"Dadi," I ask, "were you frightened by the Bugtis?" "I just know that whatever Allah wills, it will be so. And there's no reason to be afraid, because what Allah wills cannot be changed.

Dadi offers this answer when, after a sinister-looking band of Bugtis stops the Sibi-bound caravan for questioning, Shabanu asks him if he had been scared. Dadi's answer demonstrates an attitude toward life which Shabanu has great difficulty internalizing. Dadi's answer displays not only faith, but also a certain level of fatalism: he cannot change—and will not try to change— what will happen. In part, this faith brings him peace. In part, it means he will not question events, actions, or societal norms. Shabanu cannot accept Allah's will so unquestioningly: she rebels at perceived injustices and cannot help mourning tragedies that befall her. By the end of the book, when she chooses both to accept and to resist her fate, she has a deeper and subtler understanding of what it means to accept the will of Allah.