Beginning:

Salaam everyone? How is everyone doing? Are you all doing well? Are you all full of energy so you can enjoy today’s program and learn new and good things?

 Now for us all to be more energetic and for God to also help us learn good things, before anything let’s all say Bismiallah [In the Name of God], and remember God. It would be great that before anyone wants to speak to us, and teach us something, we allow our dear God to speak with us. As you all know: The Holy Quran is the word of God with us, so let’s all together read one of the ayah’s of the Holy Quran and learn its meaning and brighten our hearts with the light of the Quran. This ayah that we are going to recite, is from surah Al-Imran. Surah Al-Imran is the 2^nd longest surah which has 200 ayah’s. This ayah that we are going to recite together, is ayah 144 of this surah.

And Mohammed (peace and blessings be upon him), is not the only Messenger and other messengers have passed on before him. So, if he was to die or be killed, would you turn back to your wrong beliefs and behavior?! And whoever turns back will never hurt God and God will reward the grateful.

Now it would be great for us to think more about this matter and be careful to not be like those people who after believing in God, and His Beloved Prophet, turned backwards. What made some people who once believed and tasted the sweetness of Islam and Islamic morals, to suddenly change direction after the death of the Prophet, and again like before, became selfish, and instead of looking for God’s pleasure, they again looked for their own desires? What happened that even though all people loved the Prophet, and knew that whatever he said is the truth, the devil [Shaitan] easily tricked many of them, and made them follow another path?

In this program, we will try to find the answers to these questions and find the answers by looking at history and thinking more about this topic. Let’s see after the end of the program, who has understood the point of this program? Now please recite a loud salawat so together we can comfort the heart of the Imam of Our Time on the martyrdom anniversary of his beloved mother and ask him to pray for us to be the good servants of God and never be tricked by the devil [shaitan].

Life Lesson: Getting Ready for Bed

Lady Fatemeh al- Zahra (PBUH) said: When I had my bed flattened, the Messenger of God (PBUH & HP) came to me and said: “O ‘Fatemeh, do not go to bed, unless you do four things: Recite the Holy Quran, allow the prophets to intercede [plead] on your behalf, make the people of believers satisfy from you, and perform a Hajj and Umrah.” My father gave these orders and started praying. I was thinking about doing these four orders and went into a deep thought and waited until my father’s prayers end, to ask for his help to do these four orders. When his prayers finished, I told him: “O’ the Messenger of God, the four orders that you told me to do, I do not have the ability to do them in this short amount of time.”

The Prophet [PBUH & HP] smiled and said:

“If you recite Surah al-Tawhid three times, it is as if you have recited the whole Quran.;

If you recite a salawat on my behalf and on the behalf of all the prophets before me, we will all be your intercessors (mediators) on the day of judgment; allowing the prophets to be our intercessors means to request from them to ask God on our behalf to help us more; because God has more respects for His Prophet’s, because surely, they are His best servants.

And if you say: Subhanallah Walhamdulilah Wala ilaha illallah Wallahu Akbar [Glory be to Allah; All Praise be to Allah. There is no god except Allah and Allah is the Greatest], it is as if you have done Hajj and Umrah.”

Alright now my dear kids, let’s all promise to practice performing these orders. And by performing it, in less than five minutes we recite the whole Quran, allow the prophets to be our intercessors [mediators], make those who have strong faith happy from us, and perform hajj and Umrah.

Animation: The Defender of the Imam

https://youtube/wd41Zu3xdMY

Play: Breaking the Promise of Ghadir

At night, Zubair goes to the house of Talha. The scene is dark, and the sound of crickets chirping is heard in the background.

Narrator: Talha and Zubair were the companions of the Messenger of God [Peace Be Upon Him and His Holy Family]. During the Prophet’s [PBUH] time, they participated in many wars and fought in the name of Islam. They were also present alongside the Prophet during his last pilgrimage (Hajj), and witnessed all the Prophets actions and what he said to the people. When the Prophet’s caravan, stopped for three days besides the pond of Ghadir Khumm, and the Prophet of God appeared in presence of 120,000 people, and by God’s order introduced Imam Ali [Peace be Upon Him] as his successor and Imam to the people, Talha and Zubair were standing beside the Prophet, and pledged to Imam Ali (PBUH) as the Prophet’s successor.

Now the Messenger of God has passed away, and people have forgotten the pledge they made to Imam Ali [Peace Be Upon Him] on the day of Ghadir.

**Sound of a knock on a door **

Behind the door: I am coming, who are you at this time in night?

Zubair Calmly says: It’s me Zubair, open the door.

Talha: Who!!

Zubair: It is me, Zubair, why won’t you open the door?

Talha opens the door: Salaam Zubair! How are you? What are doing here at this time in night?

Zubair: Why wouldn’t you open the door? Talk quietly. I do not want anyone to hear us.

Talha: I wanted to make sure who was behind the door (looks around to make sure no one is around)

Zubair: Did Fatemeh the daughter of Prophet come to your door last night?

Talha(Surprised): Yes! How do you know?

Zubair: She came to my door too; she couldn’t stand straight up as if she was in a pain. Ali, Hussein and Hassan were besides her. She told me “O’ Zubair! Did you forget the pledge you made to Ali during Ghadir? Didn’t you on the day of Ghadir put your hands in the hands of Ali, and told him from now on you are the master of every men and women?”

Talha: What did you say?

Zubair: I had my head down in shame and didn’t know what to say! She was right. I said: O’ the daughter of Messenger of God, it is something that has already happened, and nothing else can be done anymore. She told me: Would you like to support us? I said: Yes. She said: Come to us with your sword tomorrow morning.

Talha: You didn’t go, did you?

Zubair: No, I was too scared and did not go.

Talha: The daughter of Prophet along with Ali, Hassan and Hussein came to my house as well. And told me the same thing that she told you. I told Fatemeh: O’ Fatemeh it is too late now, you should have come sooner than this.

Story: Keeping One’s Promise

This morning during recess time, I was busy talking with my friend Leila and I was telling her everything; from yesterday’s party to the program I saw on TV. Even telling her about the park I went with my mom on Friday, and how I ate a very delicious chocolate ice-cream. Leila was also telling me about the picnic she went on the weekend. Suddenly, our whole conversation changed, and we started talking about one of our friends who happened to be absent on that day, I mean my friend Noora. Noora is new to our school, and she came this year.

Me and Leila were friends since last year and we were closer to each other. But Noora is a nice girl too, and we were becoming closer with her as well. Even though sometimes I did not feel good about Noora becoming very close with my friend Leila. I don’t know, but I felt as if she was going to replace me and become very good friends with Leila. I never felt good about this feeling, that is why I tried think less about it, so all three of us could be good friends. I promised myself to distance myself from this feeling.

Finally, thank God that our conversation changed, and I could breathe easily because I did not lose in this fight and did not break the promise I made. Suddenly Leila asked, why am I not paying any attention and what am I thinking about. I felt anxious and didn’t know what to say. It’s really bad if I told her that what I was thinking about and I didn’t like to lie about it either. I said to Leila nothing I was just thinking about how important it is that one keeps the promise they make.

Leila said, what how does this relate to what we were talking about? But you are right, it’s very important. You know why? I asked curiously why? Leila said: it’s funny, yesterday in our house, we were talking about the same thing and I was about to tell you about it. I was very surprised that you said the same thing. And then we laughed together. How funny!!! Now tell me what were you guys talking about? What were you going to tell me? Leila said: Did you remember that we promised to tell each other to tell one another about anything new we learn about the Quran. I said: Yeah, I remember that, I totally forgot about it. What a great promise we made, and we forgot about it. How bad.., that’s good that you at least remembered it. Now tell me!

Poem:

Either a mentor recites the poems or allow kids to write or find a poem and recite it to everyone else.

The Lady of Light

Oh Fatima (SA)

The lady of light

Daughter of our Prophet (SAW)

The soul that is whiter than white

On the highest of the heavens

You are praised by all the lands

Mother of Hassan and Hussain (AS)

Beauty of Islam

Zahra (SA) your light is shining

Brighter than the sun

Oh, the flower of heavens

You are the only one

The apple of Muhammad’s (SAW) eyes

The wife of Ali (AS)

The role model for all women

Surely your martyrdom was a tragedy.

Clip: Mother Zahra I Will Miss You!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faXihpZ1NMk

Prezi: The History of the Martyrdom of Lady Fatemeh [PBUH]

Link: https://prezi.com/uuvekwfgefoe/the-mother-of-all-good/

Image 3:

The people during the lifetime of the Prophet did not have good morals, and people’s ignorance was great. Therefore, the Prophet had a very, and very difficult mission. Just think about it, for those people being kind, loving and helping one another was not important and didn’t matter at all.

They fought with each other over silly things; for example, if a person insulted another, they could have possibly been killed just for insulting another person! Those people didn’t even care about what they ate, and if whether their food was clean. They were even willing to drink unclean water instead of clean water or even eat the meat of dead animals.

Image 5:

Although the Prophet was the symbol of goodness, he still had many enemies. In the Holy Quran, God describes to us a portion of all the hardships and sufferings the Prophet had to tolerate during this difficult path.

There were many enemies of the Prophet, who mocked him, threatened him, or went to war against him and the Muslims. And even unfortunately, there were many Muslims who disrespected him and harassed him and even plotted evil plans against our Prophet! Yes, even some “Muslims!”

That is, in fact this group of Muslims, were either ignorant or just seemingly Muslims and, did not believe in the Prophet and God with their heart.

Image 7:

So, the Prophet by the order of God, during different moments of his life, introduced his cousin, who was also his son in law, Imam Ali, the husband of lady Fatemeh al-Zahra as his successor.

And this made some Muslims unhappy who were thirsty for power and status. For example, during the Eid of Ghadir, when the Prophet in front of all the Muslims that were present that day, by the order of God introduced Imam Ali as his next successor, those people that were not good Muslims, and were seemingly Muslims, but their hearts were full of evil and badness, plotted together to not allow Imam Ali to become the successor after the Prophet.

Image 9:

My dears! The fact that some people look after power and money and they do everything to get what they want, such as by misleading people, or even harassing them, has always been part of history and it has happened. In all countries, from the United States, to Europe and Asia, all these wars and bad events have happened and are still happening till this date. Well, it’s obvious that during the Prophet’s lifetime such bad events also existed, and the devil tricked people.

Image 11:

Those evil people headed to the house of Imam Ali and lady Fatemeh al-Zahra, which was near the mosque [masjid] and the house of the Prophet and forced Imam Ali to pledge his loyalty.

However, Imam did not pledge his loyalty to them, and closed the door on them. However, they decided to somehow force Imam Ali to pledge. Therefore, they threatened Imam Ali to set his house on fire and enter his house.

However, the Imam again refused to pledge, because this was the will of the Prophet which he had to follow. Those evil people brought woods and placed it behind the door. The door was also made of wood. They lit the fire and the door started to burn.

Image 13:

 Lady Fatemeh was the kindest and the best women on earth, she always prayed first for her neighbors and then herself. One who loved other people so much, was kind to everyone, had a kind father, whom people owed him greatly and led people to the right path, but instead of people showing their appreciation, or at least defend her rights, they left her alone.

Image 15:

For other people and those who would be born later, to easily understand the truth, she requested Imam Ali to bury her secretly at night, so no one would know the location of her grave; so that everyone thinks about how is it that even the grave of the beloved daughter of the Prophet is hidden and where is it located, so certainly something happened that her grave is hidden.

Then people will search and read history and understand that some people were not loyal to the Prophet, his daughter and son in law, and mistreated her which lead to her martyrdom. And then, they did not accept Imam Ali [PBUH] as their leader and their first Imam, and most importantly did not act on the dear God’s demand and request.

Image 17:

O’ God! Just like our beloved Imam, we also pray for the early return of our Imam, and we ask You to allow us to be among the followers of the Imam of Our Time so during his return, along with him we can go and fight against evil and cruel people and fill the heart of his beloved mother full of happiness. Amen!

Take-Home Activity: Practice to Keep One’s Promise

Prepare a peice of ribbon and like a bracelet tie it around the kids wrist and tell them that this is a sign for them to fullfill and keep their promises. If their parents allows them, tell them to keep it on their wrist for a week so they do not forget to fullfill and keep the promises they make during that week. Explain to them a few practical examples such as : if they tell their mother they are going to study or they are going to watch tv for a certain amount of time or if they are going to take on a responsibilty or if they promise something to their friend or their coach. They can also keep the bracelet on after a week, but in general this exercise is to instill in kids this good moral. Ask the participants to tell their parents about the bracelet, the story and the play that was shown to them during the program.

End/Conclusion and Reciting Dua al-Faraj

Alright everyone, I hope that you are all not too tired! I hope that you all feel good about the new things you’ve learned today about the Ahlul-Bayt (The Prophet’s Family) and the events that happened to them and that by learning and understanding about these events, it has helped you to feel sad about it, so we could comfort the Imam of our Time in these tragic days. Just by learning so many new things and feeling that connection with Lady Fatemeh al-Zahra (PBUH) is enough to comfort the heart of the Imam of Our Time.

In my opinion, right now we can make a promise with dear God, to do the many good things that God likes, that we normally forget to do. And promise him to not do the bad things we normally do. This will be a strong promise, a promise that we will never break and not allow the devil to make us weak. We never ever want to be like those people who once promised to the Prophet that they will be kind to his Ahlul-Bayt [Prophet’s Family] to know Imam Ali as the next leader, but they broke their promises. By breaking their promises, they did not follow what God told them, broke their promises with God, and instead listened to the devil and went in the wrong direction.

It is good that when we go home, and there happens to be a time when we are alone, like during the time we are praying, to talk our hearts out with the Imam of our Time. We should say to our Imam that ” we know after the martyrdom of your dear grandfather, Prophet (PBUH & HP), what happened to your mother and father meaning lady Fatemeh al-Zahra and Imam Ali (PBUT), and how much they were hurt. We should say that “we too are sad about these bad events and that we will always distance ourselves from those people who called themselves the friends of the Prophet, but in reality, they were his enemies. And we will always try to truly show our love to our Imams and love them and listen to them because of God.

• Recitation of Dua al-Faraj while facing towards the Qibla and standing up out of respect and love for His Eminence.

 http://film.tebyan.net/film/151746

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0cXoTGnP1jk26

Translation of the Dua:

{In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

O’ God, send your blessing upon Muhammad and the Household

of Muhammad

O’ God, at this moment and every moment

Be a guardian, a protector, a leader, a helper

a proof, and an eye for Your representative &; proof, Mahdi son of Al-Hassan,

Your blessings be upon him and his ancestors

guard him as long as he lives on this earth as a ruler

benefit him and bless him with everything You and this earth has to offer}