Just Beginning

5 Ramadhan, 1446

The first ten or so days of the Fasting Month seem to follow a similar trajectory for me every year. This takes the shape of something of a journey inwards, examining foundations. A kind of back-to-basics refreshment. Re-learning what I already know.

This year I've been re-reading Muhammad (peace be upon him) For Beginners in the Icon Books series (as pictured above.). It's one of those basic guides to a thinker or school of thought or conceptual notion, blending text and visual image in a sort of populist, cartoon-like style. I like this kind of text anyway, but Ziauddin Sardar and Zafar Abbas Malik's book seems to me a stone-cold classic of the genre. It's genuinely informative and visually highly engaging in what I can only describe as an Islamic fashion. And it contrives to be energetically humorous as well as deeply serious.

I suppose there's an element of comfort-reading involved here, but it's proving a valuable companion as I ease my way forward.