An Introduction

Hello World

Hi,

My name is Mohsen Ashraf. I’m a writer, a recovering corporate executive, and a creative producer. I’m also a fantasy nerd, an amateur historian, and a mythology enthusiast. And to top it all off, I’m a devout Muslim delving deep into the worlds of religious evolution.

Yes, there’s a lot going on here, but I’ve always been a restless soul.

I was born in California and raised in the Middle East, where I had an early — some may say unhealthy — immersion in folktales, films, and philosophies across cultures. Living in villas and walled communities didn’t lend itself well to childhood adventures, so bookish escapism became my best friend. I grew up on the wild and moralistic tales of One Thousand and One Nights, the rich lore and humanity of Greek myth, and the spiritual teachings of the Holy Qur’an.

Some would call that a recipe for confusion. And while some confusion is necessary to unravel the higher mysteries of life, I always felt grounded. I have my parents to thank for that. Strongly Islamic in their identity, they were also open-minded and encouraged me in my pursuits of knowledge — as long as I still prayed daily and did well in school.

So throughout middle and high school, I separated the reverie I enjoyed with fantasy and myth — such as Odin riding a mount with eight legs through the skies— from the didactic nature of Islam — the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) riding a mount made of lightning through the heavens — treating them as different stories serving different purposes.

Then everything changed during a college course on Norse mythology — taken, ironically, to satisfy a religious studies requirement. Studying an ancient faith through a historical and analytical lens revealed something fundamental: that myth is not merely story, but a living map of metaphor, ritual, and faith. Early humans used myths not as entertainment but as frameworks for understanding the divine, making sense of a chaotic world, and finding one’s place in it.

And these myths changed over time — evolving as society matured, merging as cultures mixed — to make better sense of the world for their time. Even as these stories changed, they still maintained ties to what came before them, carrying fragments of the past into the future.

Have you ever wondered why faiths around the world all preach similar messages of duty and devotion, service and sacrifice, and purpose towards a greater good? Why nearly every culture tells stories of a first man and woman, a great flood, a stolen divine gift, a paradise lost, journeys into other realms, and an end followed by renewal?

These parallels aren’t coincidence. As I explored ancient religions (myths) and more recent religions (faiths), I began noticing spiritual threads linking civilizations across continents and centuries, pointing towards a shared origin older than any single scripture or temple. That realization awakened something in me that inspired this entire series:

A desire to understand the evolution of myth — all branching from a common origin — and with it, the story of God.

To begin this grand endeavor, let me start with my definition of the Almighty:

God is transcendent, the unknowable, the one who exists outside of time and matter, has full control of the cosmos, and has influenced humanity through symbols, messages, intuition, and revelation passed down from the first man and woman.

In Islam, we believe the first man and woman — and first prophets — were Adam and Eve, and 124,000 subsequent prophets were sent to every nation on earth, each carrying divine guidance shaped to their culture. Only a few dozen are named in Abrahamic texts, and while many will not include women in prophethood, how is one to know the immense love and grace of God if not through the feminine?

Either way, that leaves over 123,000 unnamed messengers!

Which raises a provocative possibility. If every culture received a prophet, how many of the “mythic” figures we study were real individuals whose lives became legend and were then transformed into myth over generations?

Was Hermes Trismegistus — the first legendary teacher of alchemy — an early prophet sent to the Egyptians? Was Adapa — the mythic sage who unknowingly refused immortality — a Mesopotamian prophet? Was Pachamama — a foundational divine spiritual figure in South America —just a prophet who was later deified?

The line between prophet and mythic archetype has always been thin. Ancient cultures preserved truth through story, and story, retold and reshaped over time, becomes myth.

Which brings us to a foundational question: What is a myth?

While I love Joseph Campbell’s definition — “Myth is the Song of the Universe” — here is my own: Myth is a shared cultural story that explains a truth about the world.

Not a literal or historical truth, but a spiritual, psychological, or moral one. Myths exists to explain the unexplainable, pass down values, provide identity, and make meaning out of the chaos of life.

Some myths sound completely outlandish. Did Orisanla from West Africa really create the Earth with a five-toed chicken? Did Loki really give birth to Odin’s eight-legged horse? Was Jonah truly swallowed by a whale?

Other stories will resonate not because they sound less surreal, but because they live inside belief systems we trust.

In Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) ascended into the heavens on a steed made of lightning to meet God and receive the commandment of prayer. Is that a myth? Yes, not because it isn’t true, but because it’s a shared cultural story explaining why Muslims pray five times a day.

A myth isn’t necessarily false. It’s something meaningful. And it’s the backbone of religion.

So which myths are true? Which should we carry? Which should we reinterpret? And what do we do with all the stories humanity has inherited?

It’s a big question — and there isn’t a simple answer. Especially now, with conflict and division in so many parts of life, people feeling put off by the rigidness of traditional faiths, and ancient stories coming across as irrelevant or outdated.

I attempt to address some of this in my new mythic fantasy series, Pantheon — blending epic mythology with hidden history in a shared universe of ancient tales — which I will shamelessly market from time to time as prime edutainment.

But here is my real answer.

Believe in EVERY truth that speaks to you. Believe that EVERY culture has received wisdom from the divine. Believe myth as not just superstition, but as humanity’s oldest language for God.

Divine messages have shifted over time, and some — as any game of “telephone” shows —became distorted as they were retold over generations and across cultures. Some truths were buried beneath layers of interpretation, but they never disappear.

Our task is to listen deeply to ourselves and the world around us to separate the noise from the nuance. When we do, a clearer pattern emerges, one that connects us to our forebearers, to each other, and ultimately, to the unknowable.

Myths are a mystery, but they are also a map.

And in this series, we’ll follow that map back to its beginning — to the first stories ever told, and to what they reveal about the One who set the universe in motion.

Welcome to the evolution of myth.