My dear friends, happy Week 7 🙂

I am deeply grateful to you for all your hard work.  You are awesome, and I am very proud of every single one of you.  It saddens me to think about the quarter coming to an end as that means saying goodbye to you all.  However, on the bright side, it also means that we are almost there, the holidays are upon us, and you are about to get a much-deserved break.  It would be lovely to see you all and share the joy over the office hours before we wrap up the quarter.

I know, I hear you, Get to the discussion boards already!  Well, without further ado, let me introduce our discussion boards for Week 7:

This week we will have two discussion boards, just like the last week:  The first one will focus on the reading content as usual.  In the second one, we will write and share a draft of our introductory paragraphs for our final paper (Assignment #3) and give peer-feedback to each other on their structure, content, and flow.  I will post the second board and the instructions for it on Tuesday.

This first board will be assigned a letter grade, and the second one will be graded as complete/incomplete.  To receive full credit, we will need to complete both discussion boards.

Discussion Board 1 Questions:  (Two questions in total: one question from Part I, and the question from Part II)

PART I:

In Part I, please pick and answer only one of the two questions below. 

1. Based on Week 7s lectures and the selections from the Quran in Worlds Wisdom, please contrast the suras written in Mecca and Medina. Do you see any differences?  If so, how can we explain these differences based on the specific historical contexts they respond to? (up to 350 words)

2. Which tradition(s) we have covered in the previous weeks is more similar to Sufism? Drawing on specific course content, please offer a comparative analysis of Sufism and the tradition(s) you have picked.  In your comparison, you can consider key aspects such as the notion of ultimate reality/truth, concepts of divinity, reflections on the self, relationship with the environment, well-being, and harmony with the universe. You can focus on as many or as few of these aspects as you see necessary to establish your argument as well as any other additional ones you have observed.  Here are some traditions to get you started with (but you are not limited to them):  Daoism, Buddhism, and the Upanishads (up to 350 words)   

PART II:

For Part II, please answer the question below.

In reflecting on MMW 121 content through Week 7, which tradition or content have you found most interesting? What content have you found most surprising?  Why? (up to 200 words)
Once you post your answers, please use the 3C+Q model to respond to at least one other post.  When you engage with someone elses post, please only address one of their answers.

Love you all!

Cheers,