Mental Health and Wellbeing Workshop
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.
Productivity Workshop
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 –
Sessesion 2 resources –
Arabic revision activity
End of term one revision activity
Alhamdulillah an entire term has passed since i started teaching Arabic every Sunday morning for two hours.
It is the end of term and i wanted to plan a fun activity for them to revise all the rules we had covered so far.
There was 2 parts to lesson.
- Retrieval activity – Students were given keywords that we had covered this term. (or words that prompt them to remember rules we had learnt). Students had to brainstorm on A3 paper what they could recall about each keyword. They had 10mins to do the task first without using their books – forcing them to retrieve information from their brains and then as a treat allow them a few minutes to use their books to fill in any missing gaps. (But don’t tell them that they will be able to use their books later on). See pictures below.
2. Translation competition – In groups of 3 students were given different short stories to translate from English to Arabic. The stories incorporated all the rules they had learnt over the term. There was 14 points available per story. However students could not move on to the next story until they had got the first story 100% correct. Every time they got they asked the teacher for help or submitted it incorrectly they lost 0.5 marks. They were allowed to use the vocabulary list and the A3 paper which they had brainstormed the rules on (mentioned above). In order to differentiate the tasks i made mixed ability groups and for every story i asked a different person to write.
The students had lots of fun and the winning group won by 0.5 marks. There was prizes for the winning group and chocolates for all!
Juz 28
I created these powerpoint slides when I was teaching the Tafseer (Quranic explanation) of Juz 27 – 30. It helped me summarize the information and gave the students a resource they could take home and use a reference rather than need to scribble down every word that was said. I shared the resources with my students through a google classroom, however you could just direct them to the blog if easier.
However, the powerpoint slides can be used in many ways
- Personal study of each Surah
- Teacher resource for teaching Tafseer
- Could be used for a study group discussion
The powerpoint slides need to be studied alongside an authentic Qur’an translation and preferably with a teacher also.
My main reference was Mutfi Taqi Uthmani’s ‘Maariful Quran’ along with some other research. Please let me know how you use this resource and i pray it would be beneficial to you inshallah!
Please leave feedback in the comments below
JazakAllah!
Modesty
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
Social Media and Islam
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
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Suggestions of positive and negative effects of social media
Last 10 night of Ramadan – Laylatul Qadr
Salam,
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.
See speaker notes and presentation below:
Tafseer of the Quran
Juz 27
I created these powerpoint slides when I was teaching the Tafseer (Quranic explanation) of Juz 27 – 30. It helped me summarize the information and gave the students a resource they could take home and use a reference rather than need to scribble down every word that was said.
However, the powerpoint slides can be used in many ways
- Personal study of each Surah
- Teacher resource for teaching Tafseer
- Could be used for a study group discussion
The powerpoint slides need to be studied alongside an authentic Qur’an translation and preferably with a teacher also.
My main reference was Mutfi Taqi Uthmani’s ‘Maariful Quran’ along with some other research. Please let me know how you use this resource and i pray it would be beneficial to you inshallah!
Great women in Islam – Khadeeja (ra)
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.
Islamic Teaching Resources 