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What is the Ghazali Children’s Project?

Ghazali’s teachings distilled for children explain how the outer aspects of Islam can, through their inner spiritually transformative meanings, change every situation into one which strengthens the innate human nobility of character. The Prophet Mohammad said, “I was only sent to perfect good character”.

The Fons Vitae Ghazali Children’s Series provides authentic quality guidance for children of all ages at a time when their values are being formed. Imam al-Ghazali’s systematic approach for developing virtuous character is provided in an educational package which includes beautifully produced children’s books, source texts for parents and teachers, These materials offer a creative, enjoyable and spiritual supplement or alternative to standard Islamic Studies curricula with a strong focus on the purification of the heart.

Aims and Objectives of the Ghazali Children’s Project

Fons Vitae has taken on the monumental task of bringing out Imam al-Ghazali’s magnum opus, “The Revival of the Religious Sciences” based on the 2011 Dar al-Minhaj critical Arabic edition, as an educational package re-crafted for families and schools. Each translation of the 40 books will be accompanied by an adaptation for children as well as workbooks with activities and a school curriculum, all supported by an interactive parent-children’s website and Pilot School Program.

Over the centuries, the Ihya has been regarded as the greatest compendium of Islamic spirituality and ethical behavior for everyday life. It lays down practical teachings and explains how the outer aspects of Islam can, through their inner spiritually transformative meanings, change every situation into one which strengthens the innate human nobility of character. The Prophet Mohammad said, “I was only sent to perfect good character”.

The aim of the Ghazali Children’s Project materials is to support children:

• in their ability to recognize and maintain their innate human dignity.

• in realizing nobility of character through imitation of the Prophetic qualities realized by understanding, loving, and practicing the inner dimensions of all outward acts – to stop simply just “going through the motions”.

• in becoming aware of their True Selves and in identifying with this pure aspect of their being rather than with the lower, false, egoic and separative nature which is centered on itself [al-nafs alammara].

• in becoming self-observant and self-correcting.

• in living life with humility and in service.

“This work is nothing less than a revolution in developing humane, ethical, and committed Muslim youth. Imam al-Ghazali is the “Proof of Islam”, and these teachings, presented in a beautiful life-affirming way, will prove to be a major shift in the way Islam is taught to young people, who are in desperate need of guidance in today’s confusing times. As a community, we owe much to Fons Vitae for bringing them to fruition. Let the transformation begin!” – Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Learn 

This article contains important resources on the Ghazali Children’s Project. If you are unfamiliar with the project or want to learn more, scroll down to the section entitled “About the Ghazali Children’s Project.” Download & print this document as a PDF HERE. Many other important resources can be found on the Official Ghazali Children’s website: https://www.ghazalichildren.org.

Access the Ghazali Children’s Series Curriculum

You can get all the books in print or as PDFs/ebooks here (worldwide shipping): https://fonsvitae.com/product-category/ghazali-project/

We recommend buying a few of the books and seeing if they work for you.

Find Ghazali Titles Near You – Click here to learn how to find titles priced comparably to the U.S. closer to you.

Read Ghazali in Your Language

The Ghazali Children’s project books have been translated in whole or part in multiple languages, including Urdu, Spanish, Arabic, German, Indonesian, & Swedish. Future translations in progress include French, Bosnian, Turkish, Malay, Russian, Kyrgyz, Danish, Thai, Kazakh, Finnish, Azerbaijani, Japanese, Swahili, Dutch, and Uzbek. Click the links below to see what books are available in your language:

Urdu (اردو)      Spanish (Español)      Arabic (عربي)      German (Deutsch)      Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)      Swedish (Svenska) 

Start a Ghazali Pilot School

Parents and teachers are setting up new private and public pilot schools, homeschools, or just parent circles all around the world! There are more than 500 groups globally.

These are all set up independently of us by people on their own. The Hub Club in Solihull, UK is a great example of a large public Pilot school, but there are many self created circles of mothers and parents etc. See more on the Hub Club in the UK in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IeWEVRUYks

If you want to set up a pilot school, just request and fill out the Pilot school form to let us know of your existence, nothing else to be done: https://ghazalichildren.org/parents/pilot-school-program/ 

Search All Teaching Resources for Teachers, Parents, and Schools

We are making many materials available here with a searchable database on our Children’s Website: https://ghazalichildren.org/document-library/. Read more about this effort further down.

We encourage pilot schools, parents, teachers, and others to share lesson plans, activities, art, quizzes and any other materials to our email (fonsvitae.ghazali@gmail.com), so that we can share it with the whole network on our searchable database at GhazaliChildren.org.

KEY RESOURCES

Below are KEY resources for Parents and Teachers for the Ghazali Children’s Project. Many more resources can be found on our searchable database: https://ghazalichildren.org/document-library/

1) PDF – INTRO to the Ghazali Children’s Project – Links, Films & Resources: http://ghazalichildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Ghazali-Children-Resources-Intro-2_12_2019-PDF-1.pdf

2) PDF – Ghazali Children’s Pilot School Resources – Videos, Answers to Questions & Resources: http://ghazalichildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/v5-pics-12_30_2019_Ghazali-Children-Pilot-School-Resources.pdf

3) Official website: www.GhazaliChildren.org

4) View Samples of the Ghazali Children’s Volumes

5) For online learning, please check out a partner of ours: https://radianthearts.org/ Radiant Hearts Online learning academy.

Follow the Ghazali Children’s Project on Social Media for regular news & updates:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GhazaliChildren/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fonsvitaebooks/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GhazaliKids

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ghazalichildren

About the Ghazali Children’s Project 

Watch and Listen to learn more!

1) Scholars, parents and teachers on the Ghazali Children’s Project

2) Starting a homeschool? The video of the Hub Club Pilot school in Solihull and their approach (Sister Adeeba Ahmed) is here: (important)

3) POLISHING THE HEART –DOCUMENTARY FILM (30 mins) on the PROJECT:

4) Al Ghazali Seri Anak Indonesia — “The Past, Present, and Future of the Al-Ghazali Children Project with Virginia Gray Henry”

5) Polishing the mirror – Live session with Sister Aisha Gray Henry (Radiant Hearts Online)

6) The Basic Foundational Principles | Al Ghazali for Children (Session 1) (Muslim Community Center – MCC East Bay)

7) “The Ghazali Children’s Project in South Africa” – Scholars, educators and parents from around the country discuss how this ethico-spiritual approach can help educate children spiritually & transform their character.

8) Prof. Joseph Lumbard rebuts and responds to some clear and obvious common misconceptions people have about Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī. 

 Watch more videos on the Ghazali Children Youtube Channel (many video resources): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKoxSQZFq-g2s2E9CHrQHVw 

More Details 

A Note on AGE APPROPRIATENESS for the Ghazali Children’s series:

The books are appropriate from ages 5-14 to adulthood depending on various considerations. Parents and teachers often recast teachings to make them relevant to different ages and contexts. Each book set includes: 1) The Adult translation, which is a parent/teacher book. This is for adults. 2) The Children’s book can be read by or to children from 6/7 years old up to adulthood. This can also be read by adults to younger children, say 5 years olds. 3) The Children’s Workbook contains readings and exercises to be done by children from 6/7 years old up to adults.

Parents, teachers and schools like the Hub Club in Solihull (see the Ghazali Project film on this Pilot school) have the teachers of each age group make an age related lesson plan. Parents use the stories with 4-5 year olds by telling them these stories at their level. Ages 6/7 to adulthood is fine for all the children’s materials. Teenagers are often asked to teach the younger ones. [Note: Books 1-2 are written in a younger language. The rest of the books 3-6 are for any age.] The books are used by a mix of parents, teachers and children, and in all of the categories: school, home, homeschools and pilot schools (like Sunday schools).

#ghazali #ghazalichildren #tarbiyah #sunna

About the Ghazali Children Resource Library (GCRL) Searchable database: https://ghazalichildren.org/document-library/

The Ghazali Children Resource Library (GCRL) is an ever expanding storehouse of contributed supplementary materials created by a worldwide network of enthusiastic and engaged parents, pilot schools and educators who share resources with each other.

The Fons Vitae Ghazali Children’s project plants the seed with its books, core curricula and extensive foundational resources, lesson plans, videos etc. Now a growing network of contributors are creatively adding to these resources with materials suiting different ages, cultures and contexts- and developed through actual experience interacting with children. Parents and Pilot schools dream up new games, lesson plans and learning aids and want to share these developments with everyone else on the network. They email us all their files. The GCRL is the way to collect this in one place. The database is now available on the GhazaliChildren.org website at: Searchable database: https://ghazalichildren.org/document-library/

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“The Imam Ghazali Children’s Series is a gift to our children who deserve a pedagogy of Islam that allows them to develop the innate goodness which God has placed within each human being so they can become moral, kind and happy adults.” – Professor Ingrid Mattson

Supplementary material, recommended books etc. (This list will be added to over time)

‘The Simple Seerah’ Parts 1& 2. More details here: https://simpleseerah.com/

‘The Life of the Prophet Muhammad’. Available here: https://fonsvitae.com/product/the-life-of-the-prophet-muhammad/

‘Fons Vitae for Children’ – a selection of children’s books: https://fonsvitae.com/product-category/ghazali-project/fons-vitae-for-children/

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