Wardah Books

Wardah Books is a Kampong Gelam bookshop specialising in English-language books on Islam, founded by Ibrahim Tahir in 2002. Its selection also reaches into literature and regional history, giving readers several ways into the subjects it covers. The shop occupies part of Bussorah Street's longer history of printing and bookselling in Singapore.

The National Heritage Board's account connects its premises with Chief Kadi Haji Ali, who previously lived and worked at the address. That earlier history belongs to the building and neighbourhood, rather than making Wardah itself a nineteenth-century business. The current bookshop's founding responded to a gap between the English Islamic texts readers wanted and what local shops offered.

Wardah supports reading through book clubs and author sessions, alongside the ordinary work of selecting and selling books. Begin with the subject or level of reading you want rather than assuming that every Islamic title serves the same purpose. Literature for children and a work of philosophy require different choices, even when both appear within the same shop's selection.