Page 69 - Stories for Thinking Children 2

her amazement, the ball slowly unrolled and
spoke:

"You're right, Aisha," it said. "I am a porcu-
pine and I could have hurt you with my spikes

even without wanting to."
"There's a porcupine here!" exclaimed Aisha hap-
pily. "Why is your body covered with sharp spikes like

that?"

"Allah gave me these spikes to protect myself from my
enemies" explained the porcupine. "When I'm in danger I
roll up like a ball and the spikes protect me."

"I know some animals go to sleep during the winter. Do
you?" she asked her new friend.

The porcupine nodded. "I can't say I like cold weather
very much. As soon as the winter temperature drops
below 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius) I go to
sleep. Almighty Allah keeps me asleep throughout the win-
ter and wakes me up when spring comes. It would be im-
possible for me to think for myself that winter conditions
would be so severe that it would be better for me to
sleep for a while to stay alive. In the Quran Allah says

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