10 Rules for Writing Muslim Fantasy

10 Rules for Writing Muslim Fantasy Part 1: Enjoin Good, Prevent Evil.Welcome back to Fantasy & Faith, where we explore the magical, the mythical and the mystical. In this episode, I will be sharing the first two of my 10 Rules for Writing Muslim Fantasy, or even for writing good Muslim characters. By the end of the episode, you will have a grounding in some foundational Islamic principles that should help you understand the driving forces, principles and moral standards that shape the Muslim psyche.Rule 1 Enjoin Good and Forbid EvilThe first of these is “Enjoin Good and Forbid what is Evil”, which comes from the Quranic verses from Sura al-Imran: “Let there be a group among you who call ‘others’ to goodness, encourage what is good and forbid what is evil – it is they who will be successful” (3:104).This is reinforced numerous times through Hadith (traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him). For example, On the authority of Abu Sa’eed al Khudree who said, ‘I heard the Messenger of Allah say, “Whoever from among you sees that an evil is being committed then, he should change it with his hands. And if he is unable to do that, then, with his spoken word. And if he is unable to do even that, then, with his heart (i.e., abhor it taking it to be evil) and this is the weakest degree of faith.” (Sahih Muslim, 49a)Add to this the a verse from Sura al-Maida, “O believers! You are accountable only for yourselves. It will not harm you if someone chooses to deviate – as long as you are rightly guided. To Allah you will all return, and He will inform you of what you used to do.” (5:105)One could stop with the first verse and present it as justification to forcibly bend people to your will. This would be how a villain may interpret this verse. However, this would be inaccurate, especially when viewed in conjunction with the broader instruction provided by the Qur’an and Hadith. When a person is in a position of power, they will act upon this injunction differently to someone in a weaker position.It’s time for a bit of clarification. It’s easy to fall into the grand narrative idea of Good and Evil in Christian terms of being God vs the Devil. In Islam, God is All-Supreme, All-Mighty and has no equal. The Devil, or Iblees to give him his true name, was a survivor from an earlier creation of God that had been wiped out due to them causing corruption and bloodshed. Iblees was cast out because of his prideful refusal of God’s command to bow before Adam, the first human and Prophet. Iblees promised that would try and mislead the Children of Adam until Judgement Day, making him the enemy of the Children of Adam, not God. This is why God states in Sura Taha “So We cautioned, ‘O Adam! This is surely an enemy to you and to your wife. So do not let him drive you both out of Paradise, for you O Adam would then suffer hardship.” (20:117)So Iblees, whilst clearly an evil entity, isn’t the evil that the Qur’an refers to in ‘refrain from evil’. There is no epic battle going on in the heavens. The battle is happening here on the earthly plain, in the hearts and minds of individuals. Ibn Kathir, a renown mufassir and historian of Islam, says that evil includes calamities things like drought, famine, lack of abundance, death of children, etc. These calamities occur as either a punishment for some sin or wrongful action committed by mankind, or as a test of faith, to see if we will respond with ingratitude, or worse by turning away from God. An example of this was the defeat of the Muslims during the Battle of Uhud. The defeat was caused by two factors, deserters from the battle and those who disobeyed the Prophet’s command not to abandon their posts. God clarified this in the Qur’an after the battle: “Indeed, Allah fulfilled His promise to you when you initially swept them away by His Will, then your courage weakened and you disputed about the command and disobeyed, after Allah had brought victory within your reach. Some of you were after worldly gain while others desired a heavenly reward. He denied you victory over them as a test, yet He has pardoned you. And Allah is Gracious to the believers.” (3:152)“Remember when you were running far away in panic—not looking at anyone—while the Messenger was calling to you from behind! So Allah rewarded your disobedience with distress upon distress. Now, do not grieve over the victory you were denied or the injury you suffered. And Allah is All-Aware of what you do.” (3:153)“Then after distress, He sent down serenity in the form of drowsiness overcoming some of you, while others were disturbed by evil thoughts about Allah—the thoughts of pre-Islamic ignorance. They ask, “Do we have a say in the matter?” Say, O Prophet, “All matters are destined by Allah.” They conceal in their hearts what they do not reveal to you. They say to themselves, “If we had any say in the matter, none of us would have come to die here.” Say, O Prophet, “Even if you were to remain in your homes, those among you who were destined to be killed would have met the same fate.” Through this, Allah tests what is within you and purifies what is in your hearts. And Allah knows best what is hidden in the heart.” (3:154)Therefore, good and evil are the things men and women do, which becomes the cause of reward or punishment of their deeds. The reward or punishment is decreed by God as either goodness (abundance, wealth, children and good health, etc), or evil (drought, famine, poverty, poor health, disease, etc).So going back to the original proposition, to enjoin good and forbid evil is based upon a person’s ability and position. Commanding is for royalty, nobility, the rich and the influential. For the rest of us, gentleness is advised in our approach, as harshness usually results in a person feeling hard-done-by, insulted, or belittled, and in a worst-case scenario, they may even completely reject what you have enjoined, resulting in them indulging in even more evil. For example, if you see someone smoking during fasting, you may approach them and either shout at them, or gently advise them that smoking is not only bad for your health, but also breaks the fast. In the first approach, if the person doing the telling is a person of high position, the smoker is likely to stop the action immediately, however, he will still feel embarrassed, which is not the desired effect. In the second approach, any Muslim (or even non-Muslim for that matter) could take a more reasonable tone, for example: ‘Brother, I have noticed that you smoke a lot. It is common knowledge now that smoking is bad for the health, so you don’t need me tell you about that, however, did you know that it is considered impermissible in Islam now for that very reason. It also invalidates the fast because the smoke reaches your stomach. Furthermore, Ramadan is good time to attempt to quit smoking. Have you considered using Ramadan as a way of quitting smoking?’A villain is likely to misinterpret ‘Enjoin Good, Refrain from Evil’ to lineup with whatever their own agenda is. Combine this with the idea of evil being something that we commit and the ill consequence of that action. We are commit evil sometimes, however, in most cases we know that we are doing something wrong. A villain may not have this self-awareness. Or their context may make it difficult for them to see it as evil. For example, a group of soldiers raped a man’s wife and daughter and then killed their family in front of them. The man survives and raises an army and then goes on a revenge rampage to wipe out everyone from the soldiers’ country. In this scenario, evil has begotten more evil. However, the man may feel that what he has suffered justifies his actions, and therefore would not see revenge as evil.A hero is likely to be proactive in enjoining the best possible actions for the individual and society. For example, the hero sees people suffering from poverty and famine but does not have the means to alleviate it. She therefore sets out to raise awareness of this dire situation and starts a fundraising campaign to help those affected. Once the money has been raised, she takes an active roll in distributing food and resources to those affected.An anti-hero may passively note that something is wrong and feel bad about not doing anything to stop it. This could then later lead to their redemption arc. So, let’s go back to the earlier war-crime scenario. One of the soldiers doesn’t take part in the raping and killing of the villain’s family. He is disgusted by what his unit are doing and says as much to them, but doesn’t do anything to stop it. This experience eventually leads him to dessert the army and seek a different life. However, when the villain comes rampaging through the village he has settled in, he recognises him and tries to make amends by offering himself as a willing sacrifice in order to save his village/If the main or side character is in a weak position to start off, they may have some internal dialogue that suggests that the evil they are seeing is making them feel upset, or unwell. This may become a source of disquiet for them throughout the story. So perhaps, our war-crime survivor doesn’t go on a murderous rampage, but is wracked by PTSD. Or our saviour lady watches the news every day and cries over the horrors that are taking place in the world, but feels powerless to do anything other than share social media posts and give a few dollars a month to charity.Rule 2 Do No HarmThe second rule is related to the first. In a hadith narrated by Abu Sa’eed al-Khudree that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, ‘There should be neither harming nor reciprocating harm’. (Ibn Majah, 2341, Daraqutnee, 4:228 and Muwatta Imam Malik, 2:746).This is a universal, legal and ethical principle in Islam, which applies in every public, private, social, political, legal matter. It covers physicals, emotional, psychological and financial harm. Reciprocating harm extends this principle to taking revenge or responding to harm with either equal or greater harm.There are a number of Quranic verses that relate to this Hadith and principle. The first is in regards to legal recourse. A person should not take the law into their own hands and instead should seek legal recourse. In this regard, a harm can be punished to an equal amount, but forgiveness is advised as a higher path, one that will result in an expiation of sin.“We ordained for them in the Torah, “A life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth—and for wounds equal retaliation.” But whoever waives it charitably, it will be atonement for them. And those who do not judge by what Allah has revealed are truly the wrongdoers.” (Qur’an, 5:45)Then there is the rules of war. It is difficult to engage in war and not cause harm. But there are limitations placed by God on what is just and what is not.“Fight in the cause of Allah only against those who wage war against you, but do not exceed the limits. Allah does not like transgressors.” (Qur’an, 2:190)War was not permissible for Muslims until this verse was revealed after the migration to Madinah. There are several restrictions highlighted in this verse. First of all, fight only those who are fighting against you. Non-combatants are off-limits. If a fighter drops their weapon and surrenders, a Muslim cannot strike them down. If a woman, a priest of an old-man (who are normally considered non-combatants) take up arms against Muslims, they are then considered combatants. This does not include camp followers who are not actively fighting against the Muslims. Therefore, surgeons, priests, spouses, children in the enemy camp are not to be harmed.There are clear opportunities here for writers to explore the conundrums and tests that such a broad ruling may apply to domestic, political, economic and martial situations. Going back to our survivor story, it is clear that the villain’s need for revenge is not justified Islamically. He could seek legal recourse, petition his ruler or even the commander of the soldiers to seek recompense. Remember, we have to separate empathy for his situation from his actions in response to his tragedy. This rule also works well with the anti-hero scenario as he is wracked by guilt, as ‘do no harm’ also extends to causing harm through inaction. Therefore, if a person lacks the physical ability or the bravery to verbally oppose wrongdoing, they must still think it evil and at the very least pray for the guidance of the perpetrators of evil and the salvation of the victims of evil.So, to conclude, every Muslim writer or character should have this strong compulsion to want to enjoin good and stop evil and to avoid harm. As a writer, this should show in the choices you make about story, plot, character development and themes. If you are writing Muslim characters, this should be a central factor in the character development. If they are currently in a weak position, they provides the perfect impetus for a character arc in which they move from inaction to proactive response. If they are already proactive, this should give an opportunity to explore changes in their psyche, as doing good often changes you into a better person, and provide opportunities for reflection. If the character is either a villain or anti-hero, this also creates interesting opportunities for introspection, self-loathing and either a self-destructive arc or a redemption arc.That is all for this episode.. I want to hit 500 subscribers by the end of 2026 and you can help make that happen by liking, sharing and subscribing. Look out for future parts to the 10 Rules for Writing Muslim Fantasy over the coming year. Next week we have an interview with Indian sci-fi author Lavanya Lakshminarayan. Until then, Keep Dreaming, Keep Writing and Let Your Stories Shine. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit noorajahangir.substack.com