T
ariq had gone to play at the house of his classmate, Kashif. When
Kashif's mother called him downstairs for something, Tariq was
left alone in the bedroom. At that moment Kashif's dog came into the
room. It was such a lovable dog, and it was as though it was asking,
"Don't you want to play with me?"
"Hey, come on then, let's have a game," said Tariq, jumping to
his feet.
"Great, I'm very pleased!" said the dog, wagging its tail enthusi-
astically.
Tariq froze in astonishment. The dog was talking! This was an op-
portunity not to be missed. He began asking about the things he had
always wondered about dogs.
"I've always wanted to know," he began, "How do you chew
those hard bones we give you to eat?"
The dog smiled, revealing a row of sharp, white teeth. "Allah,
Who has given all living things their own individual characteristics,
has given us dogs different physical abilities from
other animals. For example, we have more
teeth than you do, 42 of them in fact, so
we can chew our food, especially
bones, very easily."
40
