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 <a href="https://almanaratheights.com/the-beauty-revolution-competition-2022/">blog</a> on the Beauty Revolution 2022, you’d have learnt that, for the Academic Year...

Continue reading

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...

Continue reading

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,...

Continue reading

Competitions at Al-Manarat Weekend 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...

Continue reading

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...

Continue reading

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...

Continue reading

The Beauty Revolution at Al-Manarat Weekend Islamic School

All of us have heard Plato’s saying, “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. While that sounds true to a certain extent, we at Al Manarat Heights Islamic School believe that “true beauty lies in our character (akhlaaq)”. Apart from tirelessly working to impart an Islamic education to our students, at Al Manarat Heights, we spend a lot of time developing our students’ character Islamically as well. Although this character-development happens in our classroom teaching daily, we have devised a fun and interactive annual schoolwide event to take a more hands-on approach to this important activity. Starting in 2018, we...

Continue reading