I’ve read books in English, French, and Arabic. Both fiction and non-fiction.
Mostly, I’ll post here non-fiction English books. At least, the ones that I can recommend and might be relevant to most of you.
Also, I’ll skip the books that I read but don’t remember much of them. I spent a decade reading without taking notes. Please don’t do like me. It’s such a waste.
This section is only meant to spark your interest in books. So I’ll only write my impressions and three notes from the books. For more details, summaries and reviews, you can find them on Amazon or any other source.
For a faster research, you can click on any tag below to find the books of your interests.
The Value of Time
A collection of amazing sayings, anecdotes and wonderful stories of the scholars of the Muslim Ummah
Shaykh Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah
Learning about the accomplishments of great Muslim scholars is inspiring. They could marry a rich spiritual life, hunger for knowledge, and action that benefit themselves and others beyond measure. This is everything a Muslim would want to aspire to. I wrote an article about this book that you can find in Articles-->Book Notes-->The Value of Time. This book is magical as it gives an immediate boost to ambition and determination.
Three notes from the book:
1- The Prophet (ﷺ) said: “There are two blessings that many people waste: health and free time.” [Bukhari]
2- Imam al-Shafii said: “Keep your soul occupied with good, otherwise it will keep you occupied with evil.”
3- Imam al-Halabi wrote in the biography of al-Suyuti in Bughyat al-Wuat:
To do a thing today, and the same tomorrow.
Gathering is the essence of knowledge.
Thus one may achieve wisdom.
For streams are but the gathering of drops.
The Art of Learning
An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance
Josh Waitzkin
If you saw the movie 'Searching for Bobby Fischer', you know already who Josh Waitzkin is. What's fascinating about him is his performance not only in chess but also in martial arts. This book exposes his methods for reaching high levels of achievement in unrelated fields.
Three notes from the book:
1- If your goal is to be mediocre, then you have a considerable margin for error.
2- A child with a learning theory of intelligence tends to sense that with hard work, difficult material can be grasped--step by step, incrementally, the novice can become the master.
3- I believe an appreciation for simplicity, the everyday--the ability to dive deeply into the banal and discover life's hidden richness--is where success, let alone happiness, emerges.
Marva Collins' Way
Returning to Excellence in Education
Marva Collins
I wrote about Marva Collins in my article "Serving Others Leads To One Result: Winning For Everyone". First I heard her name from Tony Robbins, then I came across her name again in the book 'Mindset'. So I decided to learn more about her. A truly fascinating woman who deserves to be known and her methods spread.
Three notes from the book:
1- "Arnold, sweetheart, from now on you're going to learn. Children don't fail in here because I don't let them fail. You will learn to read so you can have choices in life."
2- While others lowered their standards for inner-city students, I made mine higher.
3- Marva made sure she found something to praise in each of the children every day, even if it was nothing more than the color of their socks, a new pencil, a bright smile, or a good job of washing the back of their neck.
