Taraweeh in Makkah

Assalaamu Alaikum :)

One of my favourite things of Ramadan is the amount of time we spend with family that normally would not be spent otherwise. Which is, quite unfortunate. But anyway, there is something else my mother and I always look forward to when Ramadan approaches. Watching the Taraweeh that is performed in Makkah. It is broadcasted everyday on ARY Digital and I cannot express how my heart feels while I sit there and listen to such a beautiful recitation. To my advantage, the translation is written on the screen while the recitation is being recited.

Subhana'Allah, my mother and I always begin to have that sense of longing to go back and experience being in the presence of the beautiful Ka'ba. I was 18 when I went for Hajj, alhamdulillah, and I wish I could have captured every moment, every feeling, every thought that went through my mind while I was there. But unfortunately, I cannot. One thought, one moment and feeling that I will never forget is the first time I saw the Ka'ba right before my very own eyes. I don't think anyone could forget such a moment, that is how awe-inspiring it was. I sit here, and I can honestly remember the weather, the sound of thousands of people shuffling by me to go in tawaf, the sweet scent that filled the air ... it was just a serene feeling altogether. I wish I could capture that moment and allow you to view what I have viewed. Well, I can do the next best thing and that is to pray to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala that each and every one of you will be given the blessed opportunity to go sometime in the very near future and capture the same moment as I had, ameen :)

I long to go again. I really do. I especially would want to visit during Ramadan, now that would be a dream-come-true ... insha'Allah.

Ups & Downs

Assalaamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu :)

How is everyone's Ramadan coming along so far? Alhamdulillah, mine is going well. I have been able to continue my ibaadah even with such a busy schedule I'm not used to hehe I just pray that insha'Allah I can keep this up even after Ramadan comes to an end *sigh* I am at a very rocky stage in my life at the moment and I am *so* thankful that I have this blessed month to keep me going, because honestly ... I am just a little tired with a lot of things. I am also thankful for the fact that I am working and am not at home drowning in my never-ending thoughts. If that were to happen ... I would have ran out of my house screaming by now .... no joke. teehehe Maybe I am just going through a moment of weakness and I should remind myself not to stress myself out so much (I tend to do that a lot).

Another thing that has my mind off of stressful issues is ... my Convocation Invitation!! It finally came in the mail and I can finally say that I will be a graduate soon, insha'Allah :D That thought alone has me smiling like a crazy woman. Do crazy women smile a lot? Anyways, it will be a few days before Eid ... yes, during Ramadan. I told my sister about it because I had to confirm guests and she says, "what is the point of going when you can't eat anything there?!" ... :( ... I thought I was the point *sniffles* I do understand that the ceremony will be unbearably boring but is it not enough to see the excitement and joy on my face?! argh My sister has already given me my graduation gift ... and I love it dearly. It is a digital Qur'an along with Hadith. It's amazing to listen to on bus rides, reciting the Qur'an, reading the translation and also reading the many hadith's that are offered. Alhamdulillah :D May Allah Swt bless her with years of happiness and accept her du'as, ameen.

Work is going to be a little more fun from now on. One of the teacher's will be leaving on maternity leave early next year so we needed someone to take over for her. Before I started working, I mentioned that a good friend of mine was looking for a position and if anything opened up, let me know and we can arrange something. So the Principal asked me about my friend and before we knew it ... she accepted the position! Aww! She will have to volunteer for a while first to get a feel of the place so she will start next week :D I am soo excited! We went to York together and rarely saw one another ... now we will be seeing each other a lot more often. Yay.

I will be posting some pictures later in the week of a current Ramadan project I am doing with my students. It is the cutest idea! One of my student's mother suggested it to me actually and provided me with all the material ... it is going to be a lot of fun :) So stay tuned!

*~ Ramadan Mubarak ~*

Assalaamu Alaikum :)

Narrated by Abu Huraira: Allah's Apostle said, "When the month of Ramadan starts, the gates of the heaven are opened and the gates of Hell are closed and the devils are chained." (Sahih Bukhari)

Subhana'Allah, another Ramadan I am blessed to experience. Without a doubt, my most favourite time of the year. Why? Well, why not ... it is the month when the Holy Qur'an was sent down to our beloved Prophet Muhammad (sallahu alaihe wasallam). This blessed month contains a night that is better than a thousand months. It is obligatory upon every Muslim to fast in this month and the rewards received from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala during Ramadan is more than enough reason to take advantage. Insha'Allah, I am completely focused on doing as much as I can, to work on things that need serious improvement and also, just to strengthen my Imaan and fill my heart with more love on this beautiful Deen. We should all have the intention of performing good deeds this month :) So my du'a to everyone is that Ramadan will insha'Allah bring out the best in everyone and insha'Allah we will be able to continue our practices even after Ramadan comes to an end, ameen. Have a wonderful Ramadan with all of your loved ones, family & friends!! Please remember me in your du'as, I need them :)

Update on Working -

Ramadan at the school I am teaching at will be very hectic. Good hectic, but hectic nonetheless. Alhamdulillah, it has been going great. I'm enjoying every minute of it, even during the days I want to run out screaming haha All my kids are balls of energy hehe so cute though. I had my first Parent-Teacher meeting this past week. Actually, it was more for the parent's to come in and go through the work that their children will be involved in this whole year. But of course, I had a line-up of parent's waiting to speak to me! It was so weird. I have never had so many people want to speak with me haha It was nice to know that their children have taken a liking to me and talk about me a lot at home aww I also found out one of my students has a crush on me aww haha Which is surprising because I am hard on him the most, the boy just does not listen (at times). Yesterday was a P.D. Day so no children were at school but all the teachers were, whoopdi-doo. We were discussing class trips and our up-coming Eid party! They have Eid parties! Soo cute ... I gave some of my ideas for it and they loved them, so insha'Allah I'll start working on that soon enough.

Update on Life -

Umm ... not too much. Very "blah" at the moment and a little "meh" in there as well. Did not have a computer for a week which was not so bad. I have been drooling over the Fall collection of clothing these days: hijabi approved. My grandmother left for India/Dubai for 6 months so missing her greatly :/ May Allah Swt bless her with good health and a safe return back to us, ameen. That's ... pretty much it.

Exhausted ...!

Assalaamu Alaikum :)

It has only been my first week (and it wasn't even a full week either) and I'm so exhausted from being a Kindergarten Teacher! Children 5 and under can really keep a person busy. But alhamdulillah, I am also having such an amazing time. I cannot stress how cute and adorable these kids are! My class is a bit bigger than what I was expecting but I think I am handling it well. It is always great when the Principal compliments the good work that she has been seeing :D Aww ... I'm doing something right! She was impressed with the fact that I was able to keep all the children quiet and still during naptime (which isn't easy, by the way) and there were less children crying this week than most years, yay! What I really love about Islamic schools is seeing the kids pratice how to pray salaat and reciting surah's. It's so beautiful and they're so cute when they do it too! Oh my, I can go on and on ... I'm going to share some of my memorable moments from this past week:

Water leads to Potty
What I enjoy about being in this environment, is that I can say "potty" and not be looked at with a raised eyebrow haha For those who know me, know that I never use the term bathroom or washroom but "potty" instead :) But these children, my goodness, all they do is drink water and go potty! Especially one kid, he's rarely in the classroom because he's always rushing to go to the potty. Stop drinking so much water!! Anyways, so I had to set a rule for them stating that they can only drink water when they are very very thirsty because when one child goes to drink water, the whole crew follows ...

My Home
I thought I would show everyone my desk in my classroom (it feels so weird to say my classroom hehe)

It is filled with children books, some that I remember reading when I was in Kindergarten aww. Especially one called I Know and Old Lady, it was about a woman who swallowed a fly for some reason. "I don't know why she swallowed a fly ... perhaps she'll die!" That line has stuck with me since. But anyways, in the corner, is the little toy potty that I have to demonstrate for the class haha Eww. It is a part of their Taking Care of Your Body theme and I have to make sure that each child knows the proper way Muslims go to the bathroom (goodness gracious) I have been observing this past week and noticed that they need to know ASAP!! Some children just don't know tsk tsk

The Danger Zone
This is absolutely the most dangerous area in my classroom. Everytime I look at it, I want to scream because it attracts children like light attracts a moth *frustration* I really wish I could throw some sort of cloth over it to hide all the toys from the eager eyes of the children.

My first day there, the two phrases I heard the most were "Teacher, can I go to the bathroom?" and "is it time to play yet?" haha No! Their playtime is at the end of the day so I need to make sure they have done all their work and then reward them for being patient. There was no patience the first day. I think I spent my whole time running back and forth from the toy area to bring a kid back to his/her seat argh As the week progressed, they were becoming much better, alhamdulillah!!

Older Crew
I became friends with the older girls in the school. They are real nice and love to talk haha So they keep me very entertained during Lunch and Recess. During Lunch time, one of the girls ran upto me, giggling and said, "...we just wanted to tell you that we think you're verrrry pretty" (awww) I thought that was so sweet of them, but then later in the day the same girl says, "I bet your students weren't paying any attention to you because they couldn't stop admiring your beauty" haha That's when I gave her a look ... they're only 4/5 years old!

The Odd Ball
There is one student who was a bit troublesome for the first couple of days. I assume he was a bit afraid being in a classroom by himself, so he decided to stick around with his brother who is in grade 1. I didn't even realize that kid was a student of mine. Anyways, if he was in my room, he would not leave the toy area, so I had to let him be for a while. Eventually, his mother gave him a talk and Friday, he was very good. He sat with us the entire time aww But the strange thing about him, is that he speaks to me in Urdu. I figured he must not know English, which would be weird. During Snack time, I heard him speaking to one of the Principals, and he has him a question in English! In English! This boy speaks to *everyone* in English but me haha Something I just cannot understand ...

Bed Bugs
I found a cute method to get the children to be quiet during naptime. It worked, but I only used that idea once :S

These cute little things are called Bed Bugs. You have to explain to the kids that Bed Bugs are very quiet creatures and do not like to be disturbed and noises scare them so everyone has to be very quiet. It comes with little song/rhyme as well that you sing. The kids were very interested in the little creatures but since they're made up of cotton balls, some of them were tearing them up :( haha So I think I'll have to make them out of something else. Either way, it was cute and the kids liked it!

Ever-so-cute Moment
It was Friday and almost time for the children to go home. So I had them clean-up after Play Time (the most hardest thing to do). I gathered them together and said, "You guys aren't going to see me for two whole days, are you going to miss me?" And from each child I see blank faces haha "Why aren't we going to see you for two days?!" Awww They don't know. So I explained to them that it will be Saturday and Sunday, and school is not open on those days. One of the girls asked me "will we see you again?" haha I said yes, in two days. They're so precious, masha'Allah.

These are some of the things that stuck in my mind from the first week. I know I will have so many more stories and before I know it, the year will be over :( I already miss the kids! I look back on this and just realize how blessed and lucky I am, subhana'Allah. I used to whine a lot about how I would be getting so bored this September with nothing to do and I even planned to visit York numerously to meet up with some friends. Now, meeting up with anyone seems difficult :( But I'm happy, and enjoying every moment of this ... :D