Burning the Holy Book...

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

Astaghfirallah... 

I pray that they do not go ahead with the burning of the Quran... 

Do they not see that the Holy Quran has references from the Bible too? That the Holy Quran honours and puts Jesus in high regards? 

One of the five pillars of Islam states that we must believe in all the holy books sent down to man from Allah and that includes the Torah and Bible too and never have Muslims burnt those books... so why do they have to burn something they do not understand?

These people who want to burn the Quran... have they even read it once in their lives? But more importantly, have they even read their own book enough to say that both books are not from God? Na'uzubilla...

I am too far away to do anything but it pains me greatly that this is going to happen. 

Only Allah knows what's the best punishment for such a sin.

Aisyah r.a. ; The True Beauty (Book Review)

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

From the cover itself, any woman who appreciates beauty would have been attracted by its colourful and stylish designs. However, the cover page, which entitles it in English is actually a book written in Malay or Bahasa Indonesia.

The author, Brother Sulaiman An-Nadawi has compiled what he considers the most comprehensive biography of Saidatina Aisyah r.a., the Prophet's youngest wife. That being said, I applaud his scholarly work which cites many historical data and hadiths.

May Allah give him many blessings for sharing this book with us.

The Book:

The first part of the book is written chronologically- depicting the life of Aisyah r.a from birth till her wedding with the Prophet s.a.w. Later on, the author tries to portray Aisyah r.a through various themes such as her relationships with the Prophet's s.a.w's other wives, her character, her intellectual discussions and contributions to the Islamic society and a few more.

The book is written in simple language, with footnotes explaining the context behind certain hadiths and incidents and in a nutshell, managed to make Aisyah r.a. very much alive and real in our minds.

One of my takeaways from this book, although I have only read 1/4 of it, is that the relationship between Aisyah r.a and the Prophet s.a.w is not only special but a basis for which his ummah can emulate. The stories inside this book shows us that our Prophet s.a.w. is also human and he too had marital problems which he always found solutions to. But it is without a doubt that he was a kind and gentle husband, father and grandfather.

As for Aisyah, although she was relatively young when the Prophet s.a.w was still alive, she has been described as a very intelligent child that had an excellent memory and was very curious and asked alot of questions. Her intellectual contributions after the Prophet's death are also laid out in the book; evident that women in Islam have been and should be given the right to knowledge, as are men.

As women of Islam, we should try to emulate the behaviour of the Prophet's wives and learn as much as we can about them because through their eyes we could see the Prophet from a lover's eyes and hopefully feel love for him and Allah as well. From them too we can learn what it means to be a good muslimah and a good wife and a good mother. Insyaallah.

May Allah bless us for our efforts to learn and acquire knowledge in His name.

Amin.

Building a Library

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

Today I went for the forum entitled 'Dilemmas of the Knowledge seeker' at Sultan Mosque. It was really great and being the geek that I am, I took down notes worthy of an essay. I will write about what I learnt in another entry.

As knowledge goes, books are perhaps one of the oldest medium for the distribution and personalization of knowledge. In the past, in Prophet Muhammad s.a.w's time, knowledge was taught and gained in khalaqahs or small group teachings. Even the Quran was not compiled into a book until Saidina Uthman's time.

One of the speakers today shared a little about respect for books as an extension of our respect for the knowledge within that book as well as for the authors who have spent time gathering those knowledge.

As such, I am very proud to share the first two books that are gracing my bookshelves that will be the future building block for my Islamic Library. Of course, it is meant for personal use but family and friends are allowed to borrow any book they like because that knowledge is not mine to begin with.

On the left, the Medicine of the Prophet was actually bought because it reminded me of Hubtobe. He had once shared with me some of the herbs and healing strategies that our Prophet s.a.w used.

And so I bought the book; initially intending to give it to him but I know he is not one to read such lengthy books, so I decided to read it first then summarize it to him and lend it to him should he want to read it for himself.

The book on the right was actually bought for one of my dear sisters for her birthday. However, I wanted to read the book too and I wanted to have it in my library thus I bought another copy for myself. =)

I hope to fill the cupboard with more books in the future, insyaallah. Hopefully they'll be ready by the time my children can start to read and start to be curious to seek knowledge form around them.

Addiction- In Death

"In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate"

As morbid as the title of this entry sounds, it is not at all. I just wanted to write an entry about my all time favourite author and book series because I lugged myself all the way to Vivocity and back in search of In Death books by JD Robb.

There are only a few authors whose books I consider worth reading and J.D Robb is one of them. I got hooked on to them when I had to borrow one of her books for my holiday trip, out of desperation. And alhamdulillah, I enjoyed it.

JD Robb is actually a pen name of the famous author, Nora Roberts. Truth is, I shouldn't be promoting such a genre of romance especially since there are raunchy scenes involved. But after years of reading these books, I usually just skip the raunchy parts because it doesn't move the story along. Especially when you are trying to protect your iman and protect your eyes and heart from harm, it is best to skip these parts.

Up till now, I have 16 In Death books and Nora Roberts has written 38 of them! Insyaallah... I will collect them, slowly, month after month... one (or two... or three...) at a time... Hehe.

This is the first book in the series and it was a book that had me, hook line and sinker!


(See summary from wikipedia, here)

















I am amazed at how a woman such as Roberts can have the inspiration to write all those stories. And her stories are beyond amazing. I am truly inspired by her. I hope someday I would be able to visit the Turn The Page Bookstore in Maryland, USA. It's a bookshop opened by Nora Roberts' husband and they have days where she would come to autograph books and such. Isn't it just so sweet? Insyaallah, I will have the opportunity someday. Plus, it's near to New York and that's another state I want to visit in the future =)

I do admit it's like an addiction to collect and get the next book... to fill up my ever increasing book collection. I hope to build a library for my children in the future and it has to start now =). I have also started buying Islamic books and insyaallah, my treasure trove of knowledge will be appreciated and passed on.

Books make me happy. And I am grateful to Allah for providing me the means to acquire them as well as the knowledge to read and appreciate these wonderful books.

Amin.