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Beberapa Sahabat Nabi menunjukkan kekurang-senangannya karena menilai si Badui enggan mengamalkan yang sunnah.
Sardar is painfully obsessed with Muslim concerns alone. The search, written by Mr Sardar was funtastiq. Login Middlesex University staff only. Recent titles include Balti Britain: Humanistic, intellectual, pluralistic, tolerant, aesthetically beautiful; he describes his many diverse attempts to bring this vision of Islam into reality in the modern world.
Tapi dengan tersenyum, Nabi Saw. Seolah dengan hanya melaksanakan kewajiban pokok ajaran agama, maka otomatis kita masuk surga tanpa perlu menjadi solusi sosial. Surga, mungkin bisa digapai dengan semudah itu. Tapi, apa anda mau masuk surga sendirian?
Desperately Seeking Paradise has ratings and 69 reviews. Hamad said: So I really do not give a five-star rating to anything except for Amnesty Intern. Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim [Ziauddin Sardar] on www.farmersmarketmusic.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Raised in Pakistan.
View all 42 comments. Apr 27, John rated it it was ok Shelves: One of the more disappointing reads I can recall. At first there was promise that Sardar has a sense of humor, along with indications of travel throughout the muslim world. The author describes himself as a "muslim intellectual", which means lots and I mean lots of chat with other similar folks with conversations important to them at the time, but not, unfortunately, for most anyone else.
If you are interested in rehashings of grant p One of the more disappointing reads I can recall. If you are interested in rehashings of grant proposals for muslim-focused projects c. He does travel to Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Malaysia his praise for the government's "granting citizenship" to non-Malays at Independence I found either disingenuous, or wildly naive, given their enshrined second class status , but here again, it's pretty much all about intellectualism. I wasn't expecting an Islamic Bill Bryson; the problem stems from Sardar's limited observations, as opposed to Another serious problem is that the book is quite dated; though published in , most of the "action" takes place in the 70's and 80's, the Salman Rushdie affair being the most "current" discussion, and that was over a decade ago.
I really can't recommend this one for anyone, except those who might be interested in the angst of a late 20th century bicultural intellectual muslim. A better book for outsider western observations on travel in the state of the current muslim world would be Journey to the End of Islam. Sep 30, Alanoud rated it liked it Shelves: As the title suggests, the concept of Paradise is being examined with an intellectual magnifying glass of a Pakistani British Muslim, Zaiuddin Sardar.
Describing himself as a skeptical Muslim, Sardar decides to embark on a journey around the Middle East, Islam place of birth, as well as notions, beliefs and opinions to answer his question; what does a Paradise really mean? Throughout his journey, he puts his hands on some significant findings on why such a paradise is almost impossible to be materialized on earth. Injustice, fanaticism, oppression, intolerance…etc, are all major drawbacks before building the sought-after Paradise.
Starting from the Iranian Revolution to modernity and demolishing cultural properties in Madina and Mekka, globalization, Turkish Revolution and secularism, Muslim Brotherhood and Jamal Abdul Naser, September 11 to……endless interesting topics! Almost each chapter tackles a certain reflection upon a certain experience from a certain place in a certain journey! You can imagine how intoxicating the experience the reader would be put through!
In addition to the interesting topics and thoughts this book enfolds, the completely fascinating writing style of the author is no less breath-taking! Sardar is definitely one skilled writer. The way he communicates his thoughts and the way he describes things, especially the exotic places he visited, can be considered as nothing but an astonishing talent. Lol add to this his delightful sense of humor! Now although I have fallen for the book, I gotta say I have lots of problems with it! I disagree with the author on a considerable number of his views, some even on the critical points he discusses in the book.
Plus I find the accuracy of some events mentioned to be quite questionable! Finally, I believe such a rich, heavy book needs to be at least read twice! It really requires time to digest the content and let it sink in! Jul 05, Emily Iliani rated it liked it Shelves: I read it while I was literally searching for paradise; I was a little neglectful of my deeds and a little careless with my speech.
The search, written by Mr Sardar was funtastiq. It reflected my own confusions, reservations and longing. A good travelling book to remind us all that there is a reason for living and a purpose to fill. Update Having reread this, 6 years apart, I still feel the same longing I felt the first time reading it; longing for paradise, for historical magnificence, for ce I read it while I was literally searching for paradise; I was a little neglectful of my deeds and a little careless with my speech.
Update Having reread this, 6 years apart, I still feel the same longing I felt the first time reading it; longing for paradise, for historical magnificence, for certainty. This is a must read even if you disagree with everything Sardar stands for. Jul 28, Tariq Mahmood rated it it was amazing Shelves: Extremely funny and striking book on British Muslims. The author talks about his own experiences of life in UK and other Muslim countries. Though you have to be careful when considering the definition proffered by the author of a 'sceptical Muslim' as it is contradictory I think.
For how can you be sceptical and a Muslim at the same time? Jan 04, Sarah rated it really liked it. To me a painfully tragic journey, but a fulfilling one nevertheless: Sardar expressed issues with contemporary streams of Islam in ways that I always felt but could never quite express.
I loved his conclusion that paradise is a journey as opposed to a destination. Aug 27, ayani rated it it was amazing. Aug 07, Valerie Ihsan rated it really liked it Shelves: I did not complete this book. Finishing books I've started has always been an unwritten law for me. If I start one, I have to finish it. It's only been recent in the last five years or so that I've allowed myself to not finish a book.
I had conceded that my time was precious and that if I was not riveted to what I was reading So, I didn't complete "Desperately Seeking Paradise. Powell's City of Books with the I have failed. Powell's City of Books with the understanding that it was a memoir. What originally sold me on it was the quote on the back by James Buchan of the Guardian. He said, "Desperately Seeking Paradise draws on an old Muslim literary tradition in which a man sets out from home and friends, ostensibly to make his pilgrimage to Mecca, but really to indulge his spiritual restlessness Interspersed through these adventures are meditations on episodes in Islamic history and other political and religious movements.
This was more an odyssey of the author's spiritual enlightenment. Which, I have to say, I don't know if he ever found. My guess is no. I stopped reading about 50 pages from the end. I just couldn't get past the poor man's angst. I have angst, too. Or, I used to. And I went through a soul searching time where I discovered my personal brand of spirituality, but It was just a natural extension of me. But this guy took many decades. It was painful to slog through. No offense to him. I'm sure it was important work for him to do Have you ever had a friend that could never get over a wrong that was done to him or her?
Or one that sat in bitter victimhood instead of moving forward and using their misfortune to make a difference? For instance, maybe a woman's sister died of leukemia and forever after runs marathons to raise money for the Foundation to research a cure. Or maybe becomes an oncologist. Those would be examples of using your anger and sadness and grief and passion towards something good.
Well, I had a friend once that had some of that persnickity misfortune, and he dealt with it the best he knew how. But while I remained friends with this person, he seemed to be so immersed in his bitterness that every time we got together, "somehow" the topic of his misfortune and all the wrong that had been done to his family, his friends, and neighbors came up.
It was all very dramatic. And I never saw him do anything about it. I didn't fault him for talking about it. Of course you need to tell your story and get it off your chest. That's how you start to heal. And I don't fault him for being angry, or even feeling victimized. In fact, I don't fault him for anything.
But I will say it was challenging to be around him for long periods of time. While the author of this book didn't play the victim, and he definitely took every opportunity to go on adventures and work hard and help his brothers and the ummah, and he definitely tried everything in his power to make a difference, I just couldn't stomach the constant restlessness and angst. He was always so disappointed and at odds with the way Islam was being "defined" around him.
It seemed to me that he kept looking for a mentor, someone that would tell him what to do to settle his soul and dissatisfaction. And -- as far as I know -- he never found one. Everyone he encountered ultimately disappointed him because of this particular "leader's" view on I admit that it is quite likely I have just missed the point of this book because, well, I'm not Muslim, and I'm of European descent -- different culture completely.
I understand that those two things could throw off my whole perspective regarding this book. Also, and this is my bad, since I went into the book assuming it was a memoir even though the book's category is clearly stated on the back: PLUS, chagrin I only speak English -- for which I fault my lack of self-discipline and our country's educational system -- and that made following all the Arabic words thrown in a little difficult. Though I must say, Sardar did a brilliant job in explaining any non-English word he included.
So with the combination of almost constant religious angst, lots and lots of non-English names, a million dates, and a book packed with flash backs upon flash backs coupled with giant leaps forward in the author's lifetime -- in the end, I just couldn't follow it. I found myself skimming the pages, and that is a sure sign for me to put the book down and try something new.
In conclusion, I recommend this book. I recommend this book. Because that's really what it is. It's a history book. But also the history of Islam. So, if you like good writing, already know about Islam and like history May 21, Lulu Rahman rated it really liked it. Islam is a way of life, there is no doubt about that, or is there? Have you ever questioned any of its teachings and practises, especially now with Islam being thrust in the limelight?
Desperately Seeking Paradise addresses that. It questions, seeks answers and even refutes various old and current practices and beliefs and Zia Sardar is the perpetrator. Zia presented us with various aspects of Islam but raised his doubts over the conflicting thoughts and current practices. His journeys took him a Islam is a way of life, there is no doubt about that, or is there?
His journeys took him across several leading Muslim nations in search for the essence of Islam. When in Baghdad, he looked into the history of the city and how it plays a part in the evolution of Sufism. He pondered upon the mysticism of its various so-called leaders and after much probing eventually found a mish-mash of personality cults and irrational dispositions which left him even more confused. Along the way, he provided us with a unique insight into the religion that has defined his work and life. One moment he reveled in its glory. Some cynics may even view him as idiosyncratic and eccentric but personally I find him very refreshing as his answers to his own doubts revealed even more questions.
It helps too that he laced his controversial views with humour, often self-deprecating and ridiculing some of the self-proclaimed Islamists.
This book would have been dry if not for his various misadventures. She willingly offered herself to be his second wife even after him telling her he was married. Another is how he escaped from a tabligh group, a traveling group of Muslim mercenaries.
And what is a book about Islam if one does not touch on Syariah. Zia talked about this strange obsession by Islamists and governments with Syariah law, believing it could answer all kinds of problems plaguing the ummah. This is a fantastic book but readers will have to know their history and facts if they do not want to feel stumped as he rambled on and on about them.
His views are all controversial and frank yet one cannot dismiss his passion for Islam. He exemplifies a modern Muslim individual whose devotion to the religion does not blind him but instead drive him to seek further answers to his doubts and perhaps, just perhaps, guide him on the road towards paradise.
Apr 24, Murtaza rated it really liked it. I'd never came across Ziauddin Sardar before this but I'm surprised that I hadn't. This book is a semi-autobiographical account of his travels throughout the global Muslim community and his 'desperately sought' endeavors to try to improve the state of his people. It is an impulse people of all backgrounds can relate to but appears to be a book specifically geared to Muslims. The Islam he describes as his is one that I recognize in my own life and family as well. Humanistic, intellectual, pluralis I'd never came across Ziauddin Sardar before this but I'm surprised that I hadn't.
Humanistic, intellectual, pluralistic, tolerant, aesthetically beautiful; he describes his many diverse attempts to bring this vision of Islam into reality in the modern world. This journey takes him from Iran to Malaysia to Morocco, meeting with some of the great figures of the modern world which is pretty cool and his vision of Islam is expounded through a series of vignettes and dialogues.
It is a beautifully articulated and intellectually satisfying vision of the religion and one that would be recognized by any educated Muslim person or scholar of 'classical Islam'. The book is for the most part well written - sometimes dazzlingly well - though the whirlwind of names and blow-by-blow descriptions of his attendance at various conferences around the world I had no idea so many conferences on these topics were held can become a bit tedious at times.
Recommended to all who are curious on the subject but primarily to those other Muslims who are 'desperately seeking' something which they find difficult to articulate in this era. Nov 19, HannahN rated it it was ok. I have to confess I didn't finish it. I stopped around page , just because I couldn't take any more of the author's condescension. I was expecting this book to be full of interesting tales of personal experiences and enlightenment.
Instead, we get to listen to the author recount uninteresting debates with other Muslim intellectuals, so he can essentially say, "look at me, I'm so smart, and I have smartness, and everyone else is stupid, and has stupidness!
Mar 03, Sajith Kumar rated it liked it Shelves: The present-day world is reeling under the monstrosity of Islamic terror. In a sense, the Muslim community pays a far larger price for the misdeeds of a group of youths among them. The world is also astonished at the silence of moderate Muslims in condemning violence of any kind. A fundamental feature of the Orient, of which Islam sprung out in due course, is to be examined here. Individualism is deeply spurned in the East. The individual is j The present-day world is reeling under the monstrosity of Islamic terror.
You have to conform to the fads and fancies currently circulating in your tribe or society. Blind obedience to medieval jurisprudence and ideas of religious association are keeping the Muslims from fully integrating themselves with the world society. The author expresses the voice of the moderates, which the world so yearns to hear. Ziauddin Sardar is a London-based scholar of Pakistani origin, an award-winning writer and public intellectual who specializes in Muslim thought. In this book, he brings into focus the big questions facing Muslim individuals and communities and a silhouette of the suggested solutions.
The author, likewise, emigrated from Pakistan at a very young age. But once they take root in their adopted European homeland, they become restless at the egalitarian ideology and tolerant spirit of their new domicile, and take fantastic notions of the laughable supremacy of Islam into their heads.
We expect this association of youngsters to protest against injustices in the world as all ideological student groups tend to do anywhere. Their sense of injustice is attuned to wake up only when Muslims are on the losing side. Instead, they organized rallies and seminars to remonstrate against the killing of Sayyid Qutb, the chief ideologue of the extremist Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, the occupation of Palestine in and even against Hindu — Muslim communal riots that erupted in India in A common sentiment of the Muslim refugees in Europe is the wishful longing for the supposed former glory of the Muslim empires and its revival.
One wonders why did they leave their Muslim states behind in the first place! Unable to blend with the British society that offered his family shelter, livelihood and a future to look forward to, the author courted many religious groups like Tabligh and mystics like Sufi practitioners. Observance of religious practices was a quid pro quo with the almighty for attaining paradise. Such an outlook naturally precludes a multiplicity of teachers for one individual. If one thought differently, either he should remain silent, or create a new religious order.
Such strife was fairly common from the birth of Islam itself. Three of the four rightly-guided caliphs were assassinated as also eleven out of the twelve imams of Shiism. Such feuds extended into interpretations of theology and jurisprudence as well. Imam Shafi, who was the founder of the Shafi school of thought one among the four principal schools was beaten to death by the followers of Imam Malik, who expounded the Maliki school of thought also one among the four principal schools.
Sufism is touted as a syncretic system more in tune with the cosmopolitan spirit of the modern world. He became the disciple of a Sufi teacher and resigned his job as an economist on the advice of the teacher to take up the position as a carpenter in order to work with his own hands, whose worth was extolled by the spiritual guide.
He accepted a wife chosen by the teacher and submitted fully to the order, finally ending up in economic ruin. However, this episode convinced the author that mysticism was deeply flawed and that Sufism does not produce a viable, equitable social order. In the wide travels Sardar had made, he came across the tomb and life story of Mulla Nasruddin Hodja and longs that Muslims everywhere need a character like him to lean against, someone who can point out the absurdities of their situation, someone they can believe and laugh with p.
Readers are astonished at the shortsightedness of the author here. All people, not just Muslims, need such a character as Hodja! Sardar is painfully obsessed with Muslim concerns alone. If such is the worldview of the most educated among them, one can only recoil in horror at the ideology of the uneducated bigots! The difficult and troublesome synthesis of the westernized Muslims to their adopted homeland has long been an issue of serious repercussions in Europe, on account of the participation of such people in heinous terrorist acts. Sardar remarks that Muslims seek liberation from the tyranny of the West and such notions as modernity and secularism.
For them, the West is sheer evil — moderates grudgingly tolerate it, hardliners attack it physically. Once their hunger is sated, their need for a shelter is met and they find a living — all with the welfare benefits provided by Western nations — the refugees change colour and longs for Shariah! The author does not have a very high opinion of Shariah, as he states that it is not god-ordained, and made draconian by its oppressive treatment of women and minorities, its emphasis on extreme punishments and its fixation with ossified jurisprudence p. His firm conviction is that acquiring all the trappings of modernity merely leaves the Muslim ummah going round in circles, but getting nowhere.
Sardar denounces extremism in no uncertain terms. Islamic fundamentalism is said to be the idea of a state, rather than a god-centred life and thought. So, what is the real problem the Muslims encounter in blending seamlessly to their adopted Western societies? If you read between the lines of the book, the answer is crystal clear — an overarching superiority complex! For reasons incomprehensible to rational minds, Muslims consider their religion to be at the pinnacle of religious thought and action and looks down on others.
Muslims live across national boundaries in the world, but consider themselves to belong to a supra-national assembly called ummah. We see well-settled men getting deeply troubled by minor incursions in Palestine or Chechnya, where the local Muslims suffer a reverse. Even intellectuals harbour this trans-national allegiance which obfuscates the truth that Islam is going on under a fossilized tradition and religious obscurantism.
The author never mentions even a single point that affected the British society, even though he had lived there for six decades! He remembers that he is British only when he courts with trouble in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Turkey where they treated him as only a Pakistani. At the first whiff of the slightest threat, out pops the British passport and indignant cries of maltreating a British citizen!
A notable feature of Muslim intellectual organizations as seen in the book is the rich source of funds originating in the Middle East that can be used for propaganda or conversions. The s oil crisis had made the gulf states immensely rich. The book is concise summary of the social position of a Muslim intellectual in western societies. His numerous travels crisscrossing the Muslim world has helped to bring to light the dilemmas and concerns of those societies. It is a record of the constant striving of the intellectuals to find a way in which Islam can be configured for the modern world and optimizing it to interface smoothly with modernity, science and secularism.
The diction is easy on the reader and the personal experiences are narrated with a hearty sense of humour.
However, some inferences of the author should be thought of as taking advantage from hindsight. Sardar describes about meeting Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in the s in a conference of the Afghan Mujahideen and how he was shocked by the cold light in his eyes when he shut off the avenues of compromise one by one.
He was also stunned by the fanatic spirit of students in a madrassah run by the Haqqania network in Pakistan. The book is gifted with a comprehensive index. The book is recommended. May 20, Hamdanil rated it it was amazing Shelves: Memoir and intellectual adventures of a Muslim thinker in the West. It's well-written, the author is intelligent, well-read, and funny. Enjoyable read, especially the author's insights and funny jabs, even though it's quite gloomy in some parts.
It doesn't have quite the happy ending, but leaves me interested to read more of him. Aug 15, Haroon rated it really liked it. This books speaks to that struggle and provides comfort knowing one isn't alone in the journey - one that differs for all, but one that is a candid and brave account of a seeker's journey in a world that can be harshly judgmental and fraught with difference and destructive divide This books speaks to that struggle and provides comfort knowing one isn't alone in the journey - one that differs for all, but one that is worth taking anyway to find that elusive paradise of heart mind and soul Jan 12, Justin Tapp rated it it was amazing Shelves: This book was recommended to me about 5 years ago, I bought it but never got around to reading it.
That was a mistake. I reviewed a book on chaos theory earlier in the year and discovered that its author was the same. The money was used to buy properties in London and dabble in the Iranian revolution. Somehow the biography never appeared. Sardar's enthusiasm for the Iranian revolution did not last beyond Mehrabad airport in Tehran, where he gives a Hojjat ul-Islam a piece of his mind.
Expelled from Iran, breaking with Siddiqui, Sardar shuffles between conferences and editor's chairs, always sustained by a group of lively and argumentative friends known as Ijmalis meaning something like "the generalists". Mostly beardless - one is even a woman - the Ijmalis believe, it seems, that Islamic civilisation can be saved by Islam.
It is not a matter of adding Islamic dress to western culture and inventions, but of going back into the ethical and scientific teaching of Islam itself. They reject the attribution of divinity to manmade institutions, including the body of medieval law known as the sharia. Above all, in the admirable phrase of Sardar's friend Parvez Manzoor, "the west needs to stop seeing Islam as its opposite, and vice versa".
Such sweet reasonableness clearly had no chance. During the Rushdie affair, the Ijmalis were immediately outflanked by radicals, such as Ayatollah Khomeini, who were interested in promoting just such polarities. Sardar travels to Pakistan, where he rows with President Zia-ul-Haq, and then China, where he offends his interpreter by not marrying her "The Arab brothers," she sighs, "are always looking for a second or a third wife".
In Malaysia, he joins the circle of Anwar Ibrahim, the deputy prime minister and, to many liberal Muslims, the nearest this fallen world has to the perfect man. When in Ibrahim falls out with Mahathir Muhammad, the prime minister, and is locked up on charges of corruption and, of all things, sodomy, Sardar's frustration is complete.
Fortunately, he can always return to north London to nurse the injuries to his body and his illusions in a garden designed to evoke the great geometric gardens of Islamic Spain, but executed by his builder, Steve, as a set of scalene triangles. Sardar concludes, as the Sufis, and possibly Steve, had concluded before him, that no journey can even commence if the traveller thinks he has already arrived. All people are left with then is to live out a set of unquestioning certainties.