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On Writing Muslim Characters - A Discussion

4/1/2023

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I received an email inquiry from a reader and fellow author about how to best to go about incorporating Muslim characters into a fantasy world (specifically, Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V), and the sender gave me permission to post his message and my response to it, since I thought it would be a neat discussion to share.

Found your online essay about Samirah al-Abbas--it was very incisive and I am grateful for having found it, especially since you're another Muslim Canadian who's a bit into the deep end of nerdiness. It gets a bit lonely when my sister is the only other Muslim I know who orbits any of the same interests as me.

I've read the Magnus Chase books, and while I was just happy to see a female Muslim character like Samirah at the time, I've gradually grown a bit more concerned about her juxtaposition with all the...stuff. Your essay helped clarify a lot for me.

I have only just learned of your fiction writings, and I am very interested in reading them--I am quite sick of religion being denigrated, absent, or restricted to fictional ones in sci-fi and fantasy, especially stories that are supposed to be in the future.

To be honest, though, my main impetus for reaching out is that I would like to know if you consider the context of Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V problematic to include Muslim characters in. I'm trying to write a fanfiction for it, and while I was already rewriting the fantastical aspects so that they didn't infringe upon any tenet of Islam, your remark about context got me worrying again about whether the context of Yugioh would send the wrong message. I'd write fanfiction for something that wouldn't even involve these questions, but I specifically want to put Muslim characters where there's a lack of them.

I wouldn't bother you with this, but none of the scholars/imams whom I know are familiar enough with this to really be able to answer, and you know this kind of thing, even if not Yugioh in particular. I already ditched the idea of doing fanfiction for the earlier series in the Yugioh franchise because occultist/pagan stuff is pretty heavily enmeshed in the plot, and Arc-V is mostly sci-fi, but the materialistic aspect of the card game does still concern me a bit. There isn't any "god" problem to be had with Arc-V, the only issue is maybe some soul-related things, but we've explicitly not been told much about that, so I figure I have a bit of room there.

P.S. I am going to have two original Muslim characters as my main characters, who will be 14 years old for reasons involving the plot of the show. Do you think that's too young for an arranged marriage to be in the works for them? It wouldn't necessarily have been formally arranged yet, and they're already going to be somewhat close regardless. I just thought you would know better than me whether that might go over too much the wrong way--I was planning on it depicting it as being so that my characters can have a halal relationship.

P.P.S. I'm only just 21, and haven't published anything online let alone otherwise. I genuinely admire you even though I only just found out about you.

P.P.P.S. Please keep up this good work!

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I wrote and published my first literary article!

13/12/2020

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If you followed me on tumblr (back when I had a tumblr), you might remember that several months ago, I said I was writing an article in response to something I'd come across, and also promised to share it when it went live. I very much meant to do so much sooner, only the first version of this article was not very good and I needed time away from it to be able to rework it. The finished product, I am proud to say, is loads better and I am really pleased with it! 

I have currently hosted it on Medium, because I'm still without a job (thanks, pandemic) and Medium allows me to get paid per reader. Which means I would really appreciate it if you could check it out and give my article a read, and also share it around!

​Happy reading and writing!
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Samirah al-Abbas: When No Representation is Better than Bad Representation

❝ If someone were to ask me what I identify as, I would answer Muslim, Canadian, and giant nerd, in that order. I might tack bookworm onto it too. Ask anyone who knows me, they’ll tell you I can be found doing one of three things: reading, writing, or interacting with online creative spaces. While I have rarely been unwelcome in those spaces, those spaces have very rarely been inclusive for me or my beliefs as a Western Muslim, largely because Western Muslims simply aren’t represented very well (or at all) in Western media. ❞​
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Magnificent Muslim Women - A Brief List

7/10/2020

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Photo by Mari Potter on Unsplash
You may or may not know that I'm writing a Muslim-themed fantasy epic temporarily titled The Chronicles of Mourra (or CofM for short). I've been working on it off-and-on for about a decade now, which means I've been doing research for it for the same amount of time. I'm quite blessed in that I grew up surrounded by easy access to an excellent Islamic education (any and all ignorance is a reflection of me entirely lol).

My parents especially instilled in me a love of my history, traditions, and religion. Both my parents are educators and storytellers, in different ways, so that I haven't really needed 'outside' research to create the world of CofM (as it stands now). I base a lot of it on my lived experience!

​Still, when someone on Facebook asked me if I was able to do my research easily, and lamented struggling to find resources on notable women in Islam, especially in positions of power and leadership, I went on a researching binge and compiled a very non-exhaustive list of resources on magnificent Muslim women.

This is more a jumping off point so you can have a direction when researching online (there's a lot of books out there too!) I focused mostly on medieval women, as there's a wealth of easily accessible information out there on all the incredible female companions and contemporaries from the Prophet's (ﷺ) time. (Although, if y'all want a list of them, do let me know and I'll make a part 2 to this!)
1) Via Ballandalus, a truly excellent online resource on Islamic history:
  • 15 Important Muslim Women in History 
  • 20 Influential Medieval/Early Modern Muslim Women 
  • 20 Influential Medieval/Early Modern Muslim Women 
  • Women in Islamic History 
  • Famous Historical Muslims of African/Black Origin
  • 27 Prominent Medieval Andalusi Women
​
2) Extraordinary Women from the Golden Age of Muslim Civilisation via 1001inventions
​

3) Women’s Contribution to Classical Islamic Civilisation: Science, Medicine and Politics via MuslimHeritage

All these links include references that should lead you to more information! I did my best to make sure they're all credible too. Some standout favourite women I want to learn more about include:
  1. Lalla Fatma N’Soumer
  2. Rābi‘a al-‘Adawīyya
  3. Lubna of Cordoba
  4. Fāṭima b. Abī al-Qāsim ‘Abd al-Rahmān b. Muhammad b. Ghālib al-Ansārī al-Sharrāṭ
  5. Shajar al-Durr
  6. Zaynab b. Ahmad
  7. Sayyida al-Hurra
  8. Parī Khān Khānum
  9. Fatima al-Fihri
  10. Maryam bint Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Fihr
  11. Mariam “Al-Astrolabiya” Al-Ijliya
  12. Zaynab Al Shahda
  13. Gevher Nesibe Sultan
  14. Queen Amina of Zaria
  15. Zubayda bint Abu Ja’far al-Mansur
  16. Dhayfa Khatun
  17. Sitt al-Mulk
  18. Shajarat al-Durr
  19. Sultana Razia
  20. Umm al-Dardā’ Hujayma bt. Ḥuyayy al-Sughra
  21. Sayyida Nafīsah al-Ṭāhirah
  22. Kanzah bt. Isḥāq b. Muḥammad al-Awrabiyya
  23. ‘Arīb al-Ma'muniyya
  24. ‘Ā’ishah b. Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Qādim
  25. Zaynab bt. Isḥāq al-Nafzāwiyyah 
  26. Fāṭimah bt. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Samārqandī
  27. ʿĀʾisha al-Mannūbiyya 
  28. Fāṭimah al-Ḥurrah
  29. Ā’ishah al-Ba‘uniyyah
  30. Malahayati of Aceh
  31. Gulbadan Begum
  32. Nūr Jahān 
  33. Nānā Asmā’u 
Do you know of notable Muslim women of history that are absent from this list? I would particularly like to find more women from outside the Arab world! Comment below and let me know!
Until next time, happy reading!
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    Musings from a Muslim Writer

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