Throughout the ages, the advent of the blessed month of Ramadan not only marked the beginning of fasting from food and drink for Muslims, but it was always considered a month of intellectual, spiritual and psychological nourishment that coincides with the body's abstinence from its material desires. In fact, the blessed month of Ramadan in particular was the beginning of major positive changes for many people who found in its nights and spiritual atmosphere what drives them to improve their lives completely throughout the year.

Certainly, there is no intimate companion in Ramadan nights more than an interesting and hearty book full of information, ideas and realistic advice. If we assume that the average time required to finish an average length book is 6 days, here we present a list of 5 books full of usefulness, pleasure and wisdom, covering a whole month and perfectly suitable for Ramadan evenings in which calm is mixed with meditation, and the doors open to a major intellectual and human change after the end of the holy month.

Literature of the world and religion - Al-Mawardi

"And the kings of the Persians, if they were angry with a sane person, locked him up with the ignorant."

Literature of the world and religion

Here we are talking about one of the most enjoyable heritage books that brings together rivers of wisdom on both the topics of the world and religion, as its title indicates. The book "The Supreme Purpose in the Literature of the World and Religion" was written by Abu al-Hasan al-Mawardi, one of the most important Shafi'i jurists and chief judge of the late Abbasid dynasty. It is said that the name "Al-Mawardi" was acquired from the profession of his father, who sold rose water in Basra, where he was born, so he was nicknamed by this title that remained with him all his life until he left the world at the age of 86.

The book consists of six juan, all of which offer preaching, advice and judgment in a high literary style, combining the citation of the verses of the Qur'an, the hadith of the Prophet and the sayings of sages and poets, in a very wide range of life situations. The first chapter talks about the virtue of reason and vilification of passion, then comes the second chapter in the literature of science, the third in the literature of religion, then the fourth in the literature of the world, then the fifth chapter relatively long, which is in the literature of the soul and its morals, then the last chapter is devoted to talking about the "etiquette of modesty", that is, talking about the etiquette of different qualities and attitudes, such as joking, tira, patience and frequent talk, and how a person refines himself and deals with various situations and survives their negatives.

The book did not overlook a topic that combines the world and religion, but its ways, citing verses, poems and sayings of the wise, and uses anecdotes, stories, sermons and news, which makes it one of the most enjoyable preaching books, in addition to its easy language, which despite its eloquence, it remained far from complicated, and the easiest thing for the reader's mind, regardless of the degree of his culture and level of knowledge.

The book is one of the most nominated heritage books for all ages at all times, with an average number of pages of more than 320 pages, and it is considered an excellent Ramadan trip full of ideas, wisdom and life sermons that change the reader's mentality completely after its completion, and it remains a reference to return to it from time to time to remember the ideas it contained, in addition to re-enjoying its narrations, pearls and tales.

Allah – Abbas Al-Akkad

"In the human nature there is a hunger to believe like the hunger of the stomach for food, and we can say that the soul goes hungry as the body starves."

Abbas Akkad, The Book of "God"

Here we are talking about one of the deepest books of the giant Egyptian thinker "Abbas Mahmoud Al-Akkad", which some considered the peak of his intellectual production, along with the famous series "Geniuses" in which he dealt with a group of biographies of prophets and companions. The book "God" was first published in 1947, and it deals in its chapters with the stages of the emergence and development of the divine doctrine through the ages, from the first man to the man of the twentieth century.

In Akkad's language, a little complicated for some, and too complex for others, he delves into the stages of doctrines, from multiple gods to monotheism. He then deals in some detail with a group of religions in various ancient civilizations, including Egypt, Iraq, China and Japan, highlighting the concept of God in all these religions, then moving on to the monotheistic religions and then to philosophy, and then to the stage of mysticism and the mystical view of God.

Between the lines of the book, Akkad expands on major philosophical issues, such as the proofs of divine existence and the development of religion in the mind and being of man, and also touched on the problem of the relationship between science and religion in greater depth than the level of writings of his time in that period, and even the dilemma of good and evil and the link between ethics and religion, and other philosophical issues that are still raised until now and represent a central axis in every debate about the divine existence, its nature and the level of its overlap with the world.

The book certainly cannot be described as an intellectual snack, but quite the opposite. The book "Allah" is a heavy meal of the heaviest of Akkad's thought, and it needs an in-depth reading that is fully appropriate for the quiet Ramadan nights that allow minds and ideas to merge with a book of this momentum, and it will certainly represent a major shift for the reader's ideas that may completely change his view on the concepts of faith to more coherent and mature concepts. At the end of his book, Akkad says: "We think that we do injustice to the share of sense if we say that the issue of faith is a matter of reason and consciousness and that sense has no share in it."

Bilal Code - Ahmed Khairi Al-Omari

"But why was Bilal chosen to become the muezzin of prayer? Is it because his voice is beautiful, or because the words of the call to prayer will come out more effectively when they come out of the throat of a woman who has passed through slavery and whose freedom is the reason for her freedom is no god but Allah?"

Bilal Code

Bilal is the name of a fourteen-year-old American teenager whose single mother mourned that he had a late stage of the malignant disease, and that his recovery rates were very low. The young teenager begins his desperate journey in treatment, coinciding with watching a film that embodies the biography of the companion "Bilal bin Rabah", the muezzin of the Prophet (peace be upon him), and one of the most important companions, and one of the first to convert to Islam after the Prophet's mission.

Bilal the sick American Muslim derives the meanings of patience and struggle from the biography of the companion who suffered greatly from his torture in the batha of Mecca, and pushes him to reflect on everything, starting with God, the meaning of life, the meaning of existence and the dilemma of evil. Sick little Bilal sends his letters full of illness, suffering and reflections to Amjad, a non-religious Muslim who suffers greatly in his life lost and lost, and Bilal's letters begin to completely change his life.

Bilal's Code, published in 2016, written by Iraqi writer Ahmed Khairi al-Omari, is one of the most readable novels during the holy month of Ramadan. The novel, with the creativity of the writer in navigating between its events and expressing the immense amount of pain expressed by its characters, also discusses existential, philosophical and faith concepts for which thousands of books have been written throughout history, and embodies the plight of man in the face of his fate when he cannot avoid it.

In general, the atmosphere of the novel is mostly sad, but the meanings it carries and the ideas it broadcasts are worth changing the psychology and mentality of the reader after its completion, to become one of the most important Ramadan "intellectual achievements" of this year, which can be reflected in the life of its entire reader later.

Forty – Ahmed Shugairi

"I have a deep belief that any good deed done by man is like hitting a tennis ball against a wall, the ball must come back to you again, and charity must come back to you again, through cosmic forces that operate in secret without you knowing them."

Arbaeen, Ahmed Shugairi

Upon reaching the age of forty, Saudi journalist Ahmed Al-Shugairi, who gained fame behind his Ramadan program "Khawater", which lasted for several years on screens during the Ramadan seasons, decided to travel far to hide himself on a remote island. Shugairi's idea was to rely on the number 40, which is the age at which a person reaches his highest, and also to spend forty days cut off from the world and technology, in which he re-evaluates his past life and thinks about his next life.

The book is divided into 10 sections, each containing 40 thoughts, in which Al-Shugairi reviewed all aspects of life, through his readings, personal experiences or reflections. Sometimes he talks about a simple healthy diet that has contributed to improving his health and his family, and sometimes he goes deep into explaining changing habits. Shugairi also talked about the illusion of fame, and many situations he went through, behind which he discovered that fame suffers much more than being an eye catcher that pleases its owner.

During his trip, Shugairi also talked about psychological pain and how to deal with it, as well as presenting his thoughts and thoughts about worship and seclusion, and other ideas that he wrote in a focused and smooth style, which provoked criticism from some, and impressed others. It can be said that the book is a summary of forty years of experiences and awareness, which Shugairi transmitted smoothly to benefit a reader in his twenties or thirties, and give him the juice of the ideas of his retreat.

Without a doubt, "Forty" is one of the most well-suited books for the Ramadan atmosphere, especially since Shugairi associated its appearance with the holy month. The book is about 250 pages long, and can be finished in several Ramadan nights, and it is sure that it will be filled with the reader's notes and ideas that can be returned to later.

Almajriyat – Ibrahim Al-Sukran

"Nothing is sadder than for Mejrati to be under the illusion that he is at the heart of the process of change and the jurisprudence of reality and is only an observer and spectator!"

Ibrahim Al-Sakran, Almajriyat

The term "magriyat" is an eloquent term used by historians and jurists during Islamic times, meaning news and events. Majriyat means "the events that are happening around us", or "what happened around us?" In the writings of Muslim scholars, I considered an indication of one's preoccupation with news and events that do not work, to which one pays attention and in return wastes a large amount of his time in which he could have made greater use of his religion and world.

Ibrahim Al-Sukran, a Saudi Islamic researcher and thinker, issued his famous book "Al-Majriyat" to discuss this crisis, which he trades with criticism, analysis and a lot of warning, after he monitored the "Al-Majriatians" who distracted from seeking knowledge and study and suffering from deep real-life activities and traveled to follow Al-Majriyat and public events, so they did not benefit from following them, nor did they use their time in what really benefits them.

The first type is networked magriyat, i.e. surfing the Internet and social media, and the subsequent disasters of wasting enormous time in nothing. He then also sheds light on another type of "political events", where one is preoccupied with following everything that is political and news, and withdraws completely from his limited private reality that is entrusted to him to change and improve it himself, so he is preoccupied with everything that is public that he does not have his tools, and puts it ahead of everything that is private that he has his tools and does not exploit.

"Almajriyat" is an awareness book that is suitable par excellence for enjoyable Ramadan evenings, combining its books with many religious aspects and intellectual, political and cultural information, focusing on putting forward many examples that support the author's call to retire from the "Majriati" style of life, and change its pattern completely to suit the religious and humanitarian calls that urge to occupy time with what is beneficial, and that every day that passes of a person's life in following up on "Majriyat" will only return him with regret.

Five books full of values, meanings and ideas will often have an impact on the reader's psyche long after the end of the holy month, and may contribute to shaping a whole new intellectual framework to deal with life with a better perspective and according to broader and deeper experiences.