- Introduction
- Teaching style
- Translation and Tarkeeb PowerPoints
- Other useful teaching resources
- Assessments
Introduction
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.
Translation and Tarkeeb Power Points
Other Useful Teaching resources
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!
Assessments
If you use any of my resources please let me know how your lesson went in the comment box below. If you spot any mistakes please email me.
Coming soon – An animated version of the tarkeeb PowerPoint with explanatory notes Insh’Allah.
Jazakallah for your support and duas requested.
Islamic Teaching Resources 