Hearts Turn’ is a singular and gripping exploration of the act of 'tawba', a Qur’anic term commonly translated as repentance. In English, repentance is a forbidding word that suggests a puritanical finality. But 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. It 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. “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.” From the introduction to 'Hearts Turn'“Magnificent!...Interlacing ancient and modern experiences of the unexpected presence of God, this unique anthology of conversion stories reminds us of the ongoing spiritual power of Islamic faith.”
