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Acknowledgments
My deepest appreciation goes to Dr. Arwa Alshaer, my dearest friend who inspired me first to complete my doctoral degree at my mature age and then continually provided me with a source of inspiration about the topic for this book, reassuring me on occasion that I would produce a magnificent piece of reference material.
Another person I regard in high esteem is Alia Alshaer, Arwa’s sister. Alia provided hours of listening as I read my chapters of writing to her. This helped to determine the validity and value of the contents especially as they related to Islam. Her excitement over each of my chapters gave me reason to believe they were insightful.
I can’t ever thank my mother, Ida Allegretto, enough for keeping the candle lit during all the years of my ongoing education. Remarkably, with no formal education outside of high school, she was the only person outside of academia who read my entire manuscript.
Finally, with my warmest regards, I want to show much appreciation to Dr. Ronald Shafer, professor of English and Comparative Literature at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He was the source of my decision to study the great Egyptian Nobel Prize Winner, Naguib Mahfouz. His endless hours of editing also provided me with added eloquence in language.