Preface

Thinker, logician, philosopher, altruist, astute businessman, and now author, Ismail may truly be described, first of all, as ilm-dost (friend of knowledge). At the moment of writing this preface, he has certainly joined the ranks of the erudite. I have the honor of writing this preface to his book, Unleash the Power of Almighty Allah Within You, which is a compilation of a series of lectures he delivered all over the country—very much in the fashion of Allamah Dr. Muhammad Iqbal’s Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, which was based on a series of lectures the Allamah gave in Madras, Hyderabad, and Aligarh. The author’s enthusiastic approach to life, punctuated by Qur’anic ideology, is clearly and ineluctably evident on every page. Reading through the book, one reaches the inescapable conclusion that the author has certainly discovered the art of living as Allah (SWT) teaches us in the Qur’an. He has shown throughout the book how to tap into one’s resources—both conscious and subconscious—and come up with an answer to life and living. viii. The author has taken care not to cloud the book with abstruse expositions or esoteric discourses on matters that cannot be comprehended. The author, acutely conscious of the reader’s predilections, preferences, and intellectual watermark, has written in a simple, direct, and pellucid style that is within the reach of the mental capacity of all who read it. One may or may not have read How to Win Friends and Influence People or The Power of Positive Thinking and books of similar nature, but this book surpasses all others in its approach and conclusions because it is based solely on the Noble Qur’an. The theme and basis of this book is self-development. It shows you how to do it. If you succeed, your life and daily living will improve 100%. By diffusing your inner light, gained through spiritual exercise, you emit this light to the surroundings, to people and places, thus making the world a far better place to live in. I not only recommend this book but insist that it must be read—if you wish for self-improvement, self-discipline, and quality of life, which are always, as the Bard of Avon put it, ‘devoutly to be wished for.' A.S.K. Joommal, author and editor, AlBalaagh Ramadaan 1431, August 2010, Lenasia