Kids at Taraweeh

Are young children allowed inside the masjid you attend for Taraweeh prayer?

I have been along to Taraweeh with my husband twice so far this Ramadan to one of the popular masjids in Riyadh – it’s the King Khalid masjid where Sheikh Khaalid Al-Jaleel now leads the prayer.

I left my older children at home since I am lucky enough to have a responsible teen and another who is almost a teen but I couldn’t leave the newest addition (8 weeks old) at home since she is breastfed.  I discovered at the first Taraweeh of this Ramadan that children are not allowed inside so I stayed in the courtyard of the masjid and prayed there and when baby wanted to be held or fed I just sat and quietly listened. I had the baby in the carseat so she was comfortable and so I could join in some of the prayer. I think she was mesmerised by the Qur’an as she was very settled! She’s probably used to the sheikh’s qira’ (recitation) as I have playing some of his Qur’an cd’s in the kitchen while I cook!

I have been to the same masjid before for other daily prayers and there was no problem taking children in but since this is Taraweeh prayer and the masjid gets very full and too many people take along small, unruly children, there is this rule for the month of Ramadan. Understandable really when you see the unruliness of the children – running around, throwing dirt, kicking and throwing water bottles and leaving the litter for others to pick up and so forth. It makes me wonder why people take such small children along to such a long prayer. The children will inevitably become bored and won’t be able to keep still – their antics only serve to distract their mothers and others from their prayer.

My princess

She’s here! The newest little princess of the family masha’Allah Tabaarak Allah, Ahsanu Khaliqeen (Glory to Allah, the Best of Creators)! Now Ibrahim has five sisters to contend with!

It is wonderful to be breastfeeding again – I weaned my other daughter about 4 or 5 months into pregnancy as my milk dried up and it was about time she weaned anyway (she was nearly 2 1/2) but now bubs and I can look forward to at least two years of breastfeeding insha’Allah. Truly a beautiful blessing and mother-child bond from Allah.

Cooking for kids

Making gingerbread men, well actually gingerbread stars, flowers and hearts kept two of the girls occupied for a good couple of hours today and was an opportunity for them to show of their decorational skills.

DD2 (10 y/o) made the dough but resorted to using her hands in the end as it was very stiff dough…

We don’t have any gingerbread man cutters so she proceeded to cut out other shapes instead…

And into the oven they went…

She then enrolled the help of dd3 (7y/o) for the icing stage. They made lemon icing and plain icing with no colouring or pink colouring. I was quite impressed with their method of adding the food colouring; instead of just pouring it in they dipped a kebab stick into the bottle and swirled the stick around in the icing mix. I was expecting to find vibrantly coloured cookies which would have been rather off-putting! They then raided the larder and found chocolate chips and glace cherries to further embellish their cookies… Oh and a sprinkling of icing sugar for that finishing touch…

I was very impressed; I didn’t help at all. They even cleaned up their mess thoroughly which is unusual!

The cookies smelled wonderful but I had to restrain myself and wait as I was fasting today. What torture, having the smell of freshly baked cookies and not being able to taste them!

Ramadan Crafting

A huge thank you to SeekingTaqwa for being my muse and never failing to inspire me whether in the kitchen or with craft activities! I really need to find a way of learning how to crochet though…

Today I finally made the time to sit down with the children and do some messy Ramadan crafting – we made cards and the Ramadan calendar which can be seen on her blog.

Here is our effort:

 

It is huge and is taking up pride of place on the first wall you see as you enter the lounge – really brightens up the place and all that gold glitter gives a special, Ramadany touch.

We are all feeling happy with our effort but now, off to vaccuum!

Back to school fever

It’s that time of year again – almost time to go back to school for the new academic year and more to buy than usual. Usually there are school shoes and trainers to bought as well as bags and stationery and maybe the odd pair of trousers or a new sweater here and there.

This year though the school has introduced a new school uniform only available at one retailer and e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e. Apparently the redeeming factor is that all items are embroidered with the school logo. Wow.

So I went along with the children this morning and parted with too much cash for the necessary items of uniform but I know that the real pain is to come. Trying to purchase shoes and trainers to satisfy the requirements of 3 girls – no mean feat I can tell you!

On the subject of going back to school for the new academic year – I consider myself one of the lucky ones! My children go back to school this coming Monday but I have heard that the Saudi schools and a lot of the other Arabic and Islamic schools won’t start again until after Eid. Now that is a long summer holiday if you take into consideration that many of the schools will have finished right after their exams way back in May. Summer holidays for these schools this year is around 4 1/2 months which is a long time to keep kids occupied when they can’t go outside in the main part of the day due to the sheer heat and strength of the sun.

Once the children do go back to school, they can expect another holiday around a month later for Eid Al-Adha!

So, I’m relieved that my children will be going to school throughout most of Ramadan; it will free up the day for me for cooking and ‘ibaadah and in our experience it will make the fasting easier for any fasting children… lessons and activities keep them busy and help the day go by faster and keep their minds off eating.

Solitude

A big thing that motherhood and having five children around me has taught me is to value ‘me time’; to relish solitude since it is something I get so rarely. It seems such a beautiful luxury when there is no sound at all in the house, when the older children are at school and the younger ones sleeping or if it is late in the evening and everyone sleeping.

Remember how the messenger of Allah ( صلى الله عليه و سلم ) used to retire to the cave of hira for a time of solitude and reflection:

A’isha, the wife of the Apostle of Allah ( صلى الله عليه و سلم ), reported: The first (form) with which was started the revelation to the Messenger of Allah was the true vision in sleep. And he did not see any vision but it came like the bright gleam of dawn. Thenceforth solitude became dear to him and he used to seclude himself in the cave of Hira’ [...] (Bukhari, Book 001, Number 0301)

Ibn Taymiyyah, Allah yarhamahu, once said:

“What can my enemies do to me? My Paradise is in my heart. Wherever I go it is with me. My murder is martyrdom. My Imprisonment is solitude with
Allah. And my exile is tourism.”

and:

“At times, it is necessary for the worshipper to be isolated from others in order to pray, remember Allah, recite the Qur’an and evaluate himself and his deeds. Also isolation allows one to supplicate, seek forgiveness, stay away from evil and so on.”

Do you enjoy your own company? Do you take advantage of your moments of solitude?

Time to reflect…

5 minute meals

Pasta: so quick, easy and versatile.

My three girls all wanted different ‘sauces’ with their pasta today but it was very quick and easy. Here are three simple things to do with pasta.

• Boil pasta in salted water.
• Meanwhile to make a tomato sauce, quickly fry 1 grated clove of garlic in a small pan, add half a can of chopped tomatoes, a sprinkle of sea salt, and some dried herbs. I used a little crushed bayleaf, Pasta seasoning and dried crushed basil.
• Chop up 50g mortadella into tiny cubes.
• Grate 50g cheddar cheese.

Version #1 was pasta mixed into the tomato sauce with some cubes of mortadella added and then cheese sprinkled over the top.

Version #2 was pasta mixed into the tomato sauce with a little grated cheese sprinkled over.

Version #3 was pasta with a cheese triangle melted and a splash of water to help the cheese melt, the remaining cubes of mortadella stirred through and a generous helping of grated cheese over the top.

Later when my son woke up hungry, version #4 was pasta with a small knob of margarine, cubed mortadella – reheated in the microwave and then grated cheese sprinkled over – that was a 2 minute meal!

What could be simpler?!

What can you do in 5 minutes?

A few random things that only take 5 minutes. What other suggestions do you have?

• Pray 2 rak’at nafl at any time of the day or night
• Read a page or two from the Qur’an in Arabic or your mother tongue
• Take 5 minutes out from a hectic day putting your feet up and enjoying a cup of tea
• Something that worked for me this week: the bedroom dd10 and dd7 share was m-e-s-s-y and they made no headway on the tidying, I was only hearing whinging. Soooo, I set the timer for 5 minutes and told them to tidy intensively for just 5 minutes and see how much they could do. The bedroom was almost tidy by the time the alarm sounded. 5 minutes well used.
• Make some silent dhikr
• Cyclone clean one room; pick up any things on the floor, quickly dust surfaces, spray some air freshener, plump up the cushions.
• Email a friend you haven’t been in contact with for a while
• Read a short story to your child
• Recite As-Salat An Nabi: A person who calls for blessings on me once, Allah sends down mercies on him ten times, ten of his sins will be remitted and he is raised ten degrees.

We often complain that we don’t have enough time in the day but there are so many things that require a mere 5 minutes.

Things to do in Riyadh # 1

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

With Riyadh temperatures soaring to 50 degrees celcius and more in the summer months, families have to find indoor activities and you will find that the vast majority of Riyadh’s numerous shopping malls will have children’s play areas incorporated. The one pictured below is at the fairly new Hayat Mall in Riyadh and has a good variety of games for children of all ages – merry-go-rounds, trampolines and trains for the littlies, a decent roller coaster and ice rink for the older children among other things. It all makes for a welcome afternoon out together. Better to go in the afternoon and leave by isha prayer as isha is when the malls and play areas become particularly busy.

My 12, 10, 7 and 4 year olds all enjoyed having a go at the sand art where you choose a picture and piece by piece peel off the backing paper to reveal a sticky section on which to apply different coloured sands.

The food court and prayer rooms are not far off as usual so it is easy and convenient to pause to pray maghrib and to take a break for food. An array of different fast food choices including the ever present McD’s, Chinese, Lebanese, Pizza and a very nice new Spanish food outlet selling filled baguettes. Our choice was chicken and Brie…. yummy all round!

And of course, the children always like to finish off the outing with an icecream so yay for Baskin’ Robbins! Of course there are also the doughnut vendors such as House of Donut and the newly opened Krispy Kreme as well as cafes for the grown ups to sip on a Latte – noone is left out.

Tagged: Six Word Memoir

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Thanks for the tag American Muslima Writer! It was a hard one!

The Rules:
1. Write your own six word memoir
2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post
4. Tag six more blogs with links
5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

Perpetually Run Ragged By Crazy Kids!

I tag:

Al Ajnabiya

Amina

Ammena

Sonya

Umm Hibaat

Ummihabibati (aka Rainbow in the Grey Sky)