I am a Muslim woman living in India, I have never been to the U.S. or any western country. I never heard or read about you, until one day I was fishing for second-hand books in a book store and I found your book,
Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives. I bought it for its catchy title and I really enjoyed it. I laughed at some of the problems, was horrified by others, but in the end I really marveled at how completely different our cultures are and how different our sense of right and wrong are and yet...we were the same: clinging to the men in our lives to find fulfillment and how the age old wisdom of good women for good men and vice verse applies to all races.
Then I started hunting for your other books. I really wanted to read -
Ten Stupid Things Men Do to Mess Up Their Lives. I have never had a boyfriend and I am saving myself for marriage. The society that I live in is like that, so this choice was never hard. You can say it's just a way of life here, but I do enjoy reading articles and stuff about men, so I can see the other side of the story.
I did find your book
Bad Childhood, Good Life, but I wasn't very keen on reading it, yet halfway through the book, I was crying and crying. My life was fine until my teenage years. I did have problems, but I was doing fine. Then things started really getting out of control in my late teens and I don't even want to think about my early twenties. Now I am 29, not happy and not able to understand why. Then I read your book and now I know why... In your book, when you talked about religion and faith in GOD, you're right - it really helps. The more I suffered, the more I turned to religion, and the more it gave me peace and solace and hope for the future.
One of the stories in your book that really had me crying, was where this guy went to the therapist and the therapist was trying to get him angry. He just couldn't get angry, but in the end he did and started screaming, "Why GOD?" I replied, "Because you can take it." That is how I always comforted myself, "No soul is burdened more than he can take." This is one of the teachings that stopped me from killing myself. Other's were that suicide is a sin and ALLAH knows best. That's how Muslims comfort each other - ALLAH knows best.
Yes I know there have been enough suicide bombings by crazy people from our side, but suicide is a huge sin. If those people really studied the religion, they wouldn't do this. Mercifully they are in the minority among the 1.5 billion Muslims so there's hope that it will end one day, inshallah ALLAH willing. And I am very sorry about the Boston bombings.
I am also grateful to GOD for giving knowledge through you; even knowledge is something to be grateful for. Thank you. You will always be in my prayers.
Peace:
Husna
