During my formative years, I overlooked the importance of religious education and prioritized my

academic pursuits. It wasn’t until a peer questioned my religious identity that the importance of
religious education started to dawn on me. Questions like “Why do you say Ya Ali Madad instead of
Asalam-o-Alaikum like the rest of us Muslims?” “Why does your imam look so foreign?” Although, these
questions had previously lingered in my mind, it was only after being directly challenged did I realize
that I was grossly unaware of my religious identity and I even started to question my faith as an Ismaili
Muslim.

Fortunately, I had the platform of Religious Education Center (REC) where I was allowed to ask such
questions. It was through REC that I came to understand the influence culture has on religious
expressions and how the Sunni majority in Pakistan has standardized what it means to be a Muslim for
rest of us. For instance, I recently discovered that the six kalimas that are mandated in our school
Islamiyat curricula has no footing in Islam, rather it is a cultural phenomenon specific to Pakistan. I
regretted the times I questioned myself as a Muslim for not knowing the six kalimas as good as the six
parts of dua. My teachers helped me bridge this gap by quoting Mawlana Hazir Imam who said: “the
freedom of interpretation is the generosity Quran confers upon all its believers.” This was an eye
opening moment for me, I realized that the differences we have in our interpretations should not be
perceived as source of divisions in Islam but rather as reasons for its richness and beauty.

As my involvement with REC deepened, I felt an increasing pull towards teaching. Upon graduation, I
was given the opportunity to teach Quranic Studies in HRE-2, the same standard that had drawn me to
REC was soon to became my source of calling. I have been teaching in HRE-2 for over five years now, this
even predates my undergraduate studies. Despite of doing fairly well in Computer Science I always felt a
deeper resonance with philosophical concepts and linguistic intricacies. During my degree I opted for
coursework in Information Retrieval and Natural Language Processing due to my fascination with
language and its understanding. My degree and coursework equipped me with the analytical skills and
insights that I believe I can leverage in my pursuit of understanding cross cultural and linguistic nuances
in the interpretation of Quran.

What furthered my motivation to make this academic shift was a simple question asked by my HRE-2
students: “If Quran was originally written in Arabic, does God too speak Arabic?” “Does God really have
a Face or Hand like us because that is what he states in quran.” These seemingly simple questions
prompted me to study literature regarding Quranic sciences particularly books by Institute of Ismaili
Studies. These books introduced me to luminaries like Pir Nasir Khusraw, Dai Al Razi and Abu Yaqub
Sijistani. Their works centered around Ismaili philosophy was something completely new to me and
became the source of my calling.

The concept that most struck with me was of Taweel, how we as Ismailis believe that the true essence of
Quran lies in its esoteric interpretation. This was like an epiphany, almost as if all my questions and the
questions of my peers were answered by a single word. Upon this revelation I dedicated significant time
to teaching Ismaili Neoplatonic philosophy in Rec and my quest also led me to explore more themes on
which IIS has worked on.

I remember while I was giving a lecture on “Emotions in Quran” a paper written by Dr.Karen Bauer. A
guest teacher in my class stopped me afterwards and told me that he is a GPISH student where he
studies what I was teaching in my class then and that Dr. Karen is a faculty member there. This was the
moment I first heard of this program. I immediately decided to apply because GPISH seems to be the
only program that aligns with my aspirations. Through GPISH, I will be able to learn