Islamic Fiction

I'm a member of www.shelfari.com. Shelfari is a great site for bringing together readers, and often writers, from throughout the world. I've made many cyberfriends through this site.

There are many groups on Shelfari, most of them dealing with a particular genre or maybe a certain author. This last summer I started a group for Islamic Fiction.

A few members trickled in. I started some discussions but there were few, if any, responses. After about six weeks I decided I should close the group. But I have a hard time quitting anything, even a lost cause, so I kept it open and didn't visit too often so I wouldn't get depressed.

Suddenly, members are flowing in and Islamic Fiction is revived. Last night we had twenty-six members. When I checked about an hour ago the number was up to thirty-nine. Discussions are going on that I didn't have to jumpstart. The group is alive.

Storytelling has been going on throughout the Muslim world for hundreds of years. In the last few decdes some Arab novelists have emerged. Now a dedicated group of writers is working to establish Islamic Fiction in North America. There are opposing forces, and some losses, but there are increasingly more victories.

Some Muslims contend that writing a story is like lying. But when a reader picks up a book of fiction, he or she knows the story didn't really happen. There are other reasons for telling a story, from entertainment to a way to impart universal truths.

I like what Mark Twain said about fiction. "The difference between fiction and non-fiction," he said, "is that fiction has to make sense."