Ramadan Reviews

Dear Reader,

In the continued spirit of Ramadan, I thought I'd write short reviews for the books I've been reading this month.

Review 1: 

Ameena's Ramadan Diary by Sara Kabil & Abu Bakr El-Banna

This is basically a self help guide disguised as a young woman's experience. It begins 6 weeks before Ramadan with helpful tips in preparing for Ramadan and then during Ramadan how to make the the most of it, productively and spiritually. Each entry is supported by Ayat from the Qur'an of authentic Hadith. The best bit however, I feel, is the Ramadan File at the back which can be revisited year after year.

This is a great book for new Muslims, with it's explanations, glossary and transliterations of Du'as. But it can also be really helpful for any Muslim who wishes to take advantage of all the opportunities that Ramadan presents.    

Review 2: 

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

This is Marjane Satrapi's autobiography that begins in Iran in the 1980's and tells the story of her unforgettable childhood, coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland.

However, what sets this book apart from other autobiographies is that it is also a graphic novel. The black and white drawing style is rather cute and very easy to read, though sometimes the only way to distinguish between people was there hairstyle. This can become confusing at times if you put it down for long periods of time and don't read the book all at once. 

I really liked the first half of this book, "The Story of a Childhood". Being a graphic novel it was, in my reading experience, a unique way to tell one's own story of oppression and war, while still maintaining an imaginative, light and humorous tone.  Despite the fact that there were some things in this book that I didn't really agree with (e.g. the depiction of God), I do not dispute that this is the truth as Marjane Satrapi experienced it, which opened up a whole new perspective for me. However, it must be taken with a grain of salt, as I hope that anyone reading this book will recognise that this is a story about living under an extremist regime, just like Nazi Germany or Russia under Stalin; regimes that will use any excuse to oppress people, and that it is not reflection of what the Islamic Religion is all about.

Nevertheless, the second half of this book "The Story of a Return", was a thorough disappointment and so different to what the first half set it up to be. The tone of the story became so bleak and self-pitying that I could no longer bring myself to care much for Satrapi's depiction of herself and it felt like a chore just to finish the book off. I doubt I would recommend this book to anyone for any reason, other than the novelty of being an autobiography in the form of a comic book/graphic novel.   

Review 3: 

The Butterfly Mosque by G. Willow Wilson

This is also an autobiography and, as the sub-title so precisely summaries, it is the memoir of how a young American women's journey led to Islam and Love. Born into an atheist family, Willow Wilson actually begins telling the story of her life from an unusual point; while in her second year Boston University she was hospitalised for an acute reaction to medication and then suffered through adrenal distress for many months. It is during this time that she begins philosophising and contemplating the existence of God and what God means to her. And of all the major religions, her ideas about the Divine are confirmed in the Qur'an. After that, she began studying Arabic and Islam but resisted conversion to Islam until she was given the opportunity to word as a teacher in Cairo.

However, it is while she is in Cairo that her story becomes truly interesting, as she is torn between the secular West and the Muslim East. In The Butterfly Mosque, Wilson records her intensely personal struggle to forge a "third culture” that might accommodate her own values without compromising the friends and family on both sides of the divide. Though not always chronologically, Wilson tells her story in such an enchanting and contemplative manor that I could not help but cheer her on as she overcame one hardship after another.   

On a personal note, I could sympathise a lot with a the author when she wrote about moving to Egypt and navigating the great chasm between the American and Egyptian cultures; i.e. the East and the West. But while she was new to all of this, I feel like I've become an Old Pro. Being born a British-Asian Muslim I have spent me whole life in this "interworld". My entire existence lies in the "little fissures between East and West", as the author so eloquently put it, and thus I have become quite adept at finding the right balance, or the middle ground so to speak.    

But coming back to the book itself, I did not want The Butterfly Mosque to end. I wanted to continue on this journey with the Willow Wilson, I wanted to know what her life was like when she moved back to the USA, how did she and her husband adjust? I wanted to know her thoughts on/experience of the Arab Spring (2010-2011) and how she came up with the idea for her graphic novel Cairo? But more than any of that, turning the last page of this book felt like standing in Departures at an airport, saying goodbye to a beloved friend. 

I can say with complete confidence that The Butterfly Mosque is now among my favourite books, right beside Love in a Headscarf by Shelina Z. Janmohamed. At present, I'm greatly looking forward to reading Wilson's latest urban-fantasy novel: Alif the Unseen, which promises to be unlike anything I've read yet.  

Nida