Who better than the author to describe a book? Here are Ibn Al-Jawzi's words about his work:
“I came to realize that excessive hope, lack of fear of Allah and deluding ourselves are diseases that have contaminated people's hearts. The treatment of these diseases therefore only involves the medicine of intimidation and dissuasion.
It is for this reason that I have collected, in this work, terrifying stories, warnings against sins, narrations describing punishments and stories that put the heart into an uncomfortable state. All this in order to make the confident anxious, to soften hard hearts, to bring tears to dry eyes, and to motivate the lazy..."