2025 Sep OT M 13 Week 2 Sept 15 2025
When I entered class today I saw Ryan and Jenna. Ryan told me that he was the only person in class last week. It was very surprising for me. He also said that he was lucky because he got to eat as much pizza as he wanted since he was the only one. After that we were going to commence with testing and practicing the pledges and other surahs in English but before we got to begin some newbies came, three of them to begin with. Their names were Selena, Ariana, and Zahra. Because we had some newbies in the class it kind of delayed us from our testing and practicing but it also gave us the opportunity to learn more about them. Like, Selena is 13 years old and her favorite color is pink. They also got to learn quite a lot about us.
After learning and introducing the newbies, we were able to commence with the class and LG decided that we should start doing the four pledges. But we didn’t get very far because 3 more newbies came. Zaniyah, Yana, and another Zahra. But Yana and Zahra are twins. Since we had new newbies that came late we had to do the whole welcoming and getting to know more about you think over again with them. The only difference this time was that they didn’t get to learn much about us since they came late and there were too many of us for them to learn about.
After welcoming and getting to know more about the three newbies we decided to proceed on with the lesson and do the pledges but since six people didn’t know any of the pledges we had to teach them, so some of the parents came into the circle to help.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic, of which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” is the first pledge And it’s called the Pledge of Allegiance. It is optional, but it is very respectful to do it as it is showing your loyalty and tribute to the country that you are sleeping in and the country that has given you food and lots of resources to help with surviving n’ thrivin’. You must also face any flag of America in your vicinity when doing this pledge.
“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,” is the second pledge, and Is in place to reinstate your faith in Islam. Why reinstate your faith in islam? Well it’s just like wudu, but for your mind. Like LG said, it is hard to sometimes keep your mind clean, so you must cleanse it. Sometimes if people do something bad, asking for forgiveness is not enough, they also must remember to who they are asking for forgiveness, and the person who is responsible for being able to let you know of the existence of Allah (SWT)
“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.” That was the third to last pledge and it is just the surat al-fatiha in English. For this pledge, your duty is to face your teacher(s) to remind them of their duty to guide you on the straight path, because some teachers can get distracted and or lead students on the wrong path on purpose or by accident.
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. Quite simple by itself and raw, but indeed contains a lot of meaning towards the student, and leaves them with a lot of responsibility when they enter the class.
After learning and presenting the pledges, it was time to learn some surahs in english and see if we could pray properly. The parents that were already helping continued, and the newbies showed their ability to pray, whilst Ryan and I, who used to go to the same school as me, were practicing with eachother.
We catched up on surat al-fatiha, then moved on to Asr, which goes as, “Throughout history, surely mankind is indeed in a state of loss, except for those who have Belief, do good deeds, seek the truth, and practice patience.” It was easy to memorize, but Ryan forgot after 5 minutes 🤣 Then came Kawthar, “ O prophet, indeed We have granted you the fountain of abundance, Therefore be grateful and offer prayers and sacrifices to God only. It is your enemy who will be cut off from future hope.” Whilst I was memorizing Kawthar and Falaq, Ryan was out of class, probably in the bathroom. Falaq goes as, “Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of the dawn, from the evil of the unknown in God’s creation, and from the evil of darkness as it overspreads, and from the evil of those who practice secret arts, and from the evil of the envier when he envies.”
For the next major topic we discussed it was along the lines of how to persuade somebody to get something for you like your parents. Let’s say you want to get a new iPhone. How are you going to get it? Well that’s what this topic was about. To simplify the answer, if you want something then of course the person who’s gonna be handing it over to you physically is going to be whoever you asked, but where’s it gonna come from? well the people who made it, but still, none of that is possible without God. You have to ask God as well. Not only the person who you want to hand it to you because God is also completely responsible for the creation of that object, the safe shipping and just everything that allows that object to come into your hands.
The last major topic is about the word Alhamdulillah. Imagine 10 people apply to get into Thomas Jefferson High School. Now imagine only three of those people get in. Now the other seven of them didn’t. What does that mean? Well, they can either be depressed and sad and be mad at Allah, or they can see it as a sign that they’re not ready for it that they have a different path in life that God intends for them So they can just say Alhamdulillah that God has planned a different path for them that could be even better. Now the last people can say Alhamdulillah to thank God the word Alhamdulillah means all praise belongs to God. Now that does sort of mean like thank you if God gives you something that you really wanted that you really worked hard for then you can say that to show gratitude, to show you understand who’s responsible for this gift. Not only the people at Thomas Jefferson High School who are handling the sign up requests, but also God allowing you to be able to even apply. But now imagine one of the three people who got in didn’t even study at all. He still got in but he’s just lucky. But now what does he have to do? Maybe he shouldn’t have gotten in because he didn’t study. But now that he has gotten in, he should probably start studying ’cause sometimes God tests you to see what you’re gonna do with those gifts. So in this case the person who got in without studying really needs to start studying so that he can actually make use of the gift that God has given him
So, my second 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!
Oh wow i got 1398 words