Meet Rashed Hasan

Rashed Hasan started his journey towards God during his travels throughout the Muslim world.  Having grown up in a Bangladesh and educated at Ivy Leagues in the US (MIT & Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania). Rashed’s travels were colored with a dichotomous life experience.  In his travels he saw poverty, lack of access to education, and above all else – the lack of empowerment in the masses.  This, coupled with a rising religious conservatism in the Muslim countries, lead to Rashed’s fascination with how and why people were still drawn to God, what drew them to God, and what kept them there.

During his travels in the Western world, Rashed soaked in vigorous intellectual discourse, unprecedented economic well-being, and the access to education.  Yet, he also found growing income disparities and systematic de-humanizing of citizens.  He found that in many of these states, there seemed to be a preference for secularist lives that lead away from God and religion.

This led him to one singular thought: does progress inhibit God-consciousness where struggles promote it? Knowing that could not be the case, Rashed delved into deconstructing religion through the experiences of a common man – one that does not carry with him the weight of a religious title or the experiences of a non-religious man.

The road to this book

Rashed’s thoughts did not immediately launch him into a fervent world of religion and god. He spent most of his life in management consulting and technology entrepreneurship, running one successful company after another.  He worked at Booz Allen & Hamilton and Ernst & Young, consulting for global corporations.  Always with an eye for social development in underprivileged countries, Rashed also established social ventures in Bangladesh in software and healthcare.

His interest in how religion intersects with culture launched him into leadership positions in community organizations including both faith based and political groups.  Rashed worked on youth leadership against drug abuse and immigrant advocacy organizations in collaboration with the US Department of Justice, PA Department of Health, Jewish Healthcare Foundation, Heinz Endowment foundation and more.  He also worked with multi-national donor agencies such as USAID, Swedish Development Fund, IFC, and Abu Dhabi Development Fund – all with a focus on social ventures and non-profit initiatives.

Rashed took his varied experiences and his interest in religious understanding to pen and paper 10 years ago.  After recently moving to Washington D.C. he took the culmination of 10 years of research and observation and published this book.

Find him now

Even now Rashed continues to focus on his latest technology venture while working within the community to build bridges and facilitate dialogue amongst various groups. When not working, he can be found reading, traveling, cooking a delicious meal, and gardening (albeit with limited success) with his beautiful wife – to whom plants are no less dear than her own children.