1st day of Ramadaan

Alhamdu lillah, the day started out good and promising. Iftar was prepared early, only the soup was cooking after Thuhr and the bureks were all rolled. We were all exhausted by Thuhr, they boys having stayed awake until Fajr the night before!

This is where things started to go wrong :( After the prayer, the boys had to wash bird accessories, unfortunately they took much longer than needed, giving excuses not to work all three together. They finally fell asleep around 4 pm and then we didn't wake up until 6. After praying 'Asr the boys had to wash all the extra drinkers to get them out of the way. I pleaded can't they do it tomorrow? Oh, it shouldn't take long... only it always takes longer than expected with the boys.

DH was busy with the birds and then made us a fruit salad. The kids helped to peel the pomegranate, which turned out to be extremely sour, ruining the whole salad!

In the end we only got some Qur'an recitation done (the boys preferred to concentrate on their revisions than read the first juz') and one part of the Prophets' Stories while eating our dinner. The sahaabah book series has been put away somewhere where we can't find them, so now we only have the sahaabiyaat books *rolling eyes*

On a more positive note, the good deed of today was "to give a helping hand" and it worked pretty well.

And I figured out what to read in the tafseer:

The Harshness of the Jews (Surat al-Baqarah 2:74)

Allah criticized the Children of Israel because they witnessed the tremendous signs and the Ayat of Allah, including bringing the dead back to life, yet,

ثُمَّ قَسَتْ قُلُوبُكُم مِّن بَعْدِ ذَلِكَ ...

Then after that your hearts were hardened.

So their hearts were like stones that never become soft.

This is why Allah forbade the believers from imitating the Jews when He said,

أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ وَلاَ يَكُونُواْ كَالَّذِينَ أُوتُواْ الْكِتَـبَ مِن قَبْلُ فَطَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ الاٌّمَدُ فَقَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ فَـسِقُونَ

Has not the time come for the hearts of those who believe (in the Oneness of Allah ـ Islamic Monotheism) to be affected by Allah's Reminder (this Qur'an), and that which has been revealed of the truth, lest they become as those who received the Scripture (the Tawrah) and the Injil (Gospel)) before (i.e. Jews and Christians), and the term was prolonged for them and so their hearts were hardened! And many of them were Fasiqun (the rebellious, the disobedient to Allah). (57:16)

In his Tafsir, Al-Awfi said that Ibn Abbas said,

"When the dead man was struck with a part of the cow, he stood up and became more alive than he ever was. He was asked, `Who killed you' He said, `My nephews killed me.' He then died again. His nephews said, after Allah took his life away, `By Allah! We did not kill him' and denied the truth while they knew it.

Allah said,

... فَهِيَ كَالْحِجَارَةِ أَوْ أَشَدُّ قَسْوَةً ...

And became as stones or even worse in hardness.''

And by the passage of time, the hearts of the Children of Israel were unlikely to accept any admonishment, even after the miracles and signs they withnessed. Their hearts became harder than stones, with no hope of ever softening. Sometimes, springs and rivers burst out of stones, some stones split and water comes out of them, even if there are no springs or rivers around them, sometimes stones fall down from mountaintops out of their fear of Allah.

... وَإِنَّ مِنَ الْحِجَارَةِ لَمَا يَتَفَجَّرُ مِنْهُ الأَنْهَارُ وَإِنَّ مِنْهَا لَمَا يَشَّقَّقُ فَيَخْرُجُ مِنْهُ الْمَاء وَإِنَّ مِنْهَا لَمَا يَهْبِطُ مِنْ خَشْيَةِ اللّهِ ...

And indeed, there are stones out of which rivers gush forth, and indeed, there are of them (stones) which split asunder so that water flows from them, and indeed, there are of them (stones) which fall down for fear of Allah,

Muhammad bin Ishaq narrated that Ibn `Abbas said that the Ayah means,

"Some stones are softer than your hearts, they acknowledge the truth that you are being called to,

... وَمَا اللّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ ﴿٧٤﴾

And Allah is not unaware of what you do.''

The site that I usually use to read tafsir Ibn Kathir translated into English, isn't working tonight, but I found this site instead which seems really good, mashaa Allah.

May Allah make the rest of Ramadaan more successful, ameen.