Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)

[naqshbandijamaati]

:s1:

Who is going to read the last HP book? BTW did you know that so far the HP books have sold over 390 million copies worldwide?!

I think Harry will die in the process of killing Voldemort.

[abu Hasan]

avada kedavra?

i wonder how big the book will be. anything less than 700 pages could not possibly close the umpteen sub-plots. it has been a good read though not really very original. but certainly, the books in the series are well-written.

it remains to be seen if it ends with a bang or a whimper.

[naqshbandijamaati]

i believe amazon lists it as 680 pages or something.
apparently rowling will kill off two main characters. i believe them to be harry and possibly draco.

[abu Hasan]

just completing the book - the leaked version that is. if you didn't know, someone got the book in advance shipped by mistake. and they took the trouble of photographing every page!

759 pages in all.

and another gang typed out the photographed book in a pdf.

---
there are theories that it might be a marketing ploy, and it is not the real book, but in geek circles a majority considers the leak to be genuine. even nyt reviewer thought so. tonight we will see.

---
i won't spoil the plot for any of you [nor draw attention of rowling's attorney to our site; they are sending cease-and-desist to even bloggers! who wants to lose time on a silly book?]

if this is the original - and not a ploy - then it is very disappointing. jk has plagiarized from others before, but this time (assuming the book is original) she has not spared fan-fiction either.

the title should be: 'hermione granger and her friend with bad temper: harry potter'. because unfortunately, jk's wand was pointed at potter when she uttered the [fourth] unforgivable curse: 'irascibilis perpetualis.' there is no known cure for this even at mungo's; an old newspaper clipping mentioned that dumbledore was doing research on a cure but with him dead, harry is on his own.

or '101 sure ways to be a lousy hero'

or 'can you win with a bad temper?'

----
harry might be talented, but on his own he would long be destroyed by even the recruit death-eaters if not for his numerous friends who stick with him in spite of his arrogance.

think twenty sancho panzas and a don quixote. more comments after the book is released.

---
init review: (on the leaked book) cheesy subplots. sometimes you can see through them easily. but to her credit, jk keeps the story moving and holding you to the book - that, i believe is her best talent.

[abu Hasan]

curiously, replace mudbloods and halfbloods in the book with muslims and jk seems to have lifted from the newspapers.

let 22nd come in.

[abu Hasan]

oh, by the way, harry is the stupidest lead character i have seen. okay, the stupidest i can recall at the moment. and it is his foolishness that keeps the story going.

that is if this leaked novel is the real one.

update: reports say that it *IS* the real one.

[naqshbandijamaati]

hmm...please stop! no spoilers!

My legit copy of HP and the Deathly Hallows arrived an hour or so ago from Amazon. I am currently on page 123...

Took a break to check my email and sunniport.

Will write back later.

:-)

Expelliarmus!

[Chishti Nizami]

Assalaam Alaikum

You guys actually read this childish trash?

edited by noori: vulgarity not allowed, even with asterisks (*)

[naqshbandijamaati]

the british version is 607 pages but that could be due to different font sizes, page sizes and typefaces to the (allegedly leaked) US version. So far, it is riveting stuff but I get the feeling poor old JRR is going to get ripped off big time!
I hope I'm wrong.

Sidi Ahle Sunnah, there is nothing wrong, trashy or unislamic about HP.

[abu Hasan]

there is nothing wrong, trashy or unislamic about HP. plenty of things unislamic about hp but not anti-islamic though. there is a big difference.

[Noori]

I think, correct me if i am wrong, reading HP for fun is waste of time, but there can be other reasons. don't you know that ulama allowed reading amorous peotry with the intention of learning language in order to understand subtleties in Quran, haidth, and other classical islamic works?

[naqshbandijamaati]

**possible spoiler warning (don't read further if you haven't yet read the book and plan to do so)****.

so, i finally finished it in the not so early hours of this morning. It is certainly riveting although the major 'surprises' were quite predictable. The underside of Dumbledore WAS a surprise as was the sudden introduction of the quest for a holy grail but the whole Snape thing was well done but not really surprising. Nor was Harry's sacrificing himself --(I sort of expected that to happen) although what happens afterwards was, I felt, a bit of a let down. You could almost call it a damp Squib. ;-)Still, overall it was a good ending to a very good series. Love conquers all and that; on the downside I felt JK borrowed TOO much from Tolkien in the final book.

3.5/5

[naqshbandijamaati]

:s1:

Sidi Noori,
Why does everything have to be done for a religious reason? Reading fiction is mubah so why call it a 'waste of time'? Is having fun a waste of time?

This attitude of yours almost reminds me of the following stereotype about Islam (which I'm sure is made up but I am writing it to illustrate a mode of narrow-minded thinking: We only need to read the Koran because if a book agrees with the Koran then it is superfluous and there's no point reading it; and if it goes against the Qur'an then it not worth reading anyway.)

[abu Hasan]

the beauty of a man's islam is that he forsakes that which concerns him not. in our master's words sallallahu alayhi wa sallam: maa laa ya`anih. which can also be translated as 'that which is vain' including pointless amusement. inshaAllah i will try to write more on this beautiful hadith as a kaffarah for wasting time with hp.

i have read the hp books; i too i think that it is also a waste of time. i also felt sorry during and after reading the book, for wasting precious time - which could be spent in reading hadith or in something beneficial.

---
our sufi masters put actions in a few categories:
1. actions which are purely for the akhirah like prayer and Hajj;

2. actions which are [outwardly] for dunya but the underlying purpose is for the akhirah - like earning a halal income, the food we eat and the houses we live when the intention is to live as good muslims and these benefits to aid in our being good muslims;

[3a/3b]actions which are purely for dunya which are further two kinds:
3. halal/mubah:like enjoying tasty food just for the sake of it or making a lot of money by Halal means without noble intentions.

4. makruh or haram: like hankering after power, glory, wealth or indulging in pursuits and pleasures not permitted by the shariah.

5. and actions which appear [outwardly] for the akhirah but their [underlying] purpose is to gain dunya: like learning how to recite the qur'an well, or becoming an islamic scholar for the sake of fame and glory.
the first two are praiseworthy; the third is tolerable and the last two are deplorable.

Allah ta'ala knows best.

---
if you look only from the perspective of individual freedom, it looks 'narrow minded'. a muslim is not free in this world; and he is expected to work hard; not to relax.

as our master sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam said: 'laa `aysha illa `aysh al-akhirah' / there is no luxury, except the luxury in the hereafter.

---
imam dawud at-Ta'i said it beautifully: keep fasting in this world and break your fast in the hereafter; and flee from people as you would fly from a lion.

----
in this context, we should recognize our weakness to succumb to pleasures and regret our inability to rise above self-indulgence, rather than justify such actions.

guidance is from Allah.

[Abu Fadl]

mm a little shocked or should i say amused to see this. nothing personal but you remind me of 9 year old kids talking about harry potter like this. quite funny.

[abu Hasan]

but you remind me of 9 year old kids talking about harry potter apart from the excellent point made by noori of wasting time, reading hp doesn't seem to be a very bad thing.

i think reading books improves one's expression and style. certainly, hp is nowhere near classics like 'alice in wonderland' or 'through the looking glass' which is clean fun for kids. and for adults, a good book to hone their logic. [actually, it works backwards: how to identify and avoid fallacies and thus build a robust argument. i strongly recommend our brothers at yanaabi to read these books from lewis carroll.]

hp is touted as a children's book but has elements borrowed from occult practices around the world and across time. jk is a clever writer and obviously well-read. she uses well-known plotlines [narnia, starwars, youngsherlockholmes, lotr etc.] and uses the elements she has collected along with magic lore.

---
nj thinks that the ending of hp7 was like tolkien; but i say lewis. the ending was straight out of narnia: the slaying of aslan by the witch. the old man giving each of them gifts [sword, phial etc] which they will put to use later. and snape is edmund.

and yes, cslewis' tales of narnia are christian allegory.

[naqshbandijamaati]

good points aH. reading does improve one's intellect and general knowledge.
not the ending per se but many details along the way were from tolkien: the most blatant being how the locket effected its wearer (frodo and the ring); how harry could look into voldemort's mind (ditto); dobby saving their lives (gollum saves the day); what i thought was borrowed from narnia was the idea of all the different races joining the fight; dumbledore was a cross between aslan and gandalf... [btw the turkish word for lion is arslan -- is this where lewis got his name from?]
harry also ends as, predictably, a Christ-like figure, giving his life willingly to defeat the Dark Lord (er I meant Voldemort not Sauron!) although JK denies any Christian allegory vehemently.

I think someone could (will) write a very interesting PhD thesis on the various mythologies, folklore and other fantasy writers work which JKR used as source material for the HP series.

BTW did you notice that Ron turned his house-elf or a gnome or something into a ghoul which is a creature out of Arabic folklore?

[naqshbandijamaati]

i haven't read Alice since I was a very young teenager. Maybe I should.

[Abu Fadl]

i was not referring to reading in general, but to kiddi books like harry potter.

[abu Hasan]

PhD thesis on the various mythologies ever heard of joseph campbell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell) and the monomyth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth)?

[naqshbandijamaati]

thanks for the links.

[abuabbasmaliki1]

Anyone read "To Kill a Mockingbird". Now that's what I call a classic! An excellent book!


As for Harry Potter, I personally don't find the style interesting but rather silly.

[abu Hasan]

true fiction bookan interesting example on how to take things out of context. amusing, nevertheless: true and fiction? what could the opposite be: fictitious fiction or false fiction?

[abuabbasmaliki1]

hahahaha sidi abu hasan....very funny

I meant to say it was a classic book.

I pray that Allah bless and preserve Sidi Abu Hasan

Ameen


P.S.

Rotfl :)