Our special thanks to Sh. Reza Hemyari who is a teacher to all of us as he embarks on his next journey.

I was amazed by the comments that I received from the students and would like to share them here for all the parents.

It is one thing to give a lecture but to explain the teachings of the Quran through play and practical means is something I wish we can learn more from him.

Today we talked about Surah Yasin: 37-40; signs of God in the heavens. Specifically, we talked about change of night to day (the image the Qur’an uses is the daylight is stripped off, like paint, from the sky, revealing the darkness), the phases of the moon, and how the sun and the moon each follow their own orbits.
Each of these are significant because: 1) when we reflect on them, they show God’s power and wisdom, in how He designs the world in this beautiful and intricate way (we see the moon and the sun move in such beautiful synchrony, almost like ships moving in sync, as they run or sail along their orbits); 2) these are important verses for our own worship, during the day (the daily salat), the month (when the months of Ramadan or Hajj start, for example), and the year (our ages, bulugh, and of course tax time!). These two dimensions are of course connected: we are part of God’s creation, and must constantly align/re-align ourselves with it.

We watched a short documentary that talked about how Muslims had developed the field of astronomy, along with over scientific disciplines like mathematics and navigation over 1000 years ago, and continued to develop it over centuries. This is an important part of our collective heritage as Muslims, and we should be aware of these advances, and pursue the sciences to stand in wonder of God’s signs.

This week, we discussed up to Surah Yasin: verse 29, and how God dealt with both the righteous witness who calls his people to the prophets’ message in the next world, and how he deals with the people who reject that message in this world.

Insha’Allah next time we will discuss the earthly signs of God in verses 31-36.

Thank you to those who sent their summaries. Yes, we talked about Surat Yasin 18-19. Also about how Quran explains this idea of omens/chance.

Reminder: everyone should look up other verses that seem to refer to omens:
اطير
تطير
يطير
With a shaddah on the ط and ياء

Insha’Allah for this Friday, the students should each identify one oath each from Qur’anic surah, other than Yasin, and divided it into its different parts (the oath itself, and what is being sworn about). (Hint: the last juz’ of the Qur’an is full of oaths, starting with واو).
Also, they should make sure to bring their English translation of the Qur’an.

Per our talk last Thursday, I am sharing two qaraats from Muhammad Siddiq Minshawi, the reciter we will follow in our classes this year.

The first one is from the chapters Ad-Duhaa and Ash-Sharh. You will listen to this audio and copy and present it to Brother Kazim for the coming two weeks that I will be on vacation. You may record and share it on our WhatsApp channel, too. Please present chapter Ad-Duhaa by August 31 and chapter Ash-Sharh by September 7.

The second one is from chapters Qaf and Ar-Rahman. This audio will be our base qaraat to first practice and copy and then use as a pattern to recite any part of the Holy Quran. In sha Allah we will discuss this qaraat in detail when I am back. Meanwhile, you can listen to the audio as much as you can on a daily basis to completely memorize the melody of the qaraat.