Essay Title - Man Truth Islamic
Although the following selections were collected from my library of myriad genres and appear to be superficially unrelated, there is a deeper meaning, or theme, which pervades every work and forms the underlying structure of the piece. That meaning, or theme, is Man's yearning for truth and his eternal quest for the transcendent meaning of life.
Man has always pondered the meaning of life from his fear of the unknown in his natural surroundings, seeking the all-pervasive order of the Universe. The following piecesnonfiction, poetry, comedy, and science-fictionreveal how Man's quest for truth has manifested in myriad forms throughout historyboth real and imagined.
In her selection regarding Islam, Karen Armstrong explores the roots of the Islamic Tradition and how Muslim seek Truth in the form of Allah, the One God, and the lineage of the Abrahamic Patriarchs and Prophets. Coleman Barks and John Moyne continue the investigation into the Islamic Tradition in The Eseential Rumi, an athology of Sufi poetry by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi.
In Sufism, Truth is realised in terms akin to Advaita Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism: Love for the Transcendent Meaning of Existence and love for humanity becomes Truth, and the term Allah becomes merely a name or phrase by which the reality of these relationshipsconjoinedcan be known. The Waste Land explores the materiality of the modern age and the loss of spiritual values as perceived by T.S. Eliot.
The unnamed protagonist eventually realises Truth and the Meaning of Life after a lengthy pilgrimage to the Chapel Perilous in the heart of the Waste Land, discovering peace and reconciliation with metaphorically-veiled Second Coming of Christ (e.g., the call of the cock) and the appearance of rain (e.g., God's blessings).
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran embodies the search for Truth and the Meaning of Life in the person of the fictional Prophet Almustafa. From discussing metaphysical issues such as love and death, and simple and everyday matters such as food and clothing, Almustafa inspires his audiencethe people of Orphalese as well as the reader with wisdom and compassion, instructing them that the answers they seek for Life's great pains and pleasures can be found in the serenity of Nature.
It seems impossible that a classic science-fiction novel such as Dune could be considered an exploration into Truth and the Meaning of Life, but it just such a meta-physical investigation! Using the theme of the Messianic Figure in the collective human consciousness, Frank Herbert probes into the reasons and motivations human beings follow a particular leader in their search for Truth and Meaningwhether it be spiritual enlightenment or rebellion against a tyrannical regime. In so doing, Herbert concludes that Manas a wholeis doomed to stagnation when followers abandon their own spiritual aspirations for Truth to follow the Truth of their leader.
In Cairo, Nagfuib Mahfouz analyses the trials and tribulations of the al-Jawad Family as they endure the chaotic sociopolotically-troubling time between the end of the Great War (1918) and the overthrow of King Farouk I (1958) into the early years of the Republic (1952). Each member of the family tries to find the Meaning of Life amidst the tumult and uncertainty of the era, trasncending the chaos in which they are enthralled to discover some semblance of belonging, identity, and Truth.
Above all, the quest for the Meaning of Life and Ultimate Truth assumes its most poignant manifestation in the tragedy of death and lost love. In 'Annabel Lee', Poe laments the passing of his bride. The speaker returns to his bride's sepulchre every night to mourn and weep. Although he strives towards and yearns to know the Truth and Meaning of Life (and Death), and for what purpose the love of his life was taken from him, he never uncovers the answernor does Heaven respond to his plaintive cries.
Like Karen Armstrong's selection, Huston Smith examines and provides keen insight into the Islamic Tradition with 'Islam' from his seminal work, The World's Religions (1959originally, The Religions of Man). Filled with both religious and historical analyses, Smith retraces the history of the Islamic Tradition from the time of the Prophet Muhammad to the present day (e.g., 1959).
Smith beautifully explains the Islamic quest for Truth and Meaning in the form of worshiping God and the instructions of life revealed in the Holy Qur'an. According to Islam, dedicating life in service to God is the Meaning of Life for every Muslim, and the Quest for Transcendent Truth is entwined with acting righteously and earning the supreme rewardentrance into God's Paradise.
The Lord of The Ringsmuch like Eliot's 'Waste Land'represents the modern search for Truth and Meaning amidst a world fraught with materiality and spiritual dark-ness. The One Ringforged from pure magicmetaphorically represents the will and power which all of us possess. Frodo's quest for Truth to destroy the One Ring is an allegory for our own attachment and bondage to materiality. Through his epic journey, Frodolike ourselves discovers the Meaning of Life in the company of loved ones and the individual strength to resist and transcend the all-pervasive greed and avarice of the physical world.
Finally, Illuminatus! assumes a tongue-in-cheek perspective regarding the darker forces of authority ruling our lives. The quest for Truth and the search for the Meaning of Life descends into the secret world of underground societies, fringe religious groups, and a five-member cabal which claims to control the world. Immersed in this shadowy realm after a murder and the kidnapping of a high-profile magazine editor, detectives Saul Goodman and Barry Muldoon discover that Truth and Meaning become uncertain and relative. 'Truth' and the 'Meaning of Life' is what the Illimunati claim. Or is it...?
1. 'Unity: The God of Islam' (Chapter 5) by Karen Armstrong. A History of God: The
4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. New York City, NY: Gramercy
Books, 1993.
SUMMARY: In Chapter Five, 'Unity: The God of Islam', in A History of God, Karen Armstrong briefly recalls the rise of European and British civilisation from the agrarian societies of the pre-Industrial Revolution to the colonial empires of the 17th through to the 20th Centuries. She also recounts the rise of Arab-Islamic civilisation in the same time period, and catalogues the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 (officially in 1924 with Atatüurk's secular Republic of Turkey) to the Allies of the Great War.
Providing equal importance to matters of politics, religion, and economics is not easy, but Arm- strong is able to strike a wonderful balance. Casting aside the rhetoric of the 'clash of civilisations' between the Christian West and Islamic East, Armstrong discusses the animosity and conflicts between as less about religious differences than about terri-torial expansion and social domination.
Armstrong touches on modernity, religious fundamentalism (Islamic, Christian, and Jewish), and the fractured Middle East in the post-Colonial period (circa 1948): Her scholarshipalong with Smith'salso contributed to my interest in the Islamic Tradition in general and the rise of Middle-Eastern nations (e.g., Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, etc.) in par-ticular. Armstrong's style is concise and clearher rhythm and cadence augmented by her passion and knowledge of the issues discussed.
2. The Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks with John Moyne, A.J. Arberry, and Reynold Nicholson. Edison, NJ: Castle Books, 1997.
SUMMARY: 'The Essential Rumi' is precisely thatan essential collection of Rumi's best and most moving verse, primarily taken from his massive Mathnawi (known as the 'Persian Qur'an') and Divan i-Shams al-Tabrizi, a collection of love songs dedi-cated to his friend and mentor, Shaykh Shams al-Tabrizi. From the interfaith message of 'Moses and The Shepherd' (Mathnawi) to the passionate and celebratory 'Love Dogs'
(Divan), Rumi's poetry never ceases to illuminate, excite, and enchant me. Devoid of flowery language and literary frills, Rumi's style is simple and direct, speaking to the common man who yearns for the Divine.
Despite being an outstanding theologian and jurist, Rumi's religion is not a com-plex conundrum of theory, principle, and creed, but a pure and true faith based on Love. Love for God and Love for Man. Thus, stories from the Qur'an, Torah, and Gospels are rendered salient to everyday concerns: Jesus implores us to rise from the death of life to the life of Divine adoration; Joseph encourages us to be respectful and compassionate to our family and to forgive them for their faults; Moses inspires us to stand up against tyranny and injustice; Noah and Abraham command us to stand by our conscience and convictions despite the overwhelming odds of authoritarian rebuke. Like Arab-Christian mystics and his own Sufi brethren, Rumi reveals that the Law of the Universe is Love, and anything fulfilled in the Name of Love will never fail.
3. The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot. T.S. Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays (1909-1950). New York City, NY: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1980.
SUMMARY: When I first began attending college, my English Professor, Dr Sprunk, always extolled the virtues and power of Eliot's poetry. If I remember correctly, his favourite poems were 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Pufrock' and 'The Hollow Men'. Of course, at the time, I was interested in the works of Edgar Allan Poe. I could give a care less about 'Tough Shit Eliot' (as my teacher admiringly nicknamed him). Many years later, nearing the end of my Undergraduate career, I happened upon a volume of his poetry. My God! What a genius!
Though 'The Hollow Men' remains amongst my favourite poems of Eliot, I frequently return to The Waste Land to study its structure, usage of moods, shifting perspectives, and musical language to emulate in my own workdespite its length and daunting complexity. Eliot's myriad allusions are simply too wonderful to ignore! The Waste Land is a true epic in the catalogue of contemporary poetry ('The Waste Land', Encyclopedia Encarta).
Although not sharing the enormous length and adventur- ous drama of Homer's Iliad or Odyssey, The Waste Land possesses all of the hallmarks of great poetry, especially contemporary poetry ('The Waste Land', Encyclopedia Encarta): Concrete images, conversational language, and experimentation in rhyme and meter make Eliot's epic work a necessity in any poetry lover's library.
The Waste Land includes a shifting cast of many characters and intriguing storylines which permeate the text and augment its modern, bleak topics. Utilising all of the primary themes of his style (e.g., iambic meter, attention to rhythm, structure, and tone), The Waste Land embodies nearly all of Eliot's poetic and creative powers. 'I will show you fear in a handful of dust' has become one of my new catchphrases and re-citations (Eliot 38).
4. The Prophet by Gibran Khalil Gibran. New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
SUMMARY: Published in 1923 when the world was still reeling from the effects of the devastating Great War (1914-1918), Khalil Gibran published The Prophet, his most famous work and which many consider his magnum opus. The protagonist is the fictional Prophet Almustafa, who is waiting for a ship on the shore of Orphalese to bear him back to the unnamed 'isle of his birth' (Gibran 3). However, as he begins to board his ship, the citizens of Orphalese gather round and beg him to impart his wisdom to them before he leaves.
Addressing myriad issues from work and marriage to prayer and the afterlife, Gibranvia the voice of Almustafaengages each subject with poetic mastery and skill. Gibran discusses problems of the human condition through the imagery of Nature, which makes the (sometimes ambiguous) text difficult to decipher at times, but is intend-ed to bypass ordinary consciousness and touch the depths of the unconscious. Gibran's writings are not intended for the general masses, but directed towards those readers with mystical and even ecumenical inclinations. Whenever a thunderstorm rages around me, I cannot but recite one of The Prophet's most memorable lines: 'God rests in reason/ And moves in passion' (Gibran 51).
5. Dune by Frank Herbert. New York City, NY: Ace Books, 1999.
SUMMARY: Although many consider David Lynch's 1984 film adaption to me a critical and commercial failure, I have enjoyed the movie since my single digits. Upon discovering the book when I was fourteen years old, I soon realised the book was far superior.
Although Herbert's prose is not spectacular, the plethora of complex, animated characters and political twists and turns (e.g., conspiracies, power struggles, rebellions, and wars, etc.) have inspired me to consistently return to Herbert's science-fiction classic over the years. I have returned to Dune not only for literary pleasure, but also to invest-igate the hidden structures of Herbert's universe to extract what, exactly, makes the story so engaging. How did he nurture his characters? How did he plan out the plot?aug-mented and intermingled with myriad back stories?
As I have read the book thousands of times over the years, the science-fiction elements have slowly worn away: It is not technology nor even the romance of human-ity's possibility at space travel that excite the imagination, but the way in which Herbert explores the human condition and what our future may be...
6. Cairo by Naguib Mahfouz. New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1990.
SUMMARY: Naguib Mahfouz's first monumental work, 'Cairo', was originally intended to be published as a single, massive, 1,500-page novel; due to protests from his publisher, it was divided and published as three separate novels (Introduction xiv).
Set in the urban districts of Cairo where Mahfouz grew up, the trilogy follows the lives, times, and struggles of the al-Jawad Family from the Great War (1914-1918) to the overthrow of King Faruk I (1952).
Mahfouz recalls the times and struggles of Egypt from independence to monarchy to revolutionary republic with vivid detail: The story becomes less of a book in the read-er's hands than a kind of literary movie playing in his or her head. Mahfouz keen insight abstracts the most salient themes of Egypt's modern history and explores those socio-political problems with compassion and wisdom. Mahfouz successfully masters the difficult task of character development, rendering each player psychologically- and emotionally- complex, conflicted, and contradictory. As a classic introduction to
Arabic Literature in general and Egyptian Literature in particular, Mahfouz's Cairo is an excellent choice to begin a journey into the Middle East...
7. 'Annabel Lee' by Edgar Allan Poe. The Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe. Philadelphia,
PA: Courage Books, 1983.
SUMMARY: Published in 1849 after Poe's death, 'Annbel Lee' was among the first poems I had read by Poe and which enamoured me with his verse and prose.
The childlike magic of romantic young love and the setting of the seashore do not prepare the reader for the tragedy that befalls the speaker in the fourth stanza: '...That the wind came out of a cloud by night,/ Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee' (Poe 1174). Like T.S. Eliot much later, Poe had an amazing ear for the nuances and subtleties of language and cadence, producing exquisite verse that should be regarded as mere poetry, but sheer music. The final line of the poem are amongst Poe's best:
'And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side/ Of my darlingmy darlingmy life and my bride,/ In her sepulchre there by the sea,/ In her tomb by the sounding sea' (Poe 1175).
Although becoming enchanted by his poetry in my early adolescence, Poe is a writer and poet to whom I constantly turn for inspiration. Like Virginia Woolf, Richard Wright, and Truman Capote, anyone who is a writer reads and rereads Poe's poems and stories a thousand times to unravel the mysteries of the prose and verseto discover the underlying structures, the techniques and tools, and the gorgeous manipulation of lan- guage which makes a writer's work touch the heart and endure for so many years. It is not the goal of the writer-student to pinch and plagiarise from such a master, but to understand how he did it and, thus, strive to attain a similar success in our own writings...
8. 'Islam' (Chapter 6) by Huston Smith. The World's Religions. San Francisco, CA:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1994.
SUMMARY: Trying to encapsulate fourteen centuries of Islamic culture and civilisation is not an easy nor simple task, but Huston Smith succeeds excellently within the span of a mere sixteen pages. Although originally published in 1959 in his book,
The Religions of Man (since retitled The World's Religions), and despite the length of time, Smith offers insights and concerns of the Islamic Tradition which are still pertinent today: The application of Islamic Law (Shariah) to modern democratic nation-states; the ideology of the unity of the Islamic Community (Ummah) despite the myriad denominations (e.g., Hanafi, Wahhabi, Shi'a, Sufi, etc.), and how the Teachings and Example of the Prophet Muhammad are salient to contemporary Islamic life.
Though rigourously academic, Smith approaches his subject with an intimate, conversational writing style which instantly captured my attention, distilling complex concepts simply (not simple-mindedly nor generally). It was Smith's pivotal work both ignited my interest in the Islamic Tradition and my intrigue about the world's religions, teaching me how to engage in thoughtful analyses and reflections of history, in particular, the importance of warm relations between the Middle East and the West in light of our shared heritage in the Abrahamic Tradition[s].
Amongst the most important scholars of Comparative Religion alive today, and standing in the same mystical-philosophical school as Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Huston Smith's The World's Religions cannot be overlooked, offering the reader an in-depth and practical understanding of the Islamic Tradition and raising profound questions about the meaning of religion (and spirituality) in modern life and society.
9. The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.
SUMMARY: I was thirteen when I bought The Lord of The Rings, comprising the trilogy of books in a single volume in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien's birth. I had not heard of the trilogy before my purchase, being mostly a reader of science-fiction. Immediately, Tolkien's poetic prose and epic story enthralled me.
I greedily devoured the massive tomemy fascination with the dark, mystical world of Middle-earth illuminated by the stunning yet sombre illustrations of Alan Lee.
Beginning in the small and even uneventful Shire, Froddo Baggins inherits a mysterious Ring from his Uncle Bilbo upon the latter's 'eleventy-first birthday' (Tolkien 33). Soon, after receiving a visit from the Sorcerer Gandalf as well as an unpleasant confrontation with the Ring-wraiths, Frodo is catapulted into an epic journeyand battleagainst the consummate forces of evil to save Middle-earth from the avaricious
Dark Lord Sauron.
10. Illuminatus! by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert O'Shea. New York City, NY: MJF Books, 1975.
SUMMARY: Concerning paranoia about the biggest conspiracy theories of the 20th Century (e.g,. ranging from aliens to time travel to shadowy cabals controlling national governments), Illuminatus! is told in a stream-of-conscious style which harks back to William Faulkner, compounded by the frequent shift of (unreliable) narrators, alternating between first and third-person accounts, and even reference to past and presenteven futureevents.
The book is poetic and ponderous in its satirical appraisal of modern society. Definitely not for the everyday reader, the book's unusual style and plot structure has intrigued me since I first purchased it many years ago; I frequently return to it not only for its unorthodox approach to writing, but also to study its dark comedy as a teaching tool to understand how to render the immoral and macabre elements of modern life in a humourous, tongue-in-cheek manner.
Two New York City detectives, Saul Goodman and Barney Muldoon, investigate the mysterious bombing of the office of the left-wing magazine, Confrontation. Soon afterward, the editor of the magazine, Joe Malik, disappears without a trace. As both Goodman and Muldoon explore these unusual cases, they are led deeper and deeper into a world of conspiracy, betrayal, and revenge, engaged in a battle against a secret cabal which controls the world, joining forces with the underground organisation of freedom fighters who have pledged their lives to eternally oppose it.
Works Cited
CD-ROM. 'T.S. Eliot'. Encarta Encyclopedia 2004. CD-ROM. Microfosoft Corp., 2004.
CD-ROM. 'The Waste Land'. Encarta Encyclopedia 2004. CD-ROM. Microfosoft Corp., 2004.
Eliot, T.S. The Waste Land and Other Poems. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004.
Gibran, Gibran Khalil. The Prophet. New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
Naguib Mahfouz. Cairo. New York City, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1990.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe. Philadelphia, PA: Courage Books, 1983.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of The Rings. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.
