“Windows To Spirituality”
The Spiritual Life is an interfaith web-based community that celebrates and honors the many paths to God. We are dedicated to teaching and expressing a positive and practical approach to life. Our beliefs are in harmony with the basic tenets of the world’s most popular religions and spiritual traditions. As a loving and supportive spiritual community we encourage each person to pray regularly, think clearly, feel openly, and love expansively.
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111. Al-Masad (Ruin) Revealed in Makkah in the early period of the Makkan era of the Prophet Muhammad’s mission, this sūrah, Al-Masad, of five verses takes its name from the verb TabBa (be ruined), in the first verse. It promises and foretells the perishing of Abū Lahab and his wife,...
110. An-Nasr (Help) This sūrah, An-Nasr, of three verses was revealed in Madīnah some three months before the death of God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings. It is about God’s completion of His favor upon him during his life and, therefore, the end of the Messenger’s duty of...
112. Al-Ikhlaas (Putirity of Faith) This sūrah (Al-Ikhlaas or Al-Ikhlas, Putirity of Faith) of four verses was revealed in Makkah. It takes its name from the subject matter; for this reason, it is also called Sūrat at-Tawhīd (Declaration of God’s Absolute Unity). In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate....
113. Al-Falaq (The Daybreak) Revealed in Madīnah, and consisting of five verses, this sūrah gets its name from the word al-falaq (the daybreak) in the first verse. It teaches us how to seek refuge in God from every evil to which we may be exposed. In the Name of God,...
114. An-Naas (Humankind) This sūrah of six verses was revealed in Madīnah. Its name comes from the word An-Naas or an-nās (humankind), which recurs throughout. It teaches us how to seek refuge with God from the secret devices of Satan or similar beings, and it is the last sūrah of the...
Moral Psychology Moral psychology is a field of study in both philosophy and psychology. Historically, the term “moral psychology” was used relatively narrowly to refer to the study of . Moral psychology eventually came to refer more broadly to various topics at the intersection of ethics, psychology, and philosophy of mind. Some of the main topics...
Spiritual Communion Spiritual communion is a Christian practice of desiring union with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. It is used as a preparation for Mass and by individuals who cannot receive Holy Communion. This practice is well established in Lutheran, Anglican, and Methodist churches, as well as in the Catholic Church, where it has been highly recommended by many saints,...
Spiritual Ecology Spiritual Ecology is an emerging field in religion, conservation, and academia recognizing that there is a spiritual facet to all issues related to conservation, environmentalism, and earth stewardship. Proponents of Spiritual Ecology assert a need for contemporary conservation work to include spiritual elements and for contemporary religion and spirituality to include awareness...
Spiritual Retreat The meaning of a spiritual retreat can be different for different religious communities. Spiritual retreats are an integral part of many Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian and Sufi communities. In Hinduism and Buddhism, meditative retreats are seen by some as an intimate way of deepening powers of concentration and insight. Retreats...
Spiritual Christianity Spiritual Christianity (духовное христианство) is the group of belief systems held by so-called folk Protestants (narodnye protestanty), including non-Eastern Orthodox indigenous faith tribes and new religious movements that emerged in the Russian Empire. Their origins are varied: some from Protestant movements imported from Europe to Russia by missionaries, travelers and workers; some due to disgust of...
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s greatest dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon” (or simply “the Bard”). His extant works, including collaborations,...
Haiku Haiku (俳句) is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a kireji, or “cutting word”, 17 on (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern and a kigo, or seasonal reference. Similar poems that do not adhere to these rules are generally classified...
Ghazal The ghazal (Arabic: غَزَل, Bengali: গজল, Hindi-Urdu: ग़ज़ल/غزَل, Persian: غزل, Azerbaijani: qəzəl, Turkish: gazel, Uzbek: gʻazal, Gujarati: ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The ghazal...
Waka In Poetry Waka (和歌, “Japanese poem”) is a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. Although waka in modern Japanese is written as 和歌, in the past it was also written as 倭歌, and a variant name is yamato-uta (大和歌). Etymology The word waka has two different but related meanings: the original meaning was “poetry in Japanese” and encompassed several...
Villanelle A villanelle, also known as villanesque, is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately at the end of each subsequent stanza until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines. The villanelle is an...
Shi In Poetry Shi (in poetry) and shih are romanizations of the character 詩/诗, the Chinese word for all poetry generally and across all languages. In Western analysis of the styles of Chinese poetry, shi is also used as a term of art for a specific poetic tradition, modeled after the Old Chinese works collected in the Confucian Classic of Poetry. This anthology included both aristocratic poems (the “Hymns”...
Sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form which originated in the Italian poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in Palermo, Sicily. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet’s invention for expressing courtly love. The Sicilian School of poets who surrounded him at the...
Epic Poetry An epic poem (Epic Poetry) is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily involving a time beyond living memory in which occurred the extraordinary doings of the extraordinary people who, in dealings with the gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants, the poet and their audience,...
Ode An ode (ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyrical stanza. It is an elaborately structured poem praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also enter. Greek...
Rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, exactly the same sound) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic effect in the final position of lines within poems or songs. More broadly, a...
Free Verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French vers libre form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Definition Free verse does not “proceed by a strict set of rules … is...
Narrative Poetry Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters; the entire story is usually written in metred verse. Narrative poems do not need rhyme. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates...
Elegy In English literature, an elegy is a poem of serious reflection, usually a lament for the dead. However, “for all of its pervasiveness … the ‘elegy’ remains remarkably ill defined: sometimes used as a catch-all to denominate texts of a somber or pessimistic tone, sometimes as a marker for textual...
