The Importance of Literature
A follow up to the previous post about the dumbing down of the average Muslim and popular Islamic discourse…
In the past few weeks on Twitter, there has been a furore from the usual Wahhabi morons and those that sympathize with them, over a few Muslim students of knowledge (both male and female) that posted pictures of their libraries. The morons were upset that the libraries and bookshelves of the students included Islamic texts and also fictional novels, manga, poetry, and other “kafir literature”.
A couple of the imbeciles bragged about how their bookshelf only had “100% Salafi Muslim” material. Showing off all the books they owned by mediocre Wahhabi authors. Some of them warned people from reading kafir literature or watching anime/films because this would lead to apostasy!
We have even seen in a few Sunni Muslim madrasahs that students will ask “Why should we read literature?” Or “What is the point of reading works by non Muslims?”
The fact that this question is even being seriously asked shows how dumbed down we have become. The answer to it is simple but extremely important.
We live in this world. We do not live in a vacuum. All of the major ulama of the past were aware of history, classical literature and poetry and culture of their time periods. As mentioned in previous posts, studying the Trivium, Quadrivium, and classical education made these men into proper men of letters.
For example Imam Tahir Ibn Ashur in his Tafsir makes references to the Greek poet Homer. The Muslims historically did not shy away from engaging with the literature and philosophy of the non Muslims, be they Greek, Roman, Chinese, Egyptian, Persian, or Indian. The division of knowledge between worldly and religious is itself a modern secular innovation. A true scholar is someone who has a proper grasp of not just “Islamic knowledge” but also of the human condition in general, and of the time period he is living in.
This is why it is imperative for budding students of knowledge to learn about both Islamic history and world history. To learn about non Muslim cultures so they can compare and contrast them to Islam. To learn the works of high culture and compare them to Islam. All of this only makes a person a well rounded human being and strengthens their iman as well. Classical works are often filled with timeless wisdom.
The fact that some people find their iman troubled by reading Shakespeare or watching films or anime and thus they want these things to be banned, shows that they have deeper lying issues that they need to resolve. They should learn some Kalam and learn some other basic knowledge about the Deen and the world. Instead of living up to the Orientalist caricature of mullas as unsophisticated, unintellectual, rigid, joyless fools.
Muslims historically have not been big on censorship and banning works. On the contrary our teachers have recommended that a student should be aware of history and should read works like those of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens, or Fyodor Dostoevsky or Leo Tolstoy, or the Greek classics, or other similar intellectual content. May Allāh free the Ummah from its intellectual stupor.
[We chose Emily Brontë’s classic work “Wuthering Heights” as the picture for this post, because this work was a personal favorite of the late great Maulana Taha Karaan , may Allāh have mercy upon him. ]
