The Koran and the Thousand and One Nights Books - Essay Example

The Koran and the Thousand and One Night are the two most influential and well-known books in the Islam world. Both books reveal important principles of Islamic culture. In the Thousand and One Nights, this is both obvious and thematic. It is obvious in the way that the concepts contained in the Koran are explained within the “Tale of Sympathy and the Learned” among others. Within this story, the main character Sympathy makes it clear that the principles of the Koran are obedience, dedication to the religion of Mohammad, education and prayer for forgiveness and ablution.

Her words and the words of the learned quizzing her reveal that the primary aim of Muslims is to achieve purity of body and spirit so that they will be worthy of meeting God. The book reflects the principles of the Koran in a thematic way through the various tales and the frame story. These stories reveal the principles of the Koran at work in the lives of the characters. The frame story of a ruler who promises to take a new wife each evening and kill her each morning is reflected in these stories by allowing the ruler to see himself in each tale and his storyteller and latest wife, Shahrazad, in the roles of the female characters.

As she gently instructs him in his religion, she is saving her own life and the lives of 1001 other of her countrywomen. She also presents the ruler with three healthy sons in this period and is finally rewarded with life and honor as the ruler’s queen.