Aisha Remembers Bismillah

A story to learn good manners: Aisha is a little girl in our story, and she is VERY hungry.

Aisha ran into the kitchen. Something smelled delicious! Nani was putting a big plate of rice and a bowl of warm lentils on the table. “I am so hungry!” said Aisha. She grabbed a spoon with her left hand and reached across the table for the biggest piece of bread.

Nani smiled gently. “Wait a moment, my little star. Did we forget something?” Aisha stopped. Her spoon stayed in the air. Nani sat down next to her. “Let me tell you something that the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) taught a boy called Umar, who was growing up in the Prophet’s care.

Umar was eating with the Prophet, and his hand was going all over the plate. The Prophet said to him, kindly: ‘Young boy, say Bismillah, eat with your right hand, and eat from what is in front of you.’ And Umar said that he always ate like that, for the rest of his life.”

Aisha put down her spoon. Then she picked it up again, with her right hand this time. “Bismillah!” she said, and she smiled. She took the bread that was right in front of her, not the one on the other side of the table.

“But Nani,” said Aisha, “what if I forget to say Bismillah at the start?” “Then when you remember, you say: Bismillahi awwalahu wa akhirahu. It means, in the name of Allah, at the beginning and at the end.” Aisha practised it three times, until she could say it all by herself. Then she ate her rice and lentils slowly, one spoonful at a time, and it tasted even better than it smelled.

That evening, her little brother Zayd ran to the table and grabbed a date. Aisha giggled. “Zayd! Did we forget something?” Zayd said Bismillah, and everyone at the table smiled. “Alhamdulillah,” said Nani. “Now our table is full of good manners.”