My First Islamic Book

Its quite fresh in my mind when I started to read on Islam. More or less at that time, I like to read about ghost, jins, pontianaks, toyol etc. What amuses me was the so called ghost in the Malay society cannot be seen in the Chinese and Indian society vice versa. We dont actually see a toyol in the Chinese. I was thinking at that time, why is it like this, it is not logical at all because at the very end all of us are just a normal helpless human being.

So once a while, I will drop by my friends place to read some books on jins and demons. I find it interesting when there are some notes by the author. It seems like the author have done some research and he uses the Koran and some hadiths to explain. Even after reading the long description on jins and the land of the unknown to us, it still doesnt it any sense of the Malay, Chinese or Indian ghost at all. I thought to my self 'maybe I did not do enough research'.

So one day while I go eat at Nasi Kandar Pelita at SS2, I saw they sell the translation of Koran in English.

'Mamak, berapa ringgit buku tu?' While pointing to the books.
'Itu Koran la, Islam punya buku'
'Yela, berapa ringgit?' Then he gave me a funny look. I wasnt a muslim yet at this time and I was wearing shorts and t-shirt. (look very apek like).
'Sepuluh ringgit'
'OK' Then I bought the book.

Upon reaching Universiti Malaya dorm, I carefully hide it under my shirt. Dont want my other Chinese, Malay or Indian friends to ask so many questions. I just want to read the book. Carefully I read the cover, it is a Yusuf Ali translation. Slowly I read through, like I try to get some ideas of what is written. I find some truth of Islam that day. It does not teaches bad things and it is in line with my life principle. However, I cannot understand a lot of things and I cannot interprete a lot of things because at that time I do not know there are such thing as the tafsir for Koran.

After some time, I gave up reading the Koran because some part is hard to understand. Then I started to look into the hadith. The first hadith book I actually read was the translation of Sahih Bukhari. This book play a very important part in my life decision to revert to Islam. I find interesting facts and many questions arises as I read through this book. What can a muslim do and what cant a muslim do? I keep on asking my friends to clear my doubts of Islam.

Because there are some influence of reading the Koran and Sahih Bukhari, I learned the truth of Islam and how human influence cannot be mixed with the truth Islam offers. I learned the science in Islam. I learned that everything in Islam is perfect, so perfect that we only have to practice it.

It brings me joy to know that I was given the hidayah by Allah S.W.T.
Alhamdullilah. I pray to Allah to open my heart to gain more knowledge, and to love You.

Things to remember: The knowledge we have is so little(smaller than an electron) compared to the knowledge of Allah. I need to learn more to appreciate and increase my iman.

P.S.: I am looking for a good tafsir for Bukhari and Muslim. Contact me if you know any good book.