Ustaz Maulana Akbarshah: ESTABLISH SMALL LIBRARY (LIBRARIAN)

ESTABLISH SMALL LIBRARY

(LIBRARIAN)

Library can be defined as a place in which literary and artistic materials, such as books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, prints, records, and tapes, are kept for reading, reference, or lending. Books, magazines, or newspaper is the early writing and printed form to be read. As for that reason, the materials were collected, put in one place and systematically arranged to make people easy to have a look of it and even can borrow it. The library could be a small room or building to keep all things necessary. The objective of establishing the library is to help people get their basic need of reading comprehensively and it was for free.[i]

What is the basic need of reading? It cleared for us that anything in writing form is the thing we can read. But how can we understand what we look at? The answer is study! Attend a class or been taught how to read. It shows how important of study on reading in our life as first Quranic ayah is “Iqra!’” which mean Read! If someone cannot read, it was very unfortunate because reading is the basic thing for us to gain knowledge and help lead us to the right way “Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different” said Steven Pinker and it shows the importance of learning how to read. . As library is a place where all materials for reading are kept, it can be used to assist people to start reading or spend their leisure time in library for reading.[ii]

When reading should be done? It should be done since we are small kid, right after we can pronounce the first word. It will be really good at that time because kids are easily absorbed new thing at that age. This was applied completely over the world nowadays. Second, after learn how to read, reading should be done whenever it was a free time or leisure time. The more you read, the more knowledge you will gain and you will be respected more by others. Also, there has been a survey done by Nik Mohamed Hussein Nik Ali in Utusan Online saying that “Malaysian people not so fancy to read when they were in public, maybe because our culture that is eastern and being too humble are not towards that”.[iii]

Therefore, this good culture should be plant in our nation to let them make reading as their hobby. When we have the culture of reading it will be make us be more modest like Ray Bradbury said “You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them”. It shows the importance of reading instead of to fill the leisure time. It is the indicator of civilisation and people crave for civilisation to be respected. If reading has been our culture, people will not be shy to read it at anywhere and anytime. It can be read while waiting for a bus, taxi, or while we are in the train, in bus or in aeroplane to fill our time from doing nothing or do something that is not beneficial. Also it was a really good thing to read something before fall asleep and it was convenient for a Muslim to read an Al-Quran every time they perform their prayers and before go to bed.[iv]

Reading help to civilised the society or a country answer the question of “why reading is so important to the society?” We can see through the early history of Islam when Al-Quran was revealed and how it changes the attitude of Pagans in Mecca completely. For the example, the well known gangster that oppose the religion that been brought by Prophet Muhammad pbuh, Sayidina Umar Al-Khattab was change 100 percents and be one of a most faithful men towards Islam after he hear and read the Quranic ayah. His changes has let his name being Umar al-Faroq where al-Faroq means to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong like what happen to Umar after he convert to Islam. It shows that by reading we can make a change to ourselves especially when we read the Holy Book fully hearted like what had happened to Umar al-Faroq.[v]

Besides, the country where the people cannot read is clearly seen as not civilised because when they cannot read it will be hard for them to learn manner and ethics. Therefore, the establishment of a library will be a way to help people find the book they need for free. This will be one the effective ways to let people read and be more civilised. “There is ample evidence that one of the major differences between poor and good readers is the difference in the quantity of total time they spend reading” a quote taken from National Reading Panel, 2000. By this quote, we can see that they will divide the people who read less and read a lot. Even if the amount of reading being calculated to see the differences, it must be something to think and try to relate between civilisation and reading.[vi]

Nowadays, there are a lot of campaigns to persuade people to read and read. Therefore, besides establish a library in term of build a building, there are also a moving library to attract our society to be more diligent on reading. It was more convenient for people nowadays who are busy and do not have much time to go to the library. It has been up for a few years and has it ranking for now. This method is compatible for every century because it has its own good. But, as we live in this modern era where everything is on your finger tip, just click and swipe the screen and everything you want to know will peep out in front of your eyes in a second. Today, reading can be done in anywhere and anytime when we have the devices call Ipad, Ipod or anything similar. It shows how reading had been done in our society.[vii]

“I read books on my phone more than I actually read them on my iPad. It's just easier because I have it with me everywhere I go. I got used to the size of the script fairly quickly and it's never been an issue. Even when I'm at home, I rarely switch to the iPad because I'm just so used to reading books on my phone.” This is an example from the internet that tell us how reading has been done today in our society. There are lot examples similar to this situation and we can see it through ourselves. Whatever it is, as long as we are reading the matter of by what we read is not a problem. Glenn Doman said in How to Teach Your Baby to Read “The non reading children are the greatest problem in American education.” Just reading, as long as you read the method does not a matter.[viii]

What is the impact of reading to the nation? The biggest question here, what is the importance reading towards our nation? As in this world the language are multi language, the need of reading and learning of language is important. Japan, Korea and China are famous about their nation especially on how they take good care their mother tongue. Furthermore, it was well known about their writing that was hard to be understand because of it art. They really need to be a good reader to show their nationality and patriotism towards their country because it will be ashamed if they cannot understand their own writing. So, we as Malaysian should have done the same thing where we need to be a good reader and it will be advantage for us if we can read more than one type of handwriting of the languages.[ix]

Here is the brief explanation from internet about reading, multi languages and nationalization. “National belonging is a central facet of modern social identities. In Europe, nation-building often went hand in hand with linguistic nationalism. While the monarchial empires that preceded the modern nation had been multilingual polities (e.g., the Habsburg Empire), nations were founded on the ideology of “One Language, One Nation.” Nations are not only “Imagined Communities,” that is, systems of cultural representation whereby people come to imagine a shared experience of identification with an extended community, but also exclusionary historical and institutional practices to which access is restricted via citizenship. Linguistic restrictions to such access can be found in naturalization language testing, which usually takes place during the naturalization interview and tests the applicant's proficiency in a country's official and/or majority language. In this paper I examine the interrelationship of ideologies of national and linguistic identity and the ways in which they impact upon ideologies of citizenship. I describe current naturalization legislationina number of countries and the ways in which it is based on these ideologies. The paper has a special focus on Germany where naturalization legislation changed on January 1st, 2000. I describe the linguistic tests as they are stipulated by law and as they are conducted in actual practice. Finally, I turn away from the national ideologies behind these language tests to the linguistic ideologies that (mis)inform them. The data for this analysis come mainly from legal texts pertaining to naturalization, but also from newspaper accounts and interviews with naturalization candidatesThe paper ends with the conclusion that most of the practices I report on are compatible neither with a contemporary understanding of citizenship nor with recent advances in linguistic research and the study of multilingualism.”.[x]

After we go through the importance and advantages from reading, now we should focus on about what types of thing we should read. “A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever” said by Martin Tupper. This show about the types of our reading materials will reflect who we are. If we love to read a romantic story line of novel, it shows how deep we love that types of reading materials and it was difference from the person who love to read knowledgeable reading materials like newspaper. The emotion and the act show by them is really difference because of what they read. “Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life” said Mortimer Adler and we should alert with it to have a better life. It was same like we said about reading al-Quran, to have a peace and feel better and a Muslim should read al-Quran at least a page for a day.[xi]

As we discussed before, it has been a lot of discussion about civilisation of society through reading. I would like to come with another quote from the famous scholar in Islam, Ali Bin Abi Thalib. He said that “Sit with smart people, be their enemy or friend. As the reason is intellect senses intellect”. As we all know that intellect people is who can read fluently and never tired of reading because reading is priceless. National Reading Panele, 2000 also have quote that “Students who do not develop reading fluency, regardless of how bright they are, are likely to remain poor readers throughout their lives”. No one will like to be the poor even in reading and it will be so pity for those who cannot read well. All this show how they are interrelated between habit of reading, civilisation of society and scholars involvement.[xii]

Here is the list of scholars of Muslims and others who are well known about their intellectual and everyone of them is the person who love to read and gain knowledge. Let be familiar with Muslims scholar which are Ali Bin Abi Thalib, Aisya Humaira Binti Abu Bakr, Yusuf Qardhawi Syed Al-Qutb, the most four famous priest in Fiqh Al-Islam which are Ahmad Bin Hanbal, Malik ibn Anas, Abu Hanifa, Syafi’I. For scholars other than Muslim is like Henny Youngman, Aristotle, Christopher Morley, Confucious, Albert Einstein and so many others. They are few from so many scholars that have contributes a lot of thing especially in knowledge to people after them. Charlie “Tremendous” John give his opinion about reading that “You're the same today as you'll be in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read”. In my opinion, the knowledge they get was very hard for us to get it like them and because of that we need to read to be knowledgeable like them.[xiii]

Can our life change because of reading? Is reading is everything? I love to bring quotes about reading for this question. “When you sell a man a book you don't sell him just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life” was said by Christopher Morley. Also a quote from Confucious “ No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance”. “A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy” said Edward P.Morgan. There are lot of quote show how important reading are to our life.[xiv]

Al-Quran itself revealed to Prophet Muhammad pbuh with the first Quranic ayah said about Iqra which mean Read! When the Holy Book itself was revealed for the first time with that ayah, it show how important of reading in our life. Also, mentioned in Al-Quran about seeking knowledge. Both of this has a big meaning of it where we need to seek knowledge and in the same time we need to learn how to read first in order to study. How to recite al-Quran, also, need to be learned because it has its own way to be recited and for us to feel the peace of heart when read it. Muslims believe that when al-Quran were recited, it will give them a feeling of being comfort.[xv]

What is Al-Quran?Al-Quran is the holy book for Muslims. It is miraculous word of Allah revealed to Prophet Muhammad through the angel Jibreel. Therefore, Al-Quran is a wahy or divine revelation that has reached us through or a holy connection starting from Allah to the angel Jibreel to the prophet Muhammad. The Wahy or Quranic revelation is regarded by Muslims as the exact words of Allah. As what have been wrote earlier Allah revealed a few books to past prophets and messengers: Taurat or the original Torah of Musa (Moses) Zabur or the original Psalms of Daud (David) Injil or the Original Gospel of Isa (Jesus)Al-Suhuf the scrolls of Ibraheem. Many years later Allah revealed Al-Quran to prophet Muhammad, the prophet was 40 years old when the Quran began to be revealed to him and he was 63 when the revelation was completed.[xvi]

The revelation of Al-Quran The revelation of Al Quran started in the month of Ramadan during the year 610 AD at that time prophet Muhammad was in a cave called Ghar Hiraaon the Jabal-un-Nooror the mountain of light near Makkah Jibreel continued to teach prophet Muhammad passages of al Quran every now and then. The first quranic being revealed is mentioned about Read! So, it has been a proved in Islam that reading must be done by all. Prophet was a men who cannot read, but the first quranic ayah revealed to Him is to read. Jibril then teach Prophet how to read before let our Prophet memorised the ayah and teach it to others.[xvii]

What is hadith? Hadith or ahadith (plural) are sayings and traditions of the Prophet of Islam Muhammed (pbuh) .Hadith contains daily practices of the Prophet (pbuh) these have been passed down via chains of narrators. Ahadith were collected by famous Muhaddiths such as Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim in their Sahih collections. They verified narrators via very stringent rules, i.e. if a narrator who is known to be unreliable then it would not be taken from that person. It is recorded that Imam Bukhari travelled miles upon miles to hear hadith which he could collect for his collection, he collected over 100,000 ahadith of which only over 7000 can be found in his Sahih collection. A hadith are a source of legislation for the muslims along with the Quran, Sunnah (pertained within hadith), Consensus (Ijmaa) of the Sahaba (companions) and Qiyas (analogical reasoning of the latter two).[xviii]

How hadith relate to reading? Almost hadith now hs been compiled in a book to make us easy to find it, therefore, a person should know how to read to make him easy gain knowledge about hadith that been told to us. There is one hadith saying that “learn from the early of your birth till the last day you live”. It shows how important of study for us especially for a muslim. This is all what have I search and understand about reading and this writing is to answer the ten questions given.[xix]