One Sun and Countless Stars
Ages: 0-7
- ★★★★★
- ★★★★☆
- ★★★★☆
- ★★★★★
- Gratitude
- Reverence
- Routines
Values
Struggles
Why Should My Child Read This Book?
This four-book collection invites children to notice the beauty in Allah’s creation—through color, shape, number, and relationships. One Sun and Countless Stars earns our gold star for capturing the simple beauty of our traditions. The third in this collection of highly recommended books focuses on counting objects as they relate to our tradition. The book gently invites children to build a habit of noticing the blessings Allah ﷻ has bestowed upon us—some we can count and many that are beyond counting.
How Can I Use This Book?
- Before reading, ask:
- Count some things around you. What is the smallest number you can think of? What is the largest number you can think of? Are there some things you cannot count?
- Who created everything we can count and everything we cannot count? Allah ﷻ is One, yet he created so many blessings for us—some we can count and some we cannot.
- Discuss the following part of a hadith: The Prophet ﷺ said “Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty.” (Muslim) What do you think this means? Allah created the world with beauty, and it is our responsibility to preserve and reflect that beauty. We begin by tending to our own hearts—because when the heart is beautiful, our words, actions, and choices become beautiful as well.
- How many suns do we have? Allah ﷻ made one sun—the star at the center of our solar system. Is the sun beautiful? Discuss the ways we benefit from the sun.
- Allah ﷻ made countless other stars outside of our solar system. Are the stars beautiful? Can we count all of them? Did you know that the sun is actually a star? But it is the only star in our solar system, the other ones are very far away and belong to other systems.
- How many times a day does Allah ﷻ ask us to pray? Count the prayer times together and review the name of each one. What do you usually hear before prayer time at the mosque? The adhan. Why is the adhan called before prayer?
- Have you ever heard the adhan coming from many mosques at the same time? Why do you think the adhan is called so loudly? How beautiful it is that in places where many Muslims live, the adhan can be heard before every prayer, helping everyone to remember Allah ﷻ and to come together to pray, even at Fajr time.
- How many hands do you have? Are you grateful for your two hands? What can you do with your hands? We can raise our hands to make dua. When can you make dua? Where can you make dua? What can you ask for in your duas? Is there a limit to what you can ask? How many duas can we make? We can make dua anytime, anywhere for anything and as many times as we want. And Allah ﷻ counts each dua as a good deed. How generous is Allah ﷻ.
- What is sadaqah (charity)? What are different ways you can give sadaqah? Each time we give sadaqah, it is written as a good deed. Do you know the easiest way to give sadaqah? The Prophet told us that even a smile is charity. Allah ﷻ will count each smile as a good deed! (Tirmidhi) How generous is Allah ﷻ!
- What is the Quran? What are we supposed to do with the Quran? Did you know that for every letter we recite from the Quran, it is recorded as ten good deeds? (Tirmidhi) Read/recite the surah in the book. How many good deeds were recorded? How generous is Allah ﷻ!
- What are the five pillars of Islam? What is a pillar? What are pillars used for? Why are the five pillars called pillars? Demonstrate the importance of pillars holding up a building. What happens if a pillar is missing? If a pillar is missing, the building can weaken or fall. Just like pillars hold up a building, the five pillars of Islam help hold up Islam in our hearts and in our lives, in the way we think and the way we act.
- What is Hajj? It is one of the five pillars of Islam. How many times are we asked to complete Hajj? How much reward does Allah ﷻ give us when we complete Hajj? Allah ﷻ asks us to do Hajj once in our life and an accepted Hajj has the reward of Paradise! (Bukhari) How generous is Allah ﷻ!
- What is zamzam? Do you remember the story of Hajar, peace be upon her, and her baby Ismail, peace be upon him? Allah ﷻ commanded Ibrahim, peace be upon him, to leave Hajar and her baby in the desert in Mecca. So he left, leaving them with some dates and water. Instead of arguing or leaving the desert, Hajar stayed because this was what Allah ﷻ had commanded. When the dates and water ran out, she started running back and forth between the two hills—Safa and Marwa—looking for help. After her seventh time running, Angel Jibril hit the ground and Zamzam sprang forth. Even after thousands of years, Zamzam is still flowing, giving water to more people than we can count! How generous is Allah ﷻ!
- It’s time for a hands-on craft! Gather string and beads in different colors or styles and invite your child to create a 33-bead or 99-bead tasbih. Encourage use of repeating patterns as they design their tasbih, building early math skills like pattern recognition and counting. As they work, introduce simple dhikr (remembrance of Allah ﷻ) routines such as saying SubhanAllah 33 times, Alhumdullilah 33 times, and Allahu Akbar 34 times every night before they go to sleep. How generous is Allah ﷻ, who provides us with such easy ways to earn a great reward!
- Can you count how many blessings Allah ﷻ gives you each day? There are too many blessings to count! Allah ﷻ says “If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more…” (14:7) What are some blessings we can thank Allah ﷻ for today?
What’s This Book About?
From one sun to countless stars, this gentle introduction to numbers also celebrates the many diverse traditions of the Muslim world, encouraging readers young and old to reflect upon—and count—their many blessings. Like the other books in this collection, this latest offering in the Concepts of the Muslim World series has stunning illustrations, rhyming read-aloud text, and informative back matter, and it is equally at home in the classroom or being read on a parent's lap.
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Anything I need to be aware of?
VIEW FLAGSGenres: Educational, General Fiction, Poetry
Series: A Muslim Book of Concepts
Publisher: Chronicle Books
*This review applies only to ISBN number noted above.
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