The Book of Self-Knowledge is the first book in our school. In the Book of Self-Knowledge, we come face to face with our ‘self’—the self that we have never paid attention to and have always run away from. The lessons in this book act like a mirror, bringing us face to face with a truth that holds the answers to all our questions: “Who am I?”

As we progress toward the modern era, the number of schools of thought and theories on knowing the human being, and consequently the definitions of humanity, continues to increase. Each of these schools defines the human based on a single existential aspect that its thinkers deem important and prominent, and they each propose a path to human happiness, as humanity has always strived for happiness, and knowledge is seen as a prerequisite for achieving it. In fact, we define happiness based on how we understand ourselves.

Ultimately, the failures and setbacks experienced by people today can be attributed to either an absence of true self-knowledge or a deficiency in our knowledge of the human being. Our lethargy, lack of motivation, indifference, complacency, nihilism, laziness, and boredom are all the results of a lack of true self-knowledge. Perhaps we should set aside our biases and accept that humanity has truly gone astray in true self-awareness. Human life has taken on a specific meaning under the influence of the theories of various scholars throughout history, to the point that today, in contemporary studies of the human being, knowledge is often confined to the physical body, its needs, and associated experiences, with any phenomena that do not fit this framework being dismissed.

If we could once provide a complete and comprehensive answer to the question “Who am I?” undoubtedly, our entire lives would change because, consciously or unconsciously, all our decisions, thoughts, behaviors, and relationships stem from the beliefs we hold about ourselves. The Book of Self-Knowledge contains the very knowledge that helps us reassess our beliefs. Self-knowledge or knowledge of the human being is the path to self-discovery—a knowledge that leads us to a general understanding of the starting point and destination of our journey, and this origin begins from within us.