Did God tell us to read?

Read! In the Name of your Lord Who has created (all that exists). (96:1)

Do you know that this was the first verse God revealed to Muhammad (peace be upon him)?

With this one verse, many lessons can be derived. Muhammad (peace be upon him) was an illiterate and yet God wanted him to read. And all praises be with God, with His will, Muhammad learned to read.

Now, all of us were born illiterate, not till we were sent to school to learn. Having acquired the knowledge to read, we have climbed the technological ladder very quickly and with many new inventions, our life is way more comfortable than how it used to be before. Many scientific discoveries were also made after researching, recording and READing past records from previous scientist.

Like Muhammad, we were all illiterate. However, have we climbed and learned about God like how we did it for school? Did we even bother to read about God like how we are so bothered to get a diploma or a degree or a doctorate knowing that with these levels of education, it will benefit us in this world?

Many times when it comes to reading the Book of Guidance which God had sent down as a form of His Mercy, we put it aside and choose to read magazines, novels, daily newspapers and etc. Some of us are even too afraid to read the Book God had sent down and choose to read other books written by religious scholars instead.

Of course there may be no harm in reading anything but it can never be better than the Book God had sent down to us. Let’s pray to God seeking from Him guidance and giving us the strength to read His Book and giving us the knowledge and understanding of His Book of Guidance.

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

All praises be to God, it is He Who created for us all that is on earth. Including these tools, computer, internet, blogging and etc. May He gives us guidance in fully utilizing everything He had created for us.

I was contemplating on blogging and getting a facebook account. Why? Because it can be for good or it could lead to evil doings or rather sinning. I was told, "Dude, it's just a facebook account! Do you even need to pray for guidance for that?"

Now, before i answer that, let me ask you about other things. Alcohol, can it be good or evil? It is good when man uses it as antiseptic or mixes it with perfume. But it’s harmful or evil when man consumes it.

A knife? When man uses a knife to slaughter animals for food or as simple as cutting fruits, that’s making good use of the tool. But, when man starts to kill one another without just dealing and justification, it’s evil!

So now, let's ask ourselves, be it facebook account or blogging or use of internet, how many times have we chose it over the Book of Guidance? How have these tools stole our time? When a friend ask us out for religious classes or talk about God, we'll say we're tired or we're busy or we got something on later. Well, when it comes to updating of facebook profile, blogging or reading materials that would benefit us in this worldly life, suddenly, we've got the energy, we've got the time and we even make the effort for it.

We are just not giving the right amount of time to the world we are all heading to and best of all, its eternity. We are so infatuated and deceived by a world that we are all going leave when the time comes. That is when death overtakes us and it will sure do one day.

May God guide and show us to the straight path, the path on whom He had bestowed His Grace upon, neither the path of those who earned His Anger nor those who went astray.