Month: April 2020

While pondering things to write about today I came across a rather interesting article about something that I’ve been yet to think of. During all of the outbreak the only thing I feel that I’ve thought about is how much longer I’m stuck in my house, and when am I going to be finished with online school. I’ve been researching the stock market, and keeping in touch with basic world news.

However after tying both these world interests and stock interests together I found an article that was rather alarming. The Arab Tourism Organization has projected to lose $40 Billion, if the COVID-19 virus continues to ravage the world in line with its projections through the end of April.

This was a huge shock to me just to read, I mean 40 billion dollars? That’s enough to shut down probably hundreds of vacation areas, imagine the restaurants or shopping areas that purely rely on tourism to come around. A truly sad number, and sad to read about for the people that will be affected by this.

Any of the above factual information is credited to the Haaretz news paper, I am not claiming as my own. Simply analyzing it, and giving other people things to think about.

As cooking has become one of my hobbies during quarantine, I decided to make one of my favorite Eastern dishes, fried rice. In the past, I have ate many authentic fried rice dishes from different Chinese establishments. Many fried rice dishes I’ve had have been prepared slightly differently. Some contain different vegetables such as peas, peppers, carrots, onions, sprouts and broccoli. Other fried rices contain meat, including shrimp, chicken, or beef. Some other proteins I’ve had in fried rice have included tofu and eggs. While mixing these ingredients into the rice, typical fried rice is made with soy sauce to create a brown color. 

To make my fried rice I used the ingredients that I had in my house. First I chopped and  grilled the vegetables that I was using in a frying pan. The vegetables I used were carrots, red peppers, yellow peppers, and broccoli. After grilling them I scrambled an egg and fried it with the vegetables. After this I added some cooked grilled chicken that I cooked for dinner the night before. Finally I added the white rice in and mixed it in with soy sauce. It was very tasty and was a good cooking project for the day!

The concept of the Five Pillars is quite interesting to me. I knew about a few of them prior to this class, the Salat, Sawm, and Hajj were all concepts I had heard of before regarding Islam, but I did not know that they were part of the Five Pillars, nor did I know that one of the Five was Zakat, or the paying of alms to the poor. Nor did I specifically know that the Shahada was part of the Five as it seems like a basic tenet of any religion. Secondly, the fact that these Five things are the central part of Islam tells me that the religion is very focused on the act of rituals and paying homage to Allah. Four out of the Five are directly related to paying homage to Allah in a very ritualistic type way. Always staying sincere to the Muslim faith, praying five times per day, always facing Mecca, fasting during Ramadan, and making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Zakat seems more like a central tenet of most religions, giving of your own to help the needy and poor. In my opinion its emphases are more or less quite similar to those of many other religions. Believing that your God is the one true God and staying true to the faith is central to most religions. Prayer is central to most religions, but I don’t think most religions require their followers to pray five times per day facing a certain direction, so that is a bit different. As I said, giving of yourself to the poor is a central tenet of most religions, and fasting and having rules about which foods you can consume show up in many religions, most notably Hinduism and Judaism. Also, there are some passages in the Christian Bible that restrict the eating of shellfish. Lastly however, there is nothing quite like the Hajj. It is a terrific thing for any follower of Islam to be able to do, let alone more than once. As far as I know, no other religion has anything quite like the Hajj. Lastly, the documentary really helped me to see just how important the Hajj is. As every Muslim must make the Hajj at least once in their lifetimes, it is an incredibly important milestone in a Muslim’s life, and the documentary really helped hit that home for me.

The chapter revolves around the meaning and creation of Jihad. As Muhammad declared Yathrib as a sanctuary city, Mecca was dealing with Medinan raids and attacks. The Battle of Badr started as the Medina’s and the Muslim community fought the people of Mecca. I remember learning about the Battle of Badr as it was more of a turning point for Muhammad as he struggled against Meccan pagan tribes. From this Battle and his victory, especially over the Quraysh tribe, this allowed him to rise to even further power in Medina, the Arabian Peninsula, as well as furthered his takeover of Mecca. The word Jihad was partially developed from this as it was seen as more of a “struggle” or “striving” (Aslan, 67) in a fight against enemies. It is fascinating to hear because to this day, people still say this word, especially in the Middle East. Aslan explains how this struggle and striving for war are more understood as defensive and less about aggression. This helped Muhammad evolve more within his prophetic consciousness.

The Battle of Uhud and conflict between the Quraysh tribe and Muhammad’s followers helped bring a rise in the tribe because of the Jewish tribes. It also crushed the morale of the Ummah. However, Muhammad did have the Jewish people surrender and leave Medina. There were many further battles that Muhammad won that allowed him to rise to more and more power. One thing he did was allow many people to surrender, but their punishment was depended on who they were. Sometimes it would be death or harsh punishment for tribes who were anti-semitic. The Jewish tribes that did not ally with the Quraysh were not punished and allowed to live in Medina.

Tolerance was a big part of Muhammad, but it didn’t mean that the tolerance of another religion made them feel equal to theirs. However, they were viewed and part of the same Ummah, which was described as People of the Book as well as the community. Muhammad had his views on many monotheistic religions, especially Judaism. Aslan stated that he respected Judaism even though the Qur’an is fairly critical of it. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all believe in one God, but these religions have distinct stories and views on what they believe with divinity. At the end of this chapter, and which I found very fascinating, Muhammad made a truce or peace agreement with the Quraysh as he went to Mecca and to the Kaaba and hacked the idol of the Syrian god, Hubal, into pieces. Overall, this was a very interesting chapter as it deals with the power Muhammad created through Jihad.

This blog is about the Sufism and Rumi articles, along with my favorite Rumi poem given to me.

Here’s why I learned from the Sufism article: Sufism’s practices include the maintenance and visitation to shrines and tombs of deceased saints, Islamic endowments, or waqfs, buildings intended for Sufi practice, and the passing on of the traditions. Sufism, to the Sunni and Shi’I, refers to the inner mystical dimension of Islam. Sufis believe that the universe forms a unified whole, which is bounded by love. Rumi was a pious Muslim during the 13^th century. Rumi is well known for his mystical literature contributions towards Sufism. There is some counter-cultural aspect of Sufism were Sufi mystics lived on the outside of society and rejected petty cultural norms. Sufism has always been an integral part of mainstream Islam. Sufism should be practiced in regards to inner life and within the outward prescriptions for living life in compliance with God’s will. For many Muslims, Sufism allows them to have some type of spiritual enlightenment. Over time, Sufism has been incorporated into other religions within Islam, allowing Sufism to be more flexible towards other Islamic religions.

I really enjoyed this article because I have never heard of Sufism before and was glad to learn something new. I respect the main teaching that Sufis believe in where they think that the universe forms a unified whole, which is bounded by love. I didn’t know that Sufism became blended with other Islam religions over time and thought that was interesting because usually society has many religions for distinction and not for them to have some type of overlap.

Rumi Article: Rumi was a 13^th century mystic poet who circumnavigated the Middle East and helped spread Sufism. Once in Middle East, he became one of the most beloved religious figures in the realm. His reputation and appeal, both across time and in his own, lay in some elusive layering of acute religious knowledge, personal charm and wit, and a capacious spirit that was both deeply human and haloed with otherworldly prescience. Eventually, Shamsuddin of Tabriz showed up and changed Rumi’s approach to religious devotion. Shams was kicked out of Konya by Rumi’s devotees, but Rumi went searching for him. That search became internal when Rumi infused the teachings of Shams’ masaterwork called the “Masnavi” with his spiritual teachings. Rumi preached and lived by a stance of tolerance. He stated that all religions were in pursuit of oneness with God. This didn’t mean that he thought Islam was mixed together with all other monotheistic religions though.

I didn’t mind this article. I respect what Rumi did for the spread of Sufism and didn’t understand how important he was to that religion. After reading some of his poems, I really respect his work because as someone who usually understands what they are reading, I appreciate the hidden meanings behind his poems.

Poem of Rumi: When your love reaches the core, earth-heavals and bright irruptions spew in the air. The universe becomes one spiritual thing, that simple, love mixing with spirit.

I really enjoy this poem because it explains the main theme of Sufism by showing that the universe forms a unified whole, which is bounded by love. People in society are brought together because they want to build relationships, which are created by sharing a type of love towards one another. When people love one another, good things typically happen. The world around us becomes one since there is no anger towards one another. This poem shows the importance it is for one to have love in their life to make life easier and better for the people around us in my opinion.

After reading Layla and Majnun I noticed some similar themes that were familiar to me. In the beginning of the passage the author sets the scene of a sayyid who is very wealthy. The author compares the amount of gold and jewels to the amount of sand in the dessert. Beyond all of this wealth the the sayyid wanted one thing, a son. In our own Western culture many individuals value family and relationships over wealth. A common quote said in movies and everyday life is, “money can not buy happiness”. The importance of strong bonds can not be compared to money because money could never by such thing. The sayyid later has a son who he values highly. This heightens the theme, proving money is no match for a valued relationship even in the Eastern world.

The story expresses a theme about the importance of wisdom. Later in the story, the son becomes educated, becoming wise and knowledgable. Other students looked up to him as his words were powerful in their eyes. In the Western world, the young respect elders as older people tend to have a better grasp on the world we live in. This creates a sense of great respect for people who obtain much wisdom. Personally, I look to my elders for guidance since they have already surpassed the stages of life that I am living in now. To compare, the story’s theme matches with Western ideals, proving once again that our world is more similar than one may believe.