Ramadan 2019 #09 – Read! No, seriously…Read!

Salam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah will adios Javi as. So today, I just want to give a very quick reminder about something that I'm very passionate about and which seems to be lost a bit on our generation of the oma. And that is the encouragement in the Sharia, for us to read. Right? So we know that the very first revelation is the

verse of surah, Allah ikura, which can be translated as read or recite. And you know, many times people, when discussing this translation of this verse, they say, are we supposed to be we are the room of readers and, you know, our our legacies, legacy of books. But sadly, in recent history, we find that the match started to lack a bit in this area. So what do I mean by this? I mean, for example, you know, if something I get a lot from people, when I tell people that I'm an author, you know, people ask me, what do you do? I say, I'm an author, I write books.

One of the most common comments I get is, but nobody reads anymore. Right. And that's not accurate. That's not really true.

Because if you take a look in the world today, I think we have more best selling authors looking today than probably any other point in history. I mean, everywhere you go, you have people who've sold 1000s of copies of their books and hundreds of 1000s of copies of their books. So it's not that people are not reading anymore. It's perhaps Muslims of certain backgrounds are not reading anymore. And you know, for example, if you look at the, the non Muslim communities, most of them really encourage people to read and people they are ferocious readers, and they're reading many books a year. But when it comes to us, many of us just want to consume YouTube videos. And sidenote,

ironically, I'm seeing this on YouTube. But when you first we prefer short clips over books, we want a five minute video explaining a topic rather than reading a 500 page book on the topic. And the problem with this is, you're not going to get a detailed and comprehensive understanding of anything. from five minute YouTube videos, you can get an introduction to a topic, you can get a summary of the topic, but real life changing information that transforms your soul that comes from books and from classes and from spending time in the company of scholars. So I'm point is that as an oma, we really need to revive within our lives, this culture of reading. Reading should be something

we do on a daily basis, we should have goals, how many books we're going to need a month, how many books we're going to read a year, we should have book clubs, where we can discuss what we are reading with each other, we should recommend bookstore friends, our children should grow up in such environments where reading is a normal and natural part of life. And the two should be reading books. And you know, Randy, there's really no excuse nowadays not to read because books are available everywhere, in almost every format. So I mean, you don't need a huge bookcase that I have behind me of books to read. I mean, literally everything you need is it up, right? If you have a

Kindle app or

Google Books app, even just a dhobi reader and PDF books, you can sit in read on your computer screen on your phone, on your tablet, you can read anywhere. So what's the excuse for not having good books. And if you think about it, many of us spend our time reading things which are a waste of time. So what I mean by this is that many of us spent many hours a day reading through Facebook feeds and Twitter feeds, most of which is not beneficial. And some of it which is beneficial is not long term benefits. So you're not going to get a full

transformation from reading a tweet about Islam, not in the same way that you're going to get from actually studying a book about Islam. Right. So the same amount of time that we put in for reading through Twitter, and Facebook, why not use it to read the E book instead to read a Kindle ebook or a PDF ebook instead, and that you're actually gaining information that transforms your life. Now, one of the benefits of reading is that it keeps your mind active and stimulated and constantly growing. So in this way, it it actually serves as a prevention mechanism against many types of mental illnesses, especially those that crop up towards old age, because people who basically exercise

their minds throughout their lives are less likely to develop certain kinds of mental illnesses when they get older. Another benefit of reading is that it keeps you up to date. So for example, if the last time you ever read a book was in school, but that was 20 years ago, 30 years ago, majority of what you know is outdated, but

If you are reading books every year, then you are staying up to date with the most latest information in your field. And so you can be you know, ahead of others in your field. And this is something we see amongst non Muslim women, they have this, you know, when they talk about qualities of the most successful people, and obviously, their definition of success is different from ours. But you know, for example, when you talk about qualities of billionaires and billionaires and celebrities, one thing always pops up, that they read like 50 books a year, right? This is something that pops up in consistently. And when you study history, almost any influential figure in history,

over the past 1000 years has been someone who reads a lot. So where are we from that I mean, how many of us actually reading 50 books a year, how many of us are even reading 10 books a year. Now myself, I have made a commitment to read 50 books a year 100. And I'm already halfway through that for this year. And what I want to encourage each and every one of you to do is to start making similar commitments, let us revive the Lost Art of reading it will transform our minds will transform our souls, it will help us in business will help us at work, it helps us in our families. Most importantly, it helps us in our religion, they just make time every day to read even if it's 15

or 30 minutes a day, you'll be amazed by how much you can learn in 15 to 30 minutes a day, it will make it consistent. So if you are not in the habit of reading, then make it a habit starting today. And it will be a transformational habit, you will find yourself growing in every aspect of your life, you'll find yourself becoming better in every aspect of your life. And really, if you're someone who don't like to even read books, so maybe you have a problem looking at words, and it gives you a headache, or you know, maybe you're dyslexic or whatever it is listen to audiobooks, that's another way to read without having to actually look at the letters, right? I do this

sometimes myself that if I'm really busy, and I don't have time to actually sit down and read a book, or I want to read a book, but I'm not getting time to read it, then instead, I download the audiobook and listen to that instead. So in that way, I'm still technically reading the book. So there are so many ways and so many formats that books are available in today. You can have physical books, you can have Kindle ebooks, you can have PDF books, you can have audio books, there's no excuse for us not to be reading. So that's my advice. And that's my message for everyone today, ECOSOC read, make it a habit build up, build up to the level where you're reading 50 books a year,

start off with five or 10 a year, build up to that level and you will feel a complete transformation in your life. And of course, if you want some major start, my books are available online, just click on the link, book study Islamic self help calm and you will find more details about my books there. But even if it's not my books I don't really care about at the moment. The point is, I want this much to get back into the habit of reading. We can't get left behind by being the only people who don't read. So until next time to Dr. Heron was Salam aleikum wa