Mr. Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran was originally written in French as a play, based upon the life of Schmitt's friend, Bruno Abraham Kremer.

Kremer had asked Schmitt to write a play based upon his life growing up in Paris, specifically the relationship with his grandfather, Mr. Abraham.

In some respects, the book closely resembles the novel "La Vie devant soi" (Life in front of you) by Romain Gary under the pseudonym Emile Ajar.

In that book, a young Muslim boy, also called Momo (here a nickname for Muhammad), lives with an old Jewish woman, Madame Rosa.

Momo forgets to bring a gift for the girl, and runs home to get his teddy bear, a final link to his childhood.

Shockingly, one day, his father, a struggling lawyer, decides to run off, leaving about one month's worth of money for Momo.

She asks for Momo to relay a message to Moïse if he ever sees him again, stating that she had met his father when she was young and married him in order to leave her house, despite never liking him.

She continues by saying she was ready to love Moïse, although she had ended up leaving him with his father in order to pursue a happier life with another man.

After buying one, Momo discovers that Mr. Ibrahim does not remember how to drive, and that the license he showed the car's salesman was actually a letter from a friend, which was written in Egyptian.

Momo walks to a nearby village where people approach him in a panic, ushering him to a big house where he finds Mr. Ibrahim, bloodied and next to the car, which is crashed into the wall.

Through this book, Schmitt wanted to show the history of a young Jewish boy and the Muslim grocer of their neighbourhood in Paris, but without obviously making religion essential to the plot.