It often reflects the cultural, moral, and spiritual elements of Islam, aiming to entertain while promoting ethical and religious teachings, or serve to make Muslims visible.
For example, Leila Abouzeid’s The Year of The Elephant (Arabic version 1983, English translation 1989), the first work written by a Moroccan woman to be translated to English, has been identified as falling into the sub-categories of being both a feminist novel, and because of its depiction of the protagonist and other characters practicing Islam, qualifying as Islamic fiction.
[4][5] Amongst the first wave of Islamic fiction (as defined here) written in English specifically for Muslim audiences was juvenile fiction, including the series Invincible Abdullah originally published from 1993-1995 by Aziza and Uthman Hutchinson, and the Ahmad Deen Series (1996) by Yahiya Emerick.
This is due to differences between a Muslim reader and the writers, editors, and publishers with respect to personal practices, beliefs and knowledge, as well as the influence of their schools of thought, cultures, and traditions.
All Muslim parents, guardians, teachers, and school administrators must determine whether a book's content is halal for their children and students.
Maryam "Umm Juwayriyah" Sullivan's teen/adult novel The Size of a Mustard Seed (2009) is the first known Urban Islamic fiction title.
[11] The seminal juvenile fiction series Invincible Abdullah and Ahmad Deen are both written in mystery styles.
MuslimMatters.org, a popular multi-author Muslim blog, has published a series of genre-blending novels by Wael Abdelgawad that draw from the Islamic fiction, action, mystery and thriller categories.
[15] The American Muslim women's magazine, Azizah, regularly features original short works of Islamic fiction and poetry.
[22] Some of these authors write Islamic fiction exclusively for children,[23] while others direct their work to an older audience of Young Adults.