Daniyal Yusof is good-looking, works for an IT consultancy and is divorced with four children. He is on a spiritual mission: to find himself through religion. It is through religion that he is able to save himself and protect himself from worldly temptations and sins.

When I first met him, he was hell-bent on redeeming himself and absolving himself of his past wrongdoings. He has been attending religious classes somewhere in Sri Damansara, and applying all the teachings into his life. He goes to work in a somnambulistic state - every night he recites Surah Al-Ikhlas 3,000 times. It is his only way of coping with loneliness and the unbearable silence that reverberates in his small flat.

"I lost so much," he says softly. He has lost his family, house, car and high-paying job as a consultant for a multi-national. Just as he was picking up the pieces, he met someone and fell in love deeply. When it ended, it devastated him.

"My marriage was a practical one. I had everything except a wife. She was a friend, we knew and liked each other, got married and then everything went downhill. Divorced, lost everything except the clothes on my back, and then" he faltered, " I met her"