Growing up near the Lake District, I was surrounded by the beauty of nature. Mountains, lakes, forests… all were on my doorstep, and the Divine hand was evident all around. When my wife and I decided to set up our own children’s publishing company, we felt the need to be in nature and I found myself returning to the beauty of my childhood home. I was inspired to write a book about the 99 Names of Allah because I thought it would be a perfect way for children to learn about Islam, and a wonderful journey for myself.
The 99 Names of Allah is designed to help children discover the Names within themselves and in the world around them. Although ‘the world around them’ also encompasses the man-made world, for us it primarily means nature. We aim to help children build a spiritual link to the natural world, making them aware that God communicates to us through nature in the most beautiful, awesome, playful, sublime, and subtle manner. Children can begin to understand that they can learn spiritual and ethical lessons from nature, that they may draw sustenance, peace, and inner-calm simply by being witnesses within it, and that outside of the human soul, it is nature that is the ultimate playground for the manifestation of Allah’s Names.
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