Turning the Tide: Reawakening the Woman's Heart and Soul

by Suma Din, Islamic Foundation (Great Britain) Staff (Contribution by)

"A book small in size and great in wisdom. . . . I expect readers young and old, female and male will turn to this book and find themselves wishing to not come ashore again."— Dr. Kristin Kanzari , University of Bergen "Designed to reawaken and nourish the woman's heart and soul, [Turning the Tide] is a fresh perspective on the lives of Muslim women through the passage of time...inclusive to women from all walks of life."— B. Aisha Lemu , Former National President of The Federation of Muslim Women's Association of Nigeria. "This is a beautiful, valuable and inspiring book. The journey from the innocence of a newly-created soul to the anticipation of the soul preparing to return to its Maker, is a journey of hope, love, encouragement and faith. An excellent book."— Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood , author, educationalist and counsellor. Suma Din takes the reader on a journey through the stages of life on earth, with guidance and compassion from the Koran and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad that pave the way and inspire readers to reawaken their hearts and souls. With insightful thoughts and voices flowing through the book, this voyage is one of contemplation, discovery, and self-knowledge. The book is beautifully slipcased for gift-giving to loved ones. Table of
Acknowledgements
A map for the reader
Introduction to the revised edition
Introduction
The soul wide oceans
Childhood snow flake crystals
Youth streams
Knowledge springs
The Heart, Sea of Change
Health and Appearance, lakes and reflections
Marriage, clouds and seas
Motherhood, raindrops
The age of wisdom, treasures in the sea
The Soul's journey on, the shoreline
Glossary of Arabic words
Further reading

Genres: Islam

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Sarah Lameche · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an unusual book. Or at least I think so. Its really rather lovely. First of all it slips into its own cardboard sleeve. Not only does this protect it nicely, it gives it a lovely appearance. Perfect for a gift.

Its a beautiful turquoise colour and actually reminds me of one of those relaxation cd's that one can buy. In fact the size isn't that much bigger than an old 45 record sleeve.(If anyone remembers those).

The book itself has slightly glossy paper inside, extremely smooth with a quality touch. What about the content though?

The author actually uses a few generous pages to tell us why she wrote the book, the structure of the book and even a nice introduction regarding the revised edition.

Basically this book is a timeline of life. Starting from the source of life passing through various stages including (among others) childhood, youth, old age until finally death.
Each stage has an introduction, personal 'voice' (poems and suchlike), translations of Quran and hadeeth. Duas (prayers, supplications)and stories of noble women.

Some of her poems are extremely moving, in fact the one on page 23 is extremely emotional , I would even go so far as to say distressing. Whereas the one on page 38 I would say is very intuitive.

All in all this book has pretty much everything for the soul. Even better than that its a very easy, pleasant read. It's a book I will surely come back to several times I am sure.

[Athirah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars because the themes of this lovely book hit home; there is just something so right about the relationships made between women and nature, life and water, etc., and the way the author approached each theme was so carefully thought out and written. As much as that care is apparent, the divided structure of each chapter did make it a bit of a difficult read. Ironically enough, in a book poetically themed after water, it did not allow the reader a sense of flow. I guess it might have been better that I had to pause and read every page twice, the message could really sink in, then. My only qualm is that each chapter felt like an introduction into something much deeper; tip of the iceberg, if you will. To move from one chapter to another felt a bit jarring.

Other than that, it's a beautiful book, and it resonated deeply with me, and I will definitely be re-reading certain chapters as my heart calls for it.

Women and water, is there anything else which could be so synonymous?

[SISTERS Magazine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Turning the Tide is a comprehensive summary of a woman’s journey, marked by events from conception to death. The encyclopaedic nature of this book makes it very accessible as the author shows a detailed account of our purpose of existence and some of the ups and downs we face in order to fulfil this special purpose. Suma used adequate quotations from the Qur’an and ahadith which point to the very meaning of these life events, what we should do and how to go about it.

The use of a strong ‘myriad poetic voices’ by the author makes Turning the Tide outstanding and unique. I especially loved this part of the book and was always looking forward to what ‘the voice’ had to say when I got to a new chapter. It seemed all the time that the words of ‘the voice’ were replacing or representing my own voice. My world is far from the author’s, yet our voices are very similar - I conclude that this stems from the universality of the beauty of creation! I took my time to read this book as it’s not one to be read in one sitting. This book helped raise a lot of questions and from it as well, the answers were presented right before me. It is a book I really enjoyed reading and can confirm that it is a book for every day.
Reviewed by Fawziyyah Emiabata for the February 2013 issue of SISTERS Magazine

[Farah Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

It takes you on a life journey using quotes from the Qur'an and various ahadith and talks about various stages in a woman's life. The author's use of myriad voices made for a poetic touch in introducing each chapter or stage of life. I particularly liked the stories at the end of each chapter relating to a noble woman in Islam. A really good read!

[Fatima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book! Helped renew my faith! Loved it!

[Nadine Azalea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh to hear the poems spoken, with emotion and feeling; breathtaking. Especially the part of old age, rendered perfectly by an amazing lady I knew who just recently passed away.

[bookishlyfina · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book tells us the stages of life for us women, from before we are born to the end of time. somewhere in between i where we figure our life out from childhood to elderhood