Powers

[Fatimya]

السلام عليكم

For writing is it okay or makrooh to have a character have powers or abilities? Not magical or any of that but abilities that are made up. (telekinesis, super hearing, night vision, etc.)

Edited February 10 by Fatimya

[Ashvazdanghe]

Salam it's generally okay to have a character who have powers or abilities likewise telekinesis, super hearing, night vision, etc which maybe made up by using technologies or someone has been born with it or maybe earned through miracle or karama a pious person which doesn't promote sinful things likewise magic .

[Guest Imām Zayd al-Shahīd]

Salam alaykum

 

There's nothing wrong with it, even fictional magic or magical creatures - this is because imagining such things is fine

Allah describes magicians and creatures that are capable of magic 

An 'ifrit from among the jinn said, ‘I will bring it to you before you rise from your place. I have the power to do it and am trustworthy.’ [Naml 39]

The stories of A Thousand and One Nights are filled with supernatural material

The imagination is the realm of fiction where we create a world that is at some distance removed from reality, and we engage in it in order to pursue possibilities of character and situation, and dilemmas that we have not come across in real life. We might imagine a supernatural power because it creates interesting moral puzzles while at the same time giving the reader a thrill to keep them entertained and turning the pages

An example is the genie in the lamp. The idea of a powerful genie imprisoned in a lamp is so bizarre and exciting that we're hooked, and so we are lured in to contemplate the moral puzzle it presents when the genie declares he will fulfil his master's wish

Without imagining that supernatural power and the magical lamp, we couldn't generate the same buzz in the reader or pose a moral dilemma as stark and wide-ranging and unpredictable as that

Fiction allows us to explore our decision-making process in a creative, exciting and sensational way. Furthermore, by hypnotising us into the alternative world and into the shoes of the protagonist, the imagination softens us to empathise with the unique perspective of the protagonist, stretching and testing the dogmas we take for granted

So reading good fiction is an education, and the imaginative elements you involve in the story should serve to make it a delightful education