I am perplexed by so called "traditionalists" who are scared to and scare others from reading books of our tradition on their own time unless it is with a teacher but will have no problems reading all kinds of western academic works

I am also surprised by people who see someone they perceive to be deviant and say "see this is why we shouldn't read too much."

What is this some kind of twisted excuse for being lazy?

Shaykh Ahmad Ma'bad in classes would always lament the lack of initiative that Muslims have saying "the west has beaten us to our tradition"

He would mention many different important books then say

"Did you read this book? No? Right, because it was not tested on your exam"