The art of telling stories goes back to ancient times. Humans have always been using this technique to connect with each other, to understand each other, and to express themselves in ways that are more influential than mere telling facts and figures related to different topics. In the pre-Islamic culture, this art was used as one of the main ways to educate people. To understand the importance of telling stories, let’s first understand what are stories? And how do they impact the human brain?
What is a story?
Stories are a way to connect to the world we live in and with the people who were/are a part of it. Stories give us insight into other people’s lives, their situations, and their perception of seeing and dealing with these situations. Stories are accounts of real or imagined events that can ignite ideas and tell the listener how to respond to a certain situation. They also have a strong emotional, physical, and mental effect on the listeners. But why is it so? By nature, humans are designed to learn from experiences of their own and those of others. They love to help each other in difficult situations and show empathy and care when needed. Stories not only provide a ground to learn from others’ lives but also increase empathy which in turn reinforces compassion and kindness.
Impact on the human brain:
Our brains love to understand the world and those around us and hence stories have a great impact on it. In addition to this, the human brain is a pattern recognition system that wires information with emotions in a much stronger bond. Such information can be easily recovered and most likely by a human to act upon. Further, stories connect the left and right hemispheres of the human brain. How so? The left side of the human brain needs words, facts, and figures and the right needs images and imaginations and it is more creative and intuitive. Stories exactly provide all of this stuff. They give the listener words that get stored in the left brain and images that stimulate the right brain. The brain then connects these words and images with already existing information creating more neural activity. Lastly, stories make us emotional. They connect us to the characters in it. They trigger emotions that emphasize to our brain that whatever we are listing to is important. As a result, it pays more attention to it and a person will likely act on such information when there is a need of doing so.
Physical impact:
Stories also impact us physically. Our body realizes a hormone called oxytocin, generally referred to as ‘love hormone’, when feeling good, empathetic, or empowered. This gets us close to the character of the story and we can relate to their experiences. In such a situation, our brain makes mirror neurons which are the exact sense of feeling as that of the character in the story. These feelings are then mapped onto our neuro-system, for example: feeling afraid or anxious when we listen that the character is in danger or feeling happy when the character gets a good reward.
“The stories we tell literally make the world. If you want to change the world, you need to change your story.” — Michael Margolis
A word of caution:
After knowing the amazing effects that stories can do on us a word of caution here is that every story has some kind of impact. So we need to make sure the stories we read or listen to are worth making a positive impact. A story that has negative morals or is limiting a human capability in some way will only make one go down in character rather than build a good one. Such stories trigger a cascade of stress hormones that put a person in a state of fear or holding back from improvement. They also might limit our potential or affirm our negative beliefs for example something good is impossible to happen.
Characteristics of a good story:
- A moral
- Captivating
- Relatable
- High-quality language.
- Affirms or challenges our beliefs or assumptions
- Increase us in character
- Something that makes us willing to improve ourselves and enhance our potential and abilities.
Characteristics of Quranic Stories:
- The highest form of literature and excellent language.
- They increase our belief in good and affirm that evil has a bad ending.
- They promise a good reward for those on Allah’s path.
- They are about people who are excellent in conduct and character.
- They are real and relatable
- They encourage us to strive and struggle for good
- They help us stay strong in difficult times.
- They are loaded with emotions of love, empathy, care, steadfastness, sacrifice for others, and a strong belief in truth and justice.
The Quranic stories are excellent in building one’s character. They bring the word of god are the most highly effective tool to shape a human mind to choose good over bad. Children love to hear stories because of the cohesive nature of the story in which information is not mere facts or rules instead it is a narrative that combines the information with emotions and imagination. This gives the little ones a broader picture of what is being taught to them. Before you decide to tell a story to your child, there is just one thing you should keep in mind: what stories are best for which age group?
Children under the age of 5:
These children are mostly in a subconscious state of mind this is why one has no memory of this phase once he/she grows up and enters a conscious state of mind. The information one gets during this phase is stored in the subconscious memory of a child. when we tell children under the age of 3 how much Allah loves us, how much he has provided u, how much he helps us in a simple yet effective way it is very likely that this child will carry this information forever. Hence, this will always have an indirect effect on his character, although he might not realize it.
The best quranic stories for this age group would be:
- Stories of babies (as this age group loves to listen about babies): for example the story of baby Musa and how he landed up in the palace of the pharaoh and finally was able to get back his mother.
- Story of ant and prophet Sulaiman (PBUH).
- Stories build around nature: that is how Allah provides us food for made creations.
What they learn from these:
- Tawakkal: trust that Allah will help when needed i.e. showing Allah as Nasir, ex: the story of well of Zamzam for ba
- Taqwa: to stop from doing bad and caring for others, for ex: the story of ants
- Tawheed: stories around nature showing Allah as Rab, as Khaliq
Children above the age of 3 and below seven:
Children at around the age of four start to develop their sense of imagination. They also develop the ability to put themselves in others’ shoes and empathize with these people.
The best quranic stories for this age group would be:
- The elephant and Abraha
- The stories of the prophets
- The life cycle of water, reflection on the creation of the world and also rain and vegetation
- Story of habit and qabil
- Story of queen saba
What they learn from these:
- Tawakkal: trust that Allah will help when needed i.e. showing Allah as Nasir, ex: the story of Abraha, the story of Prophet Ibrahim(PBUH), and Prophet Ismail(PBUH)
- Taqwa: to stop from doing bad for ex: habil and qabil.
- Tawheed: stories around Tawheed ibadah like for ex: Ibrahim (PBUH) and his stand against idol worship, Tawheed ruboobiah like for ex: the creation of the world, lifecycle of water. Tawheed e Asma wa sifat: for example Allah being Kadar when he makes birds fly, or qahar when he sends azab on a tribe who did not listen to the prophet sent to them.
Children Above Seven:
From here on the age of tarbeeyah kind of begins. In addition to the above stories, one must now tell all the Quranic stories to this age group. This will help them develop good character and take the positive figures in the stories as role models for a lifetime. Ex:
- The story of Mariyam (PBUH) and Yousuf (PBUH) for being chaste and modest,
- The story of the people of the cave is strong and focused,
- The story of Moses and Kizer: the journey to seek knowledge and etiquettes of it.
- The story of people of the garden for not being grateful. etc
- The story of Prophet Nuh (PBUH), well-known for his unwavering faith and determination.
To raise children who are real friends of Allah we need to work on them since their childhood. What better way to guide than the Quran itself?
