The Ruling on Reading Literary Books
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner says: In his question, he says: I desire and love to read books, especially literary books. So I read in *Al-Aqd al-Farid*, and I read in *One Thousand and One Nights*, and *Kitab al-Hayawan* (The Book of Animals). Is there anything wrong with reading these books?
Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. There is no doubt that this indicates your desire to acquire knowledge and literature. However, you must first choose to read in concise books of 'aqidah (creed), so that you know the correct 'aqidah by what contradicts it or diminishes it. This is a necessary matter. Then, you should also read the rulings of prayer, the rulings of zakah, the rulings of fasting, and the rulings of Hajj in these useful concise books. Read them under one of the shaykhs so that he can explain them to you. After that, read from the books whatever you benefit from, whether it is Islamic knowledge, the Arabic language, or literature. Read good literary books that benefit you in language and literature; you will benefit from them, and they are numerous and accessible.
The presenter:
Yes. May Allah reward you
The questioner says: In his question, he says: I desire and love to read books, especially literary books. So I read in *Al-Aqd al-Farid*, and I read in *One Thousand and One Nights*, and *Kitab al-Hayawan* (The Book of Animals). Is there anything wrong with reading these books?
Answer:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions. There is no doubt that this indicates your desire to acquire knowledge and literature. However, you must first choose to read in concise books of 'aqidah (creed), so that you know the correct 'aqidah by what contradicts it or diminishes it. This is a necessary matter. Then, you should also read the rulings of prayer, the rulings of zakah, the rulings of fasting, and the rulings of Hajj in these useful concise books. Read them under one of the shaykhs so that he can explain them to you. After that, read from the books whatever you benefit from, whether it is Islamic knowledge, the Arabic language, or literature. Read good literary books that benefit you in language and literature; you will benefit from them, and they are numerous and accessible.
The presenter:
Yes. May Allah reward you
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 03/221 — archive.org (0:54)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.