 So who knows what astaghfirullah means? I seek forgiveness and that's what today's concept is all about. It's about toba. Can you guys say toba? Toba. Excellent, masha'Allah. So toba is what we use when we want to ask for forgiveness. So toba literally means coming back to Allah's prentahala. So sometimes when we do bad things, we're getting farther and farther away from Allah's prentahala. But when we seek toba, we're coming back to what Allah's prentahala has taught us, all the goodness that we do. So we're going to go over three books today. We're going to go over my special angels, the two noble scribes. We're going to go over a whale swallowed me. And then we're going to go over the last book, which is forgiving others. Each book has something to do with toba. So when we're reading it, I want you guys to think, hmm, what can I learn about toba from these stories? Can you do that? Okay, alhamdulillah. At the same time, salamu alaykum, we're going to go over three of Allah's prentahala's names. We're going to go over al-ghfir, al-ghafa, and attoab. Can you guys say those three names? Let's try, let's do it together. Let's see if we can do it together. Al-ghafur, al-ghafa, and attoab. Excellent, masha'Allah. And finally, we're going to learn all about the steps of toba. That we're going to do in a song, so it'll be easy to remember, insha'Allah. So the first book I'm going to read today is My Special Angels, the Two Noble Scribes. It's written by Razan An-Noor and illustrated by Omar Barjas. So what do I say when I start up reading a book? Thank you, can we do it all together nice and loud? Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Thank you, now I can start it in the name of Allah. So everyone's going to get a chance to see a page. After I'm done reading, I will share the page with the whole room. So if you can't see it good now, don't worry, because I will share it at the end of each page. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Did you know wherever I go, there are two angels who follow? The one on my left and one on my right, they don't let me out of their sight. Sent by Allah when I was small, they watch me walk, wriggle, wiggle, and crawl. They write down my deeds good and bad, so I can later see the life I've had. Do you see all the things he's doing in the book? Some of them look like they're really good things, some of them, what do you think? Some of them are they good choices? Some of them are not very good choices. You don't know, we'll talk about Angel. Angel on the right is filled with joy. Whenever I share my favorite toy, he is so happy and oh so glad when I stop myself from getting mad. So why was the angel on the right happy? He shared his toy, yes, with his friend or his brother, and why else was he happy? Not the jumping on the bed part. The one who's jumping on the bed did something, looks like it broke his toy. So what did he do? The little one did, but I think because he's very tiny. What about the older brother, what did he do? Did he get angry? Good, so I'm gonna call on the person who raises their hand, okay? But the great, great, great things that you guys said, masha'Allah. So he is so happy and oh so glad when I stop myself from getting mad. So he stopped himself from getting mad, and he got happy. Exactly, masha'Allah, masha'Allah. Thank you for sharing that knowledge with us. Did you wanna add anything? No, you were gonna say the same thing? When I do a good deed, big or small, he is ever so pleased and proud of them all, like helping daddy plant a seed and giving food to those in need. Those are some great good deeds. Now don't forget the other one, angel on the left, his job's no fun. He notes down all the times I'm bad. It makes him feel so very sad, happy when he does bad things. Looks like he pushed him because his friend won the game. So he was not happy that he won the game. We should be happy for our friends when they win something, right? I think it's like a little game boy. Sometimes they have game boys. You can take it all around with you. That's true, and if you look at the picture, that was a very good observation. His says winner, but what does his say? Can you guys read it? It's kinda tiny. It says, game over. So he lost. He was not happy to lose. So he did something wrong, so let's see what happens next. To stop the angel feeling blue, there is something I can do. Say I'm sorry and try my best to not do it again. That's my test. When I'm sorry, he jumps with glee and rubs away my naughty deed. Now I know it's never too late to right my wrongs and change my fate. So when with people or alone, I do good deeds without a moan. That way I know I'll be really blessed and make my angels super impressed. So when my deeds are with Allah, he will reward me with jannah, insha Allah. Can everyone say insha Allah? Insha Allah will reward us in jannah. What did you guys think of that book? That was a nice book. Good, thumbs up book? Nice. Four, ten fingers up, because I think you only have two thumbs. Yes, insha Allah. That was an excellent book. Do you know what this book taught me? It taught me about the steps of doba. Do you guys want to learn about the steps of doba? Yeah? All right, so I'm going to teach you the steps of doba. First we're going to go over the steps of doba and then I kind of made a song for it. Do you guys want to learn the song? Okay, good, but you're going to have to sing it. When we were doing the staghfaat, I was the one that was being very loud. I need you guys to be louder than me. Can we do that? Yeah. No? I think we can. If you all together, I think we can do it. All right, so the first step is we stop right away. So put your hand out and say stop right away. Stop right away. Stop right away. So if we're doing something wrong and we're getting angry, what do we do? Stop right away. Stop right away. Good, that is the first step of doba. Stop right away. So now the second step is we feel remorse. Can you guys do that? Do it with your hands. Feel remorse. Do you know what feel remorse means? Sad. We feel sad in our heart that we maybe hurt somebody or we did something wrong and we didn't please Allah, so what was the first step again? Stop right away. What's the second one? Feel remorse. Good. Let's try the second one one more time because I know that one's a tough one but remorse is just the word that means that we're feeling sad inside because we did something wrong. That's a good feeling to feel because it reminds us that we have to fix that mistake. Oh, what was that third one then? Can you guys do this? Fix our mistake. So first step, stop right away. Second step, feel remorse. Third step, fix our mistake. Good. Now the fourth one, shabra, fix our mistake. The fourth one is stay away. Can you guys do that? Stay away. Because we want to stay away from those bad things, right? We don't want to keep doing them over and over and over again. We want to stay away from them. So let's try that all together. First step, stop right away. Second step, feel remorse. Third step, fix our mistake. And then fourth step, stay away. Good, stay away. So now I'm going to teach you guys the song but I really do need your help singing it, okay? So I'm going to sing it the first time and you guys can listen but in the second time I'm going to need you guys to be loud, all right? All right, good, inshallah. So here's the Steps of Tova song. Bismillah. We try to say we're sorry, sorry, sorry. We try to say we're sorry in the Islamic way. The first step is to stop right away, stop right away, stop right away. The first step is to stop right away in the Islamic way. The second step is to feel remorse, feel remorse, feel remorse. The second step is to feel remorse in the Islamic way. The third step is to fix our mistake, fix our mistake, fix our mistake. The third step is to fix our mistake in the Islamic way. The final step is to stay away, stay away, stay away. The final step is to stay away in the Islamic way. Because Allah is El Ghafar, El Ghafar, El Ghafar. All right, do you guys think you can do it? I'm going to have you guys all stand up and you're going to have to do the hand movements just like me. Do you think you can do it? All right, Bismillah, let's do it all together. I'm sorry, I'm a little sick so my throat is scratchy. We try to say we're sorry, sorry, sorry. We try to say we're sorry in the Islamic way. The first step is to stop right away, stop right away. The first step is to stop in the Islamic way. The second step is to the second step is to it's the Islamic way. The third step is to fix our mistake. The third step is to it's the Islamic way. The final step is to stay away, stay away. The final step is to it's the Islamic way because Allah is El Ghafad, El Ghafad, El Ghafad, Allah is El Ghafad and he forgives us every day. Masha'Allah, great job you guys, good job. Thank you for helping me sing my song, the throat is really hurting and you guys really helped me say it nice and loud, Alhamdulillah. So Masha'Allah we learned about the steps of Toba. This reminds me of one of Allah's Fanta'a, Allah's names. So we learned one of Allah's names that we said that we would go over, it was El Ghafad. What does El Ghafad mean do you guys think? That means it's one of Allah's names and that means he forgives us over and over and over and over again every day. So that's why we used him in that song. But there's another name of Allah, that I want you guys to learn. So who knows the first surah that was sent down? All right, Surah Al-Adhaq. Now who knows the last surah that was revealed? Close. It does begin with the noon. Does anyone know? It's close. It begins with the noon. Too late, close. No. Good try. It's, do you want to try? But good try you guys. It's surat al-Nasr, nice job. The last surah revealed was surat al-Nasr. Can you guys all read surat al-Nasr nice and loud? If you know, if you don't know, just try and follow along, inshallah. What was that last word of the last surah revealed? And that's another one of Allah swt's names, at-tawab. And do you know what at-tawab means? That Allah swt loves when we seek toba. Imagine the last surah that was revealed, the last word was Allah saying, keep asking for toba. I am at-tawab. That means I want you to come back to me when we do something wrong. So that's why it's very, very good. To always try and do the steps of toba. So when I think of toba and asking for forgiveness, I think about the prophets. And one of my favorite prophets stories is the story of Prophet Yunus al-Aysalam. So we're going to read this next book. A whale swallowed me, the story of Prophet Yunus al-Aysalam. You do? It's a good story to hear. Allah swt, the one and only, chose Yunus from amongst his people to be a prophet. Prophet Yunus's people prayed to make believe gods. They made from stone. Prophet Yunus's job was to teach his people about the oneness of Allah. Prophet Yunus tried to explain there is only one God. He warned his townspeople of Allah's punishment if they didn't follow his rules. Our fathers and grandfathers have prayed to these gods for many years and no harm has come onto them. Prophet Yunus's people argued. Prophet Yunus tried to explain and warn his people, but they never listened. I am leaving, Prophet Yunus finally said. He left his town feeling angry with his people for not listening to him. Prophet Yunus knew Allah would punish them soon for not worshipping Allah swt alone. After Prophet Yunus left town, the sky turned red. The clouds looked like they were on fire. The Prophet Yunus's people became super scared. They remembered Prophet Yunus's warning about Allah swt's punishment if they didn't believe in him. This is a real story. Prophet Yunus's people gathered on the mountain and they all said sorry to Allah swt. They all saw it, doba. They prayed to Allah alone and they hoped Prophet Yunus would come back and guide them again. Allah listened to the people's prayers. He quickly removed his anger and the sky turned blue again. Wow, thank you Allah. They cheered happily. Allah forgave them. Prophet Yunus's people and gave them another chance. Allah swt is so kind. Prophet Yunus had already left the city. He had no idea that his fellow townspeople asked Allah for forgiveness. Prophet Yunus was on a ship with other people sailing far away in the calm sea. You think so? Let's find out. When night time came the sea suddenly changed. A horrible storm started and the ship's captain got super worried. He feared the ship might sink because it carried a super duper heavy load. Throw your bags in the sea, the captain yelled, we need to take off some of that heavy load. Only people, but only Allah knows. It doesn't say that in the story. The waves were harsh, yes. And they were scared the boat would sink. So because it was too heavy they said we have to start throwing out heavy stuff into the sea to make the boat lighter so that it could stay on top of the waves instead of sinking. So they start throwing out all of their bags first. Let's see what they throw out next. The passengers did as they were told, but the ship still stayed super heavy. The captain decided that one of the passengers would need to jump into the sea to make the weight of the ship lighter. It was the only way to save the rest of the passengers. That seems like a scary thing to do, to have to jump into the sea, let's see. The captain of the ship made a set of straws with all the passengers' names. He closed his eyes and he picked one of the straws to see who will have to jump in the sea to save all the others. The straw he picked had Prophet Yunus' name on it. Oh my God, oh my God, Prophet Yunus is the best man here. One of the passengers cried out, please don't let him jump into the sea. The captain agreed. He closed his eyes and he tried again. But the straw he picked was the same one. It was Prophet Yunus' name again. Oh my God, no way. The passengers yelled. The captain decided to give it one last try. So this is now the third time he's trying. He closed his eyes and he picked again. To his surprise, the straw he picked was still the same one. It had Prophet Yunus' name on it. Prophet Yunus realized that it was Allah's will, perhaps that was his punishment for being angry with his people and leaving instead of being patient. Prophet Yunus stood at the edge of the ship and he jumped into the deep sea. At that moment, Allah swt chose a huge whale and ordered it to swallow Prophet Yunus whole. Prophet Yunus was trapped alone in three different kinds of darkness. First, the darkness of the night. The darkness at the bottom of the sea. And then in the darkness inside the whale's tummy. So dark. A darkness we can't even imagine. Even though Prophet Yunus, how he said, was in the belly of a whale, he never stopped praying to Allah. He felt bad for being angry with his people and leaving without Allah's permission. He kept saying the same prayers over and over again. There is no God but you, O Almighty Allah. I know I did something wrong. This is based on surat al-enbiya. It's not an exact translation. Allah listened to Prophet Yunus' prayers and saved him. Allah ordered the chosen whale to surface up to the shore and let Prophet Yunus out on dry land. So dark, all you see is eyeballs. Prophet Yunus was feeling very ill when he came out. The sun was too hot and the land was too dry. Ouch. Can you say that a little bit louder? So the book, it says Jonah because that's how you can say his name in English. But I like to say it the way that most of us are familiar with, which is Yunus. But you can say Jonah or Yunus. It's the same name. Prophet Yunus never stopped praying to Allah. So Almighty Allah ordered a gourd vine to grow over him. The leaves grew so big that they made a nice shade and protected his body from the sun. So imagine he was in the dark for so long that when he came out and he felt the sun, it was hot and burning his skin. So Allah caused the plant to grow and protect him in its shade. Prophet Yunus, alayhi salam, felt a lot better and thanked Allah for his mercy. He decided to go back to his people and this time he promised to be more patient. What do you think he'll find when he goes back? His people were super happy to see him. He went back to guiding and teaching them all about Allah, the greatest. The whole town prayed to Allah alone and became a good and kind people. Sounds like when they sought forgiveness from Allah, they meant it. What does that mean that they had if they really meant it? What was the second step of Toba? They felt remorse. Good. The end. What did you guys think of that book? Great. Yeah, it's good. Tamsa? Good book? Nice. Alhamdulillah. So with this book, I thought of two of Allah's names. So remember we said we were going to go over three? We went through At-Tawab. And then in the song we went over which one? Al-Ghafah. So the final one is Al-Ghafur. So Allah's name is Al-Ghafah and Al-Ghafur are very similar to each other. But Al-Ghafah means that we get forgiven over and over and over again because do we do bad things just once every while? Usually we do it more than we should, right? So that Al-Ghafah means that we'll get forgiven over and over and over again. But Al-Ghafur means that Allah swt will forgive us no matter how small or how big our sin is. So that gives us hope that no matter what, Allah is ar-Rahman and he will forgive us inshallah. You want to do the next book? All right, let's do the next book. Make sure. Bismillah. The final book is called Forgiving Others. We are, we're almost ready to go paint and I'm gonna teach you how to, okay? Okay, inshallah. This is the final book, inshallah. It's called Forgiving Others. It's from Ali Gader Production. There's no author written. They have a lot of really good books. They're from Australia. And I really like their pictures and their stories. So you'll see now. Australia is a cool place to live. 30, we'll say inshallah. So we learned all about how to ask for forgiveness. But another really important part of forgiveness is forgiving others. So that's why I really like this book. Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Ali, let's go and play at Bilal's house, invited Faisal. No, I don't want to go anymore to Bilal's house, replied an unhappy Ali. Why don't you want to go to Bilal's house? He's your friend, asked Faisal. You don't understand. Yesterday, Bilal pushed me over in the playground and made me hurt myself, answered Ali. Sorry, I think I forgot to show you guys the page last time. Yes I do, don't you remember? Last year when we were playing and Bilal hit me on the head with his racket and I hurt my head, explained Faisal. So he knows. Then Bilal came to my house and apologized. He said he was sorry and that it was an accident. He told me that I was his friend and that he would never try to hurt me on purpose, said Faisal. Fast through this book. That made Ali think, hmm, maybe Bilal didn't mean to push me over. Maybe it was an accident. Said a very happy Ali. Well then, let's go over to Bilal's house. Said an even happier Faisal. So it sounds like he made good reasonings that maybe it was just a mistake. Faisal is a good example to Ali as he is a very forgiving person. Faisal forgave his younger brother when he was playing with his toy boat and he accidentally lost it at the pond. What do you think will happen when Faisal is forgiving his little brother for losing his boat? What do you think will happen? What did we learn in the first book? Yes, inshallah. Yes. Faisal also forgave his friend Ahmed when he forgot to come and visit Faisal at his house. So Faisal called Ahmed and went to Ahmed's house instead. This is some good ways to forgive someone. Faisal knows that he also makes mistakes and when he does, he knows his friends will forgive him. True friends don't hold grudges. They have patience and understanding for each other as no one is perfect. Faisal loves his mother as she is a very forgiving lady. She is the best example for Faisal as she is always kind to her family and friends. Because Faisal is a forgiving person, he has many friends. Ali and his friends like it that Faisal forgives them if they make a mistake because everyone makes mistakes. Alhamdulillah. So it sounds like Faisal forgives others because he understands that we want people to forgive us. And that reminds me of a hadith. The hadith says, be merciful to others and you will receive mercy. Forgive others and Allah swt will forgive you. So it's very important. One of the steps of seeking toba is to also forgive others. So do you guys remember what the four steps of toba are again? Yeah. What are they? Stop right away. Good, fix the mistake. And what's number four? Stay away. Oh, that's a fun one, come on. Stay away. Good. Masha'Allah. To help you guys remember, I made this little sheet. You guys will get one in the back and you have to go through a maze to figure out what the steps of toba are. Every time you get through a maze, it'll take you to the next step of toba, insha'Allah. So don't forget to pick one of these up, okay? You can do it later. And now I'm gonna talk about the craft. No, that's, yes, I heard all the, yes. Does blue have to be just for boys? The blue, it reminds me of the water and the ocean and also in the sky. I like the blues, the different shades. So when you look in the sky or when you look in the ocean, what color is that usually? Is it only blue? Sometimes it has some white in it. Sometimes it has some green in it. Good. Tints of different purple, especially the sky, yes. So when we do this craft, you'll see on the table there are different shades of blue and white that you can use. So you don't have to use one color. Do you see how the motion, it looks like lots of different colors, like the ocean waves? So what you're gonna do is, you're gonna find this right here on the tables over there. This says al-ghafad. To remind us when we see the picture, the Allah forgives us every day. And then this is a whale, so we can think about the story of Prophet Yunus, alaihi salam. And anytime we do something wrong, we know Allah swt will forgive us. So when you go to the table, you'll grab one of these stencils and we're gonna get, there's paint on their moms and dads, inshallah. All of us will help out. We're gonna put little dots, oh, come, come, come back. Once we're finished the directions, we can go, okay? We're gonna put little dots of paint all over the canvas, but not too much or it's never going to dry, okay? So we're gonna do little dots of paint, but we wanna do it different colors, spotted all around. When we paint it, we're gonna be careful, because if we go with the paint person really fast, what's gonna happen? The stencil's gonna come off and then where's the paint gonna go? Everywhere and we want to see this at the end, right? So we're gonna take our time and we're gonna be careful when we're doing the paint that we don't move the stencil. It's okay, I have wipes and it's washable. After we're done painting with the different colors and we like the way it looks, it should look something similar to this, but it'll have the stencil still on it. Don't forget to paint the sides, okay? And then we take the stencil off. This part we have to be really careful, because if we put too much paint, when we take the stencil off, all that paint is gonna come on there. So that's why we don't wanna put too much paint, okay? And then it's just gonna be a big blob of blue. Then it's just gonna be a big blob of blue. Exactly, which will still be pretty, but you will peel the black off, but only when you're done painting. So step one, dots of paint, different colors, just like the ocean and the sky. Then we're gonna carefully spread it so it has this wave motion. We're gonna paint the sides, and then we're gonna wait just a few minutes. You can get your sheet, you could do your maze, and then after a few minutes pass, then we'll peel the stencil off carefully, okay? You guys ready? Yeah. All right, bismillah. Make sure you're with a parent before we get started, okay? Just cause the paint is, it's got a big thing of paint. And I'll come and help, inshallah. Thank you.