Since August, IU Indianapolis student Tamer Abdul Halim Alsalloum, a sophomore majoring in respiratory therapy, has been writing a book titled “In the Footsteps of the Prophets,” aimed at educating children about the 25 prophets in Islam. The book is set to release on April 1, 2026.
As someone who regularly gives Halaqas, or Islamic lessons, at the Muslim Student Association (MSA) meetings, Alsalloum wanted to share that knowledge with a broader community. The idea for the story came to him at 3 a.m., when he thought of creating a small piece that could help rising youth learn about the prophets from an Islamic perspective.
Alsalloum grew up learning about Islam in his home country of Syria, where religious education is taught in schools. After coming to the United States, he noticed that many Muslim youth lacked that same exposure, unless they attended private Muslim schools. The book was created to fill that gap in accessible Islamic education for children.
“I feel like our kids, our youth are lacking knowledge,” said Alsalloum. “I grew up back home, and part of our criteria is to learn about religion. So, I had some type of base knowledge. [Here], there's not that base knowledge if you do not teach them at home.”
He said the goal is not to criticize families, but to provide additional support and accessible resources.
The writing is intended for children aged seven to 10. In Islamic belief, this is a formative period when children begin learning prayer and fasting and start becoming responsible for religious practices.
“In the Footsteps of the Prophets,” which includes 25 chapters and runs about 270 pages long, focuses on each of the 25 prophets, highlighting their lives, challenges and trials in a study-style format. Because the stories originate from dense scholarly texts, Alsalloum condensed the complex material into short, readable passages. The format aims to encourage active learning rather than passive reading.
“The stories are very dense,” said Alsalloum. “I'm taking 300 huge pages in a scholarly book and putting it into paragraphs. There will still be questions that kids will have. I'm not expecting a child to sit down and read 25 chapters in one day. So it is a study type of book to read, and then afterward, you have to think about it.”
A page from "In the Footsteps of the Prophets" by Tamer Abdul Halim Alsalloum, shown in a manner that follows Islamic guidelines.
Although Alsalloum initiated the project, he emphasized that the book involves collaboration with a team to ensure quality and accuracy.
“I'm not a scholar, I'm just a college student. So I do have a whole team behind me,” said Alsalloum. “I have a writer, she's my former teacher from 5th grade. She taught me how to read and write and all that jazz, so it kind of circled back around. I do read, I do write and then I send it to my editor. After that, my editor edits everything and then we send the final edits to an Islamic scholar here in Indy. He fact checks it, he reads everything and then gives me the go.”
Despite being a full-time college student with a part-time job, Alsalloum maintained a writing pace of about two pages per day since August. He used winter break to complete about 10 chapters. The process was not done alone and required coordinating with the small team he put together.
“I'm proud of it, to be honest with you,” said Alsalloum. “Not a single day has passed since August where I haven't put work into it. Even on finals week I used to get my pages in. Coordinating in the beginning was a little bit difficult because, again, it's 270 pages, 25 chapters. We have a formal full-time teacher, and then a formal full-time scholar, who also teaches at an Islamic university called Al-Hussnain. Both of them have their own lives, both of them are full time people. Making the commitment was a little bit hard, but they said yes on the spot, because it’s such an important project.”
Finding an illustrator at no cost proved difficult. Alsalloum used Canva AI to create the book’s illustrations. He said budget limitations led him to use these tools for the illustrations. When creating images, he and the scholar reviewed them to ensure they align with Sharia law, the official name for Islamic rulings, such as avoiding faces in illustrations and ensuring modest clothing.
“We went to Chicago [for MAS-ICNA], and I met an illustrator over there,” said Alsalloum. “He lowkey laughed at me. He was like, ‘What is this? You're doing my job with AI.’ I was like, ‘I don't know, man. I don't know anyone willing to do it for free.’ So this project is zero cost. Like the editor, she's doing this out of her own will. Same with my scholar. He's doing this out of his own will.”
With the release date of “In the Footsteps of the Prophets” quickly approaching, preorders will begin mid-March. Alsalloum hopes the book will serve as a starting point for young readers to learn about their faith and apply the lessons from the prophets to their own lives.
Melanie Contreras is a sophomore majoring in journalism with a minor in English and history and a paralegal studies certificate in progress. She is the culture and politics editor for The Campus Citizen. She enjoys drinking coffee and being a social advocate for the community.
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