Author: bmangum

In another poem by Rumi, number 9, drunkness is once again connected to the spinning and feeling of dizziness. This recurring image of drunkenness and being overwhelmed by sensation appears in mystical tradition numerous times and the aim is not to mimic this but to use either in order to have a deeper spiritual connection… Continue reading Final reflections from poetry of Rumi

When looking at some of the poetry of Rumi, I had never heard of the concept of Solomon’s ring before. I was aware that Solomon was known for his wisdom from the Bible, but I did not necessarily know that in ancient times, this meant having deeper insight into the world, such as dealing with… Continue reading Solomon’s ring and other reflections from poetry of Rumi

When discussing Sufism in Islamic tradition today in class, I thought the comparison of Sufism to Daoism in the Chinese tradition was especially helpful in understanding this mystical wing of the religion. I had always thought that Sufism was a third branch of Islam, so it was interesting to learn that this is not really… Continue reading Sufism and whirling dervishes reflections

I thought our discussion in class on Thursday regarding the origin of most racism being stereotyping was an especially important conversation to have, and unfortunately, we often base our assumptions about a person or group on a particular encounter or story on the news and not actually thinking for ourselves. In my First-Year Seminar class… Continue reading Thursday class discussion on stereotyping-reflection

Hadith 47 talks about not taking back what you give, which goes back to emphasis in the 5 Pillars on charity, including if they have halfhearted or a complete lack of generosity. Also in Hadith 18, the idea is emphasized that sometimes giving to charity isn’t always just giving the minimum of 2.5 percent, but… Continue reading Selected Hadith reflection

When studying the Ḥadith, I think it is interesting, as we discussed in class on Thursday, that there were likely various stories about Muhammad that were passed on and as a result, legends developed as people would begin to debate these stories and things found in the Quran. Because of this, it makes sense that… Continue reading Hadith reflection and connections to Ha Jin’s “Flame”

Prior to taking this class, I was not aware of the specific details of the Five Pillars of Islam and what each of them meant. Watching the video at the start of class on Tuesday of adhan or the Muslim call to Prayer was again a reminder of the beauty of the sound of the… Continue reading The Five Pillars Reflection

I thought Tuesdays class discussion regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on Islamic tradition, particularly the call to prayer and the hajj, was very interesting and raised a lot of important questions on this subject. When Muslim communities were unable to gather together for prayer due to the pandemic, it was interesting to… Continue reading Call to prayer and the Hajj during COVID-19 pandemic

In Sura 2, I thought it was important to note that Islamic tradition claims that there is nothing like the Quran and that it is distinctive. There was also a clear emphasis on predestination, as it states “And who believe in the Revelation sent to thee and sent before thy time and (in their hearts)… Continue reading Thursday 10/28 assigned Suras reflection

In class this week, we discussed how various languages sound and how this has an impact on attitudes. For example, languages that have harsher sounds, like German, may give the impression of being more aggressive. This is similar to Arabic as well, as the language has many glottal stops. However, watching the video of someone… Continue reading Thoughts from class this week