47 pages • 1 hour read
Maleeha SiddiquiBarakah Beats
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaThemes
Adolescence and Belonging
The novel explores the theme of Adolescence and Belonging through Nimra Sharif’s coming-of-age arc. Nimra’s experiences at home and school influence her sense of belonging. At the start of the novel, Nimra finds a sense of belonging from her parents, her religious community, and her best friend, Jenna Birdie. In Chapter 1, she feels proud of herself for completing her Hifz program and thankful for the opportunity to share “the Pakistani Muslim side of [her] life” with her loved ones (2). However, as soon as Nimra leaves Guided Light and starts attending Farmwell Station Middle School, she feels rejected and alone. Therefore, her new academic and social sphere acts as the primary setting for Nimra’s search for belonging.
Farmwell is a symbol of discomfort and unfamiliarity. The setting challenges Nimra’s character and causes her to question who she is and where she belongs. The school is not only “a much bigger building than what [Nimra is] used to” (31), but it’s difficult to navigate and full of students Nimra doesn’t know. After just one day at Farmwell, Nimra is surprised that nobody stops to help her when she looks helpless and that she is “the only one wearing hijab” (36). The public school setting makes Nimra feel like an outsider. While Guided Light once offered her comfort, familiarity, and safety, Farmwell makes her feel different, unwanted, and powerless.
Nimra’s understanding of what it means to belong to a group changes throughout the novel. After arriving at Farmwell, Nimra believes that she needs to stay silent about her wants, needs, and beliefs to belong. She endures Jenna’s discrimination and disrespect because she doesn’t want to lose her old friend. Even among her bandmates, who share elements of her religious identity, Nimra worries about revealing her true feelings. As a result, she sacrifices her religious beliefs about music to fit in with the group. However, with the support of her family, she finds the confidence to speak up to Jenna and her bandmates, realizing that honesty is an important part of friendship. Nimra’s continued friendship with her bandmates even after confessing her feelings teaches her that she doesn’t need to be just like her friends to belong.
At 12 years old, Nimra is at a formative stage in her adolescence. She is beginning to make her own decisions, pursue her own dreams, and ask her own questions. Her experiences at Farmwell intensify these aspects of her coming of age and complicate her ability to retain her identity as she grows up. Nimra has previously defined herself through her friendship with Jenna, her love for drawing, and her attachment to her faith. However, the conflicts she faces at Farmwell destabilize these once-consistent aspects of her life. After her difficult conversations with Jenna and the band in Chapter 24, Nimra locks herself in the basement in Chapter 25 and cries: “I miss never questioning where I belonged,” she thinks, “I miss not having to do wrong things to make other people happy” (249). This scene marks a shift in Nimra’s character arc. With her parents’ help, Nimra realizes that she must first belong to herself before she can belong to others. She must find a sense of security inside of herself before she can feel security in new spaces and with new people.
Cultural and Religious Identity
Nimra’s experiences at Farmwell and with Barakah Beats cause her to question her Cultural and Religious Identity. Before Nimra starts public school, Nimra knows who she is. Her cultural and religious background gives Nimra a steady sense of self. She is proud of being a Pakistani Muslim and of becoming a hafiza, someone who has memorized the Qur’an. However, as soon as she starts the seventh grade at Farmwell, Nimra’s sense of self is destabilized. Her separation from Guided Light distances her from her culture and her faith. These life changes challenge Nimra to practice her beliefs in private, even when others discriminate against her for them.
Changes in Nimra’s friendships throughout the novel change how Nimra sees her culture, her faith, and herself. Almost as soon as Nimra starts at Farmwell, she notices that Jenna isn’t acting like her usual self. She questions Nimra for wearing a hijab in Chapter 3, ignores Nimra at lunch in Chapter 5, and accuses Nimra of being mean to Julie in Chapter 7. Nimra realizes that her old best friend is unable to accept her Cultural and Religious Identity. Nimra’s friendship with Waleed, Bilal, Matthew, and Khadijah helps her see that she can’t be friends with people who don’t understand her faith. However, even among her Muslim bandmates, Nimra questions her personal interpretations of her faith. Though she and her family believe that “Islam doesn’t allow musical instruments” (15), her new friends are both Muslim and musicians, leading Nimra to wonder if their understanding of Islam is more correct than her own. Despite feeling like musical performance “crosses [her] boundaries” (56), Nimra finds solace and community in the band. Nimra’s decision to leave the band after the talent show fundraiser demonstrates her commitment to her personal religious identity, even if her friends express their faith differently.
Nimra’s conversations with her friends and family in Chapters 24 and 25 help Nimra fully claim her Cultural and Religious Identity. She confesses her mistakes to Mama and Baba and seeks religious and moral guidance; their compassion and trust in Nimra to make her own decisions helps Nimra realize that her Cultural and Religious Identity, while deeply shaped by her family and background, is hers to express and cultivate independently. When Nimra talks to the band, she shares her opposition to making and performing music, asking for forgiveness for her dishonesty while standing firm in her religious identity. Later, she confronts Jenna for treating her differently for wearing a hijab, saying, “I’m not going to be friends with someone who doesn’t care about me for who I am” (245). By the end of the novel, Nimra demonstrates a renewed confidence in her identity. By vocalizing her fears, desires, and wants, Nimra can rediscover and reclaim her Cultural and Religious Identity without shame.
Music and Art as Forms of Expression
Nimra’s passions for music and art help her to express herself throughout the novel. Nimra has loved to draw since she was a little girl. The repeated images and scenes of Nimra drawing in her sketchbook throughout the novel illustrate Nimra’s creative passion. Sketching helps her to stay focused, memorize the Qur’an, process her feelings, and convey ideas. Whenever she is upset, confused, lonely, happy, joyful, or excited, she turns to her sketchbook. In Chapter 17, when Nimra becomes discouraged with her artwork, Mama reminds her not to “compare [her]self to others” because everyone “has to start somewhere” (168). She shows Nimra a box of her old drawings and sketchbooks to remind Nimra of her talent and passion. Therefore, Mama helps Nimra to remember that drawing has always been a way for her to be and express herself.
Nimra’s understanding of self-expression changes when she joins Barakah Beats. Although Nimra isn’t sure if she believes in writing and performing music, she finds joy in being “part of a creative group” (117). Because the bandmates are all Muslim, their faiths and passions often align. The band uses their music “to raise money for refugee families” and to share their beliefs with others (117). Nimra’s experiences with Barakah Beats also help her to see the artistic beauty of her holy text, the Qur’an. Indeed, Nimra learns to sing by memorizing the Qur’an, and her friends discover her singing talents by overhearing her oral prayers. Music allows Nimra and her friends to say things they otherwise feel incapable of saying.
Although Nimra leaves Barakah Beats, she never abandons her love for creative self-expression. In Chapter 27, when Barakah Beats performs at the talent show, their “music flows through the air effortlessly” as Nimra’s and Bilal’s voices intermingle “with it like wind in the perfect storm” (267). The poetic style of this description illustrates Nimra’s heartfelt connection with music. Her experiences with Barakah Beats also teach her to be “more confident in pursuing what really makes [her] heart sing: art” (271). In particular, Waleed inspires Nimra to be brave about her talents as he has had to do. Like Waleed, Nimra learns how to express her truest self through her artwork and to take pride in this essential facet of her identity.
