The Science of Gratitude – Session 9
Wa ardha wad ha aha lil a nam
It is He who has spread out the earth for His creatures
Allah has made the earth comfortable for us to live on.
Other ayats talk about how the earth is a cradle and a carpet.
78:6 and 2:22
When you think of a mother, she wants her baby to be in safest most comfortable place.
Allah made the earth like that too.
When a mother rocks her baby, it’s a soothing kind of rock, so gentle and peaceful. We don’t even feel the rotation of mother earth. And what a comfortable place to lay on – a carpet as opposed to no carpet. Gravity as opposed to no gravity.
All creatures are so comfortable on earth with the earth serving mankind in every which way. Variety of foods, sky blanket, distance of sun, gentle winds, oceans, water, animals that serve man in hidden ways, etc Which then of His favours can you deny. Allah Customized earth for all of us.
Put treasures everywhere on earth, inside. Man given intellect to discover and use all treasures.
DUNIA IS MADE FOR MAN. MAN IS NOT MADE FOR DUNIA.
MAN IS MADE FOR AAKHIRAH
Man on the moon
Actors:
Astronaut Guided: actor 1
Astronaut whoopsie : actor 2
Shooting star: actor 3
Gulf News reporter: actor 4
Props:
Rocket ship
Silver bag for packing stiuff
Water tanks to look like oxygen tanks
2 Helmets
actor 2 and actor 1 to be dressed as astronauts
2 bunch of flowers for actor 2 and actor 1
Small MeandMAwla flag
actor 5 sound effects galore
Layers of earth atmosphere
Granola bar on fish net and stick
Granola bar in pocket
Ipad pics
Yellow shirt for actor 3 outfit
Red orange Sheila for shooting star
Star burst poster small on popsicle stick
Clip board and pen
Black glasses for actor 4 as reporter
Astronaut guided and Astronaut whoopsie were super excited. In 2 days they would climb aboard their rocket ship and fly to the moon.
actor 2 and actor 1 as astronauts come n start packing for trip.
They got things ready. They packed some food to eat and clothes to wear. They packed enough fuel. They even packed tanks of oxygen.
When the day arrived, everyone was super super excited. Astronaut Guided and Astronaut Whoopsie boarded the rocket ship.
actor 2 and actor 1 to hold the rocket ship on the ground and then lift off.
actor 5 to add some sound effects here. Rocket station sounds.
Count down! Count down!
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, Blast offff.
And away they went, up up in the sky all the way to the moon.
Go around stage area in rocket ship
The rocket travelled so fast and so far away. The earth began to look smaller and smaller.
Look a shooting star, pointed out Astronaut guided!
actor 3 to come as a shooting star. Come from one side, whizz and go behind partition. actor 2 to point out to it.
Quickly actor 6 and actor 5 to lay down the moon crater background for actor 2 and actor 1 to land on.
Finally the rocket landed on the moon.
Astronaut Guided, shouted Subhanallah! Alhamdullilah, Allahu Akber. actor 1 to shout out loudly yourself
They got off the rocket ship with their space suits and oxygen tanks on. actor 2 and actor 1 to come off, actor 6 to hold onto the rocket ship from behind. actor 2 and actor 1 dressed in space gear.
The space suits protect their eyes, skin and body from the harmful environment on the moon. Infact, if they didn’t wear space suits, the blood in their body would boil because there is no air.
They tried to walk on the moon. It was much much harder because there is much less gravity and the oxygen tanks are heavy and the space suits heavy and bulky.
actor 2 and actor 1 to do the moon walk and show like kid of floating feeling
Astronaut Guided and Astronaut whoopsie also wear special pampers so they can go to the toilet. All the peepee and poo poo gets collected in a special tank inside the space suit. If they went to the toilet like we do on earth, all the pee pee and poo poo would fly out.
actor 2 and actor 1 to show your poo tanks with bits in it. Crepe paper and colored line with yellow pen on the tank.
Astronaut Whoopsie felt hungry. He wanted to eat. Where can we get a bite to eat. I cant see any shops here on the moon, said Astronaut Whoopsie a little bothered.
actor 2 to have a mini tantrum, stomp feet but struggle pretend cause no gravity. Then actor 1 to turn to the back and pretend to try and take out granola bar and give to actor 2. The granola bar will be attached to a stick and fishing line so when you try and give it, actor 5 will lift it up and it will fly away. actor 5 bring the granola back to back side.
Astronaut Guided gave Astronaut Whoopsie a Granola bar to eat but he didn’t grab it tight enough, and it flew away. There isn’t that much gravity on the moon. Things don’t fall down, they fly all around.
Astronaut Guided gave Astronaut Whoopsie another granola bar. This time, he held on super nice and tight.
actor 1 to give actor 2 another grnola bar from pocket which actor 2 you can pretend to eat and tuck wrapper in pocket.
Start eating a bit greedily, not thinking , oblivious facials
actor 1 to encourage actor 2 to say Bismillah
Lets remind him to say Bismillah.
The 2 Astronauts then went exploring. They explored the craters on the moon. They learnt that the moon and the earth get their light from the sun. They learnt that the moon has no air, no food, no water, no life. They learnt that the moon was sooo bumpy was because shooting stars landed and burst on the moon making deep holes. The moon didn’t have a layer of protective atmosphere blanket like the earth.
After planting the MeandMawla flag on the moon, it was time for Astronaut Guided and Astronaut Whoopsie to head back to earth.
Astronaut Whoopsie stood on the moon in thaffakur.
He realized the earth is so perfect to live on. The moon is not. He realized Allah is so wise to put us on earth, not the moon.
Astronaut Whoopsie became so thankful to Allah. He began to sing right there on the moon
Mr 2T.
Then he said:
Laa illaha ilallah. There is no God but Allah. Laa illaha ilallah.
They boarded their rocket ship. Switched on the engines and with a loud burst, they were off. actor 5 sound effects here
The rocket ship zoomed through the air. actor 5 sound effect
Astronaut Guided and Astronaut whoopsie saw another shooting star.
actor 3 to come again and zoom from one side to another. Then actor 6 and actor 5 to come quickly and hold layers of earth atmsosphere. This time while flying through the mesosphere, they watched the shooting star whizz by and then burst.
actor 3 to wizz and then hold up popsicle stick that says burst and go behind partition
What a blessing the mesosphere is. Protecting us on earth from bursting shooting stars.
When Astronaut Guided and Astronaut Whoopsie returned to earth, all the people cheered and clapped, many shouted out at the top of their voices, Alhamdullilah!
narrator to get crowd to cheer clap n say alhamdullilah
actor 6 to give flowers to actor 2 and actor 1.
The reporters at Gulf News came rushing to ask Astronaut Guided and Astronaut Whoopsie questions about their trip to the moon.
actor 4 to come as reporter now with clip board and mic. actor 5 to come with dslr camera to click pics of the meandmawla astronauts
Can you describe your trip to the moon?
Astronaut whoopsie said, the moon is soo beautiful but from the moon, seeing the earth is super duper beautiful. I have never seen it the other way around. I have learnt the earth Allah has spread out for us to live on is a treasure.
actor 2 to pretend to answer questions. actor 1 standing near by
What do you mean by that?
The earth Allah has spread has everything for humans. We have air to breathe, different places to visit like the beach, park, school, mosque, desert, waterfalls and wadis, forests and farms, not to mention other countries too.
actor 1 to show all these things on ipad. actor 3 to bring the ipad with the pictures, put them in order and bring ipad ready.
We have different foods to eat like fruits and vegetables, breads and pastas, sweets and treats and so much more.
actor 1 show these pictures too. actor 3 pls put food pics too
We have families and friends we can meet here on earth and do lots of lovely things together.
actor 3 to put pics of meandmawla group too here
We have treasures under the earth too like petrol, precious stones, water. All these things help our lives.
actor 3 pls put above pics too
What did you eat on the moon?
Nothing grows on the moon because there is no oxygen. No trees, no farms, no animals, no supermarkets, no restaurants. We took granola bars to eat. I lost one because there is no gravity. It flew away.
actor 3 put these pics with a red cross on the side to show they don’t exist on the moon
Did you meet anyone there?
There are no children, no schools, no parks, no beach, no hospitals, no offices, no people. People cannot live on the moon the way they live here on earth. More pics actor 3
How did you sleep on the moon?
It was also very hard to sleep on the moon. We had to strap ourselves at the space station. But because the environment is not for humans to live and breathe easily, it was harder to sleep. I cant wait to sleep on my cosy bed tonight.
I would just like to say thank you to Allah for the amazing way He has spread out the earth for us to live on. The earth is a cradle that is soo confortable and a blanket that is soo perfect to live on.
I have changed my name to Astronaut Guided 2!
actor 6 give actor 2 her new name tag. actor 5 to make Big name tag. Astronaut guided 2
The people cheered and recited takbeer in their beautiful loudest voices.
Allahu Akber! Allahu Akber!
Yes! Thank you Allah for the earth you have spread for us all.
Wal ardha wa daaha lil an’am.
Surah Rahman 55: 10
STATION 1 actor 2
Show children a lovely carpet. Let them describe its texture and how lovely it is to sit on. Now take a whole load of manmade garbage and throw it on the carpet. Now ask them to sit on it and lie down their heads and rest.
Introduce the concept of how our earth is like a carpet but we are destroying it because of the carbon footprint we are making.
Show them a live land fill demo.
Take a huge ikea bin filled with soil.
We have a whole load of trash and show them how landfills build up. We have some plastic bottles, some egg shells, some glass jars, some straws, some cereal boxes, some orange peel.
Talk about the time it takes for things to bio degrade.
All things Allah makes are completely biodegradable.
Banana peel: 2 weeks
Orange peel: 2 weeks
Apple core: 2 months
Manmade things:
Cereal box: 2 months
Newspaper:
Plastic straw: 150 – 200 years
Plastic bottle: depending on how thick 70-450 years
Tin can: 50 years
Pampers: 800 years
Thin Plastic Bags: 10-20 years
Paper towel: 2 weeks
Styrofoam: 1 + million years
This is what we are doing to our earth by polluting it.
Now ask them which bin they would like to plant seeds and eat fruits and vegetable, wheat from?
The clean soil or the one filled with garbage
Sooooo
Whats the solution. Let children think about what they could do to help solve this problem.
Discuss the business of not using plastic straws, carrying your own dishes.
STATION 2 actor 1 and Muskan
Allah has spread the earth for us to live on with lots of treasures up down and all around. Lets take a look and where things come from.
Have an array of things like glass, aluminium can, school books, onions, t shirt, blanket, milk.
Younger children can be shown these things and you can use the head gear to talk about the sheep and cow who made the wool and milk for us to use.
Mr tree can talk to the children too, about the paper and cardboard, wood etc we get from trees.
Mr Onion and Mr Potato share how they love to give of themselves to us.
Children understand from here that Allah has spread so much in the earth for us to use.
Talk about separating trash and putting things in separate bins and then taking them to the recycling centres where they are sent to factories to reuse again. Newspapers and mushed up with water and made into pulp and them made into newspapers again.
Now take out a whole bunch of garbage and children get to sort out the garbage and throw things into the correct bins.
Younger children will get to understand what things are made of.
Also talk about how all the things we have come from the earth. Aluminium comes from under the earth. We use it in so many ways. Allah has spread it in the earth for us to use not abuse.
Paper, cardboard comes from trees which have been spread out all over the earth. Ask the children what we use paper for? What fun it is to write and draw, but we don’t waste. If we throw the paper into paper recycling we helping the earth.
Older children can watch a video on recycling and caring for the earth, our carpet and cradle.
Allah has spread out the earth for us to use not abuse.
Food comes from earth, Eat but don’t waste food. Kullu washrabu wala tusrifu. Eat and drink but do not waste.
STATION 3
Children use dolls to rock them to sleep. We show them a small cradle and how a mummy will put her baby in a cradle and gently rock them to sleep. The baby does not feel the movement and feels so comfortable and safe. They can cover the dolls with cosy blankets and hold them so gently and play.
With all children holding a doll and rocking it, we talk about how Allah also does the same. He puts us on earth a planet that is also our cradle. It moves 1600 km per hour. That’s like all the way to Turkey approximately. And that’s just one hour of movement. But we don’t feel it. We are cradled in this amazing and safe way. Mummies care for their babies so much, so carefully, so they don’t feel anything uncomfortable. Allah does the same. What we feel is the daytime and night time from all this movement that Allah has designed in the spreading out of the earth.
Older children can watch a video here of the spin of the earth to understand this movement.
Saj, u can bring Abbas here for the children to see and if you have a cradle, then that would be great for them to feel too.
STATION 4 – actor 3 and actor 4
Water is a treasure that Allah has spread in the earth.
Approximately 70 percent of the earth is covered in water.
Allah is His infinite wisdom has covered a larger part of the earth with water. We need water to sustain life.
Ask children how they use water in their day?
We drink it, we wash with it, wudhoo, body, clothes, homes, we swim, we brush teeth, we flush toilet, cook food etc.
Lets treat is as the treasure that it is.
Have an IKEA bin with water in it. Tell the story of Samak the Fish. Samak the Fish is a sponge fish (cut out fish shape from sponge)
This is Samak the Fish. He is a happy fish that lives in the crystal clear river water. Put the fish in the ikea plastic bin. He loves looking at the trees above when he swims by the surface. He is really happy for he has air to breathe and lots of insects to eat.
Now ask? How do you think samak feels?
One day, Samak wonders whats beyond the part of the river he lives in. He decides to go explore and see the world.
Along the river, Samak comes across a spot where bulldozers are cutting all the trees and clearing all the land. Soil and dirt from the building site roll into the river because there are no tree roots to stop the dirt rolling in. Samak gets dirt into his gills and without the trees, Samak notices he is feeling so much warmer.
Pour the dirt into the ikea container.
Samak tries to swim away as fast as he can. Further down, some pipes are pushing smelly oils into the river. The water is so slimy.
Pour in the coloured water and oil.
Samak is feeling really ill now.
Samak does not like swimming in the dirty polluted river. Above him he hears a boy. The boy says, Mummy I don’t want to swim in the river. Its smelly and dirty.
Would you like to swim in this river?
What can we do to prevent this happening in the water that Allah has spread all over the earth?
Discuss
Thank Allah for the water He has spread for us and pledge.
meandmawla 