NAME THE BOOK THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE?

       NAME THE BOOK THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE?

I don't think any physical book has the power to change us. It is only the book of Allah /كِتَابَ اللَّهِ [our own inherent script] can change us if we continuously think, ponder, deliberate, meditate on it. We don't have to learn any language as it is in our mother tongue.

No doubt there are many good books that have educated us, influenced us and made an impact on us but in my opinion they don't have the power to change us.
We can become good doctors, engineers lawyers, scientists, farmers, electricians, plumbers, drivers etc by reading books or by experiencing certain circumstances or by practice but in the journey of becoming a good human being books cannot change our basic nature or instinct, this change must come from within.
This is what I feel, even a good author of a good book cannot necessarily be a good human being in spite of having good knowledge on many subject.

Books have the power to keep on changing our perspective / view towards certain matters. It continuously molds us into the authors idea of life but has no power to change our character. I am not against reading books to gain information but I have stopped reading them because I want to form my own idea. I want to read / study / meditate, to know myself and experience my real identity. I don’t want to embrace anyone’s ideas. At the end of the day it’s a mortals opinion. Why can’t I make my own opinion or carve out guiding principles for my own life. Why do I have to rely on books to change myself? Reading a book is understanding somebody's else perspective, it will certainly help you to change your perspective but the knowledge of self will only come when we begin to think and contemplate deeply. I don't think all the information from the books can make me a better human being unless I follow my own script (Al-Kitab).

I am reiterating again, I am not against reading books, my concern is thinking must not take backseat. Common sense is the greatest gift mankind posses. I have seen many people who have read many books but they don't apply common sense. The habit of reading must help in opening up our mind but I have observed that it takes away this wonderful gift of reasoning. Generally people get influenced by the authors perspective and they blindly quote them as if they are the benchmark of knowledge. Those eminent authors become the benchmark for the readers thus the door for further research on the subject is closed. This is what happened with Islam. We have great amount of readers whom we call well read or well informed, masses call them scholars because they can quote and give references easily. They have good memories and art of recitation but lack understanding and wisdom.