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Hillary's Choice
by Gail SheehyA fascinating portrait of the most intriguing lady in America - The First Lady - by the bestselling author who has revealed more about her than any other. In a real sense,Hillary's Choiceis a love story - one whose rocky moments, rather than remaining private, have been publicized beyond any imagining. What is the real story of the marriage of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton? Gail Sheehy began to discover it seven years ago, when she wrote the first revealing piece about Hillary. Since then, she has followed and recorded this relationship as only she can. Hillary's Choicetakes the Clintons from the moment their eyes met in law school through the humiliation of the Lewinsky affair and the drama of the impeachment battle to reveal the power shifts, the genuine passion, and the ultimate price Hillary has paid for her love and her ambition. Combined with in-depth reporting, Gail Sheehy has brought an acute understanding to the private dynamic of a very public an political partnership.
I'm the One That I Want
by Margaret ChoComedian. Icon. TV star. Hollywood casualty. Role model. Trash talker. Fag hag. Gypsy. Tramp. Thief. Margaret Cho is the only living human being to be all these things without having multiple personality disorder and she displays them all in this funny, fierce, and honest memoir. At age sixteen Margaret dropped out of school and began touring as a standup comedian. By twenty-three she was the star of her own sitcom, "All-American Girl", the groundbreaking show featuring television’s first Asian American family. But the road to fame wasn’t smooth, and when the sitcom crashed and burned, so did Margaret. Without ever losing her trademark humor, Margaret tells her astonishing tale of dieting her way into the hospital, drinking her way into oblivion, then rising from the ashes in her smash-hit one-woman show and record-breaking concert film. As one of the country’s most visible Asian Americans, she has a unique perspective on identity and acceptance. As one of the country’s funniest and most quoted personalities, she takes no prisoners. And as a warm and wise woman who has seen the highs and lows of life, she has words of encouragement for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider. I’m the One That I Wantis filled with dead-on insights about the experience of being a woman with attitude. In her own wicked style, Margaret Cho has written a book every bit as funny, shocking, and irreverent as she is.
The Life of David
by Robert PinskyPoet, warrior, and king, David has loomed large in myth and legend through the centuries, and he continues to haunt our collective imagination, his flaws and inconsistencies making him the most approachable of biblical heroes. Robert Pinsky, former poet laureate of the United States, plumbs the depths of David’s life: his triumphs and his failures, his charm and his cruelty, his divine destiny and his human humiliations. Drawing on the biblical chronicle of David’s life as well as on the later commentaries and the Psalms——traditionally considered to be David’s own words——Pinsky teases apart the many strands of David’s story and reweaves them into a glorious narrative. Under the clarifying and captivating light of Pinsky’s erudition and imagination, and his mastery of image and expression, King David——both the man and the idea of the man——is brought brilliantly to life. From the Hardcover edition.
Lifeguarding
by Catherine MccallIn her sharply observed and ultimately redemptive memoir, Catherine McCall paints a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking portrait of growing up in a complicated Southern family, whose perfect façade hides crippling imperfections. There are two parents, three children, and five ghosts in the McCall family. With their preppie clothes and country-club smiles, the McCalls look like all the other East End Louisville families. No one knows there are problems, that an internal gash the size of the Ohio river is flooding the family. All Cathy and her siblings can do is promise to stick together no matter what—and swim. But even though they are fast, the McCall kids can’t outdistance their father’s destructive habits and their mother’s worry. As her family reaches a breaking point and an unexpected love blooms, thirteen-year-old Cathy finds she must keep secrets of her own. Though the love in this family is strong, Cathy must discover if it’s tenacious enough to withstand the truth. Candid, captivating, and infused with compassion,Lifeguardingaffirms the flexible strength of love itself; how family bonds must often bend to the point of breaking . . . and beyond. From the Hardcover edition.
Love, Greg & Lauren
by Greg ManningEarly on the morning of September 11, 2001, Lauren Manning-a wife, the mother of a ten-month-old son, and a senior vice president and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald-came to work, as always, at One World Trade Center. As she stepped into the lobby, a fireball exploded from the elevator shaft, and in that split second her life was changed forever. Lauren was burned over 82. 5 percent of her body. As he watched his wife lie in a drug-induced coma in the ICU of the Burn Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Greg Manning began writing a daily journal. In the form of e-mails to family, friends, and colleagues, he recorded Lauren’s harrowing struggle-and his own tormented efforts to make sense of an act that defies all understanding. This book is that e-mail diary: detailed, intimate, inspiring messages that end, always, as if a prayer for a happy outcome: LOVE, GREG & LAUREN We share this story day by astonishing day. Greg writes of the intricate surgeries, the painful therapies, and the constant risk of infection Lauren endured. Through his eyes we come to know the doctors, nurses, aides, and therapists who cared for her around the clock with untiring devotion and sensitivity. We also come to know the families with whom he shared wrenching hospital vigils for their own loved ones who were waging a battle that some would not win. It was, most of all, Greg’s belief that Lauren would win her brave fight for life that kept him writing. Through his eyes we see what she could not-their toddler’s first steps, the video of his first birthday party, the compassionate messages of hope from around the world. And we are there as Lauren gradually emerges into awareness, signaling first with her eyes, then with smiles, her understanding of the words Greg speaks to her, the poems he recites, the songs he plays. Most miraculously, we are there when Lauren walks out of the Burn Center. The world knows all too well both the nightmare and the heroism that have marked this terrible time in history. But no account of September 11 matches the astonishing personal story Greg Manning records in these spontaneous and heartfelt pages. It is a story that invites us to share, e-mail after e-mail, the perilous course of a mortally wounded woman who by sheer will and courage emerges from near death because she is determined to live for her husband and her son. And it is equally the story of a man who, as he stays by her side through these long weeks and months, discovers anew the depth of his love and admiration for the woman who becomes his hero.
Lunar Park (Vintage Contemporaries)
by Bret Easton EllisImagine becoming a best-selling novelist, and almost immediately famous and wealthy, while still in college, and before long seeing your insufferable father reduced to a bag of ashes in a safety-deposit box, while afterAmerican Psychoyour celebrity drowns in a sea of vilification, booze, and drugs. Then imagine having a second chance ten years later, as the Bret Easton Ellis of this remarkable novel is given, with a wife, children, and suburban sobriety—only to watch this new life shatter beyond recognition in a matter of days. At a fateful Halloween party he glimpses a disturbing (fictional) character driving a car identical to his late father’s, his stepdaughter’s doll violently “malfunctions,” and their house undergoes bizarre transformations both within and without. Connecting these aberrations to graver events—a series of grotesque murders that no longer seem random and the epidemic disappearance of boys his son’s age—Ellis struggles to defend his family against this escalating menace even as his wife, their therapists, and the police insist that his apprehensions are rooted instead in substance abuse and egomania. Lunar Parkconfounds one expectation after another, passing through comedy and mounting horror, both psychological and supernatural, toward an astonishing resolution—about love and loss, fathers and sons—in what is surely the most powerfully original and deeply moving novel of an extraordinary career.
The Making of a Writer
by Gail GodwinGail Godwin was twenty-four years old when she wrote: “I want to be everybody who is great; I want to create everything that has ever been created. ” It is a declaration that only a wildly ambitious young writer would make in the privacy of her journal. Now, inThe Making of a Writer, Godwin has distilled her early journals, which run from 1961 to 1963, to their brilliant and charming essence. She conveys the feverish period following the breakup of her first marriage; the fateful decision to move to Europe and the shock of her first encounters with Danish customs (and Danish men); the pleasures of soaking in the human drama on long rambles through the London streets and the torment of lonely Sundays spent wrestling these impressions into prose; and the determination to create despite rejection and a growing stack of debts. “I do not feel like a failure,” Godwin insists. “I will keep writing, harder than ever. ” Brimming with urgency and wit, Godwin’s inspiring tome opens a shining window into the life and craft of a great writer just coming into her own. “A generous gift from a much-loved author to her readers. ” –Chicago Sun-Times “Full of lively, entertaining observations on the literary life . . . [captures] the spirit of a young writer’s adventure into foreign lands and foreign realms of thought and creative endeavor. ” –The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “As cities and continents and men change, the entries are borne along by . . . the young Godwin’s fierce conviction that she is meant to write fiction and her desire to distract herself from this mission with any man who catches her eye. ” –The New York Times Book Review “[Godwin] describes a high-wire act of love and work. . . . She espouses fierce, uncompromising ideas about fiction. ” –Los Angeles Times “[Gail Godwin’s journals] are a gold mine. ” –The Boston Globe
Malraux: A Life
by Olivier ToddWriter, publisher, war hero, French government minister, André Malraux was renowned as a Renaissance man of the twentieth century. Now, Olivier Todd–author of the acclaimed biographyAlbert Camus–gives us this life, in which fact competes dramatically with his subject’s previously little-known mythomania. We see the adventurous young Malraux move from 1920s literary Paris to colonial Cambodia, Cochin China, and Spain in its civil war. Todd charts the thrilling exploits that would inspire such novels asMan’s Fate,but, just as fascinating, he also traces Malraux’s lifelong pattern of lies: claiming friendship with Mao, he was called to tutor Nixon, despite having met the Great Helmsman only once; a minor injury becomes in recollections a near-mortal battlefield wound; stories of heroism in the French Resistance omit to mention that Malraux joined up just a few weeks before the Allied landings. With meticulous research, Todd separates myth from reality to throw light on a brilliant con man who would become a national hero, but he also lets us see Malraux’s genuine achievements as both writer and man of action. His real life and the one he embroidered come together in this superb biography to reveal how Malraux, the protean genius, became his own greatest character. From the Hardcover edition.
My Life in France
by Julia Child Alex Prud'hommeNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Julia's story of her transformative years in France in her own words is "captivating ... her marvelously distinctive voice is present on every page.&” (San Francisco Chronicle). Although she would later singlehandedly create a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, Julia Child was not always a master chef. Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever with her newfound passion for cooking and teaching. Julia&’s unforgettable story—struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year long marriage that took the Childs across the globe—unfolds with the spirit so key to Julia&’s success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of America&’s most endearing personalities.
Osama
by Jonathan RandalHow is it possible for one middle-aged Saudi millionaire to threaten the world’s only superpower? This is the question at the center of Jonathan Randal’s riveting, timely account of Osama bin Laden’s role in the rise of terrorism in the Middle East. Randal–a journalist whose experience of the Middle East spans the past forty years–makes clear how Osama’s life epitomizes the fatal collision between twenty-first-century Islam and the West, and he describes the course of Osama’s estrangement from both the West and the Saudi petro-monarchy of which his family is a part. He examines Osama’s terrorist activities before September 11, 2001, and shows us how, after the attack on the World Trade Center, Osama presented the West with something new in the annals of contemporary terrorism: an independently wealthy entrepreneur with a seemingly worldwide following ready to do his bidding. Randal explores the possibility that Osama offered the Saudis his Al-Qaeda forces to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991; he traces the current sources of Osama’s money; and he tells us why the Iraq war has played into the hands of the terrorists. With his long-maintained sources in the Middle East and his intimate understanding of the region, Randal gives us a clearer explanation than any we have had of the whys and wherefores of the world’s most prominent and feared terrorist.
Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair
by Anthony ArthurFew American writers have revealed their private as well as their public selves so fully as Upton Sinclair, and virtually none over such a long lifetime (1878—1968). Sinclair’s writing, even at its most poignant or electrifying, blurred the line between politics and art–and, indeed, his life followed a similar arc. In Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair, Anthony Arthur weaves the strands of Sinclair’s contentious public career and his often-troubled private life into a compelling personal narrative. An unassuming teetotaler with a fiery streak, called a propagandist by some, the most conservative of revolutionaries by others, Sinclair was such a driving force of history that one could easily mistake his life story for historical fiction. He counted dozens of epochal figures as friends or confidants, including Mark Twain, Jack London, Henry Ford, Thomas Mann, H. G. Wells, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Camus, and Carl Jung. Starting with The Jungle in 1906, Sinclair’s fiction and nonfiction helped to inform and mold American opinions about socialism, labor and industry, religion and philosophy, the excesses of the media, American political isolation and pacifism, civil liberties, and mental and physical health. In his later years, Sinclair twice reinvented himself, first as the Democratic candidate for governor of California in 1934, and later, in his sixties and seventies, as a historical novelist. In 1943 he won a Pulitzer Prize for Dragon’s Teeth, one of eleven novels featuring super-spy Lanny Budd. Outside the literary realm, the ever-restless Sinclair was seemingly everywhere: forming Utopian artists’ colonies, funding and producing Sergei Eisenstein’s film documentaries, and waging consciousness-raising political campaigns. Even when he wasn’t involved in progressive causes or counterculture movements, his name often was invoked by them–an arrangement that frequently embroiled Sinclair in controversy. Sinclair’s passion and optimistic zeal inspired America, but privately he could be a frustrated, petty man who connected better with his readers than with members of his own family. His life with his first wife, Meta, his son David, and various friends and professional acquaintances was a web of conflict and strain. Personally and professionally ambitious, Sinclair engaged in financial speculation, although his wealth-generating schemes often benefited his pet causes–and he lobbied as tirelessly for professional recognition and awards as he did for government reform. As the tenor of his work would suggest, Sinclair was supremely human. In Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair, Anthony Arthur offers an engrossing and enlightening account of Sinclair’s life and the country he helped to transform. Taking readers from the Reconstruction South to the rise of American power to the pinnacle of Hollywood culture to the Civil Rights era, this is historical biography at its entertaining and thought-provoking finest. Praise "Lively, unsparing look at the turn-of-the-century muckraker, social critic and novelist who changed the way America did business. . . . Arthur organizes his biography into chapters reflecting Sinclair's various crusading "selves"—e. g. , The Warrior, The Pilgrim of Love, etc. —and uses a deft, light touch. . . An immensely readable biography. "– Kirkus Reviews “. . excellent new biography. ”– USA Today “…a model of good biography. ” –Los Angeles Magazine “Absorbing. ” –The Wall Street Journal "intimate and intellectually astute. &quo
Remember Me to Harlem
by Emily BernardLangston Hughes is widely remembered as a celebrated star of the Harlem Renaissance -- a writer whose bluesy, lyrical poems and novels still have broad appeal. What's less well known about Hughes is that for much of his life he maintained a friendship with Carl Van Vechten, a flamboyant white critic, writer, and photographer whose ardent support of black artists was peerless. Despite their differences — Van Vechten was forty-four to Hughes twenty-two when they met–Hughes’ and Van Vechten’s shared interest in black culture lead to a deeply-felt, if unconventional friendship that would span some forty years. Between them they knew everyone — from Zora Neale Hurston to Richard Wright, and their letters, lovingly and expertly collected here for the first time, are filled with gossip about the antics of the great and the forgotten, as well as with talk that ranged from race relations to blues lyrics to the nightspots of Harlem, which they both loved to prowl. It’s a correspondence that, as Emily Bernard notes in her introduction, provides “an unusual record of entertainment, politics, and culture as seen through the eyes of two fascinating and irreverent men.
Stuart A Life Backwards: A Life Backwards (Perennial Non-fiction Promotion Ser.)
by Alexander MastersA major new launch for the paperback edition of the most original, capitvating and award-winning memoir of the year. Stuart, A Life Backwards, is the story of a remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer and illustrator ('a middle class scum ponce, if you want to be honest about it, Alexander) and a chaotic, knife-wielding beggar whom he gets to know during a campaign to release two charity workers from prison. Interwoven into this is Stuart's confession: the story of his life, told backwards. With humour, compassion (and exasperation) Masters slowly works back through post-office heists, prison riots and the exact day Stuart discovered violence, to unfold the reasons why he changed from a happy-go-lucky little boy into a polydrug-addicted-alcoholic Jekyll and Hyde personality, with a fondness for what he called 'little strips of silver' (knives to you and me). Funny, despairing, brilliantly written and full of surprises: this is the most original and moving biography of recent years.
J.M.W. Turner
by Peter AckroydAlso available in ACKROYD’S BRIEF LIVES ChaucerIn this second volume in the Ackroyd’s Brief Lives series, bestselling author Peter Ackroyd brings us a man of humble beginnings, crude manners, and prodigious talents, the nineteenth-century painter J. M. W. Turner. Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in London in 1775. His father was a barber, and his mother came from a family of London butchers. “His speech was recognizably that of a Cockney, and his language was the language of the streets. ” As his finest paintings show, his language was also the language of light. Turner’s landscapes—extraordinary studies in light, colour, and texture—caused an uproar during his lifetime and earned him a place as one of the greatest artists in history. Displaying his artistic abilities as a young child, Turner entered the Royal Academy of Arts when he was just fourteen years old. A year later his paintings appeared in an important public exhibition, and he rapidly achieved prominence, becoming a Royal Academician in 1802 and Professor of Perspective at the Academy from 1807–1837. His private life, however, was less orderly. Never married, he spent much time living in taverns, where he was well known for his truculence and his stinginess with money. Peter Ackroyd deftly follows Turner’s first loves of architecture, engraving, and watercolours, and the country houses, cathedrals, and landscapes of England. While his passion for Italy led him to oil painting, Turner’s love for London remained central to his heart and soul, and it was within sight of his beloved Thames that he died in 1851. His dying words were: “The sun is God. ”
Lincoln
by Richard CarwardineCarwardine (American history, Oxford U. ) received the Lincoln Award--the first British scholar to do so--for this biography, originally published in 2003 by Pearson/Longman. Half of it addresses Lincoln's (1809-65) career and the roots of his political ambition before he became president of the US. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
Pride of Family
by Carole IoneRemarkable&Engrossing&Ione had made an important contribution to both the literature of race and the literature of women in America. Susan Wood, Washington Post Book World
A Venetian Affair
by Andrea Di RobilantIn the waning days of Venice’s glory in the mid-1700s, Andrea Memmo was scion to one the city’s oldest patrician families. At the age of twenty-four he fell passionately in love with sixteen-year-old Giustiniana Wynne, the beautiful, illegitimate daughter of a Venetian mother and British father. Because of their dramatically different positions in society, they could not marry. And Giustiniana’s mother, afraid that an affair would ruin her daughter’s chances to form a more suitable union, forbade them to see each other. Her prohibition only fueled their desire and so began their torrid, secret seven-year-affair, enlisting the aid of a few intimates and servants (willing to risk their own positions) to shuttle love letters back and forth and to help facilitate their clandestine meetings. Eventually, Giustiniana found herself pregnant and she turned for help to the infamous Casanova–himself infatuated with her. Two and half centuries later, the unbelievable story of this star-crossed couple is told in a breathtaking narrative, re-created in part from the passionate, clandestine letters Andrea and Giustiniana wrote to each other.
With the Kisses of His Mouth
by Monique RoffeyMonique Roffey had found her soulmate. But then the love affair she had always longed for came to a sudden and heartbreaking end. Devastated, Monique felt that she could never love again. But as time went on, she began to ask questions. Does ruling out love have to mean ruling out sex? Can you have great sex without love? And, conversely, can a great love survive without sex? This is an eye-opening, inspiring story of one woman's quest to heal a broken heart and to find her own answers to some powerful and resonant questions. It takes her from the personal ads to a libertine's resort in the south of France to tantra workshops and beyond -- until she finds that she might just be able to love again, after all. . .
Unmasked
by Ian HalperinIn late December 2008, Ian Halperin told the world that Michael Jackson had only six months to live. His investigations into Jackson's failing health made headlines around the globe. Six months later, the King of Pop was dead. Whatever the final autopsy results reveal, it was greed that killed Michael Jackson. Friends and associates paint a tragic picture of the last years and days of his life as Jackson made desperate attempts to prepare for the planned concert series at London's 02 Arena in July 2009. These shows would have earned millions for the singer and his entourage, but he could never have completed them, not mentally, and not physically. Michael knew it and his advisors knew it. Anyone who caught even a fleeting glimpse of the frail old man hiding beneath the costumes and cosmetics would have understood that the London tour was madness. Why did it happen this way? After an intense five year investigation, New York Times bestselling author Ian Halperin uncovers the real story of Michael Jackson's final years, a suspenseful and surprising thriller.
I Hate Your Guts
by Jim NortonWhen New York Times bestselling author and comedian Jim Norton isn't paying for massages with happy endings, or pretending to be fooled by transsexuals he picks up, he spends his time wondering what certain people would look like on fire... What do Heather Mills, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and Dr. Phil have in common? Jim Norton hates their guts. And he probably hates yours, too, especially if you're a New York Yankee, Starbucks employee, or Steve Martin. In thirty-five hilarious essays, New York Times bestselling author and comedian Jim Norton spews bile on the people he loathes. Enjoy his blistering attacks on Derek Jeter, Hillary Clinton, fatso Al Roker, and mush-mouthed Jesse Jackson. It's utterly hilarious -- and utterly relatable if you've ever bitten a stranger's face or thrown a bottle through the TV screen while watching the news. But don't think Jim just dishes loads of shit on his self-proclaimed enemies; he is equally atrocious to himself. He savages himself for his humiliating days as a white homeboy, his balletlike spins in the outfield during a little league game, and his embarrassingly botched attempt at a celebrity shout-out while taping his new HBO stand-up series. Uncomfortably honest, I Hate Your Guts is probably the best example of emotional vomiting you'll ever read. But there is hope; at the end of each essay, Jim generously offers helpful suggestions as to how the offender can make things right again: Eliot Spitzer: If you run for re-election, instead of shaking hands with voters, let them smell your fingers. Reverend Al Sharpton: The next time you feel the need to protest, do so dressed as an elk in Ted Nugent's backyard. Hillary Clinton: When you absolutely must make a point of laughing publicly, don't fake it. Just think of something that genuinely makes you laugh, like lowering taxes or any random male having his penis cut off. For the legions of devoted fans who know Jim Norton for his raw, sometimes brutal comedy, I Hate Your Guts is what you've been waiting for. But even more important -- it's a great book to read while taking a shit.
Raisin Wine
by James BartlemanA Shakespearian tragedy in the heart of the Derbyshire moors: a young woman whose face doesn't fit; a child left without a mother; a love that lasts long after death.
الفوائد
by ابن القيمأساس كل خير أن تعلم أن ما شاء الله كان وما لم يشأ لم يكن، فتتيقن حينئذ أن الحسنات من نعمه فتشكره عليها. وتتضرع إليه ألا يقطعان عنك، وأن السيئات من خذلانه وعقوبته، فنبتهل إليه أن يحول بينك وبينها، ولا يكلك في فعل الحسنات وترك السيئات إلى نفسك. وقد أجمع العارفون على أن كل خير فأصله بتوفيق الله للعبد. وكل شر فأصله خذلانه لعبده. وأجمعوا أن التوفيق ألا يكلك الله نفسك وأن الخذلان هو أن يخلي بينك وبين نفسك. فإذا كان كل خير فأصله التوفيق وهو بيد العبد فمفتاحه الدعاء والافتقار وصدق اللجئ والرغبة والرهبة إليه، فمتى أعطي العبد هذا المفتاح فقد أراد أن يفتح له، ومتى أضله عن المفتاح بقي باب الخير مُرْتَجًا دونه. قال أمير المؤمنين عمر بن الخطاب: إني لا أحمل هم الإجابة ولكن هم الدعاء فإن الإجابة معه. وعلى قدر نية العبد وهمته ومراده ورغبته في ذلك يكون توفيقه سبحانه وإعانته، فالمعونة من الله تنزل على العباد على قدرهم وثباتهم ورغبتهم ورهبتهم، والخذلان ينزل عليهم على حسب ذلك، فالله سبحانه أحكم الحاكمين وأعلم العالمين، يضع التوفيق في مواضعه اللائقة به والخذلان في مواضعه اللائقة به، وهو العليم الحكيم. وما أتي من أتي إلا من قِبَل إضاعة الشكر وإهمال الافتقار والدعاء، ولا ظفر من ظفر بمشيئة الله وعونه إلا بقيامه بالشكر وصدق الافتقار والدعاء. وملاك ذلك الصبر فإنه من الإيمان بمنزله الرأس من الجسد، فإذا قطع الرأس فلا بقاء لجسد. ما ضرب عبد بعقوبة أعظم من قسوة القلب والبعد عن الله. خلقت النار لإذابة القلوب القاسية. أبعد القلوب من الله القلب القاسي. إذا قسا القلب قحطت العين. قسوة القلب من أربعة أشياء إذا جاوزت قدر الحاجة: الأكل والنوم والكلام والمخاطبة. كما أن البدن إذا مرض لم ينفع فيه الطعام والشراب. فكذلك القلب إذا مرض بالشهوات لم تنجح فيه المواعظ. من أراد صفاء قلبه فليؤثر الله على شهوته. القلوب المتعلقة بالشهوات محجوبة عن الله بقدر تعلقها بها. القلوب آنية الله في أرضه، فأحبها إليه أرقها وأصلبها وأصفاها. شغلوا قلوبهم بالدنيا، ولو شغلوها بالله والدار الآخرة لجالت في معاني كلامه وآياته المشهودة ورجعت إلى أصحابها بغرائب الحكم وظرف الفوائد. إذا غذي القلب بالتذكر وسقي بالتفكر ونقي من الدغل، رأى العجائب وألهم الحكمة. ليس كل من تحلى بالمعرفة والحكمة وانتحلها كان من أهلها، بل أهل المعرفة والحكمة الذين أحيوا قلوبهم بقتل الهوى. وأما من قتل قلبه فأحيا الهوى، فالمعرفة والحكمة عارية على لسانه. خراب القلب من الأمن والغفلة، وعمارته من الخشية والذكر. إذا زهدت القلوب في موائد الدنيا قعدت على موائد الآخرة بين أهل تلك الدعوة، وإذا رضيت بموائد الدنيا فاتتها تلك الموائد. الشوق إلى الله ولقائه نسيم يهب على القلب يروح عنه وهج الدنيا. من وطن قلبه عند ربه سكن واستراح، ومن أرسله في الناس اضطرب واشتد به القلق. لا تدخل محبة الله في قلب فيه حب الدنيا إلا كما يدخل الجمل في سم الإبرة. إذا أحب الله عبدا اصطنعه لنفسه واجتباه لمحبته واستخلصه لعبادته فشغل همته بخدمته.
الرسالة
by الإمام الشافعيقال الشافعي: فقال لي قائل: ما العِلْمُ؟ وما يَجِبُ على الناس في العلم؟ فقلت له: العلم عِلْمان: علمُ عامَّةٍ، لا يَسَعُ بالِغاً غيرَ مغلوب على عقْلِه جَهْلُهُ. قال: ومِثْل ماذا؟ قلت: مثلُ الصَّلَوَاتِ الخمس، وأن لله على الناس صومَ شهْر رمضانَ، وحجَّ البيت إذا استطاعوه، وزكاةً في أموالهم، وأنه حرَّمَ عليهم الزِّنا والقتْل والسَّرِقة والخمْر، وما كان في معنى هذا، مِمَّا كُلِّفَ العِبادُ أنْ يَعْقِلوه ويعْملوه ويُعْطُوه مِن أنفسهم وأموالهم، وأن يَكُفُّوا عنه ما حرَّمَ عليهم منه. وهذا الصِّنْف كلُّه مِن العلم موجود نَصًّا في كتاب الله، وموْجوداً عامًّا عنْد أهلِ الإسلام، ينقله عَوَامُّهم عن مَن مضى من عوامِّهم، يَحْكونه عن رسول الله، ولا يتنازعون في حكايته ولا وجوبه عليهم. وهذا العلم العام الذي لا يمكن فيه الغلط مِن الخبر، ولا التأويلُ، ولا يجوز فيه التنازعُ. قال: فما الوجه الثاني؟ قلت له: ما يَنُوبُ العِباد مِن فُروع الفرائض، وما يُخَصُّ به مِن الأحكام وغيرها، مما ليس فيه نصُّ كتاب، ولا في أكثره نصُّ سنَّة، وإن كانت في شيء منه سنةٌ فإنما هي مِن أخْبار الخاصَّة، لا أخبارِ العامَّة، وما كان منه يحتمل التأويل ويُسْتَدْرَكُ قِياسًا. قال: فيَعْدُو هذا أن يكون واجِبًا وجوبَ العلم قبله؟ أوْ مَوْضوعاً عن الناس عِلْمُه، حتَّى يكونَ مَنْ عَلِمَهُ مُنْتَفِلاً، ومَنْ تَرَكَ علْمَه غيرَ آثِمٍ بِتركه، أو مِنْ وَجْهٍ ثالثٍ، فتُوجِدُنَاهُ خَبَرًا أو قياسا؟ فقلت له: بلْ هو مِن وجه ثالثٍ. قال: فصِفْهُ واذْكر الحجَّةَ فيه، ما يَلْزَمُ منه، ومَنْ يَلْزَمُ، وعنْ مَنْ يَسْقُطُ؟ فقلت له: هذه درجةٌ مِن العلم ليس تَبْلُغُها العامَّةُ، ولم يُكَلَّفْهَا كلُّ الخاصَّة، ومَن احتمل بلوغَها مِن الخاصة فلا يَسَعُهُمْ كلَّهم كافةً أنْ يُعَطِّلُوهَا، وإذا قام بها مِن خاصَّتِهم مَنْ فيه الكفايةُ لم يَحْرَجْ غيرُه ممن تَرَكَها، إن شاء الله، والفضْل فيها لمن قام بها على مَنْ عَطَّلَهَا. فقال: فأوْجِدْنِي هذا خبراً أو شيئاً في معناه، ليكون هذا قياساً عليه؟ فقلتُ له: فَرَضَ اللهُ الجِهادَ في كتابه وعلى لسانِ نبِّيه، ثم أكَّدَ النَّفِير مِن الجهاد، فقال: }إِنَّ اللَّهَ اشْتَرَى مِنْ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ أَنفُسَهُمْ وَأَمْوَالَهُمْ بِأَنَّ لَهُمْ الْجَنَّةَ يُقَاتِلُونَ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ فَيَقْتُلُونَ وَيُقْتَلُونَ وَعْدًا عَلَيْهِ حَقًّا فِي التَّوْرَاةِ وَالْإِنجِيلِ وَالقُرَآن، وَمَنْ أَوْفَى بِعَهْدِهِ مِنْ اللَّهِ فَاسْتَبْشِرُوا بِبَيْعِكُمْ الَّذِي بَايَعْتُمْ بِهِ، وَذَلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْعَظِيمُ{ التوبة:111
العبرات
by مصطفي لطفي المنفلوطيما أكثر أيام الحياة وما أقلّها! لم أعش من تلك الأعوام الطوال التي عشتها في هذا العالم إلا عامًا واحدًا مرّ بي كما يمر النجم الدهريُّ في سماء الدنيا ليلة واحدة، ثم لا يراه الناس بعد ذلك. قضيت الشطر الأوّل من حياتي أفتش عن صديق ينظر إلى أصدقائه بعين غير العين التي ينظر بها التاجر إلى سلعته، والزارع إلى ماشيته، فأعوزني ذلك حتى عرفت فلانًا منذ ثماني عشرة عامًا، فعرفت امرءًا، ما شئت أن أرى خلة من خلال الخير والمعروف في ثياب رجل إلا وجدتها فيه، ولا تخيلت صورة من صور الكمال الإنساني في وجه إنسان إلا أضاءت لي في وجهه، فجلَّت مكانته عندي، ونزل من نفسي منزلة لم ينزلها أحد من قبله، وصفت كأس الود بيني وبينه لا يكدرها علينا مكدر. حتى عرض لي من حوادث الدهر ما أزعجني من مستقري، فهجرت القاهرة إلى مسقط رأسي غير آسف على شيء فيها إلا على فراق ذلك الصديق الكريم، فتراسلنا حقبة من الزمن، ثم فترت عني كتبه ثم انقطعت، فحزنت لذلك حزنًا شديدًا، وذهبت بي الظنونَ في شأنه كل مذهب، إلا أن أرتاب في صدقه ووفائه، وكنت كلما هممت بالمصير إليه لتعرّف حاله قعد بي عن ذلك همٌّ كان يقعدني عن كل شأن حتى شأن نفسي، فلم أعد إلى القاهرة إلا بعد عدة أعوام فكان أول همي يوم هبطت أرضها أن أراه، فذهبت إلى منزله في الساعة الأولى من الليل فرأيت ما لا تزال حسرته متصلة بقلبي حتى اليوم. تركت هذا المنزل فردوسًا صغيرًا من فراديس الجنان تراءى فيه السعادة في ألوانها المختلفة، وتترقرق وجوه ساكنيه بشرًا وسرورًا، ثم زرته اليوم فخيِّل إلى أنني أمام مقبرة موحشة ساكنة لا يهتف فيها صوت ولا يتراءى في جوانبها شبحٌ، ولا يلمع في أرجائها مصباح، فظننت أني أخطأت المنزل الذي أريده، أو أنني بين يدي منزل مهجور حتى سمعت بكاء طفل صغير، ولمحت في بعض النوافذ نورًا ضعيفًا، فمشيت إلى الباب فطرقته، فلم يجبني أحد فطرقته أخرى فلمحت من خصاصه نورًا مقبلاً ثم لم يلبث أن انفرج لي عن وجه غلام صغير في أسمال بالية، يحمل في يده مصباحًا ضئيلاً فتأملته على ضوء المصباح، فرأيت في وجهه صورة أبيه، فعرفت أنه ذلك الطفل الجميل المدلل الذي كان بالأمس زهرة هذا المنزل وبدر سمائه، فسألته عن أبيه فأشار إليَّ بالدخول ومشى أمامي بمصباحه حتى وصل بي إلى قاعة شعثاء مغبرة، بالية المقاعد والأستار، ولولا نقوش لاحت لي في بعض جدرانها كباقي الوشم في ظاهر اليد ما عرفت أنها القاعة التي قضينا فيها ليالي السعادة والهناء اثني عشر هلالاً، ثم جرى بيني وبين الغلام حديث قصير عرف فيه من أنا، وعرفت أن أباه لم يعد إلى المنزل حتى الساعة، وأنه عائد عما قليل.. ثم تركني ومضى وما لبث إلا قليلاً حتى عاد يقول لي: إن والدته تريد أن تحدثني حديثًا يتعلق بأبيه، فخفق قلبي خفقة الرعب والخوف، وأحسست بشر لا أعرف مأتاه ثم التفتُّ فإذا امرأة ملتفة برداء أسودَ واقفة على عتبة الباب فحيتني فحييتها، ثم قالت لي: هل علمت ما صنع الدهر بفلان من بعدك؟ قلت: لا، فهذا أول يوم هبطت فيه هذا البلد بعد ما فارقته سبعة أعوام، قالت: ليتك لم تفارقه، فقد كنت عصمته التي يعتصم بها وحماه من غوائل الدهر وشروده، فما هي إلا أن فارقته حتى أحاطت به زمرةٌ من أمر الشيطان، وكان فتى كما تعلمه غريرًا ساذجًا، فما زالت تغريه بالشر وتزين له منه ما يزين الشيطان للإنسان حتى سقط فيه، فسقطنا جميعًا في هذا الشقاء الذي تراه، قلت: وأي شر تريدين يا سيدتي؟
الموطأ
by ألأمام مالك بن أنس الأصبحيحَدَّثَنِي يَحْيَى، عَنْ مَالِكٍ، عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ أَبِي بَكْرِ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عَمْرِو بْنِ حَزْمٍ، أَنَّهُ سَمِعَ عُرْوَةَ بْنَ الزُّبَيْرِ، يَقُولُ دَخَلْتُ عَلَى مَرْوَانَ بْنِ الْحَكَمِ فَتَذَاكَرْنَا مَا يَكُونُ مِنْهُ الْوُضُوءُ فَقَالَ مَرْوَانُ وَمِنْ مَسِّ الذَّكَرِ الْوُضُوءُ . فَقَالَ عُرْوَةُ مَا عَلِمْتُ هَذَا . فَقَالَ مَرْوَانُ بْنُ الْحَكَمِ أَخْبَرَتْنِي بُسْرَةُ بِنْتُ صَفْوَانَ أَنَّهَا سَمِعَتْ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَقُولُ " إِذَا مَسَّ أَحَدُكُمْ ذَكَرَهُ فَلْيَتَوَضَّأْ " . وَحَدَّثَنِي عَنْ مَالِكٍ، عَنْ إِسْمَاعِيلَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ سَعْدِ بْنِ أَبِي وَقَّاصٍ، عَنْ مُصْعَبِ بْنِ سَعْدِ بْنِ أَبِي وَقَّاصٍ، أَنَّهُ قَالَ كُنْتُ أُمْسِكُ الْمُصْحَفَ عَلَى سَعْدِ بْنِ أَبِي وَقَّاصٍ فَاحْتَكَكْتُ فَقَالَ سَعْدٌ لَعَلَّكَ مَسِسْتَ ذَكَرَكَ قَالَ فَقُلْتُ نَعَمْ . فَقَالَ قُمْ فَتَوَضَّأْ فَقُمْتُ فَتَوَضَّأْتُ ثُمَّ رَجَعْتُ . وَحَدَّثَنِي عَنْ مَالِكٍ، عَنْ نَافِعٍ، أَنَّ عَبْدَ اللَّهِ بْنَ عُمَرَ، كَانَ يَقُولُ إِذَا مَسَّ أَحَدُكُمْ ذَكَرَهُ فَقَدْ وَجَبَ عَلَيْهِ الْوُضُوءُ . وَحَدَّثَنِي عَنْ مَالِكٍ، عَنْ هِشَامِ بْنِ عُرْوَةَ، عَنْ أَبِيهِ، أَنَّهُ كَانَ يَقُولُ مَنْ مَسَّ ذَكَرَهُ فَقَدْ وَجَبَ عَلَيْهِ الْوُضُوءُ . وَحَدَّثَنِي عَنْ مَالِكٍ، عَنِ ابْنِ شِهَابٍ، عَنْ سَالِمِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، أَنَّهُ قَالَ رَأَيْتُ أَبِي عَبْدَ اللَّهِ بْنَ عُمَرَ يَغْتَسِلُ ثُمَّ يَتَوَضَّأُ فَقُلْتُ لَهُ يَا أَبَتِ أَمَا يَجْزِيكَ الْغُسْلُ مِنَ الْوُضُوءِ قَالَ بَلَى وَلَكِنِّي أَحْيَانًا أَمَسُّ ذَكَرِي فَأَتَوَضَّأُ . وَحَدَّثَنِي عَنْ مَالِكٍ، عَنْ نَافِعٍ، عَنْ سَالِمِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ، أَنَّهُ قَالَ كُنْتُ مَعَ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عُمَرَ فِي سَفَرٍ فَرَأَيْتُهُ بَعْدَ أَنْ طَلَعَتِ الشَّمْسُ تَوَضَّأَ ثُمَّ صَلَّى قَالَ فَقُلْتُ لَهُ إِنَّ هَذِهِ لَصَلاَةٌ مَا كُنْتَ تُصَلِّيهَا . قَالَ إِنِّي بَعْدَ أَنْ تَوَضَّأْتُ لِصَلاَةِ الصُّبْحِ مَسِسْتُ فَرْجِي ثُمَّ نَسِيتُ أَنْ أَتَوَضَّأَ فَتَوَضَّأْتُ وَعُدْتُ لِصَلاَتِي .