Modernity Has Given Birth to Huge Social Issues and Reduced Humans To Just Being Consumers
By
Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam
2 June 2022
Sandcastles
and Snowmen: A Personal Search for Spirituality
Sahar
El Nadi
Publisher:
FB Publishing, San Clemente, CA
ISBN:
9780985751227
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The life
trajectory of every person is a unique journey. Some life journeys are
remarkable enough to be documented and shared for wider public consumption.
These unique life stories constitute the memoir, biographical and auto
biographical genres. There are certain events that become a watershed or
turning point of one’s life and can prove an inspiration for others to follow.
The book under review is the story of personal journey of the author with the
transcendental reality of Islam. It tries to amalgamate the autobiographical
genre with analytical study of Islam. The author Sahar El Nadi has successfully
related the story of her personal quest for spirituality with the rediscovery of
her faith.
The book is
divided into twelve chapters with separate Introduction and Epilogue. The
chapters deal with various aspects of Islam, its intersection, relevance in the
modern world and Sahar’s rediscovery of her tradition in the modern world. She
describes the purpose and contents of the book in the Preface. “As you will
discover, this book is not a comprehensive study of Islam, but a simple and
personalized illustration of just some of the concepts that attracted me to
become a practicing Muslim after I gained my fair share of experience of people
and life as a global citizen. It also includes some of the ways I apply Islam
to my everyday life as a citizen of the world to relate to world events that
affect my life” (P. 19).
The
problems of modern humans include materialism, consumer culture and vices that
push him into a hedonist, heretic, diminishing his tendency for spirituality.
Sahar is aware of these challenges as she relates her experience of battling
with these problems and overcoming the same with the help of her faith. To her
being spiritual means not to be an ascetic but being “aware that the self is
three dimensional: spirit, intellect and body, not just body” (P. 35). Instead
of finding happiness in the gadgets and luxuries that money can buy humans
should be more concerned about finding a cause that will make their lives
meaningful.
The quest
for meaning of life can be found in the holistic spiritual dimensions of Islam,
that Sahar terms as Spiritual Intelligence. “Spiritual Intelligence is the
global skill that could help us all on both sides of the world to find our
balance again, in personal life as well as in public life. It could help us to
strike a point of equilibrium between the needs of our bodies and the needs of
our souls as individuals and ultimately as societies. That balance makes us
strong and confident enough to solve problems and to make positive
contributions to the world, knowing that confidence does not come when you find
all the answers, but when you are ready to face all the questions.” (P-42).
Sahar in
various chapters has described the basics of Islam, its worldview and how Islam
expects it’s faithful to behave, interact and contribute to the societies where
they are living. While describing these aspects of Islam, Sahar also tries to
remove misconceptions about Islam that have become the cause of Islamophobia in
the world. She vividly describes about Shariah law and what is meant by Fatwas
and the concepts of Islam that carry a negative connotation with them.
Muslims in
the world carry a wrong brand image of their religion, in which the violence is
supposed to have the decisive power in settling the issues. Sahar very well
deconstructs this smokescreen about Islam and violence, while analysing and
describing the concept and status of Jihad and Qital in Islam. She further
lucidly describes how Forgiveness as a faith value has been undermined in our
personal and collective lives that if implemented properly would certainly have
helped in overcoming the negative emotions of envy, hate, communalism and
violence.
She also
describes the journey of her project: “Do not Hate: Educate” that was
conceptualized in the aftermath of blasphemous Danish cartoon controversy about
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in 2006. It is a successful project that is a testimony
of the fact that peaceful means can be used to educate people about the real
picture of Islam. Various chapters have been used to describe the Human Rights,
International Relations, Trade and Business ethics, Politics and democracy and
its status in Islam. The contribution of Islam in the field of Science and
Research, Art and Culture too has been properly documented by the author.
In the
chapter Gender Roles and Equality, Sahar describes women’s rights in Islam, and
her own journey from being related to fashion industry and her transformation
when she started observing the Hijab in the Egyptian society. She describes the
gender relations among men and women in Islam, the concept of veil and how
media is distorting the image of Muslim women by reinforcing the stereotypes
about them. Sahar is for equity, not equality, among genders a view about which
one can differ with her. The growing body of knowledge in the field of Islamic
Feminism and gender just interpretation of Islam has not been consulted and
referred by the author.
Sahar has
actively participated in the events of Arab Spring that resulted in the ouster
of a dictator like Hosni Mubarak from Egypt. She describes how the faith was an
integral part of Arab Spring that fuelled the resistance against the tyrants
and dictators. It was the Islamic faith that made people to offer sacrifices
for freedom of their souls. Also Arab Spring is a testimony to the fact that
Arab Muslims certainly crave for democracy and Islam certainly is not
antithetical to democracy. But she has not documented the fading of Arab Spring
and reasons for it. Her generalizations about Islam being the sole driving
force of Arab spring can certainly be contested.
Overall the
book is a welcome read that can be a beginner’s guide towards the study of
Islam. The author has very lucidly described the Islam, Muslims and their
interaction with the modern world. The book pledges for a pluralistic,
inclusivist and tolerant interpretation of Islam that can further help in the
development of contemporary theology of Islam. Sahar has successfully
documented her struggle for the quest of Islam and its spirit while vividly
describing the various concepts of Islam.
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An
occasional columnist for New Age Islam, M.H.A. Sikander is Writer-Activist
based in Srinagar, Kashmir and can be contacted at
sikandarmushtaq@gmail.com
URL: https://newageislam.com/books-documents/modernity-social-issues-humans-consumers/d/127152
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