The Perfect Gentleman Quotes

“Seharusnya Islam adalah sebuah agama bagi seluruh dunia, terlepas dari ras, bahasa maupun kebudayaan. Tidak masuk akal bahwa Tuhan mengharapkan semua orang di seluruh dunia untuk belajar membaca tulisan Arab, bukan?”
― Imran Ahmad, Unimagined

“You are not responsible for your parents’ happiness. Your first priority is your own happiness. Whether your parents choose to be happy or not is entirely up to them. But you cannot make your parents happy by making yourself unhappy—that ultimately destroys everyone’s happiness. This is a lesson your parents may still need to learn, despite their advanced years. Life is a great opportunity, and your personal happiness and fulfillment—however these are defined—are both the journey and the destination. Use your brain, but listen to your heart. Once you’ve balanced the two, you’re all set. (I’m still trying to achieve this, but at least I don’t deny my intuition anymore.)”
― Imran Ahmad, The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West

“Yang disebut sekolah-sekolah Islam di Inggris menyedot habis energi murid-muridnya dengan memaksa mereka membaca dan mengingat-ngingat ayat Al-Qur’an dalam bahasa Arab, yang maknanya tidak dimengerti oleh para murid maupun guru. Jika memang ada diskusi mengenai Islam, sang Imam (yang terkadang bahkan tidak bisa bahasa Inggris) bebas mendefinisikan Islam sesuai kehendaknya, dan siapa yang bisa membantah?”
― Imran Ahmad, Unimagined

“It's such a difficult lesson to understand that someone can be wrong in theory and yet right in practice--because we want the world to be black and white, right and wrong, us and them.”
― Imran Ahmad, The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West

“Without love--what are we, what have we? Throughout the world, absolute certainty, righteousness, and outrage have completely displaced love and compassion. So, although we all know that we are right, where are we without love?”
― Imran Ahmad, The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West

“I mention to him that I am fasting, but planning to take a day off. He cautions me to think about this very carefully. "If you take a day off, you'll have a day's guilty pleasure, which won't last long. But if you keep all thirty fasts, imagine how happy you will feel. What an achievement that will be.”
― Imran Ahmad, The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West

“Perhaps the world is not as a simple a place as I would like it to be. No one is following any of the principles that they are supposed to.”
― Imran Ahmad, The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West