OUR STORY

YEAR 6 2014 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
P2i (PATHWAY TO INDEPENDENCE)

By: Zahin Adib 6AMI

This is my Religious Education P2i (Pathway to independence) project.

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Self assessment:
Through this project I learn to find out information about Islam
then present and write about it in an interesting way such as through video.
I also learn to share my experience being a Muslim with others through blog
that can reach a wider audience.
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Being a Muslim, I'm interested to investigate the life of people who follow Islam and I'm going to tell you my own story.

Your identity is what makes you you. It's how you see yourself and how others see you. It's made up of basic stuff like your name, age, appearance, as well as deeper stuff such as your belief and attitudes.

MY UNDERSTANDING OF BEING A MUSLIM

There are many influences that being a Muslim gives me:

I believe there is one God
and I pray to him;

honesty, I'm telling the truth
and I don’t cheat;

patience, when I fast
I wait until sunset,

and control, when fasting
I stop myself from eating.

ISLAM

The word Islam means “obedience to God” or submission. Being obedient to Allah is vital for a Muslim. There are certain day-to-day rules that Allah expects you to follow if you want to show that you're being obedient. The key to getting to Paradise for a Muslim is obedience.

Muslims believe in one God called Allah, He created everything and He should have the highest authority and should be obeyed at all times. Muslim believe that Allah never born and will never die.

Their goal is to please Him and, after death, be rewarded in Paradise. Muslims believe that we will pay for any disobedience on Judgement Day, when Allah will judge us on the basis of our actions.

Muslim learn about Allah in the Qur’an, which are His words written down through Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

The moon and stars are closely connected to Islam in a number of ways. The moon marks the beginning and ending of the holy month of Ramadan. It is also the sighting of the moon that helps Muslims to decide when the Hajj (pilgrimage to Makkah) should begin each year.

OUR BELOVED LEADER: PROPHET MUHAMMAD

Muhammad (pbuh) was born as an orphan in the year 570 in Makkah. He was brought up by his grandfather then his uncle, who was a trader. He became known for being honest when he helped his uncle. People called him ‘Al Amin’ which means ‘the trustworthy’. He became a prophet at the age of 40, in the year 610, when the Qur’an was revealed to him by the Angel Jibril or Gabriel. Since then, he started preaching in secret for some years. The Qur’an was revealed part by part over the years.

QURAN

Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the direct word of Allah revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

The Qur’an teaches them how to worship, how to treat other people and how to live good lives.

Some Muslim children have a ceremony called bismillah at the age of four years old.

Bismillah means “In the name of Allah”, which are the first words from the Qur’an. These words are at the beginning of every surah; “In the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most kind”.

My brother and I didn't have a bismillah ceremony, but we still learnt how to say it at the age of four years old.

Now, we are learning the longer surahs.

THE FIVE PILLARS

A pillar is something that supports a building. The five pillars support Islam. They tell Muslims what to do and how to keep their religion properly.

Regardless of wherever the Muslims are, the pillars will never change. These are the five pillars:

1. Shahada (faith) is the declaration of belief in Allah as in the only God. In English it says "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger "

2. Solat (prayer) is the ritual prayer that Muslims must do. There are five daily prayers that have to be done.

The example of my daily diary around the prayer times.

From a young age we are taught how to pray

Muslims stop what they are doing and face the Ka'bah to pray. They need a clean place to pray, but it doesn't necessarily need to be done in a Mosque.

Whatever the time for praying, we will try to find a clean and quiet place.
This picture is in a shopping outlet. We were on the way home from somewhere and couldn't reach home in time to pray.

These people are praying on a rock in the forest

This man is praying next to the sea

These soldiers are praying in a jungle

This man is praying in the desert

These cricket players are praying during their training

This man is praying on a rock next to the sea as he couldn't find a flat surface

These people are praying Jum'ah

These people are praying even in a dangerous situation

Before praying, you need to make wudu', the way of cleaning yourself.

At home, I do the azan, Call of Worship. I learnt how to do the azan when I was about seven years old. When I do the azan, my family knows that it’s time to pray.

My brother and I try to pray at school. We'd use an empty room during break. We face the Ka'bah in Makkah which is in the direction of south-east (from England).

Direction of praying

My brother and I pray after we come back from school.
My brother is the Imam, leader of the prayer. But sometimes I am.

There is a series of set movements for solat.
This is called qiyam (standing). The worshipper then recites part of the Qur'an.

The opening is followed by a bow.
The worshipper places both hands on their knees.
They recite 3 times in "Glory be to my great lord."

After the bow comes prostration.
They touch the ground with their forehead, the nose, palms and fingers.
They say 3 times"Glory be to my God, the greatest of the great."

Then the worshipper does a kneeling position.
On the last rak'ah, they turn their heads to the right, then to the left,
asking Allah to bless all other worshippers.

When my dad is around, he is our Imam to lead the prayer.

3. Sawm (fasting) is when you don't eat food from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan. Muslims follow a lunar calender which is 10 days shorter than the Gregorian calender, so the dates are always different.

During Ramadan, Muslims break their fast with dates and water,
following the example of the Prophet Muhammad.

We broke our fast at a hotel in London (a family friend worked there and treated us ).
We had a light meal first (dates, fruit and a drink),
and then went to pray
and come back for the main meal.

We broke our fast at dad's friend's house with his family.
They are from different country but we share same customs.

Why do Muslims fast?

Ramadan is the time of controlling the hunger. Ramadan is to remember the other people who live in hunger.

And Ramadan is the month to be thankful that we have enough food to eat.

Ramadhan also the
month of reading al Quran.

In Ramadan we finished reading the whole Qur'an as it was the holidays

Me and my brother joined a contest on reading and memorizing surahs from the Quran.

And we ended up winning prizes!

4. Zakat(alms) is a charity tax given annually. A very important part of a Muslims life is zakat. As part of the celebration of Eid-ul-Fitr, Muslims give food and water to the poor and needy.

Helping the poor and needy

5. Hajj (pilgrimage) is when you go to the Ka'bah during the month of Dhul Hijjah. A Muslim must go and do Hajj, if he can afford it.

ISLAM is the Way of Life

It's on this Earthly life that Allah tests us. On Judgement Day, it's too late to beg for forgiveness for any wrongdoing.

Islam teaches us that we judged on:

Our character
Our reactions to good and bad events in our lives
Our way of life

Muslims believe everything is the will of Allah - so there's no point moaning about your circumstances. We cannot know why things happen, or what Allah wishes us to learn from it. The important thing is that we react to it in the right way.

KHALIFAH - Taking Responsibility in Allah's Name

Muslims believe we have been appointed khalifah (trustee) of the Earth. This is the idea that while we we're on Earth we should take responsibility for the world in Allah's name, and make it the sort of place He wants it to be.

An example of a good young Muslim

Rohullah Bayanzai an inspirational young Muslim, has set Islam as his first priority, then studies, then basketball...

He has memorized the Holy Qur'an, a straight A student.

May Allah gives me the same confidence in my live. Aameen....

Inspirational young Muslim - Love for religion and basketball

InshaaAllah (means if Allah's will) that I would like to be like him too...
memorized the Holy Qur'an, a straight A student but
at the same time love for religion and enjoy sport and life.

Apart from sport, I also do singing. And as a Muslim, it doesn't mean that I can't enjoy music as long as the music have a good message with good meaning.

As a Muslim, this earthy life is not our mission but the akhirah's, the life after death.

Another great young Muslim,

Ahmad Ammar

The Memoir of Ahmad Ammar (1993 - 2013)

THE HOLY PLACE & PLACE OF WORSHIP

The Ka’bah is a cube-like building which now stands at the heart of Makkah’s main mosque.

Muslims believe that it was originally built by Adam and was later rebuilt by Ibrahim and Ismail. As they were working on it, they were given a black stone by the angel Jibril.

In Arabic, mosque means “a place of prostration”. There are many beautiful mosques around the world.

The highest point is the minaret

Some mosques have a minaret. This is where the muezzin calls the azan, or Call of Worship.

CLOTHES

There are some items of clothing that Muslim men aren’t allowed to wear, such as silk, gold, silver and piercings. But these are allowed for women.

In Islam, there is a thing called aurat. Aurat is the parts of the body that must be covered. For men and boys, this is from the waist to the knees. For women and girls, this is the head, the arms and the legs.

For special occasions, people wear special clothes. On Eid, everyone wears new clothes.

Our special clothes for Eid-ul-fitr

Malaysians special clothes for Eid

In Hajj, men and boys wear two pieces of cotton; one of them gets wrapped around his waist and the other covers his left shoulder. This shows that God cares equally for everyone.

FOOD LAWS

The Qur’an sets out many rules about food and drink.

Food that is allowed is halal.

Meat is halal if it is killed in a particular way and is dedicated to Allah.

Halal food section in a supermarket.

Food that is forbidden is haram. Pork and any pork products are always haram.

All vegetables, fruit grains and fish are halal.

Muslims buy their food in halal food stores.

The halal food store near our area.

FESTIVALS

There are many festivals that are celebrated by Muslims. Because of the different cultures from around the world, Asia, the Middle East and the West, festivals are different according to their culture.

· Lailat-ul-Qadr, the night of Power, is celebrated to remember the night that the Angel Jibril gave the first words of the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Many people stay awake on this night. Lailat-ul-Qadr is usually on the 27^th of Ramadan.

This is in Malaysia Hall in London.
We did qiamulail on Lailat-ul-Qadr with other Malaysian Muslims.
Qiamulail means standing in the night
praying and reading Quran.

Eid-ul-fitri, festival of fast breaking, is the festival after Ramadan. People celebrate it to enjoy the success of being able to fast the entire month.

Eid Day 1

Eid Takbir is the first thing to do in the early morning of Eid.

Then, there is something that is very important to do which is asking

for a blessing from both Mum and Dad.

We usually gather in the living room

and shake hand that we called

Salam and ask for forgiveness.

During Salam, the younger will

bow down a bit and kiss the elder’s hands.

In the pictures above we are asking for forgiveness

After that we go to the university and pray.
We use the lecture hall as our prayer place.

Here were are listening to a sermon

After praying we get to eat sweets and food

After that we go to our friends house around our area

Yum yum lovely food.. Alhamdulillah...

Here we are playing with our friends

Another visit to a friend's place.

Eid Day 2

On the second day we go to meet our friends in London or
someone who lives a bit further away.

Here we are eating together

And when it's time to pray, we pray together

Then our friends Mum gives money to the children.

Younger generation to salam the elders.

Lot's of money!

And then we took a whole picture together

Eid-ul-adha is celebrated by sacrificing a goat or a sheep, at the same time as the pilgrims in Hajj, to remember when Prophet Ibrahim thought he had to sacrifice his son. A large family could offer a camel or a cow. The poor will receive about one third of the meat.

Children bringing the ram for sacrifice

Maulid Nabi is the birthday of Prophet Muhammad’s pbuH birthday.

Maulid celebration in London

("Bi Rasulallahi wal Badawi" with Al Birru wa Taqwa from Kenya)

We are planning to go to celebrate the birth

of our beloved Prophet Muhammad pbuH

in London this Friday, 31st January 2014.

DEATH

Muslims believe that Allah will judge you on how you have lived your life. When my grandfather passed away, we washed his body for burial. Burial should follow as quickly as possible after death. I watched them wrap him with white cloth, leaving the face uncovered.

We prayed Allah to forgive him for all the sins he had committed.

Cremation is haram

as the dead will return to their bodies

on the Day of Judgement.

Muslims do not encourage mourning
after a person has died.

It is important that you
should accept Allah’s will over death.

On their gravestone, instead of their surname, they have their mother’s name.
For example when my time come,
it won’t say Zahin Adib;
it will say ‘Zahin Julie Ezwin’.

The body is buried with the body turned to the right,

facing Makkah,

the direction of prayer.

Putting a board over our Grandpa's body.

Muslims believe that funerals should be simple.

Death happens to everyone,
no matter how much money they have,

so it is not right to spend
a lot of money on a funeral.

At the funeral there were lots of people.

Dear Atuk (Granpa),

You've gone SO SOON.... I've missed you so much.....

It was Summer 2009 when we received the news that Granpa was suddenly ill. He was admitted to the hospital for having a heart attack. We rushed home and just grabbed whatever available flight there was to Malaysia.

It was the last moments to spend our time with him. It was only 3 days after my birthday. It was also in the week of my uncle's wedding. We had funeral and wedding at the same time. Many guest who didn't know the news were asking where is Granpa!

WEDDING

Marriage is seen as the joining together of two families, not just two people. Therefore parents will choose who their children will marry. However, if they don’t like who has been chosen for them, their parents won’t force them to marry. For an example, my grandparents, on my dad’s side, had an arranged marriage. But nowadays, there aren’t many more arranged marriages, like my parents.

This is when my uncle, my dad’s brother getting married.

Here is my uncle promising to his wife
saying that he will be a good husband

The bride, the groom
and the guests wear their best clothes,
give gifts and celebrate with a feast.

Us taking a photo with the bride and groom

The gifts

After that we had a king feast

The new family member.

SPECIAL OCCASIONS

New born baby

When a baby is born, he or she is wrapped up in a shawl. Then the baby is given to the head of the family and he will whisper the Call of Prayer and the Command to Worship in its ear. This means that the first word it hears is “Allah”.

Man holding his child.

A ceremony called aqiqah is held after the baby is born. Friends and family come to a feast and they will help choose its name. Choosing the name is an important duty for Muslim parents. A common choice is one of the 99 names of Allah with Abd in front. Abd means “servant of” in Arabic.

Circumcise for boys

In Turkey, there is a celebration for boys called khitan, during which, they are circumcised. They dress up as princes and go to the mosque just before.

My brother and I have been through circumcision in 2009.