Safety, Ya Salama! - Safety, Ya Salama!

🌿 Safety, Oh Safety 🌿
🌿 From the distinctive publications of Sherine Publishing House 🌿

🌿 Author: Noor Al-Huda Mohamed

🍡 The story's idea is ingenious! 😍 It's truly wonderful... Honestly, when I read the title and saw the cover, it reminded me exactly of what crossed the mind of the reviewer whose post I saw... but it turned out I was wrong... and without a doubt, I can classify this story as one of the best I've seen ❤ There's genius in every detail ❤

🍡 I'll leave you with a review by the distinguished Siham Obaid and photos taken by her ❤ Masha'Allah, she created a complete workshop from the story ❤❤

🌿 When I first saw the cover of the story (its release was around Eid al-Adha), I thought it might be about Eid sheep and sacrifice...

Then I pondered a little over the drawings on the cover: sheep, a young shepherd, and a title about safety, so I thought it might tell the story of the famous (Lying Shepherd) but in a different way...

Then, when the story reached me, I discovered that it wasn't about either of those topics; instead, it was about a much more important subject, explaining a Prophetic Hadith that is one of the dearest Hadiths to my heart, and one of the most important Hadiths upon which Islam is based... It is the Hadith (The lawful is clear, and the unlawful is clear)...

🍒 Story Events:

The young shepherd (Salama) roams with his three sheep every day in the vast green pastures... They eat, play, and frolic in safety and happiness, without restraint or condition...

One day, Salama spots a beautiful, spacious place full of fruits and bounties near a large palace... The young shepherd thinks that it would be fine if he and his sheep got a little closer to this place to enjoy the beautiful scenery...

He imagines that his sheep have filled their bellies and are sated from the other pastures, and he believes they will never enter this fenced area and will not be preoccupied with it... But alas, his assumption is incorrect, and the sheep begin to try to eat from the fruits of this place and tamper with its bounties...

He keeps pushing them away, scolding them, and telling them that the place is not theirs, while they invent weak excuses and pretexts. He continues to keep them away, trying his best until fatigue overtakes him, and he falls into a deep sleep under one of the trees. When he wakes up, he finds a surprise...

Right, as you expected... The sheep had entered this place, eaten from it, and completely ruined it. The palace owners came to reprimand him, and took the three sheep as compensation for what happened in the garden...
How will the young shepherd deal with this situation? How will he be able to get his sheep back? And what will he learn from this harsh lesson? This is what we will find out in the rest of the story.

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🍒 Story Goal:

As is customary with (Sherine Books) publications, the story addresses a beautiful value and morality within a beautiful narrative framework and conveys it to children in an easy and accessible way...

The morality around which the events of this story revolve is (piety) and (abstinence)... and the Hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him: "Indeed, the lawful is clear, and indeed, the unlawful is clear"...

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🍒 Story Illustrations:

Beautiful, delicate, and expressive, but I wished the drawing angle was wider, especially for the scene of the large palace garden; the drawings did not show the clear shape of the garden as a whole, nor was it entirely clear how it was fenced and surrounded by a wall to prevent strangers from entering... The point is that it did not show the form of (the protected area... the king's protected area) as it should be.

But the drawings on the page where the shepherd fell asleep are truly wonderful... It's as if you can hear the drawings... The sheep try not to make noise near the young shepherd when he is sleeping so they can roam freely in the garden... One of them steps on a branch and makes a sound, so the other scolds her and asks for silence... And the third sheep makes sure not to wake him up.

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🍒 Story Accessories:

- A 24-piece puzzle depicting a scene from the story, and the qualities of the pious.

- 10 pages at the end of the story including a set of activities with explanations of the event.

- An activity for the meaning of the Hadith and an activity asking the child to write or draw things that are lawful, unlawful, and doubtful.

- An activity for arranging the story scenes, with an accompanying paper for the child to cut and arrange.

- The heart activity; deeds that purify the heart and deeds that corrupt it. An accompanying paper with the names of these deeds is provided... the child cuts and pastes them in the appropriate place.

- Activity for the qualities of the pious; an accompanying paper with the qualities for the child to cut and paste in the appropriate place.

- And an activity for coloring the story characters.

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🍒 How we used the story and activities:

- I explained the Hadith to them and we delved into it, and I mentioned to them situations of some of the early Muslims regarding piety and devoutness.

- All the words in the story were familiar to them except for three words: (jafalat - startled), (ghutha' - which is the name of one of the sheep), and (ghathat - a past tense verb). I explained the meaning of (jafalat) to them, and they already knew the word (ghutha') and its meaning. During the explanation, we touched upon the Prophet's Hadith where this word (ghutha' like the froth of a torrent) appeared. Then I asked them about the suitability of using that word to name the sheep and the correctness of the other word (ghathat) and its relevance to the topic. They hesitated slightly in answering...

I told them that, in my opinion, I didn't like the name (Ghutha') for the sheep, and the word (Ghatthat) wasn't suitable for the context. I suggested that perhaps they meant the word (Thugha'), which is the sound of sheep, and (Thaghat), which is a past tense verb meaning (the sheep cried out or made a sound). They then remembered that the sound of a sheep is (Thugha'), but they justified the author's use of the word (Ghutha') by saying it's easier to pronounce than (Thugha'). However, the more correct meaning remains (Thugha') and (Thaghat).

- We extracted most of the linguistic features from the story, as well as the meanings of vocabulary, antonyms, plural and singular... etc.

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🍒 I designed some light activities for them to reinforce memorizing the text of the Hadith as follows:

- Hadith handwriting activity: The older child wrote it in her own handwriting, and for the younger one, I printed a paper with the Hadith in dotted font for her to trace and write.

- Activity for arranging the sentences of the Hadith: I wrote each sentence in a rectangle for them and mixed up the papers, and they had to arrange the Hadith in its correct wording.

- Missing words activity: I designed a worksheet for them with the complete Hadith, with some words omitted. I put these words in boxes and cut them out for them, and they had to place each word in its correct place.

- Story event sequencing activity with pictures (this activity is already included with the story as I mentioned above, it's a paper with several scenes from the story for the child to cut and paste in order): I printed two additional copies of it, and asked them to cut the pictures and paste them into their notebooks in order, and write a short sentence describing each scene so that it forms a short summary of the story (a writing activity to develop writing skills).

- Heart activity (already included with the story as I mentioned above): We didn't stick them in the story, but instead we cut colored papers in the shape of a large heart (two hearts for each child). On one heart, we pasted the deeds that purify the heart, and on the other, the deeds that corrupt the heart. We talked about these deeds, and I explained them briefly to them... And we explained the verse (No! Rather, the stain has covered their hearts from that which they used to earn).

- Qualities of the pious activity (already included with the story): It consists of a sheet of paper with several qualities of the pious written inside circles in the shape of fruits, and the child glues them onto the tree. The younger child glued the qualities into the story, while the older girl glued them into her notebook, along with writing Quranic verses that we extracted containing the qualities of the pious.