Occasionally, I’ll pose preposterous questions to my friends: How do Muslims on Neptune decide on a lunar calendar? (Imagine locating the Shawwal moon on Neptune!) Since bodily members can testify on the Day of Judgment, how closely tied is the body to the soul? (If I rearrange my DNA andContinue Reading
The Book of Madness is a collection of short stories by Levent Şenyürek. Most of the stories have a grand premise ranging from the Soviets making contact with the aliens at the 1908 Tugunska event to machines that can make everything including universes. The collection also includes a self-referential storyContinue Reading
G. K. Chesterton’s 1914 novel, “The Flying Inn” is set in a near-future (for 1914) United Kingdom which has been taken over by Muslims. The Muslims have imposed Shariah and banned alcohol, and the two main characters (who are English) have taken it upon themselves to smuggle alcohol all overContinue Reading
In Arthur Clarke’s Hammer of God there is a religion called Chrislam which is based on Islam and Christianity. The religion is founded by a female veteran of the Gulf War. [Thanks to Guido N. for pointing this out]
Here is an excerpt from a review of The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate by William Mingin at Strange Horizons. “Fuwaad ibn Abbas, a fabric merchant, tells this story to the Caliph of Baghdad, perhaps in the classic “Arabian Nights” period of the Caliphate, as “a warning to those whoContinue Reading
Some especially gifted children (a generation’s Pattons, Eisenhowers, Curies, and Alexander’s) are trained to command humanity’s fleet. Andrew “Ender” Wiggin is particularly young, and becomes friends with a devout Muslim named Alai, who greets him with “Salaam” at several “tipping points” in Ender’s Game, and the character and his newContinue Reading
In John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar, one of the major protagonists of the story is a Muslim. [Thanks to Robert G., Karl S.]
In one of last chapters of Stephen Baxter’s novel Evolution there is a character named Ahmed who is one of four people to be revived from cytogenesis after thousands of years only to find out that the human race has devolved.
Greg Bear’s novel Strength of Stones is mainly concerned with Judeo-Christian themes, but Islam exists in the background. [Thanks to Marshall A. for the synopsis]