If literature doesn’t fire your imagination, try non-fiction

In her article on these pages, Are novels a waste of time in today’s data-driven world?(May 8), Deborah Lindsay Williams wrote that without literature, there would’t be much opportunity to “develop the muscles of our imagination”.

I would have believed her had I not spent several hours at the 1001 Muslim Inventions exhibition in Sharjah last month. There I witnessed what happens when you ponder the universe, in awe of the creator, and follow the words of the Prophet Mohammed: “Seek knowledge even if you have to go as far as China.”