Away from the romanticism of words, the tumultuous emotions, and standing on the ruins of the Arab and Islamic intellectual history and the cultural history of our peoples, we must delve a little into the search for the flaws and vulnerabilities of our societies.
I will not prolong the introduction and will summarize it because whoever opens an intellectual or political article may not read it because of its length and spends most of his day reading "jokes" and watching funny videos. I will only summarize it for you, hoping you will read it.
Reading is the activity that aims to gain knowledge, refine manners, and develop and broaden awareness. Reading is a human communicative activity.
When did the Arabs really start reading?
The Arabs began to read with the first revival, the great leap, and the qualitative civilization jump with "Iqra" (Read), and "with the religion of reading," and with the book revealed, the word of God, the Holy Quran.
After that, the fountains of civilization and sciences erupted in them, and they were leaders of morality and creativity. Among them was the Baghdad orator who did not walk unless he had a book in his hand to read. It is said that Al-Jahiz did not leave a book unread that he had in his hand, to the extent that he would rent bookstores from book vendors to spend the night reading.
Reading is the salvation from the prison of ignorance that we have put ourselves in for centuries. It is painful to find a Muslim in our era and in the midst of all the Sunni-Shiite conflict who does not know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.
It is painful to find a Muslim who reads Surat Al-Ikhlas in every prayer and does not know the meaning of "Assamad," and to find an Arab who does not know why he is called Arab and a Muslim who does not know why he is called a Muslim.
All of this is a simple title that indicates our ignorance of history, religion, language, science, literature, and even the basics of education, and it is unfortunate to see this among the educated class as well.
The greatest social crime is when reading was accused of being a personal hobby, it is definitely not a hobby, as reading is a living act and a personal and societal renaissance.
The latest studies have shown that "the average reading in the Arab world is a quarter of a page per person annually, while reading rates in America reach 11 books per person annually and in Britain to seven books."
"It is a real setback and a serious illness, so how can we survive?"
Survival is by starting to read today and now.
Choose a book to read every month in history, religion, science, and literature.
Buy a book or borrow it.
Read from your phone or mobile device.
Please read.
To make reading a truly collective social activity, intellectuals must break their silence and lead campaigns to support reading so that the reading caravan can take us to the oasis of survival.
Maher Daboul
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