You Can Be the Happiest Woman in the World.

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However, Dolan said men showed more health benefits from tying the knot, as they took fewer risks. Women’s health was mostly unaffected by marriage, with middle-aged married women even being at higher risk of physical and mental conditions than their single counterparts. Learn patience from Asiyah, loyalty from Khadijah, sincerity from ‘A’ishah and steadfastness from Fatimah.” For some reason, this book also romanticizes poverty. It insists over and over that “poor women in mud huts” are happier than people who “live in mansions and sleep in silk sheets” because the poor woman believes in god and implies that somehow owning material wealth equals being astray from God. I wonder if he has ever met with or spoken to these happy poor women. Because I have, and the stories they tell chill me to my bones. The horrors they endure, the squalor they live in, the misery that they cope with- how can this author just gloss over it all and insist that they are happy? Certainly they are religious. Who needs religion more than the poor? How will they forge through life without a beautiful belief to cling to? Instead of reducing their struggle to a silly proverb, he could have spoken about empathizing with them or helping them, which Islam does stress on so deeply.

There were a couple of different things wrong with this story. Firstly, it is describing how these words in the Bible gave her strong faith and somehow healed her. Secondly, she went on to create another religion. In defense of the author, the translator did mention that the point was not to praise the creation of this new religion. However, there are better examples to praise women who “rose above diversity and made a difference in the life of others”. Mentioning this story could cause doubts in the hearts of the reader and may even inspire them to research this new religion. Thirdly, the statement that questions the Muslim woman by saying: “And you, O’ Muslim woman, what have you done?” seems to have implications that don’t sit right with me. Living a righteous life in the environment we live in today is already a huge achievement if you really think about it. I don’t believe that this is a motivating statement as the author intended, Subhan’Allah. Do you want to be happy? We are all looking for an escape from worry, stress, depression, and for ways to find happiness. This book presents the route to happiness in a nutshell, drawing on Islamic teachings and the voices of “experts” both western and eastern. Out of all the lessons from this book, I took away the lesson on gratitude. This brilliant author had reminded us that no one is ever completely happy and we should always give thanks to all the things that happened to us, both the good and the bad. How many times have we found ourselves whining away about life’s unfavoured circumstances? The author reminded us that……..

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The translator Huda Khattab is the author of the Best Selling The Muslim Woman's Handbook Published by Taha (UK) and the translator of Ibn Kathir's The Signs Before The Day of Judgment Published by Dar al Taqwa, UK

The first heroic old woman was told that al-Hajjaj would kill her son. To that, pat came her reply “If you do not kill him, he will die anyway.” WOW lady, way to be a sociopath. This does not sound like heroism to me, it sounds like terrible parenting. Maybe the author mistranslated the message or something because my first unadulterated impression is of a woman who doesn’t care if her son dies. Because he will die someday anyway. Happily, the author highlights what the important heroic bit was- “putting her trust in her Lord.” By telling al-Hajjaj that he could murder her son. WHERE does the trust in god part come in here??? Do you want to be happy? We are all looking for an escape from worry, and depression, and for ways to find happiness. This book presents the route to happiness in a nutshell, drawing on Islamic teachings and the voices of 'experts' both western iJ P ,,, .,, '1 ~-='.-:: "..,"' ·1;·....~~

Anyway, this book was not expensive at all. All the gems that you are going to get from this book is way more than the price you pay at the counter. For every good religious person I meet, there are 50 morons, and seemingly half of the latter have published a book. I’d like to draw attention to one of these books- once again about telling Muslim women how to live their lives. (Instructions include “SMILE! PRAY! BE GRATEFUL!” Yeah ok. So helpful.) It doesn’t mention what these reminders are of. Presumably God, but for me it conjured up reminders of Medieval pastoral scenes full of disease and war.There are so many pointers in the book but I shall share with you 10 pointers that I will give you a head start to living a happier life. Optimistically titled “You Can Be The Happiest Woman In the World” , the book presents an interesting look into the starkly primeval mind of a strange little man and his opinions on women. It was first published in 2004, which is weird. I expected it to be far older, judging by the content. I mean the only occupation it suggests is cattle rearing. Who is the target audience? Poor farm women? The book also refers to itself as “A Treasure Chest of Reminders”. I wish I can share more things with you about the book, but I think the best is that you read the book yourself and allow it to speak to you. I took so long to finish reading this book, mainly because life was too hectic and it was only in my recent holiday in Thailand that I was able to finish reading this book. I had the wonderful experience of reading this book in front of the seas, with the light breeze brushing my face and the clouds shading me from the sun. It was the peaceful setting that I needed to clear my mind and absorb the words from the book.

I will give the benefit of the doubt to the fact that this book was originally written in Arabic, and perhaps the translation to English shifted the tone to a less sensitive feel. However, considering the topics discussed, there probably isn't a sensitive approach to delivering the hard facts. Throughout reading this book, there were many passages that resonated with me. I kept a small notebook next to me while reading to write down the quotes and messages delivered through the text of this book. I quite enjoyed it, although there are a few points I would suggest to improve the delivery of the idea. Whilst she was lying in her hospital bed, she opened the Holy Book and was inspired by Divine care – as she put it – to read these words from the Gospel of Matthew: Men benefited from marriage because they “calmed down”, he said. “You take less risks, you earn more money at work, and you live a little longer. She, on the other hand, has to put up with that, and dies sooner than if she never married. The healthiest and happiest population subgroup are women who never married or had children,” he said.Yes well okay. In the introduction alone we can see this man’s disdain for those silly foolish Nobel laureates, and his presumable conviction that the entire lot of innocent women who read Agatha Christie are now out there, probably committing murder.