Hi Love Your Story But Magic Is Forbidden In Islam Could Give Some Insight On How Muslim Wizards And

Hi love your story but magic is forbidden in islam could give some insight on how Muslim wizards and witches deal with that. I'm Muslim and I really enjoyed how you wrote nadra.

Thanks so much for this question! The first thing to be said it that I am not Muslim. Anything I say is obviously an outsider’s interpretation. So I apologize if I inadvertently say something that lands on anyone in a harmful way. (If you feel comfortable enough to tell me that something has landed on you with harm, I am honored to hear it and will listen and reflect to do better in the future.) I have studied Islam, though I am no where near an expert, let alone even someone who is properly knowledgeable. Okay. So all of that said, I think there are a couple ways I could go with this.

1. Magic is also technically forbidden in Christianity. (Behold all the people who banned the HP books and still forbid their children from reading it today.) And yet, Harry Potter clearly lives in a Christian world. (Easter, Christmas, etc). So there is precedent for something being forbidden, but still being practiced within the confines of that culture/religion. Is it even possible to make a (fictional) inference that perhaps the splitting of wizards from muggles lead to a demonization of magic in response? An interesting thought.

2. It is my (very limited) understanding that the Qur’an forbids the use of magic to impersonate a prophet. That no one may use magic or illusions to claim to be speaking for God. While this could be extrapolated to ban all use of magic, it could also be interpreted that the use to which the magic is put is the forbidden element. The hadith may have more specific things to say against magic, I am sure. Though, the prohibitions also seem to build from an understanding that magic comes from djinn and other beings considered demonic. Which does not deny that magics exist, only that they are evil.

In the context of all of this, if one were comfortable with the idea, it would be extremely interesting to explore what it means to be a Muslim and to be born magical. How would one deal with that? I tried to show that Shafiqs clearly chose to isolate themselves from Hogwarts and have their own approaches and understandings of magic. I think it would be really interesting to explore that. Obviously this is not my story to write, as I would be trying to speak to an experience that is not my own and undoubtedly failing and causing harm as I did. But I would LOVE to read it.

I reached out to my friend @ekjohnston, author extraordinaire and generally super supportive YA queen, and she sent me a list of Muslim YA authors who write in the fantasy/magic genre of books. So maybe you could check out their work!  Somaiya Daud, Sabaa Tahir, Karuna Riazi, London Shah, Nafiza Azad, Taherah Mafi, Hafsah Faizel, Hanna Alkaf, Melissa Bashardoust, and I am sure many others.

Personally, I chose to include the Shafiqs as characters, both because it is canon that the Shafiqs are part of the Noble 28, and it helped answer the question I had about what kind of wizards might chose not to go to Hogwarts but might get forced back due to the new laws that last year. I also wanted to make sure it was acknowledged openly in the text that there is far more diversity in the wizarding world than Harry or even Ginny’s POV might have led us to believe. And Ginny as a Christian-coded, white person making mistakes and miss-stepping and realizing some of the prejudices she carries around and not demanding others explain things to her or do the work for her, but learning herself, and realizing she will never know everything but that listening to people tell their own stories is the most important…that is my experience and story to tell.

Remus Lupin: Sirius you did what.

Inspired by this post and others by lotstradamus

I'm so grateful to you for creating all these truly marvellous characters. Especially the parlour girls who own my heart. I adore Theodora and Antonia, the temper and fierceness beneath all that iron control. And I would read all seven books from their perspective and more. Thank you for giving us these stories.

Thank you so much!

What an interesting series of books those would be. They would be so far removed from Harry’s adventures and experiences as to be hardly recognizable, I think. It was fun enough to imagine what all the trio’s shenanigans would look like to Ginny who is only peripherally involved, but still is. Imagine what all of that looked like from older students who are wholly unconnected to the Weasleys and not privy to the actions of the Order. I’m sure someone has to have written that fic–the war through the eyes of a background character.

Of course with Theodora and Antonia, we would get a glimpse into two very different family dynamics–Theodora from an elite, upper class Pureblood family, trying to work within the constraints of tradition and yet achieve every single one of her ambitions without apology or compromise, and Antonia from her rather unique family of heterodox women who society is often too scared to look down on (hags, some might call them with a sneer, but only once).

I would quite like to read that myself. Someone else please magically remove this vague image I have of them from my head and flesh it out. Thanks, I appreciate it. 

movie ron: i’ll heh go easy on you. even though you have consistently showed us how proficient you are at spellcasting and how hyper confident you are at magic. i’m the Man so i’ll go easy, don’t worry my overwhelming manliness will not allow me to disarm a poor defenceless girl

book ron: [excitedly] I DISARMED HERMIONE THREE WHOLE TIMES DID YOU SEE THAT HARRY DID YOU?????

Maybe this is dumb, sorry, but I just wasn't sure. Ginny became member of the Parlor the second she was invited, right? And she could go back any time she wanted? So when Antonia 'asked her again' when she was going do a reading, it wasn't actually Ginny's second chance?

Yes. Though Antonia is the queen of second chances, this was more about Ginny thinking she deserved a second chance. Also a way to highlight that for Ginny, she is in foreign territory with rules and rituals and practices that she does not understand (and for a while doesn’t want to understand). All of which contributes to her feeling of not belonging. But it is not that the others don’t think she belongs, or even that she doesn’t, rather that Ginny’s perspective and understanding is the thing that needs to grow. Both of herself and of the space she inhabits.

What does Slytherin Ginny think about Albus Severus as a name for her baby? After two dead men with controversial histories? One who didn't care enough for the individual losses in face of greater good and another,a petty bully who was once her close friend's boggart? Perhaps if she got creative enough she could name him after a couple of parlor sisters instead?

1) Don’t assume Slytherin Ginny is going to have James, Albus, and Lily. Sorry next gen kids, nothing against you, but The Changeling universe is not epilogue compliant. I can say for certain that she is not going to have kids at 22.

2) I have a wonky personal headcanon that first-girl-in-seven-generations Ginny Weasley is going to have all girls. I just like that. You know, MAGIC.

3) I’m not on board with naming kids after dead people. I mean, you want to give them a name that’s been in your family for a long while and it’s your long dead great-great-great aunt’s name? Sure. Want to honor your grandmother who was your rock and your guiding light? Sure. Maybe a middle name though. But to give children a name tied to someone who died tragically or who is some larger than life hero? No. I think any kid of Harry Potter’s is going to have enough to deal with. Adding to that is just cruel. There are other ways to honor the dead. (I think I can understand why Harry might want to do that though. Particularly only four years after the end of the war when he probably hadn’t even really begun to heal, and he doesn’t have the healthiest ways to deal with things, so yeah, name your kid after dead people. Okay. But, Harry, WHY? Sometimes it just reads too much as a narrative trick to reinforce the ALL WAS WELL, without actually showing the ‘how’ of any of it. It’s a nice neat bow at the end of what was always a gloriously real and messy story. It’s the happily ever after.)