Wishing you and yours also a joyful spring to enjoy all the many beautiful blessings of nature, subhanallah!
“Once the Prophet Muhammad (sas) was sitting with his companions, and one person used insulting words against his friend Abu Bakr, causing him pain. But Abu Bakr remained silent.
The person again used bitter words against him and still Abu Bakr did not respond.
The third time when this ignorant person hurt Abu Bakr with his tongue, Abu Bakr tried answering back.
At this point the Prophet (sas) got up. Abu Bakr asked him “Are you displeased with me?”The Prophet (sas) replied: “No, but when you remind silent, an angel came down from the heavens responding to this man’s talk. But the moment you started replying to that man, the angel went away and the devil sat down. And I cannot sit where the devil is sitting.”
(Narrated by Abu Dawud)
Wishing you a peaceful, harmonious, blessed Friday and weekend!
« To teach a young person doesn’t mean to fill an empty bucket, but it means to lighten a fire. » (Aristotle)
If it is quiet on this blog, this means that life in reality is very busy.
I am these days especially occupied with the school, with practical weeks, with new changes, with lots of thoughts on structure, teaching and pedagogy but also with private life, our garden and other projects, alhamdulillah.
Time for writing here is rare, so I send you greetings of peace with these images from our very lively, very busy, fulfilling, creative, innovative and sometimes also challenging school-life at the “école vivante” where learning happens everywhere.
Favourite books that inspire an alternative approach on education:
Rahima Baldwin Dancy: “You are your child’s first teacher”
Myla and Jon Kabat-Zinn: “Everyday Blessings” / “Mit Kindern wachsen”
Naomi Aldort: “Raising our children, raising ourselves” / “Von der Erziehung zur Einfühlung”
Rebeca Wild: “ Erziehung zum Sein”
Rebeca Wild: “ Kinder im Pesta”
Rebeca Wild: “ Sein zum Erziehen”
Rebeca Wild: “ Freiheit und Grenzen, Liebe und Respekt“
Rebeca Wild: “Raising Curious, creative, confident kids”
Mary Griffith: “The unschooling handbook”
Barbara J. Patterson: “Beyond the Rainbow bridge”
A.S. Neill: “Summerhill, a radical approach to child rearing” / “Summerhill”
Jürgen Reichen: “Hannah hat Kino im Kopf”
Lucy Calkins: “Raising lifelong learners”
Stefanie Mohsine: “Schulfrei”
John Holt : “How children learn”/ “How children fail”
In between all the “R”-ing and as a part of it, I really enjoy the moments we spend in the garden: to touch the earth, to smell the ground, to organize the planting, to sow new herbs and flowers, vegetables and fruits and to collect nature’s little helpers for a green spring cure: Galium, Taraxacum, Malva, Salvia, Plantago,…
Subhanallah, what a gift Allah gave us right in front of the door: those little plants that appear everywhere just like this, that often are banished from gardens or not even recognized at roadsides or on the pathways in big cities, always growing out of nothing, sometimes even in the middle of tarred streets.
I am sure now that these little weeds find their way to those who need them. I am sure that they have the divine order to grow right beside the people who need their special energy. Alhamdulillah!
So we try to identify them now, we collect them, we learn now about their specific healing effects, we use them freshly as teas, lotions and washes and we dry them for the colder seasons, inchaallah.
Books that help us on that learning path:
Maria Treben: “Health from God’s Garden” – “Gesundheit aus der Apotheke Gottes”
Ursel Bühring: “Heilpflanzenjahr”
Susanne Fischer-Rizzi: “Medicine of the earth” – “Medizin der Erde”
Maria Thun: “The biodynamic year” – “Gärtnern mit dem Mond”
“Guide Delachaux des plantes”
“das Ulmer Garten Buch”
Books from Wolf-Dieter Storl
What are your tips for a natural cure?
We have spring vacations, alhamdulillah.
Time for a spring clean of house, body and soul.
I call it the “R”-times, because there are a lot of “R’s” in these days.
There is now…
… time to reflect, to recall and to remember,
time to recognize, to rejoice and to relax,
time to recover, to respire and to refresh,
time to remake, to research, to revise and to remind,
time to redecorate, to remove, to repair and to renew,
time to restrain, to regain and to resume,
time to revive and then to return, inchaallah.
Happy R-times dear friends, may Allah guide you and bless you in abundance!
Salam aleikoum, greetings of peace to you all!
Bismillah arhmaan ya raheem, audhu billahi min a shaytaan ir-rajeem,
Thank you so much for all the different reactions and comments to my last post on the topic of music. It is interesting how my very personal description and point of view caused such an emotional debate and provoked some of the readers even to feel attacked and to offer so defensive reactions. Mashallah.
“If Allah had willed, He would have made you one nation, but that He may test you in what He has given you; so compete in good deeds.
The return of you all is to Allah; then He will inform you about that in which you used to differ.” (Qur’an, 5:48)
Just as God has created all mankind differently, there are also very different opinions on the topic of music, there is no black and white, even amongst Muslims: many who follow the four rightly guided caliphs, like I do inchaallah, and who make it very clear that most kind of music is forbidden; there are others who listen to all kinds of music, others who make music with less or more instruments, others who make a lot of spiritual music, and so on;
even in my Moroccan family and neighbourhood there are very different approaches to the theme – but still we are all Muslims and everyone climbs the ladder of knowledge and faith in different ways.
In the end it is up to God to judge about all mankind and our personal intentions.
Muslims are not against music and melody in general and maybe I should have stated the teachings I follow more eloquently and with the words of Shaykh Yusuf Estes who says: “Music is permissible in Islam – with a lot of limitations.”
In short: music making and listening is limited to the modest playing of a simple hand drum during weddings, new born feasts and other exceptional happenings, it is limited to suitable Islamic lyrics and never exceeding the amount of our reciting of the qur’an.
(More detailed information for example here)
The oldest Islamic folk song and a very beautiful one as well is maybe the one which the people of medina sang when Prophet Mohammed (sas) moved from Mecca to Medina: “Tala al badru alayna” – A song that is a true sign and a meaning of peace and freedom between nations and religions.
—
This is my personal blog about my very personal journey towards Islam.
I write here mostly for the purpose of sharing parts of this journey with family, friends and people interested in it.
Not to do missionary work, but to stay in contact, to inform and to allow them to have a look into my new life, into another world (über den Tellerrand schauen gilt ja für beide Seiten).
Because yes, my very own point of view, my values and my whole life changed so much over the last years, subhanallah, that I often feel a gap, incomprehension and also ignorance between me and people of my past life, between me and family or old friends. I think that’s quiet a normal thing if one changes her life and religion and lives in another culture.
But I believe that we can minimize that gap by staying interested one in the other, by explaining, sharing and informing. And this hasn’t anything to do with rating or assessing, nor with decreasing the other way of life.
(Although faith in general and in its very nature is always something that the believer sees as the ultimate and only truth).
Real respect and a peaceful dialogue do not show themselves in levelling down or trying to make others equal, they show themselves in the acceptance of the differences between us, and in learning one from the other, to widen our horizons – both sides.
True education and a fruitful interreligious dialogue show themselves in such interest, respect and politeness.
And that’s what I stand up for. Inchaallah. Salaam aleikoum.
“O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another.” (49:13)
“Allah is our Lord and your Lord. For us our deeds and for you your deeds. There is no dispute between us and you.” (42:15)
“Invite mankind, O Muhammad, to the way of your Lord with wisdom and fair preaching and argue with them in the most kindly manner.” (16:125)
Deep thankfulness is my actual feeling towards our Swiss partner school who is organizing a big beneficial happening on our school’s concern – to collect money to support the école vivante here in Morocco.
Tomorrow the Swiss pupils sing, together with the well known Spanish musician Jordi Savall, in a concert for peace and international understanding.
Orient-Occident – music for peace
28. March 2012, Wednesday
19.30 p.m.
in the catholic church Herz-Jesu-Kirche
in Buchs SG – Switzerland (near to Liechtenstein)
More information and tickets on www.scuolavivante.ch
That fills me with huge gratitude for all those who support our project.
Thank you so very much!
But to offer you this invitation not only fills me with gratitude, it puts me also into a difficult kind of position and I think I have to explain some things on the topic of music.
I personally do not listen to music. Not any more.
I did. I played more than 14 years the piano myself. I sang in a choral, I listened to all kinds of different music, from punk to reggae, from classic to country rock; I even went to discotheques in my youth.
But that was before.
My religion teaches me now that listening to music, and especially playing musical instruments, (more precisely: most sorts of music) is not good for us.
I know, this is a tuff and huge topic and lots of different opinions circulate on it.
So here I share my actual and personal point of view:
First I wasn’t convinced of this strict Islamic view. I didn’t get the reason behind that entire concept. I understood well that modern music that inspires people to move in tempting ways, that calls out for inconvenient behaviour, that praises drugs and sexual intercourse, just cannot be good. I knew that it can lead to immoral things and can cause mankind to suffer.
But when I became Muslim I still played the piano myself and I still listened to some mainstream songs – more modest ones, sure, such as Yusuf Islam or Cat Stevens etc., but I still listened to popular music and instruments.
And I still thought that music can have healing affects and that listening and playing old classic music is something that shows a very high level of education. I thought that it had to be something valuable and blessed if God gave great talent to some composers that causes them to create such beautiful melodies and such grandiose pieces…
But in small steps my mind changed.
My soul just slowly absorbed the islamic concept deep inside. Little by little I realized that the huge periods of time we spend in learning and training in music or playing an instrument might better be spent in things like worship or seeking knowledge, things that provide us with something more useful for the hereafter.
I also realized that there always is some influence of music which I cannot control. Often there are some old melodies or catchy hit tunes (“ohrwürmer”) that come to my mind and out of my mouth unconsciously, like magic or a spell.
I understand now that music can act like magic, without our conscience, in good but also in bad ways. I know now that music in general can cause us to forget everything really important and that it can cause things to happen that we cannot control.
I know now that music, especially that which is played by some instruments, acts on deeper levels of our body and spirit and that they might also influence the world of the unseen in ways we do not want – we just cannot control its effects.
I believe now that Allah, God the Almighty, gave mankind a voice and a sense of melody and musicality mainly for the use of praise for Him, to recite the qur’an in the most beautiful and soul healing ways, to remember and worship Him.
Today I do not listen to instrumental music anymore.
I cannot stand being in a shop where loud songs are played.
Hearing songs and pieces I formerly loved cause me now to feel very uncomfortable.
Today the singing of a bird fills me with deep peace – music doesn’t any more.
Today listening to the qur’an brings tears of joy into my eyes – music sometimes causes me now to feel quiet the opposite.
My soul became very sensitive.
I love now to listen to the music of my very heart.
I love to sing my own songs, to create my own melodies, to sing the way I actually feel, it’s mostly dhikr.
We sing a lot, a cappella, in school and at home. But mostly these songs are to praise Allah; and they never exceed the amount of our reciting of the holy qur’an, which sounds now anyway like the most beautiful music to me.
It was a slow transition from inside, and I am still learning – just as how everything of real deep faith takes place.
Because no one can force another to believe in a concept and everyone has his own point of view, his own approach to faith. Everyone goes his own way and everyone has to make his own choices. We cannot persuade nor force others into something like this.
“To you be your religion, and to me my religion. “ (Qur’an 109:6)
But we can explain things, tolerate and respect each other, to live in peace and harmony.
So this was my explanation on my personal relationship with music.
And even though I do not listen to instrumental music anymore, I still appreciate the aim of tomorrow’s concert which is to encourage an interreligious peaceful dialogue.
Thank you, dear friends in Switzerland. God bless you!
May peace be with you all! Assalamou aleikoum.
It is official – spring is here! And together with it comes so much beauty and new life everywhere. Alhamdulillah!
New energy, new ideas, new motivation can be felt everywhere, subhanallah!
No matter what was and now matter how you felt – now it is time for a new beginning.
Allah put so many blessings in everything around – can you see this wonder? Can you feel His mercy and love?
I wish you an open heart and an eye for all the blessings. I wish you a wonderful first spring weekend with plenty of colour, with lovely smells, warm kisses of sunrays and the singing of the birds! Salam aleikoum, friends !
Where are the rightly guided ones?
Where are the truthful?
Where are those trustworthy, virtuous and upright?
Where are those honest, sincere and demure?
What about moral courage?
What about hypocrisy?
What about justice?
What about faith?
Who are you?
Who am I?
What do we fear?
Where do we go?
“If you ask, then ask of Allah, and if you seek help, then seek it from Allah.
And know that if the whole of the nation were to rally together in order to bring benefit to you in anything, they would not benefit you except with that which Allah has written for you.
And if they were to gather together in order to inflict harm upon you with something, they would not harm you except with that which Allah has written upon you.
The pens have been raised and the pages have dried.”
(Hadith narrated by at-Tirmidhi)
What calming words, subhanallah! – not to forget that beginning everything with a sincere “Bismillah” (“in the name of God, the Almighty”) always acts as the best shield of the believer.
Wishing you a blessed weekend, some blossom and peace at heart, friends!
(p.s. I’ve updated our books-list-page)
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