Wilton Cake Decorating Level I
October 28, 2009 at 5:27 pm | In Baking, Cake Decorating, Deen, Family, Kids, Kitchen, Mothering, New Mexico, State Fair | 1 CommentSo, with all the cake ventures, the girls decided to enroll in Wilton’s Cake Decorating class Level I (although S had already taken this class in C-bus). It came about rather accidentally; this plunging into an activity. It all stemmed from our search for the container for my Pandan Chiffon that I was to submit to the Southern New Mexico State Fair. It took me a-googling and I stumbled upon a store in town called Create a Cake, that offers classes. I had emailed some moms in town, in case they are also interested for their girls, and that brought My, whose mom, Sy said that she is interested. So she called the store and asked about the time, price and all those details. Meanwhile, another mom replied to my email and told me that Hobby Lobby offers cake decorating classes too and she knew because her daughters took the Level I last summer. When I asked Hobby Lobby for more details, it turned out that it was way cheaper! $17.50 vs. $60.00(or was it $70.00) and since I was going to have two girls to pay for, I immediately went for Hobby Lobby.
And so it was that I registered the girls and My. for the class. Sy. and I arranged for pick up and drop off so the burden is shared between our two families. Since the class goes right through Maghrib, we told the girls to pray when Maghrib came in. Alhamdulillah they’ve had this experience again and again since we were in C-bus, when they were taking sewing and classes at the Whetstone Rec Center. Most of the times though, hubby would go to them at the salah time, take them out of class and pray with them at a hallway or somewhere secluded. Now that they’re bigger, they’re starting to do it themselves. H, recently, during his soccer practice, excused himself from it and went next to the NMSU swimming pool building to pray Maghrib by himself. It so happened that hubby was in St Louis at the time. Usually, he would be with H and they’d pray together, but this time around, I had TQ, and we had asked a brother to help with picking and dropping H off for his soccer practice, and before H left, I reminded him of Maghrib. He wore his watch, and when he came home, I asked him if he prayed. Apparently, he had asked the coach if he could go for about 5 minutes, and he prayed next to the building.
“Did anyone watch you?” I asked, curious.
“”Well, a man passed by.”
Alhamdulillah he feels comfortable doing that.
N on the other hand, during a 4-H council meeting, fidgeted and fidgeted when she was supposed to pray Maghrib in a corner of the office. I have to admit though that it was probably not easy for her, because at the time, she was the only one who could pray, hubby and H were not there, and the room was also filled with other kids. So, I had to ask the 4-H agent if we could use an empty office room for N to pray in. When she went in, she immediately prayed with no hesitation.
At the cake class, on the very first day, Sy. stayed, so for that day, the girls, (well, N rather) had an adult to pray with, in an aisle in Hobby Lobby. On the second week, they were by themselves, but alhamdulillah all three girls prayed by themselves at the same spot where My.s mom had prayed the week before. They just got up and went out to pray, alhamdulillah. My. however, stopped going to the class because she didn’t enjoy it, so the third week, which was twp days ago, S and N prayed by themselves.
We all had gone out to go to the Imaging Center for my X-ray before the girls’ class. On the way to the class, we reminded them of the time for Maghrib.
“6.30 you two can pray. Can you do that?”
“Yeah,” S answered.
“I can come to you if you want,” offered hubby, meaning that he could come around maghrib time to take them out of class so they could pray.
“They already did it themselves last week,” I said to hubby.
“So you guys can do it by yourselves?” asked hubby.
“Yeah,” they replied.
So, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah.
place wax paper on top of the ruoghly iced cake and smooth it by running the spatula over the cake top and side over the wax paper and the lift...
All smooth!
It was during the second week that the girls had to bring an iced cake to class. S practically made her own cake, frosting, and iced it herself. She actually showed and taught me a new technique for smoothing the frosting on the cake; a technique I was not privy to before. N, ahh…N, I had to remind her to bake her cake and practically helped her and baked it for her, though she did most of the measuring. Then S helped her ice it because by then I was too exhausted and angry at N for not taking responsibility for her own deadlines.
When we picked them up that night though, they were not done decorating their cakes and I asked why.
“The teacher was talking and talking and only the last 20 minutes she let us decorate the cake.”
Aha…that is also part of the reason My. stopped going to class after that week.
So the girls finished decorating their cakes at home. They had also learned the technique for transfering pattern on the cake from wax/parchment paper using piping gel; another technique I have never used.
And voila! Their cakes look AWESOME! Mashaallah!
N's cake
S' cake
And what did we do with these two whole cakes? We gave them out to our neighbors and left a container of cake slices at the men’s kitchen in the masjid, with a note explaining its presence attached.
What’s the Deal?
October 28, 2009 at 3:51 pm | In Homeschooling, Kids, Writing | Leave a CommentOur Great Depression study went on for weeks. I had dreaded the New Deal because it involves a lot of explanation. We have been doing our learning in the living room lately, and that particular morning that I started going over the New Deal, I was also rushing because I had a doctor’s appointment at 9 a.m.
Two of the kids were not paying full attention, and I just snapped. I had planned on doing the lesson with them because the New Deal, as I said, requires some explanation. But as it went, I ended up telling them to write a report on it from their own research and understanding. All the information was there, they just had to learn it themselves. And I left for my doctor’s appointment.
Suffice it to say, they did do that impromptu assignment, alhamdulillah, with no complaints. H was done first, as always, this boy likes to finish his work ASAP just so he could get it over with. His report was pretty good. Then came S’ report. Much better. Well, I can’t really compare the two because they are at different levels. With N though, it came much later. It required her to write, rewrite, and I had to show her again and again. I have always been struggling teaching her because as it is, I don’t really know how to teach her effectively. I have a different learning style and this affects my teaching. She is more hands on and even though she loves creative writing, she doesn’t really like rules, so when it comes to writing reports or the like, it’s really something to deal with.
But alhamdulillah she finally did finish her report, past the deadline, but at least she finished it alhamdulillah. They didn’t want me putting their reports on the blog, so even though I really want to, for memory and easy, referable documenting purposes, I guess I’ll respect their wishes.
Overall, the writing report steps I had prepared before helped them in writing their reports as they referred to it throughout the process. Though, I did realize that those needed some major corrections on my part.
Red, Blue and White! No, It’s not Fourth of July…
October 14, 2009 at 3:33 am | In 4-H, Family, Kids, New Mexico, Projects, State Fair | 3 CommentsA white ribbon! It was pure white! I’ve never seen a white fair ribbon before. And it came with what? H’s 4H cloth banner, which we had deemed ‘did not win anything’, though I would have given him a blue ribbon for effort!
There was a long line of cars waiting to enter the fair grounds. Everyone was waiting to pick up their exhibits in that one hour window.
“We’re not moving,” said hubby.
So I got down, with the girls and walked towards the entrance, bypassing the cars. Apparently, that’s what some people did too, and as we walked towards the Veteran’s building, some people were walking towards the entrance with their exhibits. It was quite an interesting sensation, because as we passed by some people, I happened to notice a familiar exhibit we saw during the fair, held by its owner, a boy. It was as if we have become familiar with the exhibits such that it was quite exciting to see who the owners were.
when we got inside the Veteran’s building, people were standing in line waiting to get their exhibits back. I patted my jilbab pocket and slipped my hand in to make sure I had the tag no. for the exhibits. As we were standing in line, I caught sight of a lady holding a clear plastic plate, lined with white paper doily, on which was her baked good, and all of that inside a small ziploc.
Baked goods?! They still have it? I thought, and a surge of excitement ran through me.
I was pretty devastated, well, maybe that was a little dramatic, but I was quite sad to have had miss the Bakesale that Wednesday evening, the day we submitted our baked goods at the fair. I had wanted to snap photos of our baked goods with the ribbons and all. I thought I was never going to see those cakes and cookies with the blue ribbons attached.
So, as soon as we got the kids’ exhibits, I asked the lady in charge of baked goods where the baked goods were, and she pointed me to another section of the building. Lo and behold, on the table were laid all the baked goods, the samples plated on those little clear plastic plate lined with white doily and enclosed in small ziplocs. We looked for ours and found them.
Finally, we saw our baked goods with blue and red ribbons attached to them! Well, more like stapled, but yippee! To top it off, on myBanana cake was also attached a bigger blue ribbon, one of those ‘fancy ones’ S had coveted during the fair day and also an envelope wielding a check! I had won Best of Lot. Alhamdulillah!
With our arms full, we walked back to the entrance, but saw hubby driving the van towards us. It was during our drive back home that we discovered that H had placed third for his 4-H cloth banner. A white ribbon.
Apparently, the string to which the ribbon was tied to was long enough that when it hung off the yarn that hung the banner, the ribbon was hidden behind the banner. I remember even looking at the photos I took of the banner at the fair and couldn’t remember seeing a ribbon. Well, we looked and scrutinized the photos again and finally we did notice the vertical string. Subhanallah…so the kids won ribbons for everything they entered in the fair. Alhamdulillah…
Blue, Red and White ribbons. Flying colors…
Eid Mubarak 1430
September 22, 2009 at 10:19 pm | In Community, Eid, Family, Kids, New Mexico | 4 CommentsWe always used to have an open house on Eid, specially for the sisters and brothers who don’t have plans on Eid. This year seemed to be no different as hubs is always inclined towards the younger brothers, so when I asked him if we’re having people over on Eid this year, he said yes.
I started planning on Tuesday or Wednesday. I started cooking on Friday, continued on Saturday and by Eid day I was ready but quite tired. Sunday we had people over. Alhamdulillah it was great. We used to have people over in our 2 bedroom apartment in C-bus so this year, the amount of extra space available really made a difference. Alhamdulillah. I only wish my C-bus sistahs were here to enjoy that extra space.
Eid prayer this year was different than what we’ve had in C-bus. First of all, we didn’t have to bring our sejadah to the prayer place. Even before Eid I was somewhat lamenting on who would be the imam. I wanted the brother who led the taraweeh to lead because of his beautiful recitation, but hubs said that the imaamah and khaatib are two different departments. he’s only involved in the imaamah, not the khutbahs. They had asked him to give Friday khutbahs but he had responded,
“I’d rather be the janitor.”
Fitnah-inducing role that is, the khatib, in this community at least.
Also, we didn’t really have to rush to the prayer, as we’ve had to do every Eid in C-bus, as the masjid was just about 4-5 minutes away (if we get all green lights). We even let Baby Z sleep more (as he was wailing most of the night before because the kids wanted to sleep in their own beds so they would wake up in their own beds on Eid day, so the sleeping arrangements were abruptly changed for Baby Z, who doesn’t want to sleep with anyone other than S, so I couldn’t do anything much) before waking him up.
But, just like in C-bus, as soon as the imam gave salam and started the khutbah, the women got up and showered each other with Eid wishes, rendering the room too noisy for the rest of us to hear the khutbah. What bristled me was the fact that S got up too to find her friends. I told N to find her and get her back. In my mind I was thinking,
Did this girl forget all those years in C-bus when we would remain sitting after the salam to listen to the khutbah?
So she sat next to me and remained sitting until the khutbah was over, even though in the midst of it, she turned to me and said,
“I can’t hear anything.”
I couldn’t either, but that gave us no license to just get up and join in the noisemaking.
Alhamdulillah though some sisters shushed and for a while we were able to listen to the khutbah. After it was all over, it was eating time. I rushed out to the van to get the gifts for the older girls as hubs had instructed me to do right before we went into the masjid that morning. Baby Z was playing with my keys and as I went out the door, I heard a car’s alarm going off. When I got out there, I saw hubs by the van and it turned out it was our van. I guess when Baby Z was fiddling with the keys, he set off the alarm all the way from the women’s side!
As soon as hubs unloaded the van with the gifts and gathered them in a corner of the masjid on the men’s side, kids swarmed him. I laughed as I saw him attempt to fend the kids off all the time people were eating.
The kids all got their gifts and the mothers loved the eco gift wrapping, but by the time we were about to go home, we found out that baby Z didn’t get his gift. Somehow, somewhere the kids had probably just snatched baby Z’s gift bag and took off with it despite me writing on the card attached that it was for Baby Z. H looked for it but couldn’t find it. Hubs was also saying that the kids were just grabbing the gifts despite the guarding. Oh well, alhamdulillah ‘alaa kulli 7haal. It was not meant to be for Baby Z then, I guess. Alhamdulillah he is still to young to realize he had no gift.
The rest of the day was spent having company over all the way till Maghrib. Baby Z slept on the way home and slept all the way till Zuhr, alhamdulillah. The kids hung their pinata which they had stuffed with candies the night before, but they didn’t bat it. They only did so the next day, but instead of batting it, they threw it to each other to break it. And now we have a housefull of candies. We did give some out to the kids who came, but we still have a lot.
I’m still not used to eating much after Ramadan, and I sure hope this habit remains inshaallah. In all, we had a pretty nice Eid, alhamdulillah. The kids did complain about not having their friends over though. I really do think, that were my C-bus sisters here, they probably wouldn’t miss their friends on Eid. Ahh…different place, different crowd, different demography. Bit by bit I think I’m getting used and being more accepting of the changes here, though that doesn’t mean I no longer miss my sisters in C-bus or being in C-bus. I think about C-bus most of the time still, but time does something to you, it somewhat heals. Alhamdulillah.
Ramadan Day 28: Al Baqarah
September 18, 2009 at 3:04 pm | In Al Huda Institute, Eid, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, New Mexico, Quran, Ramadan | 6 CommentsDay 28! How fast time flies. We’re already bustling with Eid preparations. I particularly feel it. It’s not easy trying to prepare for Eid the Malaysian way (where you want to have Eid food ready on Eid day, before you go off to Eid salat) while also wanting to keep up the ibadah the last days of Ramadan and attend Eid prayer on Eid. Hubby likes to have people over for Eid, and even though he says make something simple, I can’t. it’s probably more for us than for the people, I think. This year, S expressed her desire for Pulut Kuning on Eid. I’ve always made it for Eid since we came the United States. I’ve always made rendang too, but this year, we don’t have esay access to boneless cut beef, so no meat rendang this year. I did cut up some chicken before Ramadan, so this year inshaallah, I will be making Chicken Rendang for Eid. I’m also planning to make the Shortcut Murtabak inshaallah, since we have a lot of spring roll wrappers in the freezer.
On to today’s ayah. We reviewed the ayah that starts talking about the history of mankind. I even recited it slowly and told the kids to listen carefully and understand it from what they have learned. I figured that this aspect of the Quran (story) is particularly interesting and enticing to them, so it’s worth repeating a lot of times.
Because H was cutting off the crossword puzzle clues from the paper airplane and gluing them onto the crossword puzzle before we started this morning, he already knew what today’s ayah was about.
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| 34: |
| Muhsin Khan: And (remember) when We said to the angels: “Prostrate yourselves before Adam.”. And they prostrated except Iblis (Satan), he refused and was proud and was one of the disbelievers (disobedient to Allah). |
“Today’s ayah is about Iblees,” he proclaimed.
What we learned:
Allah is literally now commanding the angels to serve human.
Two kinds of behaviors:
- Behavior of Shaytaan – arrogance
- Behavior of angels – obey Allah immediately
Which one do you want to adopt for yourselves?
All this while Allah has just informed the angels of the placing of humans on earth, and the angels responded, but now they start serving humans
The prostration is of honor and respect
This kind of prostration to human being is no longer allowed in our shariah. it was allowed before (e.g. Prophet yusuf alaihis salam) but not anymore.
Iblees: root ba lam seen. iblas, balasa means to be shocked, lose home, completely despair. Some scholars said that Ibless has no hope for the mercy of Allah anymore. Many times we have this feeling too, of,
I’m so messed up, ruined, bad.
And that may lead to us giving up and persisting in more sins because ‘we’re so messed up already anyway’, but Allah reminds us of His mercy so many times in the Quran, and in fact in our daily life. Bismillah ar rahmaan arraheem, if you say this before you do anything, you’re reminded. Al fatihah, reminds us of Allah’s mercy. We’re so enveloped in Allah’s mercy! And no human beings will be perfect. Even the prophet saw whose heart was cleansed physically twice, made mistakes. Kids pointed out the surah abasa incident. So, Allah will forgive. We just need to ask, and keep asking.
Abaa. Root: hamzah ba ya. Abaya – to refuse harshly.
wastakbar. wa + astakbar. Astakbar. Root: kaf ba ra: kibr – to be proud.
Iblees was tested. He was a devout worshipper all along such that he was included among the angels. But when Allah gave this command, he rejected it and immediately became of the kafireen. Lesson for us: apparent worship is not enough if your heart is not submitting.
About arrogance. Someone whom you know to have less knoweldge than you may come and say something that is the truth. How will you respond? With arrogance? or with humility, seeking the truth and not looking at the person but looking at what is being said? The manner of the angels: Subhaanak! (they glorify Allah) Laa ‘ilma lanaa ilaa ma ‘allamtanaa! (they mention their shortcomings). Apply this to us:
“You’re right. I was wrong.”
The kids were able alhamdulillah to give me the meaning of the words. They’re pretty easy words, but I think by now inshaallah they have gotten the hang of extracting root words thus gettinga taste of what I learn in my TQ classes every week. Alhamdulillah!! Though, after this, we’re inshaallah doing Khalid Ibn Waleed unless they ask me to continue on surah Al Baqarah (which would be very good review and studying incentive for me).
Now on to me finishing up my Quran reading, which now reminds me of this. This morning, as I was reading surah Mujaadilah, H was sitting right next to me. I was struggling with some words and as I paused, I heard him slowly reciitng them under his breath, even before I recited them.
“Do you memorize this?” I asked him.
“Yeah!”
“You memorize Juz 28 already??”
“Yeah! I’m in Juz 27 now!”
Oh…now wonder hubby was saying H is almost 5 juz, but I just said,
“Yeah, but he hasn’t done much reviewing. Does he even remember the old ones?”
We really need to sit down and come up with a schedule for his hifdh at home. Oh Allah, please help me with this.
Eid Gift-ing
September 16, 2009 at 1:48 pm | In Art, Community, Eid, Family, Kids, Projects, Ramadan | Leave a Comment
Wrapped in one of the scarfs
This year, somehow, we’re caught in the whirlwind of buying children’s eid gift for the masjid. I didn’t plan for this, and I had hoped to avoid shopping in Ramadan especially the last 10 days, but I got sucked into it. But I’m done with it as of yesterday alhamdulillah. I consider it part of our general ibadah inshaallah, so may Allah accept it from us. Ameen.
Our closet under the staircase is filled with toys and gifts for the kids at the masjid. Our next challenge now is to figure out how to present these gifts. There are about 50 kids. Yesterday, after coming home from the doctor’s (s and N are sick) I went to Dollar Tree to look for an economical solution to this. Hubby is against it completely. He said,
“Just write their names on their toys like they did last year.”
But I’m thinking ‘ihsaan’. When you want to present a gift to someone, you don’t just give it ‘raw’, do you? So I came home with no solution unfortunately yesterday.
But after voicing out my empty idea bank, S came up with some ideas. Use fabric. Our scraps of fabric that have been stashed forever. I also googled alternative gift wrapping, and came up with a wealth of information and ideas!
I particularly am taken by Furoshiki. Reminds me Oshin and Kaoru during my childhood. Malaysian may know what I’m talking about if you’re reading this. *smile*
10 Ideas for Pretty Alternative Wrapping by Mighty Girl, I just came across today, but she has a lot of great cute ideas too!
This cereal boxes idea is great too, though for our purpose and scope (which is 50 gifts to wrap!) this won’t do.
And I just LOVE this. Thanks EnviroMOM! This is what we started doing yesterday, and the girls LOVE it! S wraps the gifts, cuts fabric strips into ribbons, and N makes the name cards,
N making the name cards
tied with a yarn to the wrapped gifts. When hubs came back, we told him, and he told us to come up with color coding for the different age groups.
So by Isha, S came up with the color coding by the ribbons. Rainbow is for ages 1, 2, 3. Checkered is for ages 4, 5, 6. Green is for ages 7,8,9. Yellow stripes is for ages 10,11, 12 and above. Pretty good mashaallah. We decided to wrap the girls’ gifts with cloth and the boys, just with ribbons, since, (quoting S)
“They don’t really care anyway.”
Ay (our friend from Columbus who recently moved here) gave us a bag of beautiful scarfs and hijabs, and we actually utilized this yesterday in our gift wrapping activity. Especially for the bigger girls. Two-in-one kind of thing! Alhamdulillah!
I love this going green thing! So do the kids, apparently, as they started resuming the wrapping activity right after they are done with our Ramadan lesson for today.
Some gifts bagged in cut and sewed bolster cases - courtesy of S
Ramadan Day 24: Al Baqarah 30
September 14, 2009 at 8:55 pm | In Al Huda Institute, Community, Eid, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, New Mexico, Quran, Ramadan | Leave a CommentI started with reciting Al Baqarah from the beginning and stopping per ayah to recall the meaning of the words we covered. S was still sleeping as she fell sick yesterday and is not fasting today.
 |
| 30: |
| Muhsin Khan: And (remember) when your Lord said to the angels: “Verily, I am going to place (mankind) generations after generations on earth.” They said: “Will You place therein those who will make mischief therein and shed blood, – while we glorify You with praises and thanks (Exalted be You above all that they associate with You as partners) and sanctify You.” He (Allah) said: “I know that which you do not know.” |
Today’s ayah starts the story of the history of mankind. Today’s lesson encompasses a lot of information and root words. S is going to have to catch up somehow. Maybe she can catch up by reading this post.
What we learned (and may I say that H is pretty serious and earnest when there is no S to rack up negative behavior with, since N is pretty quiet and unperturbed. It also helped that she was probably too sick to play around and not pay attention…hmm):
When wa izh comes at the beginning of the ayat, it gives the meaning of, “Remember that incident..”
We take it as a lesson that when we are about to do something, especially something that involves other people, we should inform them about it, and not just do it and then exhort them to do their part or get involved. Allah is giving us an example here of how He told the angels of His plan, and especially so (my reflection, not from my notes) because the angels are going to play many roles in the life of humans.
taj’aloo ; root jeem ain lam, meaning something whose state is changed. The exact meaning depends on the context, but here it means to place.
Khaleefah; root kha lam fa. Khalf means to come behind. Imagine a line of people, one standing in front of the other. When the first person goes away, the person behind takes his place.
Thus it also gives the meaning of succeeding:
- generations succeeds other generations
- rulers succeeds each other
It also gives the meaning of deputy:
- a deputy work for someone
- we work for Allah
- a khalifah as in the time of the khulafaa in the Islamic empires, were deputies of Allah to the people
nusabbih7; root seen ba 7ha, means to swim/fly. When one swims or flies, one is moving very rapidly as opposed to when walking. This gives the meaning of moving far away. When we make tasbeeh, we are removing all the negativity thrown by the people to Allah, far, very far away from Allah.
The beauty of the zhikr is that first we negate all the negativity, removing them very far away from Allah, we glorify Allah this way with subhanallah.
Next, we heap ALL praise to Allah, by saying Alhamdulillah.
Then we declare than Allah is greater than. Akbar doesn’t really mean greatest. it is superlative thus meaning greater than. Greater than what? Than anything you can imagine. And when we make salat, and say Allahu Akbar, we are saying that Allah is greater than anything we are doing at that moment. When the azhan is called, we hurry to make salat because Allah is greater than anything and everything we are doing at that moment.
nuqaddisu; root qaf seen dal, quds means to be far away. Baitul maqdis is called such because it is very far away from Makkah, thus is called the Far Away House. Qudus also gives the meaning of purification because when we purify we are purifying such that all filth is removed very far away.
Subbuh7un quddusun is magnifying the glorification of Allah by removing all negativity and more…
The angels were asking not as an objection, but they were asking because they wanted to know more. You can tell when a persin is asking just to find faults and to criticize or if the person is asking becuase he sincerely wants to know. E.g. I gave, “Why do you homeschool?”
One point of reflection from me: Allah had determined that Adam was going to be placed on earth even before he was created. This completely dispels some notions that blame our existence here on earth to Adam’s slippage from paradise, and even those notions that blame Eve. Of course this is not in Islam but I mentioned it to the kids anyway, because sooner or later they will come across those notions. They’d better be well prepared.
Before mankind populated the earth, the jinns roamed the earth and they were the dominant species. They created so much corruption that that’s why the angels said this about mankind when Allah told them about its creation.
Some of the wisdom behind the creation of mankind:
When humans do good, it can be a LOT of good. A human who enter jannah is even better than the angels, because the angels were created to obey Allah and worship Allah all the time, with no free will, but humans were created with free will. So when human is able to conquer his nafs and shaytaan, that is a huge accomplishment that raises his status more than an angel’s.
It is to test iblees. Contrary to some popular opinions, iBlies was not a fallen angel, but he was of the jinn who was obedient to Allah so much so that Allah placed him with the angels. So when the command forprostration to Adam was issued, it became a test for Iblies.
“Something in him just snapped. Imagine, he was worshipping Allah before and when Allah told him to make sujud to Adam, he snapped and said, ‘No way,’”
“And it’s the same with us, Allah may put us now in an easy situation and we obey Him. For example, Allah may make it easy for Abi to go to the masjid because our house was so close to the masjid when we were in C-bus. Then suddenly if Allah wants to test Abi, and us, He might make us live far away from the masjid to see if Abi will still go to the masjid as he should. And this is a test for not just Abi, but for us too. What will we do? We will see and we can think and we can do something. So when a person is tested, it also tests the people around him.”
Allah tests a person to see how true he is to his commitment to Allah. (I can go on about this with the word fitaan, but that was not part of the lesson I did with the kids this morning)
On another note…
The masjid here is organizing an eid gift event for the children whose parents sign them up. We are buying our kids’ gifts this year. I actually didn’t want to because I don’t want it to be an Eid tradition whereby then it becomes like Christmas. Gifts should be given anytime, throughout the year and not just on speaial occasions, but since we didn’y give the kids any gifts last year, we decided to give them gifts this year, just so they won’t feel left out when the rest of the kids at the masjid receive their gifts on Eid Day. So began our hunt for the kids’ gifts yesterday.
I had asked them, as soon as hubs and I decided to buy gifts for them. We were on the way to WalMart after dropping H off at his soccer game. Oh, and this merits a mention too, for our bad memory later on (for sure). This was H’s first soccer game for this season and it’s smack dab in the hot noon time in New Mexico, in Ramadan. I told hubby that he could have just told the coach to exempt H from the noon games until after Eid, but hubs said,
“He’s still young.”
I personally don’t quite like the idea of H giving up his fast for a soccer game that could have been postponed or skipped, but alhamdulillah (don’t know if it’s reverse psychology of us expecting him to break his fast after playing soccer, though it is not our intention as reverse psychology) he completed his fast despite playing 2 quarters in the high noon sun.
So on the way to WalMart, I asked the girls,
“Do you want us to buy your gifts or do you want to get them yourselves? If you get them yourselves, it won’t be a surprise though.”
After some thinking and deliberation, both girls said they want us to get their gifts.
“What about H? Do you think he would like to get his gift himself or for us to get it?”
“I think he’d want to get it himself. Because he can choose.”
When I asked him later on, he said for us to choose. S said he wants a bicycle. That boy’s Wish list is long. I know bicycle is one of the things he covets.
So hubs and I went shopping on Sunday, and I’m pretty sure we attracted a lot of attention, if not to us, then to our cart that was loaded and almost overflowing (some stuff did fall out) with toys. At both stores too. And even that, we haven’t bought toys for all the kids on the masjid list yet. Today, I went out with H to finish up purchasing those toys. We went to Walmart, loaded our cart with toys. I was checking of the kids’ names on my list as we browsed the toy aisles. When we got to the cashier, she commented,
“Is it someone’s birthday?”
“Uh..no, we have a celebration after a month of fasting, so it’s for all the kids at the mosque.”
“Oh, really!”
Then we headed to Barnes & Nobles and got armloads of toys and games, and then headed home. As I type, those bags of toys are sitting along our foyer. I’m too exhausted to go and sort them out. But I do know that I have 4 more girls to buy toys for. It’s fun, and the kids have agreed to help wrap them up for Eid. I consider this our sadaqah even though it’s not our money (will be reimbursed), but the time and sweat inshaallah. May Allah accept this from us. Ameen.
Ramadan Day 23: Al Baqarah 29
September 14, 2009 at 3:09 pm | In Al Huda Institute, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, Mothering, New Mexico, Quran, Ramadan | Leave a CommentH didn’t nap yesterday, and I just found out this morning at suhoor (S told me) that last night, instead of praying taraweeh at the masjid, H slept in the masjid library throughout. And there goes the “I told you so…” from my part to him.
No wonder when I woke him up for tahajjud this morning, he almost fell asleep (or maybe he did) when praying next to me. His sujood was somewhat longer and lazier, and when he was standing, he almost fell. It affected my khushu’ and made me feel like I should have told him to pray behind me instead of next to me.
The sun this morning was as bright as ever, so maybe not last night?
Today, I told the kids,
“I’m going to recite the surah from the beginning until where we stopped. I want you all to stop and try to understand the meaning, from what we have learned so far.”
So they did, and I did too. It was wonderful subhanallah! What a change…alhamdulillah.
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| 29: |
| Muhsin Khan: He it is Who created for you all that is on earth. Then He Istawa (rose over) towards the heaven and made them seven heavens and He is the All-Knower of everything. |
Today’s ayah is ayat 29:
fasawwaahunna: root seen wau ya, sawaa means to level, spread. Allah formed the 7 layers of heavens
Why was this mentioned? So man will reflect upon the greatness of Allah’s creation and use what Allah has created on the earth in order to worship and please Allah.
Ramadan Day 22: Al Baqarah 28
September 12, 2009 at 3:55 pm | In Al Huda Institute, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, Mothering, New Mexico, Quran, Ramadan | Leave a Comment
Yesterday I was engrossed in researching the Great Depression for the kids’ lesson for October. I don’t want to plan their school stuff too much, because that will make it too rigid, but I do want somewhat of s structured plan to go by, rather than just having it completely freestyle. I find that I am the kind of person who has to have something to go by, and not just completely wing it.
And I’m still not done with it.
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| 28: |
| Muhsin Khan: How can you disbelieve in Allah? Seeing that you were dead and He gave you life. Then He will give you death, then again will bring you to life (on the Day of Resurrection) and then unto Him you will return. |
Today’s lesson is on ayah 28.
kaifa.
“Kaifal 7haalik? what’s kaifa?” I asked them.
“How.”
- here it is meant for the purpose of amazement. How can you?
- takfuroona : root ka fa ra. In the Quran, kufr is used in 2 ways:
- disbelieve
- ingratitude (when you are ungrateful to someone, you hide the favor they have to you, you don’t acknowledge it)
amwaata (they wrote this down in arabic and they had to figure out the root). meem wau ta. Mati in Malay means dead. It’s from Arabic. Mayat (in malay it means corpse) is also from Arabic. Duhh.here, amwaata refers to a state of non existence, before we were all born, we were dead (non existent, lifeless)- fa ah7 yaa kum – then He gave you life. We were born. We talked about when the soul is blown into the fetus , after 120 days. If a woman has miscarriage before 4 months, it’s not considered a being, but after, you have to have janazah for the fetus, like we had for J.
- thumma yumeetukum – then He will give you all death. Refers to when we die.
- Thumma yu7hyeekum – then He will give you all life. Refers to Day of resurrection. On that day, everybody will be resurrected, even those who have been dead for millions and billions of years such that all the bones have rotted except for the coccyx. Everybody will be walking towards one destination. Everyone will be gathered. Some will be walking on their faces (surah Mulk), some will be small as ants, some will drown in their sweat as the sun will be only a meel away from their heads. Some will be under the shade of the throne of Allah and one of these people is he who grows up righteous. This belief in the hereafter is what will make a huge difference in how people act on this earth. Those who believe there is a hereafter as how Allah described it will make sure their actions are in accordance with what will grant them good in the hereafter. Those who don’t, won’t even care.
- turja’oon- you all will be returned. Everyone will be walking towards a destination, that is to Allah.
- how can you be arrogant, seeing all these? you were non existent before, no one knew about you and then Allah brought you to life. You came from a lowly beginning, sperm and egg.
- A scholar said that human beings began from a lowly place, beginning, and will end as a rotted corpse, and in the middle, we are all just walking toilets. I knew they would get a kick out of this and even told them,
“Please don’t write about this,”
Alas! H is at an age where digusting bodily functions amaze him, so here you have it (sigh).
Ramadan Day 21: Al Baqarah 27
September 11, 2009 at 3:04 pm | In 4-H, Al Huda Institute, Family, Homeschooling, Kid Talk, Kids, Mothering, New Mexico, Quran, Ramadan | Leave a CommentI woke up to an incessant ringing of S’ alarm clock, a green one we had bought at Wal Mart for her (the kids stuff ar pretty much color coded : S green, N pink and H blue, and H claims that Z is orange. He said, “Even when from the moment you gave him tha name I know his color is orange!” (Don’t ask me, I have no idea how that came about)). Hubby had already gone to the masjid for qiyaam and had told me last night,
“Just wake up when the alarm clock rings a lot of times.”
They had left the alarm clock ringing for me yesterday while they had suhoor, because I had told them I wanted to still wake up even though I can’t pray.
So this morning, I woke up and made wudhu’, read some Quran and made dua. I thought I’d just wake the kids up later, so I could make dua in peace, and I’m glad I did that. Because, these kids, once they’re up, the house comes alive, no matter what hour it is. So after I was done, I woke H and S up. N is sick, still feverish, and she had to break her fast yesterday and she is not fasting today, so I left her alone.
“H, wake up for tahajjud. Hurry up, it’s almost five a clock.”
“So ummi, how do we pray?”
Last year, they prayed with me.
“Just pray two rakaah, and make dua a lot during sujud, you can prolong your sujud, and make dua after your prayer. You can also add two more rakaah, and two more.”
“Do we pray together or separately?”
“Either one.”
They prayed separately.
Baby Z, despite sleeping quite late last night (walking and scouring the room in the dark, kicking the door while laying on the floor, etc) woke up while S and H were eating their suhoor. I’ve never had a child this un-routineless before and it drives me crazy. Alhamdulillah ‘alaa kulli 7haal. I have to say it’s from my own doings though. He was following some routine before, but after we moved, his sleeping arrangements just got messed up. I had thought it was ok, but it is apparently not, at least not for my sanity.
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| 27: |
| Muhsin Khan: Those who break Allah’s Covenant after ratifying it, and sever what Allah has ordered to be joined (as regards Allah’s Religion of Islamic Monotheism, and to practise its legal laws on the earth and also as regards keeping good relations with kith and kin ), and do mischief on earth, it is they who are the losers. |
Today’s ayah furthers on the description of the faasiqeen that was mentioned in yesterday’s ayah.
What we learned:
3 descriptions of the faasiqeen :
- yanqudhoona ‘ahd allah min ba’di meethaqihi – break their covenant with Allah after ratifying it
- yaqTta’oona ma amarallahu an yoosSal – cut that which Allah has ordered to be joined
- yufsidoona fil ardh – create corruption on earth
- yanqudhoona : root noon qaf dhad – to break something that has been made firm, e.g. unravelling knitting, crochet, etc.
- yaQTta’oona; root qaf Tta ‘ain (S got this one even while I was reciitng the ayah): to cut
- YooSsal; root; wau Ssad lam – waSsal to join
- I suggested they diagram it all, and the end of it, for the faasiqeen is alkhaasiroon (losers).
- The faasiqeen break the covenant they made (we all made) with Allah way before (mentioned in Surah Al A’raaf) we were even born.
- They also sever what Allah has ordered to be joined such as family ties, rights of Allah, rights of people. Some examples would be not talking to a family member because of some disagreements, preventing people from pursuing Islamic education.
- And this leads to creation of corruption (fasad), and fasad is of two types: tangible and intangible. Logging would be an example of tangible fasad. Backbiting would be an example of intangible fasad.
“Would we then say thet loggers would go to Naar?” S asked.
“Well, not if they repent before they die,” I replied. And i continued.
“We can’t say for sure that these people, that person etc will go to Naar, because we don’t know if they will be guided later on.”
Yesterday we filled up their individual calendars with deadlines. This Ramadan has been extra busy for us because of 4-H deadlines. With the record book submission date looming, we’ve been forced to work under pressure. So yeesterday, I sat them down and told them I need them to set a deadline for some things, such as
- when they want to bake what they want to enter into the fair (trial run)
- when they will let me know what they have decided to bake for the fair
- when they will bake for the fair
- when they will have their projects done
and I gave them some deadlines too
Alhamdulillah it seems that S has gotten the hang of dealing with planners and deadlines. I remember not so long ago when I was griping about her inability to organize and remember when her homework was due. I think throughout last year, she has matured a lot alhamdulillah, and is quite reliable. Alhamdulillah. Next in line is N. Oh Allah, please help me with this one.
But hopefully having them fill out their own calendars will train them to learn how to plan things, watch out for deadlines, and stick to them. This tarbiyyah is truly mentally challenging. I’m beginning to feel the weight of it, subhanallah. And on top of that, there’s my own individual self to still do some improvements on too.
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