This is a 1-hour workshop, however, you could extend it by spending more time on much-needed discussions and detailed analysis of the scenarios.
This workshop covers:
Importance of good friends
Demonstration
What are the qualities of a good friend
How to be a good friend
Scenarios
For the demonstration, you will need the resources mentioned in the PowerPoint below. One student will need to be given a cup with food colouring /dye in the water and the rest of the students will have cups with clear water in them. As the students mingle with each other they need to put a few drops of the water from their cup into their partner’s cup using a pipette. Students keep speaking to different students and mixing their water. Allow students to do this for 3-5 mins. When finished ask students to put all their cups in one line in order of colour.
The person who started with the cup of coloured water = bad friend. The bad friend went and spent time with other people and left her effects on other friends. The coloured water should now be in a few cups – this represents the effects of the bad company just like in the hadeeth; you will smell like the blacksmith if you spend time with the blacksmith. Good friend = the clear water and leaves their effect on people; just like in the hadith if you spend time with the perfume seller you will smell like perfume.
The five qualities of a friend – we said that the more of these 5 qualities a friend has the better the friend they are. Students finish the session by doing an internal reflection to see if they are good friends and how they ca become better friends.
Zaad Ut Talibeen is a collection of short Ahadith. It can be taught in many different ways. It was originally compiled as a resource for students to be able to practise their grammar rules. My aims when teaching this book were for students to be able:
To memorise all Ahaadith mentioned below
To be able to translate and explain each Ahadith mentioned below
To be able to grammatically analyse (Tarkeeb) of each Ahadith mentioned below, using chapter titles as a guide
We chose to focus on selected ahadith from the book so that it was manageable to meet all the aims in one year as well as cover all the grammar rules intended by the author. The Ahadith that we covered are mentioned below. The book was taught to students in the second year of their Alimiyyah programme. The hadith number correspond to Zaad Ut Talibeen Maktabatul Bushra version of the book. Which can be downloaded from here.
Mid-year target:
Chapter titles 1
Numbers of Ahadith that will be studied
الجملة الاسميّة
2-20
نوع اخرمنهما
41-44, 46-48, 52-63, 66-68
لا نفي جنس
70-79
حرف إنَّ
80-95
End of year targets:
Chapter 1 titles
Numbers of Ahadith that will be studied
حرف إنَّما
112-114
الجملة الفعليّة
115-125
لا نفي جنس
126-138
الامر و النّهي
139-159
ليس) الناقصة)
177-187
الشرط و الجزاء – من
188-205
الشرط و الجزاء – إذا
253-266
Teaching style (onsite and online)
It was an honour to be able to teach Zaad Ut Talibeen to my second-year students as i was not taught the book in this manner so it was a great learning curve for me and them. They really enjoyed applying their grammar rules and their tarkeeb skills became stronger.
For homework, I would set 4-5 ahadith for students to prepare per lesson. We had two lessons a week. They had to write down any new words they did not know the meaning of, find the definition in Hans Wehr dictionary, attempt the translation of the entire ahadith and the tarkeeb. In lesson, I would check if every student has done their homework. Then in class, I would write the hadith on the board (while we were teaching onsite) and pick on random students to translate and analyse the hadith. I would make any corrections and present the correct keywords, translation and tarkeeb to them. We repeated this method for every single lesson. It was our routine. As we advanced through the Ahadith any verbs that appeared students had to find the past, present and amr of every verb for homework too. This method empowered the students and enhances their skills rather than just spoon feeding them the translation and tarkeeb.
Every now and then we would refer back to their Nahwa book (Tasheel un Nahwa was the one they studied the previous year) to teach them or recap rules.
Midway throughout the year Covid – 19 struck! So we were forced to move our lessons online. We had live lessons through Microsoft Teams but I was not able to follow my routine above because it would take too long to write Arabic on a digital whiteboard (and was so messy). The first few lessons were a huge struggle as we were missing the visual aids. This is when the below resources were born! I decided to use PowerPoint to type up the hadith in Arabic before the lesson (one hadith per slide) and have the expected tarkeeb boxes already created at the bottom of the slide and arrows ready before the lesson. Then during the lesson, i shared my PowerPoint slide and as the students told me the tarkeeb i just dragged and dropped the correct analysis box under the correct Arabic verb. By the end, they had the full grammatical analysis and translation of each hadith infront of them on one slide. This made it easier for them all the visualise the tarkeeb, check if their homework was correct and for me to be able to explain it.
How did i check their homework remotely? I created assignments on Google Classroom and every week students had to take a picture of their homework and submit it to me. Typing up the Arabic was time consuming so i have to give credit to one of my dear students who took on the job of typing up the Arabic and preparing the PowerPoints. May Allah reward her abundantly in this world and next. Ameen.
Students also had to memorize the ahadith. I would test students weekly on the hadith from previous weeks. Sometimes I would assess them from different places in the book to keep their memorization fresh.
The textbook we used with the students was the Maktaba tul Bushra print and our hadith numbers correspond to that too. Its simple, clear and easy for students to follow.
All English translations for the PowerPoints were taken from Mufti Abdurahman’s translation ‘Provisions for the Seekers. The first 60 hadith translations can be downloaded below or the book can be purchased from here.
Most Tarkeeb for the PowerPoints were taken from Rawdat Ul Talibeen. It is in Urdu however you can find the translation, tarkeeb and commentary for every single ahadith. Awsome resource!
You will find resources below to teach my Seerah Module 1 – Makkan period course. I taught this course over one half term (seven weeks). Each lesson was once a week and two hours long. This class was aimed at teenage girls who had come to attend a post – maktab islamic studies class.
Students were enagaged in activtities, discussions and Arts and crafts projects throughout module. They were rewarded with Class dojo points for effort, hard work and contribution.
As well as teaching the Seerah, the students were taught research, team work and interpersonal skills. I have highlighted these in the aims of the lessons.
The module also included project based learning, where weekly students would work on their Makkan period lapbooks for homework and where possible, time was given for this in class also.
The module was assessed with a 45 minute end of module written assessment and a submission of the students Makkah period lapbooks.
This aim of this workshop was to discuss what is the balanced path of moderation in Islam, how moving from it affects our wellbeing and most importantly tips on how to maintain our wellbeing at the highest point.
Allah Ta’alah says in the Qur’an:
“ We have made you a moderate nation so that you could be an example for all people and the Prophet an example for you.” (Surah Baqarah – Verse 143)
I used the 5 NHS steps to mental wellbeing and mapped them with evidence to Qur’an and Ahadeeth which orginally encouraged us to use these steps to self care.
I would recommend this to be a 2 hour workshop and you will need a pack of raisins, one for each attendee for the raisin mindfulness activity.
Alhamdulillah i had the oppertunity to deliver a two part online webinar on Productivity. Stuck at home in the lockdown of Covid-19 a very good friend of mine organised ‘Heart to Heart daily reminders’ for the community just before the start of Ramadan 2020. She asked me to speak on ‘Productivity’. The webinar content is mostly very general and can be applied to any context.
The two sessions address the following five questions:
Why do i need to be productive?
What can i do with my time?
Methods to increase in productivity?
What prevents us from being producitve?
How to tackle these barriers
Each session was one hour long.
Session 1 covers what is productivity? Why do i need to be productive in the light of Surah Al-Asr and the hadith ‘5 before 5’ as well as discussing four methods to increase in productivity: planning, to do lists, breaking down tasks and routines.
Session 2 covers what prevents us from being productive? A discussion on procrastination and four methods to tackle procrastination: eat the frog, self-discipline, be your own cheerleader and Du’a.
I used mentimeter to help engage and get to know my audience. You can see the results below. I also used the chat box feature in Zoom to allow my attendees to answer any questions i asked.
You can find the speaker notes and powerpoint presentations below.
Session 1 – A bit of background to get to know my audience as it was an online talk also helped me to plan the following session
Session 1 – Audience to create a baseline for themselves
Session 2 – For my audience to think about what prevents them from being productive? Also gave me an insight to their struggles so i could address them
Session 2 – At the end of the first session everyone was given a task to try and act upon what they have learnt and encorporate one new things into their daily habits. It was so lovely to hear thier honest responses.
This exercise reminded of the beauty and impact you can have with continuous classes rather than one off talks
I did a 15minutes reminder at an iftaar event last week focusing on the tafseer of Laylatul Qadr along with some tips for making the best out of these nights through planning and preperation.
Islamic Teaching Resources 