“A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.” – Arab proverb

A book in your pocket is like a secret treasure. It is amagical means
of transportation, a source of knowledge, a historical record, and a
treasure chestcontaining the knowledge of human minds and hearts, or
in the case of theQuran, the message of Allah to humanity.
You can take the book out of your pocket and lose yourself in it,
forgetting about all the worries of theworld, just as you can do ina
beautiful garden.
Fozia, a Muslim sister from the UK, points out that a book helps one
develop through acquiring knowledge, as a garden blossoms through the
growth of its flowers and creatures…
Making the Impossible Possible
Indeed, to carry a garden inone's pocket is impossible, but that's the
thing about books, they make the impossible possible. A family that
has been stuck in poverty for generations can break that cycle by
sending one child to highereducation. Someone who comes from the most
desperate circumstances can achieve the seemingly impossible and
become a doctor, engineer, or even President, all through the power of
education. The power of books.
That reminds me of a quote by Cesar Chavez, the famous campaigner for
farm workers' rights, who is now deceased. He said,
"Once social change begins,it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate
the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person
who feels pride.You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid
anymore. We have seen the future, and the future isours."
This process of social change that he describes starts with a book. It
starts with education. The ultimate Book is the Quran,and it is a
world-changing book. It brings light where there was darkness, and
changes human beings from the inside out.
The First Revelation of the Quran
Does anyone need proof that the processes of personal growth and
socialchange both start with books? Consider the first revealed verses
of the Quran itself, in Surah 96, Al-'Alaq:
1. Read in the name of your Lord Who created.
2. He created humankind from a clot.
3. Read and your Lord is Most Honorable,
4. Who taught (to write) with the pen
5. Taught the human being what he knew not.
The moment of the first revelation of the Quran to the Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh) was a moment of immense significance for all humanity,
possibly the most significant moment inhuman history. It follows that
the message is one of great significance as well.
What is this message of great significance, these first few profound
and powerful words?
Read, and write, and do it in the name of Allah.
Allah exalted and honored human beings by giving us knowledge, the
capacity to acquire more knowledge, and the tools to record andshare
our knowledge, whether verbally or in print. He commanded us tomake
use of these tools, and to do it in Allah's nameso that our motives
and methods remain pure, and so that the results will be beneficial to
humanity and not destructive or oppressive.
We are supposed to use our knowledge to create vaccines for diseases,
not to create deadly viruses forbiological warfare. We should use
nuclear power to generate clean energy, not to design bombs that can
destroy nations. We must use robotic technologies to create artificial
limbs for victims of war or accidents, or to explore the depths of the
sea, or to clear old minefields without loss of life, or to rescue
miners trapped deep underground… not to build hunter-killer drones
that destroy innocent human lives while the operator moves a joystick
a thousand miles away.
Knowledge must be employed "in the name ofyour Lord Who created," not
in the name of greed or vengeance.
This is especially importanttoday, when fantastically powerful
technologies are being developed every day.Supercomputers,
nanotechnology, genetic engineering, cloning, quantum physics… If
these technologies are not tempered with faith and wisdom, humanity
could unleash horrors on the world that will make previous wars and
genocides look like a bad case of the measles (no disrespect intended
to victims of past conflicts).
A New Course for the World
The Quran was also a message that the time had come to change
humanity'smeandering course. Humanbeings all over the world had been
creating societies,customs and laws based onsuperstition. Some
societieswere based on artificial castes. Others were based on worship
of human beings, or worship of the dead, or cult-like religions, or
collections of taboos andmyths.
The revelation of the Quransignified the beginning of anew course for
the world, alighted path based on scholarship, science and
thesystematization of knowledge. The engines of this new period would
be literacy, scholarship, Tawheed (Oneness of God), and righteousness.

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