Who is Allah for kids

‘Who is Allah?’ a kid asks. How can you begin to answer such a seemingly simple yet complex question? Before we begin, Primary ilm has lots of resources that can help you teach your students or kids about Allah as we aim to make teaching Islam easy, accessible and fun.

Explaining the answer to an adult when they ask ‘who is Allah?’ can be answered by referring to Surah Ikhlaas and telling them to study the 99 names of Allah. But with kids, the answer needs to be simplified to some degree depending on their age.

This is how I would go about doing it:

Who is Allah? Our Creator and Sustainer

Allah created you and everything around you

First children need to be told about how they were created by Allah. Kids should be told that Allah created the heavens, the Earth, the trees, mountains, rivers, oceans and flowers. 

Explain that these things just didn’t just appear out of nowhere. Give them an example of their toy- did it magically appear? Or did mummy or daddy buy it? Who made it? Explain that everything is made by someone and Allah made that person and Allah made mum and dad too!

Some kids might ask ‘who made Allah?’ and the answer to that is no one, he was there from the start and he will always be there. That’s what is so amazing about Allah as unlike everything else, no one made him!

These colouring pages are a perfect way to carry on the conversation about Allah with little kids. This is a Primary Ilm membership resource only which means you need to sign up to gain access.

Who is Allah? A loving and compassionate God

Allah loves you more than anyone else

This point needs to be drilled into children. Children will gravitate towards those that love them and will be more likely to listen to those who love them. This means that if you introduce Allah as a loving and compassionate God instead of an angry and formidable one, they will follow the commands as laid down by him.

Unfortunately, many children, when they are doing something naughty are told: ‘don’t do that! or Allah will be angry’ etc. This gives kids the totally wrong first impression of Allah and first impressions tend to stay with us for a long time. Instill a love for Allah in their hearts by praising him, pointing out his creation and reciting Quran aloud. What better way to know and love someone than to listen to their words and what better words are there than the Quran? You should also tell them the following hadith in which the Prophet said that Allah is more merciful (and therefore loving) to us than a mother is to her child (Bukhari).

Allah is powerful and amazing

Why are superhero movies so popular with children and adults? Part of the reason is that they possess amazing powers and use these powers for the good of people. 

What about Allah’s actual powers? Allah can:

• Keep billions of humans and trillions of animals alive every day
• Provide enough food and water for all the billions and trillions of humans and animals
• Keep the Earth safe from meteors and solar flares
• Build billions of planets and stars

Some older children might ask ‘why do terrible things happen though if Allah is looking after everyone?’ Well that’s a complex question that young children will generally not ask but if they do, tell them that just because sometimes things might LOOK terrible to you, doesn’t mean there is no good in it. Also everyone goes through tough times in their life (no one lives a trouble free life). But Muslims believe that those terrible things that happen to us will:

• Make you a tougher person (all heroes and famous people have almost always gone through trials in their life that have made them into successful or influential people)
• Make you turn to Allah and do dua. Turning to Allah will definitely make your life better and make you a better human and a better Muslim.
• Make us feel more compassion for others. When we go through a certain trial in our life, it might knock us down but when we come out the other end, we can empathise with others who are having similar problems and we can also give them advice.

Get to know him properly through Surah Ikhlas and his 99 names

When answering the question ‘Who is Allah?,’ kids should also be told the meaning and basic tafseer of surah ikhlaas. At primary ilm, we have created a downloadable activity pack for kids based around Surah Ikhlaas. Simply sign up to our membership to gain access to this along with hundreds of other Islamic worksheets and activities.