Truth rewards

An emperor in the Far East was growing old and knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided something different. He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you." The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today. One very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor!" One boy named Ling was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks went by. Still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants but Ling didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure. Six months went by-still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow. A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But honest about what happened, Ling felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful-in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other kinds laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey nice try." When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor. "Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!" All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. "The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!" When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!" Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor? Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!

Tell me

That day, i got a few complaints about my class and i decided to talk to them about it.
I began on an honest note, "Class, i have always tried to be friendly with you people. Did i ever beat you?"
"No Ma'am."
"Did I ever give you some kind of punishment?"
"No Ma'am."
"I try to give you guys all the space you need. I talk to you politely; i never scold you, never punish you, never take you to the Principal and still complaints."
I don't know if their silence also meant they were understanding, agreeing, sympathising with me but i went on and on talking of strict teachers and horrible punishments and contrasting it with my friendly approach.
To break the monotony i asked them, "You tell me what should i do with you so that you behave properly and i don't get to hear more complaints. Tell me....."
And pat came the reply, "Ma'am I tell you? Become little strict." 

Do we?

Share your experiences with the students. Send them to imsaligarh@gmail.com

sure?

Facts

Even when a snake has its eyes closed, it can still see through its eyelids.

Horses can run shortly after birth.

Despite the white, fluffy appearance of Polar Bears fur, it actually has black skin.

Mosquitoes can be annoying insects but did you know that it's only the female mosquito that actually bites humans.

Cats spend a large amount of time licking their coats to keep them clean.

Jellyfish don’t have brains.

How do i?

We were talking about my aquarium that day and of a certain fish that had grown big in size.

“Ma’am would you put in the river, now?”

“Maybe, send it back to the shop.”

“Get a bigger aquarium.”

“Arrey ma’m make tandoori chicken out of it and eat.”

LETTER WRITING

Dear Areeb,

                   Please come to my house in winter vacation. And please read this letter which I have written down. Please friend, come to my house in winter vacation because I have asked my parents to call you and they have permitted that you can come and I have asked my mother that she should cook Biryani, especially for you.

Yours honestly,

Saad Alam 

Wishes

          Dear cousin,

                   Please come to our place to spend your winter vacations. I have arranged your passport and visa. We will go together. We will go to see the grave (tomb) of Prophet Muhammad Sallallaho alayhi wasallam and of Hazrat Abu Bakr (ra) And Hazrat Umar (ra). We will see Cave Hira and offer salah in the mosque of our prophet sallAllaho  alayhi wasallam.

          Then we will also go to see the Kaaba.                                
          Waiting for you,                               
          Talha Noman

H.W.!!!

Dear Afreen,

                     Come to my home in winter vacation. We will enjoy very much together. I have many story books, we will read them. And also we will do our winter vacation homework together in my house.

Your cousin,

Iram

MY FAVOURITE SPOT

After reading the poem THE TAMARIND which was the favourite spot of the poet where he sat, relaxed and looked at the distant blue hills; laughed and smiled beneath its shady boughs etc we discussed our favourite places.

ABAAN shared, “My favourite place is my father’s room.” 

“Why? What do you do there?”

 “ Ma’m because there are so many many books there – Islamic and academic books. I like to read them and understand them.”

Ahem?

“Sometimes I stare at the books.”

MARIYAM HASHMI : “Ma’m my favourite place is in Allahbad, my grandparents’ house”

And where exactly?    “Umm, whole house and no ma’m it’s the roof, my favourite is roof.” 

LAIBA : “My nani’s house because there are many friends. I play very much there. we do all the things ‘together’. When it is noon, the ice-cream seller comes and then we take for everybody and enjoy very much. When it is evening then also we get some rupees and we go to buy something.”

MY EXPERIMENT

One of the teacher at IMS relates, “I was a little scared when I joined back at school after a long gap. Scared in the sense you wouldn’t understand so moving on to the first day – the awesome little kids smiled, shouted, waved and asked as well answered as to where I had been; once we all got over we got back to the lesson and however difficult it was managed to study something. 
Next was Seerah period which almost everytime sets everything alright. There is silence, they are interested, they look up for details and they, no! we recite durood shareef and may be that’s the serene part but then came home work time and since it was a day off next day I thought it would be good if they wrote something so I gave some topic for paragraph writing.

My experiment began the next day, something inside told me not to get angry, maybe their welcoming part the day before or whatever so I did not have to punish anyone who didn’t do the homework; waisey bhi I had never liked making them stand up,   holding ears- never tried even and sending out of the room is a total waste of their time and I for one do not have the heart for all this strict punishment thing but then what? Reward? Ohkay may be that would do. I thought. But then, since I had slept after fajr (very bad idea) I got late so no chocolates.

  I had just entered the classroom and lo! “Ma’m I have done my work.” “Ma’m here take it” They were four or five only. There were some with excuses, “I have written half”, “Sorry left at home” etc too but they hadn’t done it. That’s the scary part now if you can understand. But I wasn’t to get angry, no chocolates either so? Time to experiment -  I went up to the  board and wrote the names with stars, a big smiley and under the head, ‘My favourite kids today’. We moved on to learning the rule of English grammar planned for the day, they did the exercises and then someone said, “ Ma’m if I give it to you now, you will write my name also?” It was working, I said a loud yes and like always couldn't help smiling. And lo! The exercises finished pretty soon and the compositions kept coming in. Thank God!

By the way, here is something for us; have a nice day teachers :)

Eg.

BISMAH SAEED writes:

Prophet Muhammad sallallaho alayhi wasallam was of most excellent character. He is an example to all of us.

• If a guest comes to our house then we have to remember our Prophet sallAllaho alayhi wasallam that how he used to welcome his guests.
• We should obey and respect our elders like our Prophet sallAllaho alayhi wasallam.
• We should be kind and honest like our prophet sallAllaho alayhi wasallam.
• We should always believe in Allah like our Prophet sallAllaho alayhi wassallam.
• We should help poor and needy.
• We should follow the instructions of our beloved Prophet sallAllaho alayhi wasallam.
• We love our Prophet sallAllaho alyhi wasallam.

a Hadith

ZIKRA BILAL shares:-

The Prophet Muhammad sallallahoalayhi wasallam used to tell his followers “Acquire knowledge!” He said to all, “Seeking knowledge is the duty of every muslim. It will enable you to be your own friend in the desert, it will be your mainstay in solitude, your companion in loneliness, your guide to happiness, your sustainer in misery, your adornment when you are amongst people and your arrow against your enemies. Whoever goes out in search of knowledge is on the path of Allah until returning.”

(Wait, there is a note she adds, it says “Sorry ma’am for not giving homework yesterday, I love you ma’am and my family also)

Sallallaho alayhi wasallam

AHMAD MUNIB tells us:-

Allah has sent Prophet Muhammad sallallaho alayhi wasallam to us. The Prophet teaches us that we should pray to Allah and ask Him for help. We should give money to poor and needy and we should help them to buy clothes. When you give them something have smile on your face.

And we all love Prophet Muhammad sallallaho alayhi wasallam. Thank you all of you.

Muhammad

LAIBA KHAN adds:-

                        Our Prophet Muhammad sallallaho alayhi wasallam is an example for all. He told us how to eat, how to talk and etc. We should follow his rules like respect parents, help poor and greedy (maybe she wanted to write needy), be polite and etc. We should offer salah, read Quran and obey our parents, listen to the teacher what they say. We should not do bad things like cheating, lying, not helping others. Prophet Muhammad sallallaho alayhi wasallam never told a lie. He told good things to others and loved children. 

An Example

SAFIYA HAYYI writes:-

                              We have an example in our prophet sallallaho alayhi wasallam; to him was Quran revealed. Allah loved all prophets. Prophet sallallaho alayhi wasallam was kind, polite, grateful. He was having good deeds. The best man on earth is our beloved prophet, the last prophet. All prophets were send to juice (she means jews) but prophet sallallaho alayhi wasallam was sent to us. It is the best thing that prophet sallallaho alayhi wasallam was sent to us. We should follow the rules of Prophet sallallahoalayhi wasallam. We should recite the durood sharif before reading Seerah and while closing also, please remember our beloved prophet sallallaho alayhi wasallam.

LIARS GET CAUGHT

Another one by Talha Noman, Std IV

                                                         Once upon a time there was a boy who used to tell lies to make people laugh. One day as he was telling lie to people about somebody a wise man asked him, “Are you speaking the truth?” the boy said, “Yes.”  

After this the wise man started to notice every single thing. Next day again, boy told a lie about somebody, the wise man asked, “At which time has he done what you say?” The boy said “this evening, just now.” But at that time he was playing outside. The boy had to face a great shame in front of all. Now, he promised to speak the truth.

BETWEEN BROTHERS

A long story by Areeb Shahid, Std. IV

                                                        Once upon a time in Mumbai there was a boy named Sultan. He was the eldest of all his brothers. All his three brothers were very kind and truthful but he was not at all truthful. One day all the four brothers were studying for the class test of next day. The three truthful brothers were studying hard but Sultan did not study for test. Next day, before starting the test the three truthful brothers recited the name of Allah but the fourth brother, Sultan didn’t recite it because he didn’t truly believe in Allah. He didn’t know the answer of all 5 questions. He asked in a light whisper the answer of these five questions from his brothers but one of his brothers refused to answer the question. He said, “Sultan, you are cheating! The teacher will catch us.” Sultan started laughing and making fun of his brother. He said, “The teacher will not be able to catch us, so don’t worry and answer this question.” At last his brother answered the question. All the three brothers were afraid. The teacher looked at them and said, “Why are you talking during the test?” Sultan lied, “I am not talking, I am just asking for a pencil.” But his brother told the teacher that he was lying. The teacher failed him in the test and gave him punishment of not going for games till one week because he is not a true believer. After one week he promised his teacher, brothers, friends and his enemies that he will not do such a thing ever again and that he had learnt his lesson.”

TELLING LIE IS A SIN

Story by Afeerah Naseem, Std IV

Once in a town there lived a boy named Yahya. He was very arrogant and naughty. One day he was in his room writing letter to his cousin Ali. In it he made fun of him. When he finished it, instead of his name he wrote Ali’s father’s name. he laughed a lot When Ali read it he understood that Yahya had sent this to him. When he asked Yahya about it, Yahya said, “I don’t know and nor do I believe in you.” Ali told Yahya’s mother about the letter. He was afraid that he will get punishment. As he had thought, the same happened. Then he realized his mistake and promised that he will neither lie nor make fun of others.