Writing or Reading?

These days there is a craze for writing, writing blog, writing anything which comes to our mind. We visit blogs and other websites to leave comments only to make our presence felt. In most of the case, very few take time to “read” and then ponder over before leaving a response.

Once I asked a friend of mine, who was once on a romantic writing mode that why he didn’t write anymore? His plain answer, “Whatever I want to write has already been written before, so no fun in writing.” I readily agreed. But then some days later I “read” a known writer who said, “I know what I write has already been said and written – I only say it again in different words so that those who could not understand it earlier, could now.” I readily agreed this time again.

Then I sat and started wondering the difference between the two approaches and realized that it is the reading abilities of people that make the difference. Words and phrases matter. Unfortunately, lots of people are writing, but only few are really “reading”. Remember “Iqra”? The first command to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was to “READ” so that He could understand what His Creator really wanted Him to do. That means reading while understanding. This is something we are not doing.

So while writing, we need to concentrate more on reading with understanding so that the billions of words written everyday and displayed on internet find a meaning and at least even one percent gets translated into reality. That’s what reading is all about.