7M1

Today we looked at the Second Pillar of Islam, “Salah”. This is the requirement for Muslims to pray 5 times a day. We were introduced to 5 key words:

• Adhan - the call to prayer we saw on the whiteboard
• Mu’adhin - the person who sings the call to prayer (adhan)
• Salah - the second pillar
• Rakah - an individual unit of prayer
• Wudu - the ritual wash Muslims have before prayer

Homework:

Your homework was to think of something you could do 5 times a day and then do it before school, at morning break, lunchtime, after school, and in the evening. Once you’ve done it, write a paragraph explaining what you did and how easy or hard you found it.

Today we started looking at the Five Pillars of Islam, starting with Shahadah. We learned that this is the first thing spoken to new babies, used 5 times a day in the Muslim call to prayer, and Muslims try to make it the last thing they say before they die.

The words are: “ašhadu al lā ilāha illa l-Lāh, wa ašhadu anna muammadar rasūlu l-Lāh” which means
“There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God”.

We also heard the story of Muhammed (PBUH).

Homework (due next week) was to write a brief summary of his life and the starting of Islam. Try to find out some interesting information about his life!

For information try:

• Wikipedia
• cist.org.uk
• Jamaat.org (quite detailed)
• IslamAwareness.net (again quite detailed)

Today we finished looking at Hindu samskaras (rites of passage) by looking at funeral ceremonies.

We thought about the idea of reincarnation (being reborn as something else) and how the ideas of dharma and karma affect how someone is reborn.

The Notebook presentation is here.

You can find more information on Hindu funerals here, here or here.

This morning we looked at the different ways Hindus might get married. Hinduism is a way of life, not just a religion and so every wedding is slightly different. You looked at various different things a Hindu couple might do at their wedding: Hindu wedding rituals.

You can find more information on Wikipedia, BBC Religion or EduWeb.

After having looked at Hindu Rites of Passage for a while we spent today looking at the Hindu concept of “Dharma”. We started off considering foreign words that are used in English (like “corgi” which is Welsh meaning “little dog”, or “doolally” which comes from an Indian town of a similar name in which English army officers were said to go crazy).

Then we looked at “dharma” in more detail, and explored the concept of “duty”. This involved looking at the Dharma of policemen, worms, dogs and trees. We also thought about how these things work together. You drew your own pictures of living things and identified their dharma.

Finally, we compared Obama Dharma and Farmer Dharma.

Notebook presentation

Learning objective: To find out about the Hindu “Sacred Thread” ceremony.

Today we were looking at the Hindu initiation ceremony called the “Sacred Thread” ceremony (or Upanayana). We thought about what happens and the symbolic things that they do to represent the person’s second “spiritual” birth when they get a new spiritual father (or Guru) and take the Vedas (Hindu holy book) as their spiritual mother.

The Notebook presentation is here. Or, for more information try Wikipedia or Heart of Hinduism.

Homework was to talk to a married couple you know and ask them what they think marriage is all about. What do they think makes a good marriage? Write down their answer and bring it next lesson.

Today we look at Hindu rites of passage called Samskaras, in paricular we looked at 3 called Garbhadhana, Jatakarma and Annaprashana. (Look here for more information).

We created some pages exploring the meaning of these three ceremonies. I’ve taken the best from each:

• Garbhadhana
• Jatakarma
• Annaprashana