Perspective Behind Literature
The Age Of Transcendence
c. 1800 BC to c. 1300 BC
Arsala Abrar (fellow participant on DNA of History according to Iqbal.)
Pakistan ka Matlab Kia??*
The advertise of "Parhny likhny k siwa, Pakistan ka matlab kia" on Geo TV always disturb me. It makes me think, how would the education, they talk about in it, be able to change our generation's attitude and help us to work for the betterment of Pakistan? Because our education system is a total failure. It lacks the vision, reforms, and principles which a nation need to teach their young ones. In fact our syllabus has not been changed for like 40 years. I was shocked to discover some 6 or 7 years back that I studied same syllabus which my mother studied in her metric and on-wards. Would this kind of a syllabus make Pakistan a better place? Is it the meaning of Pakistan? Was it what Quaid, Iqbal, Jauhar, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan had in mind when they proposed and worked for Pakistan? A stagnant stale rotten education system which doesn't even help students to walk with the rest of the world? Make them slaves of the advanced nation and in inferiority complex with them? Sure...
Firstly, during this period of history civilisations were adapting and shaping according to their needs and due to this one of the result is the development of writing. But as Rumi 'remarks about poets in the poetry of Sarosh that the difference between poets who bring joy and poets who perpetuate misery', writing and architecture can also be looked at from the same thought. Therefore I believe that looking at perspective is essential. Maybe considering who wrote it and why. As our instructor mentions in the lesson that resources about this period of history is written from the perspective of the opponents of Abraham. This issue can also be applied to the past as well. Where word of God through Abraham was for the benefit of all human kind, on the other hand books like epic of Gilgamesh were written for the benefit of an individual. Where word of God was to improve society as whole, epic of Gilgamesh only glorified the power of the king. Where one empowers human kind the other empowers an individual. Architecture can also be looked under the same concept. Where Abraham built to unite people under One God and make them equals. Some architecture were built to further divide the gap between classes and glorify the kings. Hence I believe its relevant not to just study the literature but research and understand it's context as well. Who wrote it or created and for what reasons?
Secondly, what I learnt from the lesson was about 'power of analysing'. As civilizations grow both physically and mentally, people start to discover the powers God has vested in them. There is a chance that due to this people might start considering themselves superior and powerful than others. I believe its very important to utilise both appreciate self and sense perception to make judgements. When the elite denied the ready made judgement through Noah's intuition they suffered. On the other hand when " people denied the evidence of sense perception" they made kings divine and powerful accepting themselves to be less important and not equals. Reinforcing the class difference themselves. Therefore both concepts of appreciate self and sense perception have been taught to humankind by the messengers and both need to be utilised according to the situation to analyze and make judgements."