My First Salah Book: Why and How we Pray by Learning Roots
Over 91 pages this informative book tells “The Story of Salah” through the miraculous night journey, how to do wudu and its benefits, step by step how to make salah, and then a story style portion of “Life with Salah.” I do not have the digital “kitab” pen that allows readers to have the book read to them and activities made interactive without parental involvement, but even with out it, the book is a pretty solid resource. The hardback binding, and full color pages are not crowded, they introduce nine characters at the beginning and feature them throughout the pages learning the steps, imagining witnessing the events, and putting the lessons into practice. Some of the recent Learning Roots books have the characters watching or imagining themselves in story’s of the Sahabas and Prophets, that make me uncomfortable. The first chapter of this book, is more limited as it illustrates a light in the sky as the Buraq being seen by some children, not the characters in the book, and a silhouetted tree as Sidrat al-Muntaha. As I am not knowledgeable enough to know if it is “right” or “wrong” to have a child seeing the silhouetted tree and pointing to it, or who it is meant to be, I’ve included pictures for you to decide what is best for your family. I particularly like that on the pages where Arabic is spoken it is found written in easy to read Arabic with English translation and transliteration. Within the text there are attributions of hadith and after each chapter there is an activity and questions. The book concludes with a glossary.
Whether as a tool to learn for the first time, or a book to revise with children already praying, the approach is gentle and easy, inviting children to engage with the pages. The four chapters are packed full of information, but the illustrations, diagrams, and steps, also allow the book to be referenced, or read cover to cover.
The last chapter, “Life with Salah” shows the character group engaging with salah in a very idyllic way, but given the tone of the book, it works, and will allow readers to see salah as more than just an obligation, which is important.
I got my copy from crescent moon store, if you use my initials (ISL) at checkout you can save 10%.
