Talking about books..

here are a list of books that I bought recently..

Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom

The Alchemist - Paolo Coelho

Akidah Salaf dan Khalaf - Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradhawi

Mengemudi Bahtera Perubahan Minda - Dr Mohd Asri Zainal Abidin

Blink - Malcolm Gladwell

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus - John Gray

The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People - Dr Stephen R Covey

Alhamdulillah, have finished reading some while others still lie in the corner either partly/half read or still untouched.

I kinda started the habit of leisure reading quite late. During primary school, I was quite an avid reader of fictional story books, mostly by Roald Dahl and loved Garfield comics, then during secondary school the habit waned and I only read the paper occasionally. Then the constantly, interesting real-life stories of Readers' Digest magazine perked up my reading habit a little around the start of tertiary life and finally began reading more non-fiction books during my NS period.

Hm, wished I could turn back the clock and start this habit much more earlier in my life. But well, that's in the past so let's concentrate on the now and the future. Reading is definitely the key to get out of ignorance. And also proven a key to success.

Successful people have always shared that they do a lot of reading. Recently, caught this Korean TV show about a quiz for students on general knowledge ranging from various topics. The questions were really hard. I was stumped on most of the questions and for me, similar gameshows here in Singapore for the same level are nowhere near their standard for the questions asked. In that particular episode, there was this Elementary school kid similar to a pri 5 level here who was competing with 5 others who were already in High school, all at least above the sec 2 level. And he actually became one of the final 2 for the Final round of the gameshow losing only by a small margin. There were also a number of times where he was the only one who knew the answer to the questions asked.

When asked by the host of the show how much reading he does, he said that during holidays, he could read up to 10 books a week! I guess that explains his depth in knowledge on general topics which others in the gameshow way above his level struggle with.

So yea, I'm seriously lagging in this. 10 books a week uh. That would be a great target to reach. My list of books bought doesn't even reach that number, hahah.

Anyway, just to recommend one of the books in my list entitled "Akidah Salaf dan Khalaf" by Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradhawi. I bought it at Joo Chiat Complex, Toko Warisan. Before that, tried to find it at MuslimMedia located at the Pergas Building near Masjid Kassim but it was sold out!

Here's a brief description of the book..

"Permasalahan seputar Asma' wa sifat, wali dan karamah, tawassul, dan ziarah kubur adalah bahagian yang tak terpisah dari permasalahan akidah, ia betul-betul harus difahami secara benar. Kerana pemahaman yang salah akan menyebabkan sikap dan hidup yang salah pula. Menghadirkan perdebatan ulama' salaf dan khalaf seputar masalah di atas dengan tetap mendepankan objektif, tentu bukan pekerjaan ringan. Ia membutuhkan keseriusan dan perhatian khusus. Itulah yang dilakukan oleh penulis buku ini, Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradhawi, kajian yang beliau sodorkan(jalankan?) akan memberi pengetahuan yang mendalam seputar masalah yang dibahas, dalam buku ini."

There were also a few topics in the book which caught my attention as I was browsing the book initially, they are..

- Ulama Al-Asy'ari Kembali kepada Mazhab Salaf
- Imam Al-Haramain Kembali kepada Mazhab Salaf
- Al-Asy'ari, Al-Ghazali dan Ar-Razi Kembali kepada Mazhab Salaf

It's interesting to note that the forefathers of the Khalaf Mazhab actually acknowledged and leaned more towards the Salaf Mazhab towards the end of their lifetime. However, don't judge the book just by the few topics that i highlighted, keep an open mind, read the whole book and judge it thereafter.

And Allah SWT knows best.