Title: Untitled Story
Artist: Participant F (Girl, Age 14)
Year: 2025
Transcribed story
Title: Islam and Environment
One day, the same as every day, I walk past the waterfall. It's past a beautiful yard of flowers and trees grown up in nature. The water is older than me and so are the trees. Somehow the water still looks fresh, and the leaves are still bright. Each element plays a roll in the everyday life, providing a purpose to the world. Even if you don't know what it is. It was made by the All-Knowing for a reason.
For example, the ant. It’s living on the trees, eating the leaves and drinking water from the puddles. I walk past the ants on my way but they still get in my way. It’s annoying but instead of stepping on them. I wait for them to move. Because they are just like us, except they are a different size, and a different shape. The ants were made by Allah with a purpose like us, they worship Allah like us. Then who are we to kill such a little being made to worship Allah just like we do?
Curatorial Note:
This piece was created by Participant F, a 14-year-old girl based in the UK, during an individual Story Design Workshop conducted as part of the Sufi Storytelling Project at the University of Edinburgh.
The young storyteller described what she wished to narrate:
Participant F: “I guess, don't kill, but maybe just because it's like, I remember, I heard once it's like not good to kill them, because they also worship Allah and they also all do their own type of worship to the same God. So, it's not good to kill them.”
Researcher: “Can you tell me how you have engaged with the concept of imaginal there?”
Participant F: “I guess. Talking about an ant. I don't really know how I did. I don't walk past. I think, it's, like I said that I walk past the waterfall, but I don't do that, like I don't walk past the waterfall every day. So it's just like an example to, I don't know, to make it seem more realistic. I don't know how else like. Like I talk about the. I tried to make the ants seem more realistic by saying how it eats. I don't know if that's about it's imaginal, though. It's like, to make you feel more connected to the ant. So you think, you feel like it's more of a person than just “Oh, it's an ant.””
Themes:
Environment, Islam, Purpose, Worship
Citation:
Participant F. (2025) Islam and Environment. In: Digital Museum of Sufi Stories and Art by Children and Families (curated by H.E. Üzümcü). University of Edinburgh. DataShare Repository. https://doi.org/10.7488/ds/8177
Copyright & Licence Statement:
© 2025 Participant F. This work is published in anonymised form with the consent of the participant and her caregiver as part of the Digital Museum of Sufi Stories and Art by Children and Families, University of Edinburgh. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) licence. You may share and adapt this work for non-commercial purposes, provided appropriate attribution is given.
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