[14] اَلْمُصَوِّرُ (Al-Musawwir): The Fashioner
Sing 99 Names (5min)
Play PowerPoint of the first 33 names, 2-3 times. Sing together and do the actions so far plus:
Action for Al-Musawwir: Hold both hands up, palms outwards, and wiggle downwards side to side.
Today’s focus is on the name Al-Musawwir which means The Fashioner.
Story relating to today's name (7min)
Read pages from a book such as Hello World together.
Talk about the variety of languages and cultures, ways people dress, things they like and how they look, etc.
Talk about the variety of languages and cultures, ways people dress, things they like and how they look, etc.
Discuss meaning, apply to children's lives (8min)
Al-Musawwir means The Fashioner.
Do you remember what Al-Khaaliq and Al-Baari' mean? Allah is the Creator and He makes things from nothing. He both invents and makes them.
Look at pictures of different trees (see resources file) - are these all trees? How do you know? What do they have in common? What makes them different?
To fashion something means to give it a design, so in our tree example these pictures are all of trees but they've been fashioned differently.
Think about all the people in the world. How have we been fashioned differently by Allah? Out of all the people alive today, say 7 billion, Allah has fashioned every single one of us differently. Not even just the 7 billion people alive today, but all the people who were alive before us and already passed away and all the billions of people who may be born in the future too... Every single human is different! SubhanAllah. Do you think you could design billions and billions of different things and have every single one of them be different?! But Allah can and He does it easily!
Think about people in your family - siblings look very similar but everyone has differences. Even with twins, if you look carefully you can find differences in the way they've been fashioned too!
Use a mirror and compare similarities and differences between the children's faces and your own. You could even use old photos of yourself at the same age as the children are now so they can compare those, too. See how people change as they age? So you could say that each person has more than one design... Multiply that by the number of people ever created! How many billions and billions of different designs does that make? Just for humans! That's not even thinking about all the other designs Allah created for all the animals and plants in the world!
Look at pictures of different trees (see resources file) - are these all trees? How do you know? What do they have in common? What makes them different?
To fashion something means to give it a design, so in our tree example these pictures are all of trees but they've been fashioned differently.
Think about all the people in the world. How have we been fashioned differently by Allah? Out of all the people alive today, say 7 billion, Allah has fashioned every single one of us differently. Not even just the 7 billion people alive today, but all the people who were alive before us and already passed away and all the billions of people who may be born in the future too... Every single human is different! SubhanAllah. Do you think you could design billions and billions of different things and have every single one of them be different?! But Allah can and He does it easily!
Think about people in your family - siblings look very similar but everyone has differences. Even with twins, if you look carefully you can find differences in the way they've been fashioned too!
Use a mirror and compare similarities and differences between the children's faces and your own. You could even use old photos of yourself at the same age as the children are now so they can compare those, too. See how people change as they age? So you could say that each person has more than one design... Multiply that by the number of people ever created! How many billions and billions of different designs does that make? Just for humans! That's not even thinking about all the other designs Allah created for all the animals and plants in the world!
Craft activity (25min)
Complete the page for the book.
Fill the vase with different kinds of flowers - use different art techniques e.g. scrunched tissue paper, pompom centres, sequin petals, string, straws, felt tips, crayons, etc. Talk about how they're all flowers but have different designs.
Look at photographs of flowers for inspiration (see resources file). Ask children if they can name the different species! (from top left: orchid, tulip, daffodil, foxglove, rose, pansy, poppy, daisy, bluebell, sunflower)
Look at photographs of flowers for inspiration (see resources file). Ask children if they can name the different species! (from top left: orchid, tulip, daffodil, foxglove, rose, pansy, poppy, daisy, bluebell, sunflower)
When to use this name (10min)
We talked earlier about how we've all been fashioned in different ways. It's normal to like looking at beautiful things - Allah is the creator of that beauty. It's nice to make ourselves look presentable and beautiful too. But remembering Allah as Al-Musawwir, the one who fashioned us and made us look the way we do, should remind us that our looks and our beauty came from Allah. It's good to be grateful to Allah but not to be arrogant (or narcissistic!).
Equally, we shouldn't criticise or make fun of people for the way they look - maybe you've heard people insulting others for having a "big nose" or "small eyes". Does that make sense? Allah designed the way they look and He did so for a reason.
Some people, when they aren't happy with the way they look, get very upset about it and want to change themselves, or they might hide away and not let other people see them. Do you think that's a nice feeling to have? We shouldn't feel bad about the way we look; we should be grateful Allah designed us in this way. There's no need to feel jealous of how someone else might look because looks aren't important.
What's inside our hearts is what's important. A famous hadith says: "Allah does not look at your appearance or wealth, but rather he looks at your hearts and actions." [Sahih Muslim] Look at the hadith together (in the resources file) and (if children are able to!) read the Arabic together, too.
Equally, we shouldn't criticise or make fun of people for the way they look - maybe you've heard people insulting others for having a "big nose" or "small eyes". Does that make sense? Allah designed the way they look and He did so for a reason.
Some people, when they aren't happy with the way they look, get very upset about it and want to change themselves, or they might hide away and not let other people see them. Do you think that's a nice feeling to have? We shouldn't feel bad about the way we look; we should be grateful Allah designed us in this way. There's no need to feel jealous of how someone else might look because looks aren't important.
What's inside our hearts is what's important. A famous hadith says: "Allah does not look at your appearance or wealth, but rather he looks at your hearts and actions." [Sahih Muslim] Look at the hadith together (in the resources file) and (if children are able to!) read the Arabic together, too.
On the back of their page, help the children write a few thoughts about the name Al-Musawwir and their feelings.
Sticker chart (5min)
Ask individually: Which of Allah’s names did we learn today? What does it mean? Give children a sticker each for their chart.
----------
Other activities:
- Look at images of snowflakes under a microscope. Every snowflake is different! Can you imagine how many snowflakes it would take to fill up the palm of your hand? Maybe 50? 100? And all of them would be different?? How many snowflakes would it take to cover the garden? Many times more than in your hand! And all of those would be different? And how many snowflakes in every garden on our street? In our city? All around the world? And all of them are different??? SubhanAllah! It's hard to imagine!
Use folded pieces of white paper to cut out snowflake patterns as a reminder - you could turn these into a paper chain decoration and hang in their bedroom.
- Draw a self-portrait (using a mirror) and colour/paint. Discuss eye, hair and skin colour and how these can be different for different people but it doesn't make a difference - people are all still people no matter what they look like.
- Discuss the meaning of the word "racist" and why this is something disliked in Islam.
- Talk about how when we say "fashion" nowadays we're usually talking about clothing. Children could have a go at making their own piece of fashion, e.g. sewing a simple bag or tie-dying a t-shirt, etc. Talk about the effort it takes to design something and how for Allah it's no effort at all!
- Recap the three names of Al-Khaaliq, Al-Baari' and Al-Musawwir through an activity such as baking cupcakes: plan the flavours (Al-Khaaliq), bake the cakes (Al-Baari') then decorate (Al-Musawwir).
Please leave a comment if you know of any other related activities!
No comments:
Post a Comment