Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim

by ZiauddinSardar (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2005

  $10.78

  Ziauddin Sardar, one of the foremost Muslim intellectuals in Britain, learned the Koran at his mother's knee in Pakistan. As a young student in London he set out to grasp the meaning of his religion, and, hopefully, to find 'paradise', his quest leading him throughout the Muslim world, from Iran to China to Turkey. Along the way he accepts that he may never reach paradise - but it's the journey that's important. At a time when the view of Islam in the West is so often distorted and simplistic, Desperately Seeking Paradise - self-mocking, frank and passionate - is essential reading.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $4.99

  Ziauddin Sardar, one of the foremost Muslim intellectuals in Britain, learned the Koran at his mother's knee in Pakistan. As a young student in London he set out to grasp the meaning of his religion, and, hopefully, to find 'paradise', his quest leading him throughout the Muslim world, from Iran to China to Turkey. He finds himself torn between rage at Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses and disgust at the fatwah, and is horrified by the events of September 11 2001, but his irrepressible curiosity compels him to search for a middle, humane way between western secularism and Islamist certainty. Along the way he accepts that he may never reach paradise - but it's the journey that's important. At a time when the view of Islam in the West is so often distorted and simplistic, Desperately Seeking Paradise - self-mocking, frank and passionate - is essential reading.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2004

  $3.44

  Ziauddin Sardar is one of the foremost Muslim intellectuals in Britain, author of more than 40 books on science, religion and culture. This is his account of his life as a restless believer. Sardar learned the Koran at his mother's knee during his childhood in Pakistan. As a young student in London, he sets out on a quest to grasp the meaning and contemporary relevance of his religion and, hopefully, to find paradise . He experiments with the mystical branch of Islam, Sufism and with classical Islam. He then sets off on extensive travels through the Muslim world: to Iran, the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Turkey, North Africa, Pakistan and China. On his travels, Sardar speaks to other Muslima about their beliefs, and he yearningly looks back to Islam's Golden Age . Finally, he accepts that he will probably never reach paradise - but it's the journey that's important.