Sunday, November 16. 2008SubmissionsFriday, November 7. 2008Poems and Pics: Calling for Submissions! Wardah wants to be your canvas. We're calling for submissions from you, gentle reader. Send us your poetry or photographs (digital or scans of prints) that reflect, portray, comment or document Islam – especially Islamic Spirituality – in Singapore. Selected submissions will, with your permission and with appropriate attribution, be displayed at Wardah... on the walls, between shelves, anywhere. A) Poetry Poems have to be in English, but may be of any form – haiku, syair, gurindam, limerick, pantun quatrains, avant-garde – as long as they treat Islamic Spirituality in some way. We're especially looking for poems that represent the Singapore milieu (or maelstrom, depending on how you look at it). Poems have to be original and unpublished. While we may display your writing, copyright remains with you. Should we have sufficient submissions, we're open to the possibility of publishing an anthology. B) Digital Photographs or Scans Photographs must have been shot in Singapore, and may be contemporary or historical. They could be portraiture, landscape, architectural, reportage, anything... as long as the subject matter is linked to Islamic Spirituality or Islam in general (yes, I concede that the example photo of the heart-shaped leaf is a little too vague). It would be nice if you could provide caption information such as date, place, context etc. While we may display your photos, copyright remains with you. Photos will be attributed. Should we have sufficient submissions, we're open to the possibility of publishing a photo book, or perhaps an exhibition. Oh yes and one more thing, this is not a competition, it is more of a platform for sharing. We also won't be buying or selling your creative works... unless we go ahead with a photo book or an anthology. Our other motive in displaying poetry and photos is to get people to SLOW DOWN when they come by our shop, and get into a more reflective, unhurried frame of mind, inshaAllah. Please submit your poems or photos to our gmail account: wardahbooks@gmail.com Enquiries may be directed here as well. Thanks and please help spread the word. We would like to receive submissions soon, so that we can achieve critical mass by the end of this month. Thanks! Sout Ilaahi CDs As proclaimed on the Sout Ilaahi website, Wardah is stocking all the CDs produced by this independent Singapore-based label specialising in Islamic Spirituality. Wednesday, October 8. 2008The Door We have installed a new self-closing door at our store in order for us to become more energy efficient. The shop does feel cooler now... but rest assured, the welcome remains warm. Just remember to 'Push' to come in. Tuesday, September 30. 2008Eid Mubarak Gentle Reader, All of us at Wardah Books pray that all is bright and blessed with you and yours this Eid. The store will be closed for Eid until 6 October, but we'll be open for a full day on Friday, 3 October. Wednesday, September 24. 2008Review of The Search for Beauty in Islam
Alternate title: Lament of a Bookseller
 Minutes before closing time at Wardah on a Saturday evening, in walks a young man who seemed to me to be in his late teens. He scans the books on our shelves, pausing now and again at some of the more exotic titles: his expression was one of bemusement. Ah, it’s a familiar feeling for any bookseller – my selection is being sized up. Judgement is not for in coming. He finally turns to me and says, “Why do you have all these books?” Needless to say, I was puzzled, and my momentary silence must have successfully communicated this. “Why do you have books on philosophy, Islamic science, Islamic art … and all of that,” he elaborated, waving at the ‘Sufi’ section. “Because this is a bookshop and this is our selection of books we think are good and are worth reading,” was my reply. “But you don’t need all of this because the Qur’an has everything.” My mind reels. It was as if I was in a dialogue with someone from a different civilization. It is true that the Qur’an is the Word of God and it is true that it contains everything one could possibly need and much more. But it does not follow that there is no need for books. The Qur’an – The Book – ignited an efflorescence of creative and scholastic output, sparked florid expressions of divine love, and established the most literate (and literary) civilization history has ever seen. Histories, biographies, devotional litanies, qasidah, treatises, Qur’anic commentaries, scientific discoveries, all, transmitted from one generation to another through, you guessed it, books! Then somehow, 14 centuries later, we say we don’t need books? But all I managed to say to my young questioner was, “Scholars, Sufis, Poets have written thousands of books and …” He cut me short, saying, “Its too bad that you think that way.” He turned and walked out. I sighed and briefly thought about my predicament. In my bookshop, booksellers are sitting ducks, waiting for anyone to take aim and fire pot shots – zingers in their mind. Booksellers never have the last word, I’m afraid. My eyes gaze down the bookshelves, and stop at one of the book spines: The Search for Beauty in Islam – The Conference of the Books by Prof Khaled Abou El Fadl. Prof Khaled did once ask – to no one in particular – “Why are our ideas imprisoned by the very words we use to express them?” I was not feeling very lucid or eloquent that evening. Perhaps I needed to silence my inner thoughts and listen to the deliberations of the Conference of the Books. I remember Prof Khaled visiting our shop on a night like this in 2005. He too had cast his eyes over the books in this shop. But he was different. I could see that he felt completely at home before our shelves of books, and even kicked off his shoes and sat on the floor – he was completely absorbed, drowned even. Just so you have an idea of how drowned he was, he wrote in our guestbook later (in Arabic): ‘May Allah be praised for the poverty of my knowledge’. During his visit, I nervously stood by, conscious that Wardah’s selection of books was being scrutinized by the greatest bibliophile of our generation. In the end, he turned to me and delivered his deadpan verdict: ‘This is the only Muslim bookshop in the world that does not have books of the Wahhabiyyah.’ My lips moved to thank him but no words came out (this seems to be a trend with me). Although I was happy that I had heeded Shaykh Hisham Kabbani’s admonishment many years ago to not allow Wahhabiyyah books on my shelves, the professor’s praise, which I take in good faith, must have been bittersweet for him. He had spent all his life in a jihad (wrestling?) against the puritans, the literalists, the pedants that reduce the splendour of Islam to legalistic obfuscation and chauvinistic decrees; yet for all that, only one bookstore on a tiny island in the Far East – with sitting-duck booksellers – refuses to stock their books. I try to still my mind again and reach out to the Search. Prof Khaled does not write in this book, rather he bares his soul. At times I wince at the immense dilemmas he routinely (nightly) subjects his God-given intellect. He struggles with the issues of the day, finding solace, nourishment, enlightenment, direction, yes, and even, disenchantment from a great library of Islamic civilisation. He writes with an intellectual honesty and sincerity that elicits in the reader not just cerebral stimulation but invigoration. The chapters are short, but devastating. Each is a meditation on Islamic heritage played out in modern predicaments: timeless wisdom in apposition to contemporary absurdities; ethical, moral heights against farcical legalistic lows. Beauty and the beast. The Search must continue. The Conference must not stop. We have been ordered: Read! Note: This review is written in the style of Prof Khaled’s Search, perhaps with limited success. But the purpose is to give you, dear reader, a taste. Goodnight and may you have a good conference – you will know what I mean when you read the book. Sunday, September 21. 2008Journals of the Muhyiddin ibn Arabi Society The Society's Journal, published twice a year, is now available at Wardah. We've brought a selection, but if it generates reading interest, we'll be glad to bring more, inshaAllah. Saturday, August 2. 2008Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business Don't worry. I won't be asking you to throw away your tv. That would be naive. And naivety is what the author Neil Postman says is what we are all guilty of with regards tv. To understand tv and to respond to its pervasiveness appropriately, we need to appreciate the earlier paradigm-shifting, epoch-making invention: the printing press. But don't worry, I am not going to give you a lecture on Johann Gutenberg's invention in 1450, or its impact on literacy and on social and political change. I leave you to read the book for that. I will however, bring out a little anecdote from the book: Abraham Lincoln, when he was canvassing support for his senatorship, perhaps sometime in the late 1850s, used to speak and debate with his opponents for hours in front of huge audiences. The audience hung on every word, followed complex and carefully worded arguments. In one of his debates, Lincoln suggested a break for dinner, and to resume afterwards. Everyone came back after dinner to listen to more speeches and debates. Those who were unable to attend read transcripts that were faithfully printed the very next day in the newspapers. This was the era when words—be they spoken or written—made the difference, not the image. Images, visual or still, may evoke emotions, but have they the ability to stimulate the intellect as powerfully as words? In 1985, when Postman wrote this—incidentally the year after the Orwellian 1984—tv was not yet the force it is today. Today one can hardly wait for the MRT without watching an ad about some incredibly wealthy person pay for something with his freshly minted credit card, nor can one check email without some well-meaning friend forwarding a youtube.com link. Generations of children are growing up on the uncritical companionship of tv and the internet: amusing themselves to death. Tv is pervasive and affects even our off-viewing lives. Everything is now entertainment—and is valued according to the amount of entertainment it provides. Serious public discourse is non-existent; all we want to hear is the soundbyte and the slogan. Complex arguments are presented in bullet points or worse, cartoons. Context and nuance are just too much detail. Everything is entertainment. Cooking is entertainment. Politics is entertainment. Sex is entertainment. Even education needs to be fun. Children expect their schools to be like Sesame Street. No culture on earth before the advent of mass entertainment ever characterised education as 'fun'. Education is hard work that requires discipline, drive and motivation on the part of the learner. We no longer want to learn, we want to be entertained. Entertainment is now the opiate of the masses. By the way, religion is now entertainment too, so Marx was, in this context, correct. Live your life. TV, the internet or your video game does not provide you with experiences, it deprives you of it. Amusing Ourselves to Death Tuesday, July 1. 2008New Opening TimesSaturday, June 28. 2008I Look I See 2 I Look I See 2 CD is here. Tracks: 01. Ramadan Moon 02. El Eid 03. Upsy Daisy 04. At-Tahiyat 05. Shaytan 06. All of the Prophets 07. Arkan Al-Islam 08. Heart of a Muslim 09. Silent Sunlight 10. Tala'al badru alayna Check out the official website for audio samples. Our favourite is a fresh rendition of the classic Tala'al Badru. Available now at Wardah Books. Wednesday, June 25. 2008New Arrivals June 2008 The Sublime Treasures: Answers to Sufi Questions | Imam al-Haddad A Spirit of Tolerance: The Inspiring Life of Tierno Bokar Battle for Saudi Arabia | Abukhalil Understanding the Present | Appleyard Colossal Elephant and His Spiritual Feat | Moayyad No Logo | Klein Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World | De Zengotita Restock Stations of Desire | Sells Essential Seyyed Hossein Nasr Losing My Religion | Lang Struggling to Surrender | Lang Humanity: A Moral History | Glover Prolegomena Friday, May 9. 2008New Arrivals May 2008 Through the Eye of the Needle | Shaykh Nazim al-Haqqani Neoplatonism and Islamic Thought Incoherence of the Philosophers Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism Brief Introduction to Islamic Philosophy In the Face of the Absolute In Praise of Slowness Who Speaks for Islam? Sufism and Taoism: A Comparative Study Restock (LONG OVERDUE) Sublime Revelation Utterances of Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani Fifteen Letters Concerning the Affirmation of Divine Oneness Necklaces of Gems The Call to Believers in the Clear Quran Emanations of Lordly Grace Beads of Dew Restock Ocean Without Shore Metaphysics of the Healing | Avicenna Inspirations on the Path of Blame The Drop that Became the Sea Mevlevi Wird Knowing Heart Garden of Mystery: The Gulshan Search for Beauty in Islam Rights and Responsibilities of Marriage CD Set | Hamza Yusuf The Poor Man's Book of Assistance CD Set | Hamza Yusuf Purification of the Heart CD Set | Hamza Yusuf The Need for a Sacred Science | Nasr Saturday, March 29. 2008New Arrivals March 2008 Symphony of Remembrance | Shaykh Hisham Kabbani The Holy Cities, The Pilgrimage and The World of Islam | Sultan Ghalib al-Qu'aiti Nur al-Idah: The Path of Clarification Rubai of Rumi: Insane With Love Rumi: Swallowing the Sun Seven Days of Man Adventures of Amir Hamza | Lakhnovi Lemon Tree: An Arab and a Jew | Tolan Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood | Barakat Remembering in a World of Forgetting | Stoddart A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue | Lobel Stories of the Quran | Ingrid Mattson Man of Light | Henry Corbin Taste of Hidden Things | Sviri Restock Garden of Truth | Nasr Inner Journey | Chittick Spiritual Writings of Amir Abd al-Kadir Knowledge and the Sacred | Nasr Islamic Philosophy from its Origins | Nasr Search for Beauty in Islam | Fadl Travels with a Tangerine | Mackintosh-Smith Graves of Tarim | Ho Purification of the Heart | Hamza Yusuf Muslim Jesus | Khalidi My Little Lore of Light | Hajjah Amina Adil The Light of Muhammad | Hajjah Amina Adil Healing Power of Sufi Meditation Key to the Garden | Habib Mashhur Haddad The Book of Assistance | Imam Haddad The Lives of Man | Imam Haddad The Book of Illumination | Shaykh ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari Ibn Arabi: A Prayer for Spiritual Elevation and Protection Ibn Arabi: The Universal Tree and the Four Birds Lawaih | Shaykh Jami |
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