2025 Aug- OT – M -12 – Class Essay Week 1- Aug 24

Assalam, in this essay, I will describe what we did in class today.

As soon as I entered class for the first time today, the first thing I was asked to do was to recite the Fatiha. Of course, I did, but when I was asked to recite other things, I didn’t know what to say, because I never memorized their names. Due to this, I was instructed to go sit down next to a parent to help me with that. She said I was just supposed to recite the prayer, so then I started. After making the intention, i said dua al-istiftah, Subuhanak allah humma wa bihamdika wa tabarakasmuka wa ta’ala jadduka wa la ilaha ghairuk, then, A’udhu billahi minash shaytan ir rajeem, bismillahir rahmanir raheem, then the fatiha, and then i did surah an nasr, then later on i did surah an nas. After she helped me out a bit, I was again instructed to recite my prayers, but I didn’t know what to start with. So then I got a chair and sat, and another older classmate was instructed to approach me and practice his pledge of allegiance with me. He said something like,

“I pledge of allegiance, to the United States of America, and to the republic, and which it stands, one nation, under God, idivibsl, with liberty and justice for all.” I tried correcting his mistakes, but to no avail. He was sent over to another older classmate and another new kid came to me. Then, he said,

“I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, with liberty and justice for all.” I was able to help him add back the lines that he had forgotten, after around 20 – 40 tries. But, he did make a mistake while being tested, so I had to do 5 pushups. Pretty easy though. But after that, we had to memorize the second pledge, which goes as, 

“I bear witness to the fact that there is no god but God (SWT), and I bear witness that prophet Muhammad (SWA) is God’s slave and messenger, just as Jesus, Moses, Ibrahim, Ismael and Adam were before him. All 4 of us were kind of helping each other on it. Then for the third pledge, it is just the fatiha in English.

“Praise be to God, lord of the worlds, the most gracious, the most merciful, master of the day of judgement. You alone we worship, you alone we turn to for help. Show us the straight path, the path of those who have earned you favored, not the path of those who deserve your anger, nor the path of those who have went astray. Ameen.” The final pledge is acknowledging the fact that the greenstairs program is voluntary and you do not have to be here, but failure to comply will be an invitation to leave.   

We finished the pledges, but sadly, it took us much more time than it should’ve. Around 2 to 3 hours. Before actually starting class and doing what we should’ve done many hours ago, we played a small game of ping pong in the cup. There was lots of confusion at first, like the order in which we would go, the points, and etc. but eventually we came to a conclusion and began playing some rounds, but none of us won, it was too hard, because the amount the ball would bounce and the direction was unpredictable due to the bumpiness of the table. 

Once we finished that excruciating and exhilarating game, we actually got pizza! Very kind move from the teacher. It was very yummy. But, while eating, we discussed why we say bismillah before eating food. I thought it was to protect you from anything in the food, but I was wrong. If the pizza has e-coli and one person who eats it says bismillah and the other person doesnt, it doesnt mean that the person who said bismillah won’t get really sick. Some people thought that it was to protect you while you are eating, but not really. I tried to redeem myself by giving another answer, which I thought was to show or emphasize the fact that the pizza was a gift from God. Kind of, but not really. No one really knew, so our teacher decided to reveal the answer, and it was actually to feed your soul. You can feed your physical form, here on earth, but you can only feed your soul if you say bismillah. 

We moved on and actually started class, many hours after we should have. Once we started learning, we discussed certain topics that are very, very important to life on earth and the soul in the afterlife. For example, as humans, we have a duty from God, we are obligated to do this duty, and it is to make ourselves better, purify ourselves, better others around us, and better the world around us for all people and things alike. Here is another example: Imagine you have a score. To get into heaven, you must meet a certain number, for example, a thousand. But how can someone with less than a thousand get in? Well the people around you affect your score, no matter what your “watch” that tells your score says. If you make enemies along the way to heaven, your score decreases if you don’t ask for forgiveness. God will forgive what he can forgive, but other people’s forgiveness is not in God’s control. So you decide your score. Another big topic was, all religions come from 1 giant tree trunk, they are all dependent on that. What is that? That is God. Another topic was discussing how we should be focused during our prayers. Those who just pray lazily, pray unfocused have gone astray. One last major topic was that some people are goats and some people are sheep. The sheeps just do stuff because they are told, without a reason, but the goats are at the front of the pack and don’t follow anyone except allah. So those were the 5 major topics we covered.

So, my first class with you today was indeed very fun. Thank you and God for the Pizza, Thank you for the games, and the amount you educated me. Today was indeed very fun and I can not wait to come back and learn more about our religion Alhamdulillah!