looking for stories

Would a story about a samurai being too nervous to sleep the night before an execution be too violent for kids?

Here is one about the Triple Goddess. I've got a few, I'll post them one at a time. Some my mother used to tell me when I was younger, some I've found on my own, etc.

As the Maiden, I saw through your eyes as a child
Spring rains, green forests, and animals wild!
I saw you run freely on the Earth with bare feet!
I watched as you danced in the winds, blowing free!
I was there as you grew, getting stronger each day!
I brought you rainbows, chasing grey skies away!
I was there in your laughter - I was there in your tears!
I was the acceptance you gained from your peers!
I saw your first love and I felt your first blush,
As passion first stirred in the night's gentle hush!
I am there with you always in the fresh morning dew!
I bring you the crispness of beginnings anew.

As the Mother, I bore all the labor distress
Of birthing your child, and I felt the caress
Of your hand on the face of the new life so dear.
I heard its first cry, and I eased your fear!
I provided the milk which you fed from your breast
Till the baby grew strong, and with health it was blessed.
As she took her first step, I was there in your smile!
I was there while you nurtured your beautiful child!
On the first day of school, when the doors opened wide
I was there in your fear - I was there in your pride.
I am there with you always in the bright full of moon!
I bring you fertility - abundance in bloom.

As the Crone, I brought blessings of wisdom with age
[Wisdom not found by the turn of a page].
I was there as you taught the correct way to live:
To love and to trust - to take and to give!
I was there in the twinkle of your aged eye!
I was there in your thoughts of the years flying by!
I was there when you taught the Mysteries of old!
I was there in the fire warming you in the cold!
In the weariness of age, I was there with you, too...
I brought well-deserved rest and peace unto you!
I am there with you always in the darkness of night!
I complete your life cycle, guiding you toward the light.

Maid, Mother and Crone - We are all One -
Yet We are all separate, as each role is done.
We do not leave you - We're always there
As you walk through this life with your worries and cares;
As you dance in the spiral, We live inside -
Deep in your spirit - where nothing can hide!
No matter your path, no matter it's length -
We give you courage and We give you strength.
We are there to support you every hour of day
And deep in the night, when dreams take you away.
Our gifts We give freely, for you are our Child...
Yes, We are the Lady: Wise, Pure, and Mild!

Jesus' parable of the good Samaritan is always a good one with a good moral message.

David and Goliath is good, too. It shows us just how much we can accomplish with God on our side. But I'm sure you all know those stories.

Here's one from Judges 11:29 - 40. It is about Jephthah's foolish vow, and it has a good message too. It might be a little graphic for kids though:

29At that time the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he went throughout the land of Gilead and Manasseh, including Mizpah in Gilead, and led an army against the Ammonites. 30And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD. He said, "If you give me victory over the Ammonites, 31I will give to the LORD the first thing coming out of my house to greet me when I return in triumph. I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

32So Jephthah led his army against the Ammonites, and the LORD gave him victory. 33He thoroughly defeated the Ammonites from Aroer to an area near Minnith--twenty towns--and as far away as Abel-keramim. Thus Israel subdued the Ammonites.

34When Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, his daughter--his only child--ran out to meet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy. 35When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish. "My daughter!" he cried out. "My heart is breaking! What a tragedy that you came out to greet me. For I have made a vow to the LORD and cannot take it back."

36And she said, "Father, you have made a promise to the LORD. You must do to me what you have promised, for the LORD has given you a great victory over your enemies, the Ammonites. 37But first let me go up and roam in the hills and weep with my friends for two months, because I will die a virgin." 38"You may go," Jephthah said. And he let her go away for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never have children. 39When she returned home, her father kept his vow, and she died a virgin. So it has become a custom in Israel 40for young Israelite women to go away for four days each year to lament the fate of Jephthah's daughter.

The moral of the story, kids: Think before you act, I'd say

Here's another one. This one my mother used to tell me when I was a child. It's called Isis and the Seven Scorpions.

You are very welcome. I am happy to share more, though I shall only post one more tonight as I should sleep soon. This is an Egyptian Creation Myth.

In the beginning there was only the swirling, watery chaos, called Nu. Out of these chaotic waters rose Atum, the Sun God of the city of Heliopolis. In this watery chaos, Atum found no place to stand and so in the place where he first appeared he created a hill [me: which came to be known as the primeval hill, this hill had a profound effect on the Egyptians and came to be used as the basis for everything from temple layouts to possible inspiration behind the pyramids].

His next act was to create more gods. Because he was all alone in the world, without a mate, he made a union with his shadow. [Atum was regarded as "bisexual God" (mean of both sexes, unlike our meaning of the term today). He was also often called the "Great He-She". This enabled the Egyptians to observe Atum as the one and only creative force in the universe]. Atum left his hill and returned to the waters of Nu to create his children. First, he created his son Shu by spitting him out. Next he created his daughter Tefnut by vomiting her out. Shu represented the air and Tefnut became the Goddess of moisture. Shu and Tefnut continued the act of creation by establishing a social order. To this order Shu contributed the 'principles of Life' while Tefnut contributed the 'principles of order'.

After some time, Shu and Tefnut became seperated from their father and were lost in the chaotic waters of Nu. Atum, who had only one eye, which was removable [which came to be known as the Udjat eye], removed his eye and sent it in search of his children. In time, they returned to Atum with the eye and at this reunion, Atum wept tears of joy. Where these tears hit the ground, men grew. Now Atum was ready to create the world. Shu and Tefnut became the atmosphere. they stood on Geb, the earth, and raised up Nut, who became the sky. Geb and Nut gave birth to Isis, Osiris, Set and Nephthys.

Osiris succeeded Atum as king of the earth, helped by Isis, his sister-wife. Set, however, hated his brother and killed him [another story for another time]. Isis then embalmed her husband's body with the help of the god Anubis, who thus became the god of embalming. The powerful charms of Isis resurrected Osiris, who became king of the netherworld, the land of the dead. Horus, who was the son of Osiris and Isis, later defeated Set in a great battle and became king of the earth.

I love this idea! I've got to post one or two before I hit the hay. Let's see:

As a child, I always love the story of Elijah and the priests of Baal. I especially laughed at Elijah's jests, saying that maybe their god was asleep. If that's not one of the Bible stories you tell your kids, I highly reccommend it.

As for other stories, the Christmas story in the Book of Mormon comes when there came a time when the Nephite nation (normally associated with the gospel) had become extremely prideful and corrupt. Meanwhile, their enemies the Lamanites had believed on the word of the many missionaries who had been sent to them, and had been resisting pride, corruption and greed. This dramatic reversal of roles led to one of the most wonderful characters in the Book of Mormon: the great prophet Samuel, the Lamanite!

Samuel was called by God to preach the word to Nephites who had forgotten it. He went to their great city Zarahemla, but they people there cast him out, not wanting to hear the true word of God, especially from a Lamanite! Determined to fulfill his mission, Samuel climbed up on the wall of Zarahemla and called down to the people below. The speech that he gave there fills several chapters of the Book of Mormon, but most of it was about the people's need to repent, because Jesus Christ was coming soon to visit them. Samuel prophesied that in five years' time, there would be a sign in heaven, a sign of the Savior's birth: there would be night without darkness, when the sun would go down in the evening and rise the next morning, but in between it woudl be light as day.

Some of the people listened to Samuel, and they followed his counsel to go to Nephi the prophet, confess their sins, and prepare for the Savior's coming. Many others were angry with him, and cast stones at him with slings or shot arrows at him with bows, but God protected him: all the while he spoke while standing on their wall, no one was able to hit him. When he was through delivering the message that God had given him, Samuel leaped down from the wall and ran back to his own lands, never to be seen again.

His great prophecies, however, were not forgotten. Nephi and others wrote the prophecies down, and waited for the sign. Unbelievers grew angry with them as time went on, and finally set forth a day upon which the time would be past, at which point everyone who believed in the prophecies of Samuel would be put to death. Still the people waited for the sign to come, to tell them that Christ had been born in a faraway land. Finally, the day before the believers were to be executed, Nephi prayed with all his heart to God for his people to be delivered. As he prayed, he heard a voice say that this was the night the sign was to be given, and on the morrow the Savior would come to earth.

That night the sun went down, but it did not get dark all night long until the sun reappeared. The wicked fell to the ground as if dead, for the knew that their great plan had been frustrated. The believers rejoiced, for their Savior had come to earth, and God had not forgotten them.

This story is now commemorated in one of our Christmas songs every year:

SAMUEL TELLS OF BABY JESUS

Said Samuel, "Within five years
A night shall be as day,
And baby Jesus will be born
In a land far, far away."

(Chorus)
Hosannah, hosannah,
Oh let us gladly sing!
How blessed that our Lord was born;
Let earth recieve her King

Across the sea in Bethlehem,
Lord Jesus came to Earth
As Samuel had prophesied
And angels sang His birth.

(Chorus)
Hosannah, hosannah,
Oh let us gladly sing!
How blessed that our Lord was born;
Let earth recieve her King

Thanks for your story, DeepShadow.

The following story isn't specifically religious but it was just sent to me and I really like the moral.


A mouse looked through the crack in the wall
to see the farmer and his wife open a package.
"What food might this contain?" He was devastated
to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse
proclaimed the warning.
"There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a
mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised
her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I
can tell this is a grave concern to you, but
it is of no consequence to me.
I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him,
"There is a mousetrap in the house."

The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very
sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do
about it but pray. Be assured you are in my
prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow. She said,
"Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you,
but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head
down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout
the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was
caught. In the darkness, she did not see it
was a venomous snake whose tail
the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer
rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home
with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever
with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took
his hatchet to the farmyard for the
soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so
friends and neighbors came to sit
with her around the clock. To feed them,
the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she
died. So many people came for her
funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered
to provide enough meat for all of them.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing
a problem and think it doesn't concern you,
remember -- when one of us is threatened, we
are all at risk.

a very short virsion of the Cherokee story for the origin of Strawberries.
http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore148.html
http://www.powersource.com/cocinc/articles/strwbry.htm

This story is especally for children, variations are used to teach children to not hold a grudge and to forgive one another.

a good source for other tales: http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/loreindx.html

This one is one of my absolute favorites...
http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/lore20.html

wa:do

Here is a funny one, no religious foundation. Needs to be censored for children.

The Little Bird, The Cow and The Cat
​

Little bird was enjoying a flight in the last rays of warmth for the day before settling down into his cozy nest for the night. As he dove and swooped across the sky, he noticed a flock of birds flying as though the devil himself was at their tail feathers.

“HEY!” he called. “Where are you going?”

“We’re flying south,” they called over their wings. “Winter’s coming and we have to be in South America before it hits!”

Little bird was puzzled. This was his first winter and he hadn’t heard of such things. “Why would you do that?” he asked.

“It’s going to get colder yet!” they called. “There’ll be no food! Now hurry or you won’t make it!”

Little bird waved them good-bye and considered what they’d said. He’d felt cold before in the dark of night and it wasn’t really that bad. He always just nestled further into his nest and fluffed his feathers around him and was fine. No food? With all of the other birds gone, there’d be plenty of food for him! Flying long distances was hard work and he’d fare much better staying behind! His mind was made up.

He was right, for a while. Little bird was living high on the land with the other birds down south. There was plenty to eat in the dying fields and the bugs were slow from the cold. He lay back in his nest, fat and happy, laughing at the silly birds who had gone south.

The next morning, he wasn’t laughing. He awoke to freezing rain pelting down on his nest, rudely awakening him from his restless sleep. It was c*o*l*d. He shuddered and pulled his feathers closely around him, but he still could not shake off the chill that permeated his little bones. ****. He had to get south and get there fast. He took flight, trying without success to fly above the rain clouds. The higher he got, the colder it got. He felt ice forming on his wings and he panicked as he began a downward spiral. He hit the ground hard.

It was Little Bird’s darkest hour. Or so he thought. As he lay there on the frozen ground, the icy rain pelting onto him, he stared up at the gray skies and asked for help, from somewhere, anywhere. Unbeknownst to him, Little Bird had landed smack in the middle of a cow pasture. Old Bossy Cow was feeling quite an urge and she was making her way through the sleet and rain and let go with a pie of epic proportions, which landed, ripe and steaming, right onto Little Bird.

“Fine,” he thought. “Just fine. As if injury was not enough, now he had a hot pile of insult all over him. As Little Bird lay, defeated, in the pile of cow ****, he found, to his surprise, that the heat from the cow plop was thawing out his wings. (?!) His tiny bones and muscles soaked up the warmth and soon he was feeling just fine again. It was a miracle…the very one he’d asked the heavens to send. He was so overjoyed, that he began to sing, “Oh Happy Day! Oh Happy Day!”

In the barn, not far away, Old Tabby Cat was curled up in a pile of hay, dreaming of spring when the birds would return and he would have warm food instead of cold, hard Friskies. Suddenly, his ears perked and his head shot up. “What? Could it be??” Curious, he padded out of the barn and cocked his head. “HA!” Evidently, some bird had NOT flow south. What could it have been thinking? He rushed out into the rain to investigate. He came upon Little Bird, singing for all he was worth from the middle of a pile of cow ****. Old Tabby Cat did not let his puzzlement keep him from swinging into action.

“Pssst,” he said, “Little Bird, what are you doing in that pile of cow ****?”

Little Bird laughed. “I was DYING here in the icy rain and that cow over there saved me! It was amazing!”

“Wow. That is absolutely fascinating,” OTC purred. But I can’t help but notice that you are covered in cow **** now. Can I lend a hand? Let me pull you out and help you get cleaned up. Then you can really enjoy your new lease on life!”

Little Bird was jubilant. Not only had he been saved from the jaws of death in a most unexpected way, but he’d been helped again by a most unlikely source. He reached out his wing and OTC hoisted him onto his back, grimacing at the still warm cow plop droppings that were sinking into his fur. Little Bird rode the cat back to the barn, where he was taken to the horse stables. The bodies of many of the large animals had made this part of the barn the warmest and Little Bird happily dove into a puddle of water and began washing his wings. After he was perfectly clean, OTC helped him settle down into the warm hay until he was perfectly dry. Little Bird settled into a comfy sleep, whereupon, Old Tabby Cat promptly ate him.

The Moral of the Story:

*Not everyone who ****s on you is your enemy.

*Not everyone who helps you is your friend.

*If you are warm and happy in a pile of ****, keep your mouth closed.

God Answers Prayer with Song

The following story is taken from accounts of the Haun's Mill Massacre, one of the great Mormon tragedies. I hope you'll forgive me copying this account from http://www.ldsliving.com/bom19.asp. The references to 'Alma' and 'Amulon' parallel this tale with one from the Book of Mormon.

Nineteen men or boys were killed in the attack on a small Mormon settlement by a mob of Missouri settlers. Fifteen others were wounded. The mob, before leaving, "pillaged the village and robbed the dead of their boots, clothing, and valuables." When they left the mill "they dragged with them horses, wagons, cows, and property of nearly every description belonging to the settlement." (Joseph Smith and the Restoration, Ivan J. Barrett, 1968, p. 330.)

A few days following the attack, a number of the mob returned. According to members of this group of rabble, they "lived fat, too," feasting on the remaining cattle and hogs that should have sustained the surviving widows and orphans, as well as the wounded. (Ibid.)

Like the people of Alma, these unfortunate victims found their only solace in prayer, and the widows vented their feelings in heartfelt appeals to their Heavenly Father. (Assorted Gems of Priceless Value, N.B. Lundwall, p. 97.) And, like Amulon, two thousand years earlier, the mobbers could not endure the guilt engendered by these prayers.

One of the mobbers delivered the warning, "The captain [Captain Comstock] says if you women don't stop your damn praying, he will send down a posse and kill every damn one of you!" Even the solutions were the same. Prayers and cries were hushed as women, fearful for their lives, spoke to their Creator in the silence of their hearts and minds.

But for at least one, this terrified silence was a shame and humiliation. Amanda Smith longed to hear her own voice raised in prayer. One morning, as the day began, she slipped into a nearby cornfield, crawled into a shock of corn, and raised her "voice high that it reached the heavens." (Enos 1:4.)

As she left her sanctuary a voice spoke to her, repeating the following words from the hymn "How Firm a Foundation":

That soul who on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I cannot, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell shall endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake!

From that moment on, she was at peace. (Ibid.) [From Rending the Veil of Heaven, Ted Gibbons, pp. 51,52)

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After her prayer was thus answered, Amanda was given directions by the Spirit of God regarding healing her son Alma's hip wound. The ball of Alma's hip joint had been destroyed by a gunshot, but Amanda formed a plug for the wound that staunched the bleeding and allowed the bone to regrow properly. And all this while preparing to bury her younger son Sardius--the youngest victim of the mob.

http://mldb.byu.edu/lmsmith.htm relates a popular LDS tale about the Joseph Smith Jr. before he became prophet. As a child, Joseph developed an infection in his leg that went all the way into the bone, and a doctor was called. At first he said he'd have to amputate, but finally he agreed to only cut out the diseased part of the bone, in hopes the leg would mend properly. In order to do this, he said that Joseph would have to be drugged with brandy. As his mother recalled the story:

The doctor, however, insisted that be must be confined, upon which Joseph said very decidedly, "No, doctor, I will not be bound, for I can bear the operation much better if I have my liberty." "Then," said Dr. Stone, "will you drink some brandy?"


"No," said Joseph, "not one drop."

"Will you take some wine?" rejoined the doctor. "You must take something, or you can never endure the severe operation to which you must be subjected." "No," exclaimed Joseph, "I will not touch one particle of liquor, neither will I be tied down; but I will tell you what I will do--I will have my father sit on the bed and hold me in his arms, and then I will do whatever is necessary in order to have the bone taken out." Looking at me, he said, "Mother, I want you to leave the room, for I know you cannot bear to see me suffer so; father can stand it, but you have carried me so much, and watched over me so long, you are almost worn out." Then looking up into my face, his eyes swimming in tears, he continued. "Now, mother, promise me that you will not stay, will you? The Lord will help me, and I shall get through with it."

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The operation was conducted as Joseph requested. His leg ws saved, but he walked with a slight limp for the rest of his life.

Here is one Lilithu

Going back to stories from the Book of Mormon, many children's favorites are from the book of First Nephi, probably because it has many rich details that were left out of the rest of the book when it was abridged. A couple of those stories are summarized in the children's song "Nephi's Courage." First is the story of "Nephi and the Brass Plates."

The prophet Lehi had seen in a vision that his city Jerusalem would be destroyed, and had taken his family into the wilderness for safety. While there, Lehi had another vision, wherein the Lord told him to send his sons back to Jerusalem for the brass plates--sacred records that they would need in their journey. Lehi's oldest sons, Laman and Lemuel, complained to their father that this was a hard thing that their father required, but Lehi reminded them that this was not his own commandment, but one from the Lord.

Nephi understood that this was a commandment of God, and he replied that he would go and do as the Lord had asked, for he knew the Lord did not give a commandment to people without providing some way for them to accomplish it.

And that's how Laman, Lemuel, Sam and Nephi wound up on the road back to Jerusalem, going to the house of Laban, a distant kinsman who kept the brass plates. The three brothers drew lots to see who would approach Laban and ask for the brass plates. The lot fell on Laman, the eldest, who went to Laban...and barely escaped with his life! Laban may have been their kinsman, but he apparently thought they grew on the wrong branch of the family tree--one that should have been pruned. They would get no favors from him. He called his guards and accused Laman of being a robber after Laban's many riches. Laman fled back to his brothers and began complaining all over again.

Now Nephi had an idea: their family had left all of their riches behind when they fled into the desert...if all Laban cared about was money, why not buy the plates from him? It's not like they were going to take it with them! So the four brothers rounded up all their gold and silver and precious things and took them to Laban. Well, Laban wanted their wealth, but he saw no reason to trade anything for it when all he needed to do was call his guards again. He told his guards to kill the brothers, but they fled again, and their wealth fell into Laban's hands.

This time Laman and Lemuel were furious! All their wealth had been taken from them, and they had nothing to show for it! Now they were faced with going empty-handed to their visionary father in the wilderness or returning to Jerusalem to be killed by the soldiers. The two were so angry that they began beating their younger brother Nephi with a rod, saying he was foolish for believing their father, and that he had cost them all their money.

It was at this moment that an angel came and commanded the two men to stop beating their brother. The angel rebuked them for their faithlessness and told them that their brother would become ruler over them because of their wickedness. Finally the angel told them to go one more time to the house of Laban, and that the Lord would deliver Laban into their hands. Laman and Lemuel couldn't believe the words of the angel. Laban was a mighty man, they said, who could command a garrison of fifty soldiers, and who could slay fifty soldiers by himself, but Nephi reminded them that the Lord knew what he was doing.

So it was that Nephi went alone to the house of Laban by night, taking a different route through the city than they had before, guided all along the way by the Spirit of God. As he approached the house of Laban, Nephi saw a man passed out drunk in the street, and as he drew closer, he saw it was Laban! The Spirit of the Lord directed Nephi to kill Laban, reminding him that Laban had tried to take away his life and the lives of his brothers; he was a thief and attempted murderer who was trying to keep the sacred records out of the hands of their rightful owners. By the laws of the time, Laban's life was forfeit if the Lord delivered him into the hands of his enemies, if those enemies had not waited in ambush or otherwise used treachery to gain an advantage.

Nephi followed the direction of the Spirit and slew Laban, whereupon he dressed himself in Laban's clothes, covered himself in Laban's armor and put Laban's sword at his side. Dressed this way, he entered Laban's house and, in the voice of Laban, commanded Zoram (one of Laban's servants) to get the plates of brass and accompany him outside the walls of the city. Zoram complied, but when Nephi came near his brothers, they thought it was Laban come to kill them, and they fled. Nephi called to them in his own voice, at which point they stopped and it was Zoram's turn to flee, having now realized that Nephi was not his master. Nephi caught hold of Zoram, though, and gave him an oath on his own life that Zoram could join them in the wilderness and avoid the destruction of Jerusalem. Zoram agreed, and the four brothers--plus a new friend--returned to their father's camp with the sacred plates of brass.

lilithu said:

These stories are great! Thanks so much PaintedWolf, ES, DS, and Peace (and C1 again) for sharing your stories with us.

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You're very welcome! I've been a member of story circles and storytelling guilds, and I love sharing stories and folklore with anyone, especially children. Thanks for the opportunity to share even more!

As I write, though, I find it hard to find a single story that encapsulates a lot of what we believe. I think you'll find it in the background, though, or through discussions.

That's another issue, though; how are you going to handle discussions? Have you considered having a member of the church in question on hand to field any questions the children have?

Many years ago, during the time of the Tâbi'în (the generation of Muslims after the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him), Baghdâd was a great city of Islam. In fact, it was the capital of the Islamic Empire and, because of the great number of scholars who lived there, it was the center of Islamic knowledge.

One day, the ruler of Rome at the time sent an envoy to Baghdad with three challenges for the Muslims. When the messenger reached the city, he informed the khalîfah (The Ruler of the Islamic Empire) that he had three questions which he challenged the Muslims to answer.

The khalîfah gathered together all the scholars of the city and the Roman messenger climbed upon a high platform and said, "I have come with three questions. If you answer them, then I will leave with you a great amount of wealth which I have brought from the king of Rome." As for the questions, they were:
"What was there before Allah?" "In which direction does Allah face?" "What is Allah engaged in at this moment?"
The great assembly of people were silent. (Can you think of answers to these questions?) In the midst of these brilliant scholars and students of Islam was a man looking on with his young son. "O my dear father! I will answer him and silence him!" said the youth. So the boy sought the permission of the khalîfah to give the answers and he was given the permission to do so.
The Roman addressed the young Muslim and repeated his first question, "What was there before Allah?" The boy asked, "Do you know how to count?" "Yes," said the man. "Then count down from ten!" So the Roman counted down, "ten, nine, eight, ..." until he reached "one" and he stopped counting "But what comes before 'one'?" asked the boy. "There is nothing before one- that is it!" said the man. "Well then, if there obviously is nothing before the arithmetic 'one', then how do you expect that there should be anything before the 'One' who is Absolute Truth, All-Eternal, Everlasting the First, the Last, the Manifest, the Hidden?"

Now the man was surprised by this direct answer which he could not dispute. So he asked, "Then tell me, in which direction is Allah facing?" "Bring a candle and light it," said the boy, "and tell me in which direction the flame is facing." "But the flame is just light- it spreads in each of the four directions, North, South, East and West. It does not face any one direction only," said the man in wonderment. The boy cried, "Then if this physical light spreads in all four directions such that you cannot tell me which way it faces, then what do you expect of the Nûr-us-Samâwâti-wal-'Ard: Allah - the Light of the Heavens and the Earth!? Light upon Light, Allah faces all directions at all times."

The Roman was stupefied and astounded that here was a young child answering his challenges in such a way that he could not argue against the proofs. So, he desperately wanted to try his final question. But before doing so, the boy said, "Wait! You are the one who is asking the questions and I am the one who is giving the answer to these challenges. It is only fair that you should come down to where I am standing and that I should go up where you are right now, in order that the answers may be heard as clearly as the questions."

This seemed reasonable to the Roman, so he came down from where he was standing and the boy ascended the platform. Then the man repeated his final challenge, "Tell me, what is Allah doing at this moment?" The boy proudly answered, "At this moment, when Allah found upon this high platform a liar and mocker of Islam, He caused him to descend and brought him low. And as for the one who believed in the Oneness of Allah, He raised him up and established the Truth. Every day He exercises (universal) power."

The Roman had nothing to say except to leave and return back to his country, defeated. Meanwhile, this young boy grew up to become one of the most famous scholars of Islam. Allah, the Exalted, blessed him with special wisdom and knowledge of religion . His name was Abu Hanîfah (May Allah have mercy on him) and he is known today as the Great Imam and scholar of Islam.