Author: orowe

The first thing that stuck out to me while watching the documentary was the fact that the woman in the beginning from Great Britain, Dagmar, had to wear an abaya in order not to get stared at when she walked down the streets in Oman. Despite the fact that Dagmar said she did not mind wearing… Continue reading “Not Without My Veil” Reflection

The first thing that stuck out to me was the fact that these poems were written in free style rather than spaced out into verses, which I thought was a very interesting choice and almost seemed to make the poems flow better. I thought these poems in general flowed very well, even despite the translation,… Continue reading Reflection on Rumi’s Poetry

I thought a very interesting point brought up in class yesterday was that most Americans (or those from Western countries in general) view Muslims and Islamic countries through an incredibly narrow, underdeveloped lens, never having been educated on the religion of Islam, it’s different branches such as Sunni and Shia, the Koran, or the laws… Continue reading Selected Hadith and Class Discussion Review

I wasn’t aware that those who practice the Islamic faith had “five pillars” or five duties that are required of them in order to be a Muslim. These are: 1) shahadah, or the profession of faith in one God (Allah) only and in Muhammad as the Messenger of God, 2) salah is second and refers to… Continue reading “Five Pillars of Islam” Michael Ashkar

The first thing that stood out to me while reading the Quran was how similar the style of writing was to the Bible, from the way they describe God, to the text being split into süras and verses. I also thought it was interesting how wide a range of subjects were covered by the different… Continue reading The Quran

The first thing that stuck out to me in the reading was the fact that the prophet Muhammad is not considered to be the son of God, the same way Jesus is, instead he is called God’s apostle or prophet, which I thought was an interesting comparison. I also thought it was fascinating to learn… Continue reading Ibn Ishaq Excerpt

One of the most interesting parts of the reading for me was learning about the backstory of the prophet Muhammad, whom I had never read about in great detail before, including the fact that he was an orphan and first experienced his visions from God during a personal retreat. I also think the parallels between… Continue reading “Muhammad and the Believers’ Movement” Reflection

This documentary was incredibly eye-opening on many fronts, most of them heartbreaking, with one fact in particular sticking in my mind: that the mass incarceration of the Uyghur ethnic group currently taking place in China is on a scale unprecedented since the incarceration of Jewish people during the Holocaust. While such a comparison may not… Continue reading PBS China Undercover

Recently I watched a Chinese film from 2009 titled “Mulan: Rise of a Warrior” or “Mulan: Legendary Warrior” (depending on the translation). It was based off of the possibly historic/legendary “Ballad of Hua Mulan”, which is the oldest known telling of the famous heroine’s story and was probably composed during the Northern Wei dynasty, possibly around… Continue reading Mulan: Rise of a Warrior Film

Upon first reading the debate, I thought it seemed very similar to arguments which might be had in today’s political and economic climate, with conflicts between privatization of business and government control, in this case with the learned men (Confucian disciples) wanting to increase business privatization by dismantling the government-controlled monopoly of salt and iron,… Continue reading The Salt and Iron Debates