The Mutanabi Library, Dammam (eastern Saudi Arabia), has recently released "Stories of Happiness, Experiences of Success," by Saudi writer and translator Abdullah Salman al-Awami. The 220-page book is composed of three chapters.
The book includes a number of foreign studies translated and reedited by the author. Mostly selected from the western media, the studies were conducted by 30 prominent writers, authors, and researchers specialized in happiness science, public health, and success experiences. The translated articles were published by top newspapers, magazines, and research centers in the United States.
The first chapter of the book shed lights on a number of success experiences that explore the concept of success, its methods, habits, and conditions. Some studies looked into pedagogy and its key role in building a human who has enough imagination and creative thinking to achieve the moral or material success he seeks.
The second chapter of the book focuses on happiness. Some writers believe that the biggest obstacle between people and happiness is often the wait for a bigger happiness. Everyone wants to be happy, but not all people who seek happiness can achieve it. Some want material happiness like wealth and fortune, others see happiness in social status, and many see happiness in moral things like Love, satisfaction, and mercy.
Some studies define happiness as a science, and others link human happiness to money. Many believe that wealth is the shortest route to happiness. Other studies link happiness to culture, arguing that some people are more capable of achieving happiness than others because they have the culture that gives them a positive mind. This cultural view of happiness extends from individuals to communities. There are some communities that are more culturally capable of happiness than others. The social sense and organized life may help a certain community reach happiness more than others.
The third part of the book explores the topic of health. "Health is the fortune of wise human," and "a human being is a creature composed of a body, mind, self, and soul."
Health is "enjoying a sound body, sane mind, calm self, and an enlightened soul."
Once a human manages to balance these four factors, he can enjoy a great physical health and mental wellbeing…"If we want to know what we are going to be in the future, we should look at our plate: the type of our food, its quantity, and the way we eat it."
