Dear Sohail

Dear Sohail,

Finally, I have completed reading your book, “From Islam to Secular Humanism”, a philosophical journey. It is a marvelous job indeed and a great accomplishment. I enjoyed reading every bit of it. I felt I was a part of the entire write up, you made me walk through all those paths along with you, definitely a quality we call “good writing power”. The thing I have been most impressed is that unlike others you have brought up the best of every philosophy with the sincerest effort. The analyses are impartial but at the same time reflect your truly secular belief. Usually when the intelligent people refuse to have blind faith and break the ties from their religion and culture, embark on the new and untraditional path, they overlook the good qualities of their legacy, humiliate their religions and cultural values, many times to the extent of hurting the innocent feelings of their loved ones. Rather you have mentioned about the positive family influences in guiding the young ones with love and affection, an admirable characteristic of our culture. Also, you have described the religions in a much better and nicer ways than the “Maulanas”.

I have always been fascinated by sufiism but never got the chance to read in detail. Kabir Das’s dohas;

“chalti chakki dekh ke diya kabira ro

do patan a beech baqi raha na ko”

and many more, always thought of reading but never did it. Your book very nicely gave me an overview of most of the sophi thoughts. Indiscriminately, you encompassed all the religions and parts of the world, a brief but complete account. The story is narrated in everyday language to make it clear to a lay person like me.

The poem in the end nicely depicts the origin of life and evolution to the best form of life. However, I felt a little gap between life and the physical matter, would have been nice if you had connected the origin of life with the physical science theories, although you did mention Steve Hawkins, Abdus Salam and Weinberg. Just a few sentences could have been added where Krishnamourti is thinking about a stone and its conversion into various forms of life.

Unlike many others, you have described the evolution of your thoughts very humbly without making the reader feel that the author is so too highly knowledgeable and the philosophy being talked about is hard to get hold of. The other day I saw this book in “the world’s biggest bookstore”. It gives me an indescribable pleasure that I have come to know you through this write-up. Apart from its scholastic value, the book is perhaps the best gift I have ever received. As I wrote to you earlier, I’ll read it again and again. Congratulations for the accomplishment and thank you for considering me worthy of this gift.

Darakhshanda