Nazneen Kachwala

Book Review

Tales from the Quran and Hadith by Rana Safvi

I have grown up listening to the stories of the Prophets, their tribes, their enemies, the extraordinary powers bestowed upon them, the angels, jinns, and Shaitan, and how Islam came into existence. For me, these were mostly the bedtime tales which were told out by my mother or narrated to me by my teacher who taught me to read the Quran in Arabic. There are multiple versions as well as interpretations of all of these stories. Years later, when I read a translated copy of the Quran by Maulana Wahiddudin Khan, I found it interesting to read most of them in several chapters of the Holy Book, however what is more surprising is how the understanding of each of these stories changes for me every time I read them.

I was looking to read something spiritual but light. And that’s how I happened to pick Rana Safvi’s ‘Tales from the Quran and Hadith’. This book is a collection of twenty short and interesting stories from many that appear in the Quran and Prophet Mohammad’s Hadith. Through this book, I could recall some of the stories I forgot long back, and it also become a means to reflect upon the idea of Islam and its principles. The book begins with the story of Prophet Adam, and chronologically continues with the stories from the life of Prophet Musa (Moses), Prophet Yusuf, Prophet Ibrahim, Prophet Yunus, Prophet Sulaiman (Soloman), Hazrat Ali, Prophet Muhammad, Yajuj and Majuj (Gog/Magog), and many more.

(Read the full review on the link below 🙂)

https://wingedfables.com/bkdetails/91

Tales from the Quran and Hadith by Rana Safvi I have grown up listening to the stories of the Prophets, their tribes, their enemies, the extraordinary powers bestowed upon them, the angels, jinn

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For the last two days, I have been reading my journal entries and I came across some truly reflective stuff – dreams I have no memory of, ideas I unknowingly put on the shelf, mental conflicts, good quotes, learning methods, science, and physics principles, thought experiments, promises, unfulfilled resolutions, and much more.

In this journal entry of mine dated 8th November 2020, I noted down some key insights from Ruskin Bond’s ‘How to be a Writer’ book, which I thought to share. (the complete journal entry is too long, so I have extracted only the part that talks about this book)

Since I do not own this book, I cannot verify if there’s more to the list. As I said before, this is only one of my journal entries, which I thought might be useful to the readers who aspire to write, and perhaps a good reminder to the established writers 😊 pardon me, I don’t know!

Feel free to add more to this content in the comment section, in case you’ve read the book and find that I have missed out on anything.

(Read the entire gist on the link below)

How to be a Writer by Ruskin Bond – a brief essence of the book For the last two days, I have been reading my journal entries and I came across some truly reflective stuff – dreams I have no memory of, ideas I unknowingly put on the shelf, mental c

What I couldn’t stand while reading this book were ci******es. Rest everything was proportionately out of order as expected. I personally was suffocated upon imagining the protagonist smoking so often that I had to put the book down many times to gulp in some fresh air. Sumire minus ci******es otherwise was my dream character - an aspiring writer, curious, out of place, carefree, intelligent, seeker, unconventional - I think you get it!

I planned to read ‘Kafka on the Shore’ before picking ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’. However, given the size of that book and the time I had in hand, I picked a slimmer one. I have turned to fiction after a long time and this is my second Japanese literature in a row. I believe the first twenty to thirty pages decide whether the book will hold your attention till the end. I decided it positively for this book within the first five to ten pages. The first few lines that hit my mind were -

“...but if I can be allowed a mediocre generalization, don’t pointless things have a place, too, in this far-from-perfect world? Remove everything pointless from an imperfect life and it’d lose even its imperfection.”

Reading Murakami, felt like reading something far from as well as very close yet hidden from the human realm. This book was first published in 1999, and I am sure much is already said and discussed about the text, story and its style. Since it was my first Murakami book, many things came to me mostly as a reminder and I’d like to talk more about it.

Read the full writeup/review here 🙂 —

https://wingedfables.com/bkreviewdetails.php?bkrevid=35

Sputnik Sweetheart - Haruki Murakami What I couldn’t stand while reading this book were ci******es. Rest everything was proportionately out of order as expected. I personally was suffocated upon imagining the protagonist

🎯🎯🎯