Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Thikr/Quiet Time

"Remember Me and I will remember you." Quran 2:152

To begin the morning in quiet thikr in Remembrance of Our Creator just makes the day start a little brighter. So many Religions have their different ways to remember their Lord, Muslims pronounce the name of God over and over again until the name of God radiate within you. We create songs about remembering God, rejoicing His Magnificence and we can do it silently and peacefully. Both have it appropriateness at different times, but the morning is for silence, so is the afternoon and the night. Taking a break from everyday rush rush, to have a time for quiet is an important lesson that we should make habit and what better time to make something habit than with a young child.

"And remember thy Lord in thy self with humility and fear, and without loudness of speech, in the mornings and evenings; and be not of the neglectful." Quran 7:205

Maria Montessori who escaped the war in Italy spending time in the Muslim world-India and Pakistan had a special exercise she would do with the young children she taught, who were partially deaf called the Silence Game. Montessori believed that the Silence Game would "bring little by little a discipline composed of calmness and inner beatitude" SubhanAllah, which is one of the key points of thikr to beautify ourselves from the inside. Imam Ghazali explains that our heart has two doors, one that is open to this world and another opened to world of angels. In thikr, quiet remembrance of God, we beautify our heart and the door to the angels open wider.

(NOTE: The link to the Silence Game has been corrected)

In our home Montessori's Silence Game, other quiet practice, including quite honestly naps and time outs, and Thikr are all used. I encourage you to read the link above to learn more about the Silence Game. In Thikr, we are simply repeating names of God over and over again. Sometimes we use our fingers to count.



Sometimes we use beads, i.e. Thikr beads. I use to practice the Catholic Religion before I was Muslim and I had Rosary beads to count my "Hail Marys". Same concept.




Our friend makes and sales some really dope thikr beads, as in MashaAllah beautiful ones like these.

Saying the names of God in public can be a little bit tricky, however there is one Thikr that you can do without moving your lips, so no one thinks you are talking to yourself. Say "La Ilaha ill Allah" which translates to "There are no gods, but the ONE GOD"

We have many different thikr that we can do with different benefits, so I created a chart for my children to record the thikr that they learn called Thikr, Quiet, Peace. We keep it in their Islamic Notebooks, the cover comes along with the free download.



Loud thikr and Remembrance makes it a community event and fun way to do it. I found some old footage of my children singing, I mixed it with some other Remembrance songs. Enjoy.


Find More Remembrance Songs
on my youtube here.

Free Downloads
Thikr-Quiet-Peace


More Islamic Studies
Arabic Letters
Arabic Vocabulary
Asmaa ul Husna
The Meaning of the Quran
Seerah



3 comments :

  1. The video is so cute! wish my kids would sing as nice lol!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I apologize for the link to the Silence Game. It has been corrected. Thank you for your patience with my mistakes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great post! The pictures are beautiful and the video made my day!!
    Thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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