Seerah for Kids: Lesson 4. Life in the desert with Halima

Lesson 4: Life in the desert with Halima

In this lesson we will :

-listen to and retell the story of the Prophet’s time with Halima

-list some of the miracles that happened when the Prophet SAWS was with Halima

Lesson 4:

In the desert with Halima

At the time of the prophet SAWS, the Arabs sent their little children to the desert to grow up there. Growing up in the desert with the Bedouins would help the children become better at Arabic which the Bedouins spoke very well and they would have lots of fresh and pure air to breathe.

When Mohamad SAWS was still a baby, the Bedouin ladies visited Makkah to take the newborn children to the desert and raise them there. Each of these ladies chose a baby but no one wanted to take prophet Mohamad SAWS because he was an orphan. They thought that they would not be paid well because he did not have a father.

It was Halima Saadia, from Banu Saad tribe who decided to take baby Mohamad SAWS. She was a poor wet nurse (who fed babies from her breast milk). She and her husband only had a donkey and old she-camel. After all the other ladies had taken their babies, she felt that she should take home Mohamad SAWS rather then go back home without a child.As soon as Halima took Muhammad SAWS everything started to change for the better. Whereas before the camel did not have a drop of milk, there was now lots of milk coming out of its udders! Halima and her husband were very excited. They felt that baby Mohamad had come as a great blessing to them. Halima was now able to drink the camel milk until she was full. She was now able to breastfeed both her own child and baby Mohamad SAWS. 

On their journey back home, they were also surprised to see that their donkey who was going very slowly was now strong and fast. Halima and husband who were at the back of the group were now in front of everyone else! They arrived home without any trouble and baby Mohamad SAWS was now a part of their family. 


Halima knew that she had a blessed child with all the great things that she saw happening to her and her family. Her herd of goats used to come home full of milk. The rest of the Bedouins' goats used to come home looking thin and tired. They would tell their shepherd to take the sheep and goats to the same place that Halima took hers! But even the shepherds were surprised. Their animals were eating from the same place! Halima knew that these were all signs that Mohamad SAWS was a blessed child. 

Halima looked after Mohamad SAWS and grew to love him a lot. After two years though she had to go back to Makkah to take him to Aamina his mother. Halima did not want to send him back so she begged Aamina to let him stay with her for two more years in the desert. At that time there was an illness in Makah and Aamina was afraid that Mohamad would get that illness so she agreed to let him stay with Halima.

The Great Miracle

A strange thing happened when the prophet was living with Halima. One day when he was playing with Halima’s son in the fields, the angel Jibreel appeared. The Angel opened Mohamad’s chest, took out his heart, and and washed it in ice-cold zamzam water. The angel then returned the heart to Muhammad's body before going away.

 Halima’s son ran to Halima and told her that Muhammad had been murdered. She rushed out and found Muhammad looking a little pale and shaken. She asked him what had happened but he said that he was all right. Halima checked him and found that he was fine.

Halima was worried after what happened and decided that it would be best to return Mohamad to his mother. Halima told Aamina what had happened but she was not worried because she knew Mohamad was a special boy. Halima returned Mohamad and he now lived in Makkah with his mother and Barakah.

Click here for the pdf file of this lesson 

This Seerah lesson today was very exciting for the kids and had a lot of science related learning as well.

The story of the Prophet’s time with Halimah reflects the blessings that the Prophet Sallahu Alaihi Wassalam brought with him to their family, animals and land.

This lesson also lends itself to the study of the desert and its animals and way of life. We explored many of the desert creatures from a book called ‘Desert Habitats’ and the kids were intrigued by creatures such as the ground squirrel whose tail acts as a portable umbrella to give him shade! We looked at desert plants such as the cactus and how it stores huge amounts of water and discussed how Allah subHan Allah has created everything in the most perfect form to enable it to live.

We also looked at the camel and its specific features. This was also tied in with the verse from Surat Alghashiyah verse 17, (Afala yanthoroon ila alibil kaif khuliqat) and the great features Allah has endowed camels with (hump which stores fat, eyelashes which keep out sand, leathery knees etc).

This lesson also tied in with our beginning our nature study.  You can read about this here http://themuslimchild.blogspot.com/search/label/Nature. In the meantime, I found Tarek Ramadan’s book ‘In the Footsteps of the Prophet’ an excellent addition to extracting practical learning points from our lessons. I especially enjoyed this part about the Prophet’s life in the desert, I have summarized the part here:

For four years, Mohammed SAWS the orphan was looked after by Halimah and lived with the Banu Saad Bedouins in the Arabian Desert. He shared the nomads' life in the most barren and difficult natural environment, surrounded, as far as the eye could see, with horizons bringing to mind the fragility of the human being and inspiring contemplation and solitude.

 In the first years of the Prophet's life he developed a specific relationship with nature that remained constant throughout his mission. The universe is full of signs that remind us of the presence of the Creator, and the desert, more than anything else, opens the human mind to observation, meditation, and contemplation.

Thus, Allah decided to expose His Prophet, from his earliest childhood, to the natural lessons of creation as nature is the primary guide and the intimate companion of faith. Cut off from nature in our towns and cities, we nowadays seem to have forgotten the meaning of this message to such an extent that we dangerously believe that learning about the techniques and forms of religion (prayers, pilgrimages, etc.) is sufficient to grasp and understand their meaning and objectives. This drains religious teaching from its spiritual meanings. Contemplation and closeness to nature foster a relationship with the divine that is essential for true religious understanding.

Practical tips:

Try and take a trip to the desert with the intention of contemplating and observing Allah’s creation.

Spend as much time as possible outdoors in natural environments. This is especially important for young children who should be encouraged to play outside surrounded by nature as much as possible.

Let the kid’s go on a camel or donkey ride!

Prayer Lesson 4

Prayer Lesson 4: The Qiblah: Facing the Kaaba

This is a simple lesson about Prayer but it is very important because many kids don’t realize that their position in prayer is towards a certain direction. My daughter would start the prayer facing the qiblah and by the time we’re finished her head would be facing a completely different way.

One way to ensure that kids continue to face the Qiblah throughout prayer is using a small prayer mat. You can tell the child that this is the boundary and he or she should try and stay within that boundary throuout the prayer.

We did this lesson using TJ’s Prophet’s prayer described, lesson 1: Facing the Kaaba.

http://tjislamicstudies.blogspot.com/2010/10/salaah-lessons.html

When the Messenger of Allaah (sal-Allaahu 'alayhe wa sallam) stood for prayer, he would face the Ka'bah in both obligatory and voluntary prayers. (Prophet’s Prayer Described)

It was fun to draw the plan of the room and to draw arrows pointing to the direction of the Kaba. We also talked about compasses and how they help us know directions.

Prayer Lesson 3

Lesson 3: The Story of the Israa and Miraj

Having talked about the importance of prayer and why we pray in our last lesson, I felt it was important for the kids to understand how we were ordered to pray through a simple retelling of the story of the Israa and Miraj.

You can watch an excellent video about the story of the Israa and Miraj (and all the steps of the prayer!) from the Pray As You Have Seen Me Pray DVD film

by Islam Productions

http://www.islamicbulletin.com/services/all_ebooks_p3.aspx#link10 

I put together this simple story of the Israa and Miraj, and we began by reading through the booklet. You can download it here:

https://www.box.com/s/eb61f1420f4184dcc624

Knowing that the prayers were ordained from above the seven heavens helped stress its importance. The kids enjoyed learning about the Buraq and its also a good time to talk about the Masjid Al Aqsa and Palestine.

We decided to put together a story map of the Prophet’s journey. It helped us visualize the steps that the Prophet took and we finally completed a worksheet about the Israa and Miraj that you can find here.

https://www.box.com/s/b8c44a54425e8ab5de8c

We also found a great laptop on the Israa and Miraj if you are looking for extra and more advanced resources J

http://muslimlearninggarden.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/isra-miraj-lapbook/

Tafakur and Nature Study

There’s been a lot of talk about how children do not get enough outdoor time and how they are ‘nature starved.’ And it’s true, if we look at how much time kids spend in front of TVs, Ipads, computers and smart phones, it’s no doubt kids are not finding time to go outdoors. Yet we have been called upon in the Quran to contemplate and ponder over the natural world, the earth and the heavens, the sun and the moon. The Quran tells us to look at how the camels were created, how the mountains were formed, and the passage of the day and night. The Quran talks about bees, ants and other creatures.  The lesson here is that we can only truly know Allah and appreciate His greatness through exploring nature.

And this is why I have decided to start a weekly Tafakur Trip! In essence it’s an outdoor nature discovery and exploration trip.  I came across a great practical guide to exploring nature that’s full of tips and ideas.  So we’ll be packing that with us in our Tafakur Trips.
(http://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Connection-Workbook-Classrooms/dp/1603425314 )

 

So here’s what we’ll be taking along:

• Nature bag (this pink girly one was a great hit from accessorize)

• Pencil case and pencils, rubber etc
• water colours
• magnifying glass
• binoculars
• plain paper notebooks
• scissors

InshAllah as we go along I’ll post some of our nature pictures and notebook pages. Our niyyahs as we take these trips are:
1. To do Tafakur as Allah has ordered us in the Quran
2. To know Allah more and learn about His greatness
3. To spend our time as did our Prophet Mohamad SAWS did when he was a child
4. To learn to appreciate Allah’s creations
5. To develop a depth of character that will comes from contemplation and reflection

Seerah for Kids: Lesson 3

Lesson 3: The Prophet Mohammad SAWS’s birth and family

We began by reading the booklet ‘The Orphan Boy’ and learnt how the Prophet’s father Abdulla died before his birth. We learnt that it was his grandfather Abdul Mutalib who chose the name of Mohammad.

http://www.prosyst3ms.co.uk/downloads/seerah/unit1/orphan_boy_Seerah_bk3_a4.pdf

We used a family tree template to identify the Prophet’s father, mother and grandparents (although we could not find any authentic reports for the name of his maternal grandmother!)

 (http://www.obituarieshelp.org/downloads/three_generation_landscape_family_tree.pdf  )

Father: Abdullah
Mother: Aaminah
Paternal Grandfather: Abdul Mutalib (real name: Shaibah bin Hashim)
Paternal Grandmother: Fatimah Bint Amr
Maternal Grandfather: Wahab ibn Abd Manaf
Maternal Grandmother: Unknown

We also did a mini birth card for Prophet Mohammad SAWS using this template to learn the exact date the Prophet SAWS was born on.

https://www.box.com/s/bf0f80d3184c02689bce

Finally we completed the worksheet for the Orphan Boy.

InshAllah we’ll continue with a more detailed study of the Prophet Mohammad SAWSs family and life as we go along.