Overall Rating: 2/5
The Islamic fiction genre is a very, very thin one. There were a handful of books in the genre that were available when I was growing up in the 90’s and early 00’s. Fast forward almost two decades later and the genre hasn’t really expanded much. Classics like Qasim Najar’s The Army of Lions, Uthman Hutchinson’s Invincible Abdullah series, and Yahya Emerick’s Ahmad and Layla Deen series remain unrivaled in their portrayal of strong Muslim characters in books with engaging storylines.
While the Islamic fiction genre has stayed relatively thin, a closely related new genre has quickly surpassed it in volume. Borrowing terminology from the historian Marshal Hodgson, I would term this ever-expanding genre the “Islamicate fiction genre.” Books written in this genre couldn’t care less about shaping Muslim behavior or providing role models in their stories. As Hodgson states, the word Islamicate “would refer not directly to the religion, Islam, itself, but to the social and cultural complex historically associated with Islam and the Muslims.”
It’s a subtle difference but one that needs to be pointed out when talking about fictional portrayals of Muslims. “Islamic fiction” seeks to impart Islamic values through a fictional setting. “Islamicate fiction” simply utilizes a sociocultural Islamic backdrop in a fictional story. Whereas books like Ahmad Deen and the Curse of the Aztec Warrior portrayed a young Muslim boy confident in his faith and identity, books in the Islamicate genre tend to portray Muslims as either irreligious, semi-religious, or hypocritically religious. Aimed at a wider market than just young Muslims, these books tend to downplay the religious aspect and focus on a social and cultural “Muslim” identity that can appeal to the masses.
This new book, An Acquaintance by Saba Syed, attempts to fit into the former genre rather than the latter. While I found the attempt admirable, the book left me with decidedly mixed feelings by the time I finished.
****SPOILERS AHEAD****
The protagonist of the story is a young hijabi who’s a senior in a small American high. She is a stereotypical practicing, religious, masjid-going hijabi. Her father is a professor, she has a religious older brother who’s in college, and mother has passed away. Her whole family is active in the masjid, conferences, youth camps, etc.
The basic premise of the story is that a soccer star moves to the small town and all the girls are infatuated with him. The hijabi is not at first but he protects her from some bullies and that begins her love story. Small things at first. She accidentally calls him “gorgeous” on the school PA and he hears. She feels kinda bad but convinces herself it was accidental. He holds her hand while protecting her from bullies and she doesn’t pull away, then reflects later on why she doesn’t. She talks more and more to him, eventually agrees to tutor him for chemistry (she later finds out he didn’t need tutoring, just wanted time with her). She begins an emotional relationship with him but convinces herself it’s not a relationship because it’s not physical. Her Muslim friend cautions her but to no avail. Her friend informs her father who decides to let her make her own mistakes. Her brother finds out and is furious, eventually leaving the family and moving to another city.
As things progress between the hijabi and the soccer star, people at the masjid find out and start making snide comments about her. Eventually she asks him to convert, he says no. Her father comforts her at this rejection. Around graduation, she approaches her love interest again despite ending things, requesting closure from him. He sends her a bittersweet poem. By the end of the story, she’s been asked to step away from giving halaqahs at the masjid and her father has to resign from the board because there are rumors that she’s become pregnant from the boy (beyond holding hands, there’s no actual physical contact with the boy, these are all rumors).
I had quite a few issues with the book. The overall message is solid, that little things can get out of hand and that the path to haram relationships begins with seemingly innocent interactions. However, the message gets pretty muddled in the book.
For one, the hijabi protagonist has a somewhat contradictory gender interactions code. This could be due to editing (i.e. was initially more strict/lax and then the author changed her mind and didn’t edit out some details). For example, she’s shocked at herself when the soccer boy grabs her hand and she doesn’t pull away, implying she finds this an unacceptable action. However, a few pages before this, she’s fine with sitting with her legs against a male friend’s leg. There are other things like this. Her family is portrayed as a very practicing, relatively conservative family but she’s also allowed to (and does) invite male friends home for dinner. This one is addressed but in a peculiar way. Her father states that this allows her to interact with boys without developing romantic feelings because the dinners are innocent……literally the opposite message of the book which is that innocent interactions can surreptitiously lead to developing romantic feelings.
I had a huge problem with the portrayal of Muslim men in this book. Other than her father (who is problematic for other reasons), all the Muslim males are portrayed extremely negatively. They each fit clichéd stereotypes of Muslim males. Her brother is a highly practicing, hard working Muslim guy…….and is arrogant, thinks he’s holier than her, speaks back to his father condescendingly, and has double standards for genders (believes it’s fine for him to go to college but that his sister is a precious, innocent, simple girl who should stay at home). The one Muslim guy in her school who is mentioned leads a double life where his family thinks he’s great but he’s secretly out clubbing, has a girlfriend, and after finding out rumors about the hijabi, asks her to sleep with him and then calls her a “slut” when she gets mad.
The one intended positive portrayal of a Muslim man is the hijabi’s father. However, I found his character to be even more troubling. He is well aware of his daughter’s trajectory and takes a “let her make her own mistakes” attitude. He is aware she is falling for this guy and does nothing. He receives an email from her friend that the hijabi is involved with this guy and simply tells his daughter, “That’s your friend’s perspective. I trust you. Fear Allah.” His daughter stays out till 3am after seeing the guy and even then, his response is mild.
As Nuriddeen Knight mentions in a recently published article on her website,
Men have traditionally been providers and protectors, increasingly both roles are criticized, deemed insignificant or even demonized……many fathers are afraid of holding on to their traditional roles for fear that they would be constraining their children…These men have the mistaken idea that they are freeing their daughters by letting go of the “oppressive” protector role,
There’s a line between being a kind, understanding parent, and then showing zero gheerah. The author missed out on a huge opportunity to use the brother and father as foils to show two different reasonable approaches. Instead, the brother has a ridiculous notion of keeping girls hidden at home and the father is at the other extreme and basically says “Let her make her mistakes, I can only guide her.” No real serious direction or guidance comes from the father through the book. At the end of the book, the protagonist even asks her father why he did not intervene when she was clearly going down the wrong path. His response is a banal, “If I had been strict, you would have turned to him for comfort instead.”
Towards the end of the book, after the conflict between her morals and actions have apparently been resolved and she has repented, the protagonist still has questionable actions. This incident occurs at the tail end of the book, about 40 pages before it ends:
And finally, it’s been almost a decade since I graduated high school but even to me, the book seemed dated. Social media was already the norm by the time I was in high school. The portrayal of high school in the book is more consistent with the late 90’s or maybe early 2000’s. Considering that the most common place where illicit relationships begin is on social media, this book’s portrayal of a 90’s-esque high school culture is quaint. There is no facebook/Twitter/instagram/snapchat. Even cell phones are thrown in as an afterthought.
Overall, I think it’s a good addition to the still nascent field of Islamic fiction. However, I have some reservations about it as outlined above. Insha’Allah, I hope the author continues to write more books in this genre. May Allah ﷻ accept her effort and bless her for putting her writing out there to be critiqued by others.
Leave a Reply