In Healing the Emptiness, I found myself again. In the moments I felt like I was losing myself or even when I was confident with how my life was, this book allowed me to rediscover myself, and more importantly, learn more about myself.
Books are a source of knowledge and reading allows us to gain that knowledge. What I love about this self-help book is that it feels as though you are speaking to yourself. You oversee your own growth, and the writer is there to guide you, but never overpowers your own voice to keep yourself going. Your thoughts are valued, and there is not one thought that is better than the other.
Yasmin Mogahed’s writing invites the reader to tend to their needs and highlights how one might do that Islamically and tenderly. This is why I am so fond of this book. Not only does it cite the verses and surahs from the Qur’an so that you may reflect upon them during a difficult moment, but it also reminds you of how the best guide has already been gifted to us, the Qur’an. Yasmin does this so tenderly and shows the connections of one’s lived experiences with what we can learn from the Qur’an so clearly, you may apply what you learn from this book almost immediately.
Healing the Emptiness is a book that bridges the past to the present and to the future. It deals with trauma and holds space for readers who may have gone through or are currently going through a challenging time. Sometimes people like myself might think I have healed and have moved on from the past, but this book allowed me to feel all the hurt and the love I had missed from within. I think that made me realize that the heart holds all the memories of what once resided there, but I need to find the strength to clean the heart so that the rightful owner of it may rest there. This book seeks you to the core and I know what you would find there is beautiful.