Paths to Happiness: The Book of Life
Good Fit
- Readers interested in Islamic ethics and 'ilmihal' literature
- Those who want to learn a religious perspective on marriage and family life
- Researchers of 20th-century Turkish religious writing
Not a Fit
- Anyone seeking scientific information on health and psychology
- Readers expecting a modern view of gender equality
- Those looking for a book on happiness addressed to non-religious readers
The argument of the preface is simple and logical: a person who is ill, exhausted, depressed, ill-tempered, poor, weak-willed, unfree, without peace at home and ignorant of their duties cannot be happy; so the path to happiness lies in fixing each of these. The five-part structure follows directly from this list. The author presents the text, written in 1987 in the village of Esenköy near Yalova, as an Islamic answer to 'Western authors' books on the art of living' — a point the commendation by Prof. Kandemir also stresses.
The introduction makes its case that people are raised up by education with a fine image: a tree from the forest becomes firewood in the hands of a woodcutter, but window frames in the hands of a carpenter, a parlour suite or even a museum piece in the hands of a cabinetmaker. People are the same — shaped by their surroundings and upbringing, yet each responsible for their own actions. The chapters on family and neighbourly relations are written in this spirit, and their advice — avoid waste, respect elderly parents, honour the rights of neighbours, the mutual duties of buyer and seller — remains valuable today.
The problem lies in the health chapters. The author writes that the forty units (rak'ahs) of daily prayer involve about four hundred movements, and therefore 'those who pray are healthier, more energetic and longer-lived than those who don't'. Prayer may have some benefit as physical activity, but such a definite medical conclusion is unproven. Phrases like 'whoever breathes half a breath lives half a life' are folk wisdom, not science. More worrying is the author's personal 'formula': he claims the soul enters the body in the womb on day 120, the baby starts to move that day, and birth follows exactly five months and four days later; he says he 'tested' it on his own children and recommends it to readers. In medicine, the time when first movements are felt varies widely, and this is not a reliable way to predict a due date.
The chapter on 'spiritual illnesses' has no connection to modern psychology. It lists distress, sorrow, pessimism, anger, fear, obsessive doubt, laziness, envy, hatred and 'bad habits' as illnesses of the soul, and ends the list by declaring 'the most chronic and dangerous of spiritual illnesses is irreligion'. The cures offered are seeking forgiveness, remembrance of God, piety and self-examination. This is the language of classical Islamic moral literature and is understandable in the context of spiritual discipline, but it is no substitute for real medical help for a reader living with depression or anxiety.
The book's greatest strength is the author himself: a hard road of learning that began in Gaziantep and continued in Aleppo, Damascus and Cairo, a simple way of life, and the portrait in the commendation of a scholar who at 70 would swim in the sea for an hour, could cook two hundred dishes, yet ate only one or two at each meal. For devout readers this is a sincere guide to life; for general readers it is interesting mainly as a document of an era and a worldview.
- A very wide range of topics — from food to duty to one's country
- Every idea is grounded in Qur'anic verses and hadith, with source notes
- Plain, admonishing language rich in proverbs
The search for happiness through religious conversion and worship
Advice on family and marriage from an Islamic perspective
On how faith shapes happiness in everyday life
In the «Spiritual Illnesses» section distress, sadness, pessimism, anger, fear, obsessive doubt, laziness, envy, rancour and «bad characters» are listed as spiritual illness, and at the end of the list «the most chronic and most dangerous of spiritual illnesses — irreligion» is mentioned. Asking forgiveness, remembrance, piety and self-examination are proposed as cures. This section has no connection with modern psychology.
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