Purchase "Removing the Middleman"

This fourth volume of Removing the Middleman Series continues the journey into deconstructing the text of the Qur'an and peeling back the layers of complex undertones and contexts and empowering the readers to do the same. Discussing eighth through eleventh chapters of the Qur'an, this volume brings home a fundamental tenet of Islam and of human life - personal accountability that should follow faith, freedom of choice and social consciousness.

One should arrive at faith based on free choice and not based on where you are born or who you parents are. Faith cannot be coerced into someone, and without a free choice and a conscious choice at that, faith remains impaired and cannot fully express itself. Faith without a sense of personal responsibility and accountability is also a recipe for corruption and abuse of faith that has been witnessed in all major religions. Lack of such accountability had certainly led to serious repercussions in Christianity and proceeded many of its reformations in fifteenth century by people like Martin Luther and John Calvin. Such distortions are being witnessed in many Muslims countries and societies that allowed terrorists organizations to proliferate and autocrats to take hold. Our social stability and social justice depend on such personal accountability with respect to one another as well as to God. While in afterlife, accountability will be non-negotiable, here on earth we have to develop systems and social norms that put such personal accountability at the core of our civilization in the 21st century. The current excess in wall street profiteering while ignoring main street wellbeing is another example of lack of personal and social accountability in our financial and economic system.

In its purest form, faith in God and religious practices should forge a global alliance of goodwill and common humanity by encouraging diverse tribes to work together—a social, moral, and ethical construct to help define coexistence as a way of life. However, the creation of hierarchies and religious clergies has converted religious texts into tools for division and judgment.

This third volume of Removing the Middleman Series continues the journey into deconstructing the text of the Qur’an and peeling back the layers of complex undertones and contexts and empowering the reader to do the same. Reviewing the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the Qur’an, this volume drives home the fundamental requirement of social consciousness, which is what we need to be truly faithful and to realize the full potential of human goodness. Chapter 5, “The Repast,” draws its name from the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with his disciples and brings out a series of topics ranging from keeping promises to dietary rules to marriage vows and continuity in the revelatory faith of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Chapter 6, “The Cattle,” makes us aware of a creature of God that humans have domesticated, one that is the source of meat, milk, and other benefits and draws attention to our failures in many areas of our lives and our need for informed choices and responsible behaviors. Chapter 7, “The Elevation,” calls for a higher plane of existence for humans, one in which we are faithful to our spirits and aligned with truth and justice while practicing wisdom, patience, and forgiveness in our daily conduct.

Social consciousness is a constant reminder that frees us from both those on the religious rights and fundamentalists who want to impose blind faith and rituals and agnostics who would rather not contemplate the source of life and our innate affinity for seeking the truth and establishing justice in the world.

As intended in its purest form, faith in God and religious practices were meant to forge a global alliance of goodwill and common humanity by encouraging diverse tribes to work together – a social, moral and ethical construct to help define coexistence as a way of life. However, the creation of hierarchies and religious clergies converted religious texts into tools for division and judgment.

This second volume continues the journey into deconstructing the texts of the Qur’an and peeling back the layers of complex undertones and contexts in an effort to empower the reader to do the same. Reviewing the third and the fourth chapters of the Qur’an, this volume brings to life the fundamental right of each and every human being to be free to choose his or her faith and the mode of its expression while volume 1 was focused on fundamental aspect of this faith in God without confining such faith to mere rituals. While chapter 3, “The Family of Amran”, draws attention to the original convergence of the three faith – Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and delves into the underlying root causes of subsequent divergence of these religious beliefs and practices; Chapter 4, “The Women” makes a passionate appeal to our human consciousness and God given freedom to create a social construct where gender equality is absolute by providing directional guidance on man-woman relationships, marriage commitments, inheritance, equal rights and obligations and a confirmation that each one of us, irrespective of gender, is to be equally responsible and empowered to do good on this earth.

As intended in its purest form, religion was meant to forge a global alliance of goodwill and common humanity by encouraging diverse tribes to work together—a social construct to help define coexistence as a way of life. However, the creation of hierarchies and religious clergies converted religious texts into tools of division and judgment.

In today’s contemporary world connected through global frameworks, it is critical to reevaluate the nature of religious texts to understand the underlying importance of common good. The first volume in a series deconstructing the texts of the Qur’an without the interjection of religious scholarship, this book delves into the issue of accepting faith without being bound to ritual. Reviewing only the first two Surahs of the Qur’an, this book focuses on peeling back the layers of complex undertones and contexts behind each verse in an effort to empower the reader to do the same.