Shades of Islam is a dazzling and moving collection of poetry that addresses faith, love, politics and Islam in the twenty-first century.
Reviews"The poems of Rafey Habib offer a window onto the sensibility of a modern American Muslim, with unflinching honesty and richly informed compassion. The great humanistic tradition of poetry known in Arabic and other Eastern languages here finds a contemporary English voice, which will be recognized like a lost friend who has unaccountably been rediscovered."
- Carl W. Ernst, William R. Kenan, Junior, Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill.
"I find [the poems] deeply moving and beautifully felt and written with simplicity and a profundity that is wholly disarming."
- Harold Schweizer, Professor of English, Bucknell University.
"Over the past half a century, the most politically engaged literature has predominantly emerged from cultures outside the wealthy transatlantic worlds. This collection of poems is a formidable reminder of the capacities and the necessities to connect issues of justice, rights, and religion on a global scale."
- Renate Holub Director, Interdisciplinary Studies, University of California, Berkeley
"I applaud...both the courage of this poetry, and the development of what is today practically a novel poetic form, the extended public meditation in lyric form. It reminds me a lot of the early Auden and Day Lewis; and it shows great promise. So much else passing itself off these days as poetry looks utterly trivial alongside it."
- Chris Fitter Associate Professor of English, Rutgers University
