little ummah cardsIslamic stories in French for children: the four caliphs
A French audio series on Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali for young children, and how to make it part of a French-speaking home's week.
Most Islamic audio for children is in English or Arabic, and for French-speaking families that leaves a gap. A child growing up in French hears about their faith in a second language, or a parent ends up translating at bedtime. For a family abroad trying to keep French going, it's one more part of the day that only happens in English.
The four caliphs, told in French
Histoires des 4 califes is a series narrated by Sheikh Éric Younous about the first four caliphs of Islam: Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, may Allah be pleased with them. There are seven tracks, two each for the first three and one longer one for Ali, and together they run to about an hour and a quarter. It's the first collection we've listed in French, and the first under seerah and Companions. We've checked it against our standard, and it goes into your Yoto library in one tap, free.
The tracks run from eight to nineteen minutes each. That's long for a toddler, even though it's listed from the youngest age band, so with a two- or three-year-old you might play one part and stop. Each caliph's story is already split into parts, which makes one part a night a natural way through it.
Why the Companions make a good start
The four caliphs come up again and again as a child gets older: in the seerah, in Friday khutbahs, in the stories grandparents tell. Meeting them early, as people with names and lives, means those later stories are about someone the child already knows. Our guide to where to start with seerah makes the same case for the Prophet's own life, peace be upon him: begin with people and moments a child can picture, and let the timeline come later.
They're also stories about people who weren't prophets. A child can admire a prophet, but a Companion's story shows what it looked like for someone else to follow him, which is a little closer to what we ask of children ourselves.
Fitting it into the week
Once it's in your library, link it to a blank Make Your Own card and give the card something your child will recognise, a sticker or a drawing, so they can find it without asking. Car journeys suit it well, and so does the quiet half hour before bed. If you play the parts in order, each caliph's story holds together better, so it's worth checking the track list before you start.
Everything we list in French is on our French page. There's one pack so far, and if you know a vocals-only French card we're missing, tell us about it.
