Learning Objective:
To clearly illustrate the importance and need to concentrate in Salaa.
When our mind is distracted by what's happening around us or is busy thinking about things that have happened in the day or things we need to do, we are not concentrating on praying salaa properly. Our focus is not on Allah and we loose out on achieving the benefits that Allah has placed in salaa for us.
Once we recite the Takbiratul Ihram, we must take away our distracting thoughts and focus only on Allah and pray our Salaa with full concentration. Only then will we benefit fron the prayer.
Activity: Taste the Sweetness of Salaa
Fill a glass with juice. Place one straw inside the drink and another outside of the glass. Have the children try to drink the juice using both straws at the same time. They will only be able to suck up air! Only be removing the straw from the outside with they then be able to drink the juice.
When our mind is wandering with thoughts about everything around us, we may be going through the actions of salaa but we wont be able to benefit from the salaa properly. It is like trying to drink from both straws at the same time! But when we focus our mind and heart on salaa we remove the straw filling with distractions from the outside. We are able to focus only on Allah and taste the sweetness of feeling close and connected to Him. It is the salaa prayed in this way which will help us gain from the benefits Allah has placed for us in it.
If you sucked hard on both straws you may have found the effort helped you draw up some juice. You will have managed to taste some of the sweetness of the drink. But was it easy? Did you manage to drink up as much as if you'd removed the outside straw completely? It's very hard to benefit from the sweetness of salaa when our mind is distracted but with every effort we make to concentrate, we benefit more from our prayer.