At the core of every spiritual journey there is a question: What do I believe? The answer is what defines personal devotion and ultimately determines how one should live life. This question, and the answers that follow the asking, are at the center of I.R. Jangharia’s An Alternative Decision, a book that reports from the frontlines of faith a pilgrim’s progress “from disbelief, to belief in One God.”
Jangharia admits to being a spiritual seeker who has investigated a number of religions—from Christianity to Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism—and scientific ideas—from Darwinism to evolution, and intelligent design—and shares the information and insight he has learned from each. The first half of the book serves as a religion primer of sorts, touching on the basic tenets of each belief system. All of this exploring will eventually lead the author to finding truth in Islam. The second half of his work, then, serves as apologetics for the Muslim faith. Jangharia, who handles his material with much care, seems most intent on dispelling rumors and misunderstandings that cast shadows on a faith that is much maligned in mainstream media.
Jangharia is a sincere writer and his desire to help others along their spiritual journey is a valiant one. The book, however, would have been better served with a more clearly defined purpose in the introduction. Ultimately, this book is the author’s journey to Islam, an honorable journey in itself, but we don’t realize this until many pages into the book. Without stating this upfront, there’s nothing to tether the author’s work to and it takes too long for us to understand the author’s goal. Moreover, a number of grammatical mistakes and awkward phrasing throughout the book make for a distracting reading experience.
Overall, Jangharia’s desire to help others shines brightly, but the author needs a clearer vision of his intent and more disciplined writing chops to reach and enlighten a wide audience.
