Have you ever taught the Holy Quran to kids and realised they don't understand a word of what they are reading or even memorising. What starts off as an exciting quest for them to memorise as much as they can soon turns into a difficult battle.
"What's the point mum I don't even know what it means!"
I was with a very close friend of mine at her house and I noticed her son who used to memorise the Quran really enthusiastically, complain. I remember specifically hearing him say "What's the point mum I don't even know what it means!"
He had a solid point and it was then that I realised we need to change this attitude of teaching our kids to merely memorise verses without understanding it.
...but that's the tricky part!
I teach Quran and Arabic to a few girls at my house. There is one girl who is very bright Mashallah. She started my class knowing only 3 letters, Alif Baa Taa.
After a short period of teaching her using Al Qaidah book she learnt how to read Arabic fluently on her own. She then swiftly memorised Surah after Surah of the Holy Quran.
It wasn't enough though, something, a big element of it, was missing. Like my friends son, she had no clue what it actually was that she was reading and memorising.
So I started explaining to her what each verse meant. She was 6 years old and there were some things that she still didn't understand. So I turned to google and youtube and showed her images of what I meant, for example earthquake, figs etc
She understood better now, but a few verses and surahs laters, she starting mixing up all the images and ayahs and we regularly had to start again... from scratch.
That's when ideas about this book came along.
Three years later 'My First Quran With Pictures' Volume 1 came along! It starts from Surah An-naas to Balad.
There is definitely need for a book like this in our community. We as parents could also benefit from it inshallah.
The child simply reads a verse in Arabic that has been drawn as part of an illustration. That illustration is the broad meaning of the ayah, helping the child automatically registers what it means. If the meaning is not straight forward or still difficult to understand the translations in English are at the bottom of the page.
The book is aimed at children aged 7+, however if there is someone there to help the child in case he/she doesn't understand it, then children of any age can benefit from it.
Here is a sample page of Surah Al-Falaq...
you can now order from this website or Amazon.
You have to get it because it is a good book