Biography
Noor Yusuf is a poet and author. Born in South Africa and raised in the United Kingdom, she has been writing and composing books, articles and poetry for a number of years. Her works have garnered her a number of awards at both local and national level, including being a three-times winner of the Young Muslim Writers Award. Her deep attachment to traditional Islamic spirituality informs the majority of her works.
At the age of 15, and over only twelve nights, she authored The Soliloquy of the Full Moon, an original work on the nativity of the Prophet Muhammad. This is a thousand line narrative epic of fully metered English poetry detailing the signs, wonders and prophecies that heralded the Mawlid – or birth – of the Prophet. It seamlessly fuses the classical cadences of Shakespeare and Milton with the equally classical genres of Arabic praise and biographical poetry, to create a work that is entirely unique and a definitive contribution to Western Muslim culture.
She has published Beyond the Forest (2019), Through the Blue Gate (2021), and Over Mist and Mountain (2024), with sequels forthcoming. These books are instalments of Adventures with the Awliya, a children’s adventure series influenced by classics such as the Faraway Tree, as well as accounts of Muslim Sufis and mystics. The books follow three young Muslim children on adventures through legend and history, through which they learn valuable life lessons. The series explores a vast array of cultures and their storied heritage, and can be enjoyed by readers of all backgrounds, exploring central themes of spirituality, diversity, and the celebration of heritage, mythologies and cultures from around the world. She is currently working on many other projects including a historical fantasy trilogy, children’s books, further volumes of poetry and non-fiction specialist works.
She read linguistics at the University of Birmingham, after having been home-schooled for a number of years, and has been pursuing traditional studies over 13 years of Islamic law, Arabic linguistics, theology, metaphysics and spirituality under her father Shaykh Dr Asim Yusuf. She is authorised in the six canonical hadith works as well as various other classical texts, whose full recitations she has completed with elevated chains from a number of the oldest hadith narrators still living. Besides writing, she is also an artist, graphic novelist and editor.
