I was enticed into the video, not because I was interested in the Loeb’s in particular, but was interested in his process for curating his personal library, besides obviously being well off enough to afford them. He mentioned that he’s read something like 40% if I remember correctly. He does admit for some of the sets that they were bought for the sake of completeness rather than just having the odd one. The guy also explains that he likes discussing them with visitors. Occasionally with his son, if he wants to look something up they try to find it in a book instead of just a Google search which I found endearing. He did also mention that he wanted to leave the library behind for his kids. What I found impressive was that he managed to briefly talk about each book the host asked him about, either specifically or the subject matter more broadly. Whether it’s the books themselves or their content, he expresses clear fondness either way. Another interesting point of discussion was on how library classification systems (Dewey Decimal, Library of Congress) placing books next to each other on a shelf would allow you to see what you would either have not known about or not necessarily have expected. A digital library may lack in this regard, i.e. the visual browsing factor.
also if someone is wondering about loeb classics series: https://archive.org/details/l-484-e...cuba/L001-Apollonius Rhodius The Argonautica/
quoted in this post (#5) but not attributed to khatib. https://sunniport.com/index.php?threads/forbes-on-persian.6190/#post-17373
I don't think the person could have read all those books cover-to-cover, and if in a "moment of madness" he did, how much did he retain? I recently heard someone quote from Khateeb Bhaghdadi's iqtida-ul-ilm-al-amal that owning superfluous books is a kind of greed - part of the human tendency to hoard. The speaker mentioned it while doing sharh of hadith of the two hungry wolves! I think that it was said for the times when books were rare and cost a lot of efforts to produce and maintain. On the other hand I have recently come across the saying that in order to be a scholar one needs: The patience of sayyiduna 'Ayyub ('alayhis salaam), the lifespan of sayyiduna Nooh ('alayhis salaam) and the wealth of qaroon. Shaykh abdul-fattah added to the list: and the palace of a King (to keep all the books). So if the person is gathering all that for safe-keeping for posterity - it might not be irrational. wa Allahu a'alam
until very recently, even bollywood singers, lyricists, script writers only stuck to Urdu, even the superstars of the yesteryear were all proficient in Urdu reading and writing and speaking. to this day, bollywood stars hire Urdu teachers when they want to learn diction and pronunciation. forget Mughal or British times, well into the 1960's and 1970's the destitute baniya considered Urdu as a status symbol. only now, as we speak, has the sanatani lowlife realized that he needs to remove the Urdu embedded in his dialectic. it's not even so much about English. even in Urdu, the archaic Urdu used by Ala Hazrat and many elders needs to be simplified; notwithstanding the so many fiqhi technical terms that need explanations. i had heard in the 1990's that apparently Raza Academy in Bombay was undertaking the task of republishing Fatawa Ridawiyyah in "modern" Urdu that could appeal to everyday Zaid's and Bakr's. don't know what ever happened to that project. one of the reasons for the spread of wahabiyat and devbandiyat, as acknowledged by our own ulema, is their using simple Urdu that the layperson can understand. of course, i don't suggest we dumb it down to zakir naik's moronic level, but we can still bring it to conversational levels, minus all the wahabi-devbandi standard be-adabi.
Spot on! Our Ulama produced quality. I mean books like bahaar/qanoon e shariat out perform fazail e aamaal (zakariya khandelwi). The reason why deos won outside the subcontinent is they beat sunnis in translating to english. First translation of fazail e aamal was in 1960 as compared to bahaars first English translation only around 2010 and only now malwana kalim did a proper translation to qanoon e shariat. The same can be said about seerah books. The first most reliable translation that was done properly and published in high quality was seerat e mustafa by mawlana kalim. But as they say 'Der aaye durst aaye'. Insha Allah we will always have the support of وَقُلْ جَاءَ الْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ الْبَاطِلُ The last 10 years of sunni literature in English has been amazing. Arabic Grammer primers in English. Seerah books. Aqaid books (kitabul aqaid). In hadith we must thank shaykh abu Hasan for his translations to works like tazkirah ibn mulaqqin arbain nawawi and other good books. Jee beshak. Allah bless you with a long healthy life to continue the service you are doing to the ahlus sunna. Aameen
I don't believe that deobandits ever beat us in content - but always in delivery. We have lots of content, and I am sure many sincere people too, but few who can deliver in the reigning language of our times - i.e. - English. One would think that a century and a half under the yoke of the angrez and another century since, the ulama group might have sensed the direction in which the wind was blowing and quickly readjusted the sails to draw strength from it rather than be left behind in the harbor. Alas that doesn't seem to be the case - I don't know why - but English is still seen as a "foreign" language - the choice of the dunyadaars. According to Wikipedia: Imagine that Alahazrat and near contemporaries had written all their fatawa in Farsi and Arabic saying Urdu was the language of the dunyadaar ... --- I have personally seen a few mawlana hazrat start learning English and then peter out due to lack of time and motivation. It can't be done later - it has to be during the formative years i.e. at the madrasah. We see how nowadays any fitna being spread in Urdu is quickly countered and contained - imagine if we had as many people doing the same in English. Again and again we see lukewarm content by heretics - the only reason it gets viewership/readers is that its in English. Our communities and religious leaders need to become multi-lingual. We have a stark choice - adapt or become irrelevant.
Deobandis are already onto the book review thing https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIKWvIfjO71DLLJjAUKYO6aiu_mRr0XbR
some times dreams may come true. if not immediately, many years later. some things i saw in a dream came true sometimes 5, sometimes 15 years later. keep dreaming.
Brilliant. Jazak Allah for sharing @Unbeknown Can only be a dream for such a channel to exist for islamic books (ahlus sunnah).
