The author of this piece manages to give us a huge window of insight into her life and her relation to Islam in just a few pages. It is an emotionally charged piece telling the story of her life, as it begins with her birth, both physically and spiritually. She broaches the question of what it means to be born Muslim, as it has already been assumed for her. The whole time I was reading this piece, I was unsure of why the writing structure had no capital letters. By the end, however, she states, “because finally finally finally i trust God. and They said: be. and it was” (Azad 63). The capitalization of God, and the first capitalization in the text, could be like a declaration of faith or trust in God. The use of They, and her talk of her sexuality show us so much about her own journey of faith. Though she was born Muslim, as she states by the lips of her father, she no longer lets others expectations of what Islam means affect how she lives as a Muslim. Not her father, or the qari, or money, or her mother, or her trauma, or her love. She trusts God.
Leave a Reply