Ask our children:
1. What do Muslims do in Ramadhaan?
2. Why do Muslims fast in Ramadhaan?
3. How much of reward does Allah Ta‘ala give us for doing good actions in Ramadhaan?
Now tell them the story:
It was the last day of madrasah, before Ramadhaan. Moulana Ahmad called all the children and spoke to them about Ramadhaan. He said, “Children! Ramadhaan is a very special month. In Ramadhaan, if anyone does a nafl action, he gets the great reward of a fardh action, and if anyone does a fardh action, he gets the reward of doing seventy fardh actions! Mahmood, do you know what that means?”
Mahmood said, “Jee Moulana! When I read my Zuhr Salaah, I will get reward for reading seventy Zuhr Salaah!” Moulana was pleased with his answer and said, “Masha-Allah! I can see that you have been paying attention!” Then, Moulana continued, “In Ramadhaan, Muslims fast from sehri time until sunset, every day. While fasting, we cannot eat or drink anything. Also, in the night, after Esha Salaah, we perform another salaah. We try to complete reading the whole Quraan Majeed in this salaah during Ramadhaan. ‘Abdullah, what is the name of this salaah and how many rakaats does it have?”
‘Abdullah did not learn his work properly, so he got the answer wrong. He said, “Moulana, uhhmmmm… I think it’s called Tawaareeh Salaah, and it has like… fifty rakaats!” When ‘Abdullah said this, all the other students started laughing at him. Moulana Ahmad said to them, “Don’t laugh at him! A Muslim should not laugh at people and make them feel hurt. Anyway, the salaah is called Taraaweeh Salaah, and it has twenty rakaats.”
Next, Moulana Ahmad asked the students, “Are you ready for Ramadhaan?” Ebrahim replied, “Jee Moulana! I already bought my syrup to make tasty milkshake!” ‘Abdullah answered, “Jee Moulana! My mother finished making all the tasty savouries. She made moons, and jalapenos, and samoosas, and pies and spring rolls and lots of other yummy things to eat!” Mahmood said, “Jee Moulana! We already bought the khajoor to eat when we break our fast!”
When Moulana heard this, he said, “All that is fine, but it is not important. In Ramadhaan, the important thing is to stay away from all sins and wrong things, to make lots of ‘ibaadah, like reading the Quraan, and to be a good Muslim. This is why we fast – it teaches us to control ourselves so that we can be good. Are we ready to do this?” All the children said loudly, together, “Jee Moulana!”
Once Ramadhaan started, everything changed. ‘Abdullah, Ebrahim and Mahmood were now keeping full fasts, so they would wake up for sehri with their parents. Everyday, they would count the fasts together and see who, from all the friends, was keeping the most fasts. They would read Quraan together, and see who could read the most pages, and every night, ‘Abdullah, Ebrahim and Mahmood would go to the masjid for Taraaweeh Salaah. They would stand behind all the men and listen to the imaam reciting the Quraan Majeed in a most beautiful voice.
One night, ‘Abdullah, Ebrahim and Mahmood felt tired while reading Taraaweeh Salaah, so they quietly sneaked out of the masjid and went to the back. First, they drank some water in the wudhu khana, then they became bored.
‘Abdullah looked around and saw a cockroach walking outside. He quickly went out, picked it up and brought it inside. Then, because he was feeling naughty, he sneaked into the masjid and placed the cockroach behind one of the men in salaah. The cockroach ran between the man’s legs onto the musalla in front of him and gave him such a shock that he almost broke his salaah!
Next, Mahmood was also feeling naughty and wanted to make some mischief. So, he went to the shoe rack and started to switch everybody’s shoes around! He mixed all the pairs of shoes and even moved some shoes to the shoe rack on the other side of the masjid!
Finally, Ebrahim went to the masjid toilets. He went into each toilet, locked the door from the inside, and then climbed out from the window, so that all the doors were locked and nobody could use the toilets!
After Taraaweeh Salaah was over, everybody was confused! They couldn’t find their shoes, they couldn’t get into the toilets, and some people were complaining about the cockroach that had disturbed their salaah by running around on the musalla! The people wondered which naughty people had done these things, but ‘Abdullah, Ebrahim and Mahmood remained silent and did not admit that it was them.
But, what ‘Abdullah, Mahmood and Ebrahim did not know, was that one person had been out traveling, so he came late for salaah. When he came to the masjid, he saw all the naughty things that they had been doing. This person went and told Moulana Ahmad all about them.
The next day, Moulana Ahmad came to their houses and scolded them for being naughty. He told them, “By doing naughty things, you are spoiling your whole Ramadhaan! Ramadhaan is not only about fasting and reading the Quraan Majeed – Ramadhaan is the month to try your best to become pious and stop being naughty! You boys have been very naughty! I am going to tell your fathers that every day, you will have detention for one hour after madrasah. Now, you better make istighfaar and try to behave so that you do not waste the rest of Ramadhaan!”
Once again, ‘Abdullah, Ebrahim and Mahmood were in trouble! But they knew that when you do something naughty, then you must make extra effort to be good afterwards, so that you can make Allah Ta‘ala happy again. So, they all read extra Quraan, behaved extra well with everyone, were extra helpful at home and made sure that they did not spoil their fast or their Ramadhaan by misbehaving.
When Ramadhaan was over, Moulana Ahmad came to visit them again. He said, “Your parents have told me that you boys have been behaving extra well, you have all been reading Quraan every day and you have kept all your fasts! I am so happy to hear this, that I have brought presents for you!” Saying this, Moulana Ahmad gave them each a big slab of chocolate.
Lessons:
1. The month of Ramadhaan is a special month. In this month, Muslims fast in the day and read Taraaweeh Salaah at night.
2. Ramadhaan is the month to try and become pious by making sure that we do not do anything naughty. If we are doing any naughty things, like listening to music, or watching TV, then we must stop doing these things when Ramadhaan comes. After Ramadhaan as well, we must not do these naughty things anymore.
3. If we do something naughty, we must make istighfaar. Then, we must try to be extra good and make Allah Ta‘ala happy.
4. When we go to the masjid for salaah, we must make sure that we behave. We must not make a noise, play in the masjid or do naughty things and trouble people. The masjid is the house of Allah Ta‘ala, so we must respect it and be on our best behaviour.
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