Letters to a Young Muslim

Omar Saif Ghobash

Paperback, 272 pages

9781509842605

In a series of personal letters to his son, Omar Saif Ghobash offers a short and highly readable manifesto that tackles our current global crisis with the training of an experienced diplomat and the personal responsibility of a father. Today’s young Muslims will be tomorrow’s leaders, and yet too many are vulnerable to extremist propaganda that seems omnipresent in our technological age. The burning question, Ghobash argues, is how moderate Muslims can unite to find a voice that is true to Islam while actively and productively engaging in the modern world.

What does it mean to be a good Muslim?

What is the concept of a good life?

And is it acceptable to stand up and openly condemn those who take the Islamic faith and twist it to suit their own misguided political agendas?

In taking a hard look at these seemingly simple questions, Ghobash encourages his son to face issues others insist are not relevant, not applicable, or may even be Islamophobic. These letters serve as a clear-eyed inspiration for the next generation of Muslims to understand how to be faithful to their religion and still navigate through the complexities of today’s world. They also reveal an intimate glimpse into a world many are unfamiliar with and offer to provide an understanding of the everyday struggles Muslims face around the globe.

Contents

1. The Question You Face

2. The Gray Area

3. Landscapes of Islam

4. Wealth, Opportunity, and Repentance

5. Fragments of Memory

6. The Limits of What We Can Know

7. My First Dark Days

8. Who on Earth Told You That?

9. What Is True Islam?

10. 'Islam Is a Religion of Peace'

11. Crisis of Authority

12. Responsibility

13. The Perspective of an Outsider

14. Path to Fundamentalism

15. Violence

16. Role Models

17. The Challenge of Freedom

18. Violence

19. Role Models

20. The Challenge of Freedom

21. Our Complex Entanglement with the West

22. Revelation and Reason

23. Sermons and What to Expect in the Mosque on Fridays

24. Good Deeds and Bad Deeds

25. The Quran and the Search for Knowledge

26. How We Construct Ourselves and the Past

27. Men and Women

28. Free Speech and the Silence Within Ourselves

29. A Closer Look at a Moral Conundrum

30. The Muslim Individual