10 Mar
School Events

The Winter Ilm Nourishment Retreat – 2022

Over this past Winter Vacation in December 2022, we at Al Manarat Islamic Schools in Mississauga, had the opportunity to organize our second annual Winter Ilm Nourishment (WIN) Retreat, and with the grace of Almighty Allah (SWT) it turned out to be one of the most enlightening and enriching experience for the participants. About 100 attendees (children and their parents) registered and attended this 3-days’ workshop that was strategically titled: In the Company of the Beloved ﷺ. If you’ve had the opportunity to read our previous blog on the Beauty Revolution 2022, you’d have learnt that, for the Academic Year 2022-23 Al Manarat Islamic Schools are hyper focused on teaching, learning, and implementing the Seerah of the Prophet ﷺ in everything that we do throughout the year. We intend to drive home this undeniable concept...

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09 Nov
School Events

The Beauty Revolution Competition 2022

During our lives as teachers and more specifically as teachers at an Islamic School in Canada, we often wonder whether all of our relentless efforts of teaching, training, and enablement of the next generation of Western Muslims are sufficient enough to see us through this ephemeral world? While Allah SWT only wants us to genuinely strive in His path, it is but human to think about the results of our efforts. Seeing all the un-Islamic exposure our students have to unintentionally go through everyday living in the West, we are sometimes reminded of the times of the early days of the Muslims, who were just a handful in number, struggling to hold on to their leader and companion, Prophet Muhammed ﷺ. They faced countless hardships and struggles just to proclaim the oneness of Allah SWT...

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12 Jun
School Events

Annual Event: Living with the names of Allah (SWT)

Abdullah had just experienced the worst calamity possible as a 12-year-old child. He had just lost his entire family to a brutal and unjustified occupation that had taken over his beautiful island nation of Tooba and turned it into a living hell for its inhabitants. The oppressors waging the war on the sovereignty of Tooba, wanted to ensure total control and domination of the island. Their oppressive ruler certainly made sure no one would challenge his authority, far and wide. He decreed mass killings to ensure the population was under control on the island and pulled out all the stops in his incessant pursuit of wealth, power, and domination. No one in their right mind would have preferred to live in Tooba anymore and Abdullah also found himself wishing desperately to get away from it...

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11 May
School Events

Ramadan – A Time Of Self-Nourishment And Caring For The Community

Over the past couple of years, we have all felt the big void of not having a ‘normal’ Ramadan in our lives. The pandemic had made it impossible for us to partake in any Ramadan activities outside of our homes and hence it was only natural for us to yearn for those beautiful days of worship and self-reflection, in a community setting. Alhumdulilah, with the immense blessings and mercy of Allah (SWT), Ramadan 2022 came along and had us racing against time to make full use of it, just like in the pre-pandemic days. Even at Al Manarat Islamic Schools, we have had to keep ourselves on our toes to take advantage of this blessed month and instill its love and importance in our students. Throughout the years, we have always had in-school activities in Ramadan...

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15 Mar
School Events

Competitions at Al Manarat Heights Islamic School

When we hear the word competition, some of the first things that come to mind are sports and athletic competitions or other co-curriculars such as debates and elocution competitions or perhaps, even arts and crafts competitions. However, at Al Manarat Heights Islamic School, we have a vision of nurturing our students in the light of the Quran and the teachings of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). With this vision in mind, we have developed a broad range of additional competitions for our students that specifically revolve around perfecting our embodiment of Islam. Competitions are a great way for students to experience a host of topics such as, participation, effort, teamwork, excellence, wins and losses; and overall attain a deeper understanding of Islam which is at the heart of each competition. The first of such competitions discussed...

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08 Feb
Inspirational

Islamic Schooling in the Western World – Part 2

Having attempted to explore the concept of Islamic schooling and the various existing viewpoints of our communities in Part 1 of this blog series, we shall now do a deep dive into Al Manarat Islamic School’s endeavors to rekindle that perfect balance of worldly education built upon the foundations of sacred Islamic knowledge.  We believe that every Muslim child growing up anywhere in the world should have the option of a holistic conventional + Islamic education. This belief is tad bit more applicable to the Western world, where a lot of the mainstream culture and heritage is viewed in stark contrast with the Islamic way of life. To advance this idea, at Al Manarat Islamic Schools, we have worked hard over the past decade to provide the Muslim students of Mississauga and Brampton a high-quality Islamic...

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08 Feb
Inspirational

Islamic Schooling in the Western World – Part 1

In this 2-part blog series, we have decided to ponder upon the assumed existential crisis of Islamic schools in the West while also highlighting the intentions behind Al Manarat Islamic Schools. We’d also like to take this opportunity to renew our intentions with regards to our vision as well as our commitments to the Muslim community of the Greater Toronto Area.  Islamic schooling and the attempts to balance Islamic education with conventional education are not new to us in the West. However, when we look for the basic definition of it in the communities, we are still able to elicit a diverse range of thoughts and explanations for it. In this part 1 of the blog, we shall attempt to candidly explore all the diverse thoughts on the topic of Islamic schooling from the existing viewpoints...

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10 Dec
Inspirational

Grade 9 and Grade 10 at Al Manarat High School

Grade 9 and Grade 10 at Al Manarat High School Note: This blog is a continuation of the themes discussed in an earlier blog post (A Vision Turned to Reality, published on 15th Nov). If you haven’t read our previous blog yet, we’d recommend that you proceed to read that one first and then come back to this one, to get a better understanding of our overall journey and vision. We can all agree that high school is an exceptional time in our teenage children’s lives. It is around this time in their lives that they undergo puberty and go through hundreds of changes in their bodies: physically, mentally, and emotionally. In other words, it is when they begin their one-way transition from being young boys and girls to becoming adult men and women. It is also...

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30 Nov
Student Work

The Composite Nature of Human Creation | The Spirit

“And when He had made him upright and breathed into him of His spirit (38:72) The human creation, an upright being made from clay is said to be a receptacle for the ruh (spirit), a unique feature made by Allah. A physical object and spirit are the crucial components of individuals. The ruh forms the physical body which connects it to senses and intellect, which when both are used together, creates a perfect being in worldly and spiritual affairs. These are the two elements that summarize humanity itself, and this ayah explains that. Fakhr al-Din al Razi elaborates on this verse, saying that the human creation is not fully complete with just one element, but a composite of soul and body which contribute to a man’s uprightness and the spirit being breathed into man. This idea...

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15 Nov
Inspirational

A Vision Turned to Reality

Everything starts with a vision, followed by a defined mission, that is generally coupled with a vivid imagination. But what comes even before all that is the intention to simply act, or in our case, the act of ‘teaching’. Having gained the knowledge and education of the Islamic deen, our Founder and President Mrs. Nasreen Ali thought that the best way to act on her newly gained knowledge was to pay it forward. She did so by teaching the deen to the adults and the children of her community. She wanted to illuminate and enlighten the young hearts and minds with the miracles of the Quran and imbue the true awe of our Creator, Allah (SWT). One thing led to another and that simple act of teaching others in the community propelled our Founder on a...

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