Over the years I have explained to my children that Christmas is not part of our faith and that we are not allowed to celebrate. They understand this now, but generally I find children to have two reactions to Christmas and Christian stories about Jesus. On the one hand they might believe the traditional Christian nativity story as truth, on the other hand some children reject Jesus outright as nothing to do with Islam.
As Muslims, we love and revere Jesus. We believe in him as the prophet of Allah and we believe that he will return to earth one day. I think the weeks before Christmas are a good time to share the Muslim story of Jesus, or Prophet Isa (alayhi s-salām or peace be upon him).
At the moment we are using the following books:
Qasasul Ambiyaa: Stories of the Prophets by Maulana Hifzur Rahman Seoharwy (RA)
The first book is more detailed with the section about Prophet Isa lasting approximately 68 pages and going and with headings such as The Disciples of Nabi Isa, Belief in Isa before his Death (peace be upon him) and The Four Versions of the Injeel (Bible). So this would be suitable for older children who have a keen interest and would probably be good for adults too.
The second book tells the story in about five A4 sides and is glossy with attractive pictures. It breaks the events down into a few key sections such as the story of Mariam (may Allah be pleased with her), the birth of Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) and his miracles. My six year old, Gorgeous, is reading this book at the moment a bit at a time and loves it.
There are lots more great books if you hunt around. I also found these resources online which share the Muslim perspective on Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) in a child-friendly way:
Musalla.org have a page with the story of Prophet Isa interspersed with lots of activities for children such as a fact finder and a wordsearch. The page is also broken down into a series of downloadable PDF's.
IslamAwareness.net has the Ibn Kathir version of the story here which is fairly detailed, so maybe good for older children or adults who want to be familiar with the Quranic version before they share with their children.
Life in My World has a post about creating a lesson about the Prophets with Prohpet Isa as an example.
Fanar, the Qatar Islamic Cultural Centre website has a Kids Corner which includes a page with details about some of the Prophets of Islam including Prophet Isa (peace be upon him)
Do let me know if you come across any books, videos or resources that you have found particularly useful in discussing this topic and I will add to this post insh'Allah.
The jannah Steps blog has a post called "Islamic Lesson on Jesus (Isa), Peace Be Upon Him" which outlines some facts about Prophet Isa and has a poem.
and The Prophets by Syed Ali Ashraf:
The first book is more detailed with the section about Prophet Isa lasting approximately 68 pages and going and with headings such as The Disciples of Nabi Isa, Belief in Isa before his Death (peace be upon him) and The Four Versions of the Injeel (Bible). So this would be suitable for older children who have a keen interest and would probably be good for adults too.
The second book tells the story in about five A4 sides and is glossy with attractive pictures. It breaks the events down into a few key sections such as the story of Mariam (may Allah be pleased with her), the birth of Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) and his miracles. My six year old, Gorgeous, is reading this book at the moment a bit at a time and loves it.
There are lots more great books if you hunt around. I also found these resources online which share the Muslim perspective on Prophet Isa (peace be upon him) in a child-friendly way:
Musalla.org have a page with the story of Prophet Isa interspersed with lots of activities for children such as a fact finder and a wordsearch. The page is also broken down into a series of downloadable PDF's.
IslamAwareness.net has the Ibn Kathir version of the story here which is fairly detailed, so maybe good for older children or adults who want to be familiar with the Quranic version before they share with their children.
Life in My World has a post about creating a lesson about the Prophets with Prohpet Isa as an example.
Fanar, the Qatar Islamic Cultural Centre website has a Kids Corner which includes a page with details about some of the Prophets of Islam including Prophet Isa (peace be upon him)
Do let me know if you come across any books, videos or resources that you have found particularly useful in discussing this topic and I will add to this post insh'Allah.
The jannah Steps blog has a post called "Islamic Lesson on Jesus (Isa), Peace Be Upon Him" which outlines some facts about Prophet Isa and has a poem.
"I love Jesus because I am muslim"...I like this one, would be nice to have it on my shirt :)...thanks sis for sharing this info...
ReplyDeleteAssalamu alaikum sis.
ReplyDeleteJazakAllah Khayran for this very useful reminder about the resources available to teach our kids about our Prophet Isa (peace be upon him).
Yes, we do need to be wary that our kids do not get drawn into the whole celebration of Christmas thing. Like you, my kids were taught from an early age that we do not celebrate Christmas. I do still have to remind them of this sometimes though and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'alaa will be displeased if they become involved in any way in any act of celebration no matter how small.