Muj was Highly Commended by Faber & Faber and  Andlyn Literary Agency's FAB Prize as a Illustrator (2019) and Writer (2017) for his work on Maghrib.

'After Asim Ahkbar is left for dead that’s when his life begins to change. Saved by a secret organisation known as Jinn. Asim must carry the mantle of Maghrib, the first to do so in over 700 years. He must continue to do good at night in order to survive  through the day. Sharing a huge power that has corrupted all that have come before him.'

I initially created this comic for my nephews and nieces. After growing tired of auditioning for bad guys and terrorists, I became starkly aware of the noticeable lack of positive Muslim characters within the media and the negative ways they were often depicted. I decided to create a counter narrative in the form of a Superhero who just so happens to be Muslim. I'm a firm believer in labelling theory where in the media associating terms such as 'terror' or 'terrorist' with acts of violence carried out by people of a certain faith can be detrimental towards society; creating isolation and further perpetuating the problem. Maghrib was created to promote diversity and in turn empathy towards people of colour amongst young children. Within Children’s literature there are currently more characters who are talking animals than there are people of colour. Representation is essential in a child’s formative years and this is my contribution.

‘Alarming' study reveals only 4% of children's books feature a BAME character’ The Bookseller July 16th 2018

‘Diversity in children's books: colouring in required’ The Guardian March 20th 2014

Vol 1 -3 with the original artwork were Printed and collected into a Graphic Novel which can be purchased here.

I’m currently improving the artwork. Vol. 1 is complete and work has begun on Vol 2. (The decision was made partially through colouring Vol 6). The remainder of the series will be storyboarded.

Click on images below to read.

'Maghrib' is now in stock and on sale at the wonderful independent comic book shop OK Comics in Leeds.

19, Thornton’s Arcade, Briggate, Leeds LS1 6LQ

Tel: 0113 246 9366

'Cool work dude, keep it up, are you planning on making this a webcomic?' - GreatGreen286

'Hopefully DC drags Simon Baz out of whatever ditch he's been hiding in since he was created. Also, have you shown them Ms. Marvel?'- Yorik__brown

'First, we'll need more positive Muslim role models in real life. See if you can work on that for a while without getting yourself killed, then we can address whether the media is too negative.' - Odkin

'yeah, i enjoyed it- cool! (damn it curly!)' - steepleton

'This was really well done and I would definitely add it to my pull list if that was an option. Don't give up, you have a great story and a great character. Make this your mark on comics.' - TheMightyBarbarian

'It's only two issues, but there's a character featured back in the pre-New 52 Power Girl series (I want to say issues 24 and 25?) featuring a Muslim character named Rayhan Mazin who has weather powers. He's falsely imprisoned for almost bringing a plane down (he saved it from crashing, despite knowing how it would look) and after a misunderstanding with Power Girl and Batman, gets his record cleared, the powers behind his imprisonment are exposed, and he goes off to join the JLI, and is touted as a possible love interest for Peegee down the line...and then the New 52 happens.' - soulreaverdan

'Are you considering more? I really dug it.' - skw5236

'nice, man, making a comic is not an easy thing to do and you did it well. what kind of material did you use to draw? how much time you spent thinking about the story and doing the drawing? I'm really curious to know some details' - bigodinh0

'Many of us complain about social ills but do little or nothing about them. You actually port forth an effort. I applaud you and I'm really happy your nephews and niece will get to enjoy this.' - Ned_Shimmelfinney

'I liked this!' - bootsorhearts

'Dude this is fucking awesome!!! I'm sorry I'm a typical American and can't say the names right. The whole power corrupts concept is pretty cool as well.' - KungFuMonkeyD**kSlap

'How motivating...lol' - bolzanoZA

'Way to go man! You'll be showing them how to rape their underage wives, subjugate the dhimmi, and strap bombs on their own children in no time! ALALALALAH!!! DURKA!' - mohammaddatingclub

'Ok, I want to see this done up and read a lot more of it. More panels coming?? Great work!!!' - CoryTrevor82

'That's incredible! It's also a pretty great comic in its own right.' - FemShep_BestShep

'Western society has potrayed muslims (and other minorities) terribly over the years, thanks propaganda, so I feel for you. Your work makes a positive impact.' - teemillz

'Love it. I think you should make more :)' - ribitforce

'This is pretty cool!' - truuuuuuuok

'This is great. You should make more!' - Frizzl

'Draw simpler I guess. The anatomies too weird. Make the characters simple' - Dragontitz

'God, this is hell of badass. Keep up the good work!' - VitaGuy

'There really are too many Judeo-Christian superheros it there' - AnotherDayInTheFLA

'That was amazing, I hope you do more.' - Bladex454

'Really enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing what happens next' - akirafryer

'Very cool, I can see you put a lot of work into this. I hope to see more of this in the future.' - jet750

'Embrace the stereotype and cash in on it.' - akamustacherides

'Cool!' - SkippyDWonderpooch

'I see three options. Either there's no superhero, the superhero is in disguise, or I'm just REALLY bad at finding things' - Mycoffee26

'My first year at college my roommate was Muslim. I grew up in a small sheltered town that was pretty much solely christian. He was very cool and I've always basted my ideas on the faith around him. This comic has a good start and I'd love to see the growth you've foreshadowed. Tl;dr: I like where its going, open minds however you can.' - callmewiskers

'Nailed it. (Sarcasm)' - actingbusy

'Looks like a good start. I'd love to see this colored. Also, what do you think of Ms. Marvel ?' - lucitribal

'As someone who doesn't really practice any religions, but believes in a superior being, I think that this is very good material and that when you look around and have nobody to identify with, it's great that you are shouldering the load of being the person people look up to. I commend you OP. What you are doing is benefitting the younger generations, positively.' - ravens52

'Have you seen the latest Ms. Marvel from Marvel comics? The character is a young Muslim female who gains shapeshifting powers she finds difficult to control. And there's also Sayid from 'LOST'. In his timeline, he started out terribly cliche but turned into a wonderful role model.' - Lots42

'Good opening/back story. I for one would like to read more.' - SasquatchPrime

'I liked it a lot and would be very interested to see more :) (when my oldest children were little I wrote a ton of stories for them, usually about animals and named the animals after the children... the idea was that I'd never run out of stories to tell them if I kept writing new ones myself :) ... also that I could write them to include the kinds of moral lessons I wanted to make sure that they'd learn...)' - adopted_by_bunnies

'Mashallah. Change is not what is needed. Change implies that it is different than what was (prejudice). Transformation is creating something new not attached to any previous happenings. This is definitely a step in the right direction. God bless you and your family.' - sakbarh

'This really brought a smile to my face! Thanks!! Only thing I didn't like is I couldn't finish the story!' - Manbatton

'Beautiful idea for your nephews' - CaptainNapoleon

'A good effort from your side no doubt.' - my_time_has_come

'That was awesome, thanks for sharing. :) Not Muslim myself, but female, so I can kind of sympathize with not having a lot of great role-models...reminds me I need to work on that game I want to make with the female lead, haha.' - chrysocollus

'My last post is going into my top ten reasons not to surf reddit while drunk. But i agree handled well. Cheers' - oh_that_track_suit

'Cool man. I wanna see more' - ice00100

'I love the premise of needing to do good in order to keep living. It gives good reason for him to be going out there without resorting to vengeance or simplistic sense of duty. It also adds extra tension to anytime the hero wonders "is what I'm about to do actually right?" when trying to figure out if he should save someone who happens to be an "evil" character. Will he die if what he does isn't actually right? How helpless he is during the day is also great - having to find ways around that weakness could make for some interesting plot-lines. And then, of course, there's this mysterious Jin organization...Good luck developing this story, and please keep posting it! I'd love to see more.' - veraciousful

'That was pretty entertaining. Obviously a bit rough around the edges, but I like the character, I think the idea of JIN is cool, and I'd love to see how it develops. Good stuff' - iowaboy

'" Oh did I soil myself?"

"not yet."

day has been made.' - theladyfromthesky

'I love the inclusion of Arab lore, you need to tie in folk stories!' - Ashex

'It's like The Crow and Ghost Rider had a muslim luchadore baby. Good luck on your adventures, McRib!' - JosefTheFritzl

'you know . . i really want to say something offensive and mean. But i kinda liked it.' - iALWAYSdownvoteRHM

'I can't wait to see what happens in Mahgrib 2: Firestarter!!' - jk68814

'that's really nice' - Dragaroth