Reading Is a Transforming Process; It Humanises Humans

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 23 April 2024 Be-Raunaq Hai Zindagi Us Ki Kitabon Se Nahin Dosti Jis Ki ----- Ibtida Ye Hai Ki Main Tha Aur Daava Ilm Ka Intiha Ye Hai Ki Iss Daave Pe Sharmaya Bahut Jagan Nath Azad In the beginning, I was there with a (false and audacious) claim to knowledge/ Towards the fag-end of life, I'm terribly ashamed (to have made such a claim) April 23rd World Book and Copyright Day ----- On The World Book and Copyright Day, April 23, seeing an endless treasure-trove of books and volumes, one's reminded of Jagan Nath Azad's aforementioned couplet and bemoans, alas, I know so little! By the way, 23 April is a symbolic date in world literature. It is the date on which several prominent authors, William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. This date was a natural choice for UNESCO's General Conference, held in Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone to access books. Reading has no substitute. The Quran begins with the Arabic word Iqra (Read). Books, not holy books, have enriched the world, emancipated humans and ennobled minds. "I read and write even with one eye and an impaired vision because I'll cease to exist if I don't read," Salman Rushdie recently said in an interview to The NY Times. Fortunate are those who're inclined towards books right from their childhood. This habit stays till the end. But most of the people have to cultivate this habit of reading. To quote Tom Altar (yes, he was an Urdu poet and spoke impeccable Urdu), "Kitaab Bhale Hi Na Padho, Chhookar Toh Dekho/ Ik Na Ik Din Muhabbat Ho Jayegi" (No matter if you don't read, at least, touch a book/ One day, you may fall in love with it) or Nazar Shikarpuri, "Kitab Haath Mein Liye Phira Karo/ Shayad Kisi Din Padhne Bhi Lag Jaao" (Carry a book all the time even if you don't read/ No wonder, if one day, you start reading!). The critics of reading may say that reading is escapism: Naakaam Koshish Ki Gham-E-Zindagi Ko Bhoolne Ki/ Bazaar Se Kitab Khareed Laaya Athanni Ki (In order to forget the sufferings of life/ I bought a book from the market for fifty paise). Those who dislike reading, often quote this couplet in their defence but they forget that a cheap book will also have contents worth fifty paise! Read a good book and your life will undergo a sea-change. So much has been written in so many languages that even a diehard bibliophile cannot read more than one percent. A drop of ink may make a million think. Even if you don't have time and inclination to read the Bard of Avon's oeuvre in archaic English, read the siblings Charles and Mary Lamb's Shakespeare Simplified (Tales from Shakespeare) intended 'for the use of young persons.' You'll be transported to a different realm. Read Jalaluddin Rumi's one book, or at least one poem, attentively, wisdom is bound to descend on the reader. Read Gabriel Garcia Marquez. His magic realism will cast a magical spell on you. His One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera will revolutionise your thinking. Reading humanises us because it's a transforming process. To read is to feed; feed the mind. Of late, we've become violent and cantankerous because we've stopped reading. Let alone reading a book, most of us, don't even subscribe to a newspaper. Instead, what we read is sheer garbage on the social media, couched in grammarless language. This is pathetic, to say the least. Remember, Gulzar Dehlavi's famous couplet, "Be-Raunaq Hai Zindagi Us Ki / Kitabon Se Nahin Dosti Jis Ki" (Life is lacklustre who's not friends with books). So, befriend books. They'll never let you down. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/reading-transforming-humanises-humans/d/132184 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism