Tag: fiction
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Muslim Noir in Wael Abdelgawad’s ‘Zaid Karim: Private Investigator’
The novel introduces us to Zaid Karim, the titular Palestinian-American detective. Zaid is a struggling private investigator, beleaguered by his failures both personal and professional, in the midst of a marital separation, and largely ostracized from his local Muslim community. Some serendipitous circumstances and calculated schemings later, Zaid finds himself embroiled in a convoluted search…
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How to Make It Halāl: Getting to the Meat of a Muslim Romance
This short explores the nuances of halal romance in Islam, highlighting the importance of marriage as an act of worship and the need for careful adherence to Islamic principles in contemporary narratives and fictional portrayals.
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Muslim Characters in Media: A Response to Inclusion Initiative Report
Ultimately, industries operating in this framework herald change and representation whilst establishing no ideal to evolve towards. This means religious values—or any sort of system of ethic—are bent to ‘to modernity’s will’. It is negotiated in the public space, an issue I discussed previously here. That means far from showing hijab or praying five times…
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Vultures in the House of Silence: A Masterpiece of Islamic Fantasy
In the ever-evolving landscape of fantasy literature, A. R. Latif’s “Vultures in the House of Silence” emerges as a groundbreaking work, poised to become the “Harry Potter” of the burgeoning Islamic fantasy genre. Set against the backdrop of the Arabian peninsula in the aftermath of the Mongol invasion—one of history’s most catastrophic events—this novel incorporates…
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Islamic Fiction and Crafting a Muslim Hero: A Book Review of Blood of the Levant
Defining a “Muslim” or “Islamic” fiction genre can be challenging due to considerations of permissibility, creativity, and purpose. Omar Braun, the protagonist of Abdullah Yousef’s debut novel, Blood of the Levant, exemplifies this perfectly. The world of Blood of the Levant is part historical-fiction and part military fiction, with a dose of fantasy.
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The Lure of Excess: A Review of Aldous Huxley’s ‘The Brave New World’
Published in 1932, Aldous Huxley’s fictional microcosm within Brave New World is set in the novel’s “year of stability,” 632 years after the commercial advent of American car magnate Henry Ford (d.1947). Ford’s widely successful Model T was the first automobile manufactured solely through mass-production using methods such as the conveyor belt assembly process. Ford…
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The Perplexing Status Quo for Muslim Fiction
In the category of young adult (YA) fiction, one can find a relatively solid number of Muslim-oriented novels, some of which are consistently championed in the Muslim novel-reading community for their positive representation of Muslims. Through mass marketing, these portrayals are lauded and viewed as authentic. Though I do not personally read young adult fiction,…
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Andy Weir’s Artemis: Muslims in Science Fiction
A number of movies in recent years like Dune, Interstellar, and The Martian thrust science fiction back into the media-consumer American consciousness. Andy Weir, the author of The Martian (which the movie was based on) has become a household name for more ardent fans, and duly so. The Martian and his recent Project Hail Mary…
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Islamic Fiction in Malaysia: Q&A with Hilal Asyraf
The story is about a Malay Muslim warrior committed to helping the oppressed but remains nameless because he has never shared his name with others. At that time, the Malay Peninsula is ruled by a powerful Sultan that uses sihr (demonic magic) to stay young, invulnerable and possesses many superpowers. The story will lead readers…
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Faith and Fantasy: Is Islamic Fiction Viable?
A Book Review of The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty. One of the factors that has distinguished the literary tradition in the Muslim world from that of the cultural West for much of the past millennium is the modality adopted by popular literature.