We have previously mentioned that books alone are not education; books are good only as far as the reader is ready or has the aptitude for them.\u00a0\u00a0(See further \u201cA Profound Mind Leads to Avid Reading,\u201d IKIM Views, 10th of June 2008.)\u00a0\u00a0In particular, we are referring to great books, which treat the most significant ideas surrounding human thought, action and concern, regardless of whether they are books concerning the beneficial sciences, poetry, theology, mathematics, or politics.<\/p>\n
A 17th Century French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal, in Section II of his work On Geometrical Demonstration, aptly differentiated between the two kinds of readers of great books.<\/p>\n
The first kind of reader understands the book which he reads \u201cin such a way that he knows all its principles, the force of its conclusions, the replies to the objections that can be made, and the entire organization of the work.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0For such a reader, words are like seeds, which produce fertile trees akin to books.<\/p>\n
In the case of the second kind of reader, however, the book represents \u201cdead words and seeds which have remained dry and unfruitful.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0More than anything else, such reading of good books in vain is reflective of the reader\u2019s sterile mind.<\/p>\n
Relevant to this is the advice given by a pioneering American psychologist, William James, to a graduate student at Harvard, who had written a dissertation on the former\u2019s philosophy.\u00a0\u00a0According to James, in order to understand his thought, the reader must have first and foremost \u201cgrasped the author\u2019s center of vision, by an act of imagination\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information concerning the intelligent reading of the great authors\u2019 books controlling insights, readers may want to refer to Virginia Woolf\u2019s essay \u201cHow Should One Read a Book\u201d, Mortimer Adler and Van Doren\u2019s book How to Read a Book, as well as the latter\u2019s serious rejoinder by Ivor Armstrong Richards, How to Read a Page.<\/p>\n
Students of Islamic psychology are familiar with the fact that imagination (al-khayal) is necessary for thought (al-fikr), which is the soul\u2019s movement towards meaning.\u00a0\u00a0Therefore, the first Divine Order to the Prophet to \u201cRead! (Iqra\u2019)\u201d was indeed a regnant command to be acutely intelligent on the most significant human issues preserved in Revelation (al-nutq bi al-maktub fi al-kitab) inclusive in the sense of perusal (mutala\u2018ah) and thorough study (itq\u00c4\u0081n and ihf\u00c4\u0081z).<\/p>\n
Given such a true framework, it is also quite significant that in the worldview of Islam, as mentioned by Muslim lexicographers, readers (qurr\u00c4\u0081\u2019) are given the status of those who devote themselves to Divine worship (tanassuk); that reading (qir\u00c4\u0081\u2019ah, iqra\u2019 and taqarru\u2019) is identified with religious learning (tafaqquh); and that the name of the Sacred Book of Islam comes from the same root-word, the Qur\u2019\u00c9n.<\/p>\n
In order to excite and motivate a greater propensity for the reading habit, IKIM will be taking the initiative to organize a Seminar on the Great Books of the Islamic Civilization, on the 12th and 13th of August 2008. Our Seminar aims to introduce great works in the universal sense, the Islamic civilization as well as Malay culture, the cognitive aspects pioneered by those great works in their respective fields, and their contributions in the advancement of the Muslim community as well as World Civilization be it in spiritual terms or otherwise, be it economics, politics, education, ethics, law, medicine, comparative religion, philosophy, or literature.<\/p>\n
Book lovers, students and lovers of wisdom are invited to register as participants.\u00a0\u00a0A brochure and registration form may be downloaded at www.ikim.gov.my, or by contacting Ms Sarina Othman (Programme Manager) at 03-62046320\/321\/322\/323 (tel) or 03-62046201\/62014189 (fax) or sarina@ikim.gov.my (email).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have previously mentioned that books alone are not education; books are good only as far as the reader is ready or has the aptitude for them.\u00a0\u00a0(See further \u201cA Profound Mind Leads to Avid Reading,\u201d IKIM Views, 10th of June 2008.)\u00a0\u00a0In particular, we are referring to great books, which treat the most significant ideas surrounding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-star","category-220","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}