By Sudanese-born prolific author Amr Muneer Dahab

nasdahab@gmail.com

In “Wisdom Highway,” translated into English from the Arabic original by the author himself, Sudanese-born poet and essayist Amr Muneer Dahab questions ideas that people accept as standard rules for living, aiming to make individual life paths easier to navigate rather than providing rigid success formulas. He uses short, witty statements to prompt deep thought ins. In this series of posts, the prolific author shares excerpts from the book.

Week 4: When does mess attract us?

• Mess attracts us, when it corresponds as we did not expect. Then we call it coincidence, and we start to wonder.

• Life is heaven’s gift to the successful people and a harsh punishment of destiny for the unfortunates.

• Childbearing: The crime we sincerely commit against the ones we love.

• Lazy person: Someone who finds it easier to regurgitate their troubles than to think of solving them.

• Boring TV series: That which you don’t miss out on, even if you don’t watch between the first and the last episodes.

• My heaviest debt, after my pocket is filled with money, is a debt I forgot.

• Hope: To have a motive, any motive, for awaiting the next moment.

• Time: I did not find anything like it possessing such a great persuasive ability.

• They say that success lies in a strong will, even if you have bad luck. How about luck in having a strong will?

• Your kind heart: That which belongs to you and others benefit from more than you do.

• They are about to be opposites: Avail and pleasure.

• They are not like demolishing and building. Criticism is not just any word written on paper, just as creativity is not just any word written on white paper.

• Our children: A continuation of our truncated conversation in this life.

• Your age: The number of slaps you have received from life.

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Amr Muneer Dahab is a Sudanese-born passionate essayist, literary critic and poet. An electrical engineer living in the United Arab Emirates, he juggles his professional career and writing, which has birthed so far 40 books. He has been graced with several awards in the process.