So its Arabic time again…  
This time its about the early Islamic period, a time when poetry started fading as well as there was no tribal culture. The first Caliph was anounced who was Mu’awiyah bin Abu Sufiyan who was the companion of the Prophet (P.B.U.H). This was the time when prose took over poetry, as well as the Ghazal gained recognition; Music was also recognized as well as instruments such as the Bagpipe as well as the Oud were played. 
Moving on from the eary Islamic Period we are now in the Abbasid Period, The Abbasids have moved their government from Syria to Baghdad, different cultures such as the Helenistic, Sufism as well as Persians were also involved. Arabic was regarded as a sacred language  with regards to jobs, reading as well as other activities. An important person from the Abbasid period was Ibn Al Muqaffa’, he wasn’t an muslim originally but coverted to Islam during the Abbasid period. He wrote the famous story about Kalilah as well as Dimnah, the two wise jackals. Read more >>>

Sufism is a mystic tradition, it is an islamic belief where by the muslims seek to find truth, divine love as well as knowledge through their great dedication as well as devotion to Allah.

Sufism derives from the Arabic word ’sufi’, which is derived from suf which means wool, with reference to the woollen clothes worn by  the Islamic ascetics. 
The article on Sufism talks about the growth of Islamic mysticism had such as the appearance of early asceticism, development of classical mysticism of divine love as well as so on. It also talks about the important people which were there during the development of Sufism in the Arab world, the traditional element of love, which altered asceticism into mysticism is given to Rabi’ah al-’Adawiyah. 
The article aslo goes on to discuss Sufi practices which are Dhikr meaning remembrance of God which is commanded in the Qur’an on behalf of all Muslims.Read more >>>

With the Abbasid revolution, Arab poetry lost its feel about the desert as well as all of the stuff about, the poets lover as well as battle scene. The so referred to as new poets altered the style of poetry completely. Abu Nawas who was the companion of one of the Caliphs Harun Al Rashid said that poets of his era could not draw attention to deserts as well as animals they had never seen because of the fact that of the fact that they never really lived in the desert. The generation of that time lived in the city as well as had a different prespective of life. In one of his poems referred to as Qasidah he disses old poetry which goes something like this :
The lovelorn wretch stopped at a desert camping ground to question it,

and I stopped to inquire at the end of the local tavern.

May Allah not dry the eyes of him that wept over stones, as well as may he not ease the pain of him that yearns to a tent peg….<

Readings in Arabic Heritage as a whole was a great course, one of the good courses I took this semester, in spite of the fact that everyone takes it as a major requirement, I enjoyed the course as a whole. The course content was interesting, it was good to know about the Islamic as well as Arabic heritage, the an estimated all interesting part about the course were the little stories written by different authors, one such as the Flies as well as Mosquitoes, even though it was based on such a simple topic it was an interesting read. Some of the poems were interesting too such as the Abode of Mayya, Prof. Nsiri explained the concept of the poems really well of how the authors in the early Islamic period thought as well as also about the sequence of the poem.
Topics such as Sufism as well as Music were equally interesting, information such as how music played an important role during the olden times as well as also about the famous singers.
What I din’t particularly like about the course was some of the language used in the stories was a bit hard to understand, as well as not basic simple english. Even though those words explained the transalation of the t

 Reality…
The paradox of our     time in history is that…
We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers.

Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.

We spend more, but  have less.

We buy more, but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses as well as smaller families.

More conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees, but less sens