# Islam In A Sci-Fi World With Aliens



## Whilimbird (Apr 11, 2019)

I am in the beginning stages of plotting out a story set in a science fiction setting I’ve been worldbuilding for some time. The main character is human, far from Earth, and interacting almost exclusively with aliens (other humans are around, but the shipping company she joined is alien and has mostly alien clientele).

I am strongly considering making the main character a practicing Muslim, mostly because I really want to play with the idea of following strict religious rules in an environment far, far removed from the one that said rules were developed in and the potential difficulties that could arise from that.

I am not Muslim and have learned approximately jack-all about Islam in school. All I know comes from the internet, which as you can imagine may not be the most reliable source of information.

So!

Praying: I’m assuming that praying towards Mecca can be done by keeping track of where Earth is and praying towards there. I’m more concerned about time. The ship that Main Character works on does not keep Earth time or even a consistent schedule (because when you have a crew of four, it’s actually possible to have a schedule of “work to be done = day, work is over = night”). Would it be acceptable to time the five prayers based on however the work schedule is arranged for that time period, or should she keep a 24-hour clock going in her quarters?

Food: Most of the crew’s food is made on the spot by a protein fabricator fed by a mix of artificial protein sludge and whatever waste can be fed into it. Not very glamorous, but they are on a bit of a shoestring budget and there are only so many ways to feed people of different biologies without loading up their limited space with packaged goods. Would cycling biological waste into the fabricator be considered haraam?

Errata: 
-There are no mosques in the part of space where the story takes place, because they’re in several flavors of alien territory. How problematic is this? 
-I know there are various guidelines about how to interact with the opposite sex- how would these apply to the inhabitants of said alien territories? More specifically the other three members of the ship Main Character works on are, technically, sexually dimorphic, but those sexes do _not_ correspond to anything resembling male-female, the only visible difference is the pattern in their mane feathers, and said aliens don’t even have a concept of said sexes as anything notable enough to mention. Is this going to be an issue?

Also, I’m probably missing a sticking point somewhere. Feel free to just toss out suggestions for other things to keep in mind.


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## James Wolfe (Apr 12, 2019)

If I were you, i'd talk with Muslims, clearly you are going to have to start studying Islam for your story.  I am sure an Imam at a mosque would be happy to share his thoughts, or any practicing Muslim for that matter. 

I would say, when it comes to food, and this I can sort of confirm, make sure to not have pork... it's outlawed in Islam as with Judaism.  It would be better if the ship didn't have it, just in respect to the Muslim crew members. 

the rest again are questions to ask a Muslim.


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## luckyscars (Apr 12, 2019)

I think as long as you do at least a moderate amount of research and try not to be a douche, you don't really have to worry. This is a sci-fi/space fantasy story, right? Wherever there is gray areas, you should be able to make it up without too much of a problem, just like you undoubtedly will the majority of the rest of what transpires. Most Muslims aren't total snowflakes and, again, as long as you don't cross any major lines (like badmouthing The Prophet) nobody is going to care about the odd use of artistic license.


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## moderan (Apr 12, 2019)

You're just asking for a Harkonnen knife fight, aren't you?


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## bdcharles (Apr 12, 2019)

My first thought would be: what does Islam even say about the existence of alien life? Are some variants ok with it while others are basically “nope it doesn’t exist”. That would likely feed into which branch of Islam the MC adheres to and so forth. But yep - research it, basically.


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## epimetheus (Apr 12, 2019)

Artemis by Andy Weir shows some adaptations a particular Muslim has made for living on the moon. Could give you some ideas on what you need to research and how to apply it to a story. 

If you can't get to a mosque there are Muslim chat forums.


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## Kevin (Apr 12, 2019)

The N.O.I. did a fair job of it... heretical, but popular where they didn't know any better.


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## Whilimbird (Apr 12, 2019)

epimetheus said:


> Artemis by Andy Weir shows some adaptations a particular Muslim has made for living on the moon. Could give you some ideas on what you need to research and how to apply it to a story.
> 
> If you can't get to a mosque there are Muslim chat forums.



There are a couple of mosques nearby but... can you really just walk in if you're not Muslim yourself? It wouldn't be disrespectful or anything?


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## moderan (Apr 12, 2019)

Whilimbird said:


> There are a couple of mosques nearby but... can you really just walk in if you're not Muslim yourself? It wouldn't be disrespectful or anything?


Just be sure to hide your press pass.


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## Ralph Rotten (Apr 12, 2019)

Wouldn't the fabbed food still need to be treated by some modified version of Halal?
You'd have to slaughter the food packets pointed to the east, bless them, etc.


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## epimetheus (Apr 13, 2019)

Whilimbird said:


> There are a couple of mosques nearby but... can you really just walk in if you're not Muslim yourself? It wouldn't be disrespectful or anything?



There's probably variation in how welcoming they are, but my experience is they're very welcoming. Maybe do a little research about entering a Mosque first - taking off shoes etc, just so it's not all a complete surprise. There are often Koran study groups and such too, usually meeting up at someone's house. Go online, email someone, get some times.



Ralph Rotten said:


> Wouldn't the fabbed food still need to be treated by some modified version of Halal?
> You'd have to slaughter the food packets pointed to the east, bless them, etc.



Halal refers specifically to the slaughter of the animal. If synthetic meat was take from a mother cell like a myosatellite cell it should be fine - as long as that animal was slaughtered correctly, or not slaughtered at all. If the mother cell was a stem cell, it might be a problem though.


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## Phil Istine (Apr 13, 2019)

Whilimbird said:


> There are a couple of mosques nearby but... can you really just walk in if you're not Muslim yourself? It wouldn't be disrespectful or anything?



It won't be a problem.  Make sure to let a greeter know that it's your first time in order to save you the embarrassment of committing a faux pas.  Unlike the way some media outlets portray them, they won't start a fatwah against you for making a procedural error.


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## escorial (Apr 13, 2019)

Beware entering any religious building that has had thousands of years to hone the mind control skills of the people who use them...


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## CyberWar (Apr 14, 2019)

Muslim settlers on other planets could pray facing the first mosque built on the planet as a representation of Mecca, perhaps having some rocks and dirt brought from actual Mecca and immured in its foundation to represent the holy city on distant worlds. The rule about prayer direction in space could either be adjusted to praying in the general direction of Earth, or suspended entirely, devout Muslims instead being simply required to perform the five daily prayers. These same sites could also serve as substitutes for Mecca to perform Hajj, assuming interstellar travel isn't commonplace and affordable enough to make an actual pilgrimage to Earth practical.

As for dietary requirements, I'd imagine the majority of food consumed by future spacefarers would be synthetic, and therefore technically halal. The rules of determining what is halal could likewise be extended towards alien species of crops and livestock (which are likely to be at least somewhat similar to Terran species because of convergent evolution), using the same general guidelines.

In a future setting where alien life has already been discovered, I would think mainstream Islam would go along with time and embrace the notion rather than adopt a xenophobic humans-only stance, accepting potential alien converts as well. I recall reading that the Roman Catholic clergy already discussed the theological implications of discovering intelligent alien life sometime in the early 2000's, coming to the conclusion that since God created the Universe and all life within, any aliens out there are his creation and therefore also eligible for salvation. I would think most Muslim clergy could go along with that as well.


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## JustRob (Apr 14, 2019)

One sticking point is bound to be Ramadan. It's difficult enough for Muslims living in the higher latitudes on Earth; even the UK causes problems for them when they must fast during the whole of daylight during a month when the days are long. The advice for those in polar regions is to use the nearest locations where daily daylight is actually discernable. So far as space travel is concerned, astronauts orbiting the Earth were told that they should respect the daylight hours of the location on the planet where they were launched so it is, at least for the majority, a pragmatic religion. Regardless of all the directives in it there is one very important principle, that Allah is merciful.

Also, given that the month of Ramadan is strictly speaking determined by actual local observation of the first crescent of the new moon, weather permitting, that could be difficult if one is on the moon at the time. Being on another planet out of sight of the moon could equally be an issue, but when nothing better works the default is apparently to use the observations made from Mecca. Apparently the whole concept of Ramadan was devised for people living in cloudless regions near enough to the equator for daylight hours not to vary too much throughout the year. Even using Mecca as the holy city is a pragmatic solution to the problem of Jerusalem, apparently the original true centre of Islam, being overrun by followers of other religions.

We have Muslim friends and we always remove our shoes when we enter their house; it is simple courtesy. It pleases them that we do but they probably wouldn't comment if we didn't. We once visited the Hindu mandir (temple) in Neasden in the suburbs of London during a guided tour. That is a very busy well organised place and it has extensive shoe racks at the entrance where one leaves one's shoes on entry. Our Hindu guide explained that shoes often contain animal products such as leather. Apparently the Hindu are vegans and at one point he told us about going round to his neighbour's house for tea, where they served fantastic cake. My angel pointed out to him that the cake most likely contained eggs, to which he very innocently replied, "Does it really?" Apparently in all religions the vast majority of their followers believe that God is merciful, so that is your opt-out when all else fails.

A mixture of sci-fi, aliens and religion reminds me of C S Lewis's space trilogy.


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## moderan (Apr 14, 2019)

James Blish's A Case of Conscience is a far superior read to the Lewis trilogy (but did not inspire awesome Kings' X albums) and involves the same mythos. Also, take another look at the underpinnings of Dune. And you might want to look at George Alec Effinger's Marid Auran trilogy (cyberpunk set in the Middle East) for hints on how to handle the characters.
Diaspora-derived sf is a big thing nowadays. There's a lot of it about.


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