Ramadan 2021 - Inspired by Qur'an Montessori Prompts

And the tradition continues. (Read about our journey HERE.)

Bismillah! Here are our Ramadan 2021 Prompts:

Day 1 | "The month of Ramadan (is that) in which was revealed the Qur'an..."(Al-Baqarah: 185)

Ramadan is a month of spiritual reflection and a way for Muslims to increase good deeds and develop positive habits. In this month, Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and reflect upon the words of Allah. And so we begin reflecting upon the ayah.

Yaseen's a little older now so I can go through Ramadan facts and details with him. We started reading our Little Explorers magazine (issue #26) and from this he worked through his lesson. The main objective is for him to understand what Ramadan is and why we fast. Answers were directly from pages we read, so this made it easy for him to self correct.

The key take away point was learning about Taqwa. Taqwa is to obey, fear and be aware of Allah, hoping for His reward and leaving off what will displease Him. It's like a shield that protects us from Shaitaan.

My ongoing task is to remind him (and myself) about 3 important questions we should ask ourselves before doing any task: 'Will this please Allah?', 'Is this a rewarding action?', and 'Am I doing this with sincerity to earn Jannah?'

Day 2 | ‘Recite in the name of your Lord who created.’ (Al-’Alaq: 1)

Iqra was the first word sent down to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ marking the beginning of revelation. This ayah indicates the importance of seeking beneficial knowledge. اقْرَأْ is a command to read, to learn and to explore knowledge that will help us get closer Allah. The Qur'an is a book of guidance we hold closely to our hearts. When teaching my boys, I try my best to link it back to what our Creator has said. Doing this helps them understand and slowly build that love for Him. We read about the first revelation from our @littleexplorersworld magazines. Yaseen decided to make a bookmark for his Qu'ran using a new skill he just learnt: blanket stitching. Allah bareek fee, I'm super proud of him.

Day 3 | 'And sent down, from the rain clouds, pouring water.' (An-Naba: 14)

I introduced the boys to 3 main types of clouds; cirrus, cumulus and stratus. After understanding the characteristics and replicating some clouds with cotton balls, we went cloud spotting. Symbols on cloud spotters represent the 3 types of clouds.

We read books by @civilianpublishing and @alkokab_books to increase our Arabic vocabulary. Then finished up some letter recognition and learning this dua:

اللَّهُمَّ صَيِّبًا نَافِعًا

O Allah, make it a beneficial rain

The word ٱلْمُعْصِرَٰتِ (rain clouds) comes from the root ع ص ر (yasara). For native Arabic speakers the words عصير (juice) or عصر (squeeze) may sound familiar. I used a little imagery to explain this to Yaseen. When Allah speaks about these rain clouds it's as if He is presenting them as squeezable clouds ready to nourish His creation.

I grew up using the word غيم for clouds. But in the Qu'ran you'll also find سَحَاب and الْغَمَامِ. Can anyone add to this?

Day 4 | ‘And (He revealed) that the masājid are for Allah..' (Al-Jinn: 18)

The entire message of the Qur'an is calling upon Tawheed - to worship Allah alone. The word الْمَسَاجِدَ (masājid) refers to any place where sujood (prostration) happens. Allah commands us to single Him out alone for worship and to not associate any partners or supplicate to anyone other than Him.

We took a lesson in geography to learn about Islam's holy mosques.

-Masjid al Haram located in Makkah, is the largest masjid in the world. It surrounds the Kabah where millions of Muslims do their pilgrimage.

-Masjid an Nabawi located in Madinah, is the 2nd largest masjid originally built by the Prophet (ﷺ) and his companions. The green dome shows the place where they are buried.

- Masjid al Aqsa located in Palestine, is where the Prophet (ﷺ) visited during his miraculous journey of Al Isra. This masjid has a black dome and is often confused with the Dome of the Rock masjid (which has a gold dome).

- Masjid al Quba located in Madinah, was the first masjid ever built by the Prophet (ﷺ) and his companions. Whoever prays 2 rakah's in there would receive the reward of Umrah!

If you've ever visited any of these holy places please let us know your very first thoughts and feelings. Yaseen has been asking me to visit the Kabah for a very long time, and the only response I can give him is: 'one day insha'Allah, just make dua for it." I pray we get a chance to visit these places, insha'Allah!

Day 5 | ‘By the dawn. By the 10 nights. And by the even and the odd.’ (Al-Fajr: 1-3)

We discussed Allah being Al Witr (the One, the Only) then started learning about odd and even numbers. We looked into our fard prayers to find out how many rakah's we pray and whether they're odd or even. "...Verily, Allah is Odd (He is one, and it is an odd number) and He loves odd number..." (Sahih Muslim).

Day 6 | ‘And We placed therein gardens of palm trees and grapevines...’ (Ya Sin: 34)

The date fruit unites one of the largest and most diverse communities - the Islamic world, AND is the most popular sweet treat in our home. During Ramadan, millions of Muslims break their fast with dates as advised by the prophet (ﷺ): "When one of you breaks his fast, let him break it with dates..."

We made some tahini date moon bites and some chocolate coated stuffed dates to break fast with. I enjoy having the kids in the kitchen so much. My preschooler just taught his younger brother how to measure. Allah mentions the date palm نخلة (nakhl) more than 20 times in the Qur'an. In Arabic we call this fruit تمر. It's also known as buah kurma (Indonesian) and Khajoor (Urdu). So tell me what do you call dates?

Day 7| ‘...Indeed, prayer has been decreed upon the believers a decree of specific time.' (An-Nisa’: 103)

Salah (Prayer) is a source of direct communication with Allah (God) and as Muslims we are obligated to pray 5 daily prayers at the prescribed times. These times are dictated by the positioning of the sun wherever we are. Once the call to prayer is announced, one should stop their task and perform prayer fulfilling all its conditions.

I taught the boys how to observe prayer times relying on the sun just like our prophet (ﷺ). After explaining the 5 prayers, we proceeded to capture these times. Of course with kids and weather changes things took much longer to complete!

At Fajr (dawn) we observed the light appearing from the horizon. At Dhuhr (midday) and Asr (late noon) we observed the positions of the sun and shadows to differentiate between these prayers (see last 2 photos - during Dhuhr, the shadow is small and becomes the size of the object. During Asr the shadow becomes much larger than the size of the object). Just before Maghrib we watched the golden sunset then waited until nightfall to witness Isha prayer. Honestly, just watching the ever-changing colours of the sky amazes me all the time!

I made them a salah time puzzle where they got a chance to teach me the positioning of the sun during prayer times. A great way to see how much they've taken in! Overall we loved this lesson.

I ended this activity with a saying of the prophet (ﷺ) whereby he mentions that the best deed is performing the prayer at its prescribed time.

Day 8 | ‘And it is He who produced for you hearing and vision and hearts; little are you grateful’. (Al-Mu'minun: 78)

Everything given to us is from the bounty of Allah. He has given us the gift of vision and hearing, and without it we wouldn't have had so much fun on our forest adventure! We wouldn't have seen a colony of termites, nor heard twigs crunching under our feet. We made a nature board focusing on things we see and hear, and things the boys would love to learn more about. We can spend hours outdoors talking about Allah's creation. There is always something new to explore! How merciful is He granting us the things we never asked for!

Day 9 | ‘O children of Adam, take your adornment at every masjid, and eat and drink, but be not excessive...’ (Al-A’raf: 31)

As narrated in ibn Kathir, this ayah refutes the idolator's practice of performing Tawaf around the Kabah while naked.

This ayah as well as the sunnah encourage us to wear our best clothing while praying. We jumped right into today's lesson discussing the concept of 'awrah, hijab (inside and outside of the home) and who can see mummy in her home clothes. The boys cut and glued leaves to cover exposed body parts so their cardboard dolls wore proper Hijab.

Key lesson learnt: Hijab is applied to both men and women and is not narrowed down to just clothing. It's our overall conduct as Muslims.

Day 10| ‘Until, when they came upon the valley of the ants...'(An-Naml: 18)

This tiny creature saved her colony from destruction. Ants have some of the most complex social organisation in the animal kingdom! Their gender is determined by the fertilisation process; non-fertilised eggs are male, while fertilised eggs are female. Their ability to get along and work with one another allows them to do extraordinary things! Weaver ants hang on to one another to build live bridges, so their fellow workmates can cross from one tree to another!

We made an ant farm just before Ramadan to witness how these marvellous creatures communicate. As days progressed, so did their pathways. Each morning, the kids and I would observe and wonder which route they'll take next.

Materials:

Large jar or bucket, smaller jar, sand, water, food and ants.

How to:

1. Place small jar inside the bucket to form the inner wall. This keeps ants near the side of the bucket so you can see them.

2. Fill with 3/4 of sand.

3. Spray with some water.

4. Optional: poke a skewer in the sand a few times to kickstart the process.

5. Add food and ants. I used apples as bait.

6. Cover with mesh fabric or a lid with holes. I used mesh with an elastic band.

Overall this was so exciting to see it unfold! Yes I'd definitely do this again!

Day 11 | ‘He brings the living out of the dead and brings the dead out of the living and brings to life the earth after its lifelessness.’ (Ar-Rum: 19)

This verse indicates the perfection of Allah's infinite power. He creates things and their opposites like a plant from a seed and a seed from a plant.

Here's a little introduction to living and non living objects. Unfortunately my toddler was asleep throughout this so I extended this activity for my 5 year old. Once he understood the characteristics of living things (pic 2), I introduced the concept of 'once living' i.e dried flowers, leaves, bones etc.

After sorting these objects I picked a few to discuss with him. He originally categorised the blue dress as non living, but I got him thinking. If the dress is made from cotton and cotton was once living on a plant, wouldn't that make the dress once living? I know, it gets confusing the more you think about it!

Day 12 | ‘It is Allah Who has made for you the earth as a resting place, and the sky as a canopy, and has given you shape and made your shapes good..’ (Ghafir: 64)

I planned an outing to see different shapes of leaves and petals but that didn't happen!

Instead, we used our geometric solids to learn the difference between 2D/3D shapes. The boys found objects the home that resemble them, then recreated these shapes using play dough and toothpicks. Surprisingly, they lasted more than 30 mins constructing and playing!

Day 13 | ‘Indeed, Allah is the cleaver of grain and the date-seeds..’ (Al-An’am: 95)

I took inspiration from this ayah (verse) to teach my boys seed germination. This was probably one of the coolest things we've ever done!

To speed up the germination process, I soaked our snow pea seeds overnight and had my toddler place them in a jar filled with damp cotton balls. By day 2 we saw them sprouting!

Since they sprouted so quickly, I decided to plant some more seeds 2 days apart so my 5 year old can document what he sees. We used this awesome seed journal from @playfullearning . He then went on to label the bean sprout.

Day 14 | ‘And eat of what Allah has provided for you (which is) lawful and good.’(Al-Ma’idah: 88)

Implementing a healthy lifestyle is a part of Allah's (God's) command. It's an obligation upon us to treat our bodies with respect and to nourish them with permissible AND nutritious food.

For this lesson I first introduced the terms:

Haram - what Allah has prohibited,

Halal - what Allah has made permissible, and

Tayyib - food that is wholesome, nutritious, organic, clean and pure.

My eldest knows we're not allowed to eat pork or meat that's slaughtered in a name other than Allah, however I made him aware that certain types of food contain pork derivatives, so we must always read the ingredients first.

After explaining the other 2 terms with examples, he sorted out his food, then together we went through each picture as he explained why he thought it was 'Halal' or 'Tayyib'.

(Last pic) I placed 5 'Halal' foods to one side and his task was to find the 'Tayyib' form. This helped him understand that there is always an option to eat healthy nutritious food!

Day 15 | ‘...Indeed, my Lord is the Hearer of Supplication’. (Ibrahim: 39)

Dua is translated as an act of supplication. It's a conversation with Allah (God) which incorporates thanks, praise, hope and a need or a request. One of the best things we can teach our children is the act of dua. When they understand Allah is always near and ready to answer their request, it makes it easier for them to turn to Him no matter what mood they're in.

Today I taught my eldest the etiquette of dua through cards and games. We went through each card and related it back to Qur'an and Sunnah.

To give him an example of how to make dua, I told him I'll be asking Allah for a 'peaceful sound heart - Qalbun Saleem' (a heart that does things for Allah's sake and that's free from spiritual diseases). I focused on points 2-5. I began with praising Allah the way He deserves, followed by sending salutations upon the prophet ﷺ. I then called upon His name As -Salaam (the source of peace, the flawless one) and made my dua for a Qalbun Saleem. It ended with praising Him once again. He will eventually remember this with encouragement and practice.

He learnt about the best times to make dua through drawings. I really wanted him to remember this lesson, so I gifted him his very own dua book. He has draw a picture relating to each dua knows.

Day 16 | ‘Say, "If you should love Allah, then follow me, (so) Allah will love you"...’ (Ali-Imran: 31)

If we are truly seeking the love of Allah (God), we need to be following the sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ (his practices and way of life). We took inspiration from this ayah (verse) to learn about the Prophet's ﷺ generosity. He ﷺ was the most generous person. He ﷺ never expected anything in return, nor did he ﷺ fear poverty from giving.

The boys chose to donate toys to the children's hospital. Before we went shopping, I explained this saying of the Prophet ﷺ: "None of you will believe until you love for your brother what you love for yourself." I made it clear that our intention is to purchase toys and books we love the most to give to the sick children. I didn't know what to expect as we aren't big shoppers, and we hardly go near the toy section.

2 hours later we were back at home! Yes, 2 hours later! They were so excited they visited every toy and book aisle. My eldest was fine with choosing things he loved, however, my toddler wouldn't give up the box of legos and PJ mask book. I had to remind him who we were shopping for. Alhamdulillah he finally gave in .

The boys delivered the gifts with their father to the hospital. They learnt that it's a blessing being able to give and being able to make someone else happy (just the way we would want). As for me I don't think I'll be visiting the toy aisle any time soon!

Day 17 | 'Then do they not look at the camels- how they are created?' (Al-Ghashiyah: 17)

Allah asks us to ponder about the camel. Now, where do I begin? These camels were specifically designed for the conditions of the desert.

Camels have:

-Two rows of long eyelashes and three sets of eyelids to keep out the sand.

-Broad flat hooves which distribute weight on the sand to prevent the camel from sinking.

-Leathery knee pads to protect them from the hot sand once sitting.

-Tough mouth for eating thorny plants.

-Nostrils which close during a sandstorm.

-Thick wooly fur which protects them from the sun and keeps them warm during the night.

-A hump storing fat which will provide them with food.

These animals are special! We read some facts about the Arabian camel, crafted a camel, learnt some anatomy and learnt 2 Arabic Camel words: ﺟَﻤَﻞ (Masculine camel) and نَـاقَـة‎ (She Camel).

Day 18 | '...And He dispersed in it from every creature.' (Luqman: 10)

Allah has created the animal kingdom so vast that scientists are still discovering new life on Earth! We are yet to study zoology so today was an introduction on vertebrates and invertebrates, and acknowledging Allah's magnificent power to create all kinds of life.

Here's our animal classification mat. I would have loved to have more animals but this worked for now. My 5 year old learnt the difference between vertebrates/ invertebrates and warm blooded/cold blooded animals.

Day 19 | 'Indeed, We sent the Qur'an down during the Night of Decree.' (Al-Qadr: 1)

The 97th chapter of the Qur'an has been dedicated to a special night; The Night of Decree ( laylatul Qadr ). On this night, the very first words of the Qur'an were revealed to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Any worship done during this night gets numerous reward. On this night, a person's lifespan, sustenance, and all other important matters are decreed. We are taught to seek Allah's forgiveness throughout the night.

Forgiveness is an important part of Islamic teachings. We constantly make mistakes and commit sins but what's important is what we do next. After we realise our mistake, we should turn towards Allah and ask for forgiveness. If another person was involved, we need to also seek their forgiveness. We cannot expect Allah to forgive us, if we still hold grudges towards those who have wronged us.

I made Yaseen a 'Forgiveness Puzzle'. We started off speaking about Allah's mercy then explained 3 names relating to forgiveness: Al Ghafoor (The Most Forgiving), Al Afwu (The Pardoner), and At Tawwab (The Acceptor of Repentence).

We then spoke about 3 steps to seek forgiveness from Allah: 1) Say istighfaar, 2) Make dua, 3) Stop the mistake, feel bad about it and try not to repeat it. Then 3 steps to seek forgiveness from people, 1) acknowledge mistake, 2) Sincerely apologise, 3) Make amends.

We discussed some signs we can feel once our forgiveness is accepted by Allah: 1) You'll see and feel positive changes within, 2) You'll feel closer to Allah, 3) Your heart will be at ease and will attain calmness.

Day 20 | '...And those who have believed and done righteous deeds will be in lush regions of the gardens (in Paradise) having whatever they will in the presence of their Lord...' (Ash-Shura: 22)

Jannah (Paradise) is the goal of every Muslim, and to attain any goal, we need to have a set plan to implement. Yesterday we started working on our Jannah vision wall which serves as a reminder of our purpose in life (it's still a work in progress). We had a brief discussion on ways to get to Jannah and what we would love to have there. I want a chocolate river while Yaseen wants a flying horse . We still need to add more to this visual, but our next step is to break each 'category' into small achievable tasks and lessons. This was our final lesson for our Qur'an Inspired Montessori prompts. We pray that this was beneficial. Thank you to everyone who followed a long, tried some prompts and supported us in anyway way.

JazakumAllah Khair!
- Zayneb x

Posted on November 10, 2025

Zed + Q

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