The magazine will be published online quarterly, with the first issue being released on January 1, 2019. We are looking for original works of Sci-Fi in English with great characters, inspired by Islamic history, Islamic theology and Islamic cultures. The Science in the stories need not be hard but it needs to have godd characters. Anything that can be construed as offensive according to Islamic ethos will not be accepted. In terms of content, here is what we are looking for:

Scope

Short stories: 1000 – 5000 words ($20 per story)
Micro-Fiction: 2 – 5 sentences ($1 per micro story)
Graphic Designs: $7 per design
Illustrated Short Stories: $10-$50 depending upon the length
Poem: $3 per poem
Reviews: $7 per book review (be sure to email us in advance to gauge interest)
Essays: $10 per essay  (be sure to email us in advance to gauge interest)

We are just starting out with this project and hope to increase the payment rate as we get more sponsors and contributions from the community. I implore you to share this far and wide in your respective communities. The magazine will be published in the digital magazine format as well as on the Islam and Sci-Fi website.

How to submit: Send your submissions to islam.scifi@gmail.com with Takwin Submission as the subject line
Submission Format: Microsoft word, PDF or simple text file format
Submission Window: October 30, 2018 – December 25, 2018
Rights: We retain the right to publish your story online and elsewhere under The Islam and Sci-Fi and/or Takwin name. We do not exclusively retain the right. You are free to resell.

Thanks for your interest! We look forward to reading your work!

As promised on Twitter, here is more original content from Islam and Sci-Fi. Here is a design of the Starship Enterprise in the style of Truck Art from Pakistan. This is the result of my collaboration with B Ali. Truck Art is a traditional art form from South Asia (Pakistan and India) where folk artists adore their trucks in traditional motifs. These two pieces are specifically in the style of Pakistani Truck Art. Roddenberry once described Enterprise as the wagon train for the stars so it is only fitting to reimage the Enterprise as Pakistani Truck Art. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments section. You can also buy T-shirts and other designs like mugs, notebooks, phone cases etc.

Click to Buy Here

Click to Buy Here

I will be presenting a paper on Utopias and Dystopias in Islamicate Science Fiction (i.e., Science Fiction from the Islamic world) at the Mechademia International Conference in Minneapolis. I will be presenting remotely from Seattle. Here is the abstract of my paper:

Future as the Present: Science Fiction Utopias and Dystopias from the Muslim World
Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad
Abstract: The utopias and dystopias produced by the Muslim world in the last 100 years are a good proxy of the aspirations of Muslim cultures. The themes from some representative utopian/dystopian works will be explored here. The first feminist science fiction utopia was imagined by the Bengali Muslim author Ruqqaiya Sakawat Hussain in 1905. In the 1930s, the Turkish author Raif Necdet imagined a secular Turkish utopia which had broken free from its past. Al-Bud al-Khamis (1987) by Ahmad Raif imagines a group of humans who have become disillusioned with Earth. They arrive on Mars where they find a tolerant and non-violent utopian society, run by an Islam like religion.

Around the same time, the Turkish author Ali Nar envisions a very different utopia in Uzay Ciftcileri (Space Farmers) where group of astronauts from Earth go on a journey, inspired from the Ascension journey of Prophet Muhammad, and land on a utopian planet where the society is organized according to a mystical form of Islam. Ahmad Tawfiq’s (2011) dystopian novel Utopia envisions a near future Arab society rife with deep class divisions where the rich live in Elysium like enclaves and the poor barely have enough to survive. Basma Abdel Aziz’s (2016) novel The Queue is set in a Kafkaesque world where the hopes of Arab Spring have been crushed. It is set in the aftermath of an unsuccessful uprising where the helpless citizens struggle to get by in their daily lives against an absurd sinister dictatorship.

If you are around be sure to drop a line. Here is the link to the official conference website: Mechademia 2017

EMAD EL-DIN AYSHA is an academic, journalist and translator, currently stationed in Cairo, Egypt. While an Arab and Muslim he was born in the United Kingdom and is a native speaker of both English and Arabic. He completed his undergraduate and post-graduate education in England (BA, MA, PhD) and has taught topics ranging from international politics to Arab society at universities in Egypt. He’s a regular commentator on Mideast politics and a movie reviewing by natural predisposition. The two great loves of his life are history and science fiction. He’s finally moving into the literary realm, both as an original author and as a translator of short Arabic fiction.

Samples of Emad’s work fictional work to date:

• A Detour in Space by Emad El Din Aysha Reconnecting Arts
• Arabic Science Fiction – The Revolving Door by Emad El Din Aysha The Levant

Emad’s non-fictional work on fiction:

• Emad El Din at Cario Scene

Hello Friends,

We’ve had some time to reflect on the election results. Some are happy that their candidate won others are not. To be honest I am just glad its over. What happened, happened. This election cycle has been insane. I stopped watching after the first debate and relied on Stephen Colbert to keep me up to date. After the results were announced I went through stages of shock, reflection, and analysis. 

My findings? as Neil deGrasse Tyson so eloquently tweeted  take the cosmic perspective. Some would say that this is high-brow and only an aloof fool would look to the stars for solace when fires burn around him. I beg to differ. I would encourage each and every Man, Woman and Child to take the cosmic perspective. Humble yourself and draw closer to your creator. 

Didn’t work? You still want to move to Canada? Or even better, how about a posh Gulf Country? Sure why not, would be easier. Heck while we are at it why not leave this rock altogether? We could join Elon Musk on Mars and restart civilization. Give it a few generations and we will be right back where we started! But then again, what if?

Remember last month’s post where I gave you story prompts from Islamic History? Well, prompt number six really resonated with me.

6. Pakistan was a nation formed on the basis of Islam. People of different ethnicities banned together to form one nation. In an age where space colonies are within practical reach, what would a colony populated by Muslim refugees look like?

I decided to explore this notion. At the same time, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone. You see I am an adult male I can write characters similar to me easily. So I decided to join a unique writing course. Storied Women, is an online course being offered by the University of Iowa. The point of which is to create stories with female protagonists. My first assignment was to write a scene with a female child. The end result was custom made for ISF readers, so here goes:

A Hiss at the Front Portal

BY SAQIB SADIQ

Sidra woke with a tear in her eye. It rolled down her plump cheek, softly nestling itself behind her ear. The sensation drew her out of her sleep. Through blurry eyes, she tried to comprehend her surroundings. “What was that?” she thought to herself. Still cringing from the image her mind’s eye gave her. She knew it wasn’t real, it’s hellish cry was gone.

Her eyes began to focus. The bright colors of her ludo board greeted her. It was just the way she left it last night. Her pieces had all safely finished while her brother’s hadn’t. And it better stay that way or else baba would know.

She rubbed her brown eyes and gave a satisfied yawn. Where was Ummy? She was always doting on her. Brushing her hair, washing up for breakfast. Her hair was already pretty tangled. And would tug when she ran her fingers through it.

Another yawn and she slipped out of her warm bed. Still groggy she carefully made her way to the mirror. Seeing no sign of Ummy she decided to brush her own hair. And why not? She needed to learn. She was getting older after all. Yanking old hairs from the spikes she began to brush. First one side than the other. All the way to the ends. She slipped on a hairband and walked out the room.

The capsule corridors were strangely quiet. There usually was a clattering of plates from the dining node. The morning breakfast already consumed. Thinking nothing of it she made her way to the bathroom. Soothing pulses helped to get rid of grime that had formed on her earth-toned skinned.

Peeking out in the corridor she called out “Ummy?” hearing no response “Baba?” still no response she considered calling her brother’s name but decided against it. She needed her breakfast first. Skipping along she made her way to the dining node. To her surprise breakfast was neatly laid out. The fluffy stack of parathas beckoned while the savory chickpeas tantalized.

Pinching off a small piece of fried batter she scooped up some chickpeas. The warm spices and buttery goodness melted in her mouth. Her stomach rumbled and she fed it more. Having her fill, she stepped out of the dining node.

Where was everyone? It wasn’t even Friday afternoon, so where could everyone be? Feeling annoyed she returned to her room. Her crayons and pencils neatly laid out on her desk. She began tracing figures. Images of people fleeing. Running scared through the streets. Shattered glass. And it. She stopped unable to continue. How dare it invade her daydream? Wasn’t it bad enough to possess her nightmares?

More tears. She made her way to the ludo board. Maybe she should let her brother finish. Maybe that would make him come back. I should get up early to help ummy in the kitchen maybe that’s why she isn’t here. And baba I should help him with his books more often. I promise to do this I just want everyone back.

But she was alone. And now she knew it. What do I do?

Beep…beep…beep…

The family’s com panel was chirping. She made her way over. Lines of text scrolled by. Baba knew what to do with that. She walked away and headed back to her room. She didn’t want to draw anymore. She didn’t have anyone to play ludo with and her dolls were boring. She sat on the floor head slumped and propped up by her arms. She rolled her eyes looking around the room. Not sure what to do next she closed her eyes.

She woke to a darkened habitat. Panic stricken she hollered for lights. In response, the rooms and corridors were illuminated. She still couldn’t breathe right. She swept her eyes back and forth. “Ummy, baba, bhai!” no one replied. She bawled. Knocking the ludo pieces across the floor. Tearing her drawings asunder.

Beep…beep…beep…

She screamed smashing at the panel controls. A face appeared. “My dear are you alright?” she bawled some more. “I thought this sector was evacuated…standby” and just like that, the face was gone. She slumped against the corridor wall, too weak to cry too tired to scream. Her legs gave out allowing to slide down to rest on the floor.

Sniffling she wiped her tears. Now, what? She drew her knees in and rested her cheek. She must have done something really bad for everyone to leave her. Maybe she shouldn’t have yelled when baba asked her to clean her room. Or maybe she should have cleaned up after she spilled salan on the kitchen floor. And she definitely shouldn’t have called bhai names.

Sirens began to wail. Kinetic rumbles, blinding light. The habitat stood. She didn’t like the sounds. Not one bit. She had heard them before. But that’s when she had baba to read her books. She would tell her not to worry and that it would all be over soon. She wished he was around to tell her now.

A hiss at the portal. White suited figures. Engulfing her. Helping her with a suite of her own. Whisked away. She could see the habitat falling out of view. More kinetic rumbles followed by horrible flashes.

“Ummy!”

“Beti!” the two hugged each other. Clinging to one other sobbing relentlessly. Bhai and baba comforted them both. Sterile white lights and sanitized floors did nothing to lessen the warmth of the moment. Surrounded by loving arms Sidra was home again. Even bhai was a sight for sore eyes.

“You can beat me at ludo anytime, ok?” She laughed for the first time in a long time.

“Okay.” She nestled her head in ummy’s lap

“Who did your hair?” she mumbled on stroking long black strands

“Sidra.”

“Baba?”

“I am sorry.”

“Don’t be. I was supposed to clean my room and I didn’t that’s why everyone left me”

“No Sidra.” He chocked, a finger placed on his lips “I am just glad they found you.” Confused by the outburst she did not know what to think. Kissing her father’s cheek, she told him not to worry. In return, they all huddled together hanging onto each other for dear life.

Let me know what you thought in the comments below. There is more to Sidra’s Story, I plan on learning more about her with each assignment. I will let you know where to find her complete story in the coming weeks. But more importantly tell me what you came up. Which prompts resonated with you? Why were those your favorite prompts? Let us know in the comments!

Better late than never I always say, the wait is over, I give you the Science Fiction short story anthology based on the first Islamicate Short Story contest. There are a total of 12 stories in the anthology and the first three stories are also the ones which won the best story awards. The anthology is titled Islamicates: Volume I Science Fiction Anthology of Short Stories inspired by Muslim Cultures. It is titled Volume I because we hope to continue this series in the future. It was eight years ago that the first anthology based on Science Fiction inspired by Islamic cultures was released. Not only has the Geek Muslim community increased in numbers considerably but interest in Islam and Muslim cultures has increased to a great extent in pop media in general. We hope that our readers will greatly enjoy the anthology. As always comments, suggestions, questions and feedback in general will be greatly appreciated.

The anthology is available in a number of formats so that you can read it in whatever ebook reader that you like or even on your cellphone or computer. As an added bonus the anthology can also be available soon online at Amazon in the form of ink and paper book. Stay tuned. Last but certainly not the least, thank to our readers for making this project a reality.

The anthology can be downloaded in any of the formats listed below
[PDF] [EPUB] [MOBI] [AZW3] [FB2] [LIT]

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 and become a person of different character, do the sins and virtues carry over?) How does one calculate prayer times during time travel? In traveling two dimensions during maghrib, should I pray it twice? In which parallel universe is the child of a human and a jinn obligated to reside? And, the most recently pressing, does Prophet Isa’s conception of only Mary indicate that his chromosomes are XX?

Unlike their implications, these questions aren’t necessarily reserved for futuristic circumstances. One of the most powerful qualities of science fiction is its ability to examine our convictions about the present. In other words, science fiction presents us the opportunity to remove controversial subjects from their familiar settings and cultures, rendering them nearly unrecognizable. Consequently, the examination of these subjects must be conducted with principles that stand independently, without the navigational support of bias, self-created moral inclinations, or the deterrents of superficial political associations.

Nancy Farmer’s acclaimed science fiction novel House of the Scorpion is an example of this. Matt is a young boy who discovers he is a genetic replica of El Patron, the wealthy patriarch who has cloned himself several times in order to harvest organs from the children produced. Matt is faced with the terrifying dilemma of dying for the man he has come to love as his father—or of escaping, and denying El Patron organs necessary to survive, organs that rightfully belong to Matt.

In a narrative that eerily resembles the struggle for female bodily autonomy, Matt’s journey calls us to question whether favoring the embryo over the woman who is lending her bodily resources to it is truly a stance of principle—or merely one of prejudice, derived the sentiment that the ageless/unborn deserve any and all bodily resources, even when it means death for the biological mother.

El Patron, who plays the embryonic role, is over a hundred years old, and Matt is only a child. By aging the fetus/embryo remarkably, and moving the body of one party outside of the other, the novel tests whether arguments that a woman should be forced to provide bodily sustenance for her fetus remain intact. We can identify Matt as a person whose organs, even at the risk of his life, are commanded as sustenance for the productive use of a patriarch, and that the familiarity of this plot is so neatly disguised that the discussion to which it gives birth is not immediately realized. Because the controversy is removed from direct recollection, the reader is forced to form opinions organically, rather than rely on pre-formed, unsound principles.

Fantasy and science fiction are effectively confrontational: either genre projects uncomfortable universal endeavors (encountered prejudices, social difficulties, strenuous or restrictive constructions)—into circumstances that challenge predominant configurations through the recreation of societal architecture. Therefore, science fiction rebuffs the world as it claims to be: there is always an alternative.

To build worlds in science fiction is to enable ourselves to carefully test our compassion, not only across cultures, but across planets and dimensions. Truly universal principles, should hold.

In “The Woman from Altair” by Leigh Brackett—a story that makes my stomach churn—a male Earthling returns with a(n alien) woman, claiming that they had fallen in love, though it becomes evident she was brought by force. As writer Chally Kacelnik notes in her review of the short story, Ahrian is described initially as a beautiful, docile woman, with “hair the color of amethysts,” and then, when she becomes a threat, as “a woman who had lavender hair and performed witchcraft.” This transformation, whether real or imagined, signifies the use of “witchcraft” to refer to non-normative knowledge… or rather, knowledge that is normative only among marginalized peoples.

In fantasy and science fiction, a “magical” race, when portrayed as desirable—vampires, elves, witches, etc.—is also portrayed as marginalized and made invisible to humans, under the guise of human safety, even as the race lives peacefully alongside humans, and, more frequently, the humans are the demonstrable threat, not the threatened. (Popular exception: zombies, and even that’s changing.) In science fiction the threat and the threatened is a telling dynamic; it is remarkable that so many science fiction characters invested in alien life advocate for the capture and dissection of unwilling aliens to “learn” about them, when one could just as easily request biology textbooks from their home planets. And it is no accident. Colonialism informs most science fiction narratives conveyed in English, so that these narratives perpetuate ideas of domination and coercion. After all, what histories do we absorb that instruct us on captivity and dissection as acceptable approaches to learn of the “Other,” as acceptable ways to conduct intergalactic relations?

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the first science fiction novel written in the English-speaking world, exacerbates the boundaries between humans and monsters; the suggestion of the novel, however, is a keenly destabilizing one: “What’s the difference?” It investigates the self-consuming obsession with virtue, whether virtue is extracted from arrogance or from perfection, and the deceptive nature of human im/morality.

Science fiction, therefore, not only enables the exploration of our rigidly-held beliefs and convictions, but facilitates in contesting them. The implications of good science fiction, like all good literature, are just as ahead of their time as the genre’s boastful stories: scifi does not merely recreate history by inverting oppressions or social schemas. Rather, it tests the soundness of our judgments by imposing imaginative factors on our reconstructions. After all, behind the absurdity in the question of whether sins and virtues carry over with rearranged DNA is the deeper implications of identity: beyond the age-old, Who are we? beneath those sins and virtues is the Whom might we become? Is Prophet Isa still not Prophet Isa regardless of his chromosomes? On Neptune, with our 14 lunar calendars for Neptune’s 14 moons, aren’t we still all Muslims?

• http://io9.com/f-or-noor-hashem-a-mellon-postdoctoral-fellow-in-the-1711141616
• http://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2015/summer/muslim-sci-fi-and-comics

Happy Sunday!

The Whys and Wherefores of Translating Science Fiction into Arabic by mlynxqualey At this year’s Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, YA author and would-be/will-be publisher Noura al-Noman drove in from Sharjah to talk about translating literature for young people. She spoke alongside Dar al-Muna publisher Mona Henning, author and translator Sampurna Chatterji, and Literature Across Frontiers’ director Alexandra Büchler. Al-Noman spoke about the particular importance of translating science fiction into Arabic. This is an interest of hers “because of the fact that I’m focused on this rare genre.” Although al-Noman is producing spec-fic novels—two now, with a third in progress—there is a need for the genre to be enriched by translations if it is to flower, she said. “How many books can I come up with per year? There has to be more of that content available for young adults for them to keep interested in the genre. The only way to do that is by translating.” This isn’t just true of science fiction, al-Noman said. Other languages could contribute a lot to the Arabic-language flowering of genres that are less common in Arabic, including fantasy, paranormal, and graphic novels. For this reason, al-Noman has “already started my own publishing house.” But she has hit a sticking point: “Besides the fact that you have so many costs, who’s going to pay the translator? Translation isn’t cheap.” Büchler echoed this: “When you translate, this is one of the major obstacles. There is very little support available, and when publishers apply for grants, when they want to publish books translated from European languages, they [the grant organizations] usually would go for adult novels. It’s still quite rare” for grant money to go to children’s books. So, if it’s not going to make al-Noman a wealthy woman, why bother translating other science fictions into Arabic? “My kids started reading exclusively in English,” al-Noman said. So at some point, when she realized what was happening, she decided to go out, “and I looked for books [in Arabic] that could compete with Harry Potter and Twilight, which I hate, and all the other books that they’re reading—nothing.” She found “nothing that would compete.” That’s why al-Noman wrote her first science fiction novel, Ajwan, and her second as well:Mandan. But two science fiction novels are hardly enough to build interest in the genre. There are other scattered efforts in different Arab countries, and at the Abu Dhabi fair, for instance, al-Noman ran across a science fiction novel for middle-grade readers by debut Emirati author Shaima al-Marzouki. But science fiction has yet to fully take off in Arabic. Al-Noman also spoke about the challenges of science fiction in Arabic, particulary how difficult it was to express certain ideas and conventions. As Palestinian poet Mazen Maarouf said in a recent interview, parts of the Arabic language have become “frozen.” He said: “We have 30,000 terms in physics that have no translation into Arabic.” Al-Noman said that, as she writes, she often wonders: “How do you do this in Arabic?” But as Büchler noted, “this is how writing develops, and takes on interesting directions.”

The Nation Newspaper from UAE has a story on the recent surge in the  portrayal of Muslims in Comics and Science Fiction and also increase in the number of Muslim characterss who have non-marginal positive roles in the Comics Media.

Among those contributing to the panel, titled Geeks of Color Assemble!, was a Pakistani-born, Minnesota-based computer scientist called Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, who runs a blog called Islam and Science Fiction. He painted a mixed picture of the way that Arabs and Muslims are portrayed in mainstream geek culture: on one hand, he says, they are still “the quintessential ‘other’” and often presented in opposition with the West; on the other, writers have become much more sensitive in the past decade and there has been a recent flowering of Muslim superheroes in American comics.