Kashif and the Honey-Loving Bear

The same way he did every morning before going to school, Kashif sat down at the table for breakfast. While his mother was making the tea, Kashif's eye was caught by a picture of a bear on the honey jar. While his mother was busy, the bear in the picture winked at Kashif and spoke to him.

"Hello, Kashif! I reckon you must love honey as much as we bears do..."

"Yes," agreed Kashif. "My mother never forgets the honey at breakfast. But ours comes from jars from the supermarket. Where do you find yours from ?"

The bear wrinkled its nose before answering, "Our Lord, Who meets the needs of all living things in the best possible way, gave us bears long noses which are very sensitive to smell, and that allows us to find food easily."

Kashif, who had once been stung by a bee, was intrigued, "When you find a hive with honey in it, how do you get it out?" he wondered.

This time the bear held up a paw for Kashif to see. "When we find a hive we give it a couple of sharp knocks with our paws to chase all the bees away, and then we enjoy eating the honey inside. But whatever you do, don't try the same thing, or the bees will sting you everywhere and make you very, very ill. Thanks to our Allah, we bears are protected from their stings by our thick fur."

Kashif promised he would not: "There's something else I've been wondering about. Don't you bears ever get hungry during your winter sleep?" he asked.

The bear nodded its furry head: "Before we go to sleep for the winter we eat plenty of food. To build up the fat layer under our skin we eat lots of beech nuts and chestnuts. That way we store fat in our bodies, because we lose most of our weight by the time we come out of our shelters in the spring. But we survive even though we lose most of our body weight. Of course we couldn't think of storing fat in our bodies before going to sleep by ourselves. Our eating plenty before sleeping is inspired in us by Almighty Allah."

"I see now," said Kashif, "that every living thing on the face of the earth is proof of Allah's supreme creation. Thank you for reminding me of that, my friend..." The bear nodded in agreement.

Kashif was then startled by his mother's voice telling him breakfast was ready. While he was enjoying his honey he thought about the bear and was grateful to Allah, the infinitely compassionate, Who has created bears so perfectly.