Through our Art Day event, we will teach our daughters about the history and importance of sacred spaces in our tradition. Cycling through different art stations, our girls will create art that demonstrates what they have learned as well as expresses their feelings. Afterwards, we will have an exhibit where they can sell their artwork, with all the proceeds going to charity. Through this endeavor, our intention is to model for the girls one of the many ways one can give back to our community and those in need. 

The cold doesn’t stop our daughters at Aya 4 U from being in action; in fact, this is the time, as we sit in our warm homes, to think about those who are not able to enjoy such privileges. We seek to embody the hadith of the Prophet (saws), “The best of you are those that benefit others” by giving back to our community and the broader society. Thus, we are pleased to partner with ICNA Relief for our annual Winter Drive by sponsoring and packaging hats, jackets, boots, gloves, and scarves to keep our brothers and sisters warm, as well. 

Our blessed month of Ramadan is a critical opportunity for our daughters to translate what they have learned throughout the year into action. They can live the name of Allah - Al-Kareem - by following in the footsteps of the Prophet (saws) who was the most generous of people and most generous during Ramadan. We seek to instill this value of generosity and thinking of others, starting with our own community. While we are experiencing the hunger of fasting, it is a time for the girls to reflect and then take action by providing food for our community members during this blessed month. What better time to demonstrate our generosity and care than Ramadan! Aya 4 U will sponsor, through our generous donors, essential food while the girls package them and help deliver to those in need. Aya 4 U as an organization believes in collaborating together in acts of good and service to others. Therefore, we will be partnering with ICNA Relief for this initiative. 

The first stop on our Aya 4 U journey is the bond between the mother and the daughter. In order for us to realize our vision of developing healthy, grounded, strong, young Muslim women, we must start first with the mother-daughter relationship. Just as our tradition emphasizes, this is the foundation and door to any of our goals. As such, we are offering the Ramadan Cookies event, which will include a fun activity for mother and daughters to create and decorate cookies together followed by a small workshop learning ways that they can worship together in this blessed month as a way to bless their own relationship. The mother-daughter connection is essential, but this bond will be strong only if it is rooted and grounded in the love for Allah, especially in such a difficult time where so many distractions pull us away from this real and genuine relationship that is so instinctual within our fitrah. 

Through our Ramadan Iftar event, we intend to follow in the footsteps of our beloved, who never ate without inviting his family, companions, and loved ones to share in the barakah. This event goes beyond just coming together to share food; this is a spiritual experience we are seeking to model for our daughters, during the most spiritual month, with the most spiritual bond of brotherhood and sisterhood for the sake of Allah - a bond that will provide us shade on the Day of Judgement. By so doing, we are replicating inshaAllah a future meal of us sitting together and eating in jennah with the Prophet (saws).  

Our partnership with ICNA Relief continues in this blessed month with another great opportunity for our daughters to demonstrate generosity. What is so amazing about our Prophetic tradition is thinking about others in all moments, including moments of happiness and celebration, like Eid, where our religion gives us the chance to do good by bringing happiness and joy to our kids and families. Therefore, during this blessed month, Aya 4 U girls will be in action yet again through our sponsorship and packaging of Eid gifts to those who are underserved in our community with the hope that this will bring a smile to their faces. 

At Aya 4 U, in accordance with the Qur’anic verse that encourages us as human beings to take part in this life by living joyfully, we are hosting an Eid Celebration. After a month of worship of Allah (SWT), where our daughters courageously engaged in acts of service for others, our Eid Celebration comes as an acknowledgement of their hard work and encouragement for them to continue such acts of good throughout the rest of the year. During this day of celebration, we will teach the girls the Prophetic practices of how we celebrate special moments by remembering Allah together; thanking Him for allowing us to be in service for others as a team; and thanking Him for strengthening our bonds of sisterhood through these acts of worship. 

At Aya 4 U, our sources are the Qur’an and the Sunnah; in the Qur’an, we see multiple father-child relationships modeled from Yaqoub (as) and his sons, to Ibrahim (as), to Luqman (as). Moving to our Sunnah, our beloved Prophet’s (saws) relationship with his dearest daughter Fatima, one of the four best women of creation, is a relationship for us to emulate. From standing when he saw her, to kissing her on her forehead, to constantly visiting and checking-in on her, we see how to be a father that genuinely cares. All of the above are but indicators to us of how paramount the father-daughter relationship is. In fact, studies show that healthy father-daughter relationships increase women’s overall happiness, positive body image, and healthy future relationship habits. Therefore, at Aya 4 U, we host an annual retreat, which aims to reconnect and strengthen this bond, whether through exchanging letters about their feelings, eating together, engaging in fun activities, or expressing verbally their love to each other, without any distractions. 

After journeying through Hadith Jibril this past year, we come together to thank Allah who has allowed us to taste the beauty of our religion.  We celebrate the new understanding and knowledge we have, honored that we are people whom Allah wishes good for. As the Messenger (saws) said, “When Allah wishes good for someone, He bestows upon him the understanding of the religion.” This is part of a life-long process of heart purification, ultimately transforming the girls’ character, translating their knowledge into action, and passing such knowledge on to their friends and those around them. Lastly, the end of year celebration emphasizes the significance of seeking knowledge as a mandatory act of ibadah that we want to reinvigorate as a community - whether that be for the Aya 4 U team, students, or parents.