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Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim by [Ziauddin Sardar]

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Ziauddin Sardar

Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim Kindle Edition

by Ziauddin Sardar (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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“A curious, often amusing travelogue of [Sardar’s] quest for understanding and the Muslims he has encountered along his journeys.”—Publishers Weekly

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.

“Intoxicating . . . upon finishing the book, I turned back and started reading it all over again.”—Kamila Shamise, New Statesman

“At once and earnest and humorous, light-hearted and profound, this is a book that displays a sustained capacity for self-questioning of a kind that has few parallels in the liberal West.”—The Independent

“This challenging book not only acts as a guide for Muslims but provides insight and clarification for those outside the Islamic faith.”—Financial Times

“The only funny book I’ve read about Islam.”—Mail on Sunday

Print length

372 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Granta Books
Publication date

March 22, 2012
File size

618 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sardar has written a curious, often amusing travelogue of his quest for understanding and the Muslims he has encountered along his journeys. Pakistani by birth (in 1951) but raised in Britain, Sardar studied physics, but got sidetracked early into popular science writing and politics, becoming a member of FOSIS (the Federation of Students Islamic Society), an intellectual group opposed to the right-wing Muslim Brotherhood. This book chronicles Sardar's travels through the Muslim world as an observant journalist and a seeker with one principal question: how can Muslims keep the faith but also fit into the modern world? In Tehran in 1974, Sardar found an Islamic revolution brewing, with an Imam Khomeini at its front. In Baghdad, he was told to "keep an eye on" vice-president Saddam Hussein. In Mecca, he found the ancient pilgrim's city being rapidly demolished and "hideous mosques" being erected by the Bin Laden Group. In Pakistan, China and Nigeria, he discovered groups who yearned to be governed by harsh shariah law. Sardar has done the necessary background reading to fill readers in, he never preaches, and despite what sometimes seems a dismaying array of evidence otherwise, he never loses hope for the future of Muslim civilization. (Dec. 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Review

"The only funny book I've read about Islam" -- Mail on Sunday

“A curious, often amusing travelogue.” -- Publishers Weekly --This text refers to the paperback edition.

ASIN : B0078XFNOA
Publisher : Granta Books (March 22, 2012)
Publication date : March 22, 2012
Language : English
File size : 618 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 372 pages
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #1,060,093 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #60 in London Travel
- #99 in Religious Travel
- #150 in Biographies of Islam

Customer Reviews:
46 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Satya Chari

A fiercely sincere, original and unbiased inquiry by a truly accomplished intellectual - a fine reading in every sense...

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2014

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In the times, when everything is up for sale against the highest bid... Here is an original, most sincere and ever expansive inquiry into a faith, in this instance Islam by a truly endowed, expansive and intellectually unlimited author. Thanks for this, I am now aware of many an angles and lenses, which I was never aware of, amidst the noise of monotony and self-righteousness. Born and raised a Hindu, ever curious but firmly secular, often deplored for my non-pious search for reason amongst the labyrinth of make believe within the innumerable shades of Hindu absurdity, including from within one's own family, I have most struggled to understand the body existence of Islam within the context of life and living, not the promised land of after life. Ever the poorer, thanks to the stereotypes and TRP hungry media, Ziauddin Sardar helped me with some fresh air and the reassurance that, all is not lost, not yet! And most importantly, it is OK to ponder....

Thank you Mr. Sardar for this wonderful gift.

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E. Connor

Islam for anyone with a passion for intellectual exhilaration

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2016

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I'm a non-Muslim intrigued by the seeming contradictions between Islam according to its peaceable adherents, Islam according to Western detractors, and also Islam according to violent extremist Islamists.

I was prompted to buy this wonderfully stimulating (and humorous book) by what one reviewer said of it on the Amazon website: '[it offers a glimpse of the intellectually exhilarating world of Islam'. As a person who delights in being intellectually exhilarated, I was hooked by this and the other glimpses the website offered.

To limit myself to one quote from Sardar's book is difficult, but here's one that moved me particularly:

" 'Inshallah', meaning 'God willing', is the most ineffable phrase. It betokens the infinite possibilities beyond human understanding."

If you don't find that sentence 'intellectually exhilarating', then perhaps this book isn't for you. But if you do, be prepared for numerous delights.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Great writing only does so much to camouflage this book's ...

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2018

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Great writing only does so much to camouflage this book's many flaws. The first couple chapters are good, but it goes downhill fast. The whole thing is kind of a fossil, the major action of the book ends a decade before its publication in 2004. This Book should've stayed in the filing cabinet it had probably been left in. Largely nabel-hazing with other intellectuals, the book does not even explain what criteria he would use to reform Shar'ia, even though during the time he was chronicling, people like Fazlur Rahman were active. He devotes several pages to "The Satanic Verses" which was a historical footnote by the time he was writing about it. It's also mildly Shiaphobic. A vastly superior book that actually is what this book presents itself as is Michael Muhammad Knight's "Journey to the End of Islam."

One person found this helpful

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Gustaf Redemo

I would say that it is a very important book ...

Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2015

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I would say that it is a very important book, especially these days when Muslims are seen as only Salafists. He shows the importance of having an intellectual discussion when he presents Islam and what it means to be a Muslim. He writes for example that he doesn't understand why sharia is more important than democracy. It is part biography, but written in a fictious way, with a big chunk where he describes how the different perspectives of islam has developed and he has been part of the discussion.

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Anonymous1

but I went on I thoroughly grew to enjoy the author's writing style as well as his insights

Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2016

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At the beginning I struggled to get into the book, but I went on I thoroughly grew to enjoy the author's writing style as well as his insights. I love how he included so much of what was going on in the world around him as well as the history of Islam into the book. A great read.

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Herbert Reininger

Awesome book by a great author

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2014

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Awesome book by a great author. It's immensely entertaining all the while a huge treasure box of information. Highly recommended!

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superb, better than a fictional novel

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2007

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very thought provoking book. Mr. Sardar takes you on a long religious, political and spiritual journey which starts in the 60's and continues to current times. This world and Islam could be in a much better shape if we had more thinkers like him. loved the book.

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Kindle Customer

The book all should read

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2017

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An eye opener for those seeking paradise. The arguments are specifically addressed to followers of Islam but are valid for all faiths who are in search of paradise

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Top reviews from other countries

Mr Tea-Mole

Modern day Ibn Battuta

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 10, 2010

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Ziauddin Sardar is an interesting character. Born in rural Pakistan, he moves to England as a young boy and attempts to reconcile his birth identity with his acquired one. This book is an auto-biographical account of his journey as he sets out to seek the most cherished of all goals: Paradise itself.

A witty, engaging and entertaining wordsmith, Sardar is exhilarating to read. His wry and critical sense of humour permeates the text leading to moments of real hilarity. Yet this isn't simply a tale of travel and discovery - it's an erudite survey of the Muslim world, a close look at various periods of Muslim history (sometimes vis-a-vis the West), and an attempt to reconcile the traditional values of Islam with aspects of modernity. Sardar's method of choice is to place a particular piece of theory, or some nuance of historical significance into the mouth of his interlocutor - usually a professor, a friend or an educated acquaintance of some sort. His chance meetings thus turn out to be educative lessons, and as the story unfolds the mysteries of mysticism, the history of the Iranian revolution or the furore of the "Rushdie affair" - to name some of the topics covered - are stitched seamlessly into the racy narrative. Throw in some critical analysis from Sardar too, and the reader is left with considerable food for thought - as well as an entertaining and funny travel story.

So from the pietist yet simplistic Tabligh Jama'at, to the intimacies of China's rural Hui Muslim community; from meeting Pakistan's president Zia-ul-Haque, to Sardar's close relationship with Malaysia's deputy Anwar Ibrahim; or from meeting a young and passionate Osama bin Laden to spending an evening with semi-naked tribal elders in an equatorial rainforest; it's a veritable tour de force which leaves the reader gasping for breath. Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia (where the author spends 5 years), Syria and Iraq are some of the other lands visited in this gargantuan quest to translate celestial ideals into terrestrial realities.

Criticisms? Well, I can relate to what some of the other reviewers have said about Sardar's attitude; he does come across as pompous or chauvinistic at times, perhaps lacking the essential quality of humility which should be a key ingredient of his search. Also his constant references to himself as a "Muslim intellectual" betray a lurking insecurity perhaps and border on the tedious; he seems to need to drive the point home again and again to ensure the reader is left in no doubt. He makes a lot of references to the depression the state of the Ummat (global Muslim community) inspires in him, yet - self-proclaimed intellectual status aside - some of the strategies he adopts to assuage this condition seem un-intellectual to say the least. Thinking thoughts in a vacuum, along with his small band of like-minded friends - the Ijmalis - surely cannot lead to any lasting and constructive change in the world-wide Muslim condition. Especially when some of these thoughts betray the very basis upon which that community defines itself (although Sardar's "intellectual status" gives him license, of course, to cut off the branch on which he's sitting).

All-in-all an enjoyable read though, and a rare and competent expression of some of the issues facing British (or Western) Muslims as they grapple to find their place in the modern intellectual landscape. Much more nuanced, infinitely better-written and strikingly more erudite than, for example, Ed Husain's The Islamist. Oh - and another thing: Sardar has an unhealthy obsession with facial hair. Almost everybody he meets is described in terms of his beard - or lack of it: wisps of wiry whiskers, moustaches, goatees, bursts of uncontrolled hirsuteness or straggling stubble - in fact all manner of bushy benevolence are anatomised in excruciating detail. Maybe Sardar's follicular fixation feeds upon the carefully projected self-image mentioned above: he revels in the fact he is clean-shaven, wearing this proudly as a badge of his "intellectual status". Unlike the dull-witted, bearded Mullahs of course.

2 people found this helpful

Prof.Del

a good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 18, 2012

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If you want to understand some of the barriers young second/third generation Muslims in Britain (and indeed anywhere else) go through you need to read this book. The author who heralds from Pakistan shows that when it comes to religiously inspired humour the Pakistanis are far ahead. Most importantly the author dispels the recent stereotype that has emerged of being a young an educated british Pakistani muslim (his background is in physics) does not equate to having detailed knowledge of trigger devices and fertilizer mixes. The author uses his experiences and his humour to tell a story of people trying to succeed with all the obstacles one would face from within the community and beyond. A must read.

Amazon Customer

Appreciation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2013

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Very rarely have I read a text which I didn't want to end, and which I engaged with at so many different levels although the author and I belong to different schools of thought and being. I have ensured that my all my mudeyyin but curious and open hearted friends have got a copy of Professor Sardar's book.

Dr. Mehmet Ali Dikerdem

Ramzan Adatia

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2016

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very interesting

One person found this helpful

Chris A

Interesting read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 8, 2013

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It gives glimpses into his life, often humorous and along the way I've learned some interesting things about Islam and why the community appears to us in the way it does today

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