In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful
Hassan Grody
Reading between necessity and hobby
As I contemplated the transformation of a group of bookstores into cafes and shops of various kinds, I wondered about the reason: does it lie in the fact that people are tired of reading, and are convinced of its uselessness in “advancement” in the ranks of the social ladder, on the grounds that the frivolous are the ones who have set the example, or have they replaced the paper book with the e-book that has become crowded with smartphone screens for free compared to the paper book, or are there other reasons.
It seems that the reasons that led to the abandonment of books in the Arab and Islamic world are many and varied, and perhaps the responsibility for studying them lies with specialists in the sciences of education, sociology and psychology, and with the state, which must support and direct them to limit these reasons and dismantle their elements, with the aim of finding solutions to this scourge that gnaws at our societies, and prevents it from assuming the rank of charity with which God described the nation of Islam, and then if we adhere to this charity, then none of these reasons, no matter how important, can justify not reading, and passing it on to others. of life matters.
There are many paper and electronic books that urge you to read, and their importance in life. Rather, you will find information in them that enlightens you about the types of reading and the methodology of each of them … You can also benefit from a group of videos that have been prepared for this purpose. Despite its small size and its free availability on the Internet, I liked, among the books and videos I read, a book by the preacher Dr. Ragheb Al-Sarjani under the title “Reading is a way of life.” Here are the most important things that are mentioned in it:
1 Reading is a necessity of life, just like eating, drinking, and breathing. And because it is necessary, a person should not limit himself to reading one or two books and then finish, but rather he should continue reading for life.
2 Reading finds rooting for it in Islamic law, because the first thing that was revealed from the Qur’an is the word read, and because Jibril, peace be upon him, insisted in his request to the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, to read despite his insistence that he was not a reader, just as the Messenger’s dealings with the prisoners of Badr, when he asked the polytheist prisoner who wanted to redeem himself from captivity, to teach ten Muslims to read and write, knowing that the Muslims at that time were in need of funds, and in need of keeping the prisoners to put pressure on Q. Rish, evidence that the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, believed that reading and writing were more important than money and taking prisoners as a card to put pressure on the Quraysh.
3 That the recitation be in the name of God, in accordance with the saying of God, may He be glorified and exalted: {Read in the name of your Lord who created}, and it is not permissible to recite what angers God or what God Almighty forbids it, so that the recitation is for the benefit of the country and the servants, and for the good of this world and the Hereafter.
4 Although reading is a means and not an end in itself, but knowledge is its goal, God Almighty did not begin the Qur’an with the word learn, but with the word read, which is understood from it that reading is the greatest means of learning no matter how many means of education.
5 Not being arrogant with the knowledge that has been learned, adhering to humility, and always remembering that God is the one who has bestowed upon the learner what he knows, in accordance with the Almighty’s saying: {Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous} and His saying: {He taught man what he did not know} and his saying: {And fear God, and God teaches you, and God knows everything}, and he said: {And you have not been given knowledge except a little}.
6 Calling on officials indirectly to increase spending on education, pointing out that the percentage of complete illiteracy (not reading and writing at all) is very high among Islamic peoples, yet the percentage of spending on education in the Islamic world is less than 4%, despite the importance that Islam attaches to the subject of reading.
7 Invite readers to diversify their readings, because only reading specialized subjects has resulted in many illiterates, on top of which is religious illiteracy, so that you may find a university professor, a senior doctor, or a distinguished lawyer in his specialty, yet he does not know the basics on which his religion is based, and he set an example of that with a university professor asking one of his colleagues after his return from Umrah, what he says in the tashahhud? Does he read Al-Fatihah? In addition to illiteracy in politics, illiteracy in history and another in law… which is considered a dangerous civilizational apostasy.
8 The importance of reading should be embodied in the importance of the material being read and its purpose. Here, two problems arise: the first is the boredom that some people experience, and the second is that many people actually read, but they do not know what to read so that their reading becomes useful and beneficial.
9 Enabling the one who is eager to read from a group of means by which God helps His servants to love them in reading, I mention six of them out of the ten included in the book, namely:
A- Intention: which is embodied in the reader remembering that his goal is to respond to God’s command, and that he is reading to benefit himself in this world and the Hereafter and benefit his nation.
B- Developing a plan for reading, based on sufficient awareness of the capabilities available to him, in terms of time, in terms of absorption capacity, and in terms of the availability of material conditions for reading… with the necessity of defining the purpose of reading.
C – Determine a fixed and appropriate time for reading, and make use of the spaces between.
D – Adopting the principle of gradation, and not overshadowing the time allotted for reading over other works of importance, in order to avoid boredom that may lead to cessation.
C- Seriousness, because reading is not a hobby, rather it is a very serious work that requires thought, time, money, effort, and sacrifice.
h- Sharing what has been read with others for two main reasons: the first is that a person is required to teach others what he himself learned, in accordance with his saying, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him: “Convey from me even if it is a verse”, and because knowledge is established in the mind through this process, in accordance with the old saying: “He who works with what he knows, God will inherit him knowledge of what he did not know.”
1 Focusing on reading and contemplating the Qur’an and Sunnah, and what leads to understanding them, noting that every reading in any useful field in this world is considered a beneficial reading that is required in the balance of Islam.
In the end, I say: If the reality testifies to a continuous decrease in the number of libraries, and if the book that is characterized by quality is scarce in the rest of the libraries, knowing that even if it is available it is not accessible to the general readership, then all of this cannot in any way be a justification for abandoning reading, and not considering it as one of the necessities that must be adhered to throughout life. Reconciliation of this world and the Hereafter, under the slogan of reading as a way of life.