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Interview: A Muslim Novelist is Born
By Mohammed Ayub Khan 28/12/2001
Islamic fiction in the English language is still a relatively new field. While many books have appeared in this genre for children, only a few have been written for mature readers. An ambitious Islamic science-fiction novel,
The Ultimate Revelations by Jamshed Akhtar in India, and A Mighty Collision of Two Worlds by Safi Abdi in Malaysia are two notable exceptions.
Haroon Moghul, a 21-year-old college senior at New York University, has broken the long impasse in this field with his breakthrough novel,
The Future of Secularism. The 320 page novel, which promises to be provocative and controversial, will be serialized on Soundvison, the book's publisher
http://soundvision.com/info/fiction/haroon1.asp.
Moghul is double majoring in Philosophy and Middle Eastern Studies and plans to both attend law school and produce films in the future. In this interview he speaks with IslamOnline about his current novel as well as future projects.
IslamOnline (IOL): What made you write this novel?
Haroon Moghul (HM): With the name of Allah, most Loving and Merciful … I was raised by a family that placed great emphasis on Islam, for which I am always grateful. But growing up, I soon became dissatisfied with Islam and began looking - pretty seriously - into different religions and philosophies. It was only during my freshman year at NYU that I chose Islam and, with that choice, chose to dedicate my time and energy to the Islamic Center of NYU (the equivalent of the Muslim Student Organization (MSA). I ended up interacting with dozens of Muslims with amazingly diverse backgrounds and unique understandings of the faith. But there was something deeper, something we all share in, which transcends boundaries and gives every Muslim, worldwide, a consciousness of herself as part of something higher. Benedict Andersen would call this an "imagined community" - perhaps, in our case, the first truly global imagined community. But what we lack is not the will, but the way to realize this desire for unity. I wrote
The Future of Secularism to say we must stand up for ourselves and have our own voice. What we need is an Islamic culture and Islamic literature, suitable for this day and age - literature that is provocative, creative, engaging, but ever conscious of the Truth and in service of this higher cause.
IOL: Which age group is it primarily intended for?
HM: Initially, I was writing for Muslims between the ages of 16 and 22, though I realized that any Muslim who grew up in a Westernized culture would be able to relate to it. However, I've heard from friends who had their parents, born and raised in India, read through copies of the book and enjoy them immensely. One father, nearly sixty-years-old, was happy because now he understood much more of what his children, born and raised in America, had gone through. So I think so long as you have an open mind, and an intelligent understanding of Islam, neither age nor ethnicity will matter.
IOL: Have you written any other books in the past?
HM: I tried, but none ever came to fruition.
IOL: Are you aware of any other authors in the Islamic fiction genre in English?
HM: There are numerous others for children, but as far as I know, nothing has tried to hit the college-age community with the specific goals of improving our understanding of Islam and bringing us together as Muslims.
IOL: Reading through the first few pages of the book, it looks like as though you are dramatizing your own personal experiences. Is this observation correct?
HM: To some extent…yes. In some ways, I have no other choice. It's a childish assumption among liberal Westerners that art and the artist are not connected [and, hence, the artist has no responsibility], but this is patently false. When a person writes, she cannot help but express herself. In my case, however, I was more intentional about it. There is a strong correlation between what I write and what I have experienced in my life, but I have also taken from the experiences of friends and family. The story doesn't provide much in the way of background details or specifics. For example, we never know which country the story is set in. That's deliberate. The goal was to write something that as many Muslims as possible could relate to. That the average Muslim in college says, "Hey, I met someone just like that," or "I've had the exact same thing happen to me."
IOL: Soundvision's introduction to your book promises it to be provocative. What can the readers expect in coming installments?
HM: The book is a philosophical satire. It's based, very loosely, on Ibn Tufayl's medieval manuscript,
Qissat Hayy ibn Yaqzan. I address some very provocative and controversial issues in a very light-hearted way, because this is not an academic book. This is no more than a book to get people thinking and make people realize that Islam does more than "function" in modernity; it out-passes it and transcends it. That is what I expect people to take from it when they walk away from it - that their religion does not need to conform to the West, it has already done that and it is too late for anything else. I do not doubt that many people will be made very uncomfortable by my ideas, but again, why would anyone write unless they have something new to say? One aspect that will also be controversial is the book's content: The book has in very mild references to violence and sexuality. A lot of people will be angry; a lot of people will be displeased. But I believe the problem is Muslims of today don't understand how literature functions in post-modern society. Everyone [Muslims and non-Muslims] hates being preached to. The Qur'an reflects this innate human tendency. Take alcohol, for example. The Qur'an doesn't come out and say, "Alcohol is haram for reasons 1, 2 and 3…" No, not at all. Rather, the Qur'an is honest about it. God says, and I'm paraphrasing here, so forgive me, that alcohol has good in it and bad, but the bad outweighs the good. He says that alcohol [among other things] is Satan's work, and that should be enough for us to know what to do. I've taken a similar attitude with my novel.
You know, rather than have the character hear a khutbah [sermon] denouncing alcohol, which makes him suddenly change his mind, and let's see how Islam develops in reality. The lead character, Hayy, does drink. In fact, he has fun drinking, he has good times, and it makes him feel cool. But in the long run, it does more harm than good and he sees the wisdom behind the prohibition of alcohol. Readers will see a novel different from traditional Islamic fare, with some issues that perhaps a lot of Muslims, parents or children, don't want to confront.
IOL: Why did you decide to serialize it online instead of publishing it in hard copy?
HM: That wasn't my decision, actually. SoundVision decided that since this was a new type of book, untested and untried, they would serialize it online and see what kind of response they get.
Inshallah, if there's a positive response, they'll publish it in hard copy.
IOL: Are you planning to write any other books?
HM: In fact, I'm almost finished with another novel, called Abdul-Bari. It's a novel about loneliness, depression, and a Sufi order devoted to personal suicide. It sounds disturbing. It is. I also try to explore, in greater depth, the issues I raised very briefly in the first book, and I find a lot of my perspectives have changed significantly. In light of 9/11 and the so-called war on terrorism, the theme will be highly relevant. However, as a novel, it's far more artistic and spiritual than the first. As you write, you tend to see yourself, and your Islam, more clearly, and as the years go by, our understanding of Islam and the world mature. One can only pray that the process never ends.
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