1400 years ago, somewhere in the middle east, a guy about 40 was so pissed about the mad barbaric people around him. He couldn’t take it anymore, he retreated to a cave. In it, like desperate people, he prayed to a greater power asking for help. God did come to him. But, God did not come to equip him with X-Men superpowers. Instead, with a simple order: read.

The guy’s name is Muhammad, the Prophet Muhammad. The first verse revealed told him to read, without an object. It says “Read: in the name of your Lord who created.” But, read what? Quraish Shihab said read anything. Read what is written and what is not. Read people, situation, cues, anything. Read before you talk, read before you act, read before you click.

A wise guy said reading will give you many lives. As your ideas and imagination met with others’, countless ideas are produced. This is similar to a person sitting between two mirrors. He did not see only one picture of himself, not only two but countless. That’s what reading can do to you. When you eat, you can only fulfill one stomach. However you dress, you could only cover one body. Wherever you travel, you can only be in one place at a time. But when you read, you gather various ideas, tastes, and imagination. You live many lives.