Saturday, December 19, 2009
Do Muslims read?
I'm not asking if muslims are literate that's a whole other topic but for the ones who are do they read and what? From my experience the raised muslims who were raised overseas mainly read schoolbooks and of course that's because they have to. They don't seemed inclined to read otherwise unless its the Quran. I could be generalizing here but its been my personal observation. When visiting homes I noticed that the only book to be seen was the Quran and nothing else. As for raised muslims living here in Canada I noticed that the religious ones do have a lot of islamic books while the rest tend to be the Harry Potter type. What about converts? Good question. I think I don't know enough to really tell. I do know that a lot of converts have started writing books and magazines though which inspires hope. I myself was raised to love books;bedtime stories, trips to the library etc So do you read and what? Non-fiction? Regular fiction? Islamic fiction? Muslim fiction (fiction by muslims with no Islamic content), newspapers, islamic newspapers, magazines, islamic magazines. I know you're reading blogs that's for sure! And if you are reading then where do you buy your material? Bookstores? Bookfairs? Online?
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I read everything, fiction, non fiction, -- I read some Islamic Books (Don't be sad, etc), but I find that I have a really hard time getting through them. Maybe I need to get some "newer" ones, because many of the Islamic fiction books, there are spelling errors and such, and I just lose interest.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there will be no reading of anything other than school books for me until the summer...sigh...so much school, so little time!
I read books my mom recommends :).. haha plus books from the library and I have started reading a lot more now that I'm done school..
ReplyDeleteA. told me she wants to bake a snowman cake for you! I was shocked when she said that... "gramma, snowman cake, make it, ya!" and she pointed at the cake box.. that would be very difficult to bring on the plane.. which I doubt they will even let me anyways lol
Actually I have a recipe for that here from Pampered Chef; the book your sister-in-law got me. Still needs to be made..you are free to use it!
ReplyDeleteHeather I haven't seen spelling mistakes in the fiction ones maybe because the ones I've read are by converts but the non-fiction ones from overseas are a whole other story. I always wonder why they don't ask the converts to look over them or why they don't use spell check.
ReplyDeleteMy husband just can't make it through a work of fiction, but he reads newspapers and online newspapers (he's not a convert).
ReplyDeleteI read everything, fiction and non-fiction, stuff my friends pass me, and things that relate to my current interests. I too have got rather stuck on Islamic books, I mean I have a bunch I should read and do read, but can't stay with it from start to finish. Wish I could. For a long while I was stuck on Muslim-ish fiction, but I haven't been on that theme lately, I also got sick of some of the common themes that get depressing. One notable muslim-ish fiction is Brick Lane, I really liked that. Went to Brick Lane, in London, after reading about it many times, I am sooooo waiting for a Muslim travel guide to communities/neighborhoods round the globe, the ones in Non-muslim countries. I'd love to read some Muslim fiction, from practicing Muslims--I don't know how to delicately describe that. So some of these will be on my list for January.
Aischa/ummmalaak
Aischa I've read Brick Lane and although it was interesting, it was another example of muslims behaving badly just like Kite Runner. I think this is the kind of stuff non-muslims like to publish; keeps up the bad stereotypes.Others may even see it as a great way to promote "moderate" Islam. Insha Allah you'll find some great reads.
ReplyDeletei read ALL types of books. fiction, non, islamic, non islamic.allllllllll types
ReplyDeleteYes, I guess you are right about Bricklane. I still enjoyed some of the characters. There is good fiction, but as you mentioned, they do tend to promote or focus on bad stuff. I haven't read a good Muslim Fiction book yet, and I don't expect sterile, perfect characters,but I am hoping that they deal with life/flaws in a more spiritual manner than the other fiction.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of my husband's reading habits. I don't think that he was groomed to enjoy fiction. He can read, he can digest a huge amount of relevant politics and religion, but I think he just can't find the drive for non-fiction--there's no reason to read it. I suppose in a puritanical sense, it is rather frivolous to read fiction. It's self indulgent in a way, very distracting to your family if you find a particularly good book. Oh, given his family size--large, their small apartment, their income, and the fact that libraries are not like ours in Morocco, I think it would be difficult to foster reading.
The good side to reading fiction: it's a darn good way to relax and stop worrying and it's a great way to "travel" and get into other people's skins/viewpoints.
Aischa
Aischa I would suggest the Echoes series to you. Real life situations without perfect characters. I'm on the 4th book of the 5 book series and really enjoying it. I like the Footsteps series but you may find them too squeaky clean lol but not entirely. As for raised muslims reading fiction its not really a huge thing to me but it would be nice to at least see them reading non-fictional books and Islamic information books; hadith anyone? how about The Bible, The Quran and Science. There are so many good books going unread.
ReplyDeleteAs Salaamu Alaikum:
ReplyDeleteI really liked Brick Lane. The writer made me feel the desperation and disappointment of the wife. I especially liked the end when she went "home" for a visit and never returned. She and her husband would talk on the phone and both pretend like she would be returning. But both of them knew she wouldn't be coming back. In a weird way, she found an Islamic solution to her problem of her unhappy marriage. She got away, but didn't resort to divorce. It seemed her deen wouldn't permit her to consider divorce.
For real life situations, I especially like Leila Abuleila.
Wa alaikum salaam
ReplyDeleteThe Islamic thing to do, the halal thing to do would have been divorce but instead she chose the haram solution. (what she did before the separation). Where is the spiritual growth of the character?
I haven't heard of Leila Abulela but hopefully her books have better examples of the spiritual growth of its islamic characters.
As salaam alaikum, Just met you over at my blog, lol.
ReplyDeleteI have actually been thinking about this a lot lately as I have been finding it more and more difficult to find suitable books for my 10 yr. old son. He loves to read and visit the library with me as do the other children, BUT it is so difficult to find appropriate literature there for them. I end up having to go myself and censure the books. I really have to weed through the junk they have there too. It is a bunch of books about shirk- magic, spells, etc. Authobillah.
So, I am coming to the realization that the children will be reading more and more nonfiction as they get older, insha Allah.
May Allah make it easy on us to find suitable reading material for our children. Ameen
Wa Alaikum Salaam
ReplyDeleteNice to meet you here, lol. Ameen to your dua. For my kids they really loved the Invincible Abdullah series. They even have workbooks to go with them but I read the books to the kids and they read them too before I knew about those.