I wrote the story in language suitable for 4-5 year olds, while still retaining as much meaning/original translations from the Quran as possible, after making notes from a variety of sources (including Tafsir Ibn Kathir and lectures from speakers such as Mufti Menk and Nouman Ali Khan).
PROPHET ADAM (AS)
A long, long time ago, Allah created the world.
He created the sun, the moon and the stars. He created the seas and the
mountains. He created the trees and the flowers. He created the fish, the birds
and the animals. Allah created everything.
Up, up, high above the sky in the heavens
are the gardens of paradise: Jannah. In Jannah you never feel hungry, thirsty
or tired. You have no reason to feel pain or sadness. In Jannah, Allah spoke to
the angels. He told them He was going to create humans and put them on Earth to
live and look after it. The angels praised Allah day and night; they always
obeyed Allah but they didn’t understand why Allah wanted to make humans. The
angels were worried humans would fight with each other and spoil the Earth. The
angels worshipped Allah so much they didn’t understand why people were needed
to worship Allah too! But Allah simply said to them, “I know what you do not
know.”
Allah created the first man, Adam, from a
handful of clay gathered from all the Earth: this is why humankind is all
different colours and with all different personalities, just as the mud from
around the world is different. Some people are kind and generous, some are
selfish and mean, some are in between. Some are evil, some are good and some
are in between.
Allah created Adam with his hands and
blew his soul into him. When the life entered Adam’s head, he sneezed and the
angels told Adam to say, “Alhamdulillah.” When he did, Allah replied, “Yarhamukhallah.”
This is what we should say when we sneeze and reply when someone else sneezes.
When Adam was sent to greet a group of
angels, he said to them, “As salaamu ‘alaikum,” and the angels replied to Adam,
“Wa ‘alaikum as salaamu wa rahmatullah.” This is the way we should greet and
reply to people we meet.
Allah taught Adam the names of all kinds
of things, such as trees, mountains, the sea, camel. Allah showed these things
to the angels and asked them to name them, but the angels could not. They said
to Allah, “We only know what you have taught us.” Allah then told Adam to tell
the angels the names of all the things. When Adam finished, Allah said to the
angels, “Did I not tell you I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth,
and I know what you show and what you hide?”
Amongst the angels, there was one Jinn
who had been raised to a special rank in the heavens. His name was Iblis. When
Allah told the angels to bow down to Adam, they all obeyed except for Iblis.
Iblis was too proud and arrogant. He said
to Allah, “Why should I bow down to him when I’m better than him? You made me
from fire and him just from clay!”
Allah said to Iblis, “Then get out from
here. You are rejected and cursed. The curse shall be upon you until the Day of
Judgement.” Allah threw Iblis out from the gardens of Jannah.
Iblis said to Allah, “If you let me go
until the Day of Judgement, then I will lead his children to the wrong path –
all of them but a few!” Allah let Iblis go and told him that any people who
follow Iblis’ evil whispers will be sent to the hellfire… But Allah also told
him that Muslims who worship Allah and do good things can never be led wrong by
Iblis.
Prophet Adam was sent to live in Jannah
but because he was the only human he began to feel lonely. While Adam was
sleeping, Allah created the first woman, Hawwa (or Eve) from Adam’s rib. When
Adam woke up he was surprised to see her sitting beside him, but he was also
happy to have another person for company.
Allah told Adam and Hawwa they could eat
and enjoy anything they wanted from the gardens of paradise - all except from
the fruit from one particular tree. If they ate the fruit from that tree, Allah
warned something bad would happen to them.
Allah told them that Iblis was Adam and
Hawwa’s enemy. Iblis didn’t want Adam and Hawwa to stay in Jannah. In Jannah,
you will never feel hungry or thirsty, too hot or too cold. Iblis was jealous
of Adam and Hawwa.
Iblis whispered lies to Adam and Hawwa,
to trick them into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree. Iblis told them he
was their friend. He lied and said, “If you eat from the tree, you can become
angels and live forever.”
Adam and Hawwa ate from the tree. As soon
as they did, they felt ashamed and naked. They quickly hid themselves behind
fig leaves to cover their shame.
Allah asked Adam and Hawwa, “Didn’t I
tell you not to eat from the tree and that Shaytaan is your enemy?” Adam and
Hawwa admitted their mistake and asked Allah for forgiveness. They made tawbah.
Allah is most merciful and kind.
Allah sent Adam and Hawwa down to live on
Earth, along with Iblis. Iblis wants to lead us away from remembering Allah,
but Allah has promised us if we worship Him and do good deeds then one day we
will be able to return to Jannah.
You can download the above story as a MS Word file here.
After reading the story to the girls (in an interactive way, asking questions and letting them ask questions), I asked them what they thought the main points were - just what they could remember regardless of where it came. I wrote these as a spider diagram on A4 coloured paper. Once they had them all, with some prompting, I asked the girls to put the points in chronological order by numbering each one.
***find photo***
I then gave them a storyboard with the story summarised into six sections and told them that a summary is when we don't give the whole story, or every single bit of information, but just tell the most important points - like how they summarised it in the spider diagram. We read through the storyboard together, then I asked them what they thought might go in the big empty boxes? Pictures! But are there some things we aren't allowed to draw? Can we draw Allah, or the angels, or Shaytaan or Adam (AS) and Hawwa (RA)? So we talked about what they could draw in each box which wasn't any of those things, e.g. Allah's creations, clay, fire to represent jinn, gardens, a tree, Earth.
Finally, I asked them if they thought the story needed a little bit more detail - then we worked through each box in turn so they could add something extra, using the notes from the spider diagram to help. I decided to let them try spelling everything themselves then showed them any corrections once they'd done.
MashaAllah, I was pleased they clearly understood that being sent to Earth was planned from the beginning, in one of the twins' words: "It wasn't a punishment because Allah already said He was going to put them on Earth even before he made Prophet Adam! And they said sorry!" 💕
We did this whole lesson over a couple of days.
You can download our storyboard template here.
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