As a Somali working since high school in the United Arab Emirates, Osman considers himself "blessed" to be in a Muslim country, though citizenship, with the security it offers, remains elusive. For Ardo, smuggled out of Somalia to join her husband in South Africa, insecurities are of a more immediate, physical kind, and her economic prospects and legal status are more uncertain. Adam, in the United States--a destination often imagined as an earthly Eden, or jannah, by so many of his compatriots--now sees heaven in a return to Somalia.

The stories of these three people are...

As a Somali working since high school in the United Arab Emirates, Osman considers himself "blessed" to be in a Muslim country, though citizenship, with the security it offers, remains elusive. For Ardo, smuggled out of Somalia to join her husband in South Africa, insecurities are of a more immediate, physical kind, and her economic prospects and legal status are more uncertain. Adam, in the United States--a destination often imagined as an earthly Eden, or jannah, by so many of his compatriots--now sees heaven in a return to Somalia.

The stories of these three people are...