Islam was sent to all humanity, so it is fitting that the first word revealed was universal. Read is a verb and indicates that we should not be people of passivity. We were intended to be a people of action. The word ‘educate’ is rooted in Latin and means to ‘lead out’. The Arabic word اقرأ (iqra’) finds its roots in the word قرأ (qara’a) which means to recite, peruse, study, investigate, examine, explore, search and to study thoroughly.

Allah says in the Qur’an:

اقرأ باسم ربك الذي خلق

“Recite in the name of your Lord, who created.” [96:1]

With this, Allah has inextricably bound the act of qara’a to His name. Reading divorced from God too will suffer a deficiency.

So! The next time anyone asks you why reading is important, say, ‘It makes you whole, it leads out your inner potential, it gives you clarity, it strengthens your actions, and it connects you to God’.

Zaahied Sallie is a writer, co-authored the children’s picture book We Love to Play Pray and is CEO of Red Kufi Books.  This feature forms part of our campaign to call people back to the first Qur’anic command to mankind which was ‘Read’. #callto1stverse