Surrendering to God

The book under review is divided into three parts. In the first part, Eren states that her book, “is a compilation of faith based articles written for various journals, blogs, lectures and sermons. It reflects my understanding of Islamic principles so it is not an authoritative book on Islam”. (p. 6). Despite her acknowledgement that her book is not an authoritative source on Islam, she succeeds in making the reader ponder on the purpose of life obfuscated by the prevalent materialistic culture. Death is always lurking, but people in general seem to be little concerned with this existential condition. She acknowledges the exploitation and abuse happening in the name of religion but, in her view, in no way does this diminish the need for religion or adhering to its principles. She writes about the denial of God and rebellion against His commandments and describes it as an ego trap, “In all the Divine scriptures, God warns against this ego trap and advises us to discipline our egos with humility. Just because we are given the limited capacity to reason, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we know better than God. This mentality is a grave mistake that leads us to rebel against God’s guidance”. (p. 22) Eren is of the view that people should submit to God but with reason and humility.