Alina Kanaan

Author's Note

Assalamu alykoum everyone! I really hope that you're enjoying the book so far! I wanted to make this note to clear some things up. Before I go on with this, my intention is not to be rude. I'm just expressing my opinion on thoughts on some issues. Also, please read until the end because it's important.

Firstly, I am fully aware that music, having guy friends, and having sex before marriage is haram. I am a Muslim myself. I put all of these things in this book for a reason. Many Muslims, especially Muslims in the West, have to deal with these things a lot. I'm sure some of you live in the West or probably can imagine this if you don't live here, but I'll tell you my experience as an example.

I live in Santa Rosa, California, USA. I converted to Islam two weeks before my fourteenth birthday. The life changing date was June 6, 2011. 

After I converted, it was a lot harder than I thought to actually be a Muslim. For one, I was the only Muslim I knew in real life. All of my Muslim friends lived in different countries or in different parts of the country, so I was alone. My first Ramadan was probably one of the hardest things in my life. One of my best friends did try to fast with me on the first day, but she couldn't last the whole time, so I did appreciate her effort. But overall I was the only one fasting. No one else fasted around me. People ate right in front of me. People also partied around me while I listened to nasheeds. 

Living in the Western world, being a Muslim isn't the easiest thing. So many temptations are around me daily. Being one of the only Muslims in my school doesn't help either. Anyways, my purpose of this book is to fight the temptations that are put in front of Muslims every day, especially Muslims in the Western world. I personally have had to deal with people eating in front of me during Ramadan, people drinking and smoking right in front of me at parties, people blasting inappropriate music (Western music, especially American, is extremely provocative in general), people dressing half-naked, etc. It's not easy ignoring things that go on right in front of you twenty-four seven. I myself have fallen into haram things before because they were always done in front of me. Now, I don't do what I did alhamdulilah.

Lately, I have gotten a lot of comments on this book saying that music is haram and having guy friends is haram. As a Muslim myself, I'm fully aware of those things. Someone went as far to say that this book isn't realistic. Maybe this isn't since its genre is fiction after all. However, for the most part, this book is realistic. Many Muslims listen to music. Some Muslims have friends of the opposite gender. Some Muslims have a boyfriend/girlfriend. It's better to accept that these things are going on rather than pretending it's not there. I want to fix these issues by writing a book having all of these temptations in it. As you can see, Alina is destroyed by these things emotionally and you can see that she battles with her imaan a lot throughout the book. That's the point of the book. We all have the same struggles with our imaan at times, I mean if you're not perfect that is, which no one is perfect. So, as I was saying, this book is realistic. I'm not judging the people who commit sins because, let's face it, we've all committed a sin before. Allah (swt) is the judge anyways. He knows our intentions.

Our job as an ummah is to stand next to each other no matter what. Lately I've been seeing Muslims fight with each other verbally as if the other person was a non-Muslim. We have to be there for each other! I remember reading a quote from a hadith or somewhere that we must make seventy excuses for our brothers/sisters before thinking badly about them. But we must also fix the issues in our community as well, and that's what I'm trying to do with this book.

Sorry for my ranting, but I thought that I should make my intentions clear since some are misunderstanding my intentions. I want to clear the air. And no, I'm not being rude to the people who have told me my book isn't realistic. I understand their points. I'm just expressing my purpose.

Thanks everyone for reading this! Chapter 20 should be comping this weekend or into the week, in sha Allah.