Healing The Emptiness by Yasmin Mogahed

“Many of us have lost our way in this life. Some people have given up hope, as they see no way out of their pain, their problems, their failures. Some people carry years of shame and self-hatred.
And some people are so sedated, they don't even know they're lost.
But there is hope. There is always hope, And there is a road back. The path of redemption, hope and mercy is always open to us, as long as our soul remains in our body. God wants every one of us to be healed and whole and in peace. But we cannot reject the Way if we want to arrive.”

Healing the Emptiness by Yasmin Mogahed is a very eloquently written book. The 10-year wait didn’t disappoint, maashaa Allah. This book delves into the origin of emptiness and offers a four-step protocol into healing that emptiness. It ends with this challenge for us to redefine that emotional pain in our life.

A teacher once reminded us that a good / beneficial book is one that is capable of changing / renewing / upgrading us. That the person we are when we first started a book, is no longer the same person as we finish that book. I’m grateful that Yasmin Mogahed shared with the world her thoughts on this topic at a time when loneliness has become more of an epidemic than just a noun.

I would highly recommend this beautiful work. There are a number of psychological studies cited in this book, stories of our Prophets (AS), a lot of du’a that we can practice and the way Yasmin Mogahed explains certain things can help reframe or shift our perspectives altogether. However, I do wish the book comes with a bibliography at the end 💚

Many of us have lost our way in this life. Some people have given up hope, as they see no way out of their pain, their problems, their failures. Some people carry years of shame and self-hatred. And some live with a deep emptiness, despite worldly success.

But there is hope. And there is always a road back. Just as we were sent on this worldly journey with the capacity to fall, we were also given the capacity to rise.

Just as we would bleed, we would also heal. We would be designed with the divine capacity to cope. To survive. To even thrive through the storms.

Each and every one of us would be given the God-given potential to see through the darkness. To rise through the cold. To break again and again, and to heal again and again. And then to be even more beautiful at the broken parts.

This book is highly recommended and it is at par with ‘Reclaiming Your Heart’ (or even better). What I love about this book is how the author can extract lessons on emotions from the stories of the prophets in the Quran. As a student of al-Quran and Sunnah, I know that being able to extract those kinds of lessons will require a deep understanding of the stories derived from various books of Tafsir as well as going through the process of tadabbur.

For me, the most memorable part of this book is 'The Heart’s Medicine: A Spiritual First Aid Kit'. I find it interesting as the title of the chapter echoes with Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) in the mental health realm. I guess it’s not a coincidence as Ustadha Yasmin was also a psychology graduate. She listed several tools needed for our spiritual well-being.

Also, I find it entertaining to see the author quoting Lucy Hone, an expert on resilience. I also quoted/referred to the input of Lucy Hone when I was writing Glow Inside & Out.

Ustadha also included very familiar concepts of psychology that I learned before and weaved them beautifully with grounded Islamic concepts. Hence, it also tapped into my sense of appeal to further love this book. I pasted a lot of sticky notes or tabs as so many points seem important haha.