8
O
ne day, Amar was reading one of his favorite stories, "The Hare
and the Tortoise." He laughed at what happened to the hare and
learned from the tortoise how important it is to use one's head and that
cleverness is more than a match for physical superiority. While he was
thinking about these things, he suddenly realized that the tortoise in the
book had come alive on the page and had started talking to him:
The tortoise began by saying: "Hi Amar! It's great that you are so
young and clever enough to learn a lesson from the story about the hare
and me."
Amar asked "How old are you?"
The tortoise replied: "I'm not as young as I look; I am actually 45 years
old. Tortoises live for about 60 years; and there's even one kind of tor-
toise called the 'Testudo' that can live as long as 189 years."
"What's your favorite season?" asked Amar.
The tortoise replied: "Warm weather is very important for our survival.
Our body temperature changes with the temperature of the air around
us and is usually between 32.2 and 32.4 Fahrenheit (0.1 and 0.2 de-
grees Celcius) lower than that of the air. Our digestive system speeds up
as the temperature becomes hotter. When Allah created us, He
