The Muslim Bookstagram Award

On the 14th January 2022, The World is Your Masjid was awarded the Muslim Bookstagram Award for Best Early Picture Book. This really was a huge honour and to this day I am still a little speechless that they chose my little book. I never win anything!

Four book reviewers on Instagram (each obsessed with books and each with their own large following) came together to set up the Muslim Book Reviewers, with the aim of raising the standard of Muslim literature and highlighting the best books each year with the Muslim Bookstagram Awards. They also offer a beta reading service prior to publication to help authors and self publishers ensure that their books are ready and in the best shape possible.

I really had so much fun creating this book. I quickly got in to my stride with the illustrations and enjoyed spending time on each one of them. I had so many silly ideas about where I could place the children to show where not to pray, for example…

Don’t pray near the road,

Or pray on the stairs.

Don’t pray in a cave,

Full of hungry bears.

As you can see the possibilities were many and became increasingly ridiculous. Ultimately, I had to stick to the point of the book, which was the Hadith. So, whilst it would have been fun to depict children fighting off bears, Islamically, there is no prohibition to praying in a cave full of bears. One has to stick to the facts!

The first print run of this book sold out in just a few weeks, alhumdulillah. I am now in the process of getting a second run printed, which should be available February/March.