Ahmed Al-Arfaj

Al-Madina Newspaper

I previously wrote about the inspiration of creative ideas as a result of time spent in the bathroom. Citing several examples of people who get most of their creative ideas in the bathroom, I devoted an entire episode of my show “Khuth Hal” (“Here’s a Solution”) to the correlation between time spent in the bathroom and creativity. Today, we are discussing “bathroom readers”, a group that has become a focus for many types of research.

To begin, I’d like to talk about a famous figure in Arab culture. Abu Al Barakat Ibn Taymiyyah, one of our righteous forefathers who was known for having books recited to him while he was in the bathroom. I joined this group of readers when I first visited the UK in 2004. For me, I like to add some flavor to things and not take them as they simply are. Using an e-reader to listen to important novels, I find doing this for two hours a week to be a great way to spend idle time in the bathroom.

The average human spends 3-5 years of their lives in the bathroom. If we use at least half of this time productively, perhaps we can create a culture that produces thinkers instead of smartphone wasters. Reading in the bathroom is very beneficial because it encourages concentration without the distractions of smart phones.

Finally, enlightened people prefer to invest every minute of their lives in the pursuit knowledge. People who disagree with me say that this is a disgusting habit but we all have our own viewpoints. I made a promise to improve myself and acquire more knowledge even if this means during bathroom time. Nothing will change this.