101 Islamic Stories for Teens: Vol. III: Epic Tales of King David, Solomon, Queen of Sheba, Maryam & Jesus — Quran Stories of Power, Wisdom & Miracles for Muslim Youth & Young Adults

Power is the most dangerous thing God can give you.Volume III of 101 Islamic Stories for Teens is about what happens when the test changes. The first two volumes were about survival — creation, flood, exodus, the long walk through the desert. This volume is about kingship. About men who were given everything — armies, miracles, kingdoms that spanned the known world — and then had to answer a single question: Are you grateful, or are you entitled?David could bend iron with his bare hands. The mountains sang with him at dawn. A shepherd boy killed a giant and became a king. And then he fell — a woman on a rooftop, a husband sent to die, a prophet knocking on his door with a parable that was actually a mirror. This is the David your teenager has never heard about.Solomon commanded the wind. He spoke to birds. The jinn built his temples and forged his weapons. The Queen of Sheba traveled a thousand miles to sit in his court and left believing in his God. And at the height of his power, an ant in a valley warned her colony: Get into your homes, or Solomon and his armies will crush you without knowing. And Solomon — the most powerful man on earth — smiled at the ant's words and thanked God for making him notice the smallest creature in his path. That is what power is supposed to look like.What's inside:DAVID AND GOLIATH — But not the version you know. In the Quran, the army is led by Talut (Saul), and the test at the river is the centerpiece: Whoever drinks from it is not of me. Most of the army fails the test before they reach the battlefield. The giant is not the point. The discipline to refuse water when you're dying of thirst — that's the point.SOLOMON AND THE HOOPOE — A missing bird. A spy mission to Sheba. A queen who worships the sun. A letter that begins: In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate — do not be arrogant toward me, but come to me in submission. The hoopoe delivers it. The queen comes. The entire geopolitical drama of the ancient world, set in motion by a bird.SOLOMON'S DEATH — He dies leaning on his staff. The jinn keep working — building, forging, laboring — because they don't know he's dead. For months, his body stands upright, and the jinn toil on. Then a worm eats through the staff. It breaks. Solomon falls. The jinn realize: If we had known the unseen, we would not have stayed in humiliating punishment. Even the wisest man in history was exposed by a worm.MARYAM UNDER THE PALM TREE — A teenage girl, alone, giving birth. No midwife. No mother. No husband. The pain drives her to the trunk of a palm tree, and she says: Would that I had died before this and been forgotten. And a voice from beneath her — her newborn son — says: Do not grieve. Your Lord has made a stream beneath you. Shake the trunk of the palm tree. Fresh dates will fall. The most intimate moment in the Quran. A girl. A baby. A tree. God.AYYUB ON THE ASH HEAP — He lost his wealth. His children. His health. He sat on a pile of ash, scraping his skin with a potsherd, and his wife said: How long will you wait for God? And Ayyub said the words that have echoed through every hospital room and every graveyard and every dark night of the soul since: Harm has touched me. And You are the Most Merciful of the merciful. He did not ask why. He stated the fact and trusted the Healer. This is the highest form of faith.THE PEOPLE OF THE DITCH — Believers thrown into burning trenches. Their only crime: We believe in God. They did not recant. The fire consumed their bodies. The Quran memorialized them forever. What would your teenager die for? What are they living for? Read more