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The art of authorship (Tareq al-Suwaidan)

فن التأليف عند طارق السويدان

Tareq al-Suwaidan's method for writing a 'knowledge book' as he teaches it in the Leaders' Academy: from choosing the topic, written goals and gathering references, to his 'three-to-five' law for the table of contents, drafting, outside review and the second edition.

Depth

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Region
Global / Diaspora

Education

Summary

"The art of authorship" is the workshop in which Tareq al-Suwaidan teaches the trainees of the Leaders' Academy how to write a book. He places it before public speaking because a speaker needs it. 1 He divides books into three kinds: books for children, stories and novels, and "knowledge books". He deals only with the third, and adds that he knows of no Arabic book that teaches how to write one. 2 3 His method is a chain of steps from choosing the topic to reprinting the book. It reflects his own practice as an author, and the figures in it are his. For a much older Arabic view of what is worth writing, see the seven kinds of authorship.

Choosing the topic and the goal

His first rule is to write only on what one has mastered. Mastery for him means having read about fifty books on the subject, ideally seventy, or being able to speak on it for an hour without preparing. His motto here is "don't philosophise". 4 5 6 A book also needs a clear reason. He gives three: a gap in the subject or in the audience it serves; a subject that has been presented badly; or a live issue. 7 8 9 His example of the second reason is his illustrated history of Palestine. He says more books have been written on the Palestine question than on the Prophet ﷺ's life, yet few present it well. 8 10 The goals of the book are to be written down. He lists four, the same four he gives for training: information, skills, convictions and behaviour. He says he does not recognise goals that are not written. 11 12

From references to the table of contents

The writer then gathers fifty to seventy references and draws a mind map of the subject. 13 14 The table of contents follows what he calls "the law of three to five": three to five parts, each with three to five chapters, each with three to five sections. 15 He shows how he applied it to his Palestine book, and how his intelligence book has six parts of six chapters, with a part on intelligence in Islam added. 16 17 Next he prepares about a hundred and fifty blank pages, each headed with a section title. On each he notes which of the numbered references, and which pages of them, serve that section, beginning with the best five references. 18 19 20

Drafting and finishing

He advises reading each section across all its references until it is understood, then writing the whole book quickly in one's own style and revising afterwards. Reading and writing at the same time, he says, produces a scrapbook rather than a book. 21 22 23 Gaps are either dropped or filled from one's own ideas. Supporting material, such as a verse, a hadith, a story, a line of poetry, a map, a picture or a table, is gathered for each section. 24 25 In the final writing each section carries three to five ideas, and each paragraph is a third to a half of a page. A paragraph opens with a topic sentence and goes on to explanation and examples. 26 27 28

Then come the finishing stages. The text is checked against the goals. The book goes to someone else for scholarly and language review, because, he says, authors should not check their own books. 29 30 The introduction is written last, like an executive summary. References give title, author and edition, and footnotes are kept for direct quotations. 31 32 On layout he says a colour book costs about four times as much as a black-and-white one but sells 83 per cent more. 33 He warns that some publishers underpay authors or under-report print runs. He recommends an improved second edition and "spin-offs" for other readers, such as a children's version. 34 35 36 He says he sometimes works with co-authors. For his book on making leaders he set forty-four questions, and a core of about fifty pages grew to about two hundred and fifty. 37 38

Connections

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Subject of
Akadimiyyat I'dad al-Qada, the Academy for Preparing Leaders (filmed training course)

People and things also explored

Creativity and innovative thinking (Tareq al-Suwaidan)· The art of public speaking (Tareq al-Suwaidan)· Life management and choosing one's field· Leadership and the leader's six roles· Situational leadership· Power and influence (Tareq al-Suwaidan)· Vision and mission in strategic planning· Family businesses

Sources

  1. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:02:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  2. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:04:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  3. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:05:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  4. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:06:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  5. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:08:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  6. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:09:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  7. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:10:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  8. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:12:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  9. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:13:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  10. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:12:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  11. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:14:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  12. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:16:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  13. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:17:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  14. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:18:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  15. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:21:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  16. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:22:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  17. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:24:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  18. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:26:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  19. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:27:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  20. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:30:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  21. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:32:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  22. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:34:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  23. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:35:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  24. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:36:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  25. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:37:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  26. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:39:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  27. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:40:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  28. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:41:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  29. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:45:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  30. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:47:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  31. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:48:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  32. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:49:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  33. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:52:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  34. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:53:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  35. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:54:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  36. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:55:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  37. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:43:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
  38. Assabile archive of Tareq al-Suwaidan's lectures (video) , Leadership Development Academy 1, episode 4, at 00:44:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The art of authorship (Tareq al-Suwaidan)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/fann-al-talif/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-07.

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Creativity and innovative thinking (Tareq al-Suwaidan)

Creativity as Tareq al-Suwaidan teaches it in the Leaders' Academy: his definition, 'the process of bringing about something new', the difference between innovative thinking and creativity, lateral thinking, thirty traits of the creative person, and the stages of the 'creativity machine'.