Book Review : Simple As That (by Nafla Salahudeen)

Book: Simple As That (Muslimah’s practical guide to building strong family ties)

Available in two languages: English and tamil. This review is of the English verion.

Author: Nafla Salahudeen

Purchase Links:

• Amazon.in (for the Indian readers)
• Amazon.com

About the Author:

Nafla Salahudeen, known for her Non Fiction writing is currently a student
of BA in Islamic Studies. She has also completed her studies in Diploma in
Child Psychology and Diploma in Pre School Teacher Training. Her passion
for writing has led her towards this book: SIMPLE AS THAT – A Muslimah’s
Practical Guide to Building Strong Family Ties.

She can be found blogging at her pages in Facebook and Instagram :

Islamic Wall – Nafla Salahudeen
www.facebook.com/islamicwallna

www.instagram.com/islamic_wall

and on her website

https://islamicwallnaflasalahudeen.wordpress.com

About the book:

SIMPLE AS THAT

This book is a practical guide for Muslim women, to maintain healthy marital relationships in all phases of life. It is for mothers, wives, daughters in law and mothers in law. It is a simple guide for women to build strong relationships while strengthening their deen/religion as well. It has 4 sections.

The first section or chapter is a guide for the mothers. This section mainly discusses about the bond between a mother and her daughter. It covers all aspects of a mother’s relationship with her family members and how that can have an impact on their daughter’s upbringing. It talks about how important it is to have a free and open bonding with their daughters.

The second and third sections are for the wives and daughters in law. In these chapters, the author discusses about the responsibilities and duties of a woman as a wife and daughter in law. It covers aspects such as how being grateful, courteous and let it go kind of attitude can help build strong bonds and protect the relationships from tearing apart.

The last section is for the mothers in law. Author here shares how an ideal mother in law will help her son and daughter in law to better their relationship and how she can be helpful instead of being a pain to them.

My Opinion:

Firstly talking about the writing style, it is simple and can be clearly understood. I liked the point, that you don’t have to go crazy searching for the meanings of the words used.

Secondly, it addresses all the issues a woman faces throughout her life in various roles she plays. And coming from a desi family I can totally relate to each bit of it. The petty issues of a mother in law’s jealousy towards her daughter in law, daughter in law’s worry that her husband will be in support of his family and not her, all these are very common issues that go on in every household and Author Nafla has provided a cool toned discussion on all these issues and supported her solutions with proper Islamic ahadith and Quranic verses.

I liked how the author has divided the book into different sections and addresses each part of a woman’s life. The tone is that of a friend and someone supportive helping you to understand the depths of different bonds and giving you suggestions to have a balance between different relationships. The book is not clumsy and confusing, but is neatly structured.

But for some, this book might seem as though it only talks about how down to earth and humble a woman should be and doesn’t really mention about the duties of a husband. This struck me as well, but as the title goes – “A Muslimah’s Practical Guide ” so there’s nothing to point out.

Even then somewhere or other, there were a few points I couldn’t agree with, as they really seemed to be too much of bowing down to stop relationships from breaking. While reading a few lines, it felt as though it was entirely the duty of a woman alone to save relationships. The author could have balanced this by stressing a little more on the responsibilities of the other side as well. It is not that the author hadn’t mentioned about how a husband should keep his wife happy, she has talked about how husbands should take their wives for outings, spend time with them, value their opinions and things like that, but what happened is that the woman’s part was saying it louder and that kind of broke the balance.

But this little flaw cannot wash away the bunches of good in this book. It was a pleasure reading the book and the journey reading was filled with valuable lessons.

I am going to give it a second read for sure in sha Allah. This book can be of great help to every mother, wife, daughter in law and mother in law to take steps mending the broken relationships.

It is definitely a book that I’ll recommend to read.

This was wholly my opinion about the book. And yes it is worth reading.