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.

The story of Joseph is one that is told in multiple spiritual works. It is present in both the Bible and the Qur’an, and they serve similar purposes. In the Bible, the story of Joseph is told not only as a tale of the power of God, but also as a story of the importance of filial loyalty. In the Qur’an, much more emphasis is placed on the role of God and his great power over his followers. Throughout the story of Joseph, the characters are constantly harkening back to the teachings of God, especially Joseph and Jacob, who are descended from the great prophets Isaac and Abraham. Joseph demonstrates that unwavering belief in God and avoidance of sin will lead to a good life, even if some hardships are thrown in along the way. According to the Qur’an, if you are a good person who follows God’s teachings, you will have a fortunate life.

The reason why the Islamic heaven is a rich and fertile garden isn’t stated in the text explicitly, but there are some connections that can be made to explain this. The first connection is the fact that Muslims, Christians , and Jews share some similar foundations between their religions, one of which is the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was where people were close to God and enjoyed peaceful lives in bliss, which is the reward for following the Qur’an and God’s will. The Qur’an states that there will be a Judgement Day and that the “good” people who accepted God and followed his will, will go to heaven and be under his protection, living their life in bliss and happiness. This seems to be a return to the same Garden of Eden. However, the ones who disobey God will not return and instead be forbidden to enter the Garden, just like the time when Adam and Eve were cast out for eating the Forbidden fruit. Those “losers” will be forced to live in a hellish, hot, and dry place which coincidentally seems closer to the conditions in the Arabian peninsula, where the religions first started, than heaven.

Why does the Qur’an place such great emphasis on gardens and/or feasts?

While many other religions believe that heaven is an enchanted kingdom somewhere in the sky, the muslim community holds the belief  that it is similar to that of earth. The Qur’an describes heaven as a garden. The Qur’an describes the garden as a form of reward for those who are faithful. It is described as having rivers of milk and wine and honey and compassing fruits. I found it funny that it is against muslim traditions to consume wine, however it would be available flowing in the form of a river paradise. The garden is seen as the enchanted garden where one would want for nothing. Everything needed for survival would be easily accessible to the faithful followers of the muslim community.

The Qur’an is the last of the sequence of holy books.  It was received by Muhammed over a period of about 23 years; it was spoken to him through the angel, Gabriel and is meant to depict God’s words to Mohammed.  The word “Qur’an” means “the recitation” because it was first only spoken; it was later written down after the death of Mohammed, in order that the ideas be preserved.  It was first written in Arabic, then translated into Persian and other languages.  It was meant to be the final book and therefore the final ideas and commandments of God’s will.  In The Qur’an, there is a big influence on gardens and feasts.  This is because God wishes to reveal that, if you follow his rules and are good, you will have good things return to you, such as gardens and happiness.  The feasts represent laws and rules that God gives–about what people can and cannot eat, how to eat the food, etc.–but the deeper meaning seems to be to again threaten followers that, if they do not follow rules and be good, that there will be bad consequences.  Essentially, “God has the power to do all things” (5. The Feast, page 9).  Essentially, those who do good, and follow God’s rules, and do good deeds, will be spared and forgiven.  He uses the ideas of the rules of the food (the feast) as an example of how to earn justice and mercy.  He keeps going back to the idea of being just and merciful to those who follow his rules and, by contrast, that those who do not follow his rules will be hurt in the end.  The retelling of the Joseph story is another example of God showing us right from wrong.  Joseph’s brothers were jealous and tried to get rid of Joseph and they were ultimately punished for doing this.  By contrast, because Joseph was a good man, no matter what terible events happened to him, he was able to overcome, succeed and in the end was saved, adored, revered and worshipped.  This shows us that people who do bad things or act on bad ideas, like jealousy, will only get hurt, whereas people who follow God’s law will ultimately be saved.

Question  How is the sanctity of marriage bond portrayed throughout the narrative?

The sanctity of marriage bond is mostly portrayed as something  not highly valued in comparison to today’s standard. Countless times in the story you see characters having  many wives.  Rama’s father had a numerous amount of wives and so did the demon Ravana. It’s interesting to see when Ravana abducted Sita and told her how none of his wives could compare and how she would be his favorite if she married him. This shows that he could easily give up any of his current wives for her. Also in the beginning of the story  Rama’s mother Kausalya states how she was never treated well like how his fathers other wives were. The only true bond seen through the story is with Rama and Sita. They devoted their lives to one another and were in distress when they thought something happened to the other. Based from the text, you also see how Rama had only Sita as his wife. He was monogamous in a society where clearly polygamy was widely accepted.

How is the sanctity of marriage bond portrayed throughout the narrative?

The concept of marriage is extremely scared in The Ramayana of Valmiki. I think it may be the most pertinent form of union between two individuals. A relationship between a man and his wife has been portrayed in the reading as above any other relationship. After Roma was exiled and his mothers wish was to accompany him, Roma informed his mother that her loyalty should be with his father. Leaving her husband to be with her child would be categorized as a form of betrayal. There also seems to be a belief that the bond between a man and wife is continued after death. On more than one occasions in the book, both Rama and Sita considered suicide as a means of being together after life has ended. They preferred death over living without each other.

The Ramayana and The Odyssey are both epics of ancient societies that held some common beliefs. Ancient Greece and Ancient India both placed heavy emphasis on religion, which played a large part in their literature. These cultures also found honor in actions incredibly important, and those who acted without honor were looked down upon and shamed immortally in history and literature. For example, in The Odyssey, Odysseus murdered the antagonists, Penelope’s suitors, and then had their bodies disposed of without proper burial rituals. The Greeks found no honor in death for those who acted dishonorably in life. On the other hand, in the Ramayana, the hero, Rama, defeats his enemy Ravana, but still upheld his honor after death. Despite all the atrocities Ravana had caused for Rama, Rama respected his enemy’s life and honored his body after death. One aspect of Hinduism is the reincarnation of the soul after death, so Rama honored Ravana’s soul by not desecrating his body. In contrast, the Greeks did not place much emphasis on life after death, and therefore would not treat the bodies of the dead as sacredly as other cultures, especially not those of evildoers.

The Hindu gods in Ramayana are portrayed very differently from the Greek gods in the Odyssey. For starters, they are not as prideful – Rama is consistently praised as being a god and having god like beauty and strength, during the time he is perceived as a mortal. Such a display of pride in Greek mythology would have surely incurred the wrath of the Zeus,  even if it was another god he was punishing. In addition, these gods are far more forgiving, kind and less judgmental, with the main instance being at the very end, when Rama berates his wife and allows her to burn herself to death. Such an act would have caused the Greek gods to curse, kill or bestow a horrible prophecy on Rama, who did not realize he was a god yet. Throughout Greek mythology, the gods inflict cruel fates upon those who treat others badly or offend other gods. Instead, in the Ramayana, the gods step forward and give Rama his wife back, saying that she has done no harm and that he should not judge her so quickly. They even reveal that they are immortal anyways. Even though his reasoning for her initial suicide had an ulterior motive, the gods of Olympus would have found his actions extremely unfavorable.