A Kind Of Engagement

4 Ramadhan 1435

I thought carefully about whether to bring back my paperback of Marmaduke Pickthall's translation of The Holy Qur'an from its shelf in KL, but eventually decided not to. My instincts are against a cover to cover reading this Ramadhan. The feeling of having to press on to accomplish a full reading sometimes means I forego the meditative, gradual aspects of a slow contemplation of the text and it's that kind of reading I feel in need of at the moment with regard to matters Islamic. With that in mind I picked up a couple of short booklets culled from the work of Al-Ghazzali a while back and I'm intending to do no more than read and reflect on these this month in terms of distinctly Muslim material. One features the great philosopher-cum-theologian On Patience and Gratitude, the other On the Treatment of Anger, Hatred and Envy. I've got a feeling I'm going to find myself with a lot to think about with these alone.

In the meantime I also intend to make headway with 'ordinary' reading. It's a mistake, I think, to cut yourself off from the ways things are in a period that makes devotion a more central feature of life. There's nothing monastic about Islam - it's about engagement in the real world, but extends our understanding of what is real.