There are questions that come to mind and then vanish. There are also questions that remain tucked away, like a stone in the mouth, weighing heavily each time we attempt to speak around it. Why I Am Not an Absurdist: A Journey Beyond Meaninglessness is a journey of the second kind. It is not a book written because its author has found an answer. It is written because the question of meaning refuses to go away.

Maroof Shah does not enter this territory as an external historian standing outside the question, but already inside it. In his view, meaninglessness isn’t just something which can be set beside something else for examination. It is an attitude, a way of being present in what is happening. If meaning is to be recovered, it cannot be merely recovered as one more conclusion. The act of seeing requires a transformation.

Shah initiates with a definition. Absurdism can be described as “any philosophical position that finds no (absolute) meaning in life.” It is also described as the position in which humanity’s longing for “goodness, perfection, lasting peace, love, etc.” is ultimately an illusion.Surprisingly, this position does not compel Shah to turn away from the darkness that suggests itself. He goes in. Willing to stand beside the silence, he asks whether the silence belongs to the universe or to us.

What if reality has not lost its meaning? Could it be that we have become unable to see what meaning looks like?In opposition to this impoverishment, Shah reconsiders the issue of meaning itself. “What is the meaning of life?” He refers to it as one of “the most pertinent and challenging question man has ever asked and continues to ask,” and which man continues to solicit.People are still asking it even after philosophies tell them the question does not have an answer. The craving dominates the conflict. In the wake of demystifying metaphysics, longing continues.

Albert Camus enters Shah’s book at the threshold.........

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