Opening Session
- Recitation of the Holy Qur’an by a Tifl.
- Translation of the Holy Qur’an by a Tifl.
- Atfal Pledge, lead by Nazim Atfal or Qaid Majlis. (View Atfal Pledge)
- Hadith by a Tifl.
Class Agendas
A reminder to please remember the following objectives before going into today’s lesson plan: Recitation of the Holy Qur’an and the Memorization of Salat.
Regarding the recitation of the Holy Qur’an, please encourage the Atfal to recite daily.
Regarding the memorization of salat, please ensure that each Tifl has a personalized weekly goal for how much to memorize. It is important to help keep each Tifl on track to reach the goal of memorizing the full salat. For Atfal younger than 10 years old the emphasis should be on memorizing salat fully in Arabic. For Atfal older than 10 years, emphasis should be put on memorizing the full salat in Arabic with the English translation. Please ensure that each tifl is keeping up with their goals in this area. Those Atfal who have already memorized salat along with the translation should set goals to memorize some portions of the Holy Qur’an along with the translation.
Please use the beginning of the class to check in on the Atfal and how their progress towards their goals is going.
After checking on the progress of Atfal towards their goals, please divide the class into Mayar e Saghir and Mayar e Kabir.
Class June 11
For Mayar e Saghir, please go through the following portion of the summary of the Friday Sermon from May 26, 2023 and discuss what the Atfal learned from it. Discuss how Atfal can strengthen their relationship and bond with Khilafat (writing letters, listening to Friday Sermon, etc.):
The Bond of Love Between the Caliph and His Community
His Holiness(aba) said that God fulfilled the promise which He made to the Promised Messiah(as) and continued to lead his Community to the paths of success. His Holiness(aba) said that in this era of his Caliphate, the opponents have tried to create discord and have tried to bring an end to the Community. Ahmadis have been martyred in different countries around the world or given them the lure of worldly things. However, God has continued to increase Ahmadis in their faith, certainty and relationship with the Caliphate. Whether in Asia, Europe, America or Africa, every person’s relationship with the Caliphate has been established by God. There is none other than God Who can create such love in the hearts of people. His Holiness(aba) said that wherever he goes to, in the world, he sees this love in the people. In fact, these things are not just claims, but these testimonies have been preserved by the lenses of a camera.
His Holiness(aba) said that he receives thousands of letters a month which show how God attached people to the Community and Himself establishes a bond of love between them and the Caliphate. His Holiness(aba) said that he would express some examples of such letters.
For Mayar e Kabir please have them read and discuss the following excerpt from Introduction to the Study of the Holy Quran (pg. 265)
The Quran Collected in One Volume
When it was found that five hundred of the reciters of the Quran had been killed
in the battle with Musaylimah’s army, ‘Umar suggested to Abu Bakr (who was then
the Khalifah) that if those who had the Quran by heart began to be lost in battles in
such large numbers, the safeguarding of the purity of its text would become difficult
and that the time had therefore arrived when the whole of the Quran should be
collected in one volume. Abu Bakr at first demurred but eventually accepted the
suggestion and appointed Zayd bin Thabit, being one of those who used to record
the Quran at the dictation of the Holy Prophet, to collect the text of the Quran in
one volume and appointed prominent Companions of the Holy Prophet to assist him
in the task. Abu Bakr directed that the text of the Quran should be collected from its
recorded fragments and that the accuracy of the text should be certified by two
persons who knew the whole of the Quran by heart. This task was soon accomplished
and a written text of the whole of the Quran was got together in one volume, which
was certified as accurate by those who knew it by heart. On the basis of these facts
can there be the slightest ground for suggesting that variations in the text of the
Quran had crept in between the death of the Holy Prophet and the compilation of
the Quran into one volume under the directions of Abu Bakr and the supervision of
Zayd bin Thabit? Can it be reasonably suggested that any difficulty could arise in the
compilation into one volume of a Book which was being continuously recited every
day by large numbers of persons, the whole text of which used to be recited from
beginning to end in the course of the month of Ramadan by persons who had
committed it to memory to the Muslims assembled in congregational prayers, the
congregation itself containing large numbers of people who knew the whole of it by
heart, and which had been reduced to writing at the dictation of the Holy Prophet
himself as the revelation was received from time to time more specially when the task
of compilation was committed to the care of a person who was himself one of the
recorders of the Quran and had committed the whole of it to memory? Had the
compiled volume contained a single variation from the text as dictated by the Holy
Prophet and as committed to memory under his supervision by a large number of
people, it would at once have been detected and set right. The authenticity and
accuracy of the text of the Quran are thus established on the surest and most
irrefutable evidence. The accuracy of the text of no other writing in the world is so
far above the possibility of doubt as that of the Quran.