Sisters, teach your daughters and your sons Soorah Al Fatiah before someone else does… they will use this soorah in every prayer 17 times a day, 119 times a week, 476 times a month and 5712 times a year…. and you will be rewarded for it, inshaAllah each and every time. This is one way to tip the scales on the day of judgment in your favour!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMUPRoOK618 (first part)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsAIyelUHFo (second part)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrB6X5H_IUg (third part)
Filed under jummah, qu'ran, surah Kahf, Uncategorized
Salaam alaikum sisters, and before I go on, let me apologize for the long hiatus. I have been around, but have been soo busy with my own appointments and appointments for my daughter, driving my son across the city every day for private school alhamdulillah, and getting ready for the new baby that I havent had time to just sit and write subhanAllah. Anyway, a wonderful sister I know, Tahera, who teaches a few of us Qu’ran, sent a link with an article by Mamoon Yusaf about five ways of which to improve your fluency when reciting Qu’ran. It is not too heavy of an article, but I will sum it up here for here for you…
1) Follow the first advice given to the Prophet Muhammad 
(peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him) “Recite!”. Recite as much as you can, as frequently as you can. Nothing can replace this discipline. The more you do it, the better you get at it. Before you know it, you’ll be reading an unfamiliar page in the same amount of time it used to take you to read a couple of lines.
2) You need to link the habit of reciting the Quran in Arabic with something you already do every single day without fail.
An excellent way to go about it is to link it with one (or more) of your 5 daily prayers. That way, you’re already in a state of wudhu, so one of the main psychological barriers is out of the way.
Now make the commitment to recite a small amount of Quran every single day for the next 30 days after the selected prayer.
3) Here is a trick that will double or triple your effectiveness and speed at reading the Quran. Let’s say you’ve decided to recite 2 pages of the Quran after Isha every night and 2 pages before you leave for work in the morning.
Instead of reciting the first 2 pages on day one morning and the next 2 pages on day one night, try this out. On day one morning, recite page 1, then recite page one again. Then on day one evening, recite page 1 again, and again.
“But then I’ll only have done one page?!” I hear you exclaiming. That’s true, but you’ll have done that page four times, and what’s more important, is that by the 4th recitation, you will read it about 3 or 4 times quicker that on your first attempt. Aim for reading the page 5 times each day.
The next day, you can move on to page 2, and so on. At the end of the week, you might like to do one marathon session of going through all 7 pages you covered that week.
You may even want to do this with a Tajweed teacher, who’ll correct your recitation. You’ll notice that you can still recite page 1 about 2 or 3 times faster and more fluently than on your 1st attempt.
600 days later you will have completed the Quran 6 times.
If you recite the page 5 times each day, and once at the end of the week, it’s the equivalent of completing the Quran once every 100 days – just over 3 months. That’s like reading the Quran 4 times a year – but who’s keeping count? 😉
4) The key to the whole process of understanding the Quran is to learn Quranic vocabulary lists. If you learn around 300 words, that accounts for about 70% of the entire Quran.
5) Finally,
If you are still struggling, the iPod technique will propel you forward. Get an online recitation from a famous reciter, whose voice you love. Listen to the recitation, one page at a time, as you read along the script with your finger.
Even if the reciter goes way too fast for you to start with, just finger along the page. Then, rewind back to where the page started, and do it again, and again. Because the reciter goes much faster than you, you can go over the same page several times in one sitting. Eventually, you will be able to follow with your eyes, and then your lips and tongue.
Read more: http://productivemuslim.com/improve-quran-recitation/#ixzz27o82SSEr
Filed under qu'ran, Quran curriculum, tablet/ipad, tajweed
Alhamdulillah I now attend a sisters Quran class with Sadaf, a wonderful sister mashaAllah whos’ daughters go to private school with my son. There are around 9-11 sisters who gather and a Syrian sister, Raina, teaches us tajweed, (barakallah fikum). It is wonderful to get together and not worry about my son and daughter (he is in school at this time and my daughter stayed with my mother alhamdulillah). It is a nice break from the monotony of pre-health science classes! We are working on Fatiah, Asr, Kawthar, and Masad. We are learning in arabic with english tafseer. Allah bless the sisters and their families involved in making this possible.
“O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed upon those before you in order that you may attain taqwaa [in general, it means ‘God consciousness,’ ‘God awareness,’ ‘fear of God,’ and so on].” [Soorah al-Baqarah (2):183]
Ask your son or daughter, what can we do during this month to attain taqwaa? We will fast insha’Allah, recite Quran, memorize Quran, give in charity, increase our salah, pray taraweeh… etc.
Then tell them the beauty of what Allah subhana wa t’ala says, “.. and when my servants ask you [oh Muhammad] concerning me, tell them I am near. I will respond to the supplicant when he calls upon me. So let them respond to me [by obedience] and believe in me so that they may be [rightly] guided. [Soorah al-Baqarah (2):186]
Following this is a good time to teach them some dua’a they use in supplications. If they are older, take them to taraweeh with you (or have your husband take them insha’Allah). If your first language with your children is not arabic, make sure to go over the Quran that was recited in taraweeh so they can understand what was said. It is good mashaAllah to get through the whole Quran in a month, but there is more reward if you know the meaning behind it inshaAllah.
92 Most Frquently Used Words in the Quran and their Meaning InshaAllah
Incha’Allah you find this beneficial. Allah subhana wa t’ala reward those who helped to compile the list. Click above for the download…
Filed under arabic, english, islamic studies, qu'ran, Quran curriculum
Yemeni honey, as well as others around the world, though especially sidr honey from Hadramout, Yemen, is known for its medicinal benefits. Rasoolullah Muhammad saaw used to use honey as medicine and encouraged us to as well as mentioned in Bukhari,
‘Honey is a remedy for every illness and the Qur’an is a remedy for all illness of the mind, therefore I recommend to you both remedies, the Qur’an and honey.’ (Bukhari)
One should drink honey even when he/she is healthy, as this is a Sunnah of Rasoolullah Muhammad (peace be upon him). It is confirmed by the following hadeeth:
“Anas (RA), reported: I served drink to Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) in this cup of mine: Honey, Nabidh, Water and Milk” [Bukhari & Muslim]
– – – – – – – – – – – –
-Honey is one of the four canals the true believers will drink from when they enter in Jannah, by the will of Allah. The first canal is water, the second milk, the third honey, and the fourth being non intoxicating wine, which is haraam in dunya but will be given to the believer in Jannah, inshaAllah.
-Honey has been used as a vital medicine for centuries.
-Honey can be used without any side effects for any kind of diseases. if taken in the right dosage as medicine.
“There is no disease that Allah has created except that He also has created its treatment.” [Bukhari]
[Arabic]: “Bab ma anzala Allah da’ illa anzala lahu shifa.”
Here is a link I will leave you with with different honey recipes for the different diseases and ailments inshaAllah. Allah give you the shifah, ameen.
Filed under affliction, hadith, qu'ran
Asalaamu aalikum
Alhamdulillah my son has memorized soorah an-nas. One more soorah down and one more to go, or a few actually. I was hoping inshaAllah that the quran memorization would go quicker but due to his temporary hearing loss which has recently been taken care of alhamdulillah, it has been going slower than anticipated. Alhamdulillah he is more able to concentrate on the ones he does know and get them down well.
Asalaamu alaikum rhamatullah wa barakatu,
I have been making a point lately to try and read more Qu’ran whenever possible insha’Allah. We should always make sure to know the reasoning behind the soorah insha’Allah. We can go on all night in arabic transliteration but if we do not know what we are reading, it makes no difference on our hearts and does not have an effect on our lives subhana’Allah. For those of you who do not speak arabic as a first fluent language, here is a nice site with Ibn Kathir tafseer on the Qu’ran. Insha’Allah you find it as thoughtful and useful as I have.
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
“Read. In the name of your Lord and Cherisher who created mankind out of a clot of congealed blood, read.
And your Lord is Most Bountiful. He who taught the use of the pen, taught man that which he did not know.
Know that man does transgress all bounds that he looks upon himself as self sufficent.
Verily to your Lord, is the return of all.“
Surah Al’Alaq verse 1/8
“Those who believe and those whos hearts find comfort in the rememberance of Allah. Indeed it is with the rememberance of Allah that hearts are comforted.“
Surah Raad 13:28
Alhamdulillah my son has memorized al-fatiha so now on to a new one. I make sure to go over the others he knows everyday so he doesn’t forget them insha’Allah. I think we will work on another short one next inshaAllah…an-Nas, then al-falaq and al-ikhlas inshaAllah is going to be next insha’Allah.
An Honoured Muslim Woman 
