Hearts Turn: Sinners, Seekers, Saints and the Road to Redemption

DESCRIPTION:

This work is a singular and gripping exploration of the act of 'tawba', a Qur’anic term commonly translated as repentance. In Arabic the term 'tawba' is dynamic, meaning to ‘turn’ or ‘return’. 'At-Tawwab' is one of the Names of God, the Oft-Returning or Ever-Relenting. Tawba is an active constant, an ongoing, compassionate reality that renews every moment we are alive. The process of purification is a process of continuous turning.

In ‘Hearts Turn’ Michael Sugich, author of ‘Signs on the Horizons’, tells stories that are harrowing and hilarious, heartrending and bizarre, profane and transcendent, and altogether full of hope, showing how men and women from many parts of the world and many walks of life have turned themselves around and taken a fork in the road toward a higher reality.

From the author's introduction: "This book is a declaration of mercy and certainty. Formed of a collection of stories I’ve experienced, read or heard, about how malleable the human heart can be and how wrongdoing, remorse, need, and yearning intersect with Divine Compassion, Forgiveness and Guidance. It is also about the sudden transitions from confusion to clarity, from sin to virtue, from sleep to wakefulness, from ignorance to knowledge, from foolishness to wisdom. And finally it is about the path of our lives, which leads us gradually, and for those who God favors, inexorably to salvation."

“A really heartwarming book... for a generation of young Muslims and converts who face inner doubts and in need of a few smart lessons from Michael's journey book, told through many voices and his own unique spiritual history. It is a relief to know I am not alone.” -  Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)

DETAILS:

ISBN: 9780989364003
AUTHOR: Michael Sugich
BINDING: Paperback
PAGES: 370
DIMENSIONS: 16 CM x 23 CM
PUBLISHER: Telltale Texts

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michael Sugich has been a professional writer for over forty years and is the author of eight books, including Signs on the Horizons: Meetings with Men of Knowledge, and Illumination (2013) and Hearts Turn: Sinners, Seekers, Saints and the Road to Redemption (2019). From 2020 to 2023 he was project leader, series editor and contributing author of the Exemplars for Our Time biography series, launched at the Bradford Literature Festival in the UK. A native of Santa Barbara, California, he studied at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the California Institute of the Arts (Cal-Arts). He joined a traditional Sufi order in 1972. Since that time, he has studied Islam and Sufi doctrine with spiritual masters across the Arab and Islamic world. He lived for twenty-two years in the precincts of the sacred city of Makkah al-Mukarrama where he kept company with many men of knowledge and illumination. He lives in Istanbul.