Literature and Education

Education: Good Literature and Bad Literature

• In Islam, a work of art should either benefit Muslims materially or spiritually; otherwise, it is considered a waste of God-given talents.
• Islam's great work in science, art, and literature is included under two heads: aid and refreshment.

Doris Lessing: Women's Rights

• Mary Wollstonecraft and George Sand wrote about feminism before the term was invented in the 1880s.
• Doris Lessing actively wrote during the height of feminist activism in the 1960s and 1970s but refused to be associated with the movement or term.
• Islam regards believing men and women as "friends and protectors of one another" (Quran 9:71) and characterizes the relationship between husband and wife as one based on "love and tenderness" (Qur'an 30:21).
• Lessing acknowledges essential differences between men and women and may prefer Islam's gender "equity" instead of the West's gender "equality."

The Islamic Lessing/Sufism

• Sufism is inspired by the Quran, the religious practice of the Prophet, and that of the early Muslim community.
• The Islamic concept of tazkiyat al-nafs (self-purification) is proactive and guided by wider, comprehensive Islamic teachings.
• Islam does not promote escapism from everyday life and its challenges.
• Muslims are encouraged to live a meaningful, fulfilling mundane life of productivity and vitality, but not to become engrossed in worldly pleasures that make them forget about God.
• The Quran advises Muslims to "seek instead, by means of what God has granted you, [the good of] the life to come, without forgetting, your own [rightful] share in this world; and do good [to others] as God has done good to you; and seek not to spread corruption on earth" (Quran 28:77).