The little lie that grew

The story

On a rainy afternoon Yusuf kicks his ball indoors and breaks Mama's flower pot. Noor the cat is asleep in her basket, so Yusuf says Noor did it, and every question makes the lie grow: a butterfly came in, Noor chased it, Noor jumped, and, says little Raiha, Noor flew. Noor, who cannot speak, keeps pushing the ball to everyone's feet. In the garden Baba is pulling weeds: a little weed does not stay little, and neither does a little lie. Yusuf tells the truth, says sorry to Mama and to Noor, the ball stays outside from now on, and Noor gets her milk. Then Raiha, Yusuf and Baba each practise telling the truth straight away.

What your child learned

• The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, told us: Alaikum bis-sidq, hold on to the truth, because the truth leads to goodness and goodness leads to Jannah, Paradise.
• One little lie needs another little lie to hold it up, and another, until it is bigger than you. Like a weed in the garden, the sooner it comes out the smaller it is.
• The truth is scary for one minute; a lie is heavy for days and days. When we break something we tell the truth straight away and say sorry, to the person and to anyone we blamed.
• Grown-ups hold on to the truth too: Baba forgot the milk and said so at once.

Talk about it at dinner

• What happened each time Yusuf tried to make his little lie sound true?
• Why did Baba say a lie is like a little weed?
• What did Raiha almost say about the last biscuit, and what did she say instead?

Try this week

This week, catch the small moments: when something breaks or spills, say what happened straight away, then fix it together. Praise the telling, not the thing that broke, the way Mama thanked Yusuf for the truth before she talked about the pot.

Where it comes from

The teaching in this episode rests on these sources. The links open quran.com and sunnah.com, where you can read each one in Arabic and English.

• Hold on to the truth, for truth leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise: Sahih Muslim 2607c (the episode's phrase and lesson)
• The same teaching, truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise: Sahih al-Bukhari 6094
• Be mindful of Allah and be with the truthful: Quran 9:119
• Left for when the children are older: the second half of the hadith, that lying leads to wickedness and wickedness leads to the Fire (Sahih Muslim 2607c)

In this episode

1. 0:00 The crash
2. 0:38 Noor did it?
3. 1:16 Maryam comes home
4. 2:10 The little weed
5. 3:29 The truth
6. 4:16 Say it with me
7. 4:55 The last biscuit
8. 5:14 The teeth
9. 5:31 Baba forgot the milk
10. 5:54 The Hold On to the Truth song
11. 6:26 Quiz
12. 7:08 Sing along

From the same episode

• The Hold On to the Truth Song, the song on its own with the words on screen (from Sunday 29 November).

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