Seerah for Kids: Lesson 6. The Prophet's First Jobs!

So today we will learn about Prophet Mohamed's first jobs. The prophet took his first job when he was only 10!

Think about what you can do to help your family, even if it is simple chores!

THE PROPHET HERDS SHEEP

Prophet Mohammad SAWS was now ten years old.

During this time, he told his uncle, Abu Talib, whose custody he was under, that he wanted to herd his sheep. This was because Prophet Mohamad saw that Abu Talib was struggling to make enough money to feed them all and he really wanted to help. At first, his uncle, who loved him wholeheartedly, did not consent. However, he eventually accepted due to Prophet’s (PBUH) persistence. 

Our Holy Prophet (PBUH) began to take the sheep and goats to the valleys and hills where they would graze during the morning.

In this way, he was able to help his uncle, even if it was in a very small way, to save money since it was no longer necessary to hire a shepherd.

The Prophet SAWS was now working very hard, taking the sheep out to the countryside. Being a shepherd and spending time in the countryside helped the prophet spend time in nature and get a chance to deeply contemplate on the existence of the ground and skies.
In the fields, he would watch the fields and think of Allah's creation. At the same time, being busy with work kept him away from all the bad things that were happening in the city of Makkah.

Later on the prophet SAWS would tell the sahabah that “There is no prophet who has not herded sheep.” 

One day, the Prophet SAWS told his companions

“Prophet Moses (AS) was sent as a prophet; he herded sheep. Prophet David (AS) was sent as a prophet; he herded sheep. I too was sent as a prophet and would herd my family’s sheep in Jiyad (a place that is at the bottom part of Mecca).” 

Why do you think that Prophet Mohamad SAWS and all the other prophets were responsible for herding sheep?
One of the reasons is that being out in the open countryside teaches people to think deeply and do tafakur, which is to think about Allah's creation and to try and understand the greatness of Allah.


Some activities that you could do after this lesson:

1. Watch this video about sheep! Why not learn some fun facts about them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK3KsFd2YnQ

2. Print out some sheep facts for your book and learn about them!

https://www.pinterest.com/cassie_osborne/farm-theme-activities-for-kids/

3. Learn about Tafakur.
I will post some ideas about how to start kids on tafakur but for now why not take one of Allah's creation and really think about it deeply!

4. Do some chores to help your family!
Look at how the Prophet SAWS was trying to be helpful to his uncle and family. Think of how you can help at home. What kind of chores can you contribute with.

Why don't you print out this chore chart and set yourself some tasks at home!
http://templatelab.com/chore-charts/#Chore_Chart_Templates 

Seerah for Kids: Lesson 5. The Orphan's Childhood

Prophet Muhammad's Early Childhood.

Before You Read:
-Think about how many losses Prophet Muhammad had to face?

-Who was the Prophet's Grandfather and Uncle?

Muhammad (pbuh) returned to live with his mother in Mecca when he was about three years old. Three years later Aminah decided to take her son to visit his uncles in Yathrib. She told her maid, Barakah, to prepare everything they would need for the long journey, and then they joined one of the caravans going there. 

They stayed in Yathrib a month and Muhammad (pbuh) enjoyed the visit with his cousins. The climate there was very pleasant and he learned to swim and to fly a kite. On their way back to Mecca, however, Aminah became ill and died. She was buried in the village at al-Abwa not far from Yathrib.

Muhammad SAWS with his grandfather Abdul Mutalib

Muhammad (SAWS) returned sadly to Mecca with his mother's maid. He was now six years old and had lost both his father and mother. He was then adopted by his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, who loved him dearly and kept him by his side at all times. 

It was the custom of 'Abd al-Muttalib to sit on a blanket near the Kabah. There he was always surrounded by people who had come to speak to him. No one was allowed to sit on the blanket with him, however, except his grandson Muhammad (SAWS), which shows how close they were to each other. Many times 'Abd al-Muttalib was heard to say: 'This boy will be very important one day.' Two years later 'Abd al-Muttalib became ill and Muhammad (SAWS) stayed by him constantly. 'Abd al-Muttalib told his son, Abu Talib, to adopt Muhammad (SAWS) after his death, which he did. Abu Talib had many children of his own, but Muhammad (SAWS) immediately became part of his family and the favourite child.

This excerpt was taken from 

https://d1.islamhouse.com/data/en/ih_books/single/en_the_life_of_the_prophet_muhammad.pdf

Some facts about Abdul Mutalib

He was originally named named Shaybah by his mother Salma. 

He inherited the job of feeding and watering the pilgrims after the death of his nephew. It was he who had dug up Zamzam after a dream that he had.

 Abdulmuttalib understood at last that he was appointed to find and unearth the Zamzam’s location. He immediately began to explore. He went to the place he learnt of in his dream. He started to dig and there sprouted out the water of Zamzam!

Living with Abu Talib

Abu Talib was a very gentle person; yet he was quite poor. He did not have any possessions other than his few camels. Abu Talib had a big family but despite this he was very kind and generous to Prophet Mohamed.

Abu Talib would never separate his nephew Muhammad (SAWS) from his side, and would take him wherever he went, would have him sit next to him, and would talk to him as a friend.

They would not sit at the dinner table without him. When the table was set and when our the Prophet (SAWS) was not seen, Abu Talib would say, “Where is Muhammad? Call him to the table”. Everyone would be full when Prophet (SAWS) was sat and eating with them at the table but when the Prophet (SAWS) was not present, the food would quickly finish before anyone got full. 

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!

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.

Seerah for Kids: Lesson 2

Lesson 2:  The need for a Prophet and the Year of the Elephant

In this lesson, we covered these two aspects.

S.EC.00.02: list reasons the world was in need of another prophet
from Allah.

S.EC.00.03:  retell some of the significant events that
accompanied His  birth.


We began by discussing that the world needed another Prophet to get rid of the Shirk and teach the people Tawheed, as well as to rid them of the bad things and teach them good manners.

We then went on to read the booklet ‘The Year of the Elephant’ and understand that this was the year that the Prophet SAWS was born in.

http://www.prosyst3ms.co.uk/downloads/seerah/unit1/year_of_elephant_Seerah_bk2_a4.pdf

We also read another version of the story of the elephant from The Life of Mohammad in twenty stories (Abdul Tawwab Yusuf), and it was very interesting for the girls to hear it as if the elephant was speaking.