The Stuff of Life is well-written and inclusive. The author’s writing is reasonably easy to follow. There are times when the narrative is highly engaging. The author manages to hold his points of view well without being preachy or pedantic and his explorations are sincere and thought provoking. The author is examining humanity’s great questions and does a respectable job.



As I read through the first couple of dozen pages I wondered where the author was coming from, was it a Western literary and philosophical perspective, I wondered, or from the perspective of Islam, which is infused into the author’s writing right from the start through references to Ali ibn Abu Talib. Then the Buddha’s teachings, biblical references, popular self-help material, Sufism, and other references are made. However, I realized that the author has completely cosmopolitan outlook with a diverse influence and an expression borrowing freely from Western literature and philosophy and oriental liturgy.

I find this book handy and pleasing. It can feel as rambling and verbose, but I counsel some measure of patience as the book is immensely worth it. Asif inherited a metaphysical perspective of the world from his mother and grew in a tightly religious environment, but he never stopped questioning what did not make sense to him or what he did not understand, informed by his life’s experiences and education. His book provides a deep picture of the world we live in, presenting life as less of a dull slog and more of a challenge for constant exploring and learning. It invites us to think who we really are beneath the roles we assign ourselves to play on the world stage. A worthy reminder because, absorbed in day to day livening, we tend to forget that it is merely a role we have to fulfill and not the real stuff. The book underlines the utility and relevance of philosophy to everyday living. For instance, how I liked his discussion about death and its fear that shows how dealing with death by either isolating the individual from the cosmos or rendering it a taboo subject is unproductive of no real help. The truth is no matter how steadfast one is in one’s religious beliefs, nobody can be certain that there is an afterlife and these beliefs most likely represent a wishful response, carving a refuge from the refuge from the reality of death and its fear.