The Story of Adam and Hawwa by Dr. Shamim Nikhat

*BOOK AWARENESS*

I have had an internal conflict if I should post this book or not. It is true, we should be uplifting the good and the positive instead of highlighting the negative but one part of me feels that the main role of this account is honesty.

🌸

I will not be labeling this as a book review nor will I rate it; instead I will treat this post as 'book awareness.' What has pushed me to post about it is that I have recently come across 'the story of Nuh' (from the same series) in an Islamic Giftshop offered for purchase. 🌸

As you can see, the book cover reads 'based on the Qur'anic facts.' Most parents of independent readers would not hesitate to invest in an inexpensive Islamic book for their kids to read and learn from it. This is a prime example, why ALL books we share with our kids should be read by the parents first, even if it says it is 'based on Qur'anic facts.'

🌸

There are many flaws in this book but I will only focus on major ones:

• It is not an Islamic belief that Shaytan persuaded Adam (a.s.) and Hawwa (a.s) to eat the forbidden fruit through a snake as shown here. Rather, he influenced them through his whispers and negative thoughts.

• The book says "It is said that the snake was the most beautiful of all creatures of Paradise." - "It is said..."? who and where? This just shows me that they haven't used Qur'anic facts, otherwise they would have indicated.

• In Islam, we believe that every soul is responsible for our own good and bad deeds. Therefore, indicating that women throughout time are punished with the pains of childbirth because of another clearly contradict this.

Finally, there is absolutely no Qur'anic ayat referenced anywhere in this book, not even one. Let me go even further, there is no referenced hadeeth either.

🌸

Seeing the great mistakes this book presents, as a parent, unfortunately, I would not trust the author and publisher to be a reputable and a reliable source for Islamic teachings. With this said, as parents, teachers and Islamic school librarians, a great responsibility falls on our shoulders.

Sep 13/2019