I have a lot to say about this book. A lot. But before I start, I would like to refute some false ideologies—and, sorry to say, blasphemy—for those who aren’t Muslim. Okay, bismillah:
1. It is completely forbidden for Muslims to drink alcohol/wine. The “Muslim” characters in this book do so freely, but our religion strictly does not permit this.
2. Allah ﷻ is the Lord of All Worlds. There were multiple stories within this book where alternate worlds existed and Allah’s Lordship was “unknown", astaghfirullah. This is, so, so, so incredibly wrong and blasphemous. If you would like to write a book filled with such fantasy and myths, it should not be done riding on the back of Islam. We have an obligation to represent Allah ﷻ as Exalted and Glorified as He is, or we should, out of respect, not represent Him at all if we can’t do it properly.
3. Allah ﷻ is All-Powerful. Nothing could ever, ever, ever, ever fight or defeat Him. Once again, there were many tales of jinns and monsters that stood a chance against Allah ﷻ, authubillah, Exalted is He above such claims. In Islam, jinns—even Satan himself—fear Allah ﷻ, nothing overrides His Decree, nothing overrides His Power.
4. We do not equate anyone to our beloved Prophet ﷺ as was done in this fictitious tale. Especially a man who, in this story, could never hold a candle to our Nabi.
5. The last story that Shahrezade told included a description of Angel Jibrael’s voice, may Allah’s peace be upon him, that is not specified by our religion. We do not indulge in such characterisations.
6. There were many other small innovations in this book that do not pertain to Islam.
Due to the above, I will not rate this book. I was sourly offended—especially because the author is Muslim—by the utter disregard of the basics of the monotheism of Islam. This book would have been a completely different experience had the author treaded more carefully.
I do not know what to say. I cannot lie, this was a beautiful and detailed tale of medieval Persian war and history (which, by the way, was very confusing at first—no explanations to the political system whatsoever) and the pain of the sacrifice of women, the pain of loving the idea of someone versus loving their reality, the pain of war and all the loss that comes with it, the pain of losing your homeland, the pain of losing family.
The main characters Shahrezade and Shahryar were deeply intricate characters, so very gripping and heartfelt, and the family bonds between Shahrezade, Baba and Dunya were utterly gut-wrenching. Atsiz, on the other hand? I hated him and all that came with him. He popped out of nowhere and the author’s hope of making us like him was far from successful. Furthermore, the first half of the novel was tedious to go through—I am sorry to say, but Shahrezade’s stories were so boring. It picked up (regarding both Sharezade’s tales and the story itself) after the Seljuk army sets off to war.
I cannot believe it took this author fourteen years to write this novel—it shows, it is very detailed and dense with history and culture and rich characters (save Atsiz). It is unfortunate to see her efforts thrown down the drain, but if one wants to include Islam in a story, one must respect our Lord and represent Him as He truly is, in all His Glory and Power. اللهم اغفر لنا ذنوبنا