Fatwa ID: 06462

Answered by: Mufti Tammim Mohamadou

Question:

I am an author. I’ve been writing books since I was 11. I published my work online at the age of 16. Since then, I’ve been working on a series of books called The Set Me Free series. The series is based on these creatures who look like human beings but are far more powerful than human beings. They are from an exoplanet. They settled on the earth for centuries. Some of them went astray and followed the path of shaitan. Another group followed the Path of Allah Subhanahu’Watalla by becoming Muslims. These creatures are called Urbjinns. The bad Urbjinns want to take over the earth by killing and enslaving human beings. The good Urbjinns want to stop them from doing so. The whole idea behind this series is to show the triumph of Islam over disbelief, to highlight the depths of oppression faced by many people of our Ummah (like Palestinians), and also to teach values and virtues like honesty, loyalty, and courage. I make sure to write within the boundaries of Islam. I never glorify any un-Islamic thing. There is no explicit scene and no obscene language used. I also want to show how the powerful oppressors (here bad Urbjinns) not only oppress those who are less powerful (here human beings) but also those who are equally powerful but prefer kindness over cruelty (here the good Urbjinns). I use Ayats from the Qur’an in my chapters and Hadiths as well. I am only concerned about the Urbjinn thing. Some readers have been bugging me that since there is nothing like Urbjinns in reality, even if my motive behind weaving this imaginary world is noble, I can’t write about it. My question is, am I doing the right thing? In my mind, Urbjinns are just personifications of abstract things like good, evil, honesty, loyalty, disloyalty, and so on. Am I allowed to continue writing?

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Answer:

Fiction writing is the composition of non-factual prose texts which is often produced as a story meant to entertain or convey an author’s point of view. [1]

Our Darul Ifta Birmingham has already given its view on the subject of fiction writing.

The excerpt is that is permissible to write fiction if the following conditions are fulfilled:

1. The content of the fiction should be within the boundaries of the Shariʿah
2. It should be written for a noble purpose like deriving a moral/lesson.

Having said above, based on the details provided, it appears that you are fulfilling those conditions thus you may continue to write. [2] [3]

Last but not least, we would like to advise you to not use any verses of the Qur’an as such in your work as it is a fictional book, thus people may carry it all over the place thus the reverence due to Qur’an may be at risk. Or at least you should warn your audience that your book should be treated carefully due to verses of the Qur’an being cited, in shā Allah.

Only Allah (ﷻ) knows best.

Written by Maulana Tammim Mohamadou

Checked and approved by Mufti Mohammed Tosir Miah

Darul Ifta Birmingham

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