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My First #EcoIslam Teaching Session -eek!-

Introducing The Eco Muslim into our mosque community. It wasn't the big jihad (struggle) I had mentally prepared for. Well, it would h...

Introducing The Eco Muslim into our mosque community. It wasn't the big jihad (struggle) I had mentally prepared for. Well, it would have been... Had I told the committee members first! More on that drama later!

This is our first student worksheet on #EcoIslam. I'm hash-tagging #EcoIslam for you Twitter folks so I can keep the discussion organised (follow----> twitter.com/theecomuslim). Oh, also, when I say 'our', I mean myself, my sister and my father ji, whom we shall now refer to Eco-Sister and Eco-Dad.

Rightio then. Let you know what we've been up to.

My worksheet on Islam and the environment was a good introduction for students. Long enough for the 1.5hr lesson and designed in a way where it doesn't requires paragraphs of text. I let girls draw diagrams and use colour. In total our mosque has about 150 students, but as it's currently half term and I'm only with the girls (for now), our classes are small.

Umbrella topics were chosen to explain what Islam generally says about living simple; food control, saving water, animal rights, the 4 R's: recycling, reducing, reusing, rejecting, and growing plants.

These 5 topics are like my headings with which I'm developing an educational 'Eco Islam' curriculum insha-Allah. I make du`a (supplicate) to Allah that I'm able to complete this and share it with other mosques and institutions throughout Britain. *in Pakistani accent* At a small family discounted price of buy twelve get one free!

*Photos taken with camera phone
I have a small classroom. The walls have recently been painted in a cheap coat of cream paint, it's carpeted and unfurnished. I need shelves-my sister's in a wrestling match as I type with the committee over an agreed budget-but the students do have lockers of their own, a tiny stack of books and workbooks. The room wasn't even used before my sister taught here so Alhamdulillah, something is better than nothing.

Ideally, I'd like for there to be book shelves, a reading corner, fixed stationery islands so we can oversee our resources insha-Allah. All in due time, eh. Check out the flashy bin in the corner. Coming soon: Recycling!

Our students received the first Eco-Islam worksheet really well ma-sha-Allah. I will be making this worksheet available in a teacher's pack so watch out for these resources.

I remember my teaching days to structure a lesson plan like a menu: starter, main course, dessert. We had to miss dessert, which was the empty box on the bottom of the sheet. A quick feedback session allowed to me see where I could improve and what students thought of the lesson on being ecological Muslims. I even gave a few merits out. Yay, teachering.

We covered the Islamic principle of saving water. Not using excess, making an eco-wudhu and reusing leftovers for watering plants were key points that students were taught. A hadith by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, clarified the idea to Sahabi Sa`d, that you should avoid wasting water, even if you're next to a river.

Other topics on corruption originated directly from the Qur'an. What does Allah say about being Khalifas? How can we try to live ethically? Does looking after animals really get you into Jannah? By exploring these ideas from a humanitarian and spiritual avenue, my students were able to see that by taking a little extra care to pick up litter and buying local fruit and veg, they were actually coming closer to Allah.

I had a great time teaching my first lesson on Islam and the environment. Look, no bruises, stress or nothing! Alhamdulillah.

Peace + eco-jihad.
Zaufishan, The Eco Muslim

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Post a Comment

  1. Belated congrats! Yay for no bruises! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know, right? It's actually the mosque committee that's been blessing us with jihad!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ahh, yes :( From you shared with us on Facebook...I hope that gets resolved soon.

    ReplyDelete

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