Reading… the Elevation of Mind and Soul

💭 Friday Thought

Dr. Alaa Al-Tamimi

Reading is not a luxury, nor a pastime for those with idle hours.

It is a command from Heaven — the very first word of revelation: Read.

From that divine beginning, reading became the path to light, the gateway through which humanity ascends above instinct and ignorance.

Do not say, I don’t like reading.

The issue is not with reading itself, but that you have not yet discovered your field of passion.

Seek it, and you will find that every page you read opens another window in your mind and lifts you quietly toward awareness.

Reading makes a difference —

you can see it in a single sentence someone writes,

in their tone of voice, in the way they ask questions,

in the timing of their messages,

even in how they apologize or express wonder.

It refines character the way fire refines gold.

The early Muslims were well aware of this truth.

Al-Jahiz, the great writer of Basra, used to rent the copyists’ stalls at night so he could read until dawn —

as if knowledge were a form of worship not to be delayed.

Yet not all reading is enlightenment.

Just as food can nourish or poison, so can books.

An uncritical reader risks consuming falsehood wrapped in eloquence.

Some writings do not aim to spread wisdom but to shape minds for hidden purposes.

Therefore, read with awareness — not with blind trust.

For reading without discernment can be more dangerous than ignorance itself.

It plants illusion in the soil of the mind and calls it truth.

As Umberto Eco once said:

“Those who do not read live only one life, even if they reach seventy;

But those who read live five thousand years.”

Yet those five thousand years bear fruit only when reading is guided by understanding and critical thought.

When Aristotle was asked, How do you judge a man? he replied:

“I ask how many books he reads — and what he reads.”

Reading, then, is not merely a hobby;

It is a responsibility —

a daily act of awakening the mind and refining the soul.