rana ossama via Compfight

Ramadan started on Fri­day (the 20th).  Ramadan is the Mus­lim holy month in which Mus­lims across the world fast from sun-up to sun-down.  The fast includes, or rather excludes, more than food.  We also try to give up any­thing that is detri­men­tal to our health or our spir­i­tual well-being.  In this month, we try to offer more prayers, do more good works and com­plete an entire read­ing of the Holy Qur’an, among other things.  For most of us, this is a phe­nom­e­nal time.  Through fast­ing, many of us if for­tu­nate, gain a lovely clar­ity that we may not have at any other time of the year, though the hope is that the effects of the fast are more last­ing than the 29–30 days we spend with­out food.

I caught this awe­some arti­cle yes­ter­day in my feed.  It made me remem­ber, for the sec­ond time this week about a com­pe­ti­tion my son entered when he was eight.  He entered a story into the PBS Read­ing Rain­bow Young Writ­ers and Illus­tra­tors con­test.  I don’t recall the name of the story but I remem­ber help­ing him write and illus­trate it.  It was a cute lit­tle story in which he fea­tured.  The gist was him going to space, land­ing on the moon, and being able to leave three per­sonal items on the sur­face of the moon.  If mem­ory serves, his three items were a choco­late bar, a com­puter, and a prayer.  One of his illus­tra­tions was of him mak­ing sajda (pros­tra­tion) while wear­ing the white space suit.

Stu­art Williams via Compfight

My son won run­ner up (maybe it was third place, now that I think back) and he was so proud.  I was too.  I once hoped, as did he, that he would grow up and become an astro­naut. Going to the moon is no longer a big deal, but I envi­sioned him going to Mars.  I also envi­sioned him mak­ing the Islamic call to prayer while on Mars.  I’m no longer as hope­ful that he will make it to Mars, although I have not com­pletely crossed this off my list f great things I’d like to see my son do, but I’m cer­tain he’s crossed it off his list.  His hopes and dreams are far more ter­res­trial these days.  I can’t blame him.

Any­way, I also wanted to share this video (I had dif­fi­culty embed­ding it into this post).  I thought it was so fit­ting, this being Ramadan, me being Mus­lim, a lover of sci­ence and sci­ence fic­tion, with dreams if outer space.

Bajo­ran — Major Kira Nerys

I love Star Trek, but as a per­son of faith, I’ve always won­dered at the seem­ing absence of reli­gion and reli­gious obser­vances in the show.  Until ST:DS9, to my rec­ol­lec­tion (please feel free to cor­rect me), reli­gious adher­ences were only ever made in pass­ing ref­er­ence.  ST:DS9’s Bajo­ran race has an intri­cate deeply spir­i­tual reli­gion that imbued DS9 with a fresh dynamic not seen in the other ST series in my opin­ion.  As the Bajo­rans were an inte­gral part of the series, their reli­gion, the obser­vances and intrigues were just as integral.

How­ever, few reli­gions on Star Trek ever resem­ble those of Earth, namely Judaism, Islam, or Chris­tian­ity, which is fine.  With fic­tion, par­tic­u­larly fic­tion of the SFF brand, there is so much room for impro­vi­sa­tion and the cre­ation of new races, reli­gions, and WORLDS that don’t resem­ble the ones we already know.  We get to cre­ate, which is part of the point, at least.

Cur­rently I am work­ing on a story for the Yuva Anthol­ogy.  My main char­ac­ter Sanaa Muk­tari, is Mus­lim.  I write Mus­lim char­ac­ters because I am, but also because I’ve seen painfully few that are writ­ten as whole human beings.  In other words, the char­ac­ter is either Mus­lim and not much else, or they are Mus­lim but the other aspects of them are so promi­nent that their reli­gion no longer resem­bles Islam.  I try to write the kinds of char­ac­ters I’d like to read about.  Char­ac­ters who like me are a bit more bal­anced. Char­ac­ters whose faith informs their world, but who are them­selves informed by the world they live in.  I hope that I am suc­cess­ful, not in preach­ing (who wants to be preached at?) but at mak­ing some small suc­cess in cre­at­ing balance…at least for myself.

Ramadan Mubarak.