“Maktub” means “it is written” in Arabic and is a book by Paulo Coelho formed out of a series of stories that he wrote as a daily column for the Folha de São Paulo and the Manual of the Warrior of Light. Coelho says the book may be read as a companion to his famous work The Alchemist.
The stories are deep, thought-provoking and spiritual – and Margaret Jull Costa has translated them exquisitely. Each one has a specific purpose and meaning to exchange life’s experience and touch the human heart. A goal to guide the reader into their inner self and take one on a journey towards what Coelho calls their Personal Legend, which is what we are here on earth to achieve. The story about the butterfly realising its self-worth and how it was written – ever so simply, yet with subtly – left me spell bound. In the same way, his belief that negative thoughts cannot harm you unless you allow them to, resonated with me. I was nodding my head in agreement when the author wrote how we don’t talk to strangers because we believe it is the right thing to do, but actually it is in talking to them that magic happens and “the voice of our angel manifests itself.” I completely agreed with his story describing a life of prayer not as one of isolation, but quite the opposite because God’s love was so great it should be shared – in my opinion with anyone and everyone who is interested. When Coelho wrote: “…the bridges to God are faith, love, joy and prayer,” it resonated with my deepest self and I wondered if perhaps other readers would agree?
Coelho writes about communicating without knowing each other’s language, the proof of existence of God through a story of a beggar receiving alms from a kind lady on the day he wasn’t begging because it was his birthday. He explains that life is a bicycle race and not giving up is the challenge, he talks of a priest who had the calling to give a sermon in the middle of a bus and so he did and everyone listened, he explains through one story of a King’s bones being the same as everyone else’s that all men are equal and he explains through a car accident that ‘everything happened and nothing happened’ since the passenger was safe. The stories range far and wide and are all a learning experience for the reader.
Title: Maktub
Author: Paulo Coelho
Publisher of English translation: HarperCollins Pulishers
Translator: Margaret Jull Costa
Year: 2024
One story at the very beginning of the book tells us that “if we only watch the videos of our failures, we will become paralysed and unable to act. If we only watch the videos of our successes, we will end up thinking we are much wiser than we really are. We need both videos.” It is gems like these that make the book a gentle read, easy on the eyes (the same symbol before each story is beautiful and a wonderful idea), easy on the brain and most importantly easy on the soul. There is frequent mention of God, finding God and how to get closer to Him, and one story from the abbot of Scetis monastery ends by saying that “just as impossible it is to stop thinking about things that might offend God…but you can say no to temptations, they won’t cause you any trouble.”
When Coelho wrote: “…the bridges to God are faith, love, joy and prayer,” it resonated with my deepest self and I wondered if perhaps other readers would agree?
Life is all about what we make it and how we take it is Coelho’s central message. He writes: “Life is like the walls of the mountain pass and fate is the cry of each and every person…Whatever we do will be carried up to God’s heart and returned to us in kind. God acts as the echo of our actions.” Through stories of sages, masters and disciples, snakes, old women, hermits, monks, and many saints addressing the mysteries of the universe we learn about ourselves and our own lives and how to live them well by the end of Coelho’s book. Coelho very softly reminds us through one story that sooner or later we are all dead so we should think carefully how we spend our days, each day, each hour, each second perhaps. Coelho reminds us not to be consistent all the time, he writes, “…as long as you don’t hurt anyone, then go ahead and change your opinion now and then, and contradict yourself without feeling embarrassed.” Wise words, from a wise man, I’d say. Other clever words are “Harshness destroys. Gentleness shapes.”
To me, the story on bad habits stood out, in which Coelho explains that when a 32-year-old patient went to see the therapist Richard Crowley he asked him how he could get rid of his habit of sucking his thumb. The therapist advised him to start sucking a different finger on each day of the week and before the end of the week his habit was cured. “When something bad becomes a habit, it’s hard to deal with,” said Richard Crowley, “However, when the challenges require us to adopt new attitudes, make new decisions and choices, then we realise that bad habits are simply not worth the effort.”
Coelho writes that faith can exist without prayer but prayer can’t exist without faith. He quotes Keats and TS Eliot both and ends the book with a quote from the latter: “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” Let us as humans not cease from searching but when we do meet death, let us arrive knowing our grave for the first time, and even face death, having lived a happy, virtuous and wise life as Coelho is trying to teach us through his book Maktub.