The Signs In Ourselves

The Signs in Ourselves: Exploring Queer Muslim Courage

You can save a pdf of this workbook for personal and collective use. This illustrated community resource is full of lived experiences, questions for personal reflection & collective discussion, and references to inclusive scholarly frameworks that affirm queers of faith in all their diversity.

• Gorgeous and gentle illustrations
• Co-created by queer Muslims for queer Muslims
• Anchored in 12 voices from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore
• 13 exercises for personal and group reflection
• Answer along with diverse Muslims from 14 countries
• 4 sidebars to inspire your knowledge

Every single page is beautiful in both its content and its expression. The idea of centering on queer Muslim spiritual self-expression is nothing short of stellar. It's such an amazing thing to do. There is nothing like this out there. - amina wadud

At the heart of the workbook is a dozen interviews with Southeast Asians who are non-cishet and identify as Muslim by choice. It is also fully illustrated with over 120 spirited pieces of art (including the most rainbow al-Fatihah ever). You'll catch new details every time you look, because the book is as much a visual love letter from the artist as it is a piece of writing.

Explore how sexually diverse Muslims have cultivated and maintained an enduring connection to Allah despite community rejection. Since it’s also a workbook, you can answer the same questions everyone else did—in your own time. The exercises are adapted for both solo time in your room or together with other queer Muslims (and bring paper, crayons, paints!)— either way, you will be accompanied by diverse Muslims answering along from 14 countries.

Made possible by CSBR the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies, the workbook is a forever-free download for personal and collective use. It contains exercises and questions for personal and group reflection. In four helpful sidebars, you'll find a brief regional history of Muslim women's rights, amina wadud's Tawhidic paradigm, Ghazala Anwar's fourfold portal of Rahma, and queer interfaith Indonesian activism.

Social acceptance is importance, but self-acceptance is a spiritual experience! Meant as a resource primarily for queers of faith, this text could also benefit allies and those seeking to expand their awareness of queer Muslim perspectives in general, grounded in experiences from Southeast Asia.

May Allah accept this offering and bring it to those who need it.

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