1433AH Ramadan Kit 2

Now we move to Kit 2:

MOSAIC PUZZLE

This one, I bought for Abdul as a gift for doing well in his exams and getting 3rd overall best in Primary two. I also love the concept, it's definitely art but it's best secret is that it is a good concentration tool. So those of you with attention deficit or short attention span kids, I believe this is the tool for you. I am going to test it on the kids for the next one week to prove my point.

Let's got through the components:

1) The Grid: This is where the actual work is done.

2) Compartments: Divided into 8 to hold the pieces (see it in the second picture above).

 

3) Guide: This has 24 patterns for your child to copy and I consider that medium level.

4) Cubes and Pyramid pieces: 490 in all, 7 colours, all for mixing to form patterns.

I created 3 levels:

sample: a crocodile pattern

Level 1- EASY: There are 8 patterns in this category. The big pattern guide (a crocodile pattern is shown above) is put under the grid and your child just places the pieces on the picture (matching shape and colour) to form a picture. See the completed crocodile below.

Level 2 - MEDIUM: The small puzzle art guide with 24 patterns is viewed and the child tries to put together  the pattern of choice without placing anything under the grid. See below

sample: a watermelon pattern

A completed watermelon on grid

Level 3 - HARD: Your child must think of a pattern offhand and put it together from scratch. Tough one uumph!

The kids have one week to make different patterns in all the levels so let's wait and see. This looks like one of those few very good china goods I so rarely get to buy!

SEE YOU!



Allaah's Mercy is from where you least expect

It's one of those days I am wishing that I had a long lost unknown uncle who died and left me a chunk of his will (no hissing please to all the sisters that have heard me rant about this). You know, one of those days when you are just sooooo broke! Here I am thinkin what I venture I could do to bring in quick, halal money in less than a week! Of course, I am ranting to a sister and she smiles and tells me:

Let me tell you a story. But first I'll let you know that reflecting about Allaah is in itself a Mercy from Allaah! One day, it rained heavy all day and I thought about the double blessing (amongst others) i.e. Ramadan and the fact that when it rains is one of the times prayer is accepted......so I thought, why waste the opportunity?
There is a verse in the Qur'an which goes, "And so many a moving (living) creature carries not its own provision! Allah provides for it and for you. And He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower." Q29: 60

We really do need that patience (Sabr) that we so often hear. Sunday, I woke up, alhamdulillaah, thinking of how I'd pay some debts I owed and of course, still have change to use on other stuffs. But by evening, I had accepted that it was just one of those days so I go to perform my asr salaah. Just as I finish, my daughter tells me a longtime friend called on my phone to say she had nearly reached my house and that what was my house number? This is someone, I hadn't seen in over a year! So....She comes with her two kids and husband, saying she had been meaning to come since I had my last baby over a year ago, sorry, bla bla bla.....Any way, she can't stay long so she'll give me 'Owo omo'and she hands me an envelope. I collect it, escort her out and come back in to make my hair (mama onidiri had been waiting for me) after dropping the envelope on a side table.

Later that night, I open it and what do I find?...."ten thousand naira". (By now, my mouth is wide open and I am enjoying the story.)

"ISN'T ALLAAH MERCIFUL?" Yes, I nod.

Now that's even small, the funny one happened this evening. As an ulcer patient, I was put on a ten week therapy before ramadan. I was to use combination therapy for two weeks and then switch to an expensive drug for the remaining eight weeks! I finished the one for two weeks and started looking for the other one, when I found it, I didn't have money on me so I decided I would collect some money I loaned someone to buy it the next day.

So, we are off to tarawih at the masjid. We stop at the pharmacy and I drop to go in. On getting in, I see a an old man who also is a friend of my dad's; he doesn't know me but because as he was over seventy, I automatically said salaams.Thinking back now, I don't remember if he was muslim.  I bought my drug and was on my way out, when he stops me to ask what I had bought.

I answered, "a drug, sir"

He said, "How much was it?"

I said, "I already paid, sir."

He insisted, "So how much was it?"

I said, "Three thousand six hundred naira, sir."

He got up from where he sat, holds out new and crisp wads of five hundred nairas and counts four thousand naira before handing it over, "Take."

I don't think re recognised me or saw my father's so called carbon-copy resemblance in me; it was just a sign from Allaah!

See how Allaah gave me a drug I thought I couldn't get? --- FOC!

Whenever you feel all is down and you are getting to that point of frustration, just make dua, do dhikr, and insha Allaah, your sincerity will make Allaah give you what you want.

Looking back now,  there are a lot of things I take for granted but this story reminds me about one thing - Allaah is truly The Al-Ghaniyy and He gives when He knows it will be beneficial.

How? Only HE can know that.

So my people, let's have a one-on-One with Allaah regularly.

1433AH ramadan Kit 1 Score is.......

Ok!  It is past one week and I am going to give you our judgment (me and d Kids) on the Easy Knit Kit. Remember my designer label :)

Well the kids, especially F took time to make somethings, a purse, a pencil holder and paper purse holder. Abdul managed the yoyo holder, all in all, will give the product a 70%.

Here is our stuff:

Concept: 8/10

Captivating?: Yes, initially but you get tired of cutting and folding paper 4/10

Pluses: Still thinking....

Minuses: A lot! Paper cutting is work! It consumes paper so you need to spend money on getting lots and lots.

Tune in to ramadan kit 2......

see ya!

Is this Salaah? (Part 1)

"Sincerely, I didn't know she was performing her zuhr salaah!"

I was doing my ramadan food shopping (on the second day of ramadan) and I wanted to buy some soursop - you know those hedgehog-like fruits that are very sweet. Being an open-air market along the road, I moved from stall to stall until I saw some ok-looking ones, the stall owner wasn't there so I raised my voice, "Who's here? How much is this one?"

Still stretching my neck, I look around frantically because I zuhr had set in and we still had a long drive home. To my amazement, I notice an old woman in the next stall trying to catch my attention to tell me each was N200! It wasn't the fact that she was standing on a tall benchlike contraption or that she seemed to be following the salaah in a masjid whose door was about 2metres away from her, it was the fact that she was using her hands to tell me all the information I needed and at the same time performing her salaah!

First comes the raising of hands for takbir, then ruku, then standing, then looking in my direction, then raising of one hand and 2 fingers to denote 200, then nodding to affirm my statement "N200", then sujud! All the while, she is following the imam in the masjid (that has space for women and is not yet full!).

This reminded me of the verse in Surah Al-Jumuah,

"O You who believe (Muslims)! When the call is proclaimed for the Salât (prayer) on the Day of Friday (Jumu'ah prayer), come to the remembrance of Allâh [Jumu'ah religious talk (Khutbah) and Salât (prayer)] and leave off business (and Every other thing), that is better for You if You did but know! (Verse 9)

I know this was revealed concerning salatul Jumuah but I'd like to believe that we should also apply the same principle for the five compulsory ones. Do we let our salaah suffer at the expense of our work?

It is also highly detestable to look around in salaah, the Prophet (SAW) said concerning the one who turns around in salaah, "It is what satan steals from the prayer of anyone of you" (Bukhari) Turning around should be for a valid, concrete and legal excuse within Islamic views. It is even worse for people who look towards the sky while praying, for the Prophet (SAW) said, "What is wrong with those people who look towards the sky during prayer? They should stop (looking towards the sky during prayer) or else their eyesight would be taken away." (Bukhari)

Subhanallaah!!!

Now, lets fast forward to getting home and going for tarawih in the masjid, It really is sad the way we have turned salaah into auto-physical rituals that doesn't serve the purpose. I mean, it's compulsory, isn't it? i.e. we can't not do it soooo......I am thinking - if we can't escape it, we might as well do it as close to perfect as possible in the short while we 'force' ourselves to observe it. We can even 'force' that solemness to start, maybe, it would really flow.

As I was saying, getting to the masjid for tarawih was another cup of tea.......

Till next post,

Ma salaam

You must know this Man!

I had heard about him from my secondary school days but I just wasn't interested. Years later, I think my first year in university, I came home for the holidays and went to visit a neighbour of ours who was like a mother to me. We got talking and she mentioned him again, everybody seems to know him - I think, so why not me? She really got me interested in him such that when I left her house that day, I was armed with what I could use to get to know him better.

For the next five to six days, I concentrated on one goal - Who really is he?

Let me give you a description from someone who actually interacted with him:

He was innocently bright and had broad countenance. His manners were fine. Neither was his belly bulging out nor was his head deprived of hair. He had black attractive eyes finely arched by continuous eyebrows. His hair glossy and black, inclined to curl, he wore long. His voice was extremely commanding. His head was large, well formed and set on a slender neck. His expression was pensive and contemplative, serene and sublime. The stranger was fascinated from the distance, but no sooner he became intimate with him than this fascination was changed into attachment and respect. His expression was very sweet and distinct. His speech was well set and free from the use of superfluous words, as if it were a rosary of beads. His stature was neither too high nor too small to look repulsive. He was a twig among the two, singularly bright and fresh. He was always surrounded by his companions. Whenever he uttered something, the listeners, would hear him with rapt attention and whenever he issued any command, they vied with each other in carrying it out. He was a master and a commander. His utterances were marked by truth and sincerity, free from all kinds of falsehood and lies.

Yes! He was this and more. He isn't a holly or bolly wood star, not a footballer, model, musician, and whatever the individuals of nowadays gloat after.

His cousin said of him....."He was neither excessively tall nor extremely short. He was medium height among his friends. His hair was neither curly nor wavy, It was in between. It was not too curly nor was it plain straight. It was both curly and wavy combined. His face was not swollen or meaty-compact, it was fairly round. His mouth was white. He had black and large eyes with long eyelashes. His limb joints and shoulder joints were rather big. He had a rod-like little hair extending from his chest down to his navel, but the rest of his body was almost hairless. He had thick hand palms and thick fingers and toes. At walking, he lifted his feet off the ground as if he had been walking in a muddy remainder of water. When he turned, he turned all. The Prophethood was Seal was between his shoulders. He is the Seal of the Prophets, the most generous and bravest of all.

Correct me if I am wrong but I can't think of any man with better characteristics physically or mannerwise now. The extent of the affection and love we should have for him is seen in the way his Lord, Allaah (Subhanahu wa ta'ala), loves him. If Allaah loves him that much, we shouldn't we? Afterall, it would amount to Allaah loving us too!

I always get emotional when I read one of the conversations he will have with Allaah on the Day of Judgement. He will be the only Prophet given the opportunity of the Great intercession and he will have lots of privileges that would be to the advantage of every muslim as long as he/she had a mustad grain of sincere faith in his heart.

Aboo Hurayrah reported: One day, meat was brought to the Messenger of Allaah (r) and a foreleg
was offered to him, a part which he liked. He bit off a piece of it and said: “I will be the leader of
humankind on the Day of Resurrection. Do you know why? Allaah will gather the early and latter
[generations] in one plain on the Day of Resurrection…The sun will come near and people will
experience an unbearable degree of anguish, anxiety and agony and they won’t be able to stand. Some people will say to others: Don’t you see the trouble you are in? Don’t you see what has overtaken you? Why don’t you find someone who can intercede for you with your Lord? Some will say to others: Go to Aadam…They will come to me and say: O Muhammad. You are the Messenger of Allaah and the last of the prophets. Allaah has pardoned your past and future sins. Intercede for us with your Lord; can’t you see the trouble we are in? Don’t you see what has overtaken us? I will then set off and come below the Throne and fall down in prostration before my Lord. Then Allaah will reveal to me and inspire me with some of His praises and glorifications which He had not revealed to anyone before me. He will then say: Muhammad, raise your head; ask and it will be granted; intercede and your intercession will be accepted.” (Sahih Muslim, vol. 1, pp. 129-32, no. 378)

Isn't that beautiful? Think and reflect.

So what are you waiting for? Believe me when I say you need to know as much as you can about MUHAMMAD (Peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). Never feel you know everything about him, you can learn how to be a husband, father, leader, philanthropist, legal jurist, legislator, etc from just getting authentic books about his life.

Most importantly - LOVE him with all your heart, even more than your family. Yes, I know he is no more here but remember, He is our Prophet, Allaah forbids the earth from eating up his body and makes it possible for him to hear our salams to him. And as in all things, do not go to the extreme such that you will commit atrocities in his name and then you incur the wrath of Allaah.

1433 AH Ramadan Kit

As-salaam alaykum wa rahmatullaah wa barakatuh

My name is Ashabi and I am so excited about starting this blog. I hope to share lots of exciting things with you because I work with children. Please, feel free to give feedback and suggestions as you read.

It's the first of ramadan and I want to start by giving you tips on keeping you and the kids busy for the day ( in between tryin to read a juz a day). : )

I had been trying to get somethings together for my children's ramadan. F is 9yrs and this is her 3rd ramadan, Abdul is 7 and this will be his 2nd, M is 4yrs and I really don't think she'll attempt it but let's wait and see. F and Abdul want to beat their 24 and 25 days records respectively, insha Allaah

Anyhow, I finally came across some stuffs and decided to share them with you, maybe you can also get them or any other similar craft. This post will introduce and put you through my first gadget. Hope you enjoy my first craft of the month.

Easy Knit Set (Paper Craft)

Well.... this looked so cheap china when I saw it (but I bought it anyway) and it was what I could afford. I took it home, kept it aside and forgot all about it. Then three weeks ago, I brought it out and went through it. The manual was in english but translation was very bad. Alhamdulillaah, I got the gist of it eventually.

Check out my attempt at using the set to make a cute & chic handbag with paper.

a) Step 1: I cut A4 size into right size using the paper cutter

b) Step 2: See how the crimper makes the ridges. I had to roll the paper through the crimper to get this.

c) Step 3: Next comes the folding, glueing and strip making (Abdul is helping with the glueing), it's really tiring making all those strips.

d) Step 4: Interlacing, reminds me of those basket weavers. I learnt paper interlacing in primary school art.

e) Step 5: Taking shape. I had to switch to staplers because the gum that came with it just didn't stick anything together!!!

f) Niiiiccceeee........

g) Step 6: Making the bag cover. This part was a bit tricky

Had to do some careful insertions.

looking familiar??????

Voila! The handle was easy, I just stapled two long strips together.

MY DESIGNER LABEL - THE ASHABI BAG!

This activity will keep your kids glued to the table and they would forget they are fasting. I will get  them to do something simpler like a pencil holder and I defintely will keep you posted.

WATCH OUT FOR GADGET 2 OF 4

Ma Salam