 levels of fasting:

1) By most people - giving up food, drinks and lower desires

2) By the special people - giving up food and drinks while protecting every part of their body from doing bad deeds

3) By the elect of the elect - giving up food and drinks and protecting from bad deeds while fasting from all thoughts, concerns and worries about their daily lives in this world 

How do we increase our fasting from level 1 to level 2? That’s what the children will learn in the next and last lesson inshaa Allah and I’m just as excited to read up and learn it too. I realised that we should have started on the Mysteries of Fasting much earlier so that we could enter Ramadan equipped with the knowledge. Oh well, better late than never. This is definitely a book to revisit every year before Ramadan inshaa Allah.

May this Ramadan be the most special one where we, and our loved ones, receive Allah’s Gaze, Mercy and Forgiveness, and be blessed with a place in Jannah and be freed from the Fire. Aameen!

Love in Ramadan

Before we ended the class on Zoom last Friday, I asked the children if they wanted me to read a storybook and they said “Yes!” So I quickly looked through our Ramadan books and grabbed this - Love in Ramadan. It’s been so long since I last read it that I couldn’t remember what the story was about. I opened it and saw that the author had signed the book and remembered that it was a gift from my dear friend a few Ramadan ago.

The story is about a boy and what his family members love to do during Ramadan, such as hearing the adhan at fajr, giving gifts to others, and seeing the smiles on the faces of orphans. I had to prevent the melancholy from creeping into my voice as I read the parts about walking to the masjid for terawih and going out to nature to observe Allah’s Greatness in His creations. 

Then I asked the children what they loved doing during Ramadan. They told me that they loved to pray terawih with their family, wake up for suhoor, fast during the day, break their fast together, and read the Quran. MasyaAllah I was astounded. I don’t know if I would have given any of those answers when I was at that age. May these children grow up loving Ramadan and all the acts of worship connected to it. 

It made me think of what I love doing during Ramadan. What is for sure, I can’t revisit some of the things that I love about the blessed month for now. It feels more like I’m rewriting my love story for Ramadan. A third of the month has passed and it has definitely been melancholic. Memories of past Ramadans keep flooding my mind, together with the faces and places that I love. 

It’s a great reminder that those memories we have are part of the great blessings that Allah has bestowed upon us. And the One who gave them have all the right to take them back. Does it mean that we worship Him less now without all the faces and places that we love? Not at all. It is truly a test of our sincerity and total reliance on Him.

May we find true sweetness this Ramadan in our spiritual retreats without all the attachments that we used to have. As Ibn Ata’illah said in his Book of Aphorism, “Deprivation hurts you only because of your incomprehension of God in it.”

Ramadan Joy

Ramadan Joy is such an apt title because it sums up my feeling when the blessed month arrives. MasyaAllah.

In our 3rd class today for Al Ghazali Mysteries of Fasting for Children, after reading the book Ramadan Joy, the children learnt the outer obligatory parts of fasting. Although there are 6 parts, 2 of them have to do with grown-ups, or those after puberty, and so I only taught the 4 that are in the Al Ghazali Book for Children. 

These are the outer obligatory parts of fasting:

1) To watch the night sky to spot the new crescent moon which signals the start of Ramadhan (or accept the word of an official person)

2) To make an intention to fast every night during Ramadhan (according to the Shafi’i madzhab)

3) To not allow anything to enter the openings of the body during the fast such as food, drink, or medicine (unless it is not intentional and by accident)

4) Vomitting and swallowing some of what you have vomitted would nullify the fast (and that includes phlegm and mucus that we cough out or comes up from the throat to the mouth)

And what makes it really joyful is that later in the day at 5.30pm inshaa Allah, Ustazah Farhana will teach the Mysteries of Fasting from the Ihya Ulumudeen of Imam Al Ghazali. La hawla wala quwwata illa billah. We had not planned it to be that way but it’s all by Allah’s Will. We plan and Allah plans and His Plan is always the most perfect and beautiful for us. SubhanAllah.

Below you can find materials to start teaching your own children too. The free PDF though do not include the activity sheets and teachers’ manual that are included in the paid book or PDF (which is bundled with The Mysteries of Charity)

Listen to the audiobook of Al Ghazali Mysteries of Fasting for Children.

Download Ramadan Treasure Fun with Imam Al Ghazali.

You can listen to the first three recordings of the Mysteries of Fasting, taught by Ustazah Farhana, here (for ladies only):

1) Episode 1

2) Episode 2

3) Episode 3

May you have a blessed and joyful Ramadan!

Ramadan Crafts

Two weeks of Ramadan have passed and how grateful I am to The Almighty for all the blessing and opportunities He has bestowed upon us. Alhamdulillah the little girl has been meeting her friends too during the weekly Ramadan co-ops that we've had and the terawih playdate at Masjid Kampung Siglap.

To welcome Ramadan, a few of my friends had put up beautiful hand-made buntings with glitter foam papers. As much as I had wanted to make one too, time was of the essence. Alhamdulillah I chanced upon free printables online for Ramadan bunting and lanterns. I printed and cut them, laced and put them up with the little girl, and we have our very own bunting. 

 Ramadan bunting

I found the Ramadan Road Map online too and printed it out so that the little girl could colour the numbers as we track the days. And following Zakiah's advice on how to cut beautiful hijaiyah letters, I printed the word Ramadan that I found online, cut it out, traced the letters on glitter foam, and cut it out again. First hijaiyah letters cut out and more to come inshaa Allah.

Ramadan tracker

On the first Friday of Ramadan, we had our very first Ramadan co-op. Alhamdulillah! Mothers who attended each contributed an activity for the children. Some activities were carried out during the session itself while the rest were taken home as takeaway activities so that mothers have some prepared activities for the children during the week. The following are books and activities for our Ramadan co-ops.

Book reading, painting of silver fanoos, and learning the letter ف

Decorating fanoos with dot markers

Creating a crescent mosaic with glitter foam

Creating a masjid mosaic with glitter foam, and a full moon made of beads

Book reading and making a hilaal (crescent) with aluminium foil

Sponge painting with stencils

Making a shield

Singing Mr Sun/Shams song, making a sun wand, and learning the letter ش

Making a mini prayer mat with felt, cut-out glitter foam and tassles

Book reading and making a flower craft with stickers and embellishments

Decorating an Eid bag with cut-out felt and embellishments

Story-telling of Surah Al Fiil (The Elephant) and making elephants with handprints

Singing Itsy Bitsy Spider/Angkabut, making a spider with paper plate, and learning the letter ع

Creating a masjid with glitter glue, acrylic paint, cut-out glitter foam and embellishments

Painting a silver masjid and decorating it with cut-out glitter foam and embellishments

Making a star with ice-cream sticks and decorating it with glitter glue and embellishments

Making a star mobile and decorating with glitter glue and embellishments

Creating a night scene with glitter foam and cut-out glitter foam, and learning the Arabic words

Inshaa Allah may you find them beneficial for your little ones.

Ramadhan & Eid Reading Corner (Part 2)

So I finally get round to writing the second part of my post on our Ramadhan & Eid Reading Corner. Although this draft might take a few days to complete, I told myself that I have to finish it while it's still Syawal and of course, before we leave for our trip. The first part can be found here. (Obviously I started writing this about a month ago, wrote other posts, and completed this a month later. Heh!)

Making supplication (du'a)

Ramadhan is the month of mercy and forgiveness and in a hadith, it was narrated that the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. said that, "Destruction be upon the one who has witnessed the month of mercy (Ramadhan) and has not achieved forgiveness." Therefore I think the blessed month is the best time to teach the little girl about raising her hands and asking from Allah s.w.t. at all times.

I learnt a lot from the lectures on YouTube by Mufti Ismail Musa Menk on Forgiveness and Supplication. The hadith above was said at the beginning of the lecture on Supplication, along with the steps listed below. Some beautiful du'a of the prophets could also be found in that lecture.

Steps in making supplication:
- do good deeds before making a supplication
- praise your Creator 
- ask for forgiveness and repent for your sins
- ask for something sensible, reasonable and permissible
- do not say "inshaa Allah" when asking for something
- choose words which are beautiful and full of humility
- never be in a rush when asking for something
- be steadfast
- make du'a for others
- two-thirds of our du'a should be for the akhirah

As usual, I love to reiterate our learning point with some colouring or painting. I admit that colouring pictures may not be a free form of art, especially coupled with the fact that I am the one who choose the materials to decorate the pieces after cutting and pasting the pictures. But the finished products that we put up serve as a reminder of what we have talked about and of course you can't discount all the talk that we do while doing the pieces together.

Paint with die-cut border and rose

Chalk with self-adhesive felt flowers and cut-out hearts 

Giving to the needy

In the books Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns, Rashad's Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, and Ramadan Moon, we read about putting money into the zakat box, giving money and food to people who don't have enough, and looking for things to give away. I knew that the concept of giving is something that I couldn't afford to overlook in the midst of all the other teaching points during the blessed month. Alhamdulillah, we had several opportunities to give and I made it a point to tell the little girl what we were doing and what it was for. May all the little things that we gave be accepted by Him.

Slotting coins into her own zakat "box" 

A charity drive for Hari Raya clothes

Preparing for Eid

It was going to be the little girl's third Eid and so we decided to include her in our annual trip to the Geylang bazaar during Ramadhan. In fact, she went with us not once but twice! She got to see the big sadaqah boxes for Aidilfitri, and lots of traditional clothes, Eid cookies and fairy lights on sale. And for the first time ever, we bought fairy lights for our home! We bought one with stars and another with ketupat. I think I was more excited to see the fairy lights up than her!

A stall at the bazaar which sold fairy lights

Our very own twinkling stars

Okay so we didn't bake our own cookies (I shall insert my excuse here of not having an oven) and didn't cook our own rendang or ketupat but that didn't stop us from learning what others do in preparation for Eid. The cookie set from Melissa & Doug arrived timely about a week before Eid, which is usually the time when cookies are baked, and so the little girl got busy with some slicing, decorating and serving of her own cookies.

"Baking" her own cookies

Paint with craft punch flowers and money envelope

Ketupat, crescent moons and stars made of pipe cleaners

And that concludes our activities for Ramadhan and Eid. I had hoped to do more but inshaa Allah I shall keep those ideas for future Ramadhan with the little girl. And as usual, whatever that was good came from Allah s.w.t. and whatever that was wrong was from me. 

This blog is for the intended purpose of sharing and I am heartened when my mummy friends asked me where I had gotten some Islamic books or materials for my daughter, how my daughter learnt to do certain things, or if I could purchase certain items for them. It brings me immense joy knowing that other children may benefit from the ideas or books that I share. Motherhood is never a solitary journey and may we all learn from each other inshaa Allah. 

Ramadhan & Eid Reading Corner (Part 1)

Our latest Ramadhan & Eid themed reading corner lasted longer than the usual month as I had let it spill over to the month of Syawal. Although it was longer than usual, I didn't think we did too many activities related to the theme at home. As my daughter is still young (she turned 2 during Ramadhan), I felt what was more important was for me to introduce her to the terms related to Ramadhan and Eid, and expose her to the significant activities that mark the holy month such as fasting, reading the Quran, and going to the masjid, and that is how I have classified my activities for the theme.

Our reading and activity corners were less elaborate this time round due to the nature of the theme. I also did not have much time to prepare. Whether I could observe fasting or not (I am still a breastfeeding mother), I felt that I should devote more time to my worship of Allah s.w.t. So here are our simple corners. Apart from books related to Ramadhan and Eid, I had included Islamic books as well.

Our Ramadhan & Eid reading corner

Books specifically related to Ramadhan & Eid

Our activity corner

Reading the Quran

Ramadhan IS the month of the Holy Quran. It is the month when the Holy Book was sent down by Allah s.w.t. from the seventh Heaven to the first for Angel Jibreel a.s. to impart verses to the Messenger, Prophet Muhammad s.a.w., during a span of 23 years. There is no better time than Ramadhan for one to read and learn the Quran. That is not to say that during other months, the Quran should be neglected (reminder to self). In fact, I want the Quran to be a part of my daily life and my daughter's too inshaa Allah.   

Reading together at bedtime

Doing her hijaiyah puzzle

Learning hijaiyah letters while doodling

  Arranging hijaiyah magnetic foam letters (self-directed)

 Using a magnifier to look at the hijaiyah letter on Omar 

(Umar is one of her BFFs) 

Picking hijaiyah letters with tweezers (self-directed)

Chalk with self-adhesive felt borders and craft punch metallic stars 

(She says this is her grandpa reading the Quran)

Going to the masjid at night

Oh how I miss going to the masjid for terawih! I had not gone to the masjid the past two Ramadhan. I had given birth on the fourth day of Ramadhan in 2011, and in 2012, I felt that my girl was too young for me to leave at night with a caregiver. On top of that, my husband was away in Germany for a while during Ramadhan last year. This Ramadhan didn't start quite as rosy as well as my husband had to serve his in-camp reservist for the first two weeks.

But after that, things were much better and I managed to squeeze in a few terawih at the masjid, with and without my husband. I still remember how I felt on the first night I was at the masjid this past Ramadhan. I was so happy that I got to be a guest in the House of Allah s.w.t. that I felt like bursting at the seams with joy. I was overcome with nostalgia too as I remembered my younger (read: single) days when I used to spend time alone at the masjid during Ramadhan. I still recall those days with lots of fondness and I try to console myself that I had the opportunity. There's no point regretting it now that I had not spent more time at the masjid when I had the time and opportunity.

So this act of going to the masjid at night is something I hold close to my heart. When we read books and there were scenes of people going and leaving the masjid at night, I made it a point to stop and talk about it with my daughter. And so the masjid craft we made all had stars to show that it was at night. I called them "Masjid on a starry, starry night". It was during this activity that I found out that the little girl could peel stickers on her own. In fact, she was very good at it! I didn't know it previously as she had always asked me to peel the stickers for her. 

Peeling and pasting the stars

Our versions of "Masjid on a starry, starry night"

Chalk with craft punch stars and cut-out moon

Ink stamps with craft punch stars and cut-out masjid from money packet

Alhamdulillah a group of mothers had planned a qiyam at a masjid on the night of the little girl's birthday. I knew it was the perfect opportunity to bring her to the masjid. Although I found out minutes before leaving for the masjid that the time of the month had come, my bags were packed and so we decided to go ahead with it. I did not want to miss the opportunity to spend a night at the masjid on one of the last ten days. 

At the masjid, the little girl had so much fun with other children and did not sleep till way, way past her bedtime. Around midnight, I went down with her to the main prayer hall to send some food and to meet my husband. We sat at a table by a vending machine, drinking mango juice and eating murtabak, to celebrate the little girl's birthday. Just the three of us at a quiet corner of a masjid yet there was nothing short of perfection in that little celebration. And that's how I shall remember the night/morning that she turned two.

I had intended to publish this in one post but I have been procrastinating and swarmed with lots of work (both in and out of the house) and Eid visiting. So I shall continue the second half of this post another time. 

Note:
The second part of this post can be found here.