A young man from Bihac, Hadis Kurtovic (22), is a fourth-year student at the Islamic Pedagogical Faculty in Bihac, Department of Social Pedagogy and Spiritual Care. He is a very successful student and an intelligent young man, who unwillingly reveals the secret that he had read nearly 700 books, while he has around 400 books in his private collection. Besides that, he is a member of three libraries and a regular visitor of all book fairs in the region.
The love for books and intense reading appeared while Kurtovic was still a student of fifth grade of primary school when he read all mandatory readings, imposed to him as an obligation by his teacher, during only one academic year.
”After that, I continued reading other novels and readings as well, and in seventh grade I received a gift: 23 books from the edition of the High Saudi Committee titled ‘Family Islamic Library’. Then the interest for Islam appears, when I acquired basic knowledge about Islam while reading that edition. Following that I enrolled in a madrasah, where I increased my love for books and reading even more. Given that I had a lot of free time, I read a book or two on average per week, depending on the time. While I was in high school I also started buying certain works, as much as my finances allowed”, said the cheerful Hadis.
The diapason of Hadis’s interests when it comes to books is very varied.
According to him, he read novels, magazines, Islamic literature, as well as professional books and encyclopedias from the fields of sociology, philosophy, psychology and pedagogy.
”The theme I love the most is contemporary understanding of Islam in present times, by the author Tarik Ramadan and thinkers like him. Famous philosopher Hegel said that reading is ‘a daily prayer of a modern man’. According to that, reading is truly a kind of prayer, actually according to the Islamic point of view it is a kind of ibadat (an action pleased to God) if it is being performed in the name of Allah. Therefore, a book represents a kind of worship to me”, Kurtovic concluded.
(Source: balkans.aljazeera.net)
