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When a post on my blog is categorised as “fiction” and is also tagged “fiction”, it is safe to assume that it is fiction. Sometimes I share fragments here an there, while progress on the larger projects continues to stall. Sometimes something occurs to me while I am mowing the lawn or driving to work; [...]

It is a sentiment that several of us have noticed being repeated with increasing frequency on the world-wide-web: that the Muslim blogosphere is dying a death, that all the good blogs have disappeared, that the Muslim blogging phenomenon has run its course and all that remains is tired, uninspirational, repetitive dross. As a so-called blogger [...]

‘You may have convinced everyone else Sara,’ sneered Sajeda, ‘but I’m not persuaded by this sudden transformation of yours.’1 Blocking the entrance to the prayer room, preventing Sara from entering, she raised her right hand and jabbed it towards her heart. Forlornly, Sara looked back at the one person she had always respected and trusted; [...]

He reads my words and then he frowns. ‘I want to hear your true voice,’ he mourns, ‘I was expecting something deep, something meaningful.’ But this is my true voice; this is what I am. We are the Pharisees in his mind, devoid of the spirit and light. If only, he weeps, we were as [...]

In no particular order, here are some blogs I like… Mr Moo Bin Gregory Productions The Muslimah The Manrilla Blog Musing on the Britannic Crescent Bradford Muslim To Be Grateful (although the hosting has failed) The Scent Rickshaw Diaries Blogistan My Life in a Cube Al-Miskeenah A Family in Baghdad Lesson of the Day Jamerican [...]

The past two weeks have seen this blog go through the full mid-life crisis. First going into maintenance mode, then reappearing for a couple of days, then being deleted and replaced with the finale from a Walt Disney cartoon, then momentarily restored, only to be shunted into a sub-directory, to be abandoned in favour of [...]

Long-term visitors to my old Neurocentric website know that I struggle with my writing: they have read To be or not to be?, Troubled Writer, Conversation with the nafs and Another Evaluation amongst many, many others.

Back before the summer I wrote a lot about writing and those concerns of mine about the responsibilities attached to it. Every couple of months I find myself re-evaluating my writing — which I think is a good thing — to keep myself in check. I want to keep in mind the idea that anything [...]

Weblogs have come under quite some fire recently in the newspaper I regularly buy. Janet Street-Porter‘s comment last week was followed a day later by an article by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. In both cases their generalisations are quite amazing. For me and many others this medium is a mere tool. Around 1993 my introduction to the [...]

Apparently Brick Lane’s Bengali community doesn’t think much of Monica Ali’s novel, Brick Lane. Although the makers of a film adaption of the novel have now agreed not to capture the story in those streets, some of the protestors are still threatening to burn the book in public if filming goes ahead. The disgruntled claim [...]

These days I am repeatedly having a particular conversation with my nafs. It always goes something like this: Realisation: It’s time to put everything aside, to focus on my deen and on increasing my knowledge. Nafs: But what about your novel? Are you really going to abandon it now after all that work you already [...]

I have been asked to write something about my love of writing, where it started and so on. It is an interesting question, especially when I look back. I am not well read nor am I learned. I did not have this interest throughout school – or at least I don’t think I did – [...]