The Rocklopedia Fakebandica now has a podcast.
Listen now!
Zulfikar
Islamic heavy metal band from the 2009 novel Osama van Halen by Michael Muhammad Knight.
The band sported classic metal hair, wore all black, and even had a metal-sounding name, Zulfikar, after the mythical sword of the Prophet. The meaning of Zulfikar was read as “the one who distinguishes between right and wrong” or, alternately, “cleaver of the spine,” for legend said that a single blow from the blade would split a person clean in half, right down the middle.
...
Despite Zulfikar's metal pretenses, Amazing Ayyub liked it best out of all the bands because it was so openly Shi'acore and bellowed death-rock songs about the final battle between Mahdi and Dajjal. The entire band looked buff enough to be on steroids, and the singer's torso resembled an upside-down pyramid: massive shoulders, massive lats, and no waist at all. On his bare chest, he wore a tattoo of the sword Zulfikar. Spread across his broad back was a lion composed of elaborate Arabic calligraphy. The lion was an elegant manipulation of words, most likely holy words, words praising Allah or His Prophet or the Prophet's House. The singer's long hair was dyed blond but he kept his thick black beard.
They all die.
