Beautiful Signs/Ayat Jamilah: A Treasury of Islamic Wisdom for Children and Parents (Little Light of Mine Series)
Grade 9 Up–This book aims to do for Islam what Conover'sKindness(EWU, 2000) did for Buddhism: reflect the ethos of the religion in a treasury of stories accessible to teens. Here, too, pithy sayings from the tradition are framed on full pages between the narratives, and 22 pages of notes and sources provide foundations and suggest further exploration. These stories from the Qur'an, from Muslim history, hadiths (oral tradition), and folktales originated in the Middle East, China, Indonesia, Africa, and even Muslim Spain; several are from Sufi teachings (e.g., Rumi's). Although many feature mullahs, women star in a couple of tales. Focusing on life lessons, even the stories identified as historical can have an idealized moral: a band of robbers converted by the honesty of a youth, or a thief reformed by a lone woman's kindness. Calligraphy and frames surrounding illustrations reflect the astounding inventiveness of design in the Islamic tradition. Of the dozen line-and-color illustrations, most represent a scene and reflect the cultural diversity of the sources. Several are merely decorative. Islam today is undeniably important: a work as informative and entertaining as this one, that helps readers to understand its values, should be welcome.–Patricia D. Lothrop, St. George's School, Newport, RICopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.