.:Bullet Proof Read:.

Bookworm: This cutie was caught reading Pride and Prejudice. Such class!

My name is Lisa al-Ehe and I’m a readaholic. Not really, I suck at reading… Maybe more of an upcoming bibliophile, in that I just love to buy every book I’m interested in but I may not necessarily read them immediately… or ever :-/. Sigh. I’m always mediocre in everything. Jack of all trades, master of none (except maybe Literati where I really kick a$$ - *nudge* if you wanna play).

Anyway, the point is I joined Good Reads after reading Sunni Sister. And I love it! So please join, add me (username in previous para), and let’s book brag! Leave a comment here so I’ll know to approve your add.

Something else I wanted to mention. If you read the comment I made on Sunni Sister’s post, turns out Akismet has been devouring my comments in more places than I thought. So I’d like to officially thank brother Abu Ilyas for his effort in clearing muslimpad.com from Akismet’s hitlist. I believe it’d affected those of you on MuslimPad too. So on behalf of fellow MP-ers, jazakallahu khair, Abu Ilyas. *hāt (ōn vōwÄ“l) típ*

[voted post with most clichés]

** Mu’jam I’rab Alfath al-Qur’an al-Karim **

We finally got our books! Alhamdulillah! The Dictionary of Grammatical Analysis of the Holy Qur’an. Along with al-Balaghah al-Wadihah. Ahh… how the immediate feeling upon obtaining a book is a delusion of cleverness :P But yea. I’m just extra proud of this one purchase, alhamdulillah. And hey, if anything, my own teacher’s experience of only realising he owned the (same) book later on in life (a wonderful realisation at that!) gives me hope that this will indeed be more than useful one day, insha Allah. Yes, yes, am using bits now too.

Books. They’re wonderful friends… The best…

The Truest Companion

“The book is a companion that does not praise you and does not entice you to evil. It is a friend that does not bore you and it is a neighbour that causes you no harm. It is an acquaintance that desires not to extract from you favours through flattery and it does not deceive you with duplicity and lies. When you are poring through the pages of a book, your senses are stimulated and your intellect sharpens. Furthermore, your tongue will find eloquence and grandeur. Through reading the biographies of others, you gain an appreciation of common people and you learn the ways of kings. It can even be said that you sometimes learn from the pages of a book in a month, that which you do not learn from the tongues of men in a century. All this benefit, yet no loss in wealth and no need to stand at the door of the teacher who is waiting for his fees, to learn from someone who is lower than you in manners.

The book obeys you by night as it does by day, both when you are travelling and when you are at home. A book is not impaired by sleep nor does it tire in the late hours of the night. It is the teacher who is there for you whenever you are in need of it and it is the teacher, who, if you refuse to give to it, it does not refuse to give to you.

If you abandon it, it does not decrease in obedience. And when all turn against you, showing you enmity, it remains by your side. As long as you are remotely attached to a book, it suffices you from having to keep company with those who are idle. It prevents you from sitting on your doorstep and watching those who pass by. It saves you from mixing with those who are frivolous in their character, who are foul in their speech, who are base in character, and who are woeful in their ignorance.

If the only benefit of a book was that it keeps you from foolish daydreaming and prevents you from frivolity, it would certainly be considered to be a true friend who has given you a great favour.”

- Al-Jahiz

[posted here]

A love affair with knowledge will never end in heartbreak.

-
Said Michael Garrett Marino.
And what do you know?
He spoke the truth so.

_________
This post was dedicated to: Kati, my dedicated friend… with much love! And The Silent Observer (yes, with a cooler spelling), a true seeker of knowledge, hafithahullah.

اللهُمَّ فك أسراه، واحفظ دينه وأهله

آميـــــــــــــــــــن

A job that slowly kills you.
(yea, everyone tried to get that coffee stain off)

So I bought this book and after having read just a few pages, I made so many mental nods (of agreement), I know I’m gonna love it… It’d be a great help, insha Allah.

I found out about it from this article though:
The Obnoxious Co-Worker: Is it you?

Read it yet? Ok. So how do you if it’s maybe you who’s annoying people out of their minds? As Muslims, we should make frequent self-checks and have the best of humility… and the ulama have advised us to view ourselves as worse off than the next person. (That’s really easy if you’re even part honest)

Al-Qurash said, Idris informed me on the authority of his grandfather
Wahb b. Munabbih, that Luqman said to his son, Oh my son! A man’s ‘aql
is not complete until he possesses ten characteristics; he is safe from
arrogance, he eats only what is necessary and he spends his excess
wealth.  Modesty is more beloved to him than nobility, and humility is
more beloved to him than prestige.  He is not bored by searching for
knowledge throughout his life, nor is he wearied by people asking him
[to fulfill] their needs.  He considers what little others do to be
great, and he considers what much good he does to be insignificant. The
tenth characteristic, which distinguishes him, and is worth the highest
mention, is that he regards everyone on earth as better than him, and
that he is the worst amongst them. If he sees someone better than him,
he rejoices and hopes that he may follow his example, and if he sees
someone worse than him, he says, ‘Perhaps this man will be saved,
and I will perish.’

At this point is his ‘aql complete.

Beautiful.It’s always about how the other person sees things, and views you. You say potato-ish business, you know? You might be smiling to your brother in such great hopes for that reward (sadaqah) but if all your brother sees is a frown, it DOES matter. Or try the way you compose an email… You may think it’s polite (hey as far as you’re concerned, you minded your Ps and Qs!) but the recipient might beg to differ. So on top of the self-evaluation, get others to give you feedback.

As ‘Umar al-Khattab radiyallahu ‘anh said, “Be grateful to the one who points out your defects.”

While we may have knowledge, our implementation is always weak. It’s worst though when we excuse this fact (for ourselves) to advise someone else because it’s always enjoin good and forbid evil, right? Teach even if all you know is one ayah. Correct someone even if you may be committing the same wrong. Yea, the works. But please, have extra care when it comes to applying a hadith you just learnt on an individual. Often times, the admonitions are for the masses and are in general. You may remind people and quote these statements but to make it sound like you’re reducing and condemning that person to that statement alone is not only wrong… But will backfire on you.

We so desperately need to learn the adab of enjoining good and forbidding evil.

And at the end of it all.
Since it starts off with a book and all. I just noticed how some articles would have a line at the end telling the writer’s designation and such. So you’d start off reading an article by some majhool (unknown to you), it’s interesting then bam! You see what the author does for a living and your perception is changed! Well, it influences me at least… sometimes. Like, you know, a fab article on the women in Islam written by an atheistic professor of engineering.

No, I’ve never come across one.

Point? In relation to the above bit, “Look to what’s being said, not who’s saying it.”