How Do I Get Kids to Create Art or Stories About Sunnah Foods? 

Parenting Perspective 

Creative activities such as drawing, painting, and storytelling are remarkable tools for a child’s Islamic upbringing (tarbiyah). They allow children to internalise abstract concepts and develop a deeper connection to their faith. By linking the arts to the topic of Sunnah foods, parents can guide their children to engage their imagination and emotional intelligence, ensuring that knowledge is not merely memorised but is deeply felt and appreciated.  

Sparking Reflection Through Art 

Art provides a wonderful medium for children to contemplate the beauty of what Allah has created. You can encourage this by setting up simple, focused art projects. Provide your child with paints, crayons, or modelling clay and assign a specific Sunnah food, such as figs, olives, or pomegranates, asking them to capture its unique beauty. To deepen the lesson, you can explain the high status of that food in Islam. For instance, while they draw a fig or an olive, you can share that Allah Almighty swore an oath by them in the Quran, which shows their immense significance. This transforms the act of drawing into an expression of reverence for a blessed creation. 

Weaving Stories from Sacred Sources 

Storytelling is a powerful way for children to explore the journey and purpose behind Sunnah foods. Encourage your child to write a short story or create a comic strip about the life of a particular food. They could imagine the story of a busy bee making honey, explaining how Allah inspired it to find flowers and create a liquid with healing inside it. This narrative approach helps a child to reflect upon the Divine inspiration mentioned in the Quran and the miraculous nature of these provisions. Another excellent activity is creating a ‘Sunnah Food Journal’, where a child dedicates each page to a different food, including a small drawing and a simple fact or benefit learned from the Hadith, such as the olive coming from a blessed tree that provides barakah. 

Spiritual Insight 

In the Islamic tradition, creative expression can be a profound form of worship (ibadah) when it is rooted in contemplation and celebrates the perfection of the Creator’s work. When a child’s art is dedicated to reflecting on the signs of Allah, it becomes a pure and beautiful expression of faith and gratitude.  

The Quran itself commands us to engage in this very act of observation, urging mankind to look closely at the food we so often take for granted. 

Allah Almighty states in the noble Quran at Surah Abasa (80), Verses 24-32: 

‘Then let mankind observe (empirically at the processes in) the production of His nourishment; how We (Allah Almighty) infuse water (inside and outside of the nourishment) in abundance. Then cultivate the Earth (with flora) with optimum cultivation. Then We caused to grow within it grain, and grapes and vegetation, and olive trees and palm trees, and forests dense with foliage, and fruits and herbage, providing (sustenance) for you and your grazing livestock.’ 

This powerful passage transforms a creative project from a simple craft into a direct response to a divine command. The instruction to ‘look at his food’ is an invitation to witness the entire miracle of sustenance, from the rain falling from the sky to the splitting of the earth and the emergence of life. When a child draws a palm tree or paints a grapevine, they are participating in this act of looking.  

Furthermore, the act of making beautiful art with the intention of celebrating Allah’s blessings is an act that is itself beloved by Him, as it reflects one of His own divine attributes. 

It is recorded in Riyadh Al Saliheen, Hadith 611, that the holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said: 

‘Indeed, Allah is beautiful and loves beauty.’ 

This Hadith elevates the act of creativity to a noble spiritual pursuit. Creating a beautiful drawing, a well-written story, or a colourful poster about Sunnah foods, when done with the intention of expressing gratitude, becomes a way of beautifying one’s own deeds. It is an active celebration of the beauty inherent in Islam and in the world Allah has created. It teaches a child that their effort to create something aesthetically pleasing is a reflection of their love for a Creator who is the source of all beauty.