Stories from the Quran 6

Stories from the Quran 6 is an Islamic picture book for children aged 4 to 6 with two short stories about the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: the first revelation of the Qur'an, and his escape from Makkah with Abu Bakr.

In the first story, the Prophet ﷺ is praying alone in a cave in the hills when the angel Jibril comes and tells him to read. The Prophet ﷺ says that he cannot read, and Jibril teaches him the first words: "Read in the name of your Lord who created." Frightened, he goes home to his wife, Khadijah, who reassures him that he is a good man and truly the Messenger of Allah. Jibril comes again many times, and the words he brings are written down in the Qur'an.

In the second story, the people of Makkah want to get rid of the Prophet ﷺ, and he leaves the city at night with his companion Abu Bakr. They hide in a cave in the hills. In the book, when their pursuers arrive, they see an unbroken spider's web and a pair of doves nesting across the entrance, and decide that nobody can be inside.

The book shows very young children how the Qur'an began and how Allah protected His Messenger ﷺ, and it gives them a first picture of the Prophet ﷺ as a man of prayer who believed in one God. It is written by Dalia Salam and takes about six minutes to read aloud.

The first revelation

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ believed in one God, Allah. He did not like to see the people of Makkah praying to rocks, trees and statues. He often went to a cave in the hills to pray, because he liked to be there by himself.

One night, while he was praying in the cave, an angel named Jibril, called Gabriel in the book, came to him and said, "Read!"

Surprised, the Prophet ﷺ replied, "I cannot read."

The angel said again, "Read!" and hugged him hard.

"What shall I read?" asked the Prophet ﷺ.

Jibril said, "Read in the name of your Lord who created."

The Prophet ﷺ did not know what was happening, and he was very scared. He rushed outside. Suddenly, he heard a voice coming from the sky: "Muhammad ﷺ, you are the Messenger of Allah, and I am Jibril." He looked up at the sky, and everywhere he looked, all he could see was the angel Jibril.

The Prophet ﷺ went home and told his wife, Khadijah, all about it. Khadijah listened carefully. "You must believe that you are the Messenger of Allah," she said. "You are a good man. Allah will never disgrace you."

After that, the angel Jibril visited the Prophet ﷺ many times, and each time he taught him new words. The words were carefully written down, and you can find them in the Holy Qur'an. These beautiful words are Allah's message to people, telling them how to be good.

The spider and the dove

The people of Makkah were angry with the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. "How dare he believe in one God and not in our idols?" they said. "We must get rid of him." But Allah sent the angel Jibril to tell the Prophet ﷺ to leave his house at once.

The Prophet ﷺ left Makkah in the middle of the night with his companion, Abu Bakr. He was very sad to leave his beloved city. Now the people of Makkah were angrier than ever: the Prophet ﷺ had escaped from right under their noses. "We must catch him!" they shouted, and they offered a lot of money to anyone who found him.

Allah led the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr to the hills and hid them in a cave. "They will find us," Abu Bakr worried. Just then, a spider wove a beautiful web across the entrance to the cave, and a dove and her mate came and built a nest there.

When the angry men reached the cave, they saw the spider's unbroken web and the doves sitting peacefully on their nest. "Muhammad ﷺ and Abu Bakr cannot be inside," they said to each other. "The spider's web is not broken, and the doves have not flown away." So they left.

Allah had saved the Prophet ﷺ and his companion. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was the Messenger of Allah, and he taught many people to become Muslims.

• Surah Al-Alaq 96:1-5: The first verses revealed, beginning "Read in the name of your Lord who created".
• Sahih al-Bukhari 3: The beginning of revelation in the cave of Hira, the angel pressing the Prophet ﷺ, and Khadijah's comfort.
• Surah At-Tawbah 9:40: Allah helped the Prophet ﷺ when he was one of two in the cave and told his companion not to grieve, for Allah was with them.
• Sahih al-Bukhari 3653: Abu Bakr's words in the cave, and the Prophet's ﷺ reply, "What do you think of two, the third of whom is Allah?"