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Liked It “My first book by Achebe and I loved it. Very engrossing, great narrative, lots of detail on the African Igbo culture. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a very balanced book on colonial conflicts - tribal life was not idealized, colonizers were not demonized - so in that sense i found the...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“My first book by Achebe and I loved it. Very engrossing, great narrative, lots of detail on the African Igbo culture. I was also pleasantly surprised to see a very balanced book on colonial conflicts - tribal life was not idealized, colonizers were not demonized - so in that sense i found the book very refreshing. Even otherwise an excellent story very well told. ”
Paddy J wrote this review Monday, October 19 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“At it's most base, this is the story of an Ibo tribal priest, Ezeulu and his downfall. However it also about so much more. It is a story of conflict; conflict between old and new traditions, conflict between colonization and African culture, conflict between Christianity and tribal religion.
Sara W wrote this review Tuesday, September 8 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
It was very strongly written and an informative look at African tribal culture. I always enjoy Achebe's books and Arrow of God was no exception. However, perhaps due to cultural differences, I had a hard time, really connecting to the characters. They were welll written, but for me the emotional connection was not there and this is where it lost that fifth star as the story itself and the writing were worthy of all five. ”
“Really good read.... tribal life in Africa and the devistation caused by the intercession of the industrialized world -- particuarly the British -- is the underlying current of the novel as it explores the lives of tribal Africans and how their lives are uprooted due to change they did not foresee. Really great read.”
Heather wrote this review Tuesday, June 23 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This is another cycle of tradition vs. change, and takes the Things Fall Apart premise to a whole new level. His versatility reminds me of Walter Dean Myers, taking risks and trying new things with characters and plots without losing the good stuff. To me this is the most serious of all his novels, and that's different because most of his novels have a lot of humor.”
Kathleen D wrote this review Saturday, October 18 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Too much like Things Fall Apart! I would not suggest reading both books, and I have to say that I liked Things Fall Apart better. In my literary analysis, Things Fall Apart maintains it's neutrality a lot more effectively than Arrow of God. That said, if you haven't read Things Fall Apart and for some reason don't want to, this is still a really good read and an interesting story.”
Lauren C wrote this review Wednesday, October 1 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“December 10,2007
abdul latif k wrote this review Monday, December 10 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
From
a l khan
Dear Friend
A S A (Assalam Alaikum)
Its a matter of pleasure to have a thirst for the truth,
the back bone of the aim of life. The life has to come
to an end and every one will appear before the
Almighty Allah for his/her accountability and the basis of
the accounting will be in the light of the intention a
man has done any deed.
A thief steels with an intention of earning the bnefit
by his own means so tht he can lead a happy life.
The extent of such happiness at the most is till death only. He
may have a concept of acounability on the day of
judgemnt but he has only information and withot any
confirmation and strict reality that enquiry is going
to take place. And there after he he is going to face
the hell fire for ever.
If he has a strict vision that the judgement is going
to take place and the ACCOUNTANT is so potent, all
knower, absolutely power full, fair in decision,knower
of every bit of deed and the intention behind the
deed, and no one beside Him has any ability to rule
out His decision or to alter His judgement,and no one
will have any authority to render help to any body ,,
he (the thief) will never dare to steal any body.
The bsic tennet of true belief is very very simple.
You can think primarily 5 feature of human life and
that will clarify many doubts-
Item 1:
At present I am talking to you. If I die now I will
not be able to talk to you. This proves that the
tongue I am using does not belong to me. Althogh the
tongue is attached to my body even after my death.
Similarly other parts of body can be proved on this
logic that they do not belong to me. Like my hand ,
feet,eyes, ears etc they do not belong to me. They
have been given to me by the Almighty to use them as
per His directive.
Item 2:
I am hungry now. I took full belly food. Now I say to
my stomach not to digest the food. If stomach obeys my
instruction, I will not require food again through out
my life. Then there will be no need to eat. There by I
will not require to eat. And in that case , I will
not require to earn any more. In fact I will not require to do
any thing. All my economic activities will
automtically come to an end. In short, I will be
a happiest person. What a fantastic and care free life it will be ?
Dear friend think for a while atleast.
On hearing my instruction , my stomach tells me that
Mr Khan what a foolish man you are? He says that should
I obey you or I should obey my creator? Certainly he
has to obey his creator and what soever I eat he will
crush every bit to pieces agaist my will : and I have to
face hunger : and this is the root cause of all my worries.
What ever I do I do because of the disobedience of my
stomach. It proves that the stomach to whom I say my
stomach in fact does not belong to me because he does
not obey me.
Who soever does not obey me does not
belong to me. If a son does not obey his father,
the father says to every body he comes
across with about his son that he is not his son.
We are telling lies in our life that
this is my stomach. How can a liar speak truth when he
is not accepting Almighty as the real owner of the
stomach and thereby ownership of the other internal
body parts like heart , kideys, liver etc.
Body parts belong to Almighty and the use of these
parts without the permission of the real owner is
certainly a case of robbery, dacoity, misappropriation, embezlement,and so on. In order to seek the permission for the useof the body parts, one has to accept His authority first and show ones gratitude to Him alone and no one else whosoever one might be, dead or alive or any non
living universal object. When we can not tolerate any
one using my object without permission , how can the
owner of the universe excuse us. He has given us a
life span so that before death we rectify our belief
and and our attitude towards Him. And since the end of
the worldly life is not known to any one except the
Almighty , we should rectify our self without any
further delay.
Item 3:
You know that every body in the world is earning
money. In order to earn money, people are working all
the 24 hours. Every one sleeps for at least 8 hours and that
too is for preparing for earning. Since every one earns
money and every one says that one is earning for his
livelihood, stomach and for his children and dependents , so one
should eat money only.
Since he has earned money ,so he should eat it.
He is entitled to eat money only the thing what
he has earned and nothing else.
No one can eat money.
This proves that every one is tellig
lies and only lies.
How can any one be truthful. Is it
not a deception ?
To whom is he deceaving?
Certainly to himself and himself alone.
Once the earner himself can not eat
what he has earned, then how can he make his
dependents to eat money. This proves again a big lie
every one in the world is speaking.
A man eats the items broadly categorised in three
groups--
Wheat grains encompassing all the grains like rice
barley, grams , peas , fruits etc---milk drops
encompassing all drinks---and meat bits of animals ,
birds, fish etc.
The tragedy is that that not even a single wheat grain
can be manufactured by the whole human population.
Whole humanity is 100 percent helpless.
I asked one farmer that people say that you produce wheat grains.
He told me that every one tells a lie. How can I produce a single
wheat grain when I myself throw my stored grains in
the field mud. It is that Almighty who breaks the
grains, germinates it,produces the plant, its fruits ,
seeds , leaf etc etc . It is He who feeds us.
Where people devote whole of their life to earn what they can
not eat: they do not even recognise the
the Authority who is feeding : and they do not realise as to
what for they are given the food.
What they do not eat, they remain busy in
obeying those who are giving money and what
they are eating ,they do not realise even as
to what for they are fed by Almighty.
Is it not a mockery of high order in which we are
involved?
The food is given to us to obey the
universal authority, The Amighty, by telling the
people to accept His authority showing our obedience
to Him and Him alone and offering our prayers to Him
alone.
Item 4:
You may not be knowing a situation for the costliest
medication. It is neither cancer nor heart problem. It
is a situation when any body becomes unconcious in the
hospital or is brought to the hospital in an
unconcious situation. The best facility avaiable in
the hospital is provided by the hospital with
immediate effect and the relatives , without any
bargain, open the door of their banks for any
expenditure for bringing the patient in healthy state.
And the facility is termed as intensive care unit.
Have a pause for a moment please. Every body in the
world, without any distiction of colour and creed,
nation or region, poor or rich, is put under intensive
care unit daily for around 8 hours in the form of
sleep.
A tired man says that he is going to take rest. In
fact he is going to die because a sleep is a minor
form of death. If Almighty brings him bach to life,
only then he can return to life other wise dead for
ever.
And what happens during a sleep?
The sleeper remains unaware as to what is happening
to his body machine. This is the time when his body is
lying in the garauge of Almighty. Roughly 15 trilion cells
of the body face complete overhauling. Every cell is checked
for its normal functioning. They are supplied with oxygen,set
free of carbon di oxide, provided with the nutrients
like amino acids, glucose, minerals, freed from
nitrogenous wastes, full repaire mechaninism operates,
new cells generated and the sleeping man does not
contribute any item even a suggetion as what to do or
not as he is kept under unconcious state to avoid any
interference in the over hauling process .
Is is not enough to recognise the bounties of the
Almighty?
Even an animal like dog feels proud of
obeying his master where as a man, in spite of such
tremendous bounties showered on him by Almighty every
moment, runs after so many objects, dead or alive,
leaving his creator and care taker aside.
Is it not a high degree of diobedience
to Him which will certainly lead him to astray
on the day of judgement when no one
will come for his rescue except the the real
authority.
The man is so ignorant that he calls death as rest.
A man remains dead for about 8 hours daily and even
then he ha forgotten death. Had he emembered the death
, he could have tried to lead a life as per directive
of the Almighty. It is in his own interest to come to
right track as soon as possible and try to convince
others daily to follow that authority.
More a man tries to convince others for true belief ,
stronger will be his faith in Almighty and all
ways of life, other than the ways of true belief,
lead to derailment and selfish motives for a
final failure.
Item 5:
Now finally this human machine runs on the roads of
the earth, water and air which again do not belong to
him.
If any one has the courage to realise the truth under
reference mentioned above under 5 points at least, one
will not fail to realise the right goal in life which
will certainly lead him to success finally here and
here after.
Since human machine is the best of
every creation, it requires frequent
check up. It is called 5 times a day
before Almighty for propper check up
as if the machine has been used properly ?
The rent is due on utilising this machine
and the the rent is paid in the form of
5 times attendace in group before Him.
You can read any book you like. Any book that deviates
from these basic tennets of true belief will certainly
cause derailment. The book that gives a very purified
view on these lines, as I have seen, is the Qur'an only
on the earth. One can verify and check oneself by
going through any book one wants personally and
without any prejudece one will come to the same
conclusion--
That:
Inference 1:
The whole universe has not come to exist at its own
because nothing can come to exist at its own. Hence
the whole univers , which exists in total and perfect
discipline, has been created by one and only one
Almighty creator and there by He is the real owner and
majesty of the universe. Since He is the only owner,
there by every one depends on Him only for every thing
one requires or gets. Therefore He is the only
competent authority for the sustenance of the
universe. Therefore He and only He deserves for any
worship and no one else. It is He who has to be obeyed.
It is clarified in these arguements that worshipping
to any one other than Him is an inexcusable crime and
there by all deeds of such persons are declared to be
confiscated here and here after. Any body claiming
divinity other than Him is a case of pure lie and
absurd.Thus the Almighty alone is the creator, owner
and sustainer of the universe, without any associate or
helper, commanding to be worshipped alone and obeyed
in all sphere of life.
You can find very clear cut guidelines on the subject
in very convincing manner in holy QUR'AN. You can ask
for a down loaded copy of Qur'an with translation in
the language you prefer.
Inference 2:(A)
Among all he creations of the universe, man is the
only creation who has the ability of utilising any
creation any no one else. He knows how to utilise sun,
moon, earth, oceans ets. Goat does not know how to
utilise mountain, mountain does not know how to
utilise clouds etc etc. It is thus proved beyond any doubt that the
whole universe has been made for human being only because only he
knows how to utilise the whole creation.
Almighty has created the man the best creation and
has gifted the whole universe to him to utilise that as per
His dictation only. Thus every object is at the service
of mankind hence any object ,living or dead, man or any
creation, can not be worshipped at all.
Item 2 (B)
The second speciality of man's superiority is that he
and he alone is capable of utiling pen for cultural
inheritance and no other creation in the whole universe.
The above two attributes, given to man by Almighty alone, declare the man as the best of all creation in the whole universe
Inference 3:
Since man takes account from every one he comes across,
he must be accounted for the whole universe created and
given to him by Almighty.
And the accounting is done when the work is over.
Salary is paid when the month is over, eamination is
conducted when the course is over.
Man's work is over at the time of death. Hence the
man will be accounted after his death only.
Who will take account of him? It is now quite obvious.
The accounting will be done by that authority alone
who created the universe and handed over to man
and no one else for final success and punishment.
These are the tennets of the true belief for follow
and practice and who soever, declares true belief and
practices it, is called faithful.
If any body obeys and serves his parents or employer
with a view that Almighty has directed to do that,
he becomes entitled for the reward here as well as here
after. And if one does so from the point of view of his
own then his share here after is fofeited becuase he
did not intend for that. This is very basic concept of
true belief. And similarly all other acts in all 24 hours
of life can be monitored
May Almighty grant every human being the gift of true
belief and faith.
Sincerely yours
a l khan
To obey the directive of the Only Creater of the Universe, Owner of the Universe and Sustainer of the universe with a high sense of accfountability for the final success and punishment on the day of the Judgement is the very essential element of the TRUE BELIEF
alkhan
”“A book that shows the process of colonization of an African country with inhabitants very rooted in traditions, culture and rligion. The characters, Eze -Ulu being the most outstanding, naturally call to the mind one a person that is charismatic, obident, Regal and ordinary all at the same time. ”
Tezeta M wrote this review Friday, November 23 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Great book about the conflict between generations, old and new traditions, and the impact of colonialism on African tribal communities. The vivid characters and the captivating storyline makes the book a page-turner.”
EmperorNorton wrote this review Wednesday, October 31 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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