The Ruling on Reading Books of Literature, Stories, and Novels
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
The brother questioner says: Shaykh, I read in various books, and among these books are *Kitab al-Hayawan* by al-Jahiz, *One Thousand and One Nights*, and some stories and novels. Is there anything prohibited in that? And is that considered a waste of time?
The Shaykh:
As for reading *Kitab al-Hayawan* by al-Jahiz, and this is a book of literature and Arabic language, and it is beneficial in its field, there is no harm in reading it. As for reading *One Thousand and One Nights*,
The questioner:
some stories and novels.
The Shaykh:
Stories and novels are a waste of time and there is no benefit in them. So if a person wants to read from books, let him read what benefits him and from which he benefits, namely the correct and beneficial books. And if he does not know and does not distinguish between books, he should ask the people of knowledge about what is suitable from books for reading and what is beneficial from them.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
The brother questioner says: Shaykh, I read in various books, and among these books are *Kitab al-Hayawan* by al-Jahiz, *One Thousand and One Nights*, and some stories and novels. Is there anything prohibited in that? And is that considered a waste of time?
The Shaykh:
As for reading *Kitab al-Hayawan* by al-Jahiz, and this is a book of literature and Arabic language, and it is beneficial in its field, there is no harm in reading it. As for reading *One Thousand and One Nights*,
The questioner:
some stories and novels.
The Shaykh:
Stories and novels are a waste of time and there is no benefit in them. So if a person wants to read from books, let him read what benefits him and from which he benefits, namely the correct and beneficial books. And if he does not know and does not distinguish between books, he should ask the people of knowledge about what is suitable from books for reading and what is beneficial from them.
The presenter:
May Allah reward you,
Source
نور على الدرب - الفوزان - 03/237 — archive.org (13:35)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.