Hakatha Allamatni al-Hayah
- Author died
- 1384 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktab al-Islāmī
Hakatha Allamatni al-Hayah (Thus Life Taught Me) is a work of ethical aphorisms, personal reflections, and social counsel by the Syrian Islamic scholar and educator Mustafa al-Siba'i (d. 1384 AH / 1964 CE) .
Composition and Context
Al-Siba'i began writing down the reflections that comprise the book in Dhu al-Qa'dah 1381 AH (April 1962 CE) while confined to al-Muwasa Hospital in Damascus . He had been suffering from an illness that lasted over five years, which physicians attributed to chronic nervous exhaustion accumulated over more than a decade of public exertion . Although doctors in Syria and Europe had instructed him to cease reading, writing, and intellectual engagements completely, al-Siba'i turned to writing personal notes during his isolation from teaching and family .
When visiting colleagues read his initial drafts, they encouraged him to continue, prompting some of them to visit daily to read newly added entries . Al-Siba'i maintained the habit of recording further thoughts after his discharge from the hospital and eventually compiled them for publication, completing his preface on 1 Jumada al-Akhirah 1382 AH (29 October 1962 CE) in Damascus at the age of forty-seven .
Structure and Style
The book is presented as a series of short aphorisms, maxims, and paragraphs that touch on diverse topics including faith, ethics, social conduct, family life, and human behavior . Al-Siba'i deliberately refrained from organizing the entries by rigid topical chapters or themes, preferring instead to leave them in the order they occurred to him so as to provide a faithful record of his state of mind and to keep the reader engaged through thematic variation .
The author stated that the reflections were drawn entirely from his personal life experience rather than borrowed from other books . In preparing the text, he intentionally stripped out reflections of an explicitly political nature to avoid provoking political controversies during his illness, reserving those for potential future release . The book also contains occasional short rhymed passages that came to him spontaneously, though al-Siba'i noted in the introduction that he did not regard himself as a formal poet .
Transmission and Editions
Portions of the author's handwritten notes were lost both during his lifetime and after his death, while other parts were retained and later returned to his heirs . Early editions suffered from typographical errors and textual duplications, which were subsequently addressed in later edited printings that collated the recovered manuscript material and resolved textual redundancies .
Answer updated