Hyderabad: Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi delivered a keynote address at the Huda Islamic Book Fair 2025, urging Muslims to revive their intellectual tradition through reading and study. The event, marking 25 years of the fair, was attended by leading scholars and community leaders, including Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, President of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
Owaisi reminded the audience of the golden era of Muslim scholarship, citing the example of Cordoba, which once had 70 libraries and a Caliph with 450,000 books, while Europe had only a few thousand. “We must ask ourselves how far we have declined,” he said.
Warning against the decline of reading habits due to mobile phones, he said that children and parents alike had abandoned books for screens. “This is a difficult and testing time,” he remarked, stressing that the survival of intellectual life depended on reclaiming the habit of reading.
Drawing inspiration from Malcolm X, Owaisi explained how the American Muslim leader educated himself in prison, reading Kant and Nietzsche and making books his closest companions. “We too must make books our friends,” he said, adding that great thinkers across cultures, such as Thomas Jefferson, also valued books as indispensable.
Calling for practical change, Owaisi urged Muslims to read more, particularly religious texts, to strengthen faith and knowledge. “We must bring change within ourselves and our communities through learning,” he concluded, framing books as a vital tool for revival.
The program was also attended by Janab Azharuddin Sahab, President Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, JIH Vice President, Malik Moatasim Khan and Janab Mir Zulfiqar Ali Saheb, MLA, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Charminar Assembly Constituency.
