2025 Oct M 12
WHAT I LEARNED AT GISLA THIS WEEK
Class of 10/5/25
DS/M/1
When my sister J and I arrived at Green Stairs this morning, we were very late, and it was around 9:42 am. I saw Z and Y standing by the door studying. And when I saw that, I remembered that I forgot to do my homework, and I would have to study outside too. I knew that I was right because LG (teacher) was not very happy and pointed out that I was wearing shorts. Then he reminded me of the fourth pledge (this is a voluntary program, and if I do not comply with the expectations, I will be suspended).
After that I was standing outside studying my packet and testing out with M, who was helping me study Surah Asr, and he helped a lot. I soon memorized Surah Asr, but when it was time to test, I choked on my words, and M told me that it’s normal to be intimidated, but I still must try my hardest. A little later, O and R came outside, and we started to help each other by testing. Soon after O’s dad came out to help us, and when I tested with him,
I found out I knew the first half of my packet in Arabic, except for the intention. Although I do know Surah Fatiha in Arabic and English the same with the positions.
After a long time of studying, we saw H come from a soccer game is what it looked like, and he brought cupcakes and doughnuts, so we went back in to discover it was food time.
Everyone except for J had at least one doughnut and a cupcake. Then we had pizza. While we were eating our pizza, LG asked, “Who here said Bismillah before taking a bite?” Most people raised their hands, but I didn’t because I had forgotten to. He then asked why we say Bismillah before eating. Someone raised their hand, I forgot who, and they said to feed your body and soul. LG replied with “What does feeding your soul mean?” The answer was when we die in 3 years, if you look at your body, you’ll see bones, and your soul will be up in the sky. He then said Do you know where your soul is? to which we replied, to No. Then he asked, “Where do you think it is? I said my heart to that question. He said that when we die, we will be souls, so if we don’t say Bismillah, then we won’t feed it. So, when you say bismillah, you feed your body and your soul, instead of getting your body fed.
We then talked about how you must dress appropriately, or people will make assumptions about you. For example, if you wear a hood during spring, people will think you are dangerous and be afraid of you.
We talked about how if you do something wrong or you don’t do your homework, you shouldn’t fear getting kicked out, guilty, or fearful; you should be ashamed of your actions. That means you shouldn’t fear Allah when you do something bad, like if you don’t pray 5 times a day, you should be ashamed of yourself.
After we talked about that, Dr. F (owner of Mosque) came into the room. First, he introduced himself, then he asked us, “Who do you love most? Everyone said Allah, but he said Allah’s not a person, so we said our parents, then he said Allah told us to love one person more than anyone else. Who is that? R was the first to answer, and he said Nabi Muhammad.
He was right, and DR. F told us that we must always smile. Why is that? J answered because it’s Sunnah. DR. F said yes, but no one knew it, so he just told us. The answer was that to be a good leader, you must smile and be confident. And if you don’t smile, everyone will think you’re mad at them, so unless you are mad at someone, smile.
All leaders must speak and project their voices confidently. He also told us that we have to read a lot because if you only play games and watch TV then you won’t learn anything but some video games do teach you stuff but too much and you won’t learn so we have to spend more time reading books that are nonfiction because 2 best ways to increase your IQ is to read and to travel and since you can’t travel, then you can travel in the books. For example, if you read a book about Germany, then you will feel like you’re in Germany. We then talked about how important time management is, and if you can’t manage your time wisely, then you won’t get a lot of time to live your life, and you can’t buy time even for 1b dollars. Time is the most valuable thing in a person’s life,
and it is very important.
Then we learned that everything the prophet taught us is common sense, like smiling at everyone, which is a big example, because it is an important thing that we still use today, but it is common sense to smile at people unless you’re mad at someone. Before Dr. F left, we talked about the news, then he left. We talked about how some leaders are good leaders but bad people, like Hitler; he was a good leader but a bad person. But there are no other leaders who are perfect because everyone has done good things and bad things, like George Washington, who was the first US president and won the Revolutionary War. But he still had slaves and did bad stuff.
Then O wanted to share his presentation, but didn’t have a narrow topic, so LG told him to present another week. My ten-minute presentation is about the origin of soccer.
Then we were going to play ping pong when LG said we have to juggle 2 balls to play but no one was able to so we just went over the notes we took from the class my parents were a bit late to pick me up so I stayed and extra 6 minutes before leaving and in those 6 minutes me and J were testing out with LG. Then our mom picked us up.