Young Muslim's Book Club discussion

This is for Noor and Naji to discuss Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam.

I'm ready to start whenever you are! My library has a copy available so I can just pick it up any day.

I'm usually a fast reader but with finals coming up I might read a bit slower than usually too, so we'll probably be able to keep the same pace just fine.

Also I love Six of Crows, hopefully you're enjoying it! I know it's a bit of slower book at the start so hopefully you can power through the slumps.

Yeah it's definitely a slower paced one, especially in the first half. Hopefully once you get into the actual action you'll find it better.

Though I have to admit if you don't like the slow pace, you might not love the sequel. I struggled with the middle of that one too, even though it started off and ended great.

Fair enough, in that case hopefully you enjoy it! I still liked the sequel a lot it just has that similar slowness in the middle, but if you can make through the first book you'll probably be fine for the second one.

For sure! Anyway just let me know whenever you're done and we can start this book. There's no rush though, so dw about taking however much time you need.

assalamu alaikum! can I join this buddy read too?

Yeah ofc! The more the merrier

yayayay okayyy <3

As I'm sure you figured out from the messages, we're just going to wait for Naji to finish a book and then we'll get started, assuming you're ready by then too.

Naji wrote: "I need to find a website to download it from and I’m reading Six Of Crows right now, as soon as I’m ready I’ll let you know"

Hi! I know this out of topic but I'd like to know about Six of Crows. I saw it tag as LGBT on goodreads, so how heavy this topic in this book?

it's not heavy in the first book, there's some flirting and tension between two characters. they do kiss at the end of the second book tho but it can skipped easily :)

aafreen wrote: "it's not heavy in the first book, there's some flirting and tension between two characters. they do kiss at the end of the second book tho but it can skipped easily :)"

Ok! Thanks :D

Naji wrote: "I was able to find a copy of it so I should be ready to begin soon :)"

Sorry I didn't see this until now! If Aafreen has a copy maybe we can start this weekend?

asslamualikum! may I also join the buddy read? I have a copy of the book and want to start it soon too!

Naji wrote: "Maryam wrote: "asslamualikum! may I also join the buddy read? I have a copy of the book and want to start it soon too!"

Yess, of course!"

looking forward to it!! :)

Ooh yes it's great to see more people joining! Once we confirm that all four of us have a copy ready to start, we can plan a time and schedule :)

yes i have a copy!

Alright I think that's everyone!

How many pages would you guys be okay with reading per day? That way we can create a schedule.

I think chapters would be better

Can I join too. I have a copy of the book and I’m fine with reading by chapter

Naji wrote: "Oh we could break it up into chapters which might be easier because I have an ebook so the page count isn’t the same but if you guys do want to do pages, I can just convert it into percentages so i..."

I was going to suggest reading by chapter too, I only asked about preferred page count because not all the chapters are the same length, so we might end up doing a different number of chapters per day.

So in my copy, the first first chapters are around 50 pages each, and then later ones are all around 20 pages each.

I'll suggest a schedule, and everyone can look through their own copies and confirm if that sounds good to them.

Day 1:
- Introduction
- Reading With an Open Heart

Day 2:
- Chapter 1

Day 3:
- Chapter 2

Day 4:
- Chapter 3

Day 5:
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5

Day 6:
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7

Day 7:
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10

Day 8:
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- You Are loved


What do you all think?

Zahraa wrote: "Can I join too. I have a copy of the book and I’m fine with reading by chapter"

Also yes of course!

Naji wrote: "Looks good inshallah! You forgot chapter 12 though so I’m assuming that’s under day 8"

Oh right thanks for pointing that out! I fixed it.

If everyone else is okay with that schedule when do you guys want to start? Does tomorrow (Monday) work for everyone?

Yes that’s fine:)

Alright we're just waiting on Aafreen to confirm then. If she doesn't by the end of the day we can start tomorrow instead and then she can catch up whenever she comes online.

Yeah let's start today since most of us are ready. Whoever's missing can come on and we'll let them know how far in we are and they can catch up.

I got my copy from the library last week which is why I don't want to wait too long, (otherwise I'll have to return it before we're done) so hopefully everyone's okay with that.

sounds good!

I finished the reading for today! Here are my thoughts

First of all I loved the writing style, I was worried that like so many non-fictions it would be difficult to read/understand, but it's the opposite.

I loved how the author addressed that fear of inadequacy and talked about how we don't need to be perfect in order to be religious. It's something I struggled a lot with personally so that bit really connected with me!

What did you guys think so far?

hey guys! sorry for the late reply. please carry on with the schedule. I'll catch up when I can inshaAllah <3

Hi Aafreen, I'm sorry we started without you! I was just in a rush because my copy is from the library and I wanted to make sure I finished it before the return date.

We're only on the second day, so all you have to do is read the intro and first two chapters, luckily you're not that far behind.

Sounds good. I'll probably skip Ch.2 since it seems like most of us need to catch up, so we can just use today as the Ch.1 discussion

Oh yeah! I hadn't even realized I read ahead, that's entirely my bad. Let's just stick to chapter one for today, and start chapter 2 tomorrow then. I'll create an updated version of schedule with actual dates so there's less confusion in the future.

March 29:
- Introduction
- Reading With an Open Heart

March 30:
- Chapter 1

March 31:
- Chapter 2

April 1:
- Chapter 3

April 2:
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5

April 3:
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7

April 4:
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10

April 5:
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- You Are loved

no worries Noor! please don't say sorry. I'm moving houses at the moment so that's why I'm unable to catch up but please feel free to continue normally

Yeah I'm gonna be honest I didn't even read today's portion for the same reason. The only reason I've been rushing it because I need to return my copy to the library, but since it seems like no one (myself included) is able to read on the schedule, would everyone prefer to put this buddy-read on hold and try again closer to the end of Ramadan? I can just return the book for now and sign it out again another time.

I actually don't know many similar books, I'm trying to do the same for Ramadan. Basically what I've been doing is looking through the "similar books" shelf goodreads shows for each book.

Rn I'm reading 40 on Justice: The Prophetic Voice on Social Reform by Omar Suleiman, and though I think the message is really good, the writing isn't as nice as Secrets of Divine Love. It's kind of choppy and he jumps around between points a lot (I'm only a couple chapters in though so idk maybe it gets better later)

The only other books of this genre I can think of are the ones I listed in the buddy-reads request thread, but obviously I haven't actually read those yet so idk how good they are.

If you find some good ones let me know too! I'm also trying to transition to more non-fiction Islamic books.

Thank you! I'll add them to my list.

Hey everyone! Sorry to be that person but I don't think I'm going to end up reading this book this Ramadan. I'll probably save it for the future but I'm a huge mood reader and because I just finished a couple similar Islamic non-fiction books that were pretty dense, I don't think I'll be motivated to pick this one up any time soon.

That being said if you guys still want to read this together at any point feel free to do so without me! Hopefully anyone who reads it enjoys it.

One of them was the one I already suggested earlier, 40 on Justice: The Prophetic Voice on Social Reform. I also read The Holy Qur'an In Today's English, which was kind of a month-long project for me, hence why I was too burnt-out to pick up another Islamic non-fiction lol.

I'd highly recommend both, the first one was a bit slow and choppy at the beginning but improved in later chapters and was overall quite interesting and informative. The second one was a great analysis of Qur'an because it puts the ayat of each surah into little sections, making it easier to understand the overall message, and provides extra information like the context or location of revelation, which I really liked.

If you pick up either of them, hopefully you enjoy them!

Hopefully you find it useful!