...THE CONCEPTS OF LITERATURE IN WESTERN AND ISLAMIC TRADITION By NUR 'ABIDAH ABD SAMAD Literature can be defined as a man’s creation using fictional quality, described with language, in order to serve certain purposes. Literature entails a vast array of forms including prose, novel, drama and poetry. This discussion covers the concepts of literature in the Western and Islamic tradition. To further explore the above dichotomy, this paper identifies the unifying function of both literatures as enhancing knowledge of self. Besides, this essay also clarifies the function of literature as a didactic instrument of teaching from both different traditions. In addition, by comparing these two traditions, there is a clear explication of the elements of fantasy and reality infused in both literary traditions. Lastly, this essay concludes with the value-judgment of evaluating good or bad literature. Muhammad Qutb defines ‘Islamic literature’ as literature written by people belonging to Muslim writers as well as works by non-Muslim writers who deal with Islamic values in their views (M. Badawi, 1993, p. 50). Islamic conception of literature is significantly derived from the very first word of the Qur’anic revelation iqra’, an instruction to read, followed by the word ‘al-Qalam’ which carries the meaning that reads: “it was God who taught man with pen” (96: 4), which indicates the ultimate role of reading and knowledge to Muslim...
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...------------------------------------------------- Week Nine Making Connections * Communicate with people of different religions about their beliefs and practices. ------------------------------------------------- Course Assignments * 1. Final Project: World Religions Report * Resources: Appendices A, B, & F * Select a religion that is not your own and then visit a place of worship and interview a person of that faith. * Write a 2,000- to 2,500-word informative paper about the religion. * Compare your selected religion with at least one other religion you are familiar with through this class. * Include the following elements: * Introduction of the religion * Name, location and review of the site. * Interview summary * Comparing and contrasting with another religion * Conclusion * References * Format your paper according to APA standards. * Post your paper as an attachment. Assignment | Location | Due | Capstone CheckPoint | Assignment Tab | Day 4 (Thurday) | Final Project: World Religions Report | Assignment Tab | Day 7 (Sunday) | Hinduism Paper Hinduism Paper Ben Smith Axia College University of Phoenix The Hindu religion is not made up of one particular belief or thought process. The Hindu religion is built upon a set of beliefs and traditions that have evolved over a long period of time. According to Ygoy, 2005, “Hinduism...
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...hated each other because they were from rival gangs. The most influential scene from the film is when Kelvin Owens saves William Rogers from one of Kelvins gang members who tries to shoot William. Kelvin overcame the fact that they were rivals and took a bullet. He did it even though he knew his own gang would hunt him down and kill him. Overcoming differences in life has been the most influential from this film. Weather we are different race, culture, or religion we must overcome diversity and treat each other with kindness....
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...Introduction to 1 Educational inequity is a pervasive problem. Just 16 percent of children who are eligible for free school meals in the U.K. attend university, in comparison to 96 percent of children educated in independent schools In Brazil, the poorest children have on average 7 fewer years of schooling than their wealthier counterparts In Peru, children in the poorest 20 percent of households receive 5 fewer years of education than children from the wealthiest Socioeconomic background predicts educational outcomes. In India, there is a 40 percent gap in secondary enrollment rates between children from the highest and lowest expenditure quintile groups In Ghana, children from the highest household wealth quintile have almost twice as many average years of schooling as those from the lowest, and even the highest quintile is four years less than the U.S. average In New Zealand, children from lowincome households are half as likely to achieve university entrance standard as those from high-income households 2 Transformational teachers show us we can solve it. Gaurav Singh, Teach For India Gaurav Singh left a successful career at Accenture to join Teach for India’s inaugural cohort of teaching fellows. Assigned to teach 50 second graders (ranging in age from 6-14,) all of whom were significantly behind grade level, Gaurav quickly decided that he needed a huge and visible goal for his class. He decided on “4” —students would grow to four times their current level in the...
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...Two definitions of nationalism: Bender’s Notes: A powerful unifying force drawing together people who share common bonds such as language, culture, religion and heritage. Also a divisive force in large empires where culturally distinct people may seek to create their own independent states. Patriotic feelings, an extreme form of this, especially marked by a feeling of superiority over other countries. advocacy of political independence for a particular country. A deep devotion to one’s nation A unifying force within a country However, it can also cause intense competition among nations, with each seeking to overpower the other. Book definition: The belief that people’s greatest loyalty should not be to a king or an empire but to a...
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...management positions it is the best way to maintain a unified corporate culture value can be created by transferring core competencies to a foreign operation via parent country nationals 2. The polycentric staffing policy recruits host country nationals to manage subsidiaries in their own country, and parent country nationals for positions at headquarters It makes sense for firms pursuing a localization strategy The polycentric approach: can minimize cultural myopia may be less expensive to implement than an ethnocentric policy There are two disadvantages to the polycentric approach: host country nationals have limited opportunities to gain experience outside their own country and thus cannot progress beyond senior positions in their own subsidiaries. a gap can form between host country managers and parent country managers 3. The geocentric staffing policy seeks the best people, regardless of nationality for key jobs This approach is consistent with building a strong unifying culture and informal management network It makes sense for firms pursuing either a global or transnational strategy Immigration policies of national governments may limit the ability of a firm to pursue this policy The geocentric approach: enables the firm to make the best use of its human resources builds a cadre of international executives who feel at home working in a number of different cultures can be limited by immigration laws is costly to...
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...Effective strategies MGT312 Effective strategies Turning around a company that is facing bankruptcy isn't a small feat for any leader. It take a leader with a solid understanding of vision and culture to effectively reverse an organization that is in a death spiral. Alan Mulally has proven that he has the right ingredients as a leader and has proven it with his turnaround of Ford Motor Company during his tenure starting in 2006 and ending in 2014. Mr. Mulally was an accomplished leader that came to Ford in 2006 after completing a tour in Boeing as the Chief Executive Officer of the Boeing Commercial Airplanes("Allen Mulally", 2014). Setting the stage for success When Mr. Mulally came to Ford in 2006 the company was on hard times. Ford was reporting losses and was facing bankruptcy. Mr. Mulally quickly identified the main causes of Ford's hardship and devise a corporate strategy that address the four main issue he saw. Mr. Mulally identified that everyone from the leaders to the employees were not working together as one team. In addition Ford was not capitalizing on its intellectual property and deep automotive knowledge and skills. As if this was not enough to cause an organization to fail add to it the fact that Ford was building 97 different cars and trucks and was not turning a profit as a whole. Mr. Mulally developed a strategy that he dubbed One Ford which he used as a platform to ground his attacks on the issues that were plaguing the Ford company. Mulally’s...
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...The Arab culture is very socially conservative. They stick with their beliefs and live for families and traditions in their culture. MTV, on the other hand, is more a hip-hop explicit music culture. They like to keep up with the new “it”, change constantly with their different form of entertainments (TV shows, music, etc.), and even provocative at times. It is expected to pose a challenge to MTV because they would want to stick to what they are known for as a company but at the same time, meet and please the people in the Middle East without disrespecting the local culture. There is also pressure on the company to act as a cultural unifying force in a region known for its political tensions. As MTV networks launched MTV Arabia to expand the international music brand into a new region of Arabs, to have market globally, this is a challenge for MTVN as they have to apply their western based TV program into a culture that they have never faced before. To avoid cultural difference MTV Arabia effectively designed a localized version of international programs. The company figured out the way to balance the local programs without letting MTV brand name to be dissolved. MTV expanded their business in 179 countries and succeeded in globalizing their brand with 1.5 billion audiences globally. In U.S alone it reached 87.6 billion homes. The target of MTV was youth and they did survey to obtain information. The launch of 60th channel of MTV is to correct the misconception of the region...
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...social customs. We have about one thousand six hundred fifty two languages and dialects afferent parts of the country. India is often called a geographical, social, etimological and cultural museum. Despite all these differences India is a political entity, every part of which is governed under the same Constitution. We have to co-exist with each other peacefully, respect the culture and religions of our fellow Indians. Our Constitution is the most important force that binds the nation together. It has given recognition to eighteen languages as National langauges. Our national festivals also act as an important unifying force. Independence Day, Republic Day and Gandhi Jayanti are festivals that are celebrated by all Indians and in all parts of the country, regardless of languages, religion or culture. They remind us of our common nationality. Our national symbols like the National Flag, the National Anthem and the National Emblem also help to remind us that we are all one. They are important symbols of our national identify. Interdependence among states once again establishes the fact that we are one. Different regions of the country are dependent on each other for supplying and consuming various kinds of products that result in their economic growth. For example, wheat grown in Punjab may be sold in Tamil Nadu and cotton textiles from Gujarat may be sold in Bihar. No region is so sufficient that can do without the other. These factors also bind the country together. The family...
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...encounters and degrees of cultural change left today? If we consider syncretism within the arenas of philosophy and religion, we can see that the melding of earlier cultures has had a lasting effect, even today. As cultures recombine with one another, they often create a new blend of teaching and belief systems from the two different cultures. However, some western religious syncretism occurred in China during the mid-late 1800s, its hybrid form not only refashioned a new belief system but also coauthored a massive rebellion known as the Taiping rebellion. While Hung Hsiu-ch'üan and his cousin baptized themselves in a well and Hung Hsiu-ch'üan called himself the other son of God, they called upon (Hooker, 1996) gender equality and sobriety, absolutism in the government and hierarchy established and even in worship during the Opium wars and rebelled not only against the foreigners and the despots then arising in opposition to foreign extraterritoriality but also to the Manchu rulers they blamed for the burgeoning group of people in the poorest class. More importantly, perhaps, this syncretism combined with the numerous cultural forces and western religions in the land, became militarized and regrettably eventually took between 30-50 million lives (Hooker, 1996). Syncretism is a fascinating amalgam of different cultures that exist at various times. We can see this in the Catholic Church looking to transform the natives of Africa. Colonization, post-colonization, and Roman Catholic...
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...has had a particular effect on the music industry, becoming a powerfully influential tool in the global music market and cultural music practices. The changes that globalisation has caused can be either viewed as hindering expressive cultural development or providing new opportunities for cultural hybridisation. Although there are distinct fallbacks, the benefits of this new global music industry have been substantial. Globalisation facilitates the development of an enriching and creative music culture and provides credits to otherwise known cultural music, shown through the examples of Korean’s K-Pop and Nigeria’s Afrobeats. Globalisation ‘refers to the rapidly developing process of complex interconnections between societies, cultures, institutions and individuals world-wide.’ (Tomlinson, 1999, pp.165) This process is commonly depicted as a beneficial force, unifying a range of different global societies and incorporating them into a “global village”, therefore enriching all cultures involved. Globalisation in the media industry is formed through the convergence of media organisations and the reconstruction of the media industries along global lines, creating a number of transnational conglomerates with immense power. This has been amenable to many media forms, in particular the music industry. For the music industry to gain popularity in the global world, it must expand to resonate to an audience near and far. Many scholars and musicians propose that popular music is...
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...majority of the song was not in English but a mixture of other languages that I could not decipher. Sitting back down, I turned to Francis and asked him what languages I had just heard in the national anthem. He responded, “There are five different languages in the song brother…Xhosa, Zulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans, and English…it’s supposed to create unity, but brother, the people here, they are not unified. No one knows the words.” Language is one of the most obvious indicators of the vast diversity of South Africa. The national anthem may be composed of five different languages, but in total, the country has eleven official languages. In Cape Town, Afrikaans, English, and Xhosa are the most widely spoken languages, but as you travel across the country, you encounter many different indigenous languages. In addition to language, another marker of South Africa’s diversity is color. Infamous for its past of apartheid, South Africa is the land of people who are black, white, coloured, and Asian. Making up almost 80% of the population demographic, black South Africans are the largest racial group, but in my view, this black population is heterogeneous in nature, speaking various languages and hailing from different places and cultures found throughout South Africa. In terms of religion, South Africa is a diverse place as well. As I sat in my room unpacking during my first night in South Africa, I was taken aback to hear the muezzin reciting the call to prayer from the mosque...
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...LANGUAGE AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSIGNMENT Examine the socio-cultural and political and religious implications of English as a national language in a multi lingual society like Nigeria. What is Language? Hornby (2001:667) defines language as the system of communication in speech and writing that is used by a people of a particular country. Oderinde (2005) sees language as a “system and vehicle of communication. Language is a symbol used by members of a given society, both in written and oral form. What is a Nation and a National Language? According to the Oxford Learners Dictionary, a nation is also considered as a group of people with the same language, culture and history who live in a particular area under one government. Countries like Cameroun, France, Thailand, Switzerland, United States of America etc. are nation states . A national language is a language or language dialect that has some connection with a people and the territory they occupy. It can be described as a dominant language in a multilingual environment used for regional and nation-wide communication. French is used as a mother tongue and national language in France, Thai in Thailand, Urdu in Pakistan, English in the United Kingdom and English in Nigeria but some scholars have argued that Nigeria cannot be called a nation exactly because of the presence of various ethnic groups which have their own languages, Hausa, Yoruba and Ibo being...
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...guidance to researchers and educate nurses (Keefe, 2011) to look at different approaches in caring for their patients. This paper will show how one theorist most influenced the development of nursing research. The 1990's was the decade for research and expanded nursing theory. This period elevated the use of evidence-based and best practices in nursing (George, 2011). Transcultural Nursing was introduced in 1992 by Madeline Leininger. Leininger’s theory says that the goal of nursing care is to” provide care congruent with cultural values, beliefs, and practices’ (Alligood & Tomey, 2010). The cultural and sociocultural factors of each person affects how they take on factors, meanings, and expressions of health and caring systems. This theory has wide applicability in different settings. The interest is focused on nurses becoming culturally competent so they can provide appropriate nursing care to a growing culturally/ethnically diverse patient population. Nursing paradigms show a clear relationship among the existing theoretical works in nursing. Leininger is the proponent of Transcultural Nursing and Human Care Theory. According to Cohen (1991), Leininger’s definition of caring states “caring is the central and unifying domain for the body of knowledge and practices in nursing”. The key to Leininger’s belief is that human caring is universal, but the expressions, processes, and patterns vary among cultures. According to the Nursing Theories...
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...Robert Collins’ A History of Modern Sudan divulges into the past of Sudan beginning with the first invasion of the Turks in 1820. Collins argues that the colonization of Sudan failed throughout the years due to a variety of factors, which include colonizer’s inability to create a unified government and structure, constant chaos between controlling powers, intolerance of the native Sudanese beliefs and the vast geography of land that differed greatly in climate and landscape. Throughout the book, as Collins takes on the task chronicling the Sudan history to provide an understanding of how Sudan evolved into its most modern state, the theme of government instability proves to be most prevalent. It is crucial to understand the concept of continual...
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