By choosing to read this book and listen to what I have to say, you have given me your precious time. I am truly grateful—thank you! In return, I will strive to be as precise and brief as possible.
After years of grappling with existential questions, science and rationality led me to conclude that it is reasonable to believe an intelligent force might be the creator of everything. This search for the identity of
this creator prompted me to explore revealed religions, eventually bringing me to Islam and the Quran. As I revisited Islam in my late 20s—a religion I was born into but had left as a teenager—I found satisfactory
answers to most of my existential questions. However, some questions remained unanswered. While popular scholars and interpretations of Islam addressed about 70% of my inquiries satisfactorily, 30% continued to trouble me. Mr. Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, a scholar I accidentally discovered on YouTube around 2015, finally helped me find those answers. Since then, I have continued to learn from him both directly in person and indirectly through his books and online lectures.
This humble endeavor marks my sincere attempt to share with readers all the rationally and morally satisfactory answers to my existential questions. I write as a layperson for laypersons—ordinary people asking similar questions without aspirations to become scholars or academics. In my opinion, the knowledge I acquired during my quest for answers is not advanced or academic; I believe anyone with the time and exposure I had should be aware of these matters. I am not writing this book as a scholar, nor do I wish to be a writer. I am not even fond of writing, and this is probably my first and last book. It is not meant to be a casual read; it does not promise or aim to entertain readers looking to enjoy it over a cup of coffee on a cozy evening. I share my answers straightforwardly for those seriously interested in existential matters.
Importantly, I write with concern and empathy for my fellow human beings because the answers I found, if true, have crucial implications for everyone. I will endeavor to establish in this book that post-worldly divine accountability is indeed real. This has monumental consequences for each one of us. Hence, I strongly believe that sharing my journey and answers with readers is vitally important.
I don’t think I have anything new to say, but I found my answers from many different sources. By writing this book, I aim to compile my answers in one place, hoping it might serve as a helpful resource for anyone seeking answers to similar questions.
Another significant reason for writing this book is that the interpretation of Islam I have come to accept is not widely held, and I wish to play whatever role I can to disseminate this perspective to as many people as possible. Its modern-day flagbearer is Mr. Javed Ahmed Ghamidi. In this interpretation of Islam, contrary to the mainstream view, there is no death penalty for leaving Islam; a woman’s testimony is not half that of a man; Muslims cannot fight non-Muslims for their faith; Muslims cannot use violence to impose their interpretation of Islam on other Muslims; women are not obligated to cover their heads; there is no concept of a face veil in Islam; women cannot be captured in wars and enslaved for personal pleasure; Hell is not destined for all non-Muslims; monarchies and dictatorships are against the Islamic political system, which resembles democracy; keeping beards is not a religious commandment for men; gender segregation is not compulsory; and all art forms, including painting, sculpting, and acting, are allowed within certain divinely ordained moral restrictions.
After explaining the reasons behind my beliefs, I want to discuss them with as many people as possible to keep challenging my answers.
There is one more very special reason for writing this book, which I will share at the end. Going through my journey and analyzing my answers will help you understand the sentiment behind that reason, even if you disagree with me ideologically.
Since there are many concepts I have shared in this book that I learned from Mr. Ghamidi, I feel a disclaimer is necessary. I am not a scholarly student of Mr. Javed Ahmed Ghamidi. I am just a layperson who has gained some answers from his teachings. If I make any mistakes in my understanding or in my elaboration of what I learned from Mr. Ghamidi, he bears no responsibility for it.
To ensure the correctness of my understanding of Islam in general and Mr. Ghamidi’s teachings in particular, I had this book reviewed by Dr. Shehzad Saleem, a scholarly student of Mr. Ghamidi and an accomplished Quranic scholar with a Ph.D. from the University of Wales, UK. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Saleem for his feedback and for writing a foreword for this book, which I will share in the next section.
Lastly, a very important note for readers: You may find some of the things I write about religion, God, and divine accountability to be quite strange—especially if you do not believe in God or religion. But when you feel that way, remember, we already live in a very strange world. We reside on a round floating rock in an endless sea of other round rocks and gaseous bodies. Atoms—mostly empty space—are arranged into the beautiful and grotesque forms we see around us. Every day, we consume inanimate matter, which transforms into complex life before our eyes, and this mere arrangement of atoms becomes sentient and intelligent.
We live in an age where we have transformed inanimate matter into marvels of modern technology. If we told someone from just 100 years ago about our creations today, they would likely reject our claims as too strange to be possible. Just because strange things happen every day and everywhere, we grow accustomed to their strangeness, and they stop seeming unusual. However, the fact remains that we inhabit a very strange reality. Keep this in mind as we discuss God and divine accountability
