So, I chatted to four of my grade one kids about Islam the other day. They come from Pakistan, Indonesia and the UAE. Here are some of the bits of information and insight they gave me.

Ibrahim, Umer, Ahmed and Huzaifa, who taught me about Allah.

They love Allah, a lot.

Allah lives in a star in the sky, and he can see the whole world.

He watches all of us and he knows when we tell lies or say bad words about our Moms and Dads.

Isn’t he busy watching everyone all the time? No, because Allah is strong.

If Allah wanted to he could come down and box you in the face right NOW.

If you are very good and you do what Allah says in the Koran, Allah will give you any-any-anything you want, you can wish for anything.

Shaitan (Satan?) lives in the fire. He used to be very, very good, but then he didn’t do what Allah said so Allah put him in the fire. (not unlike Lucifer)

Sometimes, Shaitan comes into our heads and tells us to do bad things.

They exchanged looks of shock when they asked me if I am Muslima and I said no. My favourite boy, Ibrahim then told me I am going to go to the fire because I am not Muslim, but luckily for my mortal soul, he took it back a few minutes later saying “It’s okay, miss. You are good. I think Allah not put you in the fire because you are good”

Is Allah a boy or a girl? I got a couple of different answers here. Two of the boys felt very strongly that Allah is definitely a boy, but the other two reckoned Allah can do whatever he wants, and he can be a boy or a girl, depending on what kind of mood he’s in, I presume.

Out of the mouths of babes.