Umm Sulayman, perhaps better known as Lala on Instagram, is the author and illustrator of the newly-published book of comics, Lala Comics: The Hilarious Encounters of a Muslimah Learning Her Deen, which I reviewed here. She kindly agreed to answer some questions about her process and decision to publish a book, as well as what she hopes to achieve with her work.

Her book is now available to purchase online at the usual outlets. Find her on her website here and Instagram at @lalaartwork.

1. When did you start drawing Lala comics?

I think I made my first Lala comic in 2018.

2. What are your intentions behind producing your comics and have they changed or evolved since you started?

My initial intention was to make humorous lighthearted comics to cheer people up and educate them about our deen at the same time. Another intention was to practise drawing to improve my drawing skills so that in the future I can start animating my own Islamic cartoon.

My intentions are still somewhat the same. I just started to picture how lovely of an idea it would be to publish them in a physical form: as a book. That will allow my comics to reach people who don’t use Instagram, or the internet in general, for reading and entertainment. So I compiled most of the comics that I had made and organised them in a book friendly format for my new book, Lala Comics: The Hilarious Encounters of a Muslimah Learning Her Deen. I do have the intention of creating more books in sha Allah but next time maybe targeting children.

3. Were there any other comic artists or other people who inspired you when you were starting out? What about now? Why/how did they inspire you?

There wasn’t anyone who inspired me when I first started. But later on as my Instagram account grew, I came across accounts of different comic artists and was thrilled to find out that the Islamic comic world was a thing and was quite popular on Instagram. Discovering other Muslim comic artists has definitely given me a push to continue what I had started. They have also inspired me to publish my own comic book.

4. What is your process in producing your comics and which part do you enjoy the most?

The general process is
1. Think of a funny idea and punchline for a story;
2. Research: look up the hadeeths or Qur’anic verses that will be used in the comic, find out whether or not they are authentic and make sure they are used in the right context by checking different tafseers, etc.;
3. Draw the comic, add text and colour it in.

The part I enjoy the most is colouring the comic.

5. In your book you clearly put a lot of emphasis on using authentic Islamic sources. How do you do your research and have you ever felt like you are unsure about including something? If so, how did you resolve it?

Yes, I make sure I use authentic Islamic sources for my comics.

The way I do my research is first I think of a suitable hadeeth that goes well with my story. I look it up online and find out what grade it is, i.e. Saheeh, Hasan, etc. After that, I look for the hadeeth myself in the actual book just to make sure it is really there, unless they are very famous (well-known) hadeeths. Then I read and watch explanations of the hadeeth by different scholars to see if there are differences in opinion about its meaning or context.

There were a couple of times where I was unsure about including something. The reason was that there were two different opinions about its fiqhi ruling and I didn’t want to open the door for any unnecessary debates in the comments section. I resolved it by adding a note in the caption stating that this is the ruling that I follow and explained that there is another opinion.

6. When you are planning and drawing your comics, do you have a particular target reader in mind?

Yes. The target reader in my mind is in the range between a teenager and young adult.

7. Why did you decide to take your comics offline and put them together in a book?

I have been approached by many parents expressing how much their children love my comics. One of the parents said that her children ask her to read a comic to them every night from my Instagram account as a bedtime story. After hearing many similar stories, I realised that my comics are also suitable for children (with an adult to explain some of the stories). I don’t encourage screen time for children and children don’t normally have Instagram to read comics anyway, and that is what gave me the idea of compiling my comics in a book. That way, my comics can reach more people: those who are offline.

8. You have also started producing animated Lala videos. What advantages do you think this format has over comics?

The animated Lala ‘story time’ videos are a project I started on YouTube which is very different to my comics. I wanted Muslims (mainly teenagers) to have more video options that they can watch and relate to. There are many amazing animated ‘story time’ channels on Youtube but you rarely come across a Muslim centred one; one where the main character is a Muslim with Islamic ethics and manners who normalises what should be normal for Muslims. I pray Allah puts barakah in this project. I can’t compare it with the comics because they are two very different things.

9. Do you have any advice for other Muslims who would like to produce their own creative projects? What challenges have you faced so far and how do you overcome them?

My advice for them is to be consistent and to work on improving their time management skills.

Motivation goes up and down. Even if you’re full of passion about your project right now, that feeling will not last. You will need to push yourself to be consistent even when you don’t feel like working on it. It helps to remind yourself why you started it in the first place. Write down your intentions and read them whenever you lack motivation.

Finding time to work on your project may also be a challenge if you don’t have good time management skills. Most of the time people do actually have the time to work on their projects daily, but they fail to find it because they are unorganised.

10. Have you ever felt like you’ve been in a situation where you have been tempted/pressured to compromise your principles in your work? If so, how did you deal with this?

No I haven’t, alhamdulillaah.

11. Thinking about your journey so far, what have you learnt?

I have learnt how to accept criticism with an open mind. I used to be extremely sensitive, soft and defensive. But alhamdulillah, being exposed to critical comments helped me develop myself in that way.

12. What’s the most unexpected experience or development that has come out of Lala comics?

The most unexpected experience was meeting like-minded people on Instagram and forming lovely friendships with some of my followers. It’s heartwarming and wonderful and I’m glad I could experience that.