Brother Salim at Online Islamic Store carries Miraculous Happenings book and CD and The Bowing of the Stars CD, and before too long will inshaAllah be carrying A Trust of Treasures book and the brand new A Mercy to the Worlds CD. He’s got a great site. Visit him at
http://www.onlineislamicstore.com/a5136.html Remember if you scroll down you can see page samples of both books and hear samples of all three CD’s. Great Eid gifts. Happy shopping!
The circle turns and the glorious days of Hajj return again, alhamdulillah, full of blessings for those fortunate enough to go on Hajj, and full of blessings for the rest of us staying at home too….these days magnify our good works, demonstrating yet again the magnanimity of Allah Mighty and Majestic.
A mother on a homeschooling list I belong to asked if anyone had a skit dealing with the story of Hajar, may Allah be pleased with her, and Zam Zam. That put me in mind of the very happy memories I have from being in the classroom these past years and doing activities with children to develop a love and yearning in them for the truths of their tradition.
A skit has its difficulties sometimes…it seems that children are not to be allowed to play the parts of the Prophets, or the Companions, which is always a little hard, because playing roles is how young children learn best. I pray that someday I might have the opportunity to talk in depth with a fiqh master about these subjects. Perhaps, since there is a big difference between a classroom or household of small children trying to grow and learn and a “theater company” of adults portraying roles for show rather than for play, there could be a different ruling…only a gingerly asking, since I am not a scholar of fiqh.
For the meantime there are always several ways to skin a cat, as the saying goes. One of those ways is replacing a skit with a group storytelling. (more…)
When you hear, you’ll see, inshaAllah!
Here’s the link for the brand-new Sunni Path Downloads site:
Click on “For Kids” (though we know it’s not just for kids!) for a full listing of what’s available now: the three CD’s–the brand-new not-yet-even-pressed-yet Mercy to the Worlds, Miraculous Happenings in the Year of the Elephant, and The Bowing of the Stars, along with three shorts—From Torture to Triumph, Two Prophets in the Endless Sea of Allah’s Knowledge, and Walnut Remedy.
Visit today! Hear the samples! Order the downloads!
To order the books: A Trust of Treasures and Miraculous Happenings in the Year of the Elephant book and CD from the Islamic Foundation Store:
A Trust of Treasures is available from Amazon in Japan!
Available now from the Islamic Foundation Markfield website, and soon from bookstores in the US and the UK, and before long, inshaAllah from my new site, Stories of Light.com
OTHER NEWS
The Grand Mufti of Jordan Sheikh Nuh Ali Salman has heard parts of A Mercy to the Worlds-the Coming of Muhammad, May Allah bless him and give him peace, that were translated into Arabic for him. He said, “This is beautiful. It will surely inspire love for Allah and His Messenger. The Arabs need it too…please make an Arabic version.” A preliminary translation was then made of the whole piece, and another mufti in his office both listened to the English recording and read the Arabic script and declared that it was sound, alhamdulillah.
We requested that the Grand Mufti make an official endorsement which can go on the CD cover. This will mean a lot, since one of the most remarkable qualities of Islam is authenticity. Every aspect of Islam has been painstakingly preserved and recorded, so instead of making up the traditions, as is necessary for the other religions since so much has been lost, there is meticulous scholarship and remarkable preservation of information. We received his page-long statement yesterday, and are very grateful for his generous assistance and support. This means that (more…)
May Ramadan visit you with blessings of felicity and certainty and increased determination to purify the heart and use every valuable minute in remembrance of Him Who Brought Us Into Being.
The ninth month of pregnancy can seem longer than all the other months of the pregnancy, and the last week can seem like longer than the whole pregnancy. These weeks have been feeling that way to me in my writing life. Three projects that have been gestating for years, two of them for over seven years, are finally on the verge of fruition. But alhamdilillah now that Ramadan is here, the palpable baraka of its mysterious days and nights suddenly makes the waiting a mere flutter of a gnat’s wing in the face of Allah’s Majesty and Magnificence. These Ramadan days and nights are surely made of different fabric from all the rest.
A Jordanian doctor managed to get into Gaza to work at a hospital there. This is what he said in an interview: He never heard a complaint. The bloodied Gazans were saying, “This is for Allah. We are doing this for Allah.” A woman looked at her son’s dead, washed body, and said “When he was born I prayed he would die a martyr, and now he has. Alhamdulilah.” He said a grace came over them, a patience, that allowed them to pull together and embrace what was happening to them.
This is the legacy of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and give him peace. This is the success he promised to those who are willing to acknowledge
they didn’t create themselves,
cannot maintain themselves,
cannot avoid their death, and
have been created to praise something larger than themselves.
Coming soon: A Mercy to the Worlds: The Coming of Muhammad, may Allah bless him and give him peace
Listen!
On Thursday night Nasreddin Hodja’s wife boiled wheat berries and rice with a pinch of salt in the soup kettle, a few handfuls of white beans in the little copper pot, and a few handfuls of chickpeas in the black pot. She had done this all her life on a Thursday of Muharram, first as a little child barely able to see into the kettle and later as a young woman trying it out for the first time alone, and finally now, as an almost-old woman grateful to still have the health and strength to run a kitchen.
Two hours later (more…)
I’ve always felt that it is fruitful to speak to very young children, even infants, about what I am doing for them, or what is happening around them, or what is coming next, throwing out the idea “they can’t understand.” And I have observed that children who are engaged in this way behave differently as a result of it.
And I have been told on several occasions that even very small children choose to listen to my stories again and again, even though I can’t imagine how they could possibly “understand” the story.
So I wasn’t entirely surprised to read this note from a friend, although it made me really happy and grateful, and I was glad she gave me permission to put it here.
I just wanted to share with you something I think is amazing
I’ve been playing the Miraculous Happenings CD for a few days straight and noticed that my daughter has actually memorized parts of the story, and she is only 18 months old!!
I was doubtful at first so I’ve kept playing it every day so I could pay attention. When the part comes where you say “and he drank long and greedily…” Nafeesah says “Ahhhhh!” before Abrahah does. Then when you mention he stuffs a handful of grapes in his mouth she makes smacking sound with her mouth. The part when the soldiers start whispering to each other, she starts doing the “whispering” sounds before they start on the recording. and I’ve noticed that before some dialogue is about to come up Nafeesah seems to be imitating the sound of the voice of the person who is about to speak, only in babble of course.
I can tell she has memorized parts of the story because her actions usually precede the sound effects/dialogue that she seems to be imitating rather than afterwards.
Fortunate little girl!
We know that a fundamental developmental factor in language acquisition is
listening.
A child is listening already in the womb. In fact, if a child is born deaf, he will very likely not go on to speak, even if there is no physiological problem with his voice, without sophisticated equipment and help.
The very first word of the Masnavi, the phenomenal work of Mevlana Jelalludin Rumi is
listen.
One of my favorite songs growing up was:
Listen, listen, listen
to my heart’s song.
Listen, listen, listen
to my heart’s song.
I will never forget you, I will never forsake you.
I will never forget you, I will never forsake you.
The poet Caroline Forche wrote,
We are listening, help us to understand.
Muhammad, may Allah bless him and give him peace, said,
“Be an ear.”
InshaAllah.
MEHDED MARYAM SINCLAIR
Nur al Qasas, The Light of the Spoken Word
When you hear, you’ll see
For anyone willing to increase their knowledge about the situation in Gaza, here’s a good place to go: http://masudblog.com/ particularly if you are an American citizen and puzzled by the recent US Congressional Resolution on Israel. And Allah knows best. The best way to keep the people of Gaza in your prayers is before dawn and in groups. And we must keep digging into our pockets.
MEHDED MARYAM SINCLAIR
Nur al Qasas, The Light of the Spoken Word
When you hear, you’ll see
The greedy and power-hungry vice-regent Abrahah
intends to divert the world’s pilgrims
from the Kaaba, the House of Allah, in Mecca,
to the cathedral his slaves have built for him.
But when the cathedral’s spires finally slice the brilliant Yemeni skies
and the magnificent doors are opened,
the throngs Abrahah has been boasting about do not arrive.
In a rage, he vows to destroy the Kaaba,
but Allah, the Causer of all causes, has other plans.
True happenings, stranger by far than fiction, demonstrate that if He says, “Be!” it is,
it surely is.
This telling of the events behind the Chapter of the Elephant of the Glorious Qur’an was chosen for Second Prize in the Islamic Foundation’s 2005 Writing for Children competition. The audio Cd was produced in Amman in 2006 and the illustrated book was published by the Foundation in 2007.
THE CD Audio sample:
Miraculous Happenings in the Year of the Elephant CD
A review from one of our readers:
“MashaAllah! My children still listen to your retelling of the Year of the Elephant and love it!” Roxanne Umm Sahla, (KUWAIT)
Reviews from Amazon.com:
“My husband and I purchased the audio recording of this story when our daughter was about 15 months old and I played it almost every day for a few weeks. It was the first recorded story that I ever played just for her and I wasn’t sure how she would react. She LOVED it! Even though she was too young to understand the content of the story, she would obviously be paying close attention to the sound effects and the voice of the storyteller. She would bounce up and and down to the beat of the drums, and repeat “Allah!” whenever she heard it being said in the story. Playing the story would almost immediately quiet her if she was feeling cranky and put a big smile on her face especially as she “danced” to the drumbeats. Now, as a 20-something-year-old adult, I have to say that I was a bit surprised by how much *I* really enjoyed the story! I am not ashamed to admit that I actually cried during my first listening of the story because of Mehded’s vivid descriptions and storytelling style. A few of the more dramatic points in the story got me quite emotional! I read the book after listening to the story many times and was mildly disappointed by the illustrations because I had already developed very detailed images in my mind of the whole story.” Umm Hamza (UAE)
“Even very young children love the language and walk around repeating parts of it as they listen…the best language instruction you could ever give a toddler.” Abu Yusuf, (AMMAN)
THE ILLUSTRATED BOOK:
Miraculous Happenings in the Year of the Elephant, published by The Islamic Foundation, 2007
Reviews from Amazon.com:
“great for allowing young readers to review and retell the story in their own voice… a fine example of a beautiful Islamic story in very descriptive and well-written English–definitely a must-have book for one’s growing children’s library. Additional positive aspects of the book and recording include the fact that they teach the reader/listener about the history tied to a chapter of the Qur’an and about reliance on God when facing any difficulty. PLUS the story is very well researched and has been checked by reliable scholars. Overall, Miraculous Happenings in the Year of the Elephant–both the book and recording–are great tools for developing your and your child(ren)’s love for reading stories and storytelling, while learning about Islam and developing love for God and the Prophet Muhammad at the same time.” Umm Hamza, (UAE)
“a beautiful hard-cover book, one your children will want to read again and again with or without the CD, improving their grasp of well-written English along the way.” Abu Yusuf, (AMMAN)
You can order the book from Amazon.com or .UK
You can order the book and the CD from The Islamic Foundation, www.islamic-foundation.org.uk
MEHDED MARYAM SINCLAIR
Nur al Qasas, The Light of the Spoken Word
When you hear, you’ll see
