إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لَّقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
...Indeed in this there are signs for people who think
The Beginning
Over fourteen hundred years ago a disjointed group of desert nomads built an empire the likes of which the world had never seen. They advanced in arts and sciences. They charted the unknown depths of the universe. They explored far beyond the reaches of the known world, not to conquer, but to learn. They achieved this under the guidance of one book. A book that survives to this day unchanged, letter for letter, line for line. The transformative power of the Quran cannot be completely understood or appreciated in translation.
Over fourteen hundred years ago a disjointed group of desert nomads built an empire the likes of which the world had never seen. They advanced in arts and sciences. They charted the unknown depths of the universe. They explored far beyond the reaches of the known world, not to conquer, but to learn. They achieved this under the guidance of one book. A book that survives to this day unchanged, letter for letter, line for line. The transformative power of the Quran cannot be completely understood or appreciated in translation.
The Quest
Our mission at ThinkerNation is to reclaim this legacy of achievement for our next generation. We want to raise strong confident young Muslims who know who they are and the shoulders upon which they stand. This is not a goal that can be achieved through rote memorization. Learning should be fun. It should engage the senses and inspire the mind. The letters and words our children learn today will form the foundation of the nation we build tomorrow. A nation defined not by borders of place but of shared principles, shared histories and a shared future. A thinker nation.
The Players
ThinkerNation is literally a mom and pop operation. In this case, mom is a pediatrician and Pop is an IT consultant living with our 2 rambunctious young sons in the rolling hills of Washington state. Neither of us had any idea how to run a business. The closest we had ever been to building things was assembling Ikea furniture. But out of necessity, comes invention. We wanted our sons to be fluent in arabic and feel proud of their Muslim faith. We wanted high quality educational toys to channel their natural curiosity and make learning fun. The products we found were thin, flimsy and in no way comparable to the quality of English puzzles available on the market. Henceforth, we embarked on an epic quest to challenge the status quo. Break the mold. To create products that inspire, engage and empower. We learned wood craft, spoke with early childhood educators, experimented with power tools and viola. Many broken tools and countless splinters later, ThinkerNation was born. All of our ideas were developed at highly professional meetings around the kitchen table. Armed with crayons, an abundance of construction paper and tasteful if at times mismatched PJ's, we prototyped greatness in the garage. We started at alif. Join us and see how the story unfolds:)
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