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Alif the Unseen

By G. Willow Wilson

أليف الخفي

G. Willow Wilson's techno-fantasy of an Arab hacker and an ancient jinn manuscript — code, Sufism and the Arab Spring.

Depth

At a glance

Identifiers
Wikidata
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

In time

2000201020202030

LiteratureSpirituality and SufismScience in Muslim societies today

Overview

The novel by G. Willow Wilson (2012): Alif, an Arab hacker, protects his clients from the surveillance of the digital state until an obscure manuscript reaches him, carrying words that defy the zeros and ones. 1

Legacy

It blended science fiction with Arab magic in a novel that won awards, written by an American Muslim who knows Arabic from within. 1

People and things also explored

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)· Akhi Baba (title of the guild shaykh and tanners' head)· The angelic and the satanic inspiration (lamma)· Asking people for help (al-masala)· The soul (nafs) and the spirit (ruh)· Tabattul (withdrawal from the world)· al-Tanahmir: the Himyaritic speech remnant· Intimacy with God (uns billah)

Sources

  1. Wikidata
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Alif the Unseen”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/alif-al-khafi/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-17.

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Related

Prophetic adab (proper conduct)

The body of proper conduct the believer is commanded in his words, deeds and relations with God and His servants; from the formula 'whoever believes in God and the Last Day' in Abu Hurayra's hadith Ibn Rajab derives that these traits are of the traits of iman and that deeds enter into iman, dividing the hadith's three commands into what belongs to God's rights — speaking good or keeping silent — and what belongs to His servants' rights — honouring the neighbour, withholding harm from him and honouring the guest; he transmits Aswad ibn Asram's report of the Prophet's counsel 'do not say with your tongue except what is good and do not extend your hand except to good', and that the tongue's uprightness is of the traits of iman; Abu Amr ibn al-Salah reports from Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd, the Maliki imam of his time, that the conduct of goodness and all its reins branch from four hadiths: speaking good or keeping silent, leaving what does not concern one, 'do not become angry', and loving for one's brother what one loves for oneself.