With the foundation of Asadullah being the title of Imam Ali (AS), we decided to stick with the theme of a lion, but I wanted to introduce a few more titles of Imam Ali (AS), especially since he is often referred to by various titles.
I started with a template of a lion, and because my daughter is currently obsessed with watercolors, I gave her all the pages to paint. I requested for her to stick to lion-ish colors, but four year olds have a creative mind of their own. Hence the pinks and the purples 🙂
We then cut out each piece of the lion, and assembled it to look lion-like, and glued all the pieces together. (see picture below)
After the lion was assembled, I asked my daughter to write the name of Imam Ali (AS) on the lion’s face. Then I took over the writing, since space was limited. I wrote the title “Asadullah” on one portion of the lion’s mane. Then I mentioned our discussion of the many titles of Bibi Fatemah (SA), and said that Imam Ali (AS) also has a lot of titles.
We listed each title on one portion of the mane of the lion, and wrote its meaning as well.
We went into a VERY basic discussion of each title, because I could tell my kid wasn’t really ready for it. If your kid is ready for a deeper discussion, then this would be a good time for that. You can use fewer titles or different titles. Older kids can even be challenged to come up with titles on their own.
This is what our final lion looked like.
(I know that my daughter won’t remember half of the titles, but she will know that they exist, and as this lion hangs on her wall, she will become familiar with a few more titles as she looks at it day after day.)
We really enjoyed having a theme for all of the activities for Imam Ali (AS) this year! This is our last lion-themed post. You can find our previous lion-themed activities HERE and HERE.
You can download the lion template in the Teaching Young Muslims Resource Library! Enter your name and email address here to receive the password to access these downloads.
Already signed up? Enter the library HERE. Once you enter the library, click on “Rajab” and scroll down to “Titles of Imam Ali Template” and choose which size paper you want.