Hello, everyone! I am Mariam, a Pakistani Muslim girl. I wrote a chapter here about writing Muslim characters quite a while back and I am now aware that it was more of a rant and not very informative at all. So instead, I've written up what I hope will be a comprehensive guide on writing Muslim characters for you guys. If you feel like you still have questions, PM me anytime and I'll be happy to help out.

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WHAT IS ISLAM?

Well, my friend, Islam is one of the world's three Abrahamic religions, meaning that it shares common beliefs with both Christianity and Judaism. As of 2015, there are about 1.8 billions Muslims all over the world, so no matter what your story is about, chances are, your character might be a Muslim person! Wow, what a concept. But what will you do if you aren't sure how to go about writing this character? Read on.

GENERAL ADVICE + THINGS TO AVOID

First things first, remember, your character is the reflection of reality, which means your character is a just person who happens to be Muslim. Avoid "othering" and alienating your character. Your character will, believe it or not, have conflicts and trauma and will think and observe just as any normal person would. What all this means is that writing a Muslim character is nothing to be afraid of and it's not difficult either.

One thing that really disturbs me while reading is a Muslim character who is high and mighty and holier than anyone else, someone who does no wrong. Your character is just a person; people make mistakes, and people aren't perfect. You might be wondering: but if my character isn't perfect, how will they be a Muslim? Well, my troubled comrade, being a Muslim does not mean that you are good at being a Muslim, following religious rules, or that you are even religious at all. Remember, people aren't always close to their religion, people struggle with religion, and lots of people aren't practicing Muslims, so your character might just happen to be one of those people.

Another thing to avoid is negative representation, especially linked to issues like terrorism and extremism. Thought it is sadly true that there are several terrorist organizations out there which link themselves to Islam, the way Muslim people are being treated by society and the media is bad enough already without you throwing the community under the bus. This doesn't your character cannot be a villain or a bad person, just avoid generalizing while writing your character.

The most commonly asked question is get in PMs is: so, can you tell me about Muslim culture?

The problem with this is the fact that a person of any ethnicity, race or nationality can be a Muslim. Anyone can convert to Islam! If you wanted to, you could be a Muslim! This means that a) there is no pan-Muslim culture and b) your character's culture will more likely linked to their nationality and/or ethnicity.

TELL ME ABOUT ISLAM

If you want to get into the nitty and gritty of it, there is always Google, or you can go to a nearby mosque or Islamic center and ask someone to help you out. What I will provide here is just the gist of it.

Basically, the fundamental belief of Islam is that there is one God, who is omnipotent and is the only being worthy of worship. The one and only completely unforgivable sin is associating partners with God, known as shirk, which literally means association. Islam rejects idolatry, having major and minor gods/goddesses and the worship of people, dead or alive.

In Islamic belief, God sent down to the earth Prophets, to guide people of different nations when they went astray. The last of the Prophets was Prophet Muhammad (SAW) who brought down the final message of Islam, which will be applicable till the end of time, otherwise known to Muslims as Qiyamat or The Day of Judgement. Muslims believe in an afterlife, consisting of heaven and hell. There is no concept of eternal damnation is Islam, except for the previously mentioned sin of shirk. Otherwise, you will do your time in hell for your sins and then make your way into heaven once it's up.

The primary belief of Muslims is that there is one God, Allah. Allah is just literally the Arabic word for God. Anyone who speaks Arabic is likely to refer to God as Allah, simple as that. This belief in the Oneness of God and the fact that the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was the last prophet to be sent on earth is basically what makes you a Muslim. Like that's it. Practicing the religion is a different matter.

HOW MAY BEING A MUSLIM AFFECT MY CHARACTER'S DAILY LIFE?

Well, practicing Muslims are likely to adhere to some basic rules laid down by Islam.

There are five pillars of Islam, the first of which is Tawheed/tauheed, which is basically just the belief in Allah and His Prophet (SAW). The next four are of prayer/Salah, fasting/Saum, charity/Zakat and pilgrimage/Hajj.

PRAYER

The first obligation is that of daily prayers. There are five mandatory daily prayers which serve as a purpose of remembering Allah as you go about your lives. Prayer becomes mandatory on children who have reached the age of puberty. Children younger than that, people who are menstruating, and people who are mentally ill are not required to perform prayer. Because the prayers are ritualistic, in event of injury or illness you can skip over the more straining postures and pray sitting down in a chair, or lying down in bed, etc.

Requirements for prayer are:

Being in a state of purity. This means having completed wudu or ablution or having performing ghusl which is like a bath. If you have blood, urine or vomit on your clothes, place of worship, or you body, you will have to clean up first before praying. If water for washing up is unavailable, you can perform Tayammum, which simply is rubbing your hands and face down with clean dirt or sand (kind of like exfoliating???)

Facing the Qiblah, which means praying in the direction of the Holy Ka'abah in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The direction of Qiblah is relative to your geographic postions.

Praying at the actual time of prayer. There are five prayers, Fajr, Zhuhr/Duhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha. The times for prayers are relative to the position of the sun and a quick Google search of "prayer times (city name)" should help you find those.

Addressing the weird stigma around menstruating people not having to pray is awkward and confusing. The whole thing is that you can't pray while bleeding/having blood on your body, right? And you have your period, cleaning up five times and day and trying to pray would be a huge pain. Since prayers are obligatory, this would be a problem, since it is sinful to purposely skip out on prayers. So, Islam was like, you know what? No problem, it's okay if you skip out on it and just relax. And that's basically it. The same thing applies to reading the Quran in physical form. If you have blood on your body, you don't need to go through the pain of performing wudu while menstruating.

FASTING

Since it is Ramadan right now, I know a lot of people get confused. Basically, the month of Ramadan, which is month in the Islamic lunar calendar, is considered a months of great blessing and adult, able-bodied Muslims are required to fast for every day of the month. The first day of Shawal, the next month, is Eid, a celebration at the end of Ramadan. This Eid is also referred to as Eid-ul-Fitr.

The essence of the fast is that one wakes up before the time of Fajr, the first daily prayer, and eat a nice, hearty meal, and once the call for prayer, adhaan/azaan, is called for Fajr, the fast begins. Muslims are not allowed to eat or drink anything (yes, not even water) until the azaan for Maghrib, the evening prayer, which happens at sunset is called out.

Ramadan is a great month in which the Muslim community comes together and is just generally really positive and spiritual. People will come together for Iftaari, or breaking fast at sunset and go to the mosque to pray the special taraweeh prayers. It's a month for spirituality, to ask for forgiveness and just be closer to Allah.

ZAKAT

Zakat is a charity necessary upon adult Muslims who are financially eligible, which is technically a requirement that you pay 2.5% of that year's savings to the poor and needy. Zakat specifically can only be given to other Muslims/ within the Muslim community, but there is no restriction from giving in charity to anyone else at other times. Most people pay Zakat during the month of Ramadan. The concept of Zakat is that it purifies the wealth you possess and in exchange for giving in the way of Allah, you receive blessings.

Zakat can be paid to the poor, to new converts to help them in their transition to the religion, to travellers to aid them in their expenses and anyone otherwise in need.

HAJJ

Every able Muslim is required to perform pilgrimage to the Holy Ka'abah, the House of Allah, in Makkah in remembrance of the pilgrimage the early Muslims made to escape persecution. People should try their best to make the pilgrimage at least once in their lives, but if it is not possible to complete either because of financial issues or you health, you do not have to do it.

Hajj can only be performed during the month of Dhul Hijja, but another pilgrimage, which is not equivalent to performing Hajj, called the Umrah can be performed at any time of the year. At the end of Hajj, Muslims celebrate three days of Eid, and this includes the sacrifice of an animal for the distribution of food in memory of the trial of Prophet Ibrahim, also known as Abraham. This Eid is also known as Eid-ul-Adha.

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Apart from the pillars of Islam, Muslims are encouraged to read the Quran and just generally be nice and kind to people. There's this deal where anytime you do something good for anyone, you have earned yourself a blessing, so especially around the time of Ramadan, people try to be super good to each other and help each other out.

Muslims aren't allowed to involve themselves in business transactions involving interest, and this is considered a big sin, but the problem is capitalism involves interest everywhere, so a lot of Muslims struggle with this quite often. Muslims are also forbidden from eating certain foods and consuming intoxicants like alcohol, which I will address further on.

CLOTHING

As I said before, clothing will usually be linked more to culture, but generally, Muslims are encouraged to dress modestly. Womxn are to cover their hair with a hijab, which is a very personal and religious symbol. Many women, like myself, choose not to wear the hijab, which in the end is always a personal decision. In event of the fear of persecution, or danger to yourself, you are always allowed to take off the hijab if it makes you unsafe and there is no sin in doing so.

Another thing is that most Muslims generally avoid getting tattoos done, because of the belief that you should not mar the body God gave you.

FOOD

Food, like clothing also depends on your character's culture. Muslims as a whole are required to eat only halal or lawful food. In reference to meat, this means that animals must be raised humanely, and a prayer must be performed before the sacrifice of an animal, to confirm that your intention of sacrifice is for food and hunting for game is generally discouraged in Islam. Muslims are allowed to eat the meat prepared by Jewish and Christian people, but since modern methods of preparing meat, especially for mass consumption in factories, do not usually involves praying or humane conditions for the animals, most Muslims don't eat meat at restaurant, just to be careful, though some people still do. You cannot eat the meat of a dead animal, which means that like, if you find a dead cow on your farm, you won't be allowed to eat that. Pork is also haram and Muslims usually avoid pigs in general.

All plant food is halal but there is ambiguity about some seafoods like octopus and squid. Like it isn't haram to eat it, but just avoid it incase. The word for this is makruh and if you eat or do anything makruh you won't be sinning, but it's just best not to do it.

Alcohol and any other intoxicants are haram since they remove you inhibitions and when you are intoxicated, you aren't in possession your sense, and thus have no control over your actions. An important theme in Islam is accountability for your actions, so intoxication is sinful.

There is confusion about cigarettes and so scholars carried out a consensus and because smoking had neither any benefits nor is it an intoxicant, smoking is considered makruh.

DATING + SEX

Like in a lot of religions, Islam discourages being involved with anyone romantically and/or sexually before marriage. According to most schools of thought, the reason for this is to protect people from being hurt because you know, relationships don't last and things happen, and so generally the rule is not to be involved with anyone until you are married. There is nothing wrong with liking someone though.

Obviously, no one is perfect, and lots of Muslim people do date, or don't believe strongly in this, but that all depends on your character. Apart from that, anything you do with your married partner is all good. Knock yourself out, kids.

Because even a lot of Muslims are confused about this, there is nothing wrong with using contraception. Also, anal sex is forbidden and having sex while menstruating is discouraged.

BEING LGBT

Sadly, there is a lot of conflict about being/or identifying with the LGBT community. I've had some discussion with my Islamic teachers about this and no one can seem to give a solid answer about this. But all in all, Islam is a religion of love and acceptance and most people agree that there is nothing wrong with feeling or identifying that way. I wish I could give a solid answer but the fact is that though there is conflict, lots of Muslims identify as LGBT and lots of Muslims are accepting.

What I would like to emphasize is that even if some people view Islam as not allowing being LGBT, even then Islam does not allow persecution of LGBT people in any way. It is written in the Quran that there is no compulsion in religion and that Muslims aren't free to judge people on their own about what is and isn't haram.

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Some good resources and websites:

http://www.newmuslims.com/

http://www.howtopray.com/

http://www.islam-qa.com/

http://www.understand-islam.net/

http://www.whyislam.org/

http://www.muslimheritage.com/

http://bayyinah.com/

@actrvist on Instagram (this is a social justice account they post informational thing about Islam too)

http://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/

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Well, I hoped that was helpful and once again, if you guys have any more questions, drop them in the comments section or feel free to PM me (@miserablemidas).