Brothers Mohammed Ali and Mohammed Arif Vakil grew up listening to tales from the Quran at their local Madarasa in Dubai; the tales of the Prophet Muhammad that spoke of faith, love, sacrifice, bravery and truth, inspired them from a young age.
So in 2009, when the brothers had moved to Bangalore, they decided to start a web-comic that illustrated short stories of Islamic history and tradition.
Property developers by day and illustrators by night, Ali and Arif wanted to popularise Islamic stories and deconstruct spiritual advice in an easy-to-read format. Their blog soon gained traction, and their first 40 comics were published in the form of a graphic novel titled ‘40 Sufi Comics’. Each of these comics is accompanied by a verse from the Quran as well as the sayings of Prophet Muhammad pertinent to the topic of the comic and intriguing illustration.
Created with a hope to help Muslims and people of other faiths understand the teachings of Islam, the comics are available in madarasas and libraries around the world, and have been translated by volunteers in 10 different languages including French, Norwegian, Indonesian, Russian, Spanish, and Tamil.
After the success of the first book, the brothers set up a production house called Sufi Studios in 2012. They’ve launched two books under the imprint, including The Wise Fool of Baghdad’ (a collection of stories about an eighth-century scholar who faked madness to avoid persecution), which was later used by the University of Washington for a course on Islam and pop culture.
Their second book ‘Sufi Comics: Rumi’ was launched at Comic Con Bangalore in 2014. With artwork from Bangalore-based comic-book artist Rahil Mohsin, Sufi Comics: Rumi successfully manages to convert Rumi’s folkloric verses in to intriguing short comics.
So, if you’re looking for books that illustrate the teachings of the Quran through beautiful imagery, don’t miss Sufi Comics.
For more information, browse their site, and follow them on Facebook.
Featured image source: Sufi Comics
Written by Tulika Bhogaraju
