Review of Reclaim Your Heart by Yasmin Mogahed:

 

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Reclaim Your Heart is an Islamic self-help book that helps you to purify your soul and reclaim your heart. This book is full of different paragraphs on different themes which help the readers to live their life freely. 

The book is written by Yasmin Mogahed who has shared her journey toward the purification of the soul and having a strong bond with Allah. This book is full of explanations of different verses of the Quran, examples of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and the personal insights of the writer.

This is my second self-help book which not only teaches me about the Quran's verses but also helps me to get rid of unnecessary baggage of life. This book tells readers to own life and not let life own them.

It has different topics which discuss the relationship of humans with the Creator, marriage, hardships, human nature, women's empowerment, and Ummah. It has packets of wisdom for every human being who wants to improve the quality of life.

In the end, some random chapters are showing the perspective of the author and her struggle in finding solace in life. These random chapters are in the category of "Poem" and these are my favorite ones.

Themes of Reclaim Your Heart:

It tells us that we feel empty in our life because we are attached to different things in life. Those things rule our thoughts and hearts so our hearts don't remain ours. We have to detach ourselves from the materialistic world to gain happiness and purity of soul.

People have to leave each other, and they never return to this world. Our beloved belongings will leave us one day. This world is full of fleeting moments so we shouldn't focus on this world. It will leave us empty, and depressed. But if we focus on the Hereafter, we will have a peaceful life.

God loves us so we should trust Him and put all our attachments, efforts, and expectations on Him. If we will have a strong bond with Him, we can have a relaxed life.

This book also speaks about marriage. How can we have a successful married life, and what is missing in marriages? It is unconditional love that is missing in marriages. The writer has explained this point in detail with different examples from Islam.

It also speaks about hardships, pain, and effort a person has to undergo in his life. What should a person do if he undergoes hardships? What should be our attitude in times of pain? A few chapters of this book have been dedicated to speaking about this theme.

What is love in reality? Advertisers and media are showing a false perspective about love to us. Due to this false perspective, love is becoming a mental disease, and people are doing suicide because of failures in love and marriages. We should come out of this false perspective about love and see it in a new light. 

We have been given the wrong place to love in our lives. When we will have a strong bond with the Creator, we will give marriage its deserving place in our hearts. This will help us in getting out of depression, failed marriages, and love lives. 

What is the right place of love in your life and how to give it that place? To know it, you have to read the book.

This book also speaks about women's empowerment in Islam. It is a misconception that women are not empowered in Islam. Yasmin has cleared these misconceptions by giving examples of women empowerment from Islamic History.

These are some major themes of this book. Let's see some of my favorite quotes from this book.

Reclaim Your Heart Quotes:

Don’t expect your spouse to be perfect. He/she is only the Dunya version of themselves. Their ‘perfect’ version is saved for Jannah.

“Real love brings about calm—not inner torment. True love allows you to be at peace with yourself and with God. That is why Allah says: “that you may dwell in tranquility.” Hawa is the opposite. Hawa will make you miserable. And just like a drug, you will crave it always, but never be satisfied. You will chase it to your own detriment, but never reach it.”

“My value as a woman is not measured by the size of my waist or the number of men who like me. My worth as a human being is measured on a higher scale: a scale of righteousness and piety. And my purpose in life-despite what fashion magazines say-is something more sublime than just looking good for men."

“[A Letter to the Culture that Raised Me] I’m not here to be on display. And my body is not for public consumption. I will not be reduced to an object, or a pair of legs to sell shoes. I’m a soul, a mind, a servant of God. My worth is defined by the beauty of my soul, my heart, my moral character. So I won’t worship your beauty standards, and I don’t submit to your fashion sense. My submission is to something higher.”

“We must also realize that nothing happens without a purpose. Nothing. Not even broken hearts. Not even pain. That broken heart and that pain are lessons and signs for us. They are warnings that something is wrong. They are warnings that we need to make a change."

If there is one recipe for unhappiness it is that: expectations.

If you allow Dunya to own your heart, like the ocean that owns the boat, it will take over. You will sink down to the depths of the sea. You will touch the ocean floor.

Wrap Up:

If you want to improve the quality of your life, and want to know more about Allah and Islam in general, you should read Reclaim your Heart by Yasmin Mogahed. 

When this book will become a part of your bookshelf, it will keep coming out in different parts of life. Whenever you will read it, you will find a new lesson and a new insight from it.

Do buy it, read it and share your thoughts with me in the comment section.