99 Names of Allah - 03 - Ar-Raheem - The Especially Merciful

[03] اَلرَّحِيمُ (Ar-Raheem): The Especially Merciful

[Download resources here]

Sing 99 Names (5min)
Play PowerPoint of the first 33 names, 2-3 times. Sing together and do the actions so far plus:

Action for Ar-Raheem: give yourself a bigger hug and twist side to side.

Today’s focus is on the name Ar-Raheem which means The Especially Merciful.

Story relating to today's name (10min)

Briefly recap the Prophet (SAW)’s life up to the Battle of Badr: Allah revealed the Quran to him through the angel Jibreel and told him to spread the message of Islam to his people in Makkah. Was his tribe, the Quraysh, happy about that? No, they made life hard for the Muslims by trying to hurt them. So the Prophet (SAW) and the Muslims left for Madinah, but the Quraysh chased after them and wanted to fight.

Read the story of the Battle of Badr e.g. from a book such as “My Prophet Muhammad”. Emphasise how hopeless it must have seemed as the Muslims were outnumbered, but Allah sent the angels to help them, through his mercy and love for them.

Continue reading the stories of the Battle of Uhud and the Battle of the Trench.

Discuss meaning, apply to children's lives (10min)

Ar-Raheem means The Especially Merciful. Do you remember what Ar-Rahmaan means? Allah is kind and merciful to everyone and everything – more than anyone or anything you can think of in the whole world; Ar-Raheem is a special kind of mercy just for Muslims! Allah loves us and he especially loves when we try our best to be good Muslims.

He can help us in ways nobody else ever can and He can help us to be happy both in this world and in the next life too. Part of Allah’s mercy is guiding us towards what’s good for us to help us get to Jannah, even if we don’t realise it at the time. Did the Muslims win all three battles we just read about? No, they lost the Battle of Uhud – but this was Allah’s plan. We don’t always get what we want but we need to trust in Allah’s plan for us and that he loves us.

Craft activity (20min)

Complete the page for the book.

Can you think of ways to be a good Muslim/Which of these are things good Muslims would do? Being kind, only using nice words, praying, learning Quran, following the sunnah, etc. /VS opposite actions. Draw/print pictures of some of these things to stick around the page.

When to use this name (10min)

As Muslims we all part of one ummah, which is like being part of one big family. All the Muslims in the world are just like our brothers, sisters, uncles and aunties. We should love them all and remember them in our duas, no matter which country they are from. We treat other Muslims with the same kindness as we treat our own family.

Look at a globe/world map together and talk about the different countries Muslims live in around the world.

Even though we always try our best to be good Muslims, sometimes we might make mistakes – it’s hard to use kind words when we’re feeling angry and it’s easy to forget how important it is to do our salah when we’re having fun playing – but always remember that Allah is Ar-Rahmaan and Ar-Raheem. He loves us and wants us to be happy, so when we make a mistake we can make dua to Ar-Raheem asking for his mercy, to help us to become better Muslims and to forgive us if we do something wrong. We can pray to Ar-Raheem to accept our good deeds and to let us see paradise/jannah.

Sticker chart (5min)

Ask individually: Which of Allah’s names did we learn today? What does it mean? Give children a sticker each for their chart.

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Other activities:

- Go on a charity website together and donate to part of the ummah from another part of the world.

- Colour individual countries in which are majority Muslim on a world map.

- Find pictures of traditional Muslim clothing from different cultures and create a collage.