Book one in the series
Standing
A first term on the prayer
- Weeks
- 12
- Age
- Ages seven to nine
- Format
- Two books, as PDFs
- Price
- £19
Both books, delivered the moment you buy. Thirty days to change your mind, and you keep the files either way.
What this term is, and what it is not
This is a term on the prayer. Not on wudu, although wudu is in it, and not on memorisation, although some will happen. It is built around one question your child has probably never been asked directly, which is why anybody would want to stand in front of Allah five times a day at all.
It is not a workbook and there is nothing in it to fill in. It is not a substitute for a teacher, and it will not turn your child into a scholar in twelve weeks. What it will do is take twenty minutes of your evening, four days a week, and put something in front of your child in an order that has been thought about carefully.
Nothing in any book teaches your child as much as watching you pray. This one is written to sit underneath that, not beside it.
What arrives
Two books, and the things for the wall
- The child's book. Twelve illustrated chapters, one for each week, with the verse for the week set out in full Arabic, transliteration and English.
- The parent's guide. Twelve chapters, each carrying the lesson word for word, the anchor, what your child probably already thinks, and what to do when the week does not go to plan.
- The Friday Table. Twelve family sessions, one for the end of each week.
- Sources. Every verse referenced by chapter and verse, every narration by collection and grading, and a list of what was left out and why.
- To print and put on the wall. The tracker, the anchor cards and the certificate.
Two PDF books, delivered the moment you buy. Read them on a phone, a tablet or a laptop, or print them and keep them in a folder, which is what most families end up doing.
The term at a glance
The twelve weeks, in order
The order is the product. Each week assumes the one before it, and from week two onwards the Look Back questions reach backwards so that nothing taught in September has been quietly dropped by November.
| No | Week | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The gift that came from above | Isra and Miraj. Why this one command was received rather than sent |
| 2 | Clean before you come | Tahara. The two kinds of clean |
| 3 | Water, and what it carries away | Wudu step by step, and what leaves with the water |
| 4 | The call | The adhan, its words, and the first man to call it |
| 5 | Which way, and when | Qibla, the five times, and why they sit where they do |
| 6 | Allahu akbar | The takbir, and what it shuts out |
| 7 | What you are actually saying, one | Al Fatiha, the opening lines, and the answer to each |
| 8 | What you are actually saying, two | Guidance and the straight path |
| 9 | Down | Ruku and sujud. Why the body does this |
| 10 | Sitting | Tashahhud, the testimony, and sending peace |
| 11 | When it is hard | Distraction, laziness, a missed prayer, and returning |
| 12 | Standing together | Jamaah, the rows, Jumuah |
The shape of a lesson
Twenty minutes, five steps, every week
Prepare
One item, put out before you begin. Never more than one, because a lesson that needs a shopping list is a lesson that does not happen.
2 minutes
The lesson, word for word
The script, read aloud as it is written or said in your own way. Every pause is marked.
4 minutes
Read this once
One passage from the child's book, read once, and said beforehand that it is only once.
4 minutes
Tell it back to me
Four words, and then silence. The pause is where the work is happening.
5 minutes
The Anchor
One action, tied to something that already happens every day. Never a craft and never a worksheet.
5 minutes
Read a piece of it
The lesson, word for word
This is the part nobody else supplies. Not a summary of what to teach, but the sentences themselves, with the pauses marked and the stage directions kept out of the child’s hearing.
Week two. Clean before you come
This is the middle of the lesson from week two, exactly as it is printed. The lines set in grey are stage directions for you and are not read aloud.
Do you remember the last time we went to a wedding?
Let them answer, and let them tell you about it if they want to.
What did we do before we went?
Let them list it. Showered, new clothes, hair done, good shoes. Let them say it. There is no need to say it for them.
Right. Now here is a question for you. Did the people at that wedding need us to be clean?
Pause.
Not really. They would have let us in either way. We did it because of what the day was. When something matters, you get ready for it, and nobody has to tell you. You just do.
Point to the clothes on the bed, and say nothing.
So. Five times a day, you are going to stand in front of Allah. And before you do, you get ready.
Tell it back to me.
Read it as it is written, or say it in your own way. Both work. What matters is the order the ideas arrive in and the silence after the last line.
The whole of week one is free, if you would like to teach a complete week before deciding.
Before you buy
The questions people actually ask
Do I need to know Arabic?
No. The Arabic is set out in full so that your child sees it and so that a parent who reads it is not made to work from transliteration. Underneath it there is a transliteration and an English translation. You are never asked to read the Arabic, and the guide says so in the front matter.
Which school of thought does this follow?
Everything taught is restricted to what the four Sunni schools hold in common. Where the schools differ, the difference is either set aside for a later book or stated plainly in the sources at the back, so that your family can follow its own practice. Nothing is taught as the only position when it is not.
How long does it actually take?
Twenty minutes a day, four days a week, and one longer family session on a Friday. The twenty minutes is the real figure rather than an optimistic one, and the five steps that fill it are set out on this page.
What if we fall behind?
Begin where you left off. Do not restart the term and please do not press two weeks into one. There is a chapter in the guide on what to do when a week does not go to plan, and it is there because most weeks do not.
Are there pictures of people?
No face is drawn on any human or animal, and no prophet is depicted in any form. What is drawn instead is architecture, sky, water, light, textiles, doorways and geometry, seen from the child's own eye height. We draw the place a thing happened, not the person it happened to.
Has anybody checked this?
Nothing ships without review by a qualified scholar. Every verse is referenced by chapter and verse and every narration by collection and grading. Weak narrations are not used, and where a well known one has been deliberately left out, the guide says so and explains why.
Anything else, and a person answers the email.
Standing. A first term on the prayer
Twelve weeks in two books, £19.
Delivered the moment you buy. Thirty days to change your mind, and you keep the files either way.