2023 Sep Week 6 F 16
FL FEMALE AGE 17 WEEK 6
Today was the six week and the teacher LG was back from his trip, and it was the day of testing. We arrived at 8h47am at the masjid so we did the meditation for about fifteen minutes. The teacher asked us what we did when he was out, so we talked about the pledges, salah, metaphors and he asked the definition of a metaphor, and he told us the grass is greener on the other side if that is a metaphor.
We did not know what it meant. He explained that the things we do not have seem better than the things we have. We had the visit of a student H, an old student. He started the program when he was thirteen years old and continued until he was eighteen years old. He came every week, and he attended the program because his big brother was doing the Greenstairs program too. Right now, he is in George Washington University, and he had the highest score on his first chemistry exam with ninety six percent. That was easy for him because this program helps him a lot by doing the verbal retentiveness and by improving his writing skills. He explained to us what is the nine to five concept.
Student H said that we are acting differently depending on the places we are. From 9 to 5. We are at school so we will act differently from 5 to 9 when we are at home. Which is not bad and as Muslim teenagers we are supposed to find the right balance. Nine to five is the time we are working or are at school. five to nine is how you are acting at home. He told us that he was suspended from the program because the teacher wants him to be a doctor before being a Cheikh. The teacher made us sit Cris-cross during all the class. The teacher made it clear for us that from nine to five which is non-Islamic environment and from five to nine we are in an Islamic environment. What makes us a reason to rebel because of the option from strict or bad. He gave the example of smoking weed you can do it at school but not at home. So, it is to find the right balance with the universal value because it should not have a difference between nine to five and five to nine.
We did some of our presentations and the teacher asked what our topics were. He was disappointed because a lot of topics were not the purpose of Greenstairs program. Brother M did his presentation about soccer and the teacher asked what he did wrong and after I did mine about the Prophet (SAW) and the teacher asked what I did wrong or good. After that we talked about the oil jug which is about to get off the negativeness to get ride off before the day of judgement. The angels will be asking you the question in your grave, they are going to look for your oil jug percentage. The universal value is just as a tree trunk which is One God and many faiths. In some religions with many Gods and many faiths. Some of them have many gods, others have one God. In the same religion (Islam) there is two side: the Sunnis and Shias that believed that Muhammad's successor as caliph of the Islamic community, so they have some disagreement. The Sunnis also have 4 Imams with some disagreement, but the universal value is there is one God who is the trunk.
We talk about the CCA concept who is common sense, context, and accountability. The teacher talks about the accountabilities which are marked with pen or pencil. With Pen is when you do good deeds and the sins you have with another person can be wiped when that person forgives you or you ask for sincere apology if he forgives you that sin then it is canceled but also if he doesn’t forgive you, it’s on that person. Pencil is the sins you have with God and with your sincere apologies it can be wiped.
Test time came so he asked me to recite the Tashahud and I was stuck. He asked Brother M to recite Ma’un and he was not able to do it. He asked Sister A to recite Ma’un and she was stuck. He asked student O to recite Fatiha and he could not do it. After he told us he was disappointed because he was hoping that we were going to do good on the test. He asked us to go outside and revise the test for about forty-five minutes and after we came back to class. We talked about the news. He told us about factories which are facts of knowledge they give us on Gum wraps that we do not know off but are instructive.
Ms. J is a teacher, LG’s doctor, and a professor of Education at George Washington University. He gave us some advice: challenging work is the key. Even being smart is not enough. She is a fellow geriatric (taking care of older people), and she finished her education master this week. She was also the mom of student B, student H and student HA who are currently in the program because he sees student B was a change man after the Greenstairs program and student H too. In the Greenstairs program for her, you need to apply challenging work to pass the step. Ms. JA works in the government, managing about thirty accomplished people. She told us that we always need to challenge ourselves, so we can have more opportunities and do better, but we must be careful not to step on somebody else. Ms. R teaches us that we must improve our writing and use their resources. After it was the end of today class the teacher told us we should recite the sourate Asr to ourselves every end of class: ‘Ya Allah I know that I am in the state of lost, if I do good deeds, seek the truth, and practice patience please help me do this.’
For next week we are suspended since we did not pass the test, and we must learn the cheat sheet to past the test next week’s Insha’Allah. Today I learned three new concept Universal Value (good no matter what), Purpose of life (make the world a better place to be) and Accountabilities (pen and pencil).
Every week I learn new things in the greenstairs program, metaphors, and tricks that we do not pay attention to until they teach it to us.