Greetings of peace, welcome.
There comes a time in the young adult years of Muslims when they consciously accept Islam as their religion of choice and decide to educate themselves on their deen. Islamic books play a vital role in this education.
Reading Islamic Books is a great spiritually productive practice. It has so many benefits if done right. In this blogpost, I will share strategies and tactics for not only fruitful reading sessions, but also fruitful reading weeks and whole years. It’s about cultivating a lifestyle of productive reading. It will grow the spirit to higher altitudes of spirituality.
I will also share 15 of my favorite Islamic books that every Muslim who embarks on this journey must read. The Quran is obviously at the top, so 15 books in the spirit of flowering your Quranic knowledge and love are listed here. If you read them in two to five years, you are decently productive in your spiritual reading practice.
Mindset for Islamic Book Reading
Here are some mindset pointers to begin fruitful Islamic Book Reading in the 21st century. These mindset pointers are traditionally sound and contemporarily significant if you are to be Spiritually Productive in your readings:
- Know that knowledge is at the center of Islam and the highest use of time for attracting God’s blessings is in gaining knowledge.
- Know that you are not missing anything when you are reading.
- Know that you are gaining everything beneficial when you are reading.
- Know that the art of reading is never lost and Allah will send friends your way if you keep at the reading for long enough.
- Know that you are an ocean, and however much water an ocean takes, it can take more… so you can gain more knowledge in a liberating spirit.
- Know that the time for sharing your knowledge you gain from reading shall come; every little anecdote and detail will help you grow yourself and when you grow, you can share the right thing with the right person to the right degree.
- Know that knowledge will lead you to wisdom if your intention is to know God, and it will lead you to goodness if your intention is to seek answers for truth, and it will lead you to confusion if your intention is to use it as a sword. Don’t try to swing the sword like a master swordsman upon seeing it for the first time.
- Know that knowledge is never enough in and of itself. Direct your knowledge gain it by choosing the right books.
- Know that knowledge-gain from teachers is more fruitful than knowledge-gain without teachers because human guidance is the essence and books are there to point to that objective.
- Know that knowledge will be helpful in your education and will liberate your spirit. Don’t let it cage your spirit by veiling you from truth.
And more…
Strategy for Islamic Book Reading
Start your Islamic Book reading in this way.
- Get yourself the books for the year.
- Make yourself a student, that is, find a teacher, at least discuss the mindset for fruitful reading with the imam of a masjid. Usually imam masajid are adept teachers.
- Decide to take notes.
- Decide an hour, for example, time near Ishraaq prayer after fajr. And, time with the teacher between maghrib and isha depending upon his or her availability during the week. Choose what suits you best in this conquest of knowledge-gain.
- Apply this strategy without complication. Make a habit of carrying out the work and modify your schedule to steer it toward a barakah culture of reading.
This then is a strategy to start islamic book reading.
Tactics for Islamic Book Reading
Apply your Islamic Book Reading Strategy this way.
- Make a study space. A desk or a prayer mat are enough as a starting point. Keep a pencil close to your hand.
- Get quite and in the zone.
- Read with a goal. First goal can be to habituate yourself for three days at the same hour of the day for reading. Continue to increase to seven days, ten days, thirty days, forty days, seventy days (in that increment order) If you stop short, begin anew. After seventy days are successfully complete, take a week or a month for reflection on your reading.
- Let your teacher help you. Be like an empty cup. Leave your pride and prejudice and taste reading in systematic spiritual productivity.
- Take systematic notes.
These then are the tactic for Islamic book reading.
Fifteen of my favorite Islamic books after the Quran.
- Muhammad saww by AbuBakr Sirajuddin
- The Sealed Nectar by Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri
- An Approach to the Quranic Sciences by Mufti Taqi Usmani
- Quranic Pictures of the Universe by Osman Bakar
- Al-Ghazali | Ninety-Nine Beautiful Names of God
- Al-Aqida al-Tahawiyyah
- Purification of the Heart by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf
- Travelling Home: Essays by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad
- How to Read the Quran by Carl Ernst
- Philosophy In The Islamic World by Peter Adamson
- Islam & Secularism by Sayyid Naquib al Attas
- The Vision of Islam by Sachiko Murata and William C. Chittick
- The Foundations of Sufism by Shaykh Ahmad Zarruq al-Fasi
- The Productive Muslim Book by Mohammed A. Farris
- any book of your liking, it’s a growing list as your knowledge grows…
Key Takeaway
This then, is how you start reading Islamic books as a spiritual productivity practice
I pray that Allah accepts this written piece. More context shall be provided on reading well with time and updates, my readers.
See you in the next post upcoming.