Children of Dust

Ali Eteraz’s 2009 book, Children of Dust, is an autobiographical exploration of religion and identity, a chronicle of “a first-generation immigrant’s evolving, sometimes loving, often skeptical, relationship to Islam.” Eteraz was born in Pakistan, but his family moved to the U.S. ten years later, setting off his personal struggle to reconcile faith and desire.

Eteraz’s memoir is divided into five books, or sections. The various names Eteraz gives himself as his identity evolves serve as the titles of the chronological books.

The title of the first part, “The Promised – Abir ul Islam,” refers to Eteraz’s birth name, which means “Perfume of Islam.” Before Eteraz’s birth, his father makes a mannat, or covenant, with Allah that if he has a son, the boy will “become a great leader and servant of Islam.” After the longed-for boy is born, Abir’s mother takes him to Mecca, where she places his chest against the wall of the Ka‘ba, praying he will receive Islamic knowledge and piety.



Growing up in rural, 1980s Pakistan, Abir is immersed in his family’s faith, as it informs every aspect of their lives. As they go about their daily activities, his mother regales him with supernatural tales of the “Jinn” (or evil spirits) and Islamic folk stories, as well as lessons from the Quran. Beyji, Amir’s grandmother, stirs his imagination with revelations of her mystical experiences, including meeting “regularly […] with the Holy Prophet Muhammad in her dreams.”

Although Abir’s father is a doctor, his family is poor. They live in a village without modern conveniences, where sewage runs through open ditches. At one point, Abir steps in the foul wastewater and shortly thereafter contracts typhoid fever. Following intensive readings of the Quran, Abir recovers from his grave illness.

Mindful of fulfilling their mannat with Allah, particularly after their son’s life was spared, Abir’s parents send him to a madrassa, or Islamic school. After he learns “the pronunciation of the Arabic alphabet,” Abir’s second major lesson is on “liquid excrement” and how a stray drop of urine defiles one’s body. The school’s primary mission, however, is to compel students to memorize the Quran, and the teachers punish clumsy recitations with savage beatings. When Abir objects to this brutality, he spends several days locked in a storage room for his insolence.



In 1991, Abir’s father secures a job in the U.S., and his family settles in Alabama, which has a pleasing “Allah-bama” ring to it. In the second section, “The American – Amir,” Abir attends high school and changes his name to Amir when his American peers jokingly translate his birth name as “a beer.” While life in the Bible Belt drives his mother to a more fundamentalist practice of Islam, it troubles Amir’s relationship with religion. Wanting to be a good Muslim, he feels the weight of his father’s covenant with Allah, but he is surrounded by temptations that tap into his developing sexuality. Thus, he participates in a Quran study circle, but also in sex-chats online, the sounds of which he smothers with prayer rugs.

In the third section, Amir becomes convinced he is descended from Abu Bakr Ramaq, the first Caliph of Islam, and changes his name to that of his alleged ancestor. He leaves Alabama for college in Manhattan, where he shares a dorm room with another Muslim. Already feeling more faithful due to his illustrious lineage, Abu Bakr becomes increasingly fundamentalist as he and his roommate compete to be the more orthodox Muslim.

While Abu Bakr strives to be a pious Muslim, he is frequently led astray by thoughts of sex. The solution, he decides, is to return to Pakistan to find a proper, pious wife. Along with his mother and brother, he travels back to his childhood village, where he finds that militant, anti-American ideology prevails. The people regard him not as a fellow Muslim, but as a “stand-in for the entirety of the Infidel West.” Moreover, he discovers that his family ties to Abu Bakr are a hoax, invented to cover the fact that he is related to a Hindu. Rumors circulate connecting the family to the CIA, and they flee the village with protection from a military escort.



Bitter about his hostile reception in Pakistan, Abu Bakr assumes a new name: Amir ul Islam. Eteraz writes, “I was rejected by the ones who were supposed to be purer […] than Americans. [...] I craved vengeance. I sought to undermine all that the presumably purer Muslims held sacred.” To this end, in the fourth section, he transfers to a Christian university in Atlanta and studies Post Modern philosophy.

However, he can’t simply abandon his Muslim identity – or his father’s promise to Allah – so he also becomes the President of the Muslim Student Association. In this position of authority, he guides students in prayer, organizes them in support of Palestine, and generally tries to impress everyone with how devout he is. Eventually, he admits his intense piety is “a charade,” and, after graduating, he pursues a law career in Washington D.C.

Then, in the name of Islam, Osama bin Laden directs the 2001 attacks on America. Amir is horrified that militants have twisted his religion into a force for terrorism. He considers bin Laden a thug masquerading as a messiah and decides to lead a crusade to reform Islamic extremism.



“The Reformer – Ali Eteraz” is the title of the fifth section, marking the emergence of the identity the author now embraces. Preoccupied with rescuing Islam from extremists, Eteraz neglects his job at the Justice Department and spends his time online, recruiting like-minded Muslims to his cause. He travels to Kuwait to launch his reform campaign, staying with a friend named Ziad, who is skeptical about Eteraz’s project. Through conversations with Ziad, Eteraz realizes that if he champions liberty, as opposed to fundamentalism, then there is no need to “talk about Islam all day.” Liberty and justice are human concerns that transcend Islam because we’re all “children of dust.”

The title of Eteraz’s book refers to a passage in the Quran in which Iblis – Islam’s Satan – disparages humankind as “children of dust.” Eteraz exhorts us to remember that this “dust” unites us as humans, but he denies having any prescription for world peace. In his own words, he’s “just an immigrant trying to fend off the devil.”