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.)
SALAHUDDIN AL-AYUBI (The Liberator Of Jerusalem) -I
by Dr. Mahmoud Esmail Sieny " The answer to an ill-deed is an ill-deed or the like thereof. But whosoever pardoneth and amendeth his reward is with Allaah. Surely, He does not love wrong doers." (Al Quran 42:40) History tells us that when Sultan Salahuddin regained Jerusalem from the invading and ruthless Crusaders, who had ninety years earlier massacred and savagely treated its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants, he met a group of Latin Christian women who addressed him, "O Sultan! You see that we are leaving. Among us are mothers, wives, daughters or sisters to the soldiers in captivity with you. These men are our support in life, and if we lose them we will lose everything. But if you leave them for our sake, you will be giving us back our lives." At this our hero Salahuddin smiled and he gave orders that the sons and husbands of those women were to be set free. He went even further and gave money to the women whose supporters were killed in the battle. An irate Frenc
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."