Islamic audio for long car journeys with children

Long drives come round more often than most of us plan for: a weekend at the grandparents', or Eid with family on the other side of the country. A few hours is a long time for a small child to sit still. Audio fills it better than most things, and it can be something that keeps them close to their deen on the way.

Get it downloaded before you go

A Yoto card doesn't hold the audio itself. It tells the player what to play, and the player needs Wi‑Fi to download it the first time. Once a card has downloaded, it plays from the player's own memory without Wi‑Fi, which is what you want on a long road with patchy signal.

So the night before, put each card you're taking into the player while it's on Wi‑Fi, let it play for a few seconds, and then leave the player on charge so it can finish. Our guide to setting up a new Yoto has the full steps, and where to check in the app that a download is done.

Choose for a long sit

A card that's perfect at home can run out after ten minutes in the car. For a long drive, bring a few, and mix the lengths, with songs for the youngest and longer stories for the older ones.

Stories with parts work well on the road, because there's always a next one. Islamic Bedtime Stories by Safar Productions tells the stories of Prophet Adam, Prophet Ibrahim and Prophet Nuh, peace be upon them, in eight parts, about 23 minutes in all. The name says bedtime, but short parts suit a car just as well.

Mufti Menk's Children Series is three short talks for young children, about reciting the Qur'an, asking Allah for what you want, and how little children can fast. Each is around six minutes. They're the kind of thing that sparks a question from the back seat, and a car is a good place to talk it through, since nobody is going anywhere.

Something to sing along to

At some point on most long drives, everyone needs a change. A nasheed the whole car knows can lift a flat hour. The Zain Bhikha Collection is three songs for young children, about 12 minutes together, and the kind that grown-ups end up singing too.

In another language

A long drive is a good time for a language your child hears less of at home. If your family speaks French, Histoires des 4 califes tells the stories of the first four caliphs in French and runs to over an hour, enough for a good part of a long trip. There's more on it in our French post, and everything we list in French is on our French page. For Urdu-speaking families, the Urdu Madrasa stories about Allah's names are on our Urdu page.

Everything here is checked against our standard and goes into your Yoto library in one tap, free. Pick a couple from everything we've checked for ages 3–6 and get them downloaded the night before you leave.