After spending some time with this book, I was surprised that a similar format isn’t being more widely adopted as there is a clear gap in the market for a handbook on treating spiritual diseases. Often we get overwhelmed with feelings that bring out the worst in us and we are unable to move forward and as such, we fall into a downward spiral. We may feel envious of someone but may not know how to treat it from an Islamic perspective. The book offers practical solutions to common problems, problems that if unresolved, could lead to life-long damage to your spiritual health, this dunya and most importantly, your akhirah. This Qur'an has been approved by the Department of Islamic Development of Malaysia (JAKIM) and Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs (KDN).

Similar to a pathology book– you have the disease, its symptoms and its treatments highlighted. In a nutshell, this book provides you with all three of these aspects but specifically focusing on spiritual illnesses. It was in fact a handbook on clinical medicine that inspired the author to create a detailed guide on the various spiritual conditions one can be afflicted with.

Check-In

This spiritual guide to the self is a handbook of tazkiyah or ‘self-purification’. Not only does it illustrate the maladies of the human spiritual condition, it recognizes the struggles and insecurities we all succumb to from time to time, and offers up the remedies too.

Most illnesses that we have today emanate from diseases of the heart, therefore it’s essential to try and rectify the unseen realms of our hearts and exert maximum efforts in self-purification. There are some very relevant issues mentioned and I'm certain that those who will read the work with a view to correcting their inner souls will be benefited immensely from the work.

My Book Notes

I am married with four children, and an IT Management Consultant by profession. My work takes me around the UK. The ideas for the book were borne almost 20 years ago, yet it was only 3 years ago when I began my journey in earnest, stealing time during evenings when working away from home, and weekends in and around work and family commitments. Ibn Daud has presented a fresh exposition of this traditional science in a contemporary format that can be applied to busy lives in the modern, hi-tech era. Its tabular design and colorful traffic light approach make it easy to reference for a new generation. Ibn Daud also presents the real and potential negative impact that social media has on our spiritual growth, and compares this with practical ways that its influence can be harnessed for benefit. My most favourite element of the handbook was the sections highlighting the exceptions of each illness. ‘Exceptions’ display symptoms that are not representative to the spiritual illness but are in fact Islamically valid. The idea of the book is to use it as a means of self-purification – the principles of the book are underpinned by the Qur’an and authentic Hadith. Al-Quran Al-Kareem Maqdis is a ' word-by-word' translation learning method, where every word and sentence is coloured differently, in Arabic and English. Every word has been translated literally so that the reader can understand their individual meaning. However, not all literal translation represents the exact meaning of the word since the Qur'an uses varied Arabic language style and sometimes metaphor. This guidebook, drawing on the 11th and 12th Century works of the ‘Proof of Islam’ and wondrous sage, Imām Abū Hāmid Al-Ghazālī, can be applied to our busy lives in the modern, hi-tech era, and will prove accessible to people of all ages, all denominations: believers and non-believers alike.