Dear Prophet – A Woman’s Story / Ali Ansari
Unveiled, I show you my face
You, a man
I, a woman
Never the two can meet
But, we must talk.
Woman to man.
Dear Prophet – A Woman’s Story is Zarina’s story and her reflections on imponderable existential questions, “the meaning of a woman’s life and the meaning of meaning”. Through the letters she writes to the founder of her religion, the Prophet Mohammed, the panorama of this Muslim woman’s life and that of her young son, Hamid, is revealed. While she searches for her missing son, Zarina’s letters and narration describe a convoluted chain of events that move from India to Germany, Lebanon and the United States, ending up in Colorado, where Hamid undergoes the transformation, which changes everything in their lives. The intrigue and terror that grip Zarina’s and Hamid’s comfortable lives intensify with each turn of a screw wielded by an invisible hand, ending in a remarkable set of events.
“Get your passport and visas in place to travel on a global spiritual journey from Hyderabad to Boulder. Ansari’s Dear Prophet is a spicy masala of East and West. The doors of the Dargah open wide revealing the possibilities of transformation. Ansari skillfully calibrates the nuances of Sufism. Zarina and Hamid are memorable characters as they navigate the shoals of modern life. In elegant prose Ansari describes Zarina’s ambivalent romance with America and her heartache of motherhood and Hamid’s experiment with finding parallels between Native American mysticism and Islam, leading to unexpected consequences.”
— David Barsamian, Alternative Radio, USA
“It is a delight to see a fellow engineer’s remarkable debut as a novelist. Like Hamid, Zarina and Nicole, all of us are looking to being free. The book’s deep message speaks to each of us in a personal way, opening our hearts to the great love and mystery of the Beloved.”
— Bernard Amadei, University of Colorado at Boulder
About the Author
Ali Ansari’s fi rst work of fi ction is drawn from his familiarity with places, cultures and experiences described in the book that made him write it with sensitivity and understanding of a woman’s struggle to fi nd her place in a shrinking, multicultural world. Ali’s narration of the story touches on his own attempt to make sense of human relationships, love, attachment and detachment, and the human mind’s need for ultimate release in a fi nal silence. Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the U.S. as well as in India and the founder of “Engineers Without Borders – India”, Ali’s fi rst book Sufi sm And Beyond: Sufi Thought
In The Light Of Late Twentieth Century Science did very well. Ali is an Indo-American writer, who now lives in Coimbatore, India.
