Book Review: Ramadan, fasting and striving for the jannah by Aichatou

We are all familiar with the time and effort that it takes to organize and prepare for Ramadan. In our house, it is an endeavor that we look forward to, but it often leaves me feeling overwhelmed and dissatisfied.

When it comes to preparing activities for the children, I usually dream bigger than I act.  While I love arts and crafts, I never seem to find proper, age-appropriate tasks for everyone to do that include all of the important aspects of Ramadan. More often than not, the tasks are perfect for the younger children while my oldest participates with a bit less enthusiasm.That being said, I was delighted to receive a copy of Ms. Aichatou’s paperback, Ramadan, fasting and striving for the jannah. The book is a part of the Pearls of Knowledge series.

I received a free copy for review about a week ago and read through it a few times before passing it along to my husband for his thoughts, as well as handing it over to my eight year old daughter. The general consensus is that the book is very thorough, MashaAllah, and that it is well-organized, all without being overwhelming.

The first thing that I noticed about the book is its tone. It is a fun guide that teaches the child how to manage their time, aid parents in extra daily chores, plan a shopping list to gather ingredients for an iftar meal and much more! There are ayat from the Quran and authentic hadith throughout the pages, as well as checklists for attending the mosque. Emphasis is placed on the importance of reciting Quran and how to keep track of salah and good deeds.

I also found the section on honoring one’s guests appealing, as most can attest to the many exciting evenings of visitors throughout the month of Ramadan. It’s nice that the author reminds the child that the guests are their guests as well, and that they are responsible for making them comfortable in one’s home too. Of course, no book on Ramadan is complete without explaining the moon calendar, fasting and… the Eid party! My overall rating for this book is 5 out of 5 pearls!

Ramadan, fasting and striving for the jannah has 46 pages in full color and can be purchased for £2.50 wholesale or £4.90 retail. You can learn about more books and materials from Ms. Aichatou’s website: www.aichatou.com.

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Killer Disease: Secret Cover Up

Killer Disease: Secret Cover Up.

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New Pages

I added some new notebooking pages to the tab on the menu bar. Check them out, InshaAllah you will find them useful.

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Interesting

Explore the Ocean
Created by: MastersDegree.net

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Free Islamic Apps

MashaAllah,

as technology progresses, Muslims are finding creative ways to teach us the essential of our deen. Yufid Inc. has developed a series of apps for Muslim children, all of which have fresh, colorful graphics to  appeal to the senses of little ones. Of the series, Hijaiya (Arabic Alphabet) and Kids-Dua are our favorites and both are free!

 

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Notebooking Section

I haven’t been posting, but I have been busy behind the scenes. I’ve made some simple notebooking pages to go along with our studies and I’ve added them to the menu section under “Notebooking Pages”. I like the idea of having notebooking pages but often find the need to alter them when I find them online to fit our needs.

 

Feel free to use them for yourselves. InshaAllah I will try to keep adding to the section from time to time so that we have a variety of resources to complement our studies. Can any of you direct me to some nice, free clip art pages? It really livens up the pages when there are images to go along with them.

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Medieval Studies

We spent the last few days introducing ourselves to the Muslims of Medieval Spain. We finished our unit study on the Vikings some time ago so it was nice to get back on track. For our Muslim hero studies, I chose Tariq ibn Ziyad. I made a notebooking page to go along with our first lesson; feel free to download it:

Tariq ibn Ziyad Notebooking Page
Here is a link to what he is claimed to have said in his speech to the Muslim army: Tarik ibn Ziyad’s Speech.

 

Back in the fall, I purchased a Trebuchet Kit for some hands-on activity:

This was such a hit with the children and hopefully we can take it outside when it gets a little warmer/drier in the backyard and launch some objects. It took about three hours to assemble; It’s quite easy as long as you have sharp scissors and wood glue and a ruler. I think that it would be nice if painted or stained, but it would probably be easier if you do this before assembling. I’m hoping that we are able to study more ancient weaponry as we go along and do another project as we study the Crusades, InshaAllah.

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مدار Open Islamic Curriculum Madaar

*Not a paid advertisement*
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If you would like to submit lessons, go here and read the guidelines for submitting/writing lessons.

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Panoramic View of Replica of Prophet Muhammad’s House صلى الله عليه وسلم‎

A very nice experience, MashaAllah. Just go here: Panoramic View

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I Can’t Let Them Slip Into Darkness

I, like many other Muslims living in the West, fight the daily battle, shielding my children from unsuitable materials, on television, in movies,etc. I scour the net for reviews on children’s books to weed out inappropriate relationships, discourteous behavior, lying, cheating, stealing and the ever-popular occult materials and “paranormal romance”. It is difficult to find things to read nowadays! Difficult but not impossible.

I read an article on Muslim Matters a few weeks ago and I’ve been so deeply disturbed and discouraged by it that I am at a loss as to how I can properly articulate my feelings about it. The article tells is entitled “5 Important Lessons From Harry Potter”.

Perhaps the comments were even more disappointing than the actual written piece. People were saying, “AlhamduLillah! MashaAllah!” and on and on. Can you imagine if this were a khutbah at the masjid? Astaghfirullah.

Just reading the title of the article was enough to make me wonder. Are we in such desperate need for entertainment? Have we given up our hatred of that which is despised by Allah because we are weak and feel the need to conform to modern distractions? Have we as Muslims become confused about what magic is? Is there a hadith that distinguishes between “white” and “black” magic that I missed? Are we so intent upon following our desires that we must insult one another by calling names, (extremists, prudes, uptight), or is it that some of us do not believe in magic at all?

For those who say that Harry Potter is just a harmless make-believe story, let me ask you this: would it feel good to see your child pretending to be a witch or a wizard, making up spells while utilizing a magic wand? Is that okay? I have to say, I would be wary of letting my children play with yours, especially unsupervised. There are some boundaries that I cannot cross.

Some parents think that it is all harmless fantasy and that as children grow, their maturity will guide them. However, this is not the case! My husband taught high school science at an Islamic school a few years ago, and the students would often ask questions like, “Is Harry Potter okay to read? Are vampires and werewolves real? Can we cast spells?” These were high school students – some nearly old enough to graduate and be considered adults in Western society! SubhanALLAH. In Islam, they are already adults. And if they aren’t sure whether Dracula is lurking outside the halal meat shop at night, then the Ummah really needs to step it up, Ya ALLAH!

Harry Potter is a story that condones what ALLAH has forbidden. Seemingly harmless magic, be it optical illusions, movies or books are a slippery road to darkness and that’s a deal breaker for me.

Again, forgive me for not being eloquent, I only want for other Muslims what I want for myself and that is to be closer to ALLAH سبحانه و تعالى.

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