Minaret

“Establishing an equilibrium between the Islam of truth and Islam as an identity is one of the most difficult tasks of religious intellectuals.” This is a famous quote by Abdolkarim Soroush, and just as it is difficult for intellectuals to distinguish between one Islam and the other, it is difficult to understand the practices of Islam and why Muslims act the way they do.
A minaret is a tall,slender tower which is attached to a mosque, but it is also the name of Leila Aboulela’s novel. In “Minaret” Leila describes the story of a rich young girl from Sudan, whose destiny changed in an instant and whose beliefs changed over time. Najwa is the name of that girl and through her story Islam becomes more comprehensible. She had to overcome many struggles which made her get closer to Islam.Najwa had to learn many things about her religion such as covering herself, worshiping and understanding Allah decides the destiny of each person.

As a teenager Najwa had everything people could ask for; luxury, money, and most important, a family that loved her. Her parents loved each other and his twin brother, Omar, was his confident. Najwa had all of these, but there was something that wasmissing from her, her soul was empty. Even though she was Muslim, it was only appearance. Ramadan was a great time to lose weight for her, ignoring the importance of fasting to sacrifice for Allah and follow Muhammad’s example. At university she used to watch people praying during the Salat times, but she did not understand why they did such thing. Najwa could not understand why women covered theirhead. Why wasn’t her like that? Her lifestyle was different; she grew up at the top of her society with a mixture of Middle Eastern and western cultures, the west being more inculcated to her. While the rest of the Muslims were praying and women were covering their heads, Najwa was listening to Michael Jackson and using skirts to go to parties. At some point in the novel Randa, her best friend,said that Muslims were crazy and that people should go forward and not back to the middle ages, Najwa responded “ ’What do we know? We don’t even pray.’ Sometimes I was struck with guilt”. She had no idea what it was to pray since she did it only when she needed something , and sometimes being this way was not pleasant for her.

When Najwa was forced to move to London, she never imagined herreligious identity was going to have a drastic change. At her arrival, Najwa did not struggle for anything. She still had her mom, Omar, and some money which helped them have the lifestyle they used to have in Sudan. After Najwa’s mom died and her brother was put in jail, she had nothing left to live for, but she did not give up. Najwa did no longer have family to support her or the money her fatherleft them, she was alone. She started to work for her mom’s friend and then moved to being a cleaning girl for people she did not know. Najwa found comfort in the mosque.

After Najwa’s friend, Wafaa, offered her to assist the reunions at the mosque Najwa had no idea what to do, she thought “Couldn’t they see I was not the religious type?”. Even under her confusion Najwa soon decided to acceptthe invitation, but still she did not feel comfortable wearing the hijab. Of course it must be difficult for a woman accustomed to show her body without modesty to cover herself. The Quran specifically states that women should draw their head-coverings over their bosoms. So if Najwa wanted to become a practicing Muslim she had obey Allah’s laws. Although at the beginning it was hard for her to wearhijabs, it was just a matter of time until she got used to it and evens started to like it.

“I have not created jins and humans but, for my worship”, words of Allah found in the Holy Quran. Worshiping is an important factor of Islam Najwa had to learn. It is a custom for Muslims to pray 5 times a day facing Mecca, their holy place. The first times Najwa prayed she felt an inner peace she...