American Dervish

Akhtar follows the arc of Hayat’s faith from its inception at age ten to its transformed state as an adult. Through Hayat, the reader observes the motives that can inspire religious faith and the various practices one can follow within a larger religious framework. 

Hayat’s first version of faith inspires hope, confidence, and purpose in a boy caught up in his parents’ turmoil. At the start of the novel, the Shahs visit the local mosque on rare occasions, but their Muslim identities are largely secular. Mina, on the other hand, feels her connection to Allah deeply. In the tradition of Sufi Muslims, she prays and studies the Quran in pursuit of this connection and teaches Hayat to do the same. Eager to please the object of his desire and admiration, Hayat practices the rituals and memorizes the Quran with abandon, but Mina is quick to remind him about the meaning behind his actions:

the only reason to pray [is to] be close to Allah. If you just do forms, it’s useless. Even sitting quietly on the school bus and remembering your intention to be with God—even that is a hundred times better than just going through the motions. (66)

Hayat internalizes this lesson as he gazes at the sky in spiritual wonder during a baseball game, aspires to become a hafiz, and experiences God’s presence in prayer.

Soon, however, a more formal and conservative approach beckons Hayat at the local mosque. Hayat’s new views no longer come from a desire to follow Islam with authenticity and integrity. Hayat’s high-mindedness and condemnatory attitude belie complex personal feelings—or, to use Mina’s word, intentions—from romantic attraction to jealousy to fear to resentment to doubt. Agreeing with Imam Souhef’s anti-Semitic khutbah, Hayat turns his back on his loved ones, whom he now deems hypocrites for encouraging a marriage between a Jew and a Muslim.

After jealousy and intolerance drive Hayat to betray Mina, and after he sees Chatha and Sunil’s oppressive treatment of women result in Mina’s abuse, Hayat de-escalates his growing extremism. By the time he reaches college, Hayat takes an intellectual stance on his Muslim upbringing and lives a secular lifestyle, as his parents do.

Mina maintains her faith, however, accepting her pain as a means to transcendence. On her deathbed, Mina reveals that she practices Islam not for the sake of the afterlife but for the betterment of her daily life:

Faith has never been about an afterlife for me, Hayat. It’s about finding God now. In the everyday. Here. With you. Whether I’m living in a prison or in a castle. Sick or healthy. It’s all the same. That’s what the Sufis teach. […] Every single life, no matter how big or small, how happy or how sad, it can be a path to Him (342).