101 Islamic Stories for Teens: Vol. IV: Mysteries of the Cave, Dhul-Qarnayn, Luqman the Wise & the Jinn — Quranic Parables & Unseen Worlds for Muslim Youth & Young Adults

Some stories in the Quran are not like the others.The first three volumes gave you creation, flood, exodus, kings, and miracles — the stories everyone knows. This fourth volume goes somewhere else entirely. It goes into the cave where teenagers slept for three hundred years while the world outside forgot them. It follows a conqueror to the place where the sun sets in a spring of dark mud. It sits at the feet of a man named Luqman — not a prophet, just a wise father — and listens to him tell his son how to live. It eavesdrops on the jinn when they hear the Quran for the first time and say: We have heard a wonderful recitation.This is the strangest, most philosophical, most imagination-igniting volume in the series.What's inside:THE SLEEPERS OF THE CAVE — A group of young believers flee a persecuting city and hide in a cave. God seals their ears. They sleep. The sun rises on their right and sets on their left, passing them by. Their dog stretches his paws at the entrance. They stay there for three hundred years — and nine more. When they wake up, they think they've slept a day. They send one of their number into the city with old silver coins, and he discovers that the world has become a place where his coins are museum pieces and his faith — the faith he was hiding for — is now the faith of the empire. This is the ultimate story of God's protection, told in images so vivid you will never forget them.DHUL-QARNAYN AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD — He was given power and means. He traveled to the setting of the sun and found it sinking into a dark spring. He traveled to the rising of the sun and found a people with no shelter from its heat. And then he traveled between two mountains, where a terrified people begged him: Gog and Magog are destroying the land. Build us a barrier. He built a wall of iron blocks, poured molten copper over them, and said: This is a mercy from my Lord. But when His promise comes, He will level it to dust. The most mysterious figure in the Quran. Conqueror, builder, humble servant. Your teenager will be thinking about Dhul-Qarnayn for weeks.LUQMAN'S ADVICE TO HIS SON — O my son, do not associate partners with God. It is a great wrong. O my son, if a mustard seed's weight of deed were hidden inside a rock or in the heavens or in the earth, God would bring it forth. O my son, establish prayer, command right, forbid wrong, and be patient. Do not turn your cheek in contempt to people. Do not walk arrogantly on the earth. Lower your voice — the most disagreeable of sounds is the braying of a donkey. One father. One son. The entire moral curriculum of Islam, delivered in a single conversation.THE JINN WHO HEARD THE QURAN — A group of jinn — creatures of smokeless fire, invisible to human eyes — are passing through a valley at night when they hear a voice reciting words they have never heard before. They stop. They listen. They turn to each other and say: Be silent and listen. When the recitation ends, they return to their people as warners: O our people, we have heard a Book sent down after Moses, confirming what came before it, guiding to the truth and to a straight path. Respond to God's caller and believe in him. The Prophet was never as alone as he felt. Even the unseen world was listening.THE PARABLE OF LIGHT UPON LIGHT — A niche. A lamp. Glass like a brilliant star. Oil from a blessed olive tree — neither eastern nor western — that almost glows without fire touching it. Light upon light. God guides to His light whomever He wills. The most beautiful verse in the Quran, explained through story, not commentary. Read more