The Night Of The Mi’raj – Zoe Ferraris

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The Night Of The Mi’raj

Zoe Ferraris

Let’s first admire this beautiful cover of The Night Of The Mi’raj which attracted me to pick it off the shelf. Secondly, I was under the impression that this would be about the Miracle of Mi’raj, but it’s not. It’s a fiction novel regarding a murder mystery.

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The title, The Night Of The Mi’raj is derived from the literal meaning of Mi’raj “the night of revelation”. A teenage girl from a wealthy Saudi family disappears from the house, labelled as runaway. The family is frantic to find her whereabouts. They reach out to Nayir, a family friend and a desert expert. Nayir is diligently following the leads in the desert until the news of Nouf’s death reaches. When he goes to collect the dead body from Jeddah, he meets Katya Hijazi, a forensic specialist. She’s the fiancee of Nouf’s brother, Othman. It’s there that Nayir finds out the actual truth. It’s not a death by accident but in fact someone killed her. Hence starts a very interesting murder investigation in which Nayir and Katya work as partners to uncover the truth.

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Murder mystery is my favourite genre in fiction. I have read many novels. I also watched many movies and seasons on this theme. Usually I am pretty good at guessing about the end. In this novel too, I guessed it quite early. But as the story moves on, it reveals I was half right only. The Night Of The Mi’raj unravels in a continuous motion. The writer had a tight grip on it۔ There were no unnecessary details covering pages. She keeps the reader engage throughout. During the course of investigation, she Introduces us to the culture and lifestyle of Saudi Arabia in a subtle way.

Most of the times when I read writers from local or Islamic countries highlight the negativity but forget to mention the good things. They undermine the values and teachings of Islam in order to appear very progressive and modern. Zoe Ferraris, however, talks about the culture and values. She owns and highlights the benefits. The talks of Nayir to Allah and refers to Quranic verses, glorifying the wisdom. The Night Of The Mi’raj has engaging suspense, so you will be turning pages. It’s a good read and I totally recommend it.

Previous review by Sidra Javed, مُنہ وَل کعبے شریف