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Negotiating Untranslatability and Islam in Leila Aboulela's The Translator

According to Islamic law, a Muslim woman is expelled from her religion if she marries a non-Muslim. Sammar prefers to say her prayers five times a day in seclusion to escape people's surprise at her isolated prostration before God. Since worldly engagements are conceived as a burden on her soul...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Matatu 2009-01 (36), p.167
Main Author: Butt, Nadia
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:According to Islamic law, a Muslim woman is expelled from her religion if she marries a non-Muslim. Sammar prefers to say her prayers five times a day in seclusion to escape people's surprise at her isolated prostration before God. Since worldly engagements are conceived as a burden on her soul, her prayers are a refuge for her: 'They were the only challenge, the last touch with normality, without them she would have fallen, lost awareness of the shift of day into night" (16). In effect, man is portrayed as compelled to translate himself into religion, while the idea of religion translating itself to his exigencies is absent from the novel. [...]Sammar is hailed as a saviour who will save Rae's soul from the hellfire predicted time and again in the Q'uran for nonbelievers. [...]she dismisses the possibility of inhabiting multiple worlds in favour of withdrawing to "the One World of Islam" where Oneness of Allah and His words are to be hailed as the ultimate truth.
ISSN:0932-9714
1875-7421