Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The Winnowing Winds

My first son has an English project that calls for him to study and present a post-colonial era literature.  And like his calculus and inorganic chemistry problems, he would come to me for assistance and advise.  He is doing his pre-university studies and that is like many, many moons ago, too far in the past for my recollection.

And so my first response was, google it.  He said, I've done it but I could't find anything.  Plus I am not sure what the lecturer means with post-colonial literature.  And so we started discussing back and forth and topics of World War 1, World War II, it was not a world war, no to the first, yes to the second, Rumi, Hemingway, Mark Twain, all came about, and finally fell on Edward Said's Orientalism.  We've got the book on our shelves, I told my son.

In searching, for the book, we came across many books that had passed my mind and memory.  We saw Chomsky's, Robert Fisk's, Karen Armstrong's, Thomas L. Friedman's, Gore Vidal's, David McCullough's, Jared Diamond's.  We saw the novels, Sheldon's, Grisham's, Cornwell's, Ludlum's, Archer's etc., and I noticed the Jean M. Auel's series.  The titles went from The Girl In The Picture to Islam For Dummies, to Soros On Soros, 7 Habits Of Bla Bla  to Gone With The Wind.  We did not find Orientalism until the next day of searching.  We finally found it sandwiched between Sex In History and my second son's school workbook The Truth About Life, Love+Sex (I didn't dare look inside scared to find out what the government was teaching my children).

My son picked up Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace, , described as Dr Zhivago For The Far East.  He said I might read this one.

Some of the books belonged to my husband, some were mine.  We had share-read most of them, shared thoughts on them and many too I found that not only I had not read them, I did not even know I owned them.  One of them was Harun Yahya's Learning From The Qur'an.

Books feed the mind, fuel dreams, influence body postures.  The book I found seemed perfect for my learning of the meaning of the Qur'an.  In the foreword Yahya highlighted Qur'an 51:56: "I only created jinn and man to worship Me", and Qur'an 38:29: "It (the Qur'an) is a book We have sent down to you, full of blessing, so let people of intelligence ponder its Signs and take heed."

Surah 51 is Az-Dzariyat, The Winnowing Winds.  I don't know what my son will present to his teacher, but I am excited and grateful I found my book.

15 comments:

  1. Boxes of books had traveled along where ever we settled down. Now they are all in Tanah Merah... My own assignment A-level era still there, even buku anak darjah satu pun ada!!... In the old days clash of civilisations ended up with books burnt, and scholars burnt too.... I am looking at the photo.., trying hard to relate, oh well, I settle for "food for thought".

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  2. I think I have heard of your magical boxes of treasures. My first son would have loved it if I had kept his school books or anything of his childhood's.

    "Food for thought" pun okaylah;) I did not post relatable pictures, just what I think is nice in my collection.

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  3. I am out of Sync for sometime now.. too busy with office work and a bit worried on my friend's venture. Somehow I miss a lot of your entries.
    You are quite an avid reader judging from the books list written down here.. I used to be one as well sometime back but now I limit to certain books and certain articles, blogs and papers.. maybe I should take my retirement option soon.. but then I love my work too much to quit.. my dilemma really..
    I am glad (tumpang gembira) that you found your book..

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  4. It is great you get to smell the books. Flipping the pages better than clicking the mouse. Do have a tea break with the today's drink - The Fusion Tea - Minuman masakini.

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  5. You mean "tumpang gumbira";) Dear Wan Sharif, it is really nice to see you again.

    The Fusion Tea, I am drinking you now;) Aah nikmat;) Alhamdulillah.

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  6. Good to know that you found your book already.

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  7. Aunty Aishah,
    You and my Mama sounds alike. Finding a book on the shelves is like finding a pot of gold for her. At least one room in each house is dedicated to her collection. Each book is priceless. purrrr....meow!

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  8. Assalamualaikum Aishah.

    If you could share with us the gist of the book? Interested to know, tq :-)

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  9. Aishah, I look forward to learning about your journey, and possibly even, having my eyes opened.

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  10. Wan Hashim, I was glad too.

    Yaa Nak Cat-in-Sydney, your Mama's love for books flows through your love for reading, napping and purring;)

    Waalaikumsalam Cheqna, insyaaAllah I'll be sharing.

    Hi Charlie, I'm looking forward to learn too.

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  11. Ya, reading books really feeds the mind and fuels dreams. I did not read many books in my teens and now I regret it. My language could have been better had I indulged myself more in reading.
    P.S. Thanks for visiting my blog. I don't blog regularly. I am taking baby steps in writing.

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  12. Hi Aishah! I was shocked to find that you have a child who is now in college, it seems? Wow! I never would've known if I hadn't read this post.

    And some book collection you have there! That is one of my dreams, to have our own family library.

    I will definitely encourage my daughter to continue reading books; and plan to hand down my own book collection to her. They may not be as hard core as yours, but they'll do and are enough to stimulate her mind and feed her imagination. :)

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  14. Assalamualaikum Aishah, I pray your day is good and God will ease all your efforts.

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  15. Hello sintaicharles, thank you for your return visit. Hope we could meet again.

    Howdy Mama Mia!;) Yes, book collection should start young. How I wish I still have my first books. And yes I am a mother of two grown men;)

    Waalaikumsalam Ocean Girl, I wish you exactly the same.

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