Hamza was late for his Sunday school class at the masjid one morning. He arrived at the door, and said, ‘Asif’ (sorry) to his teacher, and sat down with the other boys. The teacher was telling the story of the Prophet Sulaiman (alaihi salaam). Hamza’s teacher was at the part where Prophet Sulaiman (AS) and his army paused for some ants, careful not to step on them on their way by. Hamza smiled. Imagine, he thought to himself, a big army stopping for ants. SubhanAllah, the Prophets of Allah were so merciful to all of Allah’s creatures. When his Sunday class was finished, Hamza and the other boys prayed salatul Duhur with the men, and Hamza left and started walking home. On his way by the park, he noticed something that made him very angry. Some boys were throwing rocks at the seagulls, as the birds tried to pick up bread from the ground. Hamza walked quickly towards the boys, and yelled at them to stop. Each of the boys turned to look at Hamza, and then kept picking up rocks to throw. “Leave those birds alone! Can’t you think of anything else to do?” he said to them. One of the boys started laughing at Hamza. “Oh, look, it’s Nature Boy. Friend to the animals. Isn’t your name Tarzan?” he asked Hamza with a crooked smile. The other boys kept throwing rocks. One rock hit a seagull’s wing and it squawked. Hamza was getting more and more angry. None of the boys stopped bothering the birds. “These are Allah’s creatures. What’s wrong with you guys?” Hamza pleaded. “Only a girl would make this much problem over animals. You must have only sisters or something.” another boy teased. “Do you think the Prophets of Allah were sissy?” Hamza asked. The boys stopped. “Of course not. They led armies, and were strong men.” the biggest boy answered. His arm was ready to throw, but he held his stone in his hand. “Yeah, they didn’t run around begging kids to stop having fun with some pesky birds.” another boy answered. Hamza recognized one boy from his class at the masjid. “You guys really don’t know much, SubhanAllah. Prophet Sulaiman (AS) stopped his whole army to avoid some ants.” Hamza explained. “What about the Prophet Muhammad (Salaalaahu alaihi wa sallam)?” another boy asked, letting his stone drop to the grass. “The Prophet Muhammad (Salaalaahu alaihi wa salaam) said that there was a woman who used to torture and abuse a cat until it died…” Hamza said. “So what?” one of the boys said. “And she went to the hell fire for it.” Hamza said. For those boys that was the end of their throwing stones at seagulls. In fact, Hamza didn’t see those boys bothering any animals after that day. Hamza felt glad that he could imitate the noble Prophets of Allah and have mercy on animals.