I Feel Empty Inside

The preface sets the author's tone at once: «Sometimes you want something so badly... and then exactly the opposite happens», and troubles arrive one after another. He recalls the Lord who saved Abraham from the fire, Jonah from the belly of the fish and Joseph from the well, «making causes into means», and invites the reader on a journey to «gather the keys and discover the treasure». According to his bio, Öztan, born in 1986, studied public administration and theology and earns his living as a voice-over artist.

«Troubles like mountains» opens with a familiar picture: a mortgage, a TV bought on installments, the children's wishes, a spouse's shopping list. The author locates the cause in worldly ambition — taking out an interest-bearing loan to match colleagues' luxury cars when the old car was fine. In his view, such hardships are God «slapping His servant awake», and the way out is repentance and stronger faith.

The title piece is built around an imaginary character, Özgür: a young man who grew up in a village, became pleasure-seeking and got everything he wanted «by breaking every rule», yet cannot fill the emptiness inside. The author answers with a quotation from the Risale-i Nur: unlike animals, humans are bound to past and future, so pleasure from the forbidden later brings a thousand times more pain; «the sphere of the lawful is wide enough for enjoyment».

In «Everything turned upside down» and «Life feels meaningless» the author relies on everyday analogies: a car that breaks down because its oil wasn't changed on time, a driver caught by a speed camera, the stone a shepherd throws at his sheep, a phone running low on battery. The message is always the same: hardship is a wake-up call, and faith must be «recharged».

The most sensitive piece is «A message that came just before suicide»: a 22-year-old wrote on Instagram that he could find no joy in life, that psychiatric medication hadn't helped and that he wanted to end his life. The author reminds readers that we see only the glossy screen version of social media «influencers», cites the hadith «work for this world as if you will never die, and for the hereafter as if you will die tomorrow», and reports that the young man gave up the idea of suicide. It should be noted that the book passes on, uncritically, an account presenting medication as useless — anyone with suicidal thoughts should seek professional help.

In «Doesn't God care about me?» the author answers those who complain their prayers go unanswered with Bediüzzaman's analogy of a doctor and a sick child: the doctor either gives what the child asks for, gives something better, or gives nothing because it would be harmful — «answering is one thing, granting is another». The style is warm and sincere but full of repetition, colloquialisms and editing errors.

• Each piece opens with a real reader's question — the book reads in a Q&A rhythm
• Everyday analogies (cars, speed cameras, phone batteries) simplify religious ideas
• Each piece ends with a short aphorism and a «Notes to myself» section
• Conversational language with frequent repetition and editing errors