The Kindness of Enemies Quotes

“As if reading his mind, Jamal-al-Din said, 'To get what you love, you must first be patient with what you hate.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“Money is like grass. It withers. [... ] but our deeds last forever.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“I was seeing in these awkward composites my own liminal self. The two sides of me that were slammed together against their will, that refused to mix. I was a failed hybrid, made up of unalloyed selves. My Russian mother who regretted marrying my Sudanese father. My African father who came to hate his white wife. My atheist mother who blotted out my Muslim heritage. My Arab father who gave me up to Europe without a fight. I was the freak. I had been told so and I had been taught so and I had chewed on this verdict to the extent that, no matter what, I could never purge myself of it entirely.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“Perhaps we half and halfs should always make a choice, one nationality instead of the other, one language instead of the other. We should nourish one identity and starve the other so that it would atrophy and drop off. Then we could relax and become like everyone else, we could snuggle up to the majority and fit in.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“Peace was a more dignified version of defeat.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“But what about the others out there? The ones who are really guilty. What do I know about them? As long as the threat is there, there will always be suspects being pulled in.'

'What would Shamil have done?'

She smiled and sat back. "I wonder.' She took a sip of her drink. 'He would have seen through these militants—that they "fulfil neither a contract nor a covenant. That they call to the truth but they are not its people." He would have gone after the hate preachers who say to the young men of this day and age, "go out and make jihad".”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“I had figured out, long ago, that it paid to do what the competition found difficult, distasteful or even just a waste of time.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“A storm was inside her and she could not subdue it. If she could be sure, if she could hold Lydia again, if she could kiss her cool cheeks, if she could put her finger on that mouth that couldn't swallow, that couldn't cry, that no longer needed her, that no longer knew her, then maybe she could settle down. Hope was the devil, hope wrestled with her and wouldn't let her rest.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“Sufism delves into the hidden truth behind the disguise.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“Why all this waste, why does Shamil continue when common sense says that we will win, when common sense says that they are resisting all that would be good for them?'

'What good?' She was sullen now, the arguments narrowing around her.

'What good?' he snorted. 'Peace for one, prosperity too. Modern roads, sanitation, education, enlightened thinking. Everything that is uncouth and reprehensible to be replaced by what is civilised and rational. No one in his right mind, given a choice, would choose primitiveness over advancement. You can't live in the past, Anna, you can't be like them.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“So, according to the guidelines, how should his response be classified? Did he tick this particular box or not? According to the guidelines, a student who was 'vulnerable to radicalisation' would have symptoms of regression, a hankering for an idealised past, a misguided belief in authenticity.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“I'm researching the types of weapons used in jihad. My thesis is that they reflect the technology of their time and are often the same as those used by the enemy.'

I chewed on my toast. 'Well, that makes sense.'

'But it violates some of the Sharia's rules, rules which have been conveniently forgotten. Such as not using fire because it is only Allah's prerogative to burn sinners in Hell. No human being should use fire on another human being.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“Ever since 9/11, jihad has become synonymous with terrorism,' she said. 'I blame the Wahabis and Salafists for this. Jihad is an internal and spiritual struggle.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“Later when we became friends she told me that being a viper was lucrative.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“It was an effort formulating this summary, explaining myself. I preferred the distant past, centuries that were over and done with, ghosts that posed no direct threat. History could be milked for this cause or that. We observed it always with hindsight, projecting onto it our modern convictions and anxieties.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies

“I said that I was not a good Muslim but that I was not a bad person.I said I had a brother that I wanted to keep in touch with. I said that I wanted to give up my share of the inheritance to him. Apart from my father's Russian books and Russian keepsakes, I wanted nothing. I said that I did not come here today to fight over money or for the share of a house. I came so that I would not be an outcast, so that I would, even in a small way, faintly, marginally, tentatively, belong.”
― Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies