What is my greatest dream?

To be honest, the word “dream” is too vague for me to define. Aspirations and goals in my life are like just a passing event, it lasts for a day, probably a week, but never longer than that time span. Because what I want in life are almost near impossible. I give up the moment I don’t see any progression of what I do to achieve that specific goals. It’s probably on my mentality. I know it’s wrong, I know that I can change this kind of mentality, but then again the laziness will hit me. It always does. I really don’t have any idea what I want in life.

Back when I was in primary school, I was the kind of kid who will destroy stuffs just to build new things. I remember destroying a toy car (it was called Crash Gear) with a dynamo taking it and building a small toy airboat with a working propeller, of course it didn’t last long because the propeller including the dynamo was also submerged under water. That interest lead me wanting to become an engineer, but the only kind of engineer I know that time was someone who build houses, buildings, bridges, what a civil engineer is in context. In time, that want faded like it was never there to begin with.

I can’t really tell when exactly I became aware of what are the things I really want, and why I want them. It probably was the time where your friends or teachers would ask you: What are your goals in life? What are your dreams? What are the things you want to achieve? I just followed the flow, it was as If that all my answers where just the norms, the practicality of what a person in his teenage years would want. It was all for the façade to look that I was normal but in fact I was not. I know that time I want things that are not practical, like for an example I wanted that time was world domination. I just probably wanted acknowledgement that time but I was dead serious of what I want.

It never came to me that I would want a life of just being normal, having a job, a family of my own. Never did it catch my mind me wanting to finish a degree or such. I’ve always thought that I can educate myself. Even now, I have no clear goals in life. My mind is always filled with thoughts that I can never comprehend myself. I can’t even understand myself nor my wants. But one thing is certain: I just want to travel the world and see it as it is, different from my usual norms in life. Probably this is just my escape mechanism of the reality of what is currently happening around me. I just want a different kind of reality. Wanderlust.

As I’ve always known that my life is as vague as the word “dream” I’ve considered it to be.

Western Literature

Refers to the literature written in the languages of Europe, including the ones belonging to the Indo-European language family as well as several geographically or historically related languages such as Basque, Hungarian, and so forth. Western literature is considered one of the defining elements of Western civilization.
The best of Western literature is considered to be the Western Canon. The list of works in the Western Canon varies according to the critic's opinions on Western culture and the relative importance of its defining characteristics.
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin, especially western European culture.
The Great Books of the Western World is an attempt to present the western canon in a single package of 60 volumes
Dante, Homer and Virgil in Raphael's Parnassus fresco (1511), in which the Western canon is visualised
The Medieval West (The Great Schism with former borders in 1054.)

While epic literary works in verse such as the Mahabarata and Homer's Iliad are ancient and occurred worldwide, the novel as a distinct form of story telling only arose in the West in the period 1200 to 1750.
Western literature. William Shakespeare's First Folio pictured.
The Western canon is a term used to denote a canon of books, and, more widely, music and art, that has been the most influential in shaping Western culture. It asserts a compendium of the "greatest works of artistic merit." Such a canon is important to the theory of educational perennialism and the development of "high culture". Although previously held in high regard, it has been the subject of increasing contention through the latter half of the 20th century. In practice, debates and attempts to actually define the canon in lists are essentially restricted to books of various sorts: literature, including poetry, fiction and drama, autobiographical writings and letters, philosophy and history. A few accessible books on the sciences are usually included.

Source

The Rise of Islam and Islamic Literature

The Rise of Islam

• Muhammad and his Teachings became the basis of a new religion and Community during the seventh century known as Islam (Qur’an).
• After Muhammad's death, his family continued his political and religious leadership of the Islamic community but not his prophetic office.
• In the mid-eight century, Baghdad was founded and became the center of rich, cosmopolitan culture that was nourished with the ablest minds and greatest talents.
• In 1219-1220 the Mongol Genghis Khan's armies invaded the Islamic Empire in the East and after creating the Mongol dynasties, converted to Islam.
• The Islam world came to be divided the Ottomans (West), the Safavids (Iran), and the Moguls (India).

The Qur'an

• Revelations were Received by Muhammad from 610-632 C.E.
• It is thought to not have been created, like God, but to exist for all eternity.
• cannot be translated and only interpretations of the Koran are used for teaching purpose.
• Is a work that is to be heard and recited, and is more dialogic than narrative.
• The Koran is comprised of verse that are gathered and organized by subject matter into Suras.
• The Style of the verses vary enormously, even though the Qur’an was revealed in a shorter period of time.
• The longer Suras are a mixture of styles - exhortation, evocation, legal prescription, and sage counsel.
• The meaning of the Koran is for all humanity.
• The opening Sura, The Exordium, is recited by Muslims before every prayer and is inscribed on written documents.
• The Story of Joseph, in the Koran, mainly focuses on the general theme of the importance of trusting in divine guidance.
• The story of Noah, emphasis his prophetic role rather than the ark and salvation of the animals, and teaches that shared belief replaces blood as the strongest bond that unites people

The Rise of Islamic Literature: Timeline

          510 - 622 C.E

The great age of Arabic oral heroic poetry.

          622 - 750 C.E

Invention of the love lyric, also called the ghazal (guh-zal').

          750 - 1055 C.E

The Golden Age of Arabic letters.

"The Biography of the Prophet " is written by Ibn Ishaq about Muhammad. 

          810 - 850 C.E

Heyday of Al-Jahiz, the greatest master of arabic prose literature.

          813 - 833 C.E

Caliphate of al-Ma'mun, who promotes the translation of Greek philosophy and Science into Arabic.

"A Thousand and One Nights” may have entered Arabic about this time.

          819 - 1005 C.E

The Samanid court encourages poets and writers in Persia and sponsors a new version of the Shahname

          1010 C.E

Ferdowsi completes his poetic version of the Shahname.

          913 - 961 C.E

The Golden age old Islamic culture in Spain, which includes the establishment of the first major centers of learning in medieval Europe.

          1177 C.E

Attar completes "The Conference of the Birds."

          1218 C.E

Jalalioddin Rumi composes both his great lyric works and the "Spiritual Couplets."

          1257 - 1258 C.E

Sa'di composes the "Bustan and Golestan."

          1370 - 1405 C.E

Persian poetry enters a period of gradual transformation and renewal.

Source

The history of literature begins with the invention of writing, in Bronze Age Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. Writing developed out of proto-literate sign systems in the 30th century BC, although the oldest known literary texts date from the 27th or 26th century BC.

Literature from the Iron Age includes the earliest texts which have been preserved in a manuscript tradition, including the Avestan Gathas, the Indian Vedas , parts of the Hebrew Bible, and the earliest literature from Ancient Greece.

Classical Antiquity is generally considered to begin with Homer in the 8th century BC, and it continues until the decline of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. Although the earliest Classics were in Ancient Greek, from the 3rd century BC Greek literature was joined by Latin literature. As well as the Western canon, there is also a period of classical Sanskrit literature and Sangam literature in India, Chinese classics in China, and in Late Antiquity the beginning of classical Syriac and Middle Persian literature.

Literature is an art of written works and is literally translated as "acquaintance with letters". This commonly refers to works of creative minds including poetry, drama, fiction, non-fiction and journalism.

Literature represents the culture and tradition of a language or a group of people. It's difficult to precisely define, though many have tried, but it's clear that the accepted definition of literature is constantly changing and evolving.

Literature provides a kind of blueprint of our humanity and our civilization. From the writings of ancient civilizations like in China and Egypt to Greek philosophy and poetry, from the epics of Homer to the plays of Shakespeare, from Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte to Pablo Neruda, works of literature give insight and context to all of the worlds' societies.

Whatever critical paradigm we use to discuss and analyze it, literature is important to us because it speaks to us, it is universal, and it affects us on a deeply personal level. Literature is a paradox of itself.

Literature is an art.

Literature is an art.