A Book on Evolution : Welcome to the Path of Science
Published on February 13, 2007
Review of Amar AmiAmar Sattaa O Isshwar (Me, My Soul and God), Tariqul Islam, Ira Prakashani, Dhaka, 2001
I got to know Tariqul Islam a couple of years ago while I was visiting a friend of mine, Alia Choudhury, a poet, in Spring Valley. I found him cool and friendly. But I did not know that he was also a writer till the next time I saw him. This time he gave me a book, Amar AmiAmar Sattaa O Isshwar (Me, My Soul and God). The book was written in Bengali text. The title of the book immediately grabbed my attention; it, at once, reminded me of Freudian concept of life: Id, ego and supper ego.
In the book, Tariqul mostly talks about evolutionhe wants to lay down the fact more than his own analysis on the topic. I asked him, What made you writing the book? He replied, The constant thirst of understanding myself, and how the social, political and economic conditions rip me apart from my inner self. I want to see how I am looked by the terms and conditions of othersespecially the ones closer to me. When, there is a restless conflict between science and religion, and when we, a handful of people of the world, believe that scientific knowledge is the only solution, Tariquls book has a very important role in the young peoples mind. In the book he says, Its very tough to provide our offspring with proper education, but their aptitude to learn will gradually increase the probability of Human existence.
There are so many books in English literature on evolution, on the conflict of science and religion, and psychological aspect of peoples mind. But we only have a handful of them in our language. Aroz Ali Matubbor, Dr. Ahmed Shorif and Dr. Humayun Azad are the few of them in our culture who have put their lives on the line in recent era to ask questions. One who does not know how to ask a question, he is in dark, said Humayun Azad. And to have the guts to ask a question in front of millions of dark minds, one needs the proper scientific education. Near the end of the book Tariqul also takes a chance by asking questions on the religious layout. I believe through the book, Tariqul took a step forward to embrace the path of humanity. But it would have been even better if he would get a little more explanatory and source oriented. In any case, I am happy to know that along the way we got one more friend in our list.
Hassanal Abdullah is the author of 11 books including six collections of poetry. He introduced a new form of sonnets, called Swatantra Sonnets. Mr. Abdullah teaches calculus and computers of the New York City Dept. of education. E-mail: habdu056@aol.com
