The tradition of a father writing to his child is a long and glorious one in literature. There is, of course, If by Rudyard Kipling with its evocation of honour and good sense though somewhat moralistic. There is William Butler Yeats expressing his fears in the poignant A Prayer for My Daughter . Letters have often provided a more sustained way of communicating with a child when separated due to unavoidable reasons, the best example being Nehru’s letters to his daughter, Indira, written from prison. In each such attempt, there is the striving of a parent to communicate and leave behind something more tangible and lasting than mere memories.
Omar Saif Ghobash is the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to Russia. In Letters to a Young Muslim , he writes a series of long but intimate letters to his elder son, aged 17. Written in lucid prose, there are no earth-shattering revelations nor any moments of epiphany. Instead, he tells his son that the questions he faces, such as how to be a ‘good’ Muslim in the present world, and the solutions he finds or is presented with, are questions and solutions that many others have faced as well.
Ghobash’s father was killed in a terrorist attack in 1977. These letters are an attempt to pass on something he himself was deprived of and, more importantly, as he writes: “I do not want you to learn the most important lessons in life from people who do not love you as I love you... I want you to know about the things I believe after more than thirty years of thinking about my father's death. His death forced me to answer... difficult questions; it shaped the way in which I view the world.”
Unflinchingly, Ghobash addresses several thorny issues: the constant linkage between Islam and terrorism, the sectarianism that causes a Sunni Muslim to take up arms against a Shia, the growth of IS, the influx of Muslim refugees in Europe, the notion of jihad and its mooring in Islam, whether the Koran should be the only book of knowledge for Muslims, the Muslim’s problematic relationship with the West and vice-versa. At a more personal level, Ghobash talks of being ‘a half-race Arab who spoke Arabic with difficulty’ (since his mother was Russian) and his encounters with ‘language, blood and patriarchs’ as he learnt to negotiate racism.
An outsider from the mainstream, born without the luxury of having all his boxes ticked, Ghobash cautions his son against prejudice. This is a book by a brave man, a wise Muslim and a loving father; it should be read.
Letters to a Young Muslim ; Omar Saif Ghobash, Pan Macmillan, ₹499.
