Bis milla ir rah man nir ra him.

May Allah SWT help us all in all our efforts to learn and teach in the matters of deen, inshaAllah ameen.

(Please correct any mistakes that you are aware of and please let other users know of them, inshaAllah.)

Month: Safar - Rabei` Al-awwal 1423 A.H / MAY 2002 A.D.

Prophet: PROPHET NUH alais salaam

Monthly Goal: To learn who this Prophet was and what his message was about.

Week 1

Weekly Goal: Introduce this months Prophet

READING: the following book is excellent for the under eights

The Story of Prophet Nuh alais salaam by S. KHAN Quranic stories for tiny tots ISBN 81-87570-95-2

Online reading at:

Questions for this first week are based on the need to check if children have understood the overall story of Prophet Nuh alais salaam and the main details therein, (brief answers in brackets).

Use as questions or chat points depending on your children and their levels.

Who was Prophet Nuh (aailisalan) ? ( he was a man of good character, and the first rasul/messenger sent by Allah to the people of the Earth. Using hadith Qudsi, number 36 ).

Why did Allah send him as a messenger? (because people had fallen into the ways of the non believers, idol worshipping, valuing status and wealth etc.)

How were the people in Nuh alais salaams community living? ( badly! They did not know how to worship Allah SWT correctly)

What did Allah SWT command Nuh alais salaam to do? Why? ( to build an ark, as all the non believers would perish in the flood Allah planned to send)

How did the people who did not listen to Allah SWT react? (they laughed at Nuh alais salaam! Called him a crazy man for building a boat in the middle of dry land!)

Who went into the ark? (animals in pairs, male and female, and the believers of Nuh alais salaams community)

Activity for this first week depends on how work orientated you want the first week to be:

you could make a start on the Prophets Book suggested by sis tasneem, copied below!

'My book of Prophets'. Make a book of prophets, with the first chapter 'Adam, the first man'. Talk about each chapter of the book being like a chapter in history. Remind the child that the Prophets were real (talk about fiction/non-fiction). Talk briefly about what is a Prophet and the reasons that Allah sent the Prophets.

or using the book Noahs Ark, a pop up playbook by M. Borgardt play with the ark model and animals, the ark pops up, windows/ doors can open, roof can be raised to see animals in their compartments or build an ark and models! ( paper or play dough or cardboard cutouts)

Some interesting side activities can be

** listing all the animals children know, identifying them in books/dictionaries, always mentioning SubhanaAllah, what wonderful creatures Allah SWT has created

** listing alphabetically for the older ones or getting them to match animals to continents

** mum to make word-find puzzles of animals using http://www.puzzlemaker.com/

Week 2

Weekly Goal:

Additional Reading

highlighting message/relationship with Allah

read all the Quranic references for Nuh alias salaam,

(given in file NUH REF).

read from the Quran about how Nuh alais salaam had to know that although Allah SWT had said Nuhs family would be saved that did not include those who were disbelievers,

so even though Nuh alais salaam loved his son dearly and that love caused him to question and plead with Allah SWT for his sons life Allah SWT told him that if his son was a disbeliever then he was not of Nuhs family!

( Quran surah 11, hud, lines 44,45)

Important here to draw in that we are ONE FAMILY, ONE UMMAH,

Our link is not race, colour, language, wealth or even blood, it is FAITH.

A muslim is a brother to another muslim, (hadith-muslim)

The believers are but brothers, (Quran surah 49, Al hujurat, line 10)

Second point is the fact even an apostle questioned!! Questions are not bad! But they must be asked to aid our understanding and when we find an answer in the Quran we must be brave and trust Allah SWT knows best and follow it, inshaALLAH, no matter how difficult or far from the answer we wanted it is!

We will be tested in life and we must show faith, point can be returned to with Prophet Ibrahim and the sacrifice of his son, or so he thought at the time!

Thirdly, Nuh alais salaam was sent as a warner to the community then and to the rest of man kind, that Allah does not compromise in the matter of who you worship, even His chosen Prophets son and wife were not spared!

(Quran surah66 line 10,surah 7, line 69 and surah9, line 70)

Questions for this week will reflect this angle, faith in Allahs will .

Again use as questions or chat points.

1. Did ALL of Nuh alais salaams family enter the ark? Why not?

(no, son and wife perished in the flood as they did not believe)

2. Why did Nuh alais salam ask Allah SWT about his son?

(because he loved him and because he thought when Allah had said your family it meant his blood family)

3.Why was Allah SWT not pleased at being questioned in this manner?

(because He knows better than we do what is best for us!

Surah hud line 46)

Activities for this week:

**If you played last week!! Do the Prophets book chapter this week.

** prepare a journey on the ark

pretend you r a member in the community of Nuh alais salaam and you have just heard him speak of Allahs message.

What did he say? How did it sound? Are you afraid /excited?

How will you prepare? How do you feel?

What about all the people around you, some of your friends are laughing, what should you do?

Let the children talk out/ or act out what it could have been like, if older ones want to sit down and do a full performance, use bedding for the ark and toys for animals, can bring in duas for when you travel, for when you r afraid, duas for asking forgiveness and duas for guidance etc.

** let older ones think about the relationship they have with Allah SWT

they know He created them, that He has showered many blessings on them, food, clothing, shelter, family, sight, speech, health etc. etc.

what do they do in return? Why r we here?( created to worship Allah SWT)

this last one can be a story they write or poem about how they see their link to Allah SWT

Week 3

Weekly Goal: manners of Prophet Nuh alais salaam

Reading from the Quran again, how he was mocked, etc. but he did not return rudeness with the same!! highlighting manners towards the people

Questions.

1. How did the people treat Nuh alais salaam? ( they grew averse to him as he pleaded with them to worship only Allah SWT, surah 71, nuh line 6, pleaded openly and secretly, they were puffed with pride and stuff fingers in their ears, their cloaks over their heads! Line7)

2. When was Nuh alais salaam told to build the ark? ( when Allah SWT knew that no other believers remained to be convinced so Nuh alais salaam need not carry on preaching surah hud line 36)

3. Did Nuh alais salaam give up when people laughed at him? Why not? ( no, he had faith in Allah SWTs plan)

4. How did he respond to people laughing at him? ( he held on to his faith and followed Allah SWTs command)

Activity, a few are possible depending on what kids will enjoy!

**look at the possible ark photos from the

http://www.islam101.com/archeology/ark.jpg and

http://www.islam101.com/archeology/noah_ark.html sites and draw your own! Or paper machie make your own!! Using newspaper and pva glue you can just put layer on layer on layer, leave to dry and paint. If you make a large enough one you can them put their small farm toy animals in!

** for those children who have an interest / inclination mention the parts of the boats, its function etc. Also draw in a bit of science! Take a slim wooden piece and float it in a tub of water. Add their little toy animals , eventually as weight is added to it it will sink! (Keep a note of how many animals before it sank.)

Then take a wide bottom piece like you would see for a barge, and add animals to that, weight is dispersed evenly so it doesnt sink!

Surah 69, line 11, Allah SWT says it floated!

Make a point of mentioning Nuh alais salaam followed Allah SWTs instructions in the building of the ark.

** pretend situation where person A has to convince person B that the curtains are blue, or whatever color they r NOT! Person B has to resist! , A should be the more articulate, persuasive talker!

-- try it again with A being forceful/using pressure this time!

Point is that when someone tells you what you know is not true, dont fall for it no matter how well they speak/ how frightening they can make their speech!

** older ones write a poem about Nuh alais salaams feelings when he realized people would not listen, especially his own son

Is truth so hard to believe? or a poem of relief for the believers, when the flood ended.

** younger ones , mum to find all words that they understand that can be used to describe sorrow/unhappiness, let the children draw a picture of the ark in preparation and use dark colours to reflect those feelings

or they dictate sentences and mum writes them out

repeat with happiness words when the ark landed and Allah SWT told the earth to swallow up its waters.

Week 4

Weekly Goal:

Then and Now

The regions then and now (putting the message into context)

This one is a wee bit difficult in that the only concrete thing we can say is that it was Mount Judi as the Quran states that in surah 11 line 44,

BUT where is Mount Judi??!!

Exact reference I have not found! But general take it to be Syria / Iraq.

There are various opinions on this:

Armenian plateau to Kurdistan, in that mountain range from the link above,

Or from M Asads work to it being situated in the region of Lake Van, 25 miles north east of the town of Jazirat ibn Umar, capital of the modern Syrian district of Al Jazirah.

note 66 to translation of Quran surah 11, line 44

(The opinions that consider mount Ararat to be the arks resting place are not that way out when we remember that south of lake Van is Jabal Judi and at one time this WHOLE area was given the name mount Ararat! )

(Asads work)

closest general area then is Syria / Iraq.

(If you use search engines mesopotamia will bring up the area too)

Discussion and Activity will be combined.

How have the land and people changed since the Prophet first called the people to Islam?

Use your local library for books on Syria and Iraq for pictures of clothes, food etc. of each culture.

Online resources are :

Iraq : http://www.arab.net/iraq/iraq_contents.html

Syria: http://www.arab.net/syria/syria_contents.html

Each of these contains an overview of the country, history, geography, business, transport, culture, government, transport. Do as much or as little as suits you!

Map work from http://www.mrdowling.com/603mesopotamia.html

The Fertile Crescent

      Civilization developed slowly in different parts of the world. People began to settle in areas with abundant natural resources. A section of the Middle East is called the Fertile Crescent. The Fertile Crescent is a rich food-growing area in a part of the world where most of the land is too dry for farming. The Fertile Crescent begins on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and curves around like a quarter moon to the Persian Gulf.

     Some of the best farmland of the Fertile Crescent is in a narrow strip of land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The Greeks later called this region Mesopotamia, which means "between the rivers." Many different civilizations developed in this small region. First came the Sumerians, who were replaced in turn by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Today this land is known as Iraq and is ruled by a dictator named Saddam Hussein.

http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/index.html

http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/geography/home_set.html

gives information from the British Museum, geography material is there but depending on childrens level you may just want to mention old name and area,( was Mesopotamia, today its Syria and Iraq, perhaps go into meaning of 2 rivers and land between, show the mountain ranges, mention one of these is the Mount Judi that Allah SWT tells in the Quran is the resting place of the ark after the flood subsided).

Some maps at http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/geography/explore/exp_set.html and in the choose a map box you can select the geographical one where the rivers are visible and the possible lake mentioned by Asad , lake Van

Bit below is off the same site but could be a possible activity for us!

The explore section offers a variety of maps that illustrate different points about the land. The maps include: a geographical features map, a natural resources map, a modern political map of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and eastern Syria) and surrounding countries, a terrain map, a map showing civilizations over time and an ancient map of the world. It also includes a series of maps of Mesopotamia through time. This section could be used to introduce pupils to the landscape of Mesopotamia, and how modern changes, such as the building of dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, have affected the landscape and way of life in the region today.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION TO THE MONTH:

Let children write for themselves, if possible, or younger tell mum and mum writes it down, what they feel they have learnt about the Prophet, and what they feel they can aim to achieve just as the Prophet did inshaAllah.   ( chat triggers, who, what, where, why, for first part eg. who was he, why was he sent, where was he sent, what did he do? Remember to add that this is a lesson for ALL time for all people too).

Chat trigger for second part, I would like, inshaAllah to. Eg. to have patience like Nuh alais salaam showed , strength of faith when they laughed at him).