Fabulous Islam

Guest edited by Shahrukh Husain

Fabulous Islam

Guest edited by Shahrukh Husain

Fables serve almost every ethic and principle of Islamic tradition. They open up a series of dazzling and thought-provoking vistas in the work of the six writers included in this edition.

The ‘Aha’ moment – Islamic fable and healing

Farah Naz

Crossing the desert with their donkey on their backs, I felt the mullah and his son in the fable were fellow sufferers in my lonely desert of Birmingham.

A fabulously transformative journey

Jasmine Shackle

A war of attrition ensued between my two great-grandmothers, each claiming the other had ‘stolen’ the fable. So where was it actually from? The Middle East or the Iberian Peninsula?

Hamza the Ayyar

Adnan Madani

The illiterate son of a warrior family, raised in the military camp rather than in a court surrounded by tutors, at night, as a child, the future Mughal emperor Akbar had stories read to him.

The fable of the naked faqir

Shueyb Gandapur

The crowd was dumbstruck. The faqir’s headless body rose and clutched its severed head in its own two hands. Holding the head, the body started walking towards the emperor sat on his throne.

The Chenab River

Khaldoon Ahmed

Maybe the treacherous waters my parents crossed did not lead them to a secure shore. My mother taught us the words of the Urdu poet Iqbal: ‘Stay attached to the tree, and wait for spring’.

Balancing patience, knowledge and humility

Salma Raheem

An opportunity to consider wonder, the magical and the unknown, fable gives us the chance to reflect on ourselves and our own limitations.
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