A man said to the Messenger of God, “Tell me of some actions I could do which would make me beloved of Allah in heaven and beloved of the people on earth. He replied, “Desire what is with Allah, and Allah will love you, and do without what is with the people, and they will love you
The messenger said, “The Intelligent person is he who sees faults in his self, and acts for the hereafter; the stupid person is he whose self pursues its desires and who thinks he is bestowing favors upon Allah.” ~ Book Prophetic Traditions in Islam
When a man asked the Prophet to explain nobility of character to him, he replied, “It means that you should forgive him who has wronged you, reestablish ties with him who has broken them off, give to him who has denied you something, and tell the truth even if it is against your own interests.” ~ Book Prophetic Traditions in Islam
Salam! I am a writer, illustrator, and musician, as well as co-director of multi-faith children’s publisher, Chickpea Press. I live with my wife in the Lake District in the UK, where I find inspiration in the mountains, rivers, lakes, and trees.
I was called to Islam after discovering the poetry of Rumi, and do my best to follow the Mevlevi Path based on his teachings. The 99 Names of God could be described as an attempt to share some of the beauty I have come across on this Path to Islam.
For Muslims, the Divine Names are the building blocks of reality. Everything we see around us and within us is a reflection of them. It occurred to me that by learning about Islam through the Names, children would also learn about the world and themselves.
I was also aware that religious education can sometimes be quite dry and abstract, whereas the Names make it much more concrete, symbolic, and poetic – much more engaging to young and old. I also knew that writing about the Names would be a wonderful way for me to get to know them better.
I’ve drawn inspiration from so many great teachers for this book: Muhammad, Khadijah, Ali, Fatimah, Rumi, Rabiah (God bless them all) – the list goes on and on. The inspiration is not just restricted to Muslims: for instance the likes of Shakespeare and Ghandi are in there too, and many more great souls besides. But if there is anything of value in my book, it is surely due to the Mevlevi teachers who have guided me on my spiritual path, Shaikh Kabir Helminski and Camille Helminski, as well as my parents who have provided such an inspirational example throughout my life. In terms of previous works on the 99 Names, a book called The Physicians of the Heart deserves special mention as a prime source of inspiration – it is probably the most comprehensive and profound guide to the Names in the English language.
I was amazed by how accessible the book is. It’s a great book for children, but at the same time I’m enjoying it as an adult. This makes me wonder who’s the audience you had in mind when creating this book?
I really wanted to create a family resource, the kind of book that would have some elements children as young as 5 or 6 might begin to digest with the help of their parents, whilst also having more complex and profound elements to stimulate teenagers and even adults. So each Name begins with a simple explanation and gradually becomes more challenging, taking in a quotation from the Quran, then a quotation from one of the great sages of Islam, and finishing with reflections and activities. Hopefully the illustrations are simple and elegant enough to appeal to all ages.
On a general note, I think it is important to realise that children are often much smarter than we think, especially in terms of their creative imagination, and they have an innate knowledge. It is also important to remember that we can plant a seed in a young heart that will bear fruit later: they do not need to understand everything (and neither do we).
Mystery, nuance, wonder, and awe are important qualities for them to encounter, and we should be wary of watering things down. And we actually found during the feedback stages of writing our book that children very easily grasped concepts that we were presenting, sometimes even quicker than adults!
Generally I worked on one Name at a time, though occasionally two are treated as a pair. It meant writing the text and drawing the illustrations was a series of holistic encounters with each Name, rather than a fragmented experience. I did not engage the Names in the traditional order; instead, whichever Name came to my heart was the Name I engaged with next, until gradually I had gathered all 99. It felt important to take an intuitive approach rather than systematic one.
The first Name I engaged with was al-Quddus, the Holy. I have always been drawn to that Name and it helped me set the tone. Coming to the end, it felt appropriate that the final Name I engage with be al-Jami, the Gatherer, in recognition that the task of gathering the Names into a book was complete. I think Allah is always inviting us to see pattern and order, and we might weave it into our own lives.
Perhaps the greatest challenge I faced with the book was getting the right balance in a number of important areas. For example, getting a balance between male and female voices was incredibly important. Islam has a rich treasury of wisdom from strong, spiritual women, but too often women have been sidelined in favour of men. I therefore wanted to introduce as many women as I could as sages of Islam, and to quote their words. So in the book, you will find quotes from Khadijah, Fatimah, Aishah, Rabiah, Nafisah, Shawana, and many more (Peace be upon them all).
Another important area to find the right balance was in the use of non-Islamic sources. As the book is about Islam and primarily aimed at Muslims, it was appropriate that most of the wisdom quoted be from Islamic sources, however I also wanted a significant treasury of non-Islamic wisdom to encourage inclusivity and appreciation of other paths and faiths. This is so important given the pluralistic societies we live in today, and is perfectly in keeping with the Quran’s inclusive spirit and its love of diversity. So the “Reflections and Activities” section became an area where non-Islamic wisdom could be offered to widen horizons.
There were so many joys in writing the book. Spending time with two young helpers, Joya and Gabriel, was a real pleasure – they helped me write the reflections and activities for an-Nur and al-Aziz. Another joy was experiencing signs of the Names as I was writing about them. Many people would dismiss what I took as signs to be mere coincidences, but I believe the Quran invites us to take a very different attitude, for the Unseen is always seeking to communicate with us.
For example, the image of a fountain of water had sprung to my mind as symbol of al-Hayy, the Ever-Living, and this led me to use the Quranic story of Moses striking the rock with his staff, for when Moses did so water gushed from the rock to quench the thirst of the twelve tribes. I had begun putting the elements of my retelling of this story together and, later that day, I called my parents to catch up. I discovered that a water pipe had broken in their home and water had been gushing everywhere. I understood this to mean “Keep going – you’re on the right track”!
Firstly, we hope the book will inspire remembrance of God. Secondly, we aim to create an awareness that love and compassion are at the heart of Islam. We also hope the book will help young Muslims realise how Islam respects and appreciates other faiths and celebrates the diversity of God’s creation. We also want to highlight how Islam honours women alongside men, and that it is a dynamic faith responding to the needs of our time.
In the face of the current environmental crisis, we are also eager to show Islam’s deep respect for nature so that young Muslims will become ecologically aware, witnessing the natural world as a playground for the Divine Majesty and Beauty. Finally, we also want them to be aware that the Divine Majesty and Beauty are reflected most fully in themselves.
The questions, reflections, and activities have many aims in mind. We try to use a holistic approach to engage all the human faculties: critical thinking, creative imagination, meditation, consultation, research, and so on. No answers are offered to any of the questions.
The important thing is that we learn to ask them and take the time to arrive at our own considered opinion. Besides, often there are no “correct” answers to the questions posed, and we aim to help young Muslims become comfortable with mystery and nuance, and with a reality that is qualitative as much as it is quantitative.
Let’s let Rumi speak:
“A life lived without love is no life.
It adds up to nothing.
In reality we should be ashamed of any moment that passes without love.”
The book can be ordered from our website, chickpeapress.co.uk, or from Amazon. It is available as paperback or hardback, and we have also just made available The 99 Names of God Contemplation Cards (also available from our website or Amazon). These activity cards make an engaging learning tool that complements the book. An ebook will also be made available in the coming months, with accompanying video and audio.
“Visit Graves and by this remind yourself of the next world. Wash the dead and your heart will be moved, for surely an empty body is a profound lesson. Pray over the dead and perhaps it will make you sad, for surely the sad person is close to Allah.” ~ Imam Ali (Book: Sayings & Wisdom of Imam Ali)
Prophet (‘S) took three sticks and set one of them in front of him, another one next to it, and the third far away from the two. He then asked, ‘Do you know what this is?’ to which they replied, ‘Allah and His Messenger know better.’ He said, ‘This one is man, and this is death [next to it], while that one is expectation, which man entertains [about his long life], but death falls upon him prior to his expectation.’
‘There are three things regarding which Allah, the Exalted, did not allow any flexibility: returning a trust to its owner, be he good or wicked; keeping one’s agreement with both the good and the wicked; and kindness to one’s parents whether they be good or wicked.’ Imam Muhammad Baqir (‘a)
“The body should be preserved and tended with care since it is the frame of the heart.
As a camel is to a pilgrim, so the body is like an animal upon which the heart rides.
The pilgrim is obliged to give food and water to his camel, and to the treat it with attention, that he may read the end of his journey in safety, and by its means be successful in the object for which he travels.
But should the pilgrim be busy with his camel day and night, and should expend all his capital in feeding it, he would lose all that he possessed and would be the victim of unceasing regrets, and ruin would ensue.
Just so is it with the man in general.
If he passes all his days in attending to the preservation of the body, and spend the capital of his life in providing food and drink for the body, he will not reach the mansions of felicity but will wander in the wilderness of destruction, without capital, penniless and a naked vagabond.”
~ Imam Al-Ghazali
We’re super excited to share our latest book “Sufi Comics Rumi Volume 2” is now available to buy in Kindle and Paperback editions.
In continuation of Sufi Comics Rumi (volume 1), this book is a collection of poems by Rumi. Each poem is illustrated in comic form, followed by verses of the Qur’an written in Arabic Calligraphy on the theme of the comic.
We hope through this book, Rumi’s poems and teachings become accessible to a wider audience. Here are some images from the book:
Some of our readers got early access to the book, and have shared their reviews on Amazon. Here are some of them:
“The prudent one is he who puts off punishment when anger prevails, and hastens to reward the good, taking the first possible opportunity to do so.” ~ Imam Ali (‘a)