How big is Allah? This type of question can be difficult for adults to understand and answer, let alone young children who are just starting to understand the concept of God.
This Islamic children’s book by Emma Apple of Muslima’s Oasis deals with this question by getting children to reflect on the enormity and vastness of Allah’s creation – focusing on the entire universe.
The book starts out with looking at familiar things from our world – snowflakes, ants, a speck of dust and then at the biggest things that children would be familiar with like cities, mountains, or a whole planet.
It goes on to have children reflect on how even such a big planet is a small thing in the whole universe, and reflect on the power and might of Allah to create such things – bigger than we can even comprehend.
This book is an effective way for children to build up their natural sense of awe at creation and understand just how vast Allah’s creation is. He has made all of the teeny tiny things with so many little details, but also the huge wide galaxies with their enormous suns and moons.
I really liked this way of handling this question for children. It’s not a question that we can easily answer with just a simple answer. Telling children “bigger than everything” “more powerful than everything” is sometimes too easy and doesn’t give the depth of reflection when we just give these very quick answers.
I know sometimes, we are rushing to appointments, or busy in various engagements and my 6 year old will come out with a question about Allah or the world, life, death and Jannah (Heaven) and there’s not always time to launch into a full length discussion. So it’s great to have books that discuss these topics where you can come back to the discussion at bedtime, or when you both have more time.
Mr Z (6 years old) really enjoyed that this book gives a lot of specific information about the sizes of planets, galaxies and various things in space. He is very mathematically minded so that concrete information means a lot more to him than just saying “this is huge” “this is very big” as books for slightly younger children may do.
The book “How Big is Allah” is quite short, and the language used on each page is simple and manageable for children of around 5-6 to read by themselves but I feel its good to read through together with a parent first to make sure that they understand, and that they can ask any questions if they want to clarify or discuss further. Then they can return back to the book again and easily read it by themselves to remind themselves of the information.
It’s not always easy to find good quality Islamic children’s books, since the selection available is obviously much smaller than the selection of generic children’s book available but this one did stand out to me because of the different angle it takes, the educational and scientific element it also includes with knowledge about astronomy and the natural world, and the way it provokes thought and reflection in the child reading.
How Big is Allah is available in paper back and can be bought through Amazon.
See How Big is Allah (in English) on Amazon UK here
See How Big is Allah (in Arabic) on Amazon UK here
See How Big is Allah (in English) on Amazon.com here
See How Big is Allah (in Arabic) on Amazon.com here
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Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.