Febuary 2013 E-Mag

E-Magazine February 2013

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5 Easy Tips to Create an Islamic Environment at Home 1.

A Hadeeth a Day Keeps the Shaytan Away

A daily reminder of the Prophetic sayings and actions would be a good start to encourage Islamic teachings. This can be achieved using various creative means:

HOW Formal Taleem (Sitting down sharing and discussing the Hadith) Informal reminder over Dinner Written on the fridge (As fridges can be used like whiteboards) A family group SMS or the new app WATS APP. Best after any Salah

2.

Pray at Least One Salah with Jamah (Together, congregation)

Parents must establish regular prayer themselves first, and must make effort to perform Salah as a family at least once a day ideally Fajar or Esha or both. This will give you the opportunity to start and finish the day with the family for the sake of Allah. What more can you ask for? O yes then breakfast would be nice. Easily achieved if all the family members contribute to preparing and then eating.

HOW Alarm synchronised in each room First person wakes up others Azaan nice and loud Water gun for people like me (Disclaimer: Will work but cannot guarantee safety of the user)

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3.

Read Quran everyday

The house must hear the Quran, the people within must hear the Quran daily. There must be a daily dose of Quran within the four walls of your house. Your children must be born into a house where they are immune to the Quranic verses daily. It must live within the bricks, cement and paint of your house.

HOW Ideally Surah Yaseen in the morning and Surah Mulk and Sajdah in the evening After a fix Salah Reading together as a family after a specific Salah Ideally you should make an effort to read if not at least play it on youtube or CD etc... So the house and children can hear the beautiful sounds of the Quran entering their hearts and minds.

4.

Make a mini Masjid in your Home

That doesn’t mean you actually build one, but you specify a space in your home for the use of Salah, reading, zikr etc... It is important to have a fixed place of worship in your home; this brings the family to one place at salah times.

How A specific cupboard containing, musalla (Prayer mats), hats, scarves, tasbeeh, books, Itr, etc...

5.

Library

Do you have a library where you can find information on Islam? There should be an area dedicated to teaching and learning, where an environment of seeking knowledge begins. Maybe even put a computer there, so you can access the online books.

How Ask the family where a good space would be Set a bookshelf Setup a computer Maybe put encouraging posters Remember, this all theoretically, and imaginatively sounds nice. However, the true beauty is in the action. Try it, you will be amazed.

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The CLOSER you all get to ALLAH, the CLOSER you are to each other!

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4 Lessons to Teach Children about Snow Allah’s Blessings Have we ever thought that the snow is another blessing sent from Allah?

The feeling of cold and realisation of heat, the thought that this will be over in a few days and being grateful that it will not remain like in other places. The joy of wrapping up, going outside making snowman’s, having snow fights and been giving the opportunity to chuck snow at your elders all under the name of fun (Still must be with respect). The street fills with children that you never even knew and join in the fun, creates community love. Some people are really blessed by receiving a day off from work or school, how blessed is that? Some areas are blessed with public ice skating rinks and hills which transform into big slides.

Allah’s Power We all know that Allah is All Powerful and is capable of doing what He wants. Snow provides us with yet another example of the Power of Allah. Firstly, no one can stop the snow from coming on to the ground; secondly we cannot even control it to what we need. I recall two years ago when the snow hit London, one of the most powerful and influential cities in the World, Heathrow airport was closed due to the inability of clearing and bringing to use the run ways, how many flights were cancelled, millions of pounds were lost due to the inactivity. On the streets people were not able to travel to and from work, cars were stuck in traffic for hours, total gridlock. I remember listening to a radio programme and so many callers were saying they had been there for hours, no food, petrol running out, having to pass urine and stool in the car in plastic bags.

Allah is the greatest and shows His power using various different methods, we just need to realise that He is the Greatest and be thankful and grateful to Him, as Allah loves the grateful and does not like the ungrateful. Use your senses to understand the greatness of Allah.

Fun And finally, let the kids have fun and enjoy the blessing of Allah.

Participate in their play; let them get you with snowballs, make things together in the snow. Prepare them some nice hot chocolate, soup etc...

Sit together in front of a cosy fire place or heater and tell stories and remember Allah. www.idealmuslim.com

How does Snow Form?

Snow begins in the atmosphere as water condenses into a tiny droplet. As more and more water vapour condenses onto its surface, the droplet grows. Cold air then freezes this water into an ice crystal.

Each ice crystal has a unique shape that depends on the surrounding air's temperature and water vapour content. If it is below freezing and there is a lot of water vapour in the air, the crystal grows six evenly spaced branches. More and more water vapour collects on these branches and freezes, making the ice crystal increasingly heavy. Eventually, the ice crystal falls from the sky, leaving the cloud of precipitation that it helped to form. As it falls, the crystal continues to grow by picking up more water vapour.

As it descends, the ice crystal can come into contact with warmer air that makes it melt somewhat.

These melting acts like glue, causing crystals to bond together into larger flakes, forming what many people think of as the "classic" fluffy snowflake. If the crystals melt too much and then refreeze as they get closer to Earth's surface, the precipitation falls as sleet instead of snow.

Once on the ground, snow will remain if temperatures are cold enough to keep it from melting.

Glaciers that form on mountains, for example, are made up of snow that accumulates on the ground and eventually turns to ice. http://www.learner.org/interactives/weather/i ceandsnow.html

How often do you spend engaging with your children?

Do you know what engaging means?

“If a Child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.”

Many people think that they are engaging with their children by putting the tv on whilst the parents are cooking, or on their laptops etc…

Engagement means to interact, teach, and develop your children. How?

If you are cooking, why are you not engaging your children to help you, this way they learn how to cook, they are spending quality time with you and are developing life skills.

The teaching of the Prophet (SAW) was to interact and engage with our children and not to keep them idle in front of screen based innovations. When we were young we did not have any of these technologies and we survived, so why is it a must now to have such technological devices to baby sit our children.

Remember, our job is to nurture, teach and educate the next generation to become ideal Muslims.

We can only do this by interacting and engaging with our children at all times.

Some practical steps for you to take with your children: When you are hovering the house, play a game with your children and tell them to act as a crane moving all the big stuff out the way so the Hoover can easily clean up.

When you are cooking, give your children something to do as part of the process, for e.g. mixing the salad, squashing the potatoes for mash etc… If there is no task to do, be creative and make something up.

When you are ironing, ask them to fold, or pass you the clothes.

These types of activities will build a conversation and bond between you and your child. If your child gets bored too quick, you must plan a curriculum the way they do it in schools, to ensure they are always busy and learning. Remember, these kids are entrusted on you by Allah and you must answer to him, so you MUST exhaust all efforts to ensure there are rightly guided. If you are struggling to set a plan, and then seek advice, you are more than welcome to come to any of our Islamic weekend schools and speak to any member of staff and I am sure they will be more than happy to assist.

You can also find brief outlines of the curriculum on our site, however, it is at very early stages but we do update regularly, you are more than welcome to use any of our resources.

“Teach me and I will

This advice is not just for Quran, or English, it is for everything. Your children must be excited to come home to interact with their parents and trust me you will also equally enjoy it, if not more. The art to this ideal way of living is:

forget.

Show me and I will learn, Involve me and I will understand.”

Firstly, ask Allah And PLAN, PLAN, PLAN Once you know what you are doing then it will come naturally to you.

What I want you to do this week is to; make a list of activities (or chores) that you do on a weekly basis.

Then, next to each chore write how you can merge a child friendly activity. The best way I find doing this is through a brainstorm, may be even do it with your kids, they will love it. (Engage them). During the week I will upload a sample brainstorm to give you an idea. Insha Allah.

If you have any queries or need any advice feel free to contact us anytime, we are here to help.

Insha Allah May Allah give us the opportunity to fulfill our roles and engage with Allah and our children. Ameen

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The child’s development is not just the teacher’s sole responsibility, but works in a triangular formation, involving the student, teacher and parent.

If the parent expects to send their child to a school without committing to the educational values and teachings at home, it will become very difficult for children to learn and develop further.

There is a clear difference between the children who are supported at home and the ones that are not.

The child who learns is not smarter than the other one; it’s just that the teaching has not been re enforced at home.

We as teachers and educators have a responsibility to ensure ALL the children are learning and developing, but we find it difficult to execute when parents do not show the same responsibility and expect teachers to do everything.

The lesson is taught and the children understand, however when they go home they must recap and memorise certain duas or hadiths, go through their school homework to ensure this teaching is embedded within the child.

Remember, as a parent you are responsible for your child more than the teacher is. Allah will ask the teacher did you do all you can to teach, the answer will most probably incline towards yes as that’s what they are employed to do. However, when the parents are asked the answer may be very different.

The sense of responsibility develops with a true concern (fikr) of the child’s development, ask Allah to give you and us all the true concern. This concern triggers action, even if you do not know what to do, by showing concern you will ask the teachers for help and guidance. This will lead to a constructive discussion regarding the development of your child and action points which must be implemented during the week.

Islam is not just at madrassa, it must encompass in our lives totally. If you have not built an Islamic environment at home this may be a good opportunity to start, as you can seek support from your child’s teachers.

Please try and make an effort to implement Islamic values at home, as this is true success in this world and the next.

May Allah give us all the ability to implement Islamic teachings in our lives. Ameen (Teacher from Ilford School)

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I am proud to be a Woman in Islam!

When she is a Daughter, she opens the door to Jannah for her Father.

When she is a wife, she completes half her Husbands deen.

When she is a mother, she has Jannah at her feet for her children.

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We were discussing in class today a very important concept of “what will people think”.

The students initially began saying “I don’t care what people think”, like majority of the people would say. However, when the discussion began to analyse the situations of life and what we do and who we do it for, we came to the conclusion that “O, we do try to please people”.

Now, the problem is that when we try to please everybody, in the process we violate some rights, most usually the rights of Allah.

HOW? We will organise a big wedding, hired cars, fancy halls, extravagant gifts, clothes and expenditures all to impress the people. But forget the simplest of commands and duty, to pray Salah. This is not a stereotype advice, I attended a friend’s wedding couple of weeks ago (May Allah bless their marriage).

Everyone is eating drinking, taking pictures etc… maghrib time comes along and no change in activity, even though it was a Muslim wedding.

A small group of people make their way to a room mainly consisting of old men, prayed Salah and rejoined in the celebration of uniting two of Allah’s creation, whilst eating and drinking the blessings of Allah, when you say it like that it sounds bad, and ungrateful, unfortunately for those, it is.

I went to remind everybody, especially the groom; I was looked at like an alien species trying to speak an alienated concept.

The excuses that I was getting,” haven’t got wudu”, errrm, “Well, go and do it then”.

This is where the pleasing of people prevails over the rights of Allah, the response being “If I do wudu my clothes will get wet and look bad”.

“My clothes will look bad”, subhanallah, and on the day of judgement when you will look bad in front of Allah, without any salahs to bring forward because of what people will think of your clothes, I can’t understand the logic in that.

However, it should be mentioned I am not referring to fulfilling people’s rights as that too will be questioned, I am pointing out the illogical sense in pleasing people over Allah.

You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time. But you can never please ALL of the people ALL of the time!

So why sacrifice an everlasting relationship with Allah for something that is temporary. Please Allah and Allah will make people pleased with you.

May Allah be pleased with us all. Ameen

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“How you speak to your children becomes their inner voice...”

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“To be in your child’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today!”

My Speech Akhlaaq Level 1-Lesson 4 Talking is very important in our daily life. However there are many ways of talking. It is necessary to speak clearly. Also you should not talk continuously as it may be very disturbing. You should not speak loudly than the person who is talking to you because it might make the other person angry. If you call someone that is older than you, he should be called by a title of respect. Never call your parents and anyone elder than you by their name.

Disturbing someone whilst they are talking is also a bad habit especially if the person is in an important conversation. If you do not know that he/she is in an important conversation then it is better for you to wait. If a person is having a conversation then you should not eavesdrop or spy on them. Do not talk about un-necessary things. It is disliked in Islam.

No one should backbite. If you backbite, immediately, you must seek for forgiveness from that person. Avoid saying things that would often hurt others for example, calling them silly names and embarrassing them in front of others. Do not be rude to anyone by speaking impolitely as this would reflect on your akhlaaq (character). This is also known as bad manners. It’s extremely appalling to use foul language. Think before you speak!

Basic step by step guide 1. Make a clean intention 2. Speak in front of a person in a clear tone.

3. Do not interrupt someone who is talking.

4. Do not talk about un-necessary things.

5. Do not be rude.

6. Avoid people with bad language as you may catch it from them.

7. Do not say something, which will hurt others.

8. Do not backbite.

9. Call your elders with a title of respect.

10. Always think before you speak.

11. Never call your parents by their name.

May Allah give us the ability to use our speech correctly. Ameen.

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Hadrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi (R.A) has written that obtaining the love of Allah Ta’ala is not within one’s control but adopting the various means which will assist one in acquiring the love of Allah Ta’ala is within one’s control. We should do that which is within our ability and leave the remainder to Allah Ta’ala. There are 5 actions that will assist one in acquiring the love of Allah Ta’ala.

HOW 1. Engage in the Zikr (remembrance) of Allah Ta’ala excessively.

Hadrat Maulana Abdul Hamid Hamid Saheb mentions, “When the Zikr of Allah is omitted then the soul suffers from starvation”.

2. Continuously contemplate over the bounties of Allah Ta’ala upon us and the manner in which we deal with our creator.

3. Establish a relationship with a friend of Allah (Allah wala).

4. Constantly obey the commands of Allah Ta’ala.

5. Beseech Allah Ta’ala to bless us with his love. (Tarbiyatus-Saalik pg.214 Vol.1) Hadrat Maulana Abdul Hamid Saheb (D.B) explains, “If a person continuously makes an effort to acquire the love of Allah Ta’ala yet does not attain his goal, he will be included amongst the lovers of Allah Ta’ala on the day of Qiyamah. There are many such examples in our Deen.

A person undertakes a journey to perform Haj but passes away whilst travelling to Makkah Mukarrama then he will receive the reward of performing Haj and an angel will be appointed to perform Haj on behalf of this person every year till the day of Qiyamah.

A student commenced memorising the Quraan but passes away whilst committing the Quraan to memory, such a student will be raised amongst the Huffaz on the day of Qiyamah.

Similarly, in acquiring the love of Allah Ta’ala one should continue striving until he meets his creator.

May Allah give us all the ability to acquire his love. Ameen

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Ponder on the Creation of

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Allah

Lewisham (Moulana) Muzzamil Ayub Kara (Hafiz) Catford College (1st Floor)

Check Out our Website for All the curriculum plans, lessons and information. www.idealmuslim.com

43-47 Rushey Green Lewisham SE6 4AS (Entrance via Rosenthal Road) muzzammil.kara@googlemail.com

07814422545 Harrow (Moulana) Adeel Iqbal Bentley Wood High School Bridges Road, Stanmore, Middlesex, HA7 3NA adeel_1991@hotmail.co.uk

07813334786 Ilford (Mufti) Mohammed Kamil Sheikh (MEd) Eton Road Community Centre Ilford, Essex IG1 2UE kamilsheikh786@gmail.com

07984864666

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