طغى عليَّ لحظتها إحساسٌ جارفٌ بأن هذا الذي أتأمله يخصُّني أنا. أملكه وحدي. وأن نادية مني. من أهلي. وأنا الآخر منها.
In that moment an overwhelming feeling swept me: that what I was gazing at belonged to me, to me alone; that Nadia was mine, of my own people, and I too was hers.
From the novel Diary of a Jewish Muslim · Chapter 29
Words of a narrator or a character belong to the novel's world, not to the author's personal views.
Diary of a Jewish Muslim
Diary of a Jewish Muslimيا بْنِي موسى ومحمد إخوة. واحنا هنربِّيك ونعلِّمك ونكبَّرك وإنت حر بعدها. عايز تدخل في دينَّا أهلًا وسهلًا وألف مرحب بيك. عايز تفضل مسلم إنت حر وإحنا برضه أهلك.
My son, Moses and Muhammad are brothers. We will raise you, teach you and bring you up, and after that you are free: if you want to enter our religion, welcome a thousand times; if you want to stay a Muslim, you are free, and we are still your family.
Diary of a Jewish Muslimفجدِّي كانت له سياسة خاصة بشراء ملابسي. يشتريها دائمًا بمقاسات أكبر لتكفيني من ثلاث إلى أربع سنوات. ولا يهمُّ أن أبدو فيها كالعبيط.
My grandfather had his own policy for buying my clothes: always sizes too big, so they would last me three or four years. It did not matter that I looked like an idiot in them.
Diary of a Jewish Muslimإنها هي التي أحبت أبي قبل أن يحبها هو. أحبته أكثر مما يحبها. ولو عادت بها الدنيا إلى الوراء ما اختارت غيره رغم ما تعرَّضت له من عذابٍ وفراقٍ للأهل والأحباب.
She was the one who loved my father before he loved her; she loved him more than he loved her, and if life were to turn back she would choose no one else, despite all the pain and the separation from family and loved ones it cost her.