The Nightingale

Acedia and Reading

On the Need to Archive

This is an archival atmospheric recording of an impromptu performance by an Indonesian qasida group that sang in the bookshop. It was recorded in the shop in February 2010; you can hear the door chime and customers speaking in low voices in the background. Qad Kafani is a qasida written by Imam ’Abdullah ibn ’Alawi al-Haddad.

Of books and value.

Madiha M Saeed, MD is the author of The Quranic Prescription: Unlocking the Secrets to Optimal Health. In this episode, we are privileged to speak to someone who believes so passionately in the importance of a lifestyle grounded in tayyib, as 'prescribed' by the Quran.

The curious case of Maktabah Al-Tahdir

Two bookclubs in a week

The book address how from our Prophetﷺ to our early generation of scholars engaged and handled differing opinions and viewpoints amongst the ummah, while still maintaining good etiquette and decorum, never allowing personal grievances to cloud their judgements, always keeping the higher principles of the shariah in mind.

Reading this book is like an act of devotion because at every passage, you are invited to contemplate. Broadly, the core message of this book is submission both outwardly and inwardly. The outward submission is abandoning self-choice in favour of the Prophetic sunna, and inward submission is abandoning any opposition to Allah’s decree at every instant.