Lesson video

Hello, my name's Miss.

Rivers, and I'm looking forward to learning with you today.

I'm glad you chose this lesson.

We're going to have a good time working together, so let's get started.

Welcome to today's lesson.

The lesson is from the unit stories.

How do different people find deeper meanings? The lesson is called Muslim stories, the Ants.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to tell the story of the Prophet and the Ants and explain its meaning.

You might already know some stories with deeper meanings or hidden messages.

Today's learning is about an important story with a hidden message and the story is an important one for Muslims. Some of today's learning will be new for everyone, so we'll need to work really hard, but I'm here to help and we can all learn together.

The key words we'll be using in today's lesson are suffering.

That's a feeling of pain or unhappiness, companions, that's close friends and followers of the Prophet Muhammad and creature, an animal or other living being.

Some of these words might be new, so let's practise them together.

I'll say the word and you say it back to me.

Suffering, companions.

Creature.

We'll be using these words all through the lesson, so listen really carefully and see how many times you can spot them.

In the first part of the lesson, we'll be hearing the story of the Prophet and the Ants.

What is the story Of the Prophet and the Ants? What can you see happening in this picture? Can you see this boy feeding the goats? The goats are living creatures, they're animals and he's caring for them by feeding them and looking after them.

I wonder if you have any animals or pets that you feed and look after.

Laura and Jacob are talking about animals and how they care for them.

Laura says, I love animals.

I have a pet dog and two rabbits.

I make sure I feed them and care for them.

Jacob says, I don't have any animals to care for at home, but I like to watch the butterflies and bees buzzing around in my garden.

So both Laura and Jacob like to care for animals.

Nadia has a Muslim worldview.

She's been thinking about what Muslims believe about animals.

She says, many stories and sayings about animals can be found in the Hadith and the Quran.

Can you see that there's a picture of the Quran on this page, and you might know that the Hadith is the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad.

Muslims read words from the Quran and the Hadith to find out how they should live, and this includes how they treat animals.

You might know the Story of the Crying Camel, it's a story from the Hadith, and here is a picture that tells the story.

The story is all about the actions of the Prophet Muhammad when he saw a camel suffering in the heat, it didn't have any shade or water.

In the story, the Prophet Mohammed spoke kindly to the creature and made sure that the owner took better care of his camel.

And you can see in this picture, this is the camel's owner giving the camel a drink of water and looking after it properly.

Nadia is thinking about the story of the Prophet and the Ants, and she's thinking about how God wants her to treat even tiny creatures.

She says, I don't really like insects, but the story of the Prophet and the Ants reminds me that I should take care of the tiniest of Allah's creatures.

So here is the story of the Prophet and the Ants, get comfortable and be ready to listen and look at the pictures.

One day as the sun went down, the ants were marching home.

Their tiny legs were tired from a long day of collecting food, and they were looking forward to a good night's rest in their cosy nest.

But as they got closer to home, something strange happened.

Sniff, sniff said one little ant.

"Do you smell that?" Yes, said another, and look, big clouds of smoke.

The ants stopped in their tracks.

The air was getting hotter and hotter.

"Help, fire!" They shouted.

The clouds of smoke drifted closer and closer to their nest, and the flames were getting nearer.

The ants started to run as fast as their little legs could carry them.

Run to safety, cried the leader of the ants, don't stop, whatever happens.

As they scurried away, they heard a deep kind voice from above saying, "Stop, look what you have done.

You've built your fire too close to the ant's nest.

The poor little creatures will get hurt." It was the voice of the Prophet.

The ants looked up and saw him standing near the fire.

So here's a quick check to see if you've been listening carefully to the story.

This is a true or false question, so get your thumbs ready to show me true or false.

The Prophet did not notice the ants.

Is that true or false? That's right, it's false.

The Prophet did notice the ants.

He noticed them and he did not want them to suffer because of the fire.

Well done if you've got that question correct.

So let's carry on with the story.

The Prophet had been camping near to the ant's nest with some of his companions.

The companions had lit the fire to keep themselves warm.

The Prophet said, quickly put out the fire, the companions splashed water onto the flames.

(person whooshing) The fire hissed and sizzled until it was completely out, the ants were saved.

The ants all hurried back to their nest and went to bed.

They were so thankful, they felt safe because they knew that the Prophet was looking after them.

The Prophet spoke to his companions.

"Always remember", he said, "No matter how big or small a creature is, they are all important to Allah.

We must take care of every single one." So here's another question to see if you are listening carefully.

Which of these is the message that the Prophet gave to his companions? Is it A, only take care of big creatures.

Is it B, all creatures are important to God whether they are big or small? Or is it C, take extra care of small creatures.

Pause the video while you think about your answer.

That's right, the answer is B.

The Prophet said that all creatures are important to Allah.

That means God, whether they are big or small.

Well done if you got that answer right.

So now it is time for you to do some work and some thinking and some writing.

So here are some pictures from the story.

Have a look at them, can you see all the animals and the ants and the Prophet's companions? Your task is to put the pictures into the right order and then you need to write a caption for each one.

So think about what's happening in the story as you look at each picture.

So pause the video while you do your writing.

So here are the pictures in the correct order.

Did you get yours right? And I've put some captions on my pictures.

I've put number one, the fire was too near the ant's nest.

And on the second picture, I've put the Prophet told the companions to put the fire out.

And on the third picture I've said, the Prophet said that all creatures are important to God.

That's Allah.

I wonder if you had some ideas a bit like mine.

Maybe you use some different words.

Did you spot that I've used some key words in my work? I've used companions, that's the friends of the Prophet.

And I've used the word creatures that's living beings like animals large and small, well done for working hard.

In the second part of the lesson, we're going to be thinking about some of the deeper hidden meanings of the story.

What is the hidden meaning of the story? The Quran teaches Muslims that God Or Allah created everything.

And this includes animals, birds and insects.

And this picture has a reminder that there are large and small animals.

And the Quran teaches Muslims that they should care for all of them.

Muslims have a responsibility to care for everything because they believe that God or Allah created everything.

The story of the Prophet and the Ants has a deeper meaning, and it helps us to understand what Muslims believe about caring for God's creatures.

So here are some words from the Hadith about animals.

Do you remember that the hadith is the words of the Prophet Muhammad? Here are some important words from Muslims. All creatures are like children of God, and the kindest person is the one who treats God's creatures well.

And here are some more important words.

Whoever is kind to God's creatures is kind to himself.

So those words teach Muslims about how they should treat animals.

So here's a quick true or false.

So get your thumbs ready to show me true or false.

The Quran teaches that God, Allah created everything.

Is that true or false? Think about what Muslims believe.

That's right, it's true.

The Quran teaches Muslims that God created everything and that includes animals and birds and insects.

Izzy and Sofia are talking about those words from the Hadith that we saw earlier.

Izzy says, I think the Prophet wants Muslims to take care of animals because this will make life better for everyone.

And Sofia says, I think he means that Muslims should treat animals in the same way as they care for themselves by feeding them and keeping them warm.

What do you think about Izzy and Sofia's ideas? Pause the video for a moment and have another look at what they've said.

And if there's somebody near you, you might want to talk to them about these ideas.

So pause the video while you think.

Nadia is a Muslim and she has a Muslim worldview and she's been thinking about the deeper meaning of the story of the Prophet and the Ants.

She says the story of the Prophet and the Ants teaches me that the companions of the Prophet still had things to learn.

They did not take any notice of the ants when they lit the fire, but the Prophet noticed these tiny creatures.

So Nadia is learning from the Prophet's teachings about how Muslims should care for tiny creatures, but she's also thinking about the companions of the Prophet and how they had to learn from what the Prophet was teaching.

Maybe Nadia is thinking that she still has things to learn as she reads the Quran and the Hadith and thinks about how she lives as a Muslim.

Iqbal is a Muslim too and he has a Muslim worldview.

And he's also thinking about the deeper meaning of the story of the Prophet and the Ants.

And like Nadia, he's thinking about the companions of the Prophet and what they did and said.

He says, the companions did not think about how their actions affected others.

The story of the Prophet and the Ants reminds me to think before I act.

So can you see that Iqbal is basing his behaviour and what he learns from this story.

So here's another quick check.

Which of these is not a Muslim belief? Is it A, people should notice and care for small creatures? Is it B, people should think before they act? Or is it C, people should only care for themselves? Remember, you're looking for something that's not a Muslim belief.

So pause the video while you think about your answer.

That's right.

The answer is C, people should only care for themselves.

That's not a Muslim belief.

Muslims should care for others and for creatures, large and small.

Well done if you've got the answer right.

So here is our second task for this lesson.

Laura and Jacob are talking about Muslim beliefs.

Laura says, I don't like creepy crawlies.

If I see one, I ask my big sister to squash it.

Jacob says, I don't think a Muslim would think that is the right thing to do to a creature.

What do you think someone with a Muslim worldview might say to Laura? So think about what we've learned in this lesson.

Think about the story and the deeper meanings of the story and help Jacob to tell Laura what she needs to understand about Muslim beliefs.

Pause the video while you do your writing and I'll look forward to seeing your ideas later on.

So your task was to think about what a person with a Muslim worldview might say to Laura about how to treat tiny creatures.

Here are my ideas.

The Prophet said that all creatures are important to God, Allah.

That means we should care for small creatures as well as big ones.

It would be better to put creepy crawlies outside instead of squashing them.

What did you think of my ideas? I wonder if you had some similar ideas or maybe you used some different words.

Well done for working hard and for thinking carefully through the lesson.

So we've learned a lot in this lesson.

We've learned that the story of the Prophet and the Ants tells of how the insects were suffering because of a fire.

We've learned that the fire had been lit by the Prophet's companions.

We've learned that the Prophet told them that the ants were God's creatures and that they should be cared for, even though they were so tiny.

And we've learned that many Muslims interpret the hidden meaning of the story to understand that they should care for all living creatures, whether they are large or small.

So well done for working so hard in this lesson.

I've enjoyed working with you, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.