What purpose does the retelling of the Joseph story serve in the sections of the Qur’an you’ve read?

The retelling of the story of Joseph in the Qur’an presented the theses that God is dominant. Joseph was in a poor situation: severed from his brothers, sold to other country as slave, someone tried to set him up and seduce him. He is thrown into prison and he rely upon God. At later scene, when Joseph reunited with his family, his brother admits their fault and ask forgiveness from the God. The retelling of Joseph’s story is trying to show people that how loyalty that he is. No matter how many obstacles that he have been faced, he still believe in God. At the end people can still get what they want as long as they hold on to their belief in God.

Discuss the royal of betrayal and distrust in the story, e.g. why is Sita so quick to accuse Laksmana of trying to get her alone with him?

When we talk about the royal of betral and distrust in the Ramayana story, we must think about Dasharatha, the King of Ayodhya, and Sita, the wife of Rama. At the beginning of the story, in Book 2 Ayodhya 17-18, the King Dasharatha has decided to keep his words to Queen Kaikey that he would banish his heir apparent, Rama, for 14 years and let Queen Kaikeyli’s son Bharata to be crowned. However, Dasharatha betrayed the rules of dharma – the eldest son should rule. Although in the this Book, Dasharatha does not want to tell Rama about this truth since he does not want to do that. However, he keeps his words to Kaikeyli but betrayed his son and the rules of dharma.

Another betrayal or distrust occurs on Sita. From Book 3, aranya 34-35, we know that Ravana is attacted by the beauty of Sita from Supanakha’s speech. Then he set up the trap with magical Golden deer to abduct Sita. She did not following what Rama and Lakshman said to stay in the protective circle since she thought Ravana is a brahmana. She “betrayed” Rama and Lakshman’s trust. On the other hands, when Rama saved her from Ravanam, she has been asked to prove her purtity. This shows the distrust that Rama has on Sita.

Describe how Plato, Sappho, and/or Catullus conceive of love (and/or friendship). You can choose to only discuss one of the three works or compare two or three of them. You can also choose to compare their views on love with The Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, or Lysistrata. You can also choose to focus more specifically on either the lover or the beloved if you like.

In Sappho’s works, it show the importance of the relationship. In poem 16, Sappho states that the most beautiful thing on the Earth is what we love. In that specific poem, it mention about Helen left her husband went to Troy. It is sort of the starting point of the Trojan War. It is similar to Lysistrata where as Lysistrata was trying to use ‘sex’ and the love between couples and to stop the war between Spartan and Athenian. Both of them spotted the relationship between people. In Sappho, she states the relationship between Helen and Paris is love and it become the cause of the Trojan War. On the other side, in Lysistrata, the love between couple become the “weapon” for Lysistrata to be negotiate for the end of the war.