Maritza Torres

“Her reflection. Her tired face. She touches her dry bottom lip and thinks of how odd it is to experience a secret loss. A loss without a name. The loss of a potential version of her life. Of what she never had, and now never will.”
― Fatima Farheen Mirza, A Place for Us

“The Prophet was the leader of the entire ummah, his every action an example, but when his grandson climbed his back, he had bent the rules, and what if it had been because it was more important to protect a child from pain than to be unwavering in principle? Maybe it was the exceptions we made for one another that brought God more pride than when we stood firm, maybe His heart opened when His creations opened their hearts to one another, and maybe that is why the boy was switched with the ram: so a father would not have to choose between his boy and his belief. There was another way. Amar was sure of it. He wanted them to find it together.”
― Fatima Farheen Mirza, A Place for Us

“But I did fight. I tried to leave every human I have interacted with better than or the same as when I encountered them....It was the way I wanted to move through the world....That was my fight: to continue to do little things for people around me, so no one would find fault in my demeanor and misattribute it to my religion.”
― Fatima Farheen Mirza, A Place for Us

“Be careful who you point your blame at, Layla. And remember that anytime you point your finger to accuse someone, there are three fingers beneath it, curled to point right back at you.”
― Fatima Farheen Mirza, A Place for Us