The Road Home: From Socialism to Islam

Author: Kassim Ahmad

Publisher: ZI Publications

ISBN: 9789675266249

Year: 2011

From rural schoolboy to teacher, politician, poet, writer and philosopher, Kassim Ahmad is an example of how far one can go with sheer determination and sound principles. Famous (or infamous) for his analysis of the Hadith in Hadis Satu Penilaian Semula (Hadith: A Re-evaluation), a controversial book that provoked much debate and discourse, Kassim Ahmad is no stranger to conflict in his endeavours to uphold the truth.

The Road Home: From Socialism to Islam details his life from Kedah, where he was born and went to school, to his days at University of Malaya in Singapore discovering socialism as well as lecturing at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London for four years before returning home to teach at a secondary school in Penang, and his eventual venture into politics. Kassim Ahmad’s thoughts on politics and philosophy, and renewed interest in Islam also introduced him to the LaRouche political-philosophical movement in the United States, the revolutionary Baathist Party in Iraq and to the US-domiciled, Tucson-based Egyptian Quran scholar, Dr. Rashad Khalifa

This memoir not only recounts the life of Kassim Ahmad but also his insights on the importance of knowledge and thought, especially in religion, in order to achieve the aspirations of Malaysians for a new, more enlightened world.