Book for Breakfast : Be A Great Muslimah

Be a Great MuslimahBe a Great Muslimah by Febrianti Almeera

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I got this book as a birthday gift from my best friend Tidy (thank you again and again, little dear :)). I have finished it several months ago (since my birthday is in February) but to be fair, in order to write this review I reread it again.

I kind of didn’t know what to expect when I began reading this book. In one hand, it had a great premise (praises written on the back cover are no joke…) and it would be great if it could inspire me to be ‘syar’i, berprestasi, menginspirasi’ (doesn’t it sound like a meaningful life you’d love to have?). In the other hand, the writer is quite young (like, a year older than me or so) and I don’t know, what kind of experience she’d been through to offer me some life-changing inspiration? It’s not that young people cannot be inspiring… I just found a lot of their so-called wisdom felt so fake and forced and just…meh. Of course I applaud them for even trying, they just didn’t have a particular effect on me. Personal preference, really.

So, I tried to read it openmindedly. It was a book given with a really good intention from my best-friend-of-the-century anyway. And…I was glad I read it, really.

Long story short, this book aim to inspire the reader to balance between our relationship with Allah (‘Syar’i), personal achievement (‘berprestasi’), and relationship with others (‘menginspirasi’). Febrianti Almeera shared her personal stories and struggles, and what she learns from them. In the later chapter, she also shared tips to maximize our effort in all three aspects (‘life triangle’ as she called it). As a bonus, we also got a CD contains Almeera's songs to accompany us while we read this book. Unfortunately I haven't had the pleasure to listen to her CD. My life is lacking a CD player...heehee.

Almeera write this book in a simple and flowing way. Easy to understand and jab your heart all in the right places. I love her analogies, especially when she tried to explain concepts like why we should do our best in doing ibadah. She’d certainly been through a lot (from being a stereotypical teenager socialite to a girl aspired to be an inspiring great muslimah…in a quite rocky way. My skepticity in the beginning is officially thwarted) She openly told us her stories and how hidayah from Allah change her life. It felt really personal at times, but we can easily adapt her lessons in life and tips into our own.

I was hesitating about how many stars to give to this book… I want to give this book 5 stars, but maybe that was because this book is a birthday gift from my best friend, not purely because of its content. So I reread it again and I remember how this book gave me that feeling of contemplation and boosted up my spirit…you know, that kind of overflowing feeling when you find something motivating you to run faster and longer. Heck, what’s the loss for me to give one more star? The fact it was given by my best friend on my birthday just make its meaning get to a whole new level, 6 ,5 stars, maybe :)

I’m thankful that I have really wonderful friends who encourage my self improvement. I’m thankful that Febrianti Almeera wrote this book so Tidy can gave it to me and showed her encouragement. Thank Allah for His intricate web of destiny. Like Febrianti Almeera said, there are no coincidences. Maybe this is Allah’s way to show me how I should improve myself.

And about this book…the description for 5 stars sums everything I feel. I love it :)


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