BY
ILLUSTRATED BY
First Published in 2025 by THE ISLAMIC FOUNDATION
Distributed by KUBE PUBLISHING LTD
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Text copyright © Shamaila Khan, 2025
Illustrations copyright © Reyhana Ismail, 2025
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
Author: Shamaila Khan
Illustration and Book Design: Reyhana Ismail
A Cataloguing-in-Publication Data record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-86037-958-4
eISBN: 978-0-86037-963-8
Printed in China
AUTHOR’S NOTE
‘All the Ways to be Pretty’ is the story I wish I had growing up, and so I wrote this book for my daughter, and for daughters everywhere.
Like most women, I grew up feeling pressure to be beautiful. It starts early on – clothes for baby girls are made with style over function in mind, from impractical frilly dresses made from itchy fabric, to trousers with no pockets, designed to be worn tightly against the skin. In the storybooks we read our children, girls are princesses in gowns and crowns, longing for a handsome prince to sweep them off their feet. It gets worse as our girls grow in the age of social media, with thousands of filters designed to elongate lashes, enhance eyes, and smooth out imperfections. All of this sends a message to impressionable young girls – your beauty, and therefore your value – all comes down to how you look. In such a climate, can you blame girls for looking to glamourous models and actresses as their role models, rather than the powerful and inspiring historical women from our tradition?
No doubt, physical beauty is a blessing from Allah I. Allah is beautiful, and He loves beauty. He makes all things in their most perfect form, from the trees and mountains, plants and animals, to the smallest of insects and of course, human beings. All humans are beautiful in their own unique ways, and this book is not about diminishing that gift.
I wrote ‘All the Ways to be Pretty’ to provide Muslim parents with a starting point for conversations about beauty from an Islamic perspective. In our tradition, physical beauty is not the foundation on which our deeds sit. True beauty in Islam is to have beautiful character – it is our deeds and actions which beautify us in the eyes of Allah I
We have no records of how these women looked, because their looks are not why they are glorified and remembered. It is their bravery, their strength, their resilience, their intelligence, and their faith, which means they are the true Queens of our ummah. And if we look to these women and try to emulate them, we can strengthen our own hearts against those whispers that tell us that we aren’t good enough, simply because we don’t fit society’s ever-changing standards about what it means to be beautiful. I hope this book serves as a reminder to young girls, and adult women too – Allah I raised the ranks of women like Khadijah y, A’ishah y, Maryam y and Sumayyah y because of their incredible spirit, taqwa and iman.
On our way to school one day, my mum asked me, “When you’re all grown up, what would you like to be?”
Without hesitation, I excitedly said All the thoughts that I had in my head!
I want to be PRETTY like the girls on my screen, Dressed in cool clothes, their makeup pristine. With their beautiful hair, and bright, glowing skin, Attractive and popular so I can fit in.
“Why are you frowning, Mum? Was it something I said?”
Mum looked into my eyes, “Think of it this way instead,”
“It’s all very well to want to look good, And take pride in your appearance, you definitely should! But there are many more ways to be pretty, you know.
Being pretty on the inside is what really makes you glow!”
I was confused and asked, “Mum, what do you mean?
“I thought being pretty is just the way you are seen.”
“No,” smiled Mum, “there’s more to it, you see, “Why just be pretty, when you could be …”
What do you do when your daughter just wants to be pretty like the girls she sees on-screen?
All The Ways to be Pretty is a rhythmic conversation between a mother and her daughter as she guides her to reflect whether beauty on the outside also comes from beauty on the inside.
This is a book that wants to empower young girls to look beyond simplistic beauty standards imposed by society. It illuminates a self-worth and identity that is more than one dimensional; rooting its heart in the subtle and myriad personalities of some vibrant women from Islam’s past.