Utopias, Dystopias and Heterotopias: The Spatiality of Human Experience and Literary Expression

What served to intensify my yearning for travel in quest of knowledge of every region was the statement of God Almighty in the Qurʹan: ‘Say: Journey throughout the world.’ [Qurʹan, Surah 29, v. 20]. Desire and command were thus united, and I found myself abroad, traveling the world. One life turned into many, and the days extended to become epochs. When I absented myself from a country for a month and then returned, I realized the extent of the space in-between, so replete was it with the things that I had witnessed. The world is an abode for human beings; not to be aware of that is a sign of weakness, as is skulking in a small segment of its space. Man should make it all his abode and residence; its people should be his. If he remains aloof from them, it is as though he is insulting his own relatives: Earth and space are a book; So peruse it and take note! It is through such perusals that people with both talent and aspiration have opened up natureʹs treasure-trove and unearthed priceless relics of the past. Existence is an uncomplex weave crafted by travel; life itself is a smooth page on which risk draws its designs. Mankind is just like a valuable coin: it gains value through transaction, whereas loss and alienation will result from hoarding and concealing it.