Ramadhan & Eid Reading Corner (Part 2)

So I finally get round to writing the second part of my post on our Ramadhan & Eid Reading Corner. Although this draft might take a few days to complete, I told myself that I have to finish it while it's still Syawal and of course, before we leave for our trip. The first part can be found here. (Obviously I started writing this about a month ago, wrote other posts, and completed this a month later. Heh!)

Making supplication (du'a)

Ramadhan is the month of mercy and forgiveness and in a hadith, it was narrated that the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. said that, "Destruction be upon the one who has witnessed the month of mercy (Ramadhan) and has not achieved forgiveness." Therefore I think the blessed month is the best time to teach the little girl about raising her hands and asking from Allah s.w.t. at all times.

I learnt a lot from the lectures on YouTube by Mufti Ismail Musa Menk on Forgiveness and Supplication. The hadith above was said at the beginning of the lecture on Supplication, along with the steps listed below. Some beautiful du'a of the prophets could also be found in that lecture.

Steps in making supplication:
- do good deeds before making a supplication
- praise your Creator 
- ask for forgiveness and repent for your sins
- ask for something sensible, reasonable and permissible
- do not say "inshaa Allah" when asking for something
- choose words which are beautiful and full of humility
- never be in a rush when asking for something
- be steadfast
- make du'a for others
- two-thirds of our du'a should be for the akhirah

As usual, I love to reiterate our learning point with some colouring or painting. I admit that colouring pictures may not be a free form of art, especially coupled with the fact that I am the one who choose the materials to decorate the pieces after cutting and pasting the pictures. But the finished products that we put up serve as a reminder of what we have talked about and of course you can't discount all the talk that we do while doing the pieces together.

Paint with die-cut border and rose

Chalk with self-adhesive felt flowers and cut-out hearts 

Giving to the needy

In the books Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns, Rashad's Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, and Ramadan Moon, we read about putting money into the zakat box, giving money and food to people who don't have enough, and looking for things to give away. I knew that the concept of giving is something that I couldn't afford to overlook in the midst of all the other teaching points during the blessed month. Alhamdulillah, we had several opportunities to give and I made it a point to tell the little girl what we were doing and what it was for. May all the little things that we gave be accepted by Him.

Slotting coins into her own zakat "box" 

A charity drive for Hari Raya clothes

Preparing for Eid

It was going to be the little girl's third Eid and so we decided to include her in our annual trip to the Geylang bazaar during Ramadhan. In fact, she went with us not once but twice! She got to see the big sadaqah boxes for Aidilfitri, and lots of traditional clothes, Eid cookies and fairy lights on sale. And for the first time ever, we bought fairy lights for our home! We bought one with stars and another with ketupat. I think I was more excited to see the fairy lights up than her!

A stall at the bazaar which sold fairy lights

Our very own twinkling stars

Okay so we didn't bake our own cookies (I shall insert my excuse here of not having an oven) and didn't cook our own rendang or ketupat but that didn't stop us from learning what others do in preparation for Eid. The cookie set from Melissa & Doug arrived timely about a week before Eid, which is usually the time when cookies are baked, and so the little girl got busy with some slicing, decorating and serving of her own cookies.

"Baking" her own cookies

Paint with craft punch flowers and money envelope

Ketupat, crescent moons and stars made of pipe cleaners

And that concludes our activities for Ramadhan and Eid. I had hoped to do more but inshaa Allah I shall keep those ideas for future Ramadhan with the little girl. And as usual, whatever that was good came from Allah s.w.t. and whatever that was wrong was from me. 

This blog is for the intended purpose of sharing and I am heartened when my mummy friends asked me where I had gotten some Islamic books or materials for my daughter, how my daughter learnt to do certain things, or if I could purchase certain items for them. It brings me immense joy knowing that other children may benefit from the ideas or books that I share. Motherhood is never a solitary journey and may we all learn from each other inshaa Allah.