Define360 Summer Camp Newsletter

This week, we focused on teaching the campers about Forgiveness.

In Prophet’s Heart, students learned an ayah regarding the importance of forgiveness:

وَلۡيَـعۡفُوۡا وَلۡيَـصۡفَحُوۡا‌ ؕ اَلَا تُحِبُّوۡنَ اَنۡ يَّغۡفِرَ اللّٰهُ لَـكُمۡ‌ ؕ وَاللّٰهُ غَفُوۡرٌ رَّحِيۡم‏

“. . . and let them pardon and overlook. Would you not like that Allah should forgive you? And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.” [The Holy Quran, Surah Noor, 24:22]

This taught them that we should be motivated to forgive others as that allows us to obtain Allah SWT forgiveness! Thus, forgiving others is important for our success in the Hereafter and this world, as studies show it improves our mental and physical health.

Students also read a book by Rukhsana Khan, a Canadian Muslim author, called ‘Big Red Lollipop’ which is a story about greed, temptation, and about two sisters who are invited to a birthday party and how they learned to forgive each other.

Additionally, students worked on a Clean Heart activity to show the power and blessing of forgiveness as we are freed when we let go of pain and sorrow. When we forgive others, it cleans our hearts! We pray that Allah-Al Ghafoor will accept our forgiveness and rub out our wrong actions from the book of deeds that the angels have been writing in.

In STEAM, students worked on the Invisible Ink experiment. Through this experiment, students also recognized that Allah SWT knows all our actions even the ones that are hidden just like the invisible ink. However, when we seek sincere forgiveness, Allah SWT forgives because He is indeed Al Afuw (The Most Forgiving).

In Divine Stories, students visited the story of Prophet Yusuf (AS) as the most important lesson from his story is about forgiveness. Prophet Yusuf’s (AS) brothers treated him very unjustly. However, when they repented and asked for forgiveness, Prophet Yusuf (AS) forgave them. The students learned that we also must be forgiving towards people around us since Allah likes those who are forgiving!

Students made a craft depicting Prophet Yusuf's (AS) dream with Sister Nida! The dream of the eleven stars refers to the eleven brothers of Prophet Yusuf (AS), the sun refers to his father, and the moon refers to his mother.

Anoosha Syed visited and talked about her journey becoming an award-winning children's book author and an illustrator! The students were able to ask her questions, learn how to create a character, and practice their drawing skills!