Get Them Excited !

Assalamu'alaykum wrm wbt my dear sisters!!

As i was reading the Quran this morning, i was reminded of my Quran teacher during my childhood. I somehow was sooooo inspired to write this post, Allahu Akbar!

I realized that her inspiration had really inspired me, A LOT. SubhanAllah..
She used to make me love my Quran class sooooo muchhhh..
Her smile, her warm-welcoming face, softness and she was very friendly.
Someone that you would be excited to meet everyday!

Ya Allah, wherever she is right now, please have mercy and increase her in blessings in dunya and akhirah!
Aaamin.

So i was thinking to myself, just as much as she had inspired me, why don't i share my experience and my humble thoughts on how to get your kids/ small siblings (best to start at a very early age) to LOVE THE QURAN!

*Wink Wink*

What You Need:

1. A student or two. As i don't prefer large group of students- my span focus is kinda limited. So up to you :)

2. The Quran. One mushaf for you and give your student each. (Give to them as a gift and tell them how valuable it is for them to keep)

3. A Quran with translation and tafseer. (In language that your prefer)

What To Do?

1. If your potential student (let say a kid) has not shown any interest to learn Al-Quran, make him/her (Now, let's say 'him'). Let him sees what you do- how keen you are to read and read and read the mushaf and how keen and passionate you are to have your own time (privacy i would say) with your mushaf. Let him wonder why are you acting as such.

2. Make sure you have the time to give hint to him on what you are doing and tell how excited you are, how amazing you are feeling and how happy you are !

3. When he has started to ask you what you are doing and why you are doing what you are doing, that's when you trigger his interest. Say, "You seriously want to know? Hmm.." and start telling him some stories in the Quran. Get him to sit with you for a period of time. (But make sure you are not giving him too much info, he might get bored. Give little so that he will crave for more stories from you inshaAllah :)

4. Let him know in the end, there are other amazing stories in The Quran and if he wants to know more, tell him to see you again some other time. (Make a promise on when and where exactly you can do so with him- best applied to my own siblings, used to do it when they were small, bi ithnillah)

5. Next time he sits with you again, tell him that you have a very valuable gift for him. Also tell him to make wudhu (ablution) before you hand it over to him. Tell him why you wanted him to do so- The gift is sooo valuable and precious that it needs you and him and anyone else to take wudhu before touching it and that you need him to promise you to take very good care of it, handle it nicely as it's an amanah (and tell him you would be sad if he doesn't). Only then, give him the Quran :)

6. Next , see how he wants to go about it. I would suggest that you teach him memorization with tajweed. Have only 3-5 verses a day for him to memorize by heart. To make him motivated to do so, promise him that you are going to share a wonderful story relates to the verses (your task: find for tafseer/ asbabun nuzul of these verses to share with him). Again, not to share too much with him, he might get tired and bored.



7. After he has finished memorizing, let him recite to you, assist him to memorize and
correct him if necessary. Praise him if he managed to do so correctly and remind him how happy Allah will be with him. Also, tell him, how confident you are on his ability to memorize the entire Quran some day (don't forget to smile and look into his eyes :)

8. Make a promise to meet again with him for more amazing stories, inshaAllah :)

If you realize, THE STUDENT that i referred to here in this article was expected to have a fundamental knowledge and understanding of tawheed- such as believe in Allah, HIS messengers, etc (The tenets of faith). Therefore, if your student does not have this, explain to him what he needs to know when these matters are brought up and that you realize he is not knowing any of them. May Allah give ease in your affairs! Aamin!

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Some kids may have high curiosity. Just make sure you let them stay in that condition whenever you leave them at the end of the session you have with them. You may leave them with few questions for them to think and ponder upon in regards to what you are going to share with them in next class. So that they may become eager to see you for the Quran session you will have with them in future, inshaAllah.

For example,
"There's a surah in the Quran that talks about an ant. Amazingly, a man was given a blessing to hear them talking! Do you know who? Hm... You know what, i think i'm gonna share this with you in our next session, inshaAllah"

That should work, inshaAllah :)
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Recalling on the time when i was late to my Quran class and the class had ended by the time i reached home from school in the evening. I somehow gushed to the class with my head scarf in one hand and my Quran in the other hand. I was really hoping that she will allow me to sit with her for that evening. And alhamdulillah, she did allow me, even though i was alone. O' Allah, how inspiring she was back then, until today alhamdulillah !

Barakallahu feeha! 
May Allah bless her! Aaamin..

Interesting websites on Quran-related for Kids:
1. Quran For Kids
2. Introducing Islam to Our Kids



*In The Making of The Next Best Generation of Al-Quran and As-Sunnah: Our Next Caliphs and Next Ummahatul Mukminun. InshaAllah*

VID: Teach Islam

Assalamu'alaykum wrm wbt..

Sharing this with my circle of relatives and friends. Pls kindly spread the khayr and share the ajr. 
Jazakumullahu khayran.

Bismillah.

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Where should Islamic education come/start off from?
Not from the khatibs, the imams, or anyone else before the family institution, of course.

But the issue here is that what our parents used to do 10-20 years may no longer be relevant to our world today..

So... Here, bro Nouman Ali Khan addressed few humble tips, (such an eye-opener subhanAllah) on IMPROVING, preparing ourselves for the next generation- by starting off with the QURAN- LOVING THE QURAN. 

Yes, there are some parts of the education need not to be changed as how the teachings were revealed to the anbiya. 

But with the zombie consumerism?
PSP/Gamebox freaks-lifestyle? 
And more challenges and irresistible temptation today's generation is facing/experiencing/struggling to overcome,
How can we start loving the quran? 
Thus to instill this in today and next generation? 
Practically, how do we do that?

I mean, seriously, think about this.

Some of us are an elder brother/sister to other siblings.
Some are teachers by profession.
And some maybe, sooner or later, going to get kids or to get married.
We are going to be a husband,/wife, next a father/mother..
Or the least, to be a role model, an exemplary to others around us, if Allah wills.

I humbly invite all of you to watch this.

So pls watch~!

Like Bro NAK said, yea, syaithan will come to you, make you yarn and feel sleepy, or suddenly bother you with meetings that you have, 'important' things to do, bla bla bla- when you want to do good things, when you want to spend quality times listening and reciting the Quran with our family.. Or even when you want to WATCH THIS VIDEO!

So pls watch till the last, stay with bro NAK pls..

'We have to become the Nation of Al-Quran- US AND OUR CHILDREN, and the next generation (inshaAllah)'

Here's the video:

For Future Moms~ (and Dads)

Bismillah..

Assalamu'alaykum!

Wana share this good video here:

You gotta watch this video for all beautiful stories Sheikh Syed Rageah shared!

It's important. To have righteous kids, we gotta be righteous too. So let's start becoming one, NOW.

Hope it benefits ya!

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Few IMPORTANT points i'd like to highlight here (and i believe it's crucial for us

all to know, inshaAllah):

1. Problems (Identify, minimize, avoid!)~

• Parents too busy to educate Islam to their children
• Bad examples of mothers (na'udzhubillah)-they add confusion to their daughters.

Well, you know, the 'HIJAB' concept. Putting it on only when they're in mosque and once they step out of the mosque, their hijab just disappeared-gone! Or shall i

say, flew away? :(

• Temptations around (Watch the vid to know the list :)
• Not having the right model to follow.
• Bad environment (Gives great influence to the kids since they learn most through observations-through their cute lil' eyes that act more like 2 sets of non-stoppable+non-filterable video recording! Parents, you'd better watch out!)

2. Since Islam's teachings are all meant to provide us BEST CURE, which is PREVENTION, Sheikh had shared with us some 'sweets yet hard to chew' tips:

• Set Prophet Muhammad salallahu 'alayhi waslm (s.a.w), habeebuna, as our BEST ROLE MODEL-uswatul hasanah

Why i wrote 'our best role model', not 'their'(the kids)? Because to teach these kids to take Prophet Muhammad (saw) as their BEST ROLE MODEL and to implement the sunnan of habeebuna (s.a.w) in everything they do, we have to do them FIRST. Remember the famous quote, "WALK THE TALK"? Uhuh. YOU-WALK THE TALK FIRST before the others :)

• Parents, as your kids ROLE MODELS, should always behave in good manners. Should (or MUST) practise praised characters as taught by our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw)..

source:click here

MUST never lie to your kids. MUST go to the mosque oftenly, pray jama'ah prayers (to

dads, note this!), be righteous in speeches and deeds, LIVE ISLAMICALLY...MUST DO everything by YOURSELF first, if you want your kids to do the same. Remember i told you they are the 'recorder'?.....

May Allah put ease in all of our affairs as to our sincere intentions and deeds! Aaamin!

source: click here

• To have intelligent, righteous, pious kids like Imam Syafi'e (may Allah have mercy upon him)-start before your delivery to your baby!

So, dads musn't bring any haraam food/stuff into the house. Have your house near the mosque so that your kids (boys especially) could walk there themselves to perform jam'ah prayers when dads get busy and not around... And moms should live islamically also; read+understand al-quran and act upon its teachings, live the sunnah, conduct good attitudes, etc.. (watch the vid to know more)

• If you want your kids to be PERFECT muslims, AIM HIGH.

And then from there, you have to always try to raise them (like sheikh said, 'mold them') so that later on, when they reach age of 15+ (Being teenagers, ya know how hard it is for them to deal with so many LURING yet DESTRUCTIVE temptations), they are easier for you to handle as they would be more obedient to you in righteousness as compared to others of their age that aren't raised islamically. May Allah make our children among the righteous and have taqwa! Aaamin.

So, as future mothers, we really have to prepare ourselves with 'ilm and good akhlaq!

source: click here

• TVs-put on good shows to watch with the kids, put away all the bad and harmful shows away from the kids. (Personally, i'd rather not to have TV at home..)

Well, the sheikh somehow suggested to us to have a more productive time spent with the family-having a visit during the weekend to good+righteous families or any outdoor activities where all of your family members could participate in a healthy-islamic environment. (volunteering in charity work will also do! :)

• Kids are amanah (a trust) from Allah.

So we have to fear Allah! It's a GREAT deal!

When a sister lends you her fave book, what will you do? Surely you wouldn't wana betray her trust to you, right? So you would wana take very good care of it and handle the book carefully-you wouldn't wana lose her trust to you. If that's the case of her trust (the book), what about HIS trust to you(the kids)? Will really have to provide these kids their rights (the utmost priority!): to educate them Islam..

You wouldn't want them to stand infront of Allah and complain, "Oo Allah, my mom (or

dad) didn't teach me how to pray. They didn't teach me how to read the Quran. They didn't teach me..(you can name all the pillars of Islam/Iman if you want).."

Instead of having your kids as a key to jannah, things are happening just the opposite. Na'udzhubillah.. :(

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• For new muslims and new-practising muslims :)

CHANGE ENVIRONMENT!

Uhuh, you read me. If you want to change to a better muslima, want to practise Islam as what you've learnt but the environment just not that friendly to your changes, guess what? You REALLY GOTTA CHANGE THE ENVIRONMENT :)

How?

Sheikh's suggestions:

a. Change friends. Have them who are:

-righteous. (they love spending time in mosque/muslims' organized events)

-remind you to fear Allah (in everything you do)

-correct you when you do wrong things

b. New muslims: don't try to go back (to your former friends-life before you learn enough of your deen.

- How can you dive to save your friend if you don't know how to swim? So stay dry, till you learn to swim. :)

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BOYFRIEND-GIRLFRIEND RELATIONSHIP.

How to stay steadfast in avoiding this forbidden relationship?

a. Sincere du'a..

"Oo Allah, You know who i am and who i used to be. Please guide me to remain on this path (steadfastness in obeying/pleasing Allah)" or something alike. :)

b. Avoid being in places of fitan (plural for fitna)-disco, pubs, places where intermingles (and other poisons to our iman) are unavoidable.

c. Fast as much as you can

d. Spend most of your time in mosque..

*Tips above are written to remind the imperfect+forgetful-me, before reminding the others :)

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"Our Lord! Bestow on us from our wives and our offspring who will be the comfort of our eyes, and make us leaders for the Muttaqun"

(Al-Furqan:74)

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