Living Fully at Forty and Beyond

Abstract:     
Islam recognises no mid-life crisis that presumably occurs around the age of forty. In America, however, since youth is the definition of life, turning forty is full of anxiety and melancholy. For many middle-aged men and women - as their juvenescence wanes and the illusion that 'life is a party' shatters - the personal threads of existence begin to unravel. Caught in the mid-life crisis, they experience gloom and depression. Some change jobs; some get divorced; some drink heavily or binge on food; some suffer from insomnia, and many live in anger.

Keywords: Islam, turning forty, spiritual life

working papers series