Yarının Müslümanı

The Muslim of Tomorrow
Identity Construction in Science Fiction Novels
An astronaut who performs tayammum and prays on an alien planet,
an artificial intelligence without a biological body that asks whether
Allah can see it, and a subject who tries to preserve his name and
memory despite being classified by a digital system under the code “A-
71”… These three scenes from Ali Nar’s Uzay Çiftçileri, Sadık Yemni’s
Çağrılan, and İskender Pala’s A-71 invite us to reconsider what it means
to be Muslim in a future shaped by technology. What will it mean to
be Muslim when the boundaries of the Earth are crossed, the body becomes
digital, or a human being is reduced to a collection of data?
Rather than providing a simplistic response to the question “Who is
a Muslim?”, this book takes a sociological approach, examining how
Turkish science fiction novels depict this identity. Science fiction is not
a form of prophecy that predicts the future; it is a field of thought that
makes visible the fears, hopes and moral tensions of the present. The
book’s narratives categorically do not create worlds in which technology
eliminates religion. Instead, religion is reinterpreted in new contexts,
such as space travel, artificial intelligence, digital surveillance
and cyber power. Technology is neither good nor bad in itself. It is questioned
according to the values through which it shapes human beings,
society, and the future.
In this book, religion is not understood simply in terms of beliefs, religious
texts, or political discourses. Instead, it is considered a way of life
and a source of direction. It takes shape through relationships with others,
becomes part of the body through practices such as prayer, dhikr,
supplication, and proper conduct, and connects the past with the future
through memory and place. Rituals do not simply express an identity
that already exists. They help shape the moral subject at both bodily
and social levels. By examining names such as “Refref,” “KarsH,” “Elif,”
and “A-71,” the book also shows how the symbolic boundaries of identity
are drawn. Muslim identity is therefore not treated as a fixed inheritance
from the past. It is understood as a social and moral formation
that is continually shaped through interaction, ritual, body, memory,
place, and naming. Designing the Muslim of Tomorrow brings the sociology of religion
and science fiction into conversation. The book uses many examples
from the novels, allowing readers to follow the analyses without having
read the works beforehand. It will be of interest to readers concerned
with religion, literature, artificial intelligence, culture, and the future.
By bringing familiar religious concepts together with imagined worlds,
the book opens new ways of thinking about Muslim identity. Rather
than predicting the future, it asks what values will guide human life in
a world shaped by technology and how Muslim subjects will find their
moral direction.
Keywords: Sociology of Religion; Science Fiction; Muslim Identity; Interaction;
Ritual; Time; Boundary