The Nightingale

It was a moment of quiet tenderness and a reminder that a child first sees the world refracted through their relationship with their parents or primary caregivers. This is how human beings begin and this is how we are. This also speaks to the power of the book to elicit empathy and even identity – the characters or situations in the story need not be identical to us for us to understand their world (and to expand ours). This power retains its potency even amid the pervasiveness of digital screen-based media.

The past year has been a wonderful one and we are thankful for every single day... And with that, we turn to what our booksellers have chosen to be the best of the year 2022. We hope that you have had a wonderful year of unhurried reading and stillness. The secret gift of reading is time. And Allah knows best.

The Wardah Books Readers' Choice 2022 is Healing the Emptiness: A Guide to Emotional and Spiritual Well-being by Yasmin Mogahed. The choice is well-deserved and is quite apt for our time as we take our tentative steps in a post-Covid world.

Recognising the need to inculcate good reading habits and help overcome distraction, the National Library Board of Singapore started in 2021 a series of seminars on Reading in the Age of Distraction (RAD). The first seminar on 9 July, titled “Read to Focus: The Art of Focused Reading in an Age of Distraction,” features the panellists Professor Emerita Naomi Baron (American University in Washington, DC), Associate Professor Loh Chin Ee (National Institute of Education), and moderator Ibrahim Tahir (Wardah Books)

We asked Ameera Aslam, author of Desiring Light, to have a chat with A. Helwa about her new book, From Darkness into Light. This is their conversation.

After a couple of years living with strict social distancing, this year's Eid does feel like one of these breezes of Mercy. It is a mercy to be with friends and family, to receive them into our lives again, illuminating each other’s homes with joy and fellowship.

Fasting, as Imam al-Mawlud reiterates, feeds spiritual growth; the less we fill our stomachs, the more we fill our souls. And Ramadan is the welcomed friend who gently nudges us all to feed our famished souls.

If Wardah Books were a person, she would be a 20-year-old. What should she write in her autobiography, as she stands at the threshold of adulthood, looking forward to new beginnings. She may not have the eloquence of Imam al-Ghazali, but we hope she has the presence of heart to begin: Alhamdulillah, Praise be to God.

It is in this spirit that we embark on the book club for 2022. We want to learn about the modern world, its secular underpinnings and historical pathways, not to mock or engage in name-calling, or to stoke the flames of indignation. Rather, we seek to understand because we recognise that there is a metaphysical commonality that binds all human beings: that we are all created out of love by the All-Merciful.