For Small Groups
Naming: Everyone in the group takes turns in naming one item in decided category.
If you can’t name something on your turn, you are out. (eg- names of sahaba, names if cities in Muslim world, name of surahs, etc…) A more challenging version is to name an item only if it starts with the same letter that item ended with
Nuh(a. s)’s Ark: One person privately thinks of general category ( eg- words that have an “a” in them, words that are five letter long, things that are green ). Each person says a word which he/she hopes is within that category. If it is, “Nuh” will let him into the ark; if it is not, the person must wait until his/ her next turn to guess again. The people who are not in the ark after 2 (or 3) rounds will “drown”.
Haram Letter: The quizmaster declares one ( or two ) letters of the alphabet to be haram. He/she will ask each person in the group a different question. They must answer it in 10 seconds without using the haram letter (s). If they do, they get a sin (just kidding–they are out).
Story Building: The first person in the group says a word. Other people in turn add on a word to follow the last one so that a sentence is built. As the sequence continues, a whole story will be composed! A more challenging version is when everyone must contribute two phrases at a time, but your first phrase must rhyme with the previous phrase. (eg- “We set our tent in a field, because we were about to camp, but the grass was very damp. Then came the wind and rain..”)
Hafiz’s Game: One person in the group start off a list of something ( eg- items bought at a store, or a movement ). Then the next person in in line repeats the last words ( or does the last movements), and adds a new one to the list. Each person must repeat the previous list and add one. If you make a mistake you are out.
For Very Large Groups
- Ask everyone to stand and stretch (+/- exercise).
- Ask everyone to find out as much new information as they can about the person sitting to their right.
- Ask everyone to stand up and flip a coin, whoever flips “heads” keeps standing. Repeat until one is left standing.
Interviewing: Find an interesting person in your audience and ask him/her accomplishments
Impromptu Speech: Get some volunteers from the audience ( or, your co-organizers). Ask them to put their names in one hat and various board speech topics in another hat. Randomly pick one name, and his/her topic. Ask them to speak to the audience for two minutes.
Mock Debates: Follow the method above, but assign chosen speakers to one debating (of 2-4 people each ) to go against another. Change the speech topic into. Debate opposing positions ( 5-10 minutes.)
Role playing: Ask for two volunteers. One of them will act out the part of non-Muslim who is questioning the other person ( playing a Muslim ) about a misunderstood topic in Islam. Let the role players privately choose the topic before they start ( eg. women in Islam, terrorism, human rights).
Who am I? Choose the identity of a famous person. Individual audience members put up their hands and ask Y/N questions about your “person”. If the answer is YES, the audience member may take a guess. If they are correct, they will replace you: if no one is correctly guessed after 20 questions, go again.
Who are you? Choose a volunteer to leave the room. The audience will decide what famous group of people they will be. When the volunteer returns, He/She asks questions about the audience’s identity, to which the audience can only answer YES or NO. The volunteer can directly guess the group’s identity a maximum of five times only. The number of questions asked or the time taken up will be noted and compared. Next turn, choose another group identity.
Say it again: Choose three volunteers to leave the room; do not tell them anything except that they will be competing with each other. Tell the audience the objective is for us to ask questions that will make the volunteers say acertain word many times. The more times he/she says the word in five minutes, the more points he/she loses. Decide on the word(s) ( eg-“book” “computer”) before the first volunteer comes back in the room. After questioning him for five minutes, his turn is over. Try not to change words before the next volunteer is called in. Tell them at the end
Make Believe: Choose two volunteers to leave the room; tell them only the audience will make up a story that they will have to guess. Also, a referee will be chosen to make sure no repeat Q’s are asked, and to tell them to ” ask a better question ” if they are stuck in a cycle tell the audience that whenever the volunteers ask a question ending with a consonant, they will all say “YES”. If the question ends with a vowel, say “NO”; if it ends with “Y” say “MAYBE”. Let them ask questions for about 10-20 minutes, you will find that they will make up their own story! Tell them about this secret only at the very end.
For Competing Groups
Assign people into equal-sized, gender-separate groups of moderate size (12 max). Let the group choose a leader, and a name. You may play games in either “face-off” style (where only one person at a time from each group competes, or a “shura” style ( where the group agrees on an answer together ).
Islamic Quiz Competition:
Shura or face-off style. Keep track of points and determine the winning group. If you forgot to get the quiz sheets, you could quiz them on the last speech/class.
Win, lose, or Draw:
Make a list of phrases**. Pair every tow groups to compete. Only show the drawer in the group what phrase or word they should draw out on paper. The drawer’s group has only one minute to guess the answer; if they guessed correctly the drawer’s group gets a point. If the guesses where wrong, the opposing group may take one guess, if they’re correct, they get a point. Switch drawers.
Charades:
Similar to above except that drawing is replaced by acting ( without making sounds or mouthing out words. ) you may give the guesses two (or more) minutes to act the phrase. Switch actors.
Challenges Shura Style:
How many items can your group correctly list of… eg-Names of Allah, Names of surahas. How many words can you make out of the letters in the phrase.. (make it up**) eg – “help the children” How fast can you unscramble anagrams? (mix up the order of letters in a phrase**) eg-“pleh eth driench”
Face off style:
Backwards spelling, spelling contest, math calculations, other puzzles or Q’s (30 sec to answer) Everyone may also face-off against their own opponent at the same time as everyone else using the challenges above (or, with easy paper and pen games like: tic-tac-toe, hangman, making squares).
**Sample of list phrases:
/ rule of thumb / penny pinching / chicken biryani / Hajj terminal / hockey night in Canada / friendly skies / backslash / human rights / Muslim brotherhood / Islamic republic / spin bowler / ISNA convention / dead sea scrolls / Juma prayers . |
