 Bismillahirrahmanirrahim I was about 22. I read the life of Imam al-Ghazali. Let me hold you up, the golden book. Can you pass me the golden book? I read his life when I was just a little older than you all, and it was so beautiful. And I thought he was such a wonderful person. He started out in life. He lived in Tus Iran, and his father was very poor, and his father was a weaver. But his father valued education very much. It's very important to learn. So the father really struggled and sent the boys to the best teacher. But then the father died. You see, the father is being buried right here. And Imam al-Ghazali went on and studied with many great teachers, and he kept all of his notebooks, and he wrote everything down carefully. And then one day, thieves came, and they took away all of his notebooks, and he screamed, Give them back to me. You know, it's everything I know. And the thieves said, You mean, if we take your notebooks away, everything will be gone? And that's when he realized you can't just know about things. You have to be what you've learned. It has to be carried in your heart. And then he became very famous, and he became a teacher, and he rose higher and higher, and he taught in universities, and he was the most famous teacher in the world. And then one day, he noticed things happened. Leaders were killed. Things happened. Life is brief. And then one day he began to worry. He thought, I'm out here. I'm teaching at this major university. I'm really important, right? And I'm doing it, kind of showing off. And I'm teaching all these people to do all these great things, and I'm not doing them myself. And so then he's thinking, I've got to leave. I've got to leave. How can I stay here and be a hypocrite? But then he was afraid, how can I leave? Because I'm the head of a university. I have a wife and two children. What will I do? You know, I can't walk out. And then you know what God did? One day Ghazali went into tea and he had no voice. His voice was completely gone, so he couldn't speak. So what he decided to do was to go on a long pilgrimage. So he left for 10 years. He came back and visited his wife and children occasionally. But you know what he did? He went all the way to Damascus and he became a janitor in a mosque. Do you know what a janitor is? See there he is cleaning the mosque. And a janitor is very humble. Not somebody who's proud or brags, right? And so he went very humble and then one day he realized, you know, Islam is not just about the outward look. Saying beautiful things, doing beautiful things. It's about your heart. It's about the way the prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was in his heart. So he wrote a book. He sat down here he is in Jerusalem. He went to Mecca, as you see. So he wrote a book, right? 40 books called the Revival of the Islamic Sciences. And in these books, starting with what I'm going to teach you today, from who we are when we're born to when we're die, he gave you the inner secret meanings of, where is my little clicker? Have I lost it? I have a clicker. Well, maybe I lost it. Well, I can just push the button. Alright, is this the button? Okay, this is this. Okay, so what happened is I read Al Ghazali when I was a little older than you all. And I thought, this is the most amazing stuff. And then I grew up and I went to Cairo and I studied at a university there for 10 years. Then moved to England and we went into publishing books. And then I started having grandchildren your age. And I started thinking, oh my goodness, grandchildren, they want to know the real meaning. Why do we really have to pray? Why do we really have to do all this stuff? I thought, wouldn't it be wonderful if we put Imam Al Ghazali into books for children? It's really hard. So we would have some great scholar translate his book from Arabic into English. And then I would take the English and I sat with it and I wrote children's stories. And the stories come with workbooks and they come with things for the teachers. But what I thought today we would do is I'm going to tell you stories today. I'm going to tell you some of the Ghazali stories. Then I'm going to show you some films of what children have made as a result of these programs, their own videos, and then we might do some games and play acting. So what we're going to do is start with, I'll press this, just this thing here. First we're going to start with something important. This is very deep, but it's about the human heart. If the Quran tells us that the heart, this is not the heart that's pumping blood. This is your real heart, the one I'm talking to. If the heart is the very essence of your being, and the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him, when he went on the ascension, right? He saw the highest perfection with his heart, right? And if the revelation, if the Quran, where did the Quran come? To his head or his ears? No, it came on his heart. So your heart is the place, the crossover between time and eternity. We're going to start with the book of knowledge of Ghazali. The first book he wrote, it's the first book of the 40. And in this book, he explains what's coming in all the 40. So it's a very important book and we have it here. So there are 40 stories. At first he says this, okay, I'm going to tell you. Alright children, I'm going to begin and tell you in your language what he told the scholars. Alright, I'm going to ask, tell you all something. Did you all know, did all of you know there are two kinds of learning? One learning is like practical, right? Math, two and two is four, eat correctly, don't eat too many sweets. But then there's the real special knowledge, real special learning. And you know what that learning is? That learning is how to polish the heart. Did you know you had two hearts? You see, there's the one on the left, that's your physical heart that pumps blood. But the one on the right is a symbol for the spiritual heart. That's the one, if I'm talking to you, I'm not talking to your ear or your hair, am I? I'm talking to you, I'm talking to your heart, right? So that's, your real heart is who you are. All of you have golden hearts. Have you heard the term fitra? That's the real nature. Inside you are pure, innate, pure goodness. That's who you really are, aren't you? You can feel it. That's who you are. But, every so often, you know, and then you know what the special knowledge is? How to polish the heart. Why would you have to polish your heart? What could happen to it? It could get dust on it. Let me think of some things. Maybe you don't share toys. Does that happen sometime? A little dust. When mommy called you, or do you help mommy all the time? No, a little dust. But the question is, why would you have to polish that heart? Because there are two worlds. This world we're in, right, is pretty quick, isn't it? You've seen, have you ever had a pet that died or a grandmother that died? This world is quick and it's full of problems. We all get problems. But these are ways we can polish our heart. And then we go to the next world. And the next world is forever and ever. And it's everything you've ever wanted. It's complete contentment and joy. So I'm going to tell you Ghazali's stories, alright? Now you know what your life is about, right? You're a pure heart. You're going to be sent difficulties to polish your heart with. And then there's the next world. So you don't have to worry about death, do you? No, there's the next world. Alright, so Ghazali tells a story about an aunt. Alright? He says, we're like ants on a piece of paper. Do you see that? And we see writing. Today we saw what happened in our day. And we think what happened in our day was because we can see a pan or a hand because that was what the plan was. But maybe something greater is going on than what we think we can see. Maybe Allah has other plans. So I'm going to tell you a story about the baby ants. Alright? And once upon a time there were some baby ants. And the mother and father said, we're going to take you to the zoo tomorrow. They were so excited. And the next morning the parent said, we're not going to the zoo because the relatives are coming. What do you suppose the baby ants said? They went, oh, but you said we were going to the zoo. You promised. And they were in moods. They were sort of in bad moods. We thought we were going to the zoo. And the relatives came. And the little baby ants all day long were kind of out of sorts. And then they heard on ant radio in the evening. They heard, oh, that very day a lion got loose at the zoo. And all the poor ants were running and terrified and falling. So the parent ant said to the baby ants, you know what they said? Allah sent the relatives to protect us from going to the zoo. Sometimes when there's a disappointment or something you would want to happen, it doesn't happen. Don't be upset. Wait to see the reasons for this. One day I live on a river in Kentucky, a big river called the Ohio. And one day we were going to take the grandchildren out on a boat. For the first time, my husband has a boat. And we borrowed a little life preservers. It was going to be a big deal, you know, to go out on the river. And they were so excited. And then the day it happened, my grandson Balal, he got sick. And so we couldn't go. Oh, we'd be so excited about the boat. And then the next day I went to visit him. And he was in bed. And I said to him, lucky you were sick, not lucky. Alhamdulillah you were sick. Because that day we would have been on the river. There were huge storms in Cincinnati. And logs and trees washed down. And dead cows and buildings, if we had gone out on the river, it would have been very dangerous. So look at that. Allah sent him to be sick. And then we went another time. So what the meaning of the aunt's story is, when something happens that you feel sad about or it didn't work out, you're disappointed. Don't worry. This means trust the law, right? Now another thing, Imam al-Ghazali tells you 10 things you can never do that dirty your heart. Don't brag. Do you all like kids who brag? No. Right. Don't be proud. You know, don't be angry. It's not good to be angry. Just be quiet. But there's another thing you shouldn't do. You shouldn't talk about other kids or other people. That's called back-fighting, isn't it? Did you all know about that? Oh, you do know about it. Oh, that's really important you know about it. Because back-fighting or gossiping is so bad. You know what the Quran says about it? It's really terrible. I'm afraid to tell you it's so horrible. But the Quran says if you talk badly about people behind their backs, right, it's the same as eating their dead flesh. Isn't that the most horrible image that's in our very Quran? So you shouldn't do it. And one day, yes, you didn't know about it. You know this is true. And I'll tell you what happened to me. I've been writing these book stories for children and I worked on the back-fighting chapter for 22 rewrites and I went out for dinner with some girlfriends and they were talking badly about somebody's father and I joined in and I said something bad and going home in the car I felt like sick at my stomach and you know what happened when I got home? I threw up. Exactly. Exactly. And I never had back-bited again. And one day, just a minute, one day a mother called me and she said I was at a ladies' party and we were talking about other ladies and my little daughter whispered, Mummy, are you back-biting? And I said, let me speak to your daughter, please. So she got on and she said, Auntie, until we read the chapter on back-biting I really had never heard of it and I thought, you know, this is amazing. My own mother used to say to me, once a month, my dear, if you don't have something good to say about someone, don't say anything at all. She should have been saying it every day because it's that bad, it's that bad. And so I realized we should really be careful and so many of our brothers and sisters, they'll say that group's no good. They're no good. That person's a cat or that. We shouldn't say anything. You promise you're never going to do it again? That's it. Full promise here? All right, good. And this is, see, in the workbook we have a place where you can color and that's how terrible it is. They're back-biting about that poor little girl who's sitting on the bench. Now, this is something you need to know about, too. Did you know you have three selves? Okay. Now, I can walk, right? I'm not tied up to something. Okay. You have your lower self. It's called the nafs al-amara. And you know what the thoughts that self has? That self has the kind of thoughts like you're doing it for yourself. You're thinking of yourself first, right? And then your scolding self, the nafs al-amara, it says, oh, really, you should help your mom. Don't have that thought. Have the correct thought. But then you can watch your thoughts. Sometimes I'm thinking I should get up and go and help that lady. And then that's a good thought. And then a thought over here says, oh, why bother? But I'm watching the self say what? I'm watching. So there's a self that can watch the whole thing. Okay, let's pretend this. Say you're in bed, you know, and you're getting ready. And your mother comes and she says, get up for school. Has that ever happened? Yeah, right. And her lower self said, I'm going to pretend to be asleep. Have you ever done that? I used to do that, right? And then her scolding self, I should get up and please, mother. And then her real self, my real self, I'm watching my lower self trying to win out. You've got to learn to watch that lower self. And I'm going to tell you a game we'll play later. This is a really good game. Like, you could stand here and she could stand here. And then you can give a good thought. Like, I'm going to help mommy. And then your friend can pretend to be the lower self. Why bother? Why don't you watch TV? You know, because there's a conversation. Watch the conversation and then step over it and do the right thing. Just push on through. So a good game you can play is you can stand up and tell a good thought. And then after you tell a good thought, you can stand over here and give a thought you're going to have like, why bother? I'm not going to do it. Once I had a good thought, there was a friend of mine in England who was very old. And every day I thought, call him, call him, call him. And every day I thought, oh, it's a different time zone. Oh, he'll talk too much. And you know what happened? He died and I never reached him. The good thought, I never got. The good thoughts are angelic. So when you have a good thought, like help mom, right? That's from the angels. And then the lower wasisu whispers, don't do it. Be on guard. Will everybody watch out for that? Yes. You'll watch out? Okay. So now, now something that you all, this is the last chapter in the book of knowledge. Now this is something you should all know. All right? These are two trees. Ghazali ends this wonderful book of knowledge and he said, we're all teachers. Do you know each one of you is a teacher? It's not just your teacher or your mother or me or anyone. We're all teachers because don't we copy each other? Yes, sometimes I see somebody and they do their hair this way and I think, oh, I'll do that. We're all copying each other. So you have to ask yourself, do I want what I'm doing right this minute to be copied? So Ghazali says we're like two trees. A straight tree, be like a straight tree and your shadow is straight, right? And the people who follow in your footsteps will be straight. Yes. That's right. Exactly. He hasn't exactly. What I want you all to be is all day long, imagine your straight tree if you're a crooked tree like this. What kind of a shadow does what kind of people? It's really wrong. So you're all teachers. Everybody knows that we're leaving today. We're all teachers, all right? Now we have the book of belief, the second book of Ghazali, which I have here. And this is a little bit hard to do with you today, but this is, now let me ask you a question. If I asked anyone of you to explain to me who and what and where is God, could you answer it? No. Okay, if my grandchildren asked me who and what and where is God, could I really answer it? No. But Imam Al Ghazali said it so simply and so easily that you know with this children's book there's a university in Cairo called Al-Azhar. They have put this into Arabic, even though it's a children's book for their students, because it's easier, because it's simpler than the hard parent book. And there is an Imam in England and he uses it for adult teaching. But this book is really fun and it shows what we believe and also shows what happens to us after we die. And we're going to later see a video. A little boy took Legos. You know what Legos are? Yes. Yeah. It's really quite funny. She saw it. We won't do it now. But he had a little Lego car driving along and it hit a tree, you know, and the car and you're going to see the film in a little while. And then suddenly he's like in his grave and then the two beings come and ask him who was his Lord, what was his scripture, all the rest. So this book is that we've done makes it really easy for you and what and where is God, right? And what happens to us when we die and all the rest. And there's a workbook for this too. Now, Mystery is a Purification. How many of you all do would do? Gosh, wow. All of you are big enough to pray? Yeah. This is, that's great. All right. So I'm going to tell you a story. Okay, children. Once upon a time, everybody listen. Okay, children. There's somebody. Oh, he's sorry. All right. Once upon a time, this is a story. There was a scholar. You see the scholar in his blue coat and he was very proud because he was very smart and he knew all the knowledge and an old man comes with the cane and he comes up to the scholar's door and he says, oh, scholar, what is Wudu? And the scholar thought, old man, you're a Muslim. You've lived in this village the whole, your whole life. How could you at your age not know what is Wudu? And the old man kept saying, Wudu, Wudu, I want to know what is Wudu? And finally the scholar thought the easiest way to get rid of him would be to show it. So there was a sink. He said, come in. He did Wudu. And then he said to the old man, now you do it. And the old man got it all wrong. He got it backwards. He did his feet first. You know, then his ears. So the scholar said, and this is what you're seeing in the illustration, bara out. Finally, throwing up his hands in despair, the scholar shouted impatiently, enough, get out of here, old man. The old man was shown to the door. But then the scholar started to worry. That's kind of weird. Wouldn't it be weird if you knew of an older gentleman in your community who didn't know how to make Wudu? So the scholar said to his doorkeeper, follow the old man and see what's going on here. So the old man, the helper came back and said, oh scholar, I have some very bad news for you. You know? That old man that you threw out, he is like the great, beautiful teacher of our village. We consider him very, very holy, very good. People go to him. So the scholar put on his robe and he walked into the town and he went to the old man and he went down on his knees and he looked up at the old man and he said, tell me what is Wudu? And the old man said, when you're washing your hands, we use our hands to do things, don't we? We do things. When you're washing your hands, you say, ya Allah, I'm sorry for things I've been doing. Help me to do things that please you. And when you rinse out your mouth, I'm sorry for things I've been saying. I just yelled at my sister. I just said some bad things. I'm sorry. Help me to say the right things that are pleasing. Listening. The right things to listen to. May my feet take me to the right places that please you. And so in the story, when the little children hear this, they say, wow, five times a day we can think, as we're doing our hands and feet and tops of our head and ears, we can think of things we should polish off our hearts. So five times a day, we get an opportunity to polish. All right? Oh, this is a very interesting story of Ghazali. Ghazali says, all right, I'm going to ask all of you a question. All right? If a king, we're going to come to your house tomorrow to visit you. A king, right? Would you polish the front door and make the house look great on the outside and inside you leave garbage and rubbish? That's like a law. If he comes to visit you, do you think if you're looking really good and clean and perfect, he's looking at your heart. So the heart is what you have to keep clean. And I'll show you a little film later that some children made about this. Here's a drawing in the workbook for you. Ah. Oh, this is interesting. If you invited a king to visit your home, would you only polish the door and leave ugly rubbish inside? How is this like doing wudu only with outward movements and leaving your mind and your thinking about something else? What does a law care about most? Your heart, right? Now prayer. Here's the book of prayer. All right? So, now, children, if you have some needs, some pressing needs, you need a new football or, you know, a new doll or whatever you happen to need, a big need, would you go to the president of a company or a CEO and knock on the door? Would he receive you? No. No. He doesn't care, right? If you have a need, guess who? A law is always, he wants to hear about your needs. He's waiting all the time. When are you coming with your needs to me? You know, when is a good chance to do that? Where's the place you ask him for what you need? Yes. Prayer, right? So prayer is very important because this is the place you go to meet him. Now, I don't know whether you all have noticed when you pray, sometimes when you're praying, you start thinking about other things. It happens. As soon as you begin, you start to think about other things. You know what Ghazali recommends? He says that everybody starts with the Lahu Akbar, right? The Takbir. That's it. When you do this, what you need to do is, no, I'm standing before the king. I'm standing before Allah, my creator, my Lord. And so, while you're doing this, children, get yourself in a position where you're standing in your heart in front of him. And you know when in about two or three seconds, you're going to be thinking about something else because this happens to people. But maybe the next prayer, you can make five or six seconds. Do you see what I mean? And then during the prayer, you're saying Allah Akbar when you change positions. Each time, try to remember, oh, let me not let my mind wander. It's not that you're the only people whose minds wander. All of our hearts minds wander. But Imam al-Ghazali teaches you how to do things to make your prayer better so that you're... Let me see what's next here. Oh, I have to finish one more thing about prayer. All right. This is really important, children. I know everybody's praying. And one little boy told me, I've got so I can do fajr in about 90 seconds. Another little boy said, I've got my wudu down to 30 seconds. But what Imam al-Ghazali asks is, do you want your prayer just to be doing positions and doing mouthing words? No, there's more to it. When you are bending, each of those postures mean something. When you're speaking, when you're saying ayat from the Quran, each of those are different. You have to have different states of being. For example, if you're saying supana law, you should get yourself into a state thinking, I'm an awe, glory be to my Lord. And you could stand there and feel awe for your Lord and Creator. Then when you're saying, show me the straight path, adinah sarata. You don't want to feel low and needy. So what you can do slowly in your prayers is each time you do a different posture and a different phrase, you can try to learn to be in the right state of being. So it's not just outer movements, it's an inner state of being. You all are studying hadith and the sunnah of the prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. What you're trying to learn to do is to be the way he is on the inside. We're copying the outside, but don't we want to copy the inside to be the way he is? Isn't that what you're trying to do? Yes. Okay. The previous part you just mentioned is the one I struggle with. Which one? About namas. About your mind? Yeah. The what? About the prayer. You struggle with that. But you know what? We all do. So it's good to be honest and say let's do something about it. Okay children. Whoops. I mean I'm just giving you the tiniest taste of what's in these books, these children's books. Okay. The mysteries of charity and fasting. Okay. Why are some... Okay. Children, I'm going to tell you a story. Wait. Uh-oh. There's a... Oh, I'm missing something. Uh-oh. I'm missing the one with the merry-go... Okay. Children, imagine this. All right. Everybody's here. You children are going out to the park today and there's a merry-go-round, but it costs a little bit of money. So you have a little bit of money and you pay. So the children in the story, they're on the merry-go-round and they're noticing there's some other children looking sad like they can't go. They don't have the money for the merry-go-round and they notice their clothes are really not so nice. And then the children leave the merry-go-round and they're on their way to visit Hajj of Dulla, who answers their questions in the magic garden where there are rabbits and spiders and everybody's listening to hear about Imam al-Ghazali and they get to the garden and as they're running up to the garden they pass this man who's begging. He's saying, Have you ever seen someone in need saying, Maybe you haven't. Just as the group of children turn the corner, they came upon an old man sitting on the ground begging for help. He kept repeating, So the children run to their teacher and they run and they say, Why are some people rich and some people poor? Have you ever wondered that? That's a real question, isn't it? So Hajj of Dulla says, Before I tell you, I want you to take this little money to the man out there. If someone reaches out in need, you help him, don't you? You don't not help him. And then he said, When you say, Lee la, Lee has two meanings, Lee for the sake of God, but Lee, it belongs to God already. In the Lee Latin, surely we belong to God, right? So then the children come back and they sit down and he says, I'm going to explain something to you all. So I'm going to explain it to you all right now. You're going to hear what Imam al-Ghazali explains why are some people rich and some people poor. He explains that everything you are or have, some of you have different skills, some of you are good in math, some of you are good in sports, some of you are specially kind, older people, we have different skills, we have different friends, everything we've got or have. Do you think we gave it to ourselves? Did you give yourself your parents? No. Did you give yourself your beautiful backpack? No. You know, all of the things you have and everything you are, those are all on loan to you from God. They're an amana, a trust. And you've got to return them if they're on loan, okay? Because he owns everything and we are just there to return them. So here's a story. This is, oh, it's good to return. This is the way not to give, okay? Once upon a time, the king who was like Allah, he said to this man here on the right, there's a poor family. I want you to take them food because Allah had given this man lands. He raised fruits and vegetables. He had sheep and cows. And Allah had given all this land to him as a trust, as on loan. But the man had forgotten it was on loan. He thought it was his. Sometimes I give charity and I think I'm giving from what I earned. That's not right. It's not from what I earned. It's everything that I have, my skills, my ability to earn are not even mine. So this man has forgotten and he takes the food. Okay, you stand here. I'll let you be the... Okay, you can... Okay, I'm going to hold the plate up high and reach up. Do you feel great? No. No. I'm making you feel little, aren't I? Okay? I'm making him feel less because he's having to reach up. Okay, and you stay here. Okay. So then, that's not the way to give, is it? Now, you come here again. This is my helper here. All right? So now, the king goes to another man and says, and I'll let that be you. Okay? And he's... What's your name? Malhab. And he's... Yeah, Malhab. You've been raised by a nice family. They've taught you about money and how to care for it. There's a poor widow in the town. She has no money to send her children to school. Take her the money, okay? So I'm the poor widow, okay? So kneel down a little bit. Okay, and hold me a plate of gold. Okay, low, low. So he's holding the plate of gold. Low. And then he looks up to me and you know what he says? Oh, blessed lady, what a favor and honor for me if you would accept what I bring on behalf of the king, right? In order to make it possible for me to fulfill my loan or duty to God. Oh, okay. So that's it. So now you know how to give. You give in such a way that you realize when you're giving to someone else, you are returning your loan to God because you don't own anything. Okay. Then they run back to the thing and this is one thing about fasting. Things, when you're fasting you learn patience and other things but also you know what you're doing in fasting? Same thing as a wudu. You don't just fast from food and water. You fast from saying bad things. You fast from listening to bad things. And you know something you can also do? You can go into the mosque with a sleeping bag and make in the last 10 days you could go and have your reading on the night and learn to have that wonderful last 10 days of Ramadan. Maybe just one day in the mosque. Okay, so... Okay. Okay, so we'll show you the videos the children have made. Children, we're going to show you because people are going to pray right now just a few minutes of footage that I want you all to do this. I want you to borrow people's iPhones and make movies showing how you do something wrong and then you know how to correct it. So these are some of the movies kids have sent from all over the world to the children's website. In this video, you're going to learn about the harm of pride and how it really affects one's feelings. To roll feet in the world what have you got? Do you want to see me try something? Student did was not right. This is what you call it being proud of yourself really hit that girl's feelings. The next year? Yes. We will celebrate together. My name is Manha. This is my sister, Adwa. We have read the Book of Belief by Hadrat Iman Wazali. It is part of our creed that all dead, good or bad shall be put in this the scale by Allah's love. Generosity. Patience. Hearing. Trust in God. Forgiveness. Now it's our time to go. Thank you for the bombs. Goodbye. That was gross. Drink something good. You two girls have to go and say sorry. Yes. Now we have tanked. It was very bad. We shouldn't have done that. There was such yummy food but we liked it. That's why we were saying that it's a bad thing to do. We're sorry, Manha. We'll just go and say sorry. Good. And I'll just sit here and wait for you. Yes. We're sorry. We just liked everything you gave us. So we just said that. We're sorry. Okay. Thank you. My name is Anafsen. And I am going to say that I like to say that girls turn back bite. And also not peacocks. So why should we back bite? It's a bad thing. We also shouldn't back bite. In chapter 11 it talks about things that could hurt your heart. One of the things is being greedy. We shouldn't have had so many plays. No. How are you trying to work it like me? I'm a very wealthy businessman. Because I earned it. You're just a beggar on the street. You don't deserve any work. Okay, man. Then goes to work. And there's a big surprise waiting for him. You've done a terrible job with this project. I'm not happy with anything that you're doing. No, man. Just give me one more day. One more day. No. I'm done with you. You're fired. Being fired. The greedy man finally knew what he was doing wrong. He was not caring about others. And being greedy. So then he had a change of heart. And did something that changed his life forever. May I have some money, again? Yes. I'm just so sorry about everything. I just got fired. Because I had, you know... Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. I get to 200. We were having a cartwheel contest. Are you spying? Look at your test scores. Leave what does not contain you. Okay, here's Lena. She's going to read what she wrote. Say hi to the camera. Hi. Okay. Let's see what she's going to write. What she wrote. You have two hearts. One of them can get dirty. You have dirt on it. And the other comes blood throughout the body. I learned this from El-Razali. If you don't know who El-Razali is, he is on the YouTube. And I drew a heart that accidentally got dirty. So you're polishing your heart. And this is the heart that comes blood throughout your body. Thanks for watching. My sister and I made a cardboard castle out of a box we had. My brother and I made a cardboard castle. And we both painted the windows gold. And we both painted the outside gold. And decorated it. To make it pretty on the outside. And we dumped garbage on the inside. This project was to remind us of a man Ghazali's stories. Of Madame Ghazali's stories. If you invited a king to come to your home. To visit your house. Would you just polish the outside and shine the door? Does he polish the door? King think if he finds trash inside. On the wooden castle. It would be like you only wash the outside of your body. And leave the ending and bad moods. And not helping Mama. You can make a box castle too. You can make a box castle too. To remind you that being clean on the inside matters most to God. That's what matters the God most. Did you know you had three selves? A lower self, a blaming self and a real self? What is something unkind, your lower, not your real self does? This false self only cares about itself. Maybe it talks badly about others. Don't identify or think you are that low false self. You can watch it and correct it. Now what does your blaming self say to this lower false self? Maybe it scolds. Oh don't do that. It's beneath the dignity of your real true self. And your true self is watching and hopes. Oh please be your shining heart. Be your real true self. If your mother says you are naughty. Which self is she speaking to? Not your real self. Did you know you have two hearts? Yes, there's the one inside you that beats and pumps blood around your body. It needs good food and exercise. But then there's your real shining heart. Which is your real true self. It gets dirt on it when you do things that are beneath your dignity. Being selfish and not sharing or not helping your mother. You can polish her special invisible heart when it gets dirty. And keep it the way it truly is full of light. You can remind yourself of things you wish to polish away on your heart drawing. Imam al-Ghazali says we may not be as strong as an elephant or a camel. Or as brave as a lion. But we can polish our hearts and get closer to God and reflect His nur, His light. The key activities that I like to think that make this place really special are the Sunday school, the hub club Sunday school, and the Quran madrasa as well. So there was, when this place came into being, I think a lot of people agreed that there was something about this place which reflected peace and suku. The Sunday school came into being about three years ago. We started with very few kids. But I had a vision for the school and it was to make it something that was excellent and different from what was being delivered elsewhere. So that the kids came and had a buzz about being here, that they loved to be here. And they would go home wanting to come back the next week. That they would develop a love for their deen. And that they would understand that making the deen part of their lives is as important as excelling in their dunya. There's no doubt that the Ghazali Children's Project has actually been transformational for our school. It's really helped the children have a deep and spiritual understanding of the key aspects of Islam. The really good thing that I think has come out of seeing the kids this year was to do some recap sessions on the work that they had already covered. And it was very easy to see how much they had learnt and all of the aspects of the Ghazali Children's Project involving self development and spiritual understanding was quite deep set in many children already. So when we were asking them to do activities or make posters or reflect about certain topics such as the Baraka Blue video which they had watched during the lesson they came out with answers straight away. And were able to make posters and illustrations about what they thought was most important from the video without much effort at all. And I think this is what we really want our children to take with them when they grow up. So we hope that the nuggets of information that they get from the school are things that they will take with them all their lives and then pass on to their children as time goes on. How can we put more water in? How do you think that relates to learning? The likeness of a person who's arrogant and proud of his actions is like somebody who's like a rock. And on top of the rock is just a thin layer thin layer of soil or dust even. I'm having bits then. I'm having lots of leisure. I'm playing games. With all those things. But I still need to do. Do the things that are important in my life? Where's my sular and my hutch and my charity and my kindness and my fasting? Where's it going to fit? Practical, visual. I think the children we found out last year that the children really love the practical side of it. I think they love the practical activities that we did with them. Especially the younger ones. And even the older ones actually. The older ones love it too. They're quite like. Absolutely love it. We go through the curriculum. Look at the activities don't we? Because there's some very useful activities in there. Yes, yes. And they always connect to perhaps the ground, which is useful for us as well, isn't it? We like the practical activities the best. We do like practical activities. And sometimes if we find that they don't suit our class then we will modify them or we'll change them or we'll do little drawings, make little drawings to help each other understand what we're trying to say. And we write it with the view to upgrade it for the older children. And to bring it lower to the level of the younger children. Yes. And we've tried to have a format starting with a story, a little bit of an activity, a little bit of the workbook if necessary, even if it's just referring to it for them to look at at home. And then maybe ending with some liquor, which is a really lovely way to just end with a bit more contemplation. We look at the curriculum. Yes. And we look at the chapters. And we read through the chapters see what we think are the key elements. Yes, yes. And then we look at the curriculum. That's a regular slide, isn't it? Yes. We try and read. If we can't read all of it, we'll pick out the main points. And then we can use this Ghazali book, which is the workbook. And it connects, doesn't it? We also try and bring in as many personal stories as possible as well. Yes, yes. We try and tell a story about ourselves. Yeah, because then the children think it's not something abstract. It's something that you've faced. I was angry. I did this. Or I did this. Or I saw this. Yes, yes, yes. It's nice to make it personal. Yes. But the things that they remember are the things that they've drawn or seen. Yeah, it's true experience. But they get actual experience. I mean, there's no doubt that the kids of all ages benefit greatly from examples and stories, parables and things that illustrate a key point like the activity that you did with the candles and the sand activity where the kids had to hold some sand in their hand and then the sand slipped through their fingers on the floor and it was trying to illustrate the point that if you say something that hurts someone else, it's very difficult to take it back. The younger kids engaged with that really well. The moment I read the first three or four lines of the idea where we have candles representing our hearts, after that, I just went with it with my own creativity. And once I started it with the kids, they were bringing their own thing into me. So we had the candles and the question was, what's the purpose of the candle? It was for it to be lit. And if it's not lit, it's not fulfilling its function. These weren't in the book, but these were the directions you can go into. And then there was one where I started speaking amongst the candles themselves, oh wow, you have this light on you, why don't I have it? So when I'm teaching life after death, for example, an activity I'll do is I'll prep a student from beforehand and the student in the middle of the lesson will, at the start actually, will come up to my desk asking can they take something? And they'll collapse on the floor and then they'll get back up with a piece of paper saying I've come back, but what if you don't? So the students actually, they feel this punch really because they're not expecting it and they really awaken them to respond from an emotional perspective, which they otherwise might not do if they've just come from a PE lesson or a science lesson. So it's about awakening the spirit within the individual. Another activity I do is talking about Zagat. When they come in, I say, I'm in a very good mood today. You can have a blank check and the head teacher has signed it already. So how much money do you want? So they make a list of everything that they're going to spend the money on and then we've been a bit in numeracy because then I say figure out 2.5% off this and then they have to figure out there's a guard and where they spend their money and you really tap into what they value in life as well what they'd be spending their money on. Elaborate. What's the connection between greed and the heart then or spirit? The voices. Elaborate. There you go. I mean, the bad character comes from a bad heart and a bad spiritual state. That's why they're connected. That's why what you said is the same as what we started is that spirituality class because you almost feel like in this class you're more in touch with your spirit and you also said you're in a self because you are more your spirit which is your inner self, aren't you? More than your outward self. And you know how less you you know the significance of your outward self check this out your outward self is so insignificant it's always changing your face changes throughout life your face ever the same if you looked at yourself in 10 years time you'd be like whoa that's what I look like right and if you looked at yourself 10 years ago you'd have said that's what I look like but your spirit that's almost got like a different form and she said that greed is linked to the heart and that essentially these classes are about the heart and that's why his and the heart is linked to the spiritual self and that's why we connect our experience in manners and in good character how it links to spirituality and that's why he called it the spirituality class but it's them we know that when a person talks about their journey it's like they're traveling again I was mentioning a story to my friend yesterday and he said it's like as if I'm traveling the story with you get a person to recall their story they get their feels from that story and that's what we just did with the kids tell me your story of the Ghazali class last year and let them go on and on and on let them have that moment and let them almost dialogue with themselves as Rumi says that when we speak know that you only have an audience of one and that can either be taken that God is your audience or you are your own audience but the problem that I faced teaching them was mainly the thick side of it all because as Ishaq will tell you as well thick for myself as well growing up was quite boring learning is too technical and that was the problem we were having when we were teaching them Salah or Zaka but Ghazali is spiritualised thick isn't he that's it so that's why we now started to use that approach because before it was still technical and we could actually see kids falling asleep during the thick lessons and so many times you would say to me what is going on look at the kids they are falling asleep so recently we have started to reassess the way we are teaching them the thick it spiritualised it all and it made it very fun for them and easy to understand it but the other problems that I think with teaching that age range the Ghazali project is wonderful for the younger children and we have had to adapt it a bit for the older children the Ghazali project for me has been more of a character development course when I describe it it feels like it's a development of character and it's an opportunity for youngsters to really take some of those key principles of Imam al Ghazali from his teachings and for us to translate those essential points that every human being should think about in a way that they can not just understand but also apply to the junior level there's definitely something that works with the kids but when we get to teenagers teenagers essentially are just young adults and it's like in mathematics so when I'm teaching maths I don't change the principle of maths I just change the scenario it's just making it relative and so when we hear in the Ghazali book I mean the superhero example that I gave because the kids would relate to that and that's why the journals are key here because let it be their own reflection let it be their own lives and that's why discussions and debates are cool because you get to hear more from them I mean one of the things I benefited in this I think the kids have benefited and that's one of the way that the 15 year old's classes went towards where we just came in and I just asked them how was your week because we'd already established what the class was about so they almost answered that question from that perspective and then just let them speak and then they'll just be like yeah it was this and so on and so back by if the same ones that's job done the rest is just enjoy the class and this is one of the focuses we've had is that they enjoy and I think for that teenage year really it's like from Ali radi allahu anhu's advice 14 onwards just accompany them so how are you going to take that Ghazali learning and do it with kids at that age it's almost let them come in and just be let them just go on that journey with you and you just accompany them on that journey once I wasn't getting any sort of reaction from them at all and I said you guys are tired of something you've been playing too much Fortnite and they're like Fortnite sir you play Fortnite you play Fortnite sir I said no I don't play it I know you guys do that's why you're all tired so that prompted them to suddenly to wake up and they're like different people after that once you can kind of relate to them at a certain level so I think it's important as well to know what kind of environment they live in and then contextualizing your teaching into that environment yeah I think with all the children and teenagers one of the most important thing is not just speaking to them as if you are reading from a book but rather become a personification of the book itself and creating a human connection because as a teacher it's important that the biggest communication is not your voice but rather it's your body and he went on this amazing journey of self-discovery to write these books and now we're reading his books and we're going on our own journey of self-discovery so what lessons can we learn from in Marmar-Bazalea? number one, don't be proud and boastful because what does pride in being boastful do to our shining hearts? I smell One of the things that the children have really enjoyed has been drawing hearts and making hearts out of card or out of different materials and remembering the idea of trying to shine our hearts and they've made little dots in the hearts to signify the dust that might be spoiling their shining hearts We've tried to keep the focus in our Bazalea lessons on practical things as much as possible so we've loved the stories we start every lesson in the story and try to finish every lesson with some thicker but in between we try to deliver the message through practical craft activities we're also trying to get them to practice their virtues every week and we started the lesson for example by getting the children to introduce each other and saying one good thing about each other so that they understood that it's important to praise each other's virtues and be patient with each other's thoughts with the idea being that they're all teachers each child is a teacher maybe to their siblings, their brothers and sisters maybe to their children in their class and when they do something good are the children learned from them I find it hard to concentrate, excellent I find it easy I find it better when I'm not talking to you I find it difficult and I'm never chatting to you It's been a day to day life some things can distract you from doing from praying on time what can stop you? Excellent playing Fortnite It's good because you can go home and you can discuss things with your children and that's the whole point of the lessons as well is that as parents and children you're both developing and when you go home that knowledge is then reinforced you have discussions about it and you ask your children about it as well It's really useful having the parents' meetings now as well where we can discuss the books openly as a book club almost and go through each section and then all the ladies together we can sit down and then we have the brother who's able to instill more information in us and highlight certain topics which we would never have really understood and it's been very useful We've been getting the books out at home and sitting down we have a little section at home which we have all our Islamic books and we like to just read through together and my daughter has been reading through a lot more than my son because he's only just started this past week but she's introduced it to him and his eyes are lighting up and he's really enjoying it I think the parent class really enhanced the understanding of the book because it's a lovely book you can read it it's in today's 21st century language which applies to children but I think the nice thing about the parenting class is that it focused on each chapter at a time and each chapter had a particular theme which you could then take away and relate with the chapter in the book and then do activities with the kids especially the interactive book that came with it it really really made a huge difference to my children and it just so happens my best friend who's visiting this week I introduced the book to her yesterday and she's read the first few chapters and she loves it the ideas I got from the activities were amazing I was just like oh I could do this with my class everyone it needs to be just for Islam it can be for everybody it's such a lovely book it's got such lovely values and I think in this 21st century a lot of children have lost understanding of those values and this brings a connection almost in a universal way of how to be a good person the basic answers to the most fundamental questions of life is where I came from what am I doing here which is that it's not just about your physical dimension you also have a soul and that soul also need nourishment and the soul is not nourished by food, by water, by physical needs but the soul is nourished to the remembrance of Allah and that is what I'm trying to bring the youngsters you know because the young children, the elder children they are like a blank canvas so you can teach them anything and they will take it like like a sponge like a water takes in the sponge I have been teaching Islamic studies for lots of years, many years but this is what connects like we're talking about it connects us with Allah SWT it gives us good consciousness and we look within we look within and you look without and you connect in those two actions I like the most when we were doing about the hearts because I could learn more about shining my heart and learn about my like what I could do and how I could make myself better and help my mum and dad and I could make more D that's really good each jewel is a kind deed that the person will love so there's being kind to animals loving kids prisoners of war and the black stones some of our lessons were really amazing and you realise it's not me or somebody else in the lunch break we're all going around looking at what the kids have done what the teachers have planned and always taking pictures and there's a real atmosphere of it's a lively atmosphere and there's a buzz about it and it's something that's very special and I think it reflects the barakah that's in this project because it's the sincerity with which the books are written and it's also the sincerity with which the teachers deliver it and the way in which the children receive it every aspect of those there's so much barakah in it that the children just absorb it and it's like the whole thing is just a beautiful thing and to see all these kids of different ages take a key message every week from the age of four until the age of sixteen it's just amazing it has me with a beautiful heart and how he will always protect me from harm's eye and how he will always help to keep my heart signing we've learnt about we have three periods we have Gran, Imam al Ghazali and Islamic Studies how was the Ghazali going? is it alright? yes it's quite fun it's fun? yes what? tell us one fun thing we sometimes do that so I think once we put on a play of someone doing a nice action I'm pretty sure that's fun isn't it? OIC, Qaid Bilal what they are teaching us saves us that special real learning saves us from wasting our lives and makes it possible for us to go to the heavenly garden this post is meant to be an example of the gardens of the gardens Prophet Muhammad and the children for us the real main role of our learning is to get near to Allah SWT and at the end of the world become beautiful people both inside and outside when you shoot an arrow you need a target after dinner the children's father Hamza set up a round target in the backyard he was able to see what he is really truly true we went then share that all with us aren't we blessed to have such a wonderful teacher who is showing us the way like Imam Ghazali he realised that he was a bit showing off it too much he lost his voice and that was like a miracle and he became a mustard cleaner and told no one nothing about he was in Imam and he has a book of knowledge that we can learn from a man who came to see Al Ghazali just before he died and he related his experience with Imam Ghazali he was completely inner focused on the divine and had left the world behind him when I entered into his presence I said this makes me cry this is the last thing I have been looking for all of my life that's what I find with Ghazali that state of being that he reached you are the Imam who will guide me our meeting was an epiphany of inward knowledge I witnessed something from him that is ineffable he was a man whom if you saw him you saw a manifest spiritual state In the name of Allah We pray We pray We pray To our stray master I pray We pray We salute The Fanz Vita Al Ghazali project for children Fanz Vita has taken on the monumental project of bringing out Ghazali's most celebrated work the revival of the religious sciences beloved over the centuries entire Muslim world for children. Regarded as the greatest compendium of Islamic spirituality and ethical behavior for everyday life, it lays down practical teachings and explains how the outer aspects of Islam can, through their inner spiritually transformative meanings, change every situation into one of which strengthens the innate human nobility of character. The prophet Muhammad said, I was only sent to perfect good character. It is hoped that in time this will balance, direct, enrich and enliven generations of Muslim children. Al-Ghazali wrote, regarding the purification of both the outward and the inward, that one should know with certitude that the purification of the heart comes through ridding the soul of its vices and reforming it with virtue. And that a person who stops at outward purification alone is like someone who wants to invite a king to his home, then busies himself with decorating its front door while leaving the inside full of rubbish and debris. Using the modern English translation of the complete work, now underway by a team of scholars, each of the 40 books which make up the Ihya Al-Madeen will be presented in book and workbook form for Muslim children, their parents and teachers. This aims to establish from the outset of a child's life, reflex habits such as humility, patience, love, altruism, gentleness, forbearance and respect for other phase while providing children with real and effective tools to address such failings as selfishness, backbiting, arguing, laziness, envy, bragging, hypocrisy, greed, wasting time and pride. These publications will satisfy a need for authentic quality guidance for children at a time when their values are being formed. Children need to be raised as spiritual beings who are self-observant and self-correcting. We have seen how four and five-year-old children are drawn to spiritual truths. This project began a few years ago when Sheikh Hamza Yousaf called me in deep distress, worrying about how Islam was often being taught in a narrow, rote and boring way, which does not engage the imagination and the spirit of children nor attract their enjoyment and love. A literalist or unbalanced understanding of Islam can make the young easy prey for those who might lure them toward radical views. A child needs to be handed back his dignity and his religion in a way that he or she can understand what it is really for and therefore truly desires to consciously keep his or her innate goodness of character intact. And so the project came to be. We would bring out an illustrated version of Ghazali's revival of the religious sciences for children, which would be based on the recent excellent 2011 critical edition of the Ijhya by the Darul Minhaj press in Jeddah in which 20 manuscripts from such libraries as Bosnia's Rezzi, Huzur of Bey, and the Chester Bidi were gathered among other vital features. Muhammad Huzain, who maintains the most complete website on Ghazali and his wife Valerie Turner, one of the leading editors of Islamic texts, were taken by the majesty and scope of this project. Muhammad began to contract scholars everywhere who are now at work translating all 40 books of the Ijhya Al-Madin. We are aiming at a translation which is in clear and accessible English so that parents and teachers who will be working with these children will not find the content of the accompanying adult version too difficult to understand. Professor Kenneth Horner Camp accepted the overwhelming task of translating the book of knowledge which is considered to contain the entire Ijhya. It is now in its final stage of being polished. Khalid Williams, who lives in Morocco, completed the second book, The Book of Belief, as well as book nine, The Remembrances and Supplications. Living in Marrakesh, Abdulrahman Fitzgerald and Fouad Ar-Asmuk have completed translating books three to seven, the books on purity, prayer, charity, fasting and pilgrimage. Also completed our books eight through 10 which now all need editing and preparation for the press. Of the remaining 30, there are many underway. Books we have already done, such as Marvels of the Heart, will later be compared and corrected against the Darul Minhaj Arabic edition. In the meantime, work on the illustrated children's books and workbooks has been underway. The first two books are nearly finished. Hamza Yusuf has written the introductions to both the children and adult series. The Book of Knowledge has 40 stories which are based on the wonderful instruction from Ghazali and on his metaphors which are ideal for teaching children about spiritual realities. A written excerpt from the Book of Knowledge for Children, originally written by Al Ghazali, now being edited and published by Fonsi Vitaim. Chapter 18, The Ant and the Pen. Let me tell you a story about an ant. But what does this story mean? Why did Imam Al Ghazali write a story about an ant? Excellent question. So let's try to see the hidden secret message sent to us in this story. The children's book one, The Book of Knowledge begins by asking, did you know there are two kinds of learning? Besides the practical everyday learning, there is the real special learning, the real learning. And what could that be? Oh, this teaches you how to polish your heart. Did you know that besides your heart that pumps blood around your body, there is the real spiritual heart? It gets dust on it when you do something that is not very thoughtful or good. But why would we need to polish this dust away? Ah, Al Ghazali is going to explain why and show you exactly how. We have been having drafts of the first two books used in Islamic schools and by families in order to get their feedback. We have also been asking children to illustrate points they have enjoyed. Sometimes each child draws a large heart and places on it different colored dots, which represent things he or she wishes to polish away. Children get it and both totally understand and recognize the truths being presented to them. In the book of belief, where such concepts as who and what and where is God and what happens to us when we die are discussed, we needed to find a way to present these ideas to children when the story form really won't work. A young man from India named Farooq living in Abu Dhabi mentioned how children love to have heroes and suggested they might like the idea of time travel. So we came up with the device of Ghazali appearing through a magic door, visiting the children and answering their questions. So it is our hope that our young children for generations to come will be able to understand that their faith is about the interior process of perfecting one's heart and eliminating base character traits, which accumulate when the true nature of the heart is neglected. At Afans Vita fund raiser for this project a few years ago, Shaikhamsa Yusuf gave a talk entitled the critical importance of all Ghazali for our times. You can watch this on the Afans Vita YouTube channel. This film went viral and as a consequence Muslims everywhere have come forth asking to participate in making this project a reality. He was interested in destroying the idols that our minds generate. He was interested in destroying the idols of the ego and he actually considered the greatest idol to be the idol of the self. And in that way he will continue to be relevant for all time because he set about really to articulate as best he could the way that that could be done. Maha Al-Faisal from Saudi Arabia is translating our children's books into an appealing illustrated edition for Arabic speaking children. Another kind lady from Karachi is translating books one and two at this very moment and their workbooks into Urdu for Afghan refugee children in a settlement near Islamabad as well as for seven schools for needy Pakistani children. She wrote that besides teaching the Quran and Hadith, I want the meaning and the spirit to be explained to them unlike the usual madrasas there so that it is a lasting source of nourishment for their beings. And a talented Egyptian artist Farida has even provided us with comic strips on the life of Al Ghazali and other topics for the workbooks which will be fun for the children to read on their own. Another lady from Cairo whom we have never met, Marwa has sent in a complete set of project activities. What we are experiencing is the coming together of the global Muslim community enthusiastically endorsing and contributing to this product. The Ghazali project will come out in family sets each of which will contain the new adult translation for the parent or teacher along with the children's materials. Included in the children's books will be an index which shows the corresponding page numbers in the adult book from which the ideas being presented were found. In this way, parents can be confident about the source of the ideas in the children's stories. We have really struggled with the illustrations. Most of the books for children that we see today have cartoon-like art similar to what is used in all the electronic entertainment. We felt this was not appropriate or suitable for the nobility of Ghazali's message and teaching. Therefore, in book one, we have given an illustrator photographs of Muslim children throughout the world to present as beautiful traditional watercolors. The idea is that there is nothing higher or more beautiful than the human image and also we want children to meet their global brothers and sisters throughout the Ummah. The workbooks are designed to reinforce the ideas the children are learning. They include games which can be played whereby the children actually put into use in practice the virtues they are studying. For Ghazali, it was very important that someone not simply know about and understand needed conduct but to literally be the kind of example they would wish copied. Everyone, he explains, is a teacher. Book one will contain an instructional DVD which we made while teaching children from ages six to 13 at an Islamic school in Kentucky. This DVD shows parents and teachers how the material can be taught even to children who have not yet learned to read. The DVD is illustrated with drawings, children from as far away as Dubai and Cairo have been making while using the draft books, one and two. In addition to the Ghazali adult and children's versions of the Ehia Al-Umaddin, we have already published three books to support what is being learned. The first is The Life of Ghazali, illustrated by the award-winning artist Demi. This book has texts for both parents and children so they may read it together. A second book, also illustrated by Demi, is called Painting Heaven, Polishing the Mirror of the Heart for both parents and children as well. The story is taken from Ghazali's Marvels of the Heart. It tells about a contest between artists, one of whom simply polishes a wall behind the curtain which separates the works being done. When the veil is pulled back, the reflection is more magnificent than the art it reflects because it symbolizes the polished heart being able to reflect true reality, Allah al-Mafoos. In the back of this book, we have included the relative passages from Book 21 of the Ehia for the parents to read. Lastly, The Boy in the Owl is a story about the attributes of God based on the poem, The Creative Salvation by Mohammed ibn Jafar Akhattani who was born in Fez where he lived and taught most of his life. We have a series of books on the way which are stories for children which will help them better understand such problems as showing off, greed, and being lost in too much entertainment. If there are any among you watching this video who would like to join us as translators, editors, or artists, please be in touch. Thank you. So when you say Ghazali's Ahya'u-l-Din, Ghazali's revival of the religious sciences, you really mean a synthesis of the first five centuries of Islamic thought. Ghazali brings together the different sciences of theology, law, ethics, scripture, and organizes them and elaborates upon his predecessors in a masterful and beautiful and accessible way. When you say Ghazali, it's really a one-stop shop for classical Islamic thought and making that accessible for our children is a massive gift that we can impart upon them. We find that the Hojital Islam, the proof of Islam is unmistakably and uncontroversially Imam al-Ghazali who had the uncommon divine gift of being able to encapsulate sometimes intricate metaphysical and ethical arguments in a form that is universally accessible. Scriptural quotations saying some of the early Muslims, very well-chosen, anthologized nuggets of, as it were, triggering catalytic wisdom. Ghazali as a basic theme and his great work, The Revival of the Religious Sciences, as the focus for our projects, one of the most important literary, cultural, religious projects that one could imagine in the 21st century. Knowledge wasn't an abstract set of data and information that was imparted from parent to children, to from teacher to students, but it is the way by which that knowledge impacted their very behavior and their very being. Reconciling this split and this divide that we have between Ta'aleem and Tarbiyyah, that's reconnecting the knowledge with the practice, reconnecting knowledge with character building, reconnecting, and that's what knowledge is. A couple of years ago, I did a little research project around the available Islamic studies curriculum programs and I was really disappointed to see the variety of issues that are challenging us today in the curriculum department. And I am absolutely thrilled with the opportunity that avails our children today and our teachers and our parents with this Ghazali program. It is an opportunity for our children to start on the right path of belief, to start on the right path of principles, not to be raised in a vacuum of spirituality, but to be raised soaking in the spirituality behind all of the very, very important rituals and acts of belief that we want to teach our children, we want to teach them how to pray, we want them to love the prayer. Let's say realize what the meaning of education is. Edducari in Latin means to draw out that's what is already there. It doesn't mean to pile in info. So what we're doing with education is presenting children and ourselves with the truths that are recognized and it draws out the fitra, the noble self that's there. And I think what the Ghazali project is trying to do is to, from children from the outset of their life, give them the self-esteem, the knowledge, the confidence of their pure, innocent, good nature. You know that. Our teaching has to really result in the outcome of a person, of a believer who is engaging in the world according to sound teachings and also someone who has the state of heart that will allow them to negotiate relationships with others and with Allah in a way that is truthful, that is honest, that is sincere and that always allows for continual growth. I never see a program like this in my career. I never see it. So when I saw this, I said exactly, this is the kind of program that we have to have in the kindergartens and in the, you know, the nursery school so that they can really help the children to know exactly what they are doing. Growing up, I learned all the external things which were very fear-based and sort of tick boxes that I just had to implement as a Muslim but there was no real connection to what I was doing and I found that learning the religion through Imam Ghazali's work has given me that deeper meaning of the religion. We never really talk about polishing the heart. We never talk about the spirit of a person. We really focus on very external behavior as opposed to internalizing character. What the Ghazali project talks about and deals with is educating the spirit, educating the heart, educating the entire individual. It's just amazing listening to them talk about who God is and what God made and who we are and how we were made and who came before God and did anything come before God and what was the first thing God created. And these are first graders, second graders, kindergartens and so it's really fantastic and it's just been an incredible journey so far and as head of school I've seen the transformation in our own curriculum and in our own outcomes. Our kids are excited to go to class. This is the foundation of our curriculum here at Prairie Academy. I'm excited to see where this journey takes Prairie Academy. I kind of only wish that I had this body of work that H is doing now at the time when my children were young because I don't consider myself very academic and I didn't really feel like I had the tools to really teach them really about these things. One can only just absorb it itself and try and be a role model but I think having that body of work is so, is really, really important. I think it's really gonna help the next generation. Well, there's nothing like the Rosaris Children's Project. It's unique, it's groundbreaking and it's a treasure for our children. It's personally, it's changed my dynamic and my relationship with my children. It gives us a language to communicate. I like the most when we were doing about the hearts and because I could learn more about shining my heart and learn about my, like what I could do and how I could make myself better and help my mum and dad and I could make more deans. That's really good. The reason I like my mum and guys early is that it's really just fun. It's not like a boring, boring book. It's really fun and it teaches you stuff which you might not have known and he teaches like stuff like how to do the wudu. The Hajj Abdullah talks about interesting topics. The children think of a lot of interesting stuff. So that's pretty much why I'm addicted to the series. But then on my wall, if you ever come to my house, on my wall, add your big heart. On a dry erase board, I'd stick it on my wall, I drew a heart, made it golden. There's a golden dry erase marker. So now I take a black dry erase marker and I draw every time I do something bad and I erase it when I do something good or I apologize or something. We're out right now in the place called the Gambia and right before I went, I cleaned my heart up. I know just because I wanted to clean it up but I actually literally cleaned my heart up. It's now completely golden. It's standing on my room wall, completely golden. Must feel good. It does.