the islam "christian bookstore"

today i went into my first "islam bookstore". it was basically the islam version of our christian book stores. when i found it, i thought that it made real sense, but i had never considered that other religions would have special bookstores, like we do. that's kind of embarrassing to admit, but i had just neve thought about it.


it was pretty small, but had most of the stuff we have. there were puzzles for children based on stories from the Quran (creation and noah's ark), books on what the Quran teaches about family, how to be a good wife, husband, how to pray, etc. there were even little toys for children to learn arabic. you may or may not know that the only true and authoritative translation of the Quran is arabic. you can get copies in english, but they aren't seen as the actual Quran. so learning arabic is very important for muslim families.


the clerk was very friendly. he let me try some perfume and helped me pick out some henna. i also bought some halal sweets for my muslim friends.


it was strangely similar and familiar. a little bit like being in the same place, but in an alternate universe or something.