There hasn’t been anything that bloggable. The boys do enjoy making posters, or display items, but only sometimes. Mostly they would be happy for me to just read stuff to them. And they will often readily choose to do a few written exercises over something more creative. So the last couple of days were a bit book orientated.
I also went to an Islamic talk, which is always reviving. I come away thinking “must work harder, must work harder, must sleep less”. I find that very motivating.
On the way back from the talk I popped into an Islamic bookshop which I hadn’t been to before and there we found “The Life of Saladin” (should be Salah ed-Deen?), by Beha Ed-Din, who was a contemporary of Salah ed Deen, accompanying him for some years. Obviously this is a translation of a translation of a translation, Beha Ed-Din died in 1234. But what a gem to find, the boys were excited, we had to rush straight to the cashpoint (opposite). (We had been looking for a life of Salah Ed Deen book for ages).
We have started reading. The style is a bit heavy, but I love the dialogue details, “The Sultan said this”, and “I said that”. For example today we read about a time when Salah ed-Deen was in control of Jerusalem, with the Franks and their English allies encamped nearby, soon to attack the city. The city emirs were afraid, and suggested that Salah ed Deen should go out to meet the Franks while they would stay behind to defend the city. Salah ed Deen feared that the emirs were actually planning to flee the city. He and Beha Ed Din stayed up all night worrying about what to do next. In the end Beha Ed Din advised the Sultan that all he could do would make an extra 2 rakat of prayer between the azan and iqamah of Friday prayers in the Aksa mosque, and pray a dua from hadith, whilst prostrating, which basically said that he had made all the worldly effort he could and he turned the matter over to Allah for help. The Sultan performed the extra prayers and made dua, causing tears to fall from him. Following that were several days of disorder and confusion in the camp of the Franks as the French and English disagreed on what action to take. On the Monday the Frankish army departed.
What a story of the power of faith and dua.
Aside from that, we have found this website! Ia has been using the Transport to Reading section, and the boys were even doing a MATHS game in the knowledge box bit.
1 comment:
Oh I loved garfield as a child!
I remeber being at a talk recommending max 6 and a half hours sleep a night. Maybe I do that but not voluntaraly, and it is one aspect I need to work on (need for sleep I mean!)
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