Borrowed Wisdom
by
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There is a massive void in our understanding of the East. There are, for example, over 1.3 billion Muslims in the world, yet our understanding of them in the West is very paltry. Whatever little we know we have learned from the media, and that is very dangerous. What if the Muslims of the world started comparing us with the TV shows and the news they see about us. Imagine if they started believing that “Desperate Housewives” and CNN were appropriate representations of our lives in the
How easily we forget our origin, our journey, and our destination. We have set out on a car trip, but we are spending so much time and attention on the car and the gas station, that we have forgotten our trip.
Judging Islam through the Taliban lens is the equivalent to judging
We are all a CEO of the company called “I,” Inc. We are responsible for the various departments of the company, financial, spiritual, intellectual, and physical, etc. Are we doing a good job of leading our company? Do we have a mission statement for the company? Do we have proper goals for all the departments?
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About the Book
This book is requisite reading material for any person claiming to be an educated and informed member of the global community. Our understanding in the West of the Eastern cultures, specially the different cultures involving the Muslims, is alarmingly low. The book strives to offer a view from the ground, a keyhole perspective that offers the readers a close and personal peek into some of the ethical underpinnings and the philosophical guiding parameters that inform the Muslim and the Eastern mind. There are over 1.3 billion Muslims in the world. It would be a serious intellectual fallacy to assume that they are all homogenous, or to be more preposterous, assume they are all terrorists. It is extremely tragic that it took the Iranian hostage crisis to teach us about Shia Islam and 9/11 to teach us about Wahabi Islam. Properly acquired knowledge, not just what we learn from the media, will allow us to be anticipatory and rational, rather than being reactive and emotional.
For the Muslim reader, specially the children and the youth, the book strives to offer a deeper understanding of Islam, beyond the boundaries of ritual Islam into the wide open space of spiritual and intellectual Islam. To inspire them to appreciate and live up to the wonderful legacy of Islam and not to be mired down into some deviant interpretations of people, with questionable motives.
The book is designed to encourage the process of tearing down walls and building bridges. We share common dreams, aspirations and challenges. We share a common globe and a common destiny. The author believes that there are no clashes of civilizations, just clashes of ignorance and misunderstanding.
About the Author
This American Muslim author is a technologist working in the fast paced, high tech world of Silicon Valley, California for over twenty years. Professionally, as part of his corporate assignment, he has been transferring technology to the developing world, helping them understand and manufacture microelectronics components more effectively. During his substantial travels, the author came across the unmistakable realization that there was a lot of ‘wisdom and technology’ that needed to be transferred from the East to the West. This book is an attempt to do exactly that.
Born in the East and educated in the West, the author serves as the ideal bridge, striving to connect critical world factions that seem to be drifting apart. Using poetry, spirituality, technology, humor and a probing ability to capture wisdom, the author offers new windows to a world culture, generally misunderstood and often under –appreciated.