http://levis1980.immensepots.com/ "The Power of Thought, The Magic of the Mind!" en http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/09/hello.html Its been a while since I actually started blogging maybe not a while…probably “ages” since I ever blogged!The last time was probably grade 10!So what made me started blogging again..well my arabic professor wanted us to start a blog where by we could post our thoughts on what we are learning in the course which is referred to as Readings in Arabic Heritage. As of now I am learning Arabic poetry which I must say is one of an estimated all interesting things I’ve come across so far..:)So before I actually start posting anything related to my course…just thought writing something else would be a better idea… Todays been probably one of the good days in my life… spent some good quality time with my friends with friends I mean school friends. I’m at all times amazed by the fact that no matter how numerous or however good friends you manufacture in life, your school friends are the ones which are the best as well as I guess they shall remain the best:),no matter how exciting, romantic, funny, happy your life is right now there's nothing like school days, school life is something everyone would desire to return, well it may not be the same case on behalf of everyone, but on behalf of an estimated all of them it is the same. I met my school friends at the end of a really long time today, let see maybe two months now..and I din’t even feel like it had been so long…things were just the same as they at all times had been..we were laughing…cracking lame jokes (something we can’t stop doing), sarcasm..which is something that is just INEVITABLE!, my friends would know what I mean…everything said has to have a sarcy touch to it!!which is kinda bad at time because of the fact that I end up talking to my parents the same way as well as the looks I get trust me they are so not worth it!!haha! So back to where I was….ohh yeaa…school friends…well what else can I say it was just great spending time with them…clicking pictures..funny pictures..pointless pictures but in the end these are the pictures that sometimes uplift your mood..make your day or manufacture you feel better when your just having a bad day…these pictures manufacture you think that yes!life is definetely worth living if not on behalf of anything…just on behalf of the sake of taking more pictures like these As Anaïs Nin once said.. “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/09/hello.html Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:38:21 -0400 levis1980 http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/11/the-paradox-of-time.html 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 sense. More knowledge, but less judgment. More experts, but more problems. More medicine, but less wellness. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, as well as pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, as well as hate too often. We’ve learned how to manufacture a living, but not a life; We’ve added years to life, not life to years. We’ve been all of the way to the moon as well as back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; We’ve done larger things, but not better things. We’ve cleaned up up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less; We plan more, but accomplish less; We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait; We have higher incomes, but lower morals; We have more food, but less appeasement; We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication. We’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality. These are the times of fast foods as well as slow digestion; tall men, as well as short character; steep profits, as well as shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure,but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition. These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, as well as pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there's much in the show window as well as nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology can take this letter to you, and a time when you can opt on behalf of either to manufacture a difference, or to just hit delete… http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/11/the-paradox-of-time.html Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:58:12 -0400 levis1980 http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/10/my-musings-on-arabic-heritage.html Being a Junior in university, I was requested to take six courses in one semester to complete my graduation on time, however with all of the 100 courses being offered as well as a mad rush about all of the sections being closed, I wasn’t sure of what was going to be my sixth course…after looking around on behalf of a while I found seats in one course..”Readings in Arabic Heritage”….now all of you are wondering why would I take something like Arabic, it was something that we got done with in school ages ago…and also on behalf of the fact that I study in an American university, so whats up with arabic??Well its one of the core requirements that we require to complete in order to graduate, so every student wanting to graduate has to do arabic…since I study at the American University of “Sharjah” . I guess probably now an estimated all of you shall get my point. Ofcourse the course is in english. Initially, I thought it would one boring course…a drag..(my class is at 8am…yea I knoww!!)…but then at the end of in the first week of class, I found the class to be interesting:)So what part gained my interest? well, we started off with the Arab history, as well as how Islam evolved.. not exactly in detail but somewhat, as well as the division of the Arab History into six periods with each period having its posses legacy as well as rich literature. The six periods being: The Jahliliyyah or pre-Islamic, The early Islamic period, The Umayyad period, The Abbasid period, The Mamluk period, The Modern Period After a little bit of introduction into these periods, we started off with one of the an estimated all important aspects on Arabic heritage, poerty, The poet as our professor said was the spokesmen of his tribe or the defendent of his tribe as well as also the entertainer of his tribe. These pre-Islamic poetries were divided into 3 segments: The Prelude, The Journey as well as The Goal. The Prelude, I think is the an estimated all interesting part of the poetry, also known as Nasib in Arabic, described loss in the poetry, with loss generally related to his beloved, lost love as they say, it also mentioned the abondoned campsite (runined abode), since his loved ones are not there are there are no people in sight. Another part of the prelude is the Moment of Resolve when the poet ultimately consoles himself about the fact that there's no beloved as well as there's nothing to cry about as well as that he must transfer on. The Journey is when the poet ultimately moves on describes all of the parts of the journey, the journey is a quest on behalf of the poet, the poet can't complete his journey without the she camel, the she-camel is the an estimated all valued animal, the best companion also a symbol of endurance. Finally the Goal, which is the predominant message of the poet, the message can be of different types, it  can either be a Madih (Praise), Fakhr (Boast), Ritha (Elegy) or Hija (Satire or Invective). Based on all these we discuess a poetry named “O Abode of Mayya” This poetry is a Midah which means praise whereby the poet praises the king or his posses tribe, in the first part of the poetry the prelude, the poet talks about his beloved Mayya, who is no more there as well as has left her camp(ruined abode) as well as he gives certain instances as how he can imagine the tribe as well as its people there as well as everything of that sort, then he has his moment of reslove, where he says “turn away from what you see, on behalf of it is irredeemable….”and this is when the poet realizes that yes it is time to transfer on, as well as hence starts the journey as well as the description of the she camel, he compares his camel to an oryx bull as well as an onager, which is a animal of the wild to show how strong the she-camel is, this strength of the she camel is typically seen in the hunt scene where the camel fights the two dogs as well as emerges as the winner, as well as then moving on comes the goal, where the poet begins praising the king as well as his tribe as well as also asks on behalf of forgivness so that his life can be saved. This was just a jist of the poem, Arabic poetry is very different when you come to think of poetry as general, though the english version seems funny, I’m sure the Arabic version is much much better, if only I knew Arabic…sigh! http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/10/my-musings-on-arabic-heritage.html Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:28:41 -0400 levis1980 http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/10/the-muallaqah-of-labid.html So back to arabic, at the end of a long time, so this time its about Labid, another poem that was written in the pre-islamic times, this poem was written by Abu-’Ugayl as well as from the different kinds of poems I mentioned earlier, this poem is Fakhr which means boast, the story behind poetry is that Labid was known to be a lavish person, who lived his life luxuriously with with wine as well as women however, his father’s death altered his life, as well as he spent the rest of his life trying to take revenge, but was unsuccessful. The first part of the poem describes how nature is playing its role as well as taking a lead over man kind as well as during the latter part of the poem describes a contrast as well as shows that mankind its playing its role. The poem goes on to describing various scene such as the battle scene as well as the poet also talks about his tribe. http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/10/the-muallaqah-of-labid.html Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:31:25 -0400 levis1980 http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/15/my-musings-on-arabic-heritage-ii.html 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. Another writer was famous during this period known as Al Jahiz. Al Jahiz was an avid reader who at all times updated his knowledge by reading new things, he wrote three books namely, The Book of Animals, The Book of Misers & The Book of Proof. The book of animals included a story about flies as well as mosquitoes of which it could be learned that not everything you don’t like is bad or harmful to you, it can also benefit you in some ways. http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/15/my-musings-on-arabic-heritage-ii.html Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:58:06 -0400 levis1980 http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/14/the-new-abbasid-poets.html 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…. Which means that earlier poets used to cry over their lovers camping site as well as stay there as well as discuss how the life used to be as well as also about the family of the poet’s lover. Where as he is looking on behalf of a bar so that he can fix himself a drink. Abu Nawas was known as the poet of wine, cause an estimated all of his poetry was about wine since he loved drinking, but there was a time in his life when he stopped drinking as well as became serious about his life. He was never embarrassed of the fact that he was a muslim as well as he used to drink wine. According to him if drinking wine was possible in public, then there was no require to conceal as well as drink. Another poet of the same era was al-Mutanabbi, who claimed himself to be the Prophet, al-Mutanabbi was a proud who was very proud of himself as well as did not leave any possibility to priase himself. He never followed the style of the new age poets because of the fact that he wrote in a style of his own. He is known to be the greatest poets of his time because of the fact that of his poetry. http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/14/the-new-abbasid-poets.html Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:39:52 -0400 levis1980 http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/15/sufism.html 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. The second being Hadhra meaning presence in Arabic. Sufis generally sing songs or poems as well as even dances to feel the presence of God. Another Sufi practice is that of Qawwali, which is devotional music commonly found in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan as well as other places of Sufi importance. Other practices also Sama and Khalwa, Sama meaning listening in Arabic referring to Sufi worship practices involving music as well as dance. Khalwa refers to a form of retreat which may be informed by the Shaykh (spiritual advisor) to the Talib (student). The path (tariqah) begins with repentance. A mystical guide (shaykh, pir) accepts the seeker as disciple (murid), orders him to follow strict ascetic practices, as well as suggests certain formulas on behalf of meditation. The path (tariqah) begins with repentance. A mystical guide (shaykh, pir) accepts the seeker as disciple (murid), orders him to follow strict ascetic practices, as well as suggests certain formulas on behalf of meditation. Well known of the Sufi orders are the Qadiri, Chisti, Oveyssi, Shadhili, Jerrahi, Naqshbandi, Ashrafi, Nimatullahi as well as Mevlevi.. All the famous Sufi masters of the past Caliphates were also experts in Sharia as well as were renowned as people with great Iman (faith) as well as brilliant practice. Many were also Qadis (Sharia law judges) in courts. They held that Sufism was never distinct from Islam as well as to fully comprehend as well as reside correct with Sufism one must be a practicing Muslim obeying the Sharia. http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/15/sufism.html Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:29:18 -0400 levis1980 http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/14/arabic-journey-comes-to-an-end.html 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 text very well, some of words in particular were hard to understand. Prof. Nsiri made the course as interesting as possible by adding humor which made us listen at 8 in the morning!! http://levis1980.immensepots.com/2008/09/14/arabic-journey-comes-to-an-end.html Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:23:26 -0400 levis1980