Volume 1: Who Is Allah (الله)? The One Who Created Everything. Audio ebook

The question always comes at the wrong moment

In the car, in the bath, at the hour you wish he were asleep: “Who is Allah? We can’t see Him, so how do you know He is there?” It is the first question every child asks, usually when you least expect it, and rarely the one you feel ready to answer. This book gives you the answer in two voices: yours and Abel’s.

The story

Abel asks the big question, and he does not let go. Page after page, a gentle illustrated story walks with him, and your child with him. In simple words that are never approximate, it lays down what a Muslim child needs to understand first: that Allah exists, that He sees and hears, that He needs no one, and that we come to know Him through what He tells us about Himself.

وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ

“And He knows all things.” Quran, surah البقرة (Al-Baqara, The Cow), end of verse 2:29. This is the word the book chooses to speak of Allah to a child: not “the strongest” or “the biggest” of what he knows, but the One who knows everything.

What your child takes away

• An answer he can say again in his own words, to his little brother or to a friend.
• A first distinction that matters: we cannot see Allah, and yet He is there. The activity at the end of the book lets him feel it.
• The beginning of a habit: looking around him for what speaks of the One we cannot see.

The contemplative activity: what we cannot see can be very real

The story does not end with a full stop. It closes with a contemplative activity to share, parent and child. No reciting, no going over the lesson: you return to the theme another way, through looking. The rain that falls without anyone asking for it. The bird that knows where to go. Sleep that comes on its own. His own breathing, which he has never had to command. The aim is not for him to memorise a lesson, but that once the book is closed, in his everyday life, he finds the signs of Allah’s existence by himself, and comes to tell you about them.

Why an audio book for a child who cannot read yet

One tap on the sound icon and each page speaks. Your child listens, follows the words with his eyes, and takes in the right pronunciation long before he can read. A three-year-old does not learn by decoding, he learns by hearing, and he remembers the voice before the letters. The narration is calm, the illustrations are made to be looked at for a long time, with no noisy animation and no stray sounds. A quiet moment, whether he lives it alone or curled up against you.

English edition; two other editions exist

What you are buying here is the English edition, with its narration in English. The same volume exists as a French edition and an Arabic edition: two separate books, each with its own voice, sold separately.

The first volume, the doorway into the collection

This volume does not yet present the Names of Allah one by one: it lays the foundations without which those Names mean nothing to a small child. The rest follows: Volume 2 with the Name الله (Allah), Volume 3 with the Name الأحد (Al-Ahad, the One). All three together: the complete pack, about 14% less than the three volumes bought separately.

Details

Frequently asked questions

Which volume should we start with? This one. Volumes 2 and 3 stand on their own, but they assume what Volume 1 puts in place.

Isn’t three too young? It is the age when the question comes. The book is written to be listened to at three with you, and listened to again alone at five.

How does the sound work? On every page, a sound icon. The child taps it and the page is read aloud. He can listen again as many times as he likes and move on at his own pace.

Why buy it here rather than on Amazon or Apple Books? You receive the EPUB file directly, to read with Apple Books or any EPUB app that supports audio, with no account or app imposed on you, and your purchase supports the publisher directly.

How do I get the file? As soon as payment goes through, the link appears on screen and arrives by email. Three downloads, no time limit.