Ramadan Joy

Layered Tissue Designs

Layered Tissue Designs

Materials

• colored tissue
• pen
• scissors
  
• glue stick

Directions

• Cut 4 pieces of tissue into 9" circles (starting circles can be any size)

   

• Fold each tissue piece separately
• Fold in half 4 times

• Lay the 4 folded sheets next to each other from dark to light
• Starting with the darkest sheet create dots near the top of the sheet and continue on into the other colors in an arch down to the lightest color
• Cut each tissue on the doted line
• Open up each sheet and past one on top of the other from dark to light

Habeeba's Samosa



Samosa (Arabic Samosa)

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lb. ground beef or lamb
• 2 onions chopped
• 1/2 bunch of chopped parsley and coriander
• 2 grated carrots
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• package of samosa wrappers or egg roll wrappers 
• oil for frying

Directions 

• Heat olive oil in frying pan add onions and saute over medium high heat until transparent
• Add meat and carrots and cook until meat browns, stir continuously
• Add remaining ingredients and cook until there are no more juices
• Check seasoning adding salt if necessary
• Wrap according to wrapper instructions and fry in hot oil for about 2 min on each side until golden in color

Makes about 30

Happy Ramadan Flags

The little flags were made by folding down the tops of square pieces of card stock and gluing ribbon under the fold. I used chip board letters on each flag.

I recently did the same project with some of my young friends and their moms.

The kids used construction paper and then wrote a letter on each flag. For hanging some of them punched holes in the top two corners of each paper and they threaded string the the holes and others did the same top folding method.

Ramadan Soup

Mauritanian Chicken and Vegetable Soup

 

The recipe is from my daughter Habeeba, who lives in Jeddah. She makes this hearty soup during Ramadan as part of their fast breaking and is served along with dates, crepes and somosa's. 

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. olive oil 
• 1/2 uncooked chicken
• 2 onions quartered
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 potatoes cut into quarters
• 4 carrots cut in half
• 1 sweet potato cut in quarters
• 3 tomatoes cut in quarters
• 3 sprigs of green onions
• 5 sprigs of parsley and coriander
• 1/4 cup uncooked vermicelli
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 cube chicken bullion
• salt to taste 

Directions

• Heat 3 tbsp of olive oil and saute onions and garlic for 3 minutes.
• Add tomatoes, green onion, parsley and coriander cook for 2 more minutes.
• Add chicken carrots, potatoes and sweet potatoes cover with 1 inch of water.
• Cover and simmer for 1 hour.
• Remove chicken from pot, place soup in blender and blend until smooth.
• Return to pot, add vermicelli and spices.
• Remove chicken from bones and shred, add to the soup, stir.
• Cook for 15 min until vermicelli is cooked.  Serves 6

 

Ramadan Advice

The following Ramadan advice has been shared by Ebad Rahman

Ramadan is a time when many of us renew and strengthen our relationship with the Qur’an after having been distant and estranged from it. Our copies of the Qur’an once again come off the shelves, and we are blessed to recite and listen to more of the Book, which “was revealed as a guidance for mankind, [a Book of] clear proofs of guidance and the criterion [distinguishing right from wrong].” (2:185)

Our love and esteem for the Qur’an increases by reflecting upon the miraculous nature of the Book, in which God puts forth this challenge:
“And if you are in doubt concerning that which We sent down upon Our slave [Muhammad], then produce a surah the like thereof, and call your witnesses other than Allah, if you are truthful.” (2:23)

The challenge remains (and will remain) unfulfilled, as God says in the next verse: “You cannot do it, and you will never do it.”

Elsewhere in the Qur’an, we are told “Say: ‘If all humanity and jinn gathered together to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce one like it, even were they to help one another.’” (17:88)

This is the i’jaz of the Qur’an, the miracle that incapacitates all from composing even a few verses that can even come close to its likes. Rather, the Qur’an left the best of poets, orators, and people of language speechless, only being able to say ma hadha kalaam al-bashr (“this is not the speech of any human”).

We should use the coming days and nights of Ramadan to exert ourselves to appreciate the miracle of the Qur’an. This miracle is such that each verse is called a sign (ayah). And, as Imam al-Busiri said in his Burda (the Poem of the Cloak) regarding the signs of the Qur’an: 

Because they have endured into our time, they surpass the miracles
Of prior prophets, which came but did not last.

May Allah shower His blessings upon us and expose us to the special spiritual breezes He avails to His servants in this month and help us taste from the sweetness of His Book! Ameen!

Ebadur Rahman memorized the Qur'an at the age of 15. He also graduated from Zaytuna’s Seminary Program in June 2008 and is currently pursuing university studies at NYU.

He blogs at E-baad-e News  http://www.facebook.com/l/;ebaadenews.blogspot.com/

Paper Ball Garland

This project is made exactly the same as the earlier Paper Ball project although it is smaller. For the garland I inserted 2 yards of ribbon into 6 of the small balls spacing them evenly apart.

Paper Balls

Materials

• card stock
• hole punch
• scissors or paper cutter
• brass clips (2 per ball)

Directions

• Cut card stock into strips (Large) 12" x 1" (Medium) 9" x 1" (Small) 6" x 12", cut 8 strips for each ball
• Stack the strips on top of each other making sure to align the corners
• Punch a hole through the stack in the center about 1/2" from the bottom, repeat with the other end
• Insert a brass clip through the hole punch and fold back tabs, repeat on the other side
• Open and separate the strips to form a ball.

Spinning with the breeze.

I inserted one of Silver Envelope's (www.silverenvelope.com)  Ramadan Craft tags into the center of the large Paper Ball with thread. Not only did the ball spin but the tag twirls inside the ball.

You can find the tags at: www.silverenvelope.com

A Ramadan Poem

The following poem has been shared by Siddique Abdullah.

Ramadan, the field of cultivation for the servant has come,

to purify the hearts from corruption and vices.

Therefore, adhere to it’s rights, in word and deed,
And take it as your provision for the final return (Hereafter).

For whoever plants seeds and fails to water them,
Will wail with regret on the day of harvest.

(Taken from Ibn Rajib al-Hanbali’s book: Lataaif al-Ma’arif)

Siddique Abdullah began his studies of the Arabic language at Markaz Al-Fajr and Markaz Al-Nile in Cairo, Egypt where he spent the summer immersed in a intensive study of the Arabic Language. He studied for two years at the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in Fairfax, VA where he was enrolled as a student in the Islamic Studies Department. He then spent two summers studying  the Arabic Language and Islamic Sciences at Abu Nur in Damascus, Syria.

He graduated from Zaytuna’s Seminary Program in  June 2008 where he  studied Arabic, Tajweed, Usool, Hadith, Tasawaf, Seerah, and Fiqh. His teachers included Imam Zaid Shakir, Ustadh Abdullah Ali, Shaikh Salik bin Siddina, Shaikh Abdur Rahman Taahir, Qari Amar Bellahi, and Shaikh Yahya Rhodus.

He has over ten years of experience teaching Arabic, Quran and Islamic Studies.  He has taught at Al-Huda School in College Park, MD and ILM Tree Home-schooling Co-op in Castro Valley, CA. He also has several years experience teaching Arabic to adults. He is currently the Director of the Arabic and Islamic Studies departments at Northstar elementary school in Hayward, CA.

Falling Star Garland

Another possibility for the falling stars, here the star strands are tied together to make long garlands.

 

 

Falling Stars

Decorative Star Strands

This craft would be a nice decoration for Ramadan or Eid but could also be a wonderful decoration for a child's room.

Materials

• sewing machine
• paper 
• star Pattern (your pattern could be anything; moon phases, flowers, butterflies, etc.)
• scissors
• curtain rod or dowel

Directions

• Use the pattern to cut your shapes and then cut lots and lots.
• Use the sewing machine and sew strands of stars to the desired length
• Tie the stands on the rod to form a curtain of stars