Al-Qur’an is guidance of Muslims and a masterpiece comprising of arts. In a talkshow of Al-Qur’an Festival of Muhammadiyah/Aisyiyah-affiliated universities at Sportorium of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) on Thursday (9/8), a novelist of Ayat-Ayat Cinta, Habiburrahman El Shirazy, stated that in the era of Prophet Muhammad literatures were revered.

Habiburrahman, aka Kang Abik, told how Prophet Muhammad appreciated artists. When Prophet Muhammad attempt to convert Quraisy people to Islam, some of them accepted it but others rejected.

“Quraisy people refusing Islam asked great poets to write poems insulting Islam, Prophet Muhammad, and Islamic teaching. Prophet Muhammad required Muslim poets to resist the poems. Finally, the Quraisy poets admitted the marvel of Muslim poets,” Kang Abik said.

In fact, a lot of famed scientists were amazing poets, for instance, Imam Syafi’i and Ibnu Hajar. “Ibnu Hajar is a writer interpreting Shohih Bukhori. I thought he is only a muslim scholar interpreting hadist. Indeed, he is a great writer,” Kang Abik mentioned.

In the talkshow, Kang Abik explained the difference between adib and alim. Adib refers to a writer while alim is a scientist. “An adib is in one step forward than an alim. A writer can express ideas through writing, whereas a scientist cannot do it,” he argued.

Even though being an abid possesses one more point than n alim, it will be better to become a scientist and a writer. Kang Abik contended that being a scientist as well as a writer is superb since he can deliver ideas with great language style.