"Allah Almighty was very angry with them for their vicious plans, so while they were sleeping, a fire was sent to the land. The fire burnt ablaze all the trees and turned the soil into a black rocky land that can no longer be plowed."
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The Three Sons and the Orchard by May Alaseel Trafford Publishing
book review by P. Hooper
The three sons of a wealthy man learn a very painful and valuable lesson in this rendition of a story from the hadiths or accounts of the prophet Mohammed, along with verses from the Quran. The wealthy man is well-respected among the people of his village, but his sons are greedy and selfish. One day, the man decides to share the abundant and delicious fruit from his orchard with the poor in his village. Though the branches are full of fruit, the sons do not want to share any of it. One-third of the fruit was to go to the sons, one-third to the poor, and the other third was to be sold, and the proceeds would be invested in the land. The sons were furious with this plan.
After their father dies unexpectedly, the sons make a plan to sell the orchard after having plucked the trees of all their fruit. They were determined that the poor villagers would receive none of the fruit. Allah was angry with the sons and decided to punish them by causing a fire to burn all the lands. When the sons discovered what Allah had done, they were filled with remorse for their greed and selfishness. After repenting wholeheartedly for many days, Allah rewarded them with an even better orchard. Alaseel's children’s book is easy to read and enjoyable. The illustrations that accompany the story are vivid and will entice children to listen to this tale.