Top 29 Quotes & Sayings by Leila Aboulela

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Sudanese writer Leila Aboulela.

Last updated on September 7, 2024.

Leila Fuad Aboulela is a fiction writer, essayist, and playwright of Sudanese origin based in Aberdeen, Scotland. She grew up in Khartoum, Sudan, and moved to Scotland in 1990 where she began her literary career. Aboulela has published five novels and several short stories, which have been translated into fifteen languages. Her most popular novels, Minaret (2005) and The Translator (1999) both feature the stories of Muslim women in the UK and were long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award and Orange Prize. Aboulela’s works have been included in publications such as Harper's Magazine, Granta, The Washington Post and The Guardian. BBC Radio has adapted her work extensively and broadcast a number of her plays, including The Insider, The Mystic Life and the historical drama The Lion of Chechnya. The five-part radio serialization of her 1999 novel The Translator was short-listed for the Race In the Media Award (RIMA). Aboulela’s work is critically acclaimed for its depiction of Muslim migrants in the West the and the challenges they face. Her work is heavily influenced by her own experiences as an immigrant to the United Kingdom and the hardships she experienced during the transition. Her work centers around political issues and themes such as identity, multi-cultural relationships, the East-West divide, migration, and Islamic spirituality. Her prose has been celebrated for its "restrained lyricism, irony and clarity” by J.M Coetzee, Ben Okri and Ali Smit.

Sudanese - Writer | Born: 1964

Source: Wikipedia

My faith was started off by my grandmother and mother, and so I always saw it as a very private, personal thing.

Leila Aboulela

I grew up in a very westernised environment and went to a private American school. But my personality was shy and quiet, and I wanted to wear the hijab but didn't have the courage, as I knew my friends would talk me out of it.

Leila Aboulela

My grandmother studied medicine in the Forties, which was very rare in Egypt, and my mother was a university professor, so my idea of religion wasn't about a woman not working or having to dress in a certain way; it was more to do with the faith.

Leila Aboulela

That's what religion teaches: that life is a temporary thing which is going to dissolve one day.

Leila Aboulela

The coverage of Islam in the media is becoming more sophisticated, and there is more access to knowledge.

Leila Aboulela

When you write about a Muslim woman, like I did with my previous novels - 'Minaret', for example, which is about a woman who starts to wear the hijab - it sets all the alarm bells ringing.

Leila Aboulela

I'm concerned that Islam has not just been politicised but that it's becoming an identity. This is like turning religion into a football match; it's a distraction from the real thing.

Leila Aboulela

I started creative writing classes at Aberdeen Central Library, and the writer-in-residence there, Todd McEwen, encouraged me a great deal. He showed my stories to his editor, and I thought that was just what happened to everyone who took his classes!

Leila Aboulela

My characters are not role-model Muslims, but they struggle to make choices using Muslim logic.

Leila Aboulela

I read a lot of fiction.

Leila Aboulela

I wasn't trained to write non-fiction.

Leila Aboulela

Many Arabic/Islamic words have now entered the English dictionary, such as haj, hijab, Eid, etc., and I no longer need to put them in italics or explain them.

Leila Aboulela

I was 24 years old and stuck in a strange place with two boisterous little boys, and my husband was working offshore on the oil rigs. It was a life for which I wasn't prepared.

Leila Aboulela

Sudan is not Arab enough for Arabs and not African enough for Africans.

Leila Aboulela

My father married out of the family. I also married outside the family.

Leila Aboulela

I write fiction that reflects Islamic logic: fictional worlds where cause and effect are governed by Muslim rationale. However, my characters do not necessarily behave as 'good' Muslims; they are not ideals or role models.

Leila Aboulela

It was 1989, and the word 'Muslim' wasn't even really used in Britain at the time; you were either black or Asian.

Leila Aboulela

My mum and dad were speaking all the time about, 'In Sudan we do this,' and 'In Egypt we do that,' so I was very aware of cultural differences. I was confused growing up; it gave me a feeling of being an outsider watching others. But I think this is good for a writer.

Leila Aboulela

When I was growing up, we spoke Egyptian, we ate Egyptian food, we had other Egyptian friends. It was my father's preference.

Leila Aboulela

I wanted to be good but I wasn't sure if I was prepared

Leila Aboulela

I've come down in the world. I've slid to a place where the ceiling is low and there isn't much room for me to move.Most of the time I'm used to it ... I accepted my sentence and do not brood or look back. But sometimes a shift makes me remember. Routine is ruffled and a new start makes me suddenly conscious of what I've become -

Leila Aboulela

The Mercy of Allah is an Ocean, Our sins are a lump of clay clenched between the beak of a pigeon. The pigeon is perched on the branch of a tree at the edge of that ocean.It only has to open it's beak

Leila Aboulela

Allah tests our patience and our fortitude. He tests out strength of faith. be patient and there will endless rewards for you, insha'Allah" - Utaz Badr

Leila Aboulela

All through life there were distinctions - toilets for men, toilets for women; clothes for men, clothes for women - then, at the end, the graves are identical.

Leila Aboulela

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, When Allah loves a people, He tries them.

Leila Aboulela

I must settle for freedom in this modern time

Leila Aboulela

Why do bad things happen? For pedagogical reasons, so that we can experience the power of Allah, catch a glimpse of Hell and fear it, so that we can practice seeking refuge in Him and, when relief comes give thanks to His mercy. Darkness was created so that, like plants, we could yearn and turn to the light.

Leila Aboulela

The sweetest things in life were not necessarily what one strove for and grabbed. Instead, many many times the All-Merciful, the All-Generous would give His servants without being petitioned, without waiting to be asked.

Leila Aboulela

Control yourself, it is not worth it. You will regret your rudeness afterwards, your sensitive nature will be troubled

Leila Aboulela