Why we make these books

The moments we want to share

These books began as moments we wanted to share with our own children — and to talk about together afterwards. A word said before eating. A coin dropped into the sadaqah box. A deep breath when the tower falls, again. In every Rayan story, the value isn’t a lesson pasted on top; it lives inside one small, real moment from a child’s day — the kind of moment a parent can point to at breakfast the next morning.

A habit that grows up with them

One of us only became a reader as a grown-up — recently — and it changed everything. We don’t want our children to wait that long for that gift. A child who is read to every night starts life as a reader: the habit planted at three years old is still growing at thirteen, and it carries everything else with it. So these books are built for the nightly lap — short enough for tired parents, sturdy enough for small hands, and warm enough to be asked for again. And again.

The lap-time moment a screen can’t give

Let us be clear first: the videos are good. A child can watch how to pray on a tablet, and those animations teach real things — we use them, and we’re grateful for them. But there is a different thing that happens when you sit with your child and read a book about praying — or about anything — together.

The questions come to you. The explaining is done in your voice, at your child’s pace, with your arms around them. The teaching happens inside the bonding moment — and at the very same time, quietly, a reading habit is being built. Screens have their place; so does this. It’s not one instead of the other. It’s mixing it up — going back to basics, on purpose.

A page for grown-ups, too

Every Mama & Baba book ends with a short page written for you: the value tucked inside the story, and one small way to live it with your child that week. Because the stories don’t really end at the last page — they end at the sink, the prayer mat, and the block corner, where you are.