Blessings of Fajr revisited

The baraka of Fajr time never ceases to amaze me. I seem to keep finding more and more things to be doing the early morning hours. And the things I seem to be accomplishing in this blessed time! Nothing grand, must I say... For example I was just amazed to see I could finish making lunch before 9 and fix my priorities in school until February. Those same 2 hours at any other time of the day would not be as satisfying. May we always take advantage of the hours granted to us by our Rabb...

A Du’a to Allah

by Sr. Aysha Khanom

Your Mercy enlightened my soul;
I found my purpose, and my reason,
You are my treasure, my light and my hope,
My tears of anguish, bring sweetness to my sorrows,
I fear Ya Allah, happiness in this world, may take me away from Your remembrance,
I seek struggle, only to call out to Your Mercy,
My tears for You, are like the diamonds to my treasure,
Your appearance is unknown to me, yet I have already felt so much of your beauty,
My soul was starving without Your Remembrance, & Your Mercy only filled it with sweetness, and brought me back to life,
You are the happiness of my soul, & it was the hearing of Your Mercy & Love that set it alight,
My attachment to this Duniya is my longing & yearning to
reach close proximity to You,
For if, by Your mercy I enter Jannah , I would reminisce on the times I felt your beauty through my worship, even when you were veiled from our eyes,
The vain pleasures of this Duniya are only temporary and a deception, & my struggle against them with Your remembrance,
& to feel the coolness in my soul, could never amount to what the pleasure I turned away from could give,
Even in my darkest hours, You make life beautiful just by knowing You are there,
You make my heart smile, which if all the treasures of this world were given to me, it would never have that effect,
You are my strength, my cure and my delight,
My longing to see Your face, is my Jannah in this world, nothing can bring harm to it, or take it away but by my disobedience to You,
Help me to remain firm Ya Allah on the Sirat-Al-Mustaqeem, & hold strong to Your rope, for if I am detached from You,
I will lose my reason to live, & I will lose my Jannah that I carry with me,
Help me to remain sincere & earn nothing but Your pleasure,
My desire is only to be one of your Beloved..
Ameen
Sr. Aysha Khanom

Tired Mother Energized.

"Mama, do you know we washed dishes yesterday?" asked Yusuf.
"Yes, I heard about it," replied a tired mother.
"That's why I'm scared to drink from the cups. I rinsed them and it had a lot of soap!" exclaimed Yusuf.
Mama suddenly felt energized and thankful to have beautiful kids to make her smile.

Respect for Children

Narrated Anas (radi Allahu anhu): “The Prophet was the best of all the people in character. I had a brother called Abu Umar, who, I think, had been newly weaned. Whenever he was brought to the Prophet, the Prophet used to say, "O Abu Umar! What did Al-Nughair (do)?” Al-Nughair was a nightingale with which he used to play.” [Bukhari]
This incident sheds light for us on the extremely compassionate nature of Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam). He paid attention to little children and enquired about their pets. He gave them the importance that some reserve only for adults from whom they hope to benefit. Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) came as a mercy and kindness for all the worlds, and his kindness could be witnessed in all situations.

May Allah help us follow our Prophet (SAW)

Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Give due respect and regard to your children and decorate them with the best of manners.” [Abu Daud]

Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wasallam) would be the first to give salaam to children as he would pass them, thereby teaching them Islamic manners with his own example. He (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) would have sweets and dates for them. Once the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) was giving one of his grandsons a ride when somebody remarked, “What an excellent ride you have!” to his grandson. Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) immediately drew attention to the child instead by saying, “Don’t you see what an excellent rider I have!” This was the nature of Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam), that he would give love and importance to children. Are you on the sunnah of Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam)?

Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Verily, Constantinople shall be conquered, its commander shall be the best commander ever and his army shall be the best army ever.”
Muhammad Al-Fateh was the Conqueror of Constantinople. Constantinople is a city connecting the Mediterranean with the Black Sea, and Asia with Europe. It was considered the best global trade center in the medieval ages. About it, Napoleon said: “If the world was one kingdom, there would be no better city befitting to be its capital than Constantinople.” Because of its strategic location and the hadith of Rasul Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam), Muslims tried to conquer the city for over 800 years, through 10 attempts. The first was by Othman Bin Affan (radi Allahu anhu), the second and third by Moawiya Bin Abi Sufiyan, the fourth by Sulaiman Bin Abdul-Malik and the fifth by Harun Al-Rashid. There were several other attempts, until Muhammad Al-Fateh conquered it. To conquer it he accomplished the incredible feat of dragging 70 naval ships for 5 km over land on greased tree trunks in one night, landing in the sea right in front of the city walls by dawn.
When asked about his capabilities and how he managed the conquest, he replied: “I have two traits: 1) a heart as hard as a rock that does not rest until I achieve what I want. 2) an eye that cries out of fear of Allah (subhana wa ta’ala). So how could I not achieve victory?”

What else do we need?

"It is He who created me and it is He who guides me. It is He who feeds me and gives me to drink. When I am ill it is He who cures me. It is He who will cause me to die and then bring me back to life. I hope that He will forgive me my sin on the Day of Judgment." (Ash shu'ara (26: 77-82)

Lancaster camp was very fulfilling to say the least. So much happened in so little time. I felt overwhelmed, yet felt I had so little time to accomplish what I wanted to finish. When Murat saw: Sura Fatiha as my educational topic, he was like: "Again?"
Yes, again, and i still feel like it has not been half covered. We are getting there though. I feel like the younger kids are more attentive, like the 8-10 year-olds. The older they get, the more distanced or occupied they seem. What is taking our kids' attention? I put visual, audio and interaction into the educational period and alhamdulillah it helped. But preparing for the 3 day educational periods and in doing it, I realized I could spend two weeks doing the same topic and maybe then, maybe then I would feel that they understood, or would maybe start to grasp the meaning of fatiha, the beautiful opening verses of our guide to life.
I love 8-9 year olds! I feel they have the most capacity to be influenced, they are not as occupied with the frivolities of life yet. They were the most eager to answer questions.
Dress-up was fun. I never fail to be entertained at the imagination our girls have. And the artistic ability some of our children have! I wish we could use that to steer them to the right direction. They all have their hidden talents given by the Creator. May Allah give us the wisdom to discover them and steer it to the place it can blossom.
The kids finally caught the attention of their parents this camp. The fathers felt it necessary to have a kids/adult panel in the schedule alhamdulillah. The number one advice children had to give their parents: "Please spend more time with me!" May we take the time to sit with them and listen to them.
Preparing for family night as usual was stressful. But I loved the enthusiasm all the kids had. Everyone wanted a part and if I let them, they would love to entertain their parents for many more hours.
That is a beautiful trait our kids get from our American culture: confidence and social outgoing nature.
What else, other than the fact that I was finally able to get up from sleep with no headache the day we were leaving!

Almost forgot: The ayat I put at the beginning was an ayat I had them memorize in groups. I felt it such a beautiful one, we have so many sayings from the Prophet(SAW), ayats in the Quran, and wisdom from our rich Islamic history, we don't have to look anywhere else for poetry or things to memorize for our kids. It's all there and our kids are just waiting to be showered with Islam's beauty. Are we ready to give it to them?

May Allah accept all our efforts and forgive all our shortcomings.