Category: Workshops

Friends, Workshops

Friendship Workshop / Halaqah

Sumiyya Iqbal

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.

Friendship PowerPointDownload

Our coloured water after the demonstration

Mental Health, Wellbeing, Workshops

Mental Health and Wellbeing Workshop

Sumiyya Iqbal

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.

Mental Wellbeing speaker notesDownload
Raisin exercise guidelinesDownload
Mental Wellbeing powerpoint presentationDownload
Islamic studies, islamicteachingresources, Workshops

Productivity Workshop

Sumiyya Iqbal

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 resources –

Productivity Session 1 – Speaker notes Download
Productivity Session 1 – PowerpointDownload

Sessesion 2 resources –

Productivity Session 2 – Speaker notesDownload
Productivity Session 2 – PowerpointDownload
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

Islamic studies, Workshops

Modesty

Sumiyya Iqbal

A very important and much needed topic for discussion in todays times. Where not only the meaning of the word is being changed but its interpretation is being altered also. It is important we teach the true meaning of Modesty in Islam and also important that we do not just limit the word modesty to external dress. Therefore we have seperated our sessions starting with internal modesty – a quality of the heart and mind and then moving on to external modesty.

Note regarding external modesty lesson – It is important that we do not dictate what specific clothing type is haram/halal upon students but rather teach them the tools to decide for themselves if a particular item falls into the modest or immodest category.

When teaching both lessons i never gave my own judgements or looked down upon anyones certain ideas of dress. The entire purpose of the sessions were to get students to think twice about what they choose to wear and why along with the true meaning of Modesty in Islam.

Any questions please get in touch

Internal ModestyDownload
My Thought journey Download
External ModestyDownload
Clothing cardsDownload

Social media, Workshops

Social Media and Islam

Sumiyya Iqbal

This workshop is based on 5 key questions:

  • What is social media?
  • Why do you use social media?
  • What are the advantages of social media?
  • What are the disadvantages of social media?
  • What are your limits/boundaries on social media?

The main purpose of this workshop is to raise awareness of the impact of social media on our lives. The session aims to make you more wise, critical and accountable about the way you use social media in light of Quran and Hadith.

The session was delivered in 1hr 30min workshop to women of all ages. Every time we approached a key question, there was time for disucssion in pairs and then an oppertunity to feedback. We also used post – it notes to gather peoples views on the positive and negative impacts of social media. You can see some example suggestions below.

You can find the powerpoint and speaker notes below

Social-media and Islam powerpoint Download
Social media and Islam speaker notesDownload
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Suggestions of positive and negative effects of social media

Great women in Islam, islamicteachingresources, Workshops

Great women in Islam – Khadeeja (ra)

Sumiyya Iqbal

Salam!

This is a recent talk i did at a charity event which was titled ‘Great Women of Islam’. I decided to speak about Khadeeja (ra) because there are so many lessons we can all take from her life regardless of what stage we are in our lives and regardless of our current roles.

The talk covers:

  • What does it mean to be a successful muslim women in modern day?
  • The life of Khadeeja (ra)
  • 4 main lessons we can take from the life of Khadeeja(ra)

The talk was 45min long and the speaker notes ( i write everything i say for my own sanity) and presentation slides are below.

Khadeeja (ra) – Speaker notes Download
Khadeeja (ra) – PowerpointDownload
Islamic studies, Marriage, Workshops

Marriage talk part 2 – Being Mrs Right

Sumiyya Iqbal

This talk was part 2 in our two-part series on marriage. Its a topic that we can discuss for unlimited sessions. The target audience was married women and girls looking to getting married (wives and potential wives to be insha’Allah).

This talk covers:

  • The relationship between the husband and wife
  • Qualities needed in a successful marriage                          
  • Analysing marriage scenarios

I would recommend this to be 2hr session giving sufficient time for discussions and questions

Please see the presentation slides below. I used a website called mentimeter to make the workshop interactive and to pool together the audience’s answers. If you do not have access to the internet you could do a mind map or collect responses on sticky notes instead.

The scenarios were printed in A3 paper and each group was given board markers. I also ensured that each group included married and non-married women to create deeper and more reflective discussions.

The speaker notes will soon follow inshallah

Marriage – Being Mrs Right Download
Scenarios on Microsoft word – print as A3 Download

Marriage, Workshops

Marriage talk part 1 – Searching for Mr. Perfect

Sumiyya Iqbal

I delivered a talk today in my local masjid about the process of finding a spouse. The target audience included girls looking for potential spouses and mothers looking for potential spouses for their children.

The talk covers:

  1. What qualities to look for in a spouse
  2. How to search for a spouse
  3. Difficulties along the way and how to overcome them

I would recommend this to be a 2hr 30min workshop with a half an hour Q&A session in order to do full justice to this topic.

Please see the presentation slides below. I used a website called mentimeter to make the workshop interactive and to pool together the audience’s answers. You can see their answers below. If you do not have access to the internet you could do a mind map or collect responses on sticky notes instead.

The speaker notes will soon follow inshallah

Searching for a spouse – PowerpointDownload
Searching for a spouse – Speaker notesDownload