These Impossible Things

During various points of personal struggle, Kees and Malak alternately turn to or from their personal copies of the Quran. For Malak, this orientation of herself in connection to the religious text itself (as opposed to the broader ideology it represents) takes place primarily in the time after her breakup with Jacob but before she departs for Egypt. Malak clings to her copy of the Quran but is distressed to find that she does not derive the comfort that it once gave her. She learns, through this distance, that the book and the religion it signifies is only one part of who she is, and not her whole self. While this is a very important part of her, and she derives comfort from the Muslim-majority community in Cairo, her slow healing from her heartbreak allows her to experience this religious and cultural connection more broadly, rather than specifically focusing this connection on the physical text of her Quran.

Kees’s struggle with her Quran occurs after she has accepted Harry’s proposal but before she has told her family of her relationship and planned marriage with a white, Catholic man. Kees fears touching her Quran will lead to some physical manifestation of what she considers her “sin,” though this concern is more representative than literal.