The word Islam means submission to the Will of God (Allah). Muslims worship the same one God that Jesus and Moses worshipped. Muslims believe in all the prophets that Christians and Jews believe in. According to the Muslim belief, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him & his progeny) was the last prophet in the long line of prophets which started with Adam and included Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, David, Solomon, Moses, and Jesus (peace be upon them all) to name a few. Muslims regard Prophet Muhammad as a human being with a divine mission. Muslims do not worship Muhammad.
Thus, Islam is not a new religion. According to the Quran, it was the religion of all the prophets, peace be upon them all. They all submitted to God and they were all Muslims. They all brought the same central message; worship God alone, do not join any other deity with God, and to do good deeds.
A Brief life history of Prophet Muhammad Peace be upon him & his progeny
Muhammad was born in Mecca, Arabian Peninsula, in the year 570 AD. At the age of 40 Angel Gabriel brought God's first revelation to Muhammad and thus bestowed the Prophethood on him.
At that time, Arabia was pagan. Idolatry, sin and immorality were rampant. Women were ill-treated, sold, and traded freely. Muhammad for the first three years of his ministry preached about one God secretly and thereafter by divine inspiration preached openly. Upon teaching the new faith, he was initially mocked and later on abused, persecuted, and tortured. The first converts were told to emigrate to Abyssinia under the protection of the Christian ruler in order to save their lives and properties.
In 622 AD, at the age of 52 years, Muhammad left Mecca for Medina, to save his life, because the pagans of Mecca had plotted to kill him. This migration is called Hijra, and this year constitutes the first year of the Muslim calendar. In Medina, Muhammad was welcomed with open arms by its people and amongst them he found many friends and supporters. In subsequent years Muhammad successfully fought off many attacks by the pagans of Mecca who wanted to root out the new religion and kill him. Muhammad defended himself with a small and ill-equipped band of his supporters against overwhelming odds.
The Meccans had repeatedly violated the peace treaty, so Muhammad and his followers marched towards Mecca, his homeland, and took control without struggle. The people of Mecca offered no resistance. The inhabitants of Mecca feared revenge by Muhammad for the atrocities committed against Muhammad and his followers, but Muhammad declared general amnesty. He gave orders that no one should loot or plunder. Soldiers were forbidden to enter any house that was inhabited. No one was to be attacked unless he refused to lay down arms. The Meccans were moved by Muhammad's generosity and compassion and hastened in throngs to swear allegiance to him. Kaba, the house of God was cleared of Idols.
Deputations from all parts of Arabia came to Medina to swear allegiance to the prophet and to hear the Holy Scripture, Quran. The prophet sent emissaries to neighboring countries to convey the message of Islam.
The prophet, in fact, had become "the ruler of Arabia". His life style, however, remained as simple as ever. In the tenth year of Hijra, after performing the last pilgrimage, called Hajj, Muhammad addressed his followers who had gathered in the thousands his forthcoming death, and declared that the religion of God was complete. On that occasion, he received the final revelation from God brought by the angel Gabriel. In the same year he died after a brief illness, at the age of 62 years.
Thus, in a brief span of 22 years Muhammad had abolished idolatry in Arabia and had established God's religion, Islam. He brought civilization, law, order, and decency to a land and a people known for lawlessness, idolatry and sin.
Beliefs and Observances
A Muslim believes in: One supreme deity, (Allah or God), the prophets of God, the angels, and the life after death, the Day of Judgment, the concept of heaven and hell (reward and punishment for our deeds.)
The Fundamentals of the Beliefs are:
· Absolute oneness of God. God has no partners, no associates, no helpers, no consorts, and no sons. When He intends a thing He only says “Be” and it is.
· Justice of God. God is just in His dealings with His creation.
· Belief in all the prophets of God, including the last prophet, Muhammad, peace be upon them all. Also recognize the Imams (spiritual guides) from among the descendents of the prophet.
· Day of Judgment. Every soul shall experience death. There will be resurrection and accounting on the Day of Judgment. God will reward, punish or forgive as He sees fit.
The Obligatory acts of Worship include:
· Obligatory Prayers (Salat) Five prayers a day; morning, mid-day, afternoon, evening, and night.
· Fasting (Siyam) in the month of Ramadan.
· Charity (Zakat, Khums.)
· Pilgrimage (Hajj) to Kaba (symbolic House of God in Mecca) at least once in life time.
Dietary restrictions in Islam:
Certain food items are prohibited to Muslims. These include pork and all pork products, blood from animal source. Similar to Jewish law, only designated animals scarified in the prescribed manner are permitted to be used for food. All forms of intoxicants are prohibited.
The Holy Quran
It is called "Koran" (not a preferred term) in English. This is the Holy Scripture, the word of God. The angel Gabriel brought the divine messages to Muhammad. He repeated them to his followers who memorized them and also wrote them down. The divine messages came over a period of 22 years. To date, the Qur’an has remained intact in its original language, Arabic, unaltered by man or time. The Quran contains laws and commandments governing all aspects of the life of a Muslim. It also contains stories about the other prophets. Quran and the traditions or sayings of the prophet constitute the guiding light for the Muslim in his/her day-to-day life.
The two most often recited collections of verses of the Holy Quran are: (1). The Opening Chapter (Fatihah).
(2.) The Unity (Ikhlas). Both are listed below.
Fatihah (Opening Chapter)
In the name of God, most Gracious, most Merciful.
Praise be to God, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds;
Most Gracious, most Merciful;
Master of the Day of Judgment.
Thee alone we worship and Thee alone we ask for help.
Show us the straight way.
The way of those whom thou has favored.
The way of those who did not earn Thy anger, and of those who did not go astray.
Ikhlas (Unity)
In the name of God, most Gracious, most Merciful.
Say: He is God, the One and the only.
God, the Eternal, the Absolute.
He begetteth not, nor was He begotten;
And there is none equal unto Him.
Some of the proofs that the Quran was divinely revealed:
Muhammad was untutored and unlettered. He could neither read nor write.
The wisdom, knowledge, and literary eloquence contained in the Quran are beyond the scope of a human being. .
Statements made in Quran about sciences, such astronomy, physics, biology, etc., reveal knowledge which did not exist with man at the time of Muhammad. Those statements have been verified fourteen hundred years later.
Many Jewish and Christian scholars at the time of Prophet Muhammad recognized the holy scripture as the word of God and embraced Islam. Since the time of Muhammad, the ranks of Muslims have swelled and the trend continues in all parts of the world. Today, Islam is the faith of one-fifth of the population of the world. Islam offers to mankind dignity, equality, justice.
God guarantees direct access to Him. Says God in the Quran "I answer the prayer of the supplicant when he calls Me." (II: 186)
The authenticity of the Quran is undisputed. The Quran holds a unique place among the scriptures because only one version exists from the very beginning. Many faithful continue the tradition of memorizing the whole scripture, thus guarding it against any change. Even a single letter of the original Arabic text has not been changed.
The Quran is free from any discrepancies or contradictions. This is particularly amazing, considering the fact that the messages were revealed over a period of twenty two years!
Western scholars’ reviews on the Qur’an.
"A work, which calls forth so powerful and seemingly incompatible emotions even in the distant reader -- distant as to time, and still more so as mental development. A work which not only conquers the repugnance which he may feel as he begins its perusal, but changes this adverse feeling into astonishment and admiration. Such a work must be a wonderful production of the 'human mind' indeed and a problem of the highest interest to every thoughtful observer of the destinies of mankind"
- Dr. Steingass, in T.P. Hughes’s Dictionary of Islam, p.526.
"The hypothesis advanced by those who see Muhammad as the author of the Quran is untenable. How a man from being “illiterate” (untutored) could, become the most important author, in terms of literary merit in the whole of Arabia? How could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature that no other human being could possibly have developed at that time, and all this without once making the slightest error in his pronouncement on the subject?" - Maurice Bucaille, in The Bible, the Quran and Science, p.125.
Some of the verses in the Quran, which came in response to criticism by the unbelievers and the skeptics, are as follows:
"And if ye are in doubt concerning that we reveal unto our servant (Muhammad) then produce a Chapter of the like thereof..." (II: 23)
"And before this, was the book of Moses, as a guide and a mercy. And this Book confirms (it) in Arabic, to admonish the unjust, and as glad tidings for the righteous." (XLVI: 12)
The Quran confirms that the earlier prophets, including Moses and Jesus were true messengers of God. The previous scriptures, the Torah and the Bible, in their original form were true messages from God. The true purpose of the Quran is to correct and to restore the message of God in its totality.
Commandments. This term is not specifically used in the Quran. However, after reading the Quran one learns the injunctions contained therein. A partial list is given below:
1. Believe in one God.
2. Honor and respect parents.
3. Respect the rights of others.
4. Be generous but do not squander.
5. Do not kill except for justifiable cause.
6. Do not commit adultery or fornication.
7. Safeguard the possessions of orphans.
8. Deal with others with justice.
9. Be pure in heart and mind.
10. Be humble and unpretentious.
11. Do not backbite.
12. Do not be a scandalmonger.
13. Do good deeds for the love of God.
14. God loves those who forgive.
Jesus (peace be upon him) in the Quran:
"And when Jesus, son of Mary, said, 'O Children of Israel, lo! I am the messenger of Allah unto you, confirming that which was revealed before me and in the Torah, and bringing good tidings of a messenger who cometh after me, whose name is "Praised One".' Yet, when he has come unto them with clear proof, they say 'This is mere magic!'" (LXI: 6)
"And they say, 'God had taken unto Himself a son.' Be He glorified! Nay, but whatsoever is in the Heavens and whatsoever is in the earth is his. All are subservient to Him." (II: 116)
"She [Mary] said (to the angel), 'My lord! How can I have a son when no mortal has touched me?' He said, 'So it will be. God createth what He wills. If he decreeth a thing, He only says unto it, "Be," and it is.'" (III: 47)
"Lo! The likeness of Jesus with God is as the likeness of Adam. He created him out of dust, then He said unto him, "Be!", and he was." (III: 59)
"When God says, "O Jesus, son of Mary, remember My favor unto thee and unto thy mother. How I strengthened thee with Holy spirit, so thou speakest unto mankind into the cradle as in maturity and how I taught thee the scripture and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel." (V: 110)
The fundamental difference between Islam and Christianity is that Muslims believe Jesus to be a man, a chosen prophet of God, whereas Christians regard Jesus as "son of God."
In Qur’an, God strongly rebukes the notion of Trinity.
What Qur’an says about other prophets:
"Say: we believe in God and that which is revealed unto us, and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and unto Him we have surrendered." (II: 136)
What Qur’an says about other religions
God says in the Quran: "Lo! those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians and Sabeans. Whoever believes in God, the last day, and does right, surely their reward is with their Lord, and there shall no fear come unto them. Neither shall they grieve." (II: 62)
The Quran and Science
In the following paragraphs some of the verses from Quran dealing with various scientific facts are presented. For the sake of convenience these are, here, grouped under various headings. For a more detailed study, the reader is referred to the book “The Bible, The Quran and Science” by Dr. Maurice Bucaille.
About the creation of the heavens and the earth
"Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then we clove them asunder and We got every living thing out of the water? Will they not then believe?" (XXI: 30)
The above verse refers to the "Big Bang theory" of the origin of the universe.
"Moreover (God) turned to the heaven when it was smoke and said to it and to the earth: Come willing or unwilling; they said: We come in willing obedience."
(XLI: 11)
The word "smoke" here refers to the gaseous material with particles suspended in it. This corresponds to the concept of the "Primary Nebula" put forward by modern science, which consisted of hydrogen and helium.
"Your Lord is God who created the Heavens and the Earth in six days (periods)...In a day whereof the measure is as a thousand years of your reckoning." (XXXII: 5)
The creation of the Heavens and the Earth should not be taken in a literal sense. As explained in the Quran, what we call a day by our earthly yardstick is not the same as a day by the heavenly yardstick. This is consistent with modern scientific knowledge, which estimates the age of the Earth and sun in millions of years.
"Did you see how God created seven Heavens one above another and made the moon a light therein and made the sun a lamp". (LXXI: 15-16)
The number seven is not to be taken literally. It refers to plurality. It is well known to modern science that in the universe there are many galaxies and many suns larger than are ours.
Astronomy in the Quran
"God is the one who created the night, the day, the sun, and the moon. Each one is traveling in an orbit with its own motion." (XXI: 33)
Modern scientific knowledge has shown that our galaxy revolves on its own axis. The sun is located eccentrically and thus revolves in an orbit around the center of the galaxy. This was not known to man 1400 years ago.
"Has thou not seen how God merges the night into the day and merges the day into the night." (XXI: 29)
"He coils the day upon the night and coils the night upon the day." (XXXIX: 5)
Astronauts have described the appearance of the Earth from space. The sun lights up half of the earth facing it and the other half is dark. As the earth rotates on its axis, the darker areas come to light, and the light areas merge into darkness. This is easy to understand at the present time. However 1400 years ago this knowledge did not exist. In those days the earth was mistakenly thought to be flat and at the center of the universe. Modern scientific data are in full agreement with the Qur’anic description.
"God subjected the sun and the moon, each one runs its course to an appointed term." (XXXIII: 2)
Modern science has estimated the age of the sun and has also estimated when it will run out of hydrogen and will cool off. Modern astronomy has discovered that the solar system is moving towards a point in the constellation of Hercules, named the Solar Apex.
About the expansion of the universe
"The heaven, we have built it with power. Verily, we are expanding it." (LI: 47)
The gradual expansion of the universe is one of the most important discoveries of modern times.
About the conquest of space
"O Assembly of Jinn (spirits) and men, if you can penetrate regions of the heavens and the earth, then penetrate them! You will not penetrate them save with a power." (LV: 33)
This refers to man's entry into space and the exploration of the depths of the Earth.
About the water cycle
"We sent down water from the sky in measure, and lodged it in the ground. And we certainly are able to withdraw it. Therewith for you, we gave rise to gardens of palm trees and vineyards." (XXIII: 18-19)
"Has thou not seen that God sent water down from the sky and let it through sources into the ground? Then He caused sown fields of different colors to grow." (XXXIX: 21)
The water cycle as we know today was described 500 years ago. Before that, many people believed that water from the ocean was thrust into soil which formed springs and underground reservoirs. It was also thought that moisture in soil condensed to form water. The Quran gave the correct view in an authoritative way 1400 years go.
About the mountains
"We have placed in the ground (mountains) standing firm, so that it does not shake with them."
(XXI: 31)
"Have We not made the earth an expanse and the mountains stakes?"
(LXXVIII: 6-7)
According to modern theories, mountains played a key role in the formation of landmass. They also contribute to the stability of the earth’s crust, which is relatively very thin. Beneath the crust are molten rocks at very high temperatures. Qur’anic description and modern scientific discoveries are in agreement.
About the effects of high altitude
"Those who God wills to guide, He opens their breasts to Islam. Those who He wills lose their way, He makes their breasts narrow and constricted, as if they were climbing the sky." (VI: 125)
This refers to breathlessness or "air hunger", due to decreased concentration of oxygen in the air at high altitudes, particularly when climbing rapidly over mountains.
About the origin of life on earth
"God created every animal from water." (XXIV: 45)
"And We got every living thing out of water. Will they then not believe?" (XXI: 30)
Modern scientific data indicate that life is of aquatic origin and water is the major component of the living cell. Man did not know this in Muhammad's time.
About the Vegetable kingdom
Balance in the vegetable kingdom...
"The earth...We caused all kinds of things to grow therein in due balance." (XV: 19)
Reproduction in the vegetable kingdom...
"God is the One who sent water down from the sky and thereby, We brought forth pairs of plants each separate from the other." (XX: 53)
"Glory be to Him who created components of couples of every kind: of what the ground caused to grow, of themselves (human beings) and of what you do not know". (XXVI: 36)
The last two verses above clearly indicate the two sexes, not only in the vegetable kingdom but in other creatures not known to man at the time of Muhammad, but discovered later on.
About the Animal kingdom
"God fashioned the two of a pair, the male and a female, from a small quantity of liquid, when it is poured out." (LIII: 45-46)
In the above verses the reproduction of the animal kingdom is stated in a general but precise way. The word used in Arabic signifies sperm.
Animal Communities
"There is no animal on earth, no bird, which flies on wings that (does not belong to) communities like you. We have not neglected anything in the Book (of decrees.) Then to their Lord they shall be gathered." (VI: 38)
Existence of true communities amongst animals, insects, etc., has been established only in the last few decades.
About formation of milk
"Verily in your cattle, there is a lesson for you! We give you a pure milk to drink, excellent for its drinkers; (it comes) from what, inside their bodies, is between digested food and blood." (XVI: 66)
The above verse describes in general but accurate terms the formation of milk from the product of digested food, which mixes with blood and is carried to the mammary glands which secrete it. Man did not know this at the time of prophet Muhammad. In fact, the discovery of the circulation of blood was made some ten centuries after the verse was revealed.
About human reproduction
Quran has made many references to various facts about human reproduction in precise and accurate terms. Professor Keith Moore, who has written a well known book on embryology (study in human reproduction), has verified the accuracy of the Qur’anic statements. Scientific knowledge about human reproduction was incomplete until recent time. Use of the microscope was indispensable for the study of development of a baby in the mother's womb. The sperm and the ovum (egg) are so small; they are invisible to the naked eye. The microscope was invented in the 17th century AD
"He makes you in the womb of your mother in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness." (XXXIX: 8)
The three veils of darkness or layers have been identified by biologists as (1) Abdominal wall, (2) Uterine wall, and (3) Amniochorionic membrane (a sac filled with fluid in which the fetus floats).
"Man We did create from a quintessence of clay, and then We placed as a drop of sperm, in a place of rest, firmly fixed. Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a leech-like lump. Then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then We developed out of it another creature. So blessed be God, the best to create." (XL: 13-14)
"Then out of a morsel (chewed up) of flesh, partly formed and partly unformed." (XXII: 5)
According to Professor Keith Moore, the above is a surprisingly accurate description of human development in the uterus. The word "chewed up flesh" and "leech-like clot," precisely describe the appearance and characteristics of the developing embryo and of conception.
"And He made his progeny from a quintessence of the nature of a fluid despised." (XXXII: 8)
"Verily We created man from a drop of mingled sperm in order to try him, So, We give him (the gifts) of hearing and sight." (LXXVI: 2)
The word 'despised' refers to the fact that semen comes out through the same route as does the urine. "Mingled" fluid refers to the various secretions that semen is made up of. Also, semen mixes with fluids in the female genital tract.
"That He did create in pairs, male and female, from a seed when lodged in its place." (LIII: 45)
The above verse refers to the fact that sex is determined at the time of fertilization. This discovery was made only sixty years ago, when sex chromosomes were discovered.
Thus it is clear that the information in the Quran about human reproduction is of divine origin, and was beyond the knowledge of a human being at the time it was revealed.
The translation of Qur’anic verses given above is by Doctor Maurice Bucaille
Schisms in Islam
Several schools evolved among Muslims. The majority of Muslims belong to the school called Ahlul Sunnah Wal Jamaat. Shiites Muslims constitute the largest minority.
The former follow the teachings of Prophet Muhammad as interpreted by the four Imams: Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Ahmed bin Hambal, Imam Malik and Imam Shafi. The latter follow the interpretation of the teachings of Prophet Muhammad, interpreted by Imam Ali and Imams from his family.
The differences among Muslims occurred after the death of prophet Muhammad, in regard to his succession, and were of a political nature. The Sunni Muslims believe that the succession to Muhammad was left up to the people to decide, whereas the Shiites Muslims believe that Prophet Muhammad had designated his cousin and son-in-law Ali as his successor. Since then kings, rulers, religious leaders have exploited these differences in order to achieve their selfish and material objectives.
It must be emphasized that he fundamentals of the faith are common to all Muslims. All Muslims believe in One God. All Muslims follow one book, the Qur’an. All Muslims believe in Prophet Muhammad and strive to emulate him. All Muslims agree upon the basic tenets of Islam.
Islam, a misunderstood religion
Islam has been largely misunderstood in the west. The reasons can be traced back to the era of the Crusades. Ignorance, fear, suspicion etc. prevented the followers of other major faiths from an objective and impartial study of the religion. The result was that numerous misconceptions, false stories, and biased accounts about Islam came to be accepted as true, even by Christian scholars and historians.
Some of the misconceptions are given below:
Misconception #1 - "Allah is God of the Muslims"
Many Christians believe that Allah is different from the God of Jesus, or Yahweh, described in the Bible. The fact is that Allah (proper name of God), and Yahweh refer to the same one God, the omnipotent and the omnipresent Deity, the creator, sustainer and cherisher of the universe.
Misconception #2 - "Muslims worship Muhammad"
It is a common misunderstanding that Muhammad was 'divine', and Muslims worship him, like Christians worship Jesus. The truth is that to Muslims Muhammad (peace is upon him) is no more than a messenger of God. He died like any other mortal. Muslims do not believe that Jesus was divine, either. They regard him as a chosen prophet of God.
Misconception #3 - "Women are given an inferior status in Islam"
Nothing can be farther from the truth. The status of women in Islam is the most misunderstood aspect of the religion. According to the holy scripture Quran as well as the sayings of the prophet Muhammad, women enjoy an honorable status.
In the Quran, God says this about Mary, mother of Jesus, “‘Behold! the angel said, 'God hath chosen Thee above the women of all nations.' “(III: 42)
Islam gives women separate legal rights as individuals. Fourteen hundred years ago at the very inception of the Islamic faith, by divine decree women were given the right to divorce, the right to own property in their own name, separate from the husband, the right of inheritance, the right to make a will and many other rights. These rights were not available to women in the western societies until the 19th century.
Quran says: "Men shall have the benefit of what they achieve and acquire, and women shall have the benefit of that which they similarly achieve and acquire." (IV: 32)
A saying of the holy prophet Muhammad is recorded as follows: "If a daughter is born to a person and he brings her up, giving her good education and training in various arts of life, I shall myself stand between him and hellfire."
According to another saying of prophet Muhammad: "Paradise lies under the feet of the mother."
God says in the Quran about women: "They (women) have rights similar to those against them,…”
Misconception #4 - "Polygamy is conducive to loose moral behavior"
Islam permits a man to have more than one wife under certain circumstances, but it does not encourage this practice. In fact polygamy is discouraged.
The Quran says this about polygamy: "And if you cannot act equitably towards orphans, then marry such women as seem good to you, two, three, and four, but if you may not do justice to them, then marry only one." (IV: 3)
Islam permits polygamy as an alternative to situations, which may force a husband to immoral acts. A husband may be forced to seek a second wife in the following situations:
A. Inability of the wife to bear children and the couple choose not to seek divorce.
B. Prolonged debilitating illness of the wife, where she is unable to provide sexual satisfaction to her husband, or carry on her responsibilities in relation to the family.
C. Prolonged physical separation due to war, travel, etc.
Polygamy was practiced by all the prophets of the old and their followers. In the early days of Islam, as a result of successive wars against pagans, there was a great shortage of men and an over supply of women. Polygamy was the only honorable way to provide the women, particularly the widows and orphans, with food, shelter, and protection. Thus, many moral and social ills were avoided.
Misconception #5 - "Islam was spread with the sword"
In the past Muslim kings, or more appropriately, kings who happened to be Muslims, conquered many lands; but a distinction has to be made between lands conquered by these kings and imposition of Islam on its people. Islam does not believe in force, coercion, or lure of material benefits to spreads the faith. Muslims believe that God alone can put faith into the heart of a person.
God says in the Quran: "If it had been thy Lord's will, they would all have believed, all who are on earth! Wilt thou then compel mankind against their will to believe?" (X: 99)
"No soul can believe, except by the will of God..." (X: 100)
There are several examples of Muslims’ toleration towards other religions. Muslims ruled over Spain for many hundreds of years. The Christians and the Jews there were free to practice their own religion in their places of worship. In fact Christians and Jews are regarded as privileged people and are mentioned with respect in the Quran as "People of the Book".
Indonesia ranks as number one in the world for its Muslim population. However, it was never invaded or conquered by any Muslim king or ruler. Other countries like Malaysia have a Muslim majority. There, Islam was spread when the local population came in contact with Muslim traders and merchants from overseas.
Today Islam is the fastest growing religion in America and elsewhere despite adverse publicity and negative stereotyping. The rich and the poor, intellectuals and the learned continue to enter into the fold of Islam. They encounter rejection, resistance, hostility from their families, friends, and the employers, but it does not deter them in pursuing their faith.
Misconception #6. “Islam condones terrorism”
Islam prohibits terrorism, unlawful acquisition of property of others, and causing harm to innocent human beings. Islam rejects all forms of violence.
The terrorist attack on the world trade center in New York on September 11, 2001 was rejected by Muslims around the world.
The Quran says: “Any one who has saved one life, has saved the whole mankind, and any one who has killed a human being, except in case of murderer or mischief (maker) on earth, it is as if he has killed the whole mankind.” (V: 32)
Misconception #7. “Islam rewards suicide with paradise.”
This misconception is held, unfortunately by a very small Muslim minority. Fortunately the overwhelming majority of Muslims reject this distorted and extreme view. Taking ones own life is no different than taking some one else’s life. It is a major sin which invokes extreme displeasure and wrath of God.
Misconception #8. “Hijab (the head scarf and the outer covering) is degrading to women.”
In fact it is a sign of dignity and respect for women. It signifies that the worth and value of a woman is not in her looks and the form. It prevents the woman from being reduced to “sex object.” Islam prohibits women to participate in beauty contests, or to become professional fashion models, or to appear on the cover of magazines for monetary reward.
Islam requires even men to practice “Hijab” which means to practice modesty in behavior, to cover and protect their private parts, and not gaze at women with lust.
In conclusion, Islam upholds the moral and ethical teachings of the Abrahamic faiths of Christianity and Judaism. In fact the teachings of the Quran as practiced by Prophet Muhammad require a higher code of moral and ethical conduct. If the Muslims fall short, they are to be blamed, not the religion.
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Suggested Reading
1. Islam, by Caesar Farrah.
Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
113 Crossways Park
Woodbury, NY 11797
2. The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, by Mohammad M. Pickthall.
New American Library, Inc.
PO Box 999
Bergenfield, NJ 07621
3. The Bible, the Quran and Science, by Dr. Maurice Bucaille.
American Trust Publications
7216 S. Madison Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46227
4. Jesus, A Prophet of Islam, by Mohammed Ata-ur-Rahim.
MWH London Publishers
283 Seven Sisters Road
London, UK N42DA
5. The Gospel of Barnabas.
Translated by Lonsdale and Laura Ragg
Published in Pakistan
6. What the Bible Says about Mohammed, by Ahmed Deedat.
7. The Spirit of Islam, by Syed Ameer Ali.
8. The Status of Women in Islam, by Dr. Jamal Badawi.
The Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada
9. God is One, the Way of Islam
by R. Marston Speight
ISBN: 0-377-00196-1
Friendship Press, PO Box37844, Cincinnati, OH 45222-0844
10 Islam: the 25 most frequently asked questions. Library of Congress # Tx3651-273
By Shahid Athar, M.D.
Dawa Information group, 8424 Naab Rd, suite 2D
Indianapolis, IN 46260.
Tel: 317-872-5159, Fax: 317-872-5150, E-mail: sathar3624@aol.com
11. Reflections of an American Muslim
By Shahid Athar, M.D. ISBN: 0-934905-26-6
Distributed by Kazi publications, Inc. (address listed below)
12. Islamic web site: “ http://www.islam-usa.com”
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Nanotechnology
Islam encourages the use of science and the scientific method. Acquisition of knowledge is obligatory on every Muslim, male and female. In Islam, science and technology should be used for moral ends and serve all legitimate needs of mankind. Moreover, both are viewed as yet another means to understand and see the power and glory of God.
"He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth." [Qur'an 2:29]
"It is your Lord, the Most Bounteous, Who taught by the pen, taught man that which he knew not..." [Qur'an 96:2-5]
"We shell show them our Signs on the horizons and within themselves until it will be manifest unto them that it is the Truth..." [Qur'an 41:53]
Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, 'The Andromeda Strain', 'Invasion of the body snatchers' and other novels has lately authored a terrific novel titled PREY. This is the most compelling novel that tells the story of a mechanical plague and the desperate efforts of a handful of scientists to stop it. In PREY Michael Crichton utilizes the latest scientific facts and takes us into the emerging realms of nanotechnology and artificial distributed intelligence -- in a story of breathtaking suspense. In this novel, he takes three emerging technologies - genetics, distributed intelligence and nanotechnology and brews up a terrifying tale of science gone well skewed.
The main character in the novel is Jack Forman who is in charge of PREDPREY, a program that makes cameras the size of atoms swarm together and act like they are hunting something. The story starts off with software expert, Jack living the life of a house-husband after being fired from a shady Silicon Valley firm (Xymos Corporation). He suspects that his wife Julia (a high-powered computer executive) is having an affair. She is spending more and more time at her firm's (Xymos Corporation) experimental fabrication plant in the barren desert of Nevada. Xymos is having a few problems with its prototype nano-device and so Jack is hired to investigate. It turns out that since he's been gone, people have made changes to the codes, and they haven't been good changes. To make matters worse, Forman has learned that they've allowed a swarm to get outside. They can't get it back to the lab, since it won't respond to their communications. A cloud of nanoparticles -- micro-robots -- has escaped from the laboratory. Jack discovers his wife's firm has created self-replicating nanotechnology--a literal swarm of microscopic machines. Originally meant to serve as a military eye in the sky (spy cameras), the swarm has now escaped into the environment and is seemingly intent on killing the scientists trapped in the facility. This cloud is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. It is intelligent and learns from experience. Jack discovers even worse news when he finds that the rapidly evolving swarms are carnivorous and reproducing because they were created using organic materials. For all practical purposes, it is alive. It has been programmed as a predator. It is evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour. Every attempt to destroy it has failed. So the people in the lab have become the Prey. The fact that they can kill now makes a risky situation even worse, and then to top it off, they are adaptable, learning and evolving at a rate that far surpasses anything in human technology. Forman also learns that his wife isn't what she seems. Crichton then pits man against the swarm of nano-particles in a time-constrained thriller.
The film version of Prey is now in development at Twentieth Century Fox. No details yet. The shooting of the movie film was finished on July 21, ahead of schedule. Director Dick Donner's film for Paramount is now in post-production, with a release date planned for 2003
Human beings have advanced their lives with technology. Man has built huge dams, bridges and jet aircraft as well as microscopically small things, like the computer chips, which are affecting nearly every aspect of our lives, and the genetically modified bacteria that create new drugs for us.
In the 21st century, we are plunging forward into a new era of technological power, one that offers enormous promise for the future and enormous dangers as well.
Scientists are planning to create tiny computers, smaller than specks of dust, programmed to travel in a cloud over a country like Iraq and send back pictures. Unlike robot aircraft, this camera can’t be shot down; bullets will pass right through it.
Such tiny computers will weaken in time, however they can be programmed to be self-reproducing, to replenish themselves. The risk is these tiny computers begin to evolve, and the aggregate cloud becomes a death-dealing swarm that threatens mankind – in effect, a mechanical plague.
What is Nanotechnology ?
In its most basic form, nanotechnology refers to the manipulation of materials at the atomic or molecular level. The name derives from the nanometer, a scientific measurement unit representing a billionth of a meter, or three to four toms wide. Scientists are learning how to connect atoms and molecules together to create nano-scale mechanisms that create switches or transistors, or even small machines that can perform complex tasks.
To use an oft-quoted comparison, a human hair is between 100,000 and 200,000 nanometers thick, while a typical virus can be just 100 nanometers wide. Atoms themselves are typically between one-tenth and half of a nanometer wide. Because of the difficulties involved in working at this scale, activities involving manipulation of items as “large” as 100 nanometers are generally included in the concept of nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology gives scientists the ability to create new materials, atom by atom. With increasingly more powerful microscopes, scientists can see molecules mere nanometers -
or billionths of a meter - in size (a pinhead is one million nanometers across). The field intertwines nearly all fields of science.
Most discussions about nanotechnology deal with the futuristic concept of nanomachines or nanobots: microscopic devices that can themselves carry out tasks at the atomic or sub-atomic level. Nanotechnology, also called molecular manufacturing, is "a branch of engineering that deals with the design and manufacture of extremely small electronic circuits and mechanical devices built at the molecular level of matter." The goal of nanotechnology is to be able to manipulate materials at the atomic level to build the smallest possible electromechanical devices, given the physical limitations of matter. Much of the mechanical systems we know how to build will be transferred to the molecular level as some atomic analogy.
The 21st century gives a typical vision: “Nanotechnologists will be building our cars one molecule at a time, invading our bloodstream to declog our arteries, and replicating themselves thousands of times over.”
Nanorobot1
Nanorobot is a computer-controlled robotic device constructed of nanometer-scale components to molecular precision, usually microscopic in size (often abbreviated as "nanobot"). This reminds one of the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage, in which a team of scientists (including Raquel Welch) are miniaturized, placed in a tiny submarine and injected into a sick man’s bloodstream. Nanotechnology invariably involves work on a much smaller scale than the average blood cell.
If you can construct objects at the molecular level, you can theoretically build anything, since all objects are made up of molecules.
Translating from concept to practice is trickier. While many plans have been drawn up for simple nanomachines such as gears and motors, actually building them is still fiendishly difficult and rather expensive. The most famous “working” nanomachine is probably the nanoguitar constructed by Cornell University researchers in 1997. Just 10,000 nanometers wide, the nanoguitar has six strings, each just 50 nanometers wide. Of course, without a nano-ear to listen to its 10MHz output, the guitar is fairly useless, but it demonstrates that simple machines can be constructed on a nanometric scale.
Producing nanomachines on a commercial basis will undoubtedly prove more challenging, since atomic manipulation, while not theoretically contrary to the laws of physics, is still extremely slow and costly.
The most widely discussed long-term solution is to make the nanomachines self-replicating. Control mechanisms for such systems (how does a machine know how to build a copy of itself, and how does it know when to stop doing so?) are still in their very early stages, and once again theory is a fair way ahead of practical reality.
Charles Vest, the president of MIT, observed recently. “The gathering nanotechnology revolution will eventually make possible a huge leap in computing power, vastly stronger yet much lighter materials, advances in medical technologies, as well as devices and processes with much lower energy and environmental costs.
Nanotechnology may well rival the development of the transistor or telecommunications in its ultimate impact.”
Many of the more recent practical applications of nanotechnology has been in the area of materials research, but scientists believe that transistors could also eventually be built in this way, paving the way for computational technologies which don’t depend on silicon and which can pack even more circuitry into microscopic spaces.
Nanoshells 2
Nanoshells are tiny particles that can manipulate light, and can be used to transform medical procedures ranging from cancer therapy to medical testing and drug delivery.
Nanoshells are ideal for biotechnology applications because they are biocompatible, can be altered and modified and absorb light strongly in the near-infrared region, where human tissue is most transparent.
Nanoshells can be tagged and delivered specifically to tumor cells but leave healthy cells undamaged. Nanoshells can reduce the amount of time it takes to conduct medical tests from several days into a matter of seconds and nanoshells incorporated into temperature-sensitive polymers can be triggered to release a chemical using infrared light, providing a patient with the ability to control the release of medicine that requires periodic dispensing.
A new bandage 3
A new bandage that imitates nature's own healing is used for minor cuts to gunshot wounds. The bandage, a flannel-like material, stops bleeding immediately and can be left in place to be absorbed by the body. This new material is developed by spinning a compound naturally found in blood into a bandage that can minimize blood loss and be absorbed by the body, according to an article in the Feb. 12 issue of Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
"We've taken an old technique - electrospinning – and applied it to natural fibers," said Gary Bowlin, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University.
When a person bleeds from a cut or wound, a blood clot forms and netting made of a substance called fibrin develops over the clot. Fibrinogen, the compound in blood
that comprises the "natural" bandage, is a fibrin precursor, researchers added, and can come from human, bovine or genetically engineered bacterial sources.
The goal is to pack the bandage like gauze so it can be used to handle trauma patients, Bowlin said.
Science fiction into reality 4
Imagine a world in which cars can be assembled molecule-by-molecule, garbage can be disassembled and turned into beef steaks, and people can be operated on and healed by cell-sized robots. Sound like science fiction? Well, with current semiconductor chip manufacturing encroaching upon the nanometer scale and the ability to move individual atoms at the IBM Almaden laboratory, we are fast approaching the technological ability to fabricate productive machines and devices that can manipulate things at the atomic level. From this ability we will be able to develop molecular-sized computers and robots, which would give us unprecedented control over matter and the ability to shape the physical world as we see fit.
Nanofabrication techniques with applications in fiber optics, biotechnology, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), "tiny mechanical devices such as sensors, valves, gears, mirrors, and actuators embedded in semiconductor chips", are particularly interesting because they are but a mere step away from the molecular machines envisioned by nanotechnology. MEMS are already being used in automobile airbag systems as accelerometers to detect collisions and will become an increasing part of our everyday technology. In 1986, a researcher from MIT named K. Eric Drexler already foresaw the advent of molecular machines and published a book, Engines of Creation, in which he outlined the possibilities and consequences of this emerging field, which he called nanotechnology. Drexler has written numerous other books on the subject, such as Unbounding the Future, and has founded the Foresight Institute, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the responsible development of nanotechnology. It hosts conferences and competitions to raise the awareness of nanotechnology and the ethical issues involved in its development.
Today, nanotechnology research and development is quite wide spread in numerous universities. The U.S. government has created an organization, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), to monitor and guide research and development in this field.
As envisioned by Drexler, as well as many others, this would lead to nanocomputers, no bigger than bacteria and nanomachines, also known as nanites (from Star Trek: The Next Generation), which could be used as a molecular assemblers and disassemblers to build, repair, or tear down any physical or biological objects.
In essence, the purpose of developing nanotechnology is to have tools to work on the molecular level analogous to the tools we have at the macroworld level. Like the robots we use to build cars and the construction equipment we use to build skyscrapers, nanomachines will enable us to create a plethora of goods and increase our engineering abilities to the limits of the physical world.
Potential Benefits
It would not take much of a leap, then, to imagine disassemblers dismantling garbage to be recycled at the molecular level, and then given to assemblers for them to build atomically perfect engines. Stretching this vision a bit, you can imagine a Star Trek type replicator, which could reassemble matter in the form of a juicy steak, given the correct blueprints and organization of these nanomachines.
A laboratory-scale "in vivo nanoscope" capable of providing atomic resolution, real time movies of happenings inside living cells in intact living animals. This nanoscope is a hybrid of conventional technology and early (pre-assembler) nanotechnology, yet provides an enormous leap in the ability of biologists to understand the workings of cells and develop medical therapies.
Just given the basic premises of nanotechnology, you can imagine the vast potential of this technology. Some of it's more prominent benefits would be: Precision Manufacturing, Material Reuse, Miniaturization.
The medical applications are: Pharmaceutical Creation, Disease Treatment, and Nanomachine-assisted Surgery.
Environmental applications are in Toxin Cleanup, Recycling and Resource Consumption Reduction.
Nanomedicine
Nanomedicine deals with (1) the comprehensive monitoring, control, construction, repair, defense, and improvement of all human biological systems, working from the molecular level, using engineered nanodevices and nanostructures; (2) the science and technology of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease and traumatic injury, of relieving pain, and of preserving and improving human health, using molecular tools and molecular knowledge of the human body; (3) the employment of molecular machine systems to address medical problems, using molecular knowledge to maintain and improve human health at the molecular scale. Cosmetic nanosurgery done with simple nanomachines (no on-board computers, for example) could change hair color, cause hair to grow or not to grow in specific locations, keep teeth clean and skin smooth, etc., all far more effectively than with current day treatments. Looking somewhat further in the future at more radical modifications of the human body through nanotechnology, Edward Reifman describes dentistry with assembler-fabricated teeth, and even with teeth and jaws made of diamond.
“In the long term, we hope to be able to build small nanorobots which can search out and destroy cancerous tumors when they comprise just one or two cells “Or small drilling machines which dissolve clots.”
Viruses, which are natural nanomachines, could better be fought, as the body’s own immune system has some handicaps: it tends to forget the shape of it’s enemies, it sometimes has problems identifying malignant cells and it suffers from a certain delay until the immune reaction is fully developed, therefore nanomachines could serve as support to the immune system. Nanomachines could route bacteria, they could excise tumors and reconstruct damaged tissue, and furthermore they could make a huge contribution to the treatment of ageing.
Along with all the obvious manufacturing benefits, there are also many potential medical and environmental benefits. With nanomachines, we could better design and synthesize pharmaceuticals; we could directly treat diseased cells like cancer; we could better monitor the life signs of a patient; or we could use nanomachines to make microscopic repairs in hard-to-operate-on areas of the body. With regard to the environment, we could use nanomachines to clean up toxins or oil spills, recycle all garbage, and eliminate landfills, thus reducing our natural resource consumption.
Potential Dangers
The downside to these benefits is the possibility of assemblers and disassemblers being used to create weapons, be used as weapons themselves, or for them to run wild and wreak havoc. Other, less invasive, but equally perilous uses of nanotechnology would be in electronic surveillance.
Weapons are an obvious negative use of nanotechnology. Simply extending today's weapon capabilities by miniaturizing guns, explosives, and electronic components of missiles would be deadly enough. However, with nanotechnology, armies could also develop disassemblers to attack physical structures or even biological organism at the molecular level. A similar hazard would be if general-purpose disassemblers got loose in the environment and started disassembling every molecule they encountered. This is known as "The Gray Goo Scenario." Furthermore, if nanomachines were created to be self-replicating and there were a problem with their limiting mechanism, they would multiply endlessly like viruses. Even without considering the extreme disaster scenarios of nanotechnology, we can find plenty of potentially harmful uses for it. It could be used to erode our freedom and privacy; people could use molecular sized microphones, cameras, and homing beacons to monitor and track others.
Ethical Issues & Analysis
With such awesome potential dangers inherent in nanotechnology, we must seriously examine its potential consequences. Granted, nanotechnology may never become as powerful and prolific as envisioned by its evangelists, but as with any potential, near-horizon technology, we should go through the exercise of formulating solutions to potential ethical issues before the technology is irreversibly adopted by society. We must examine the ethics of developing nanotechnology and create policies that will aid in its development so as to eliminate or at least minimize its damaging effects on society.
Nanosensors 5
Nanosensor -- a chemical or physical sensor constructed using nanoscale components, usually microscopic or submicroscopic in size.
Nano brings science fiction into everyday life 6
The more immediate future of nanotechnology lies in its application in sensors, such as electronic ‘noses’ with the ability to detect the presence of individual protein molecules in a blood sample, for example. This involves a chip the size of your little fingernail with thousands of sensors, each set to detect a specific substance. It may even be possible to make them so small that they fit on a needle. Then there would be no need for a blood test – a prick in the finger would be sufficient to allow a full blood analysis.
Nanosensors will also be of great value in the production of new medicines since they can effectively find active substances. So far it has been possible to build this type of sensor one by one, but the difficulty lies in integrating perhaps 100, 000 on one chip.
Nanotechnology will have great significance in the materials field. There are already self-washing windows that repel dirt thanks to their nanostructured surface.
Aging process can be delayed by repairing human cells one by one. Unlimited computer power obtained from improved microchip performance. Global warming can be reduced by cleaning greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere with nanoparticles; and pesticides that kill insects without harmful byproducts. Creation of artificial muscles and sensors, as well as a nanocoating for metal that could increase the efficiency of power plants and potentially save millions of dollars a year for electricity generators.
Such molecules could be used in computers thousands of times smaller than current semiconductors with immense memory capability or light-activated medicines. One of the universities is trying to improve upon imaging with the atomic force microscope, one of the tools used to observe life at the nanoscale.
Nanofluids 7
On the medical front, researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute are developing magnetic nanofluids. Magnetic particles attached to medicines, like those used in
chemotherapy, can be concentrated to one part of the body by using external magnets on patients, they speculate
Always clean clothing 8, 9
Imagine textiles that you can neither stain nor wrinkle, but maintain the look and feel of fabrics made from natural fibers. Imagine materials that are 100 times stronger than
steel, but weigh only one sixth as much. Nanofibers could be used in astronauts' suits, moving with them as they work to give them greater flexibility in space, or to allow the disabled greater mobility by acting as extra muscles, Kim speculates.
Imagine batteries that take up less than one cubic millimeter, but that can supply a medical implant with power for years. Imagine sensors, smaller than a pinpoint, that can detect anything in extremely low concentrations, from specific antibodies to toxic chemicals.
Nanotechnology encompasses life sciences, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Through nanotechnology, nano-developers manipulate single atoms and molecules to create new structures to achieve previously unheard of results.
When a big splash of coffee would have left an unmistakable stain on ordinary trousers, can simply be brushed off without leaving a trace on a pair of trousers made of nanotextile. A titanium frying pan and the laser in a fairly modern CD player are both based on nanotechnology. Nanoparticles can be added to wall paint, which then automatically sterilizes an operating theatre, or that filters based on nanotechnology used in water purifiers can automatically kill undesirable bacteria, hence nano-technology is and will increasingly become part of our everyday lives, sometimes without us even noticing.
Roofing tiles that convert solar light to household electricity, to reinforced, self-repairing houses immune to all natural disasters "short of a large incoming meteor.10
Michael Crichton 11
Dr Michael Crichton says "These organisms (self-reproducing tiny computers) will be created by nanotechnology, perhaps the most radical technology in human history: the quest to build man-made machines of extremely small size, on the order of 100 nanometers, or 100/billionths of a meter. Such machines would be 1000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Experts predict that these tiny machines will provide everything from miniaturized computer components to new medical treatments to new military weapons. In the 21st. century, they will change our world totally."
"The potential benefits are spectacular: Tiny robots may crawl through your arteries, cutting away atherosclerotic plaque; powerful drugs will be delivered to individual cancer cells, leaving other cells undamaged; teeth will be self-repairing. Cosmetically, you will change your hair color with an injection of nanomachines that circulate through the body, moving melanocytes in hair follicles. Other nanomachines will lighten or darken skin color at will, removing blemishes, birthmarks and liver spots in the process; still others could cleanse the mouth and eliminate bad breath. Nonsurgical nanoprocesses could even perform liposuction and body reshaping. They also will repair knees and spines."
"Living spaces will be transformed, with self-cleaning dishes and carpets and permanently clean bathrooms. Windows will lighten or darken at will; programmable paint will change color. You can walk through the walls of your house, since they are composed of particle clouds. Your personal computer and your watch will be painted on your arm. Temperature-sensitive clothing will loosen when it gets hot, insulate when it gets cold."
In the future, roving nanomachines will convert trash dumps to energy; solar nanomachines will be coated on the houses to generate electricity; flexible nanomachines will provide earthquake protection. It may be possible to move a house on the backs of millions of nanomachines, across the lawn.
In 1959 in a speech titled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society by Caltech physicist Richard Feynman predicted the advent of nanomachines. In 2003, nanotechnology is still very much in its infancy, however major corporations such as IBM, Fujitsu and Intel are funding nanotechnology research. U.S. Government investment in nanotechnology has gone from virtually nothing only a few years ago to well over $600,000,000 per year by 2003.
At the present, nonotechniques already are being used to make sunscreens, stain resistant fabrics and composite materials in cars. Soon they will be used to make computers and storage devices of extremely small size. One company is now making self-cleaning window glass; another is making nanocrystal wound dressing with antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties. Currently, nanotechnology is principally a materials technology.
Most experts predict that self-reproducing machines are only a decade away. There are man-made, self-reproducing entities released in the environment. The first of these, of course, were computer viruses. The first viruses were created as a game – “core wars,” a 1960’s battle between mainframe programmers, each releasing a program into the other’s mainframe computer. The game was limited to specialists, but hackers began to experiment as well. The growth of computer networking made rapid worldwide transmission possible. Computers viruses, worms on the Internet have become an international threat to information and global business.
Scientists are witnessing some of the problems of self-replicating biotechnology agents.
For example a recent report indicates that modified maize genes are now appearing in native maize in Mexico – despite laws against it and efforts to prevent it. It is only the start of what we may expect to be a long journey to control this new technology. Laws have been passed to put hackers in jail. Delinquent biotechnologists will soon join them.
It is important to have international controls to deal with self-reproducing technologies. At the moment, there are essentially no laws dealing with this subject.
REFERENCES:
1.http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/enterprise/story/0,2000048640,20267134-2,00.htm
2.http://www.rice.edu/projects/reno/Newsrel/2001/20010402_nanotechnology.shtml
3.http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=5481 Richmond, Va., Feb 11, 2003
4.http://cseserv.engr.scu.edu/StudentWebPages/AChen/ResearchPaper.htm.
5.www.nansosensors.com
6. Nano into everyday life by Nino Simic (a Swedish journalist living in Lund). http://www.oresundit.com/composite(1610).htm
7. Ryan Randazzo, RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL, 6/15/2002
8. http://www.agg.com/Practice/Nanotechnology_main.html
9.http://www.oresundit.com/composite(1610).htm
10.www.foresight.org
11. Michael Crichton, " Could Tiny Machines Rule the World?", Parade Magazine, November 24, 2002, pages 6-8.
Some nanotechnology links:
www.about.com/nanotechnology
A search engine that compiles various sources and articles.
Professor Jim Tour's research home page. www.jmtour.com
Professor Naomi Halas' research home page. www-ece.rice.edu/~halas
The National Science and Technology Council's site for nanoscale technology, including information on federal initiatives. www.nano.gov
"He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth." [Qur'an 2:29]
"It is your Lord, the Most Bounteous, Who taught by the pen, taught man that which he knew not..." [Qur'an 96:2-5]
"We shell show them our Signs on the horizons and within themselves until it will be manifest unto them that it is the Truth..." [Qur'an 41:53]
Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, Timeline, 'The Andromeda Strain', 'Invasion of the body snatchers' and other novels has lately authored a terrific novel titled PREY. This is the most compelling novel that tells the story of a mechanical plague and the desperate efforts of a handful of scientists to stop it. In PREY Michael Crichton utilizes the latest scientific facts and takes us into the emerging realms of nanotechnology and artificial distributed intelligence -- in a story of breathtaking suspense. In this novel, he takes three emerging technologies - genetics, distributed intelligence and nanotechnology and brews up a terrifying tale of science gone well skewed.
The main character in the novel is Jack Forman who is in charge of PREDPREY, a program that makes cameras the size of atoms swarm together and act like they are hunting something. The story starts off with software expert, Jack living the life of a house-husband after being fired from a shady Silicon Valley firm (Xymos Corporation). He suspects that his wife Julia (a high-powered computer executive) is having an affair. She is spending more and more time at her firm's (Xymos Corporation) experimental fabrication plant in the barren desert of Nevada. Xymos is having a few problems with its prototype nano-device and so Jack is hired to investigate. It turns out that since he's been gone, people have made changes to the codes, and they haven't been good changes. To make matters worse, Forman has learned that they've allowed a swarm to get outside. They can't get it back to the lab, since it won't respond to their communications. A cloud of nanoparticles -- micro-robots -- has escaped from the laboratory. Jack discovers his wife's firm has created self-replicating nanotechnology--a literal swarm of microscopic machines. Originally meant to serve as a military eye in the sky (spy cameras), the swarm has now escaped into the environment and is seemingly intent on killing the scientists trapped in the facility. This cloud is self-sustaining and self-reproducing. It is intelligent and learns from experience. Jack discovers even worse news when he finds that the rapidly evolving swarms are carnivorous and reproducing because they were created using organic materials. For all practical purposes, it is alive. It has been programmed as a predator. It is evolving swiftly, becoming more deadly with each passing hour. Every attempt to destroy it has failed. So the people in the lab have become the Prey. The fact that they can kill now makes a risky situation even worse, and then to top it off, they are adaptable, learning and evolving at a rate that far surpasses anything in human technology. Forman also learns that his wife isn't what she seems. Crichton then pits man against the swarm of nano-particles in a time-constrained thriller.
The film version of Prey is now in development at Twentieth Century Fox. No details yet. The shooting of the movie film was finished on July 21, ahead of schedule. Director Dick Donner's film for Paramount is now in post-production, with a release date planned for 2003
Human beings have advanced their lives with technology. Man has built huge dams, bridges and jet aircraft as well as microscopically small things, like the computer chips, which are affecting nearly every aspect of our lives, and the genetically modified bacteria that create new drugs for us.
In the 21st century, we are plunging forward into a new era of technological power, one that offers enormous promise for the future and enormous dangers as well.
Scientists are planning to create tiny computers, smaller than specks of dust, programmed to travel in a cloud over a country like Iraq and send back pictures. Unlike robot aircraft, this camera can’t be shot down; bullets will pass right through it.
Such tiny computers will weaken in time, however they can be programmed to be self-reproducing, to replenish themselves. The risk is these tiny computers begin to evolve, and the aggregate cloud becomes a death-dealing swarm that threatens mankind – in effect, a mechanical plague.
What is Nanotechnology ?
In its most basic form, nanotechnology refers to the manipulation of materials at the atomic or molecular level. The name derives from the nanometer, a scientific measurement unit representing a billionth of a meter, or three to four toms wide. Scientists are learning how to connect atoms and molecules together to create nano-scale mechanisms that create switches or transistors, or even small machines that can perform complex tasks.
To use an oft-quoted comparison, a human hair is between 100,000 and 200,000 nanometers thick, while a typical virus can be just 100 nanometers wide. Atoms themselves are typically between one-tenth and half of a nanometer wide. Because of the difficulties involved in working at this scale, activities involving manipulation of items as “large” as 100 nanometers are generally included in the concept of nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology gives scientists the ability to create new materials, atom by atom. With increasingly more powerful microscopes, scientists can see molecules mere nanometers -
or billionths of a meter - in size (a pinhead is one million nanometers across). The field intertwines nearly all fields of science.
Most discussions about nanotechnology deal with the futuristic concept of nanomachines or nanobots: microscopic devices that can themselves carry out tasks at the atomic or sub-atomic level. Nanotechnology, also called molecular manufacturing, is "a branch of engineering that deals with the design and manufacture of extremely small electronic circuits and mechanical devices built at the molecular level of matter." The goal of nanotechnology is to be able to manipulate materials at the atomic level to build the smallest possible electromechanical devices, given the physical limitations of matter. Much of the mechanical systems we know how to build will be transferred to the molecular level as some atomic analogy.
The 21st century gives a typical vision: “Nanotechnologists will be building our cars one molecule at a time, invading our bloodstream to declog our arteries, and replicating themselves thousands of times over.”
Nanorobot1
Nanorobot is a computer-controlled robotic device constructed of nanometer-scale components to molecular precision, usually microscopic in size (often abbreviated as "nanobot"). This reminds one of the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage, in which a team of scientists (including Raquel Welch) are miniaturized, placed in a tiny submarine and injected into a sick man’s bloodstream. Nanotechnology invariably involves work on a much smaller scale than the average blood cell.
If you can construct objects at the molecular level, you can theoretically build anything, since all objects are made up of molecules.
Translating from concept to practice is trickier. While many plans have been drawn up for simple nanomachines such as gears and motors, actually building them is still fiendishly difficult and rather expensive. The most famous “working” nanomachine is probably the nanoguitar constructed by Cornell University researchers in 1997. Just 10,000 nanometers wide, the nanoguitar has six strings, each just 50 nanometers wide. Of course, without a nano-ear to listen to its 10MHz output, the guitar is fairly useless, but it demonstrates that simple machines can be constructed on a nanometric scale.
Producing nanomachines on a commercial basis will undoubtedly prove more challenging, since atomic manipulation, while not theoretically contrary to the laws of physics, is still extremely slow and costly.
The most widely discussed long-term solution is to make the nanomachines self-replicating. Control mechanisms for such systems (how does a machine know how to build a copy of itself, and how does it know when to stop doing so?) are still in their very early stages, and once again theory is a fair way ahead of practical reality.
Charles Vest, the president of MIT, observed recently. “The gathering nanotechnology revolution will eventually make possible a huge leap in computing power, vastly stronger yet much lighter materials, advances in medical technologies, as well as devices and processes with much lower energy and environmental costs.
Nanotechnology may well rival the development of the transistor or telecommunications in its ultimate impact.”
Many of the more recent practical applications of nanotechnology has been in the area of materials research, but scientists believe that transistors could also eventually be built in this way, paving the way for computational technologies which don’t depend on silicon and which can pack even more circuitry into microscopic spaces.
Nanoshells 2
Nanoshells are tiny particles that can manipulate light, and can be used to transform medical procedures ranging from cancer therapy to medical testing and drug delivery.
Nanoshells are ideal for biotechnology applications because they are biocompatible, can be altered and modified and absorb light strongly in the near-infrared region, where human tissue is most transparent.
Nanoshells can be tagged and delivered specifically to tumor cells but leave healthy cells undamaged. Nanoshells can reduce the amount of time it takes to conduct medical tests from several days into a matter of seconds and nanoshells incorporated into temperature-sensitive polymers can be triggered to release a chemical using infrared light, providing a patient with the ability to control the release of medicine that requires periodic dispensing.
A new bandage 3
A new bandage that imitates nature's own healing is used for minor cuts to gunshot wounds. The bandage, a flannel-like material, stops bleeding immediately and can be left in place to be absorbed by the body. This new material is developed by spinning a compound naturally found in blood into a bandage that can minimize blood loss and be absorbed by the body, according to an article in the Feb. 12 issue of Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society.
"We've taken an old technique - electrospinning – and applied it to natural fibers," said Gary Bowlin, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University.
When a person bleeds from a cut or wound, a blood clot forms and netting made of a substance called fibrin develops over the clot. Fibrinogen, the compound in blood
that comprises the "natural" bandage, is a fibrin precursor, researchers added, and can come from human, bovine or genetically engineered bacterial sources.
The goal is to pack the bandage like gauze so it can be used to handle trauma patients, Bowlin said.
Science fiction into reality 4
Imagine a world in which cars can be assembled molecule-by-molecule, garbage can be disassembled and turned into beef steaks, and people can be operated on and healed by cell-sized robots. Sound like science fiction? Well, with current semiconductor chip manufacturing encroaching upon the nanometer scale and the ability to move individual atoms at the IBM Almaden laboratory, we are fast approaching the technological ability to fabricate productive machines and devices that can manipulate things at the atomic level. From this ability we will be able to develop molecular-sized computers and robots, which would give us unprecedented control over matter and the ability to shape the physical world as we see fit.
Nanofabrication techniques with applications in fiber optics, biotechnology, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), "tiny mechanical devices such as sensors, valves, gears, mirrors, and actuators embedded in semiconductor chips", are particularly interesting because they are but a mere step away from the molecular machines envisioned by nanotechnology. MEMS are already being used in automobile airbag systems as accelerometers to detect collisions and will become an increasing part of our everyday technology. In 1986, a researcher from MIT named K. Eric Drexler already foresaw the advent of molecular machines and published a book, Engines of Creation, in which he outlined the possibilities and consequences of this emerging field, which he called nanotechnology. Drexler has written numerous other books on the subject, such as Unbounding the Future, and has founded the Foresight Institute, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the responsible development of nanotechnology. It hosts conferences and competitions to raise the awareness of nanotechnology and the ethical issues involved in its development.
Today, nanotechnology research and development is quite wide spread in numerous universities. The U.S. government has created an organization, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), to monitor and guide research and development in this field.
As envisioned by Drexler, as well as many others, this would lead to nanocomputers, no bigger than bacteria and nanomachines, also known as nanites (from Star Trek: The Next Generation), which could be used as a molecular assemblers and disassemblers to build, repair, or tear down any physical or biological objects.
In essence, the purpose of developing nanotechnology is to have tools to work on the molecular level analogous to the tools we have at the macroworld level. Like the robots we use to build cars and the construction equipment we use to build skyscrapers, nanomachines will enable us to create a plethora of goods and increase our engineering abilities to the limits of the physical world.
Potential Benefits
It would not take much of a leap, then, to imagine disassemblers dismantling garbage to be recycled at the molecular level, and then given to assemblers for them to build atomically perfect engines. Stretching this vision a bit, you can imagine a Star Trek type replicator, which could reassemble matter in the form of a juicy steak, given the correct blueprints and organization of these nanomachines.
A laboratory-scale "in vivo nanoscope" capable of providing atomic resolution, real time movies of happenings inside living cells in intact living animals. This nanoscope is a hybrid of conventional technology and early (pre-assembler) nanotechnology, yet provides an enormous leap in the ability of biologists to understand the workings of cells and develop medical therapies.
Just given the basic premises of nanotechnology, you can imagine the vast potential of this technology. Some of it's more prominent benefits would be: Precision Manufacturing, Material Reuse, Miniaturization.
The medical applications are: Pharmaceutical Creation, Disease Treatment, and Nanomachine-assisted Surgery.
Environmental applications are in Toxin Cleanup, Recycling and Resource Consumption Reduction.
Nanomedicine
Nanomedicine deals with (1) the comprehensive monitoring, control, construction, repair, defense, and improvement of all human biological systems, working from the molecular level, using engineered nanodevices and nanostructures; (2) the science and technology of diagnosing, treating, and preventing disease and traumatic injury, of relieving pain, and of preserving and improving human health, using molecular tools and molecular knowledge of the human body; (3) the employment of molecular machine systems to address medical problems, using molecular knowledge to maintain and improve human health at the molecular scale. Cosmetic nanosurgery done with simple nanomachines (no on-board computers, for example) could change hair color, cause hair to grow or not to grow in specific locations, keep teeth clean and skin smooth, etc., all far more effectively than with current day treatments. Looking somewhat further in the future at more radical modifications of the human body through nanotechnology, Edward Reifman describes dentistry with assembler-fabricated teeth, and even with teeth and jaws made of diamond.
“In the long term, we hope to be able to build small nanorobots which can search out and destroy cancerous tumors when they comprise just one or two cells “Or small drilling machines which dissolve clots.”
Viruses, which are natural nanomachines, could better be fought, as the body’s own immune system has some handicaps: it tends to forget the shape of it’s enemies, it sometimes has problems identifying malignant cells and it suffers from a certain delay until the immune reaction is fully developed, therefore nanomachines could serve as support to the immune system. Nanomachines could route bacteria, they could excise tumors and reconstruct damaged tissue, and furthermore they could make a huge contribution to the treatment of ageing.
Along with all the obvious manufacturing benefits, there are also many potential medical and environmental benefits. With nanomachines, we could better design and synthesize pharmaceuticals; we could directly treat diseased cells like cancer; we could better monitor the life signs of a patient; or we could use nanomachines to make microscopic repairs in hard-to-operate-on areas of the body. With regard to the environment, we could use nanomachines to clean up toxins or oil spills, recycle all garbage, and eliminate landfills, thus reducing our natural resource consumption.
Potential Dangers
The downside to these benefits is the possibility of assemblers and disassemblers being used to create weapons, be used as weapons themselves, or for them to run wild and wreak havoc. Other, less invasive, but equally perilous uses of nanotechnology would be in electronic surveillance.
Weapons are an obvious negative use of nanotechnology. Simply extending today's weapon capabilities by miniaturizing guns, explosives, and electronic components of missiles would be deadly enough. However, with nanotechnology, armies could also develop disassemblers to attack physical structures or even biological organism at the molecular level. A similar hazard would be if general-purpose disassemblers got loose in the environment and started disassembling every molecule they encountered. This is known as "The Gray Goo Scenario." Furthermore, if nanomachines were created to be self-replicating and there were a problem with their limiting mechanism, they would multiply endlessly like viruses. Even without considering the extreme disaster scenarios of nanotechnology, we can find plenty of potentially harmful uses for it. It could be used to erode our freedom and privacy; people could use molecular sized microphones, cameras, and homing beacons to monitor and track others.
Ethical Issues & Analysis
With such awesome potential dangers inherent in nanotechnology, we must seriously examine its potential consequences. Granted, nanotechnology may never become as powerful and prolific as envisioned by its evangelists, but as with any potential, near-horizon technology, we should go through the exercise of formulating solutions to potential ethical issues before the technology is irreversibly adopted by society. We must examine the ethics of developing nanotechnology and create policies that will aid in its development so as to eliminate or at least minimize its damaging effects on society.
Nanosensors 5
Nanosensor -- a chemical or physical sensor constructed using nanoscale components, usually microscopic or submicroscopic in size.
Nano brings science fiction into everyday life 6
The more immediate future of nanotechnology lies in its application in sensors, such as electronic ‘noses’ with the ability to detect the presence of individual protein molecules in a blood sample, for example. This involves a chip the size of your little fingernail with thousands of sensors, each set to detect a specific substance. It may even be possible to make them so small that they fit on a needle. Then there would be no need for a blood test – a prick in the finger would be sufficient to allow a full blood analysis.
Nanosensors will also be of great value in the production of new medicines since they can effectively find active substances. So far it has been possible to build this type of sensor one by one, but the difficulty lies in integrating perhaps 100, 000 on one chip.
Nanotechnology will have great significance in the materials field. There are already self-washing windows that repel dirt thanks to their nanostructured surface.
Aging process can be delayed by repairing human cells one by one. Unlimited computer power obtained from improved microchip performance. Global warming can be reduced by cleaning greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere with nanoparticles; and pesticides that kill insects without harmful byproducts. Creation of artificial muscles and sensors, as well as a nanocoating for metal that could increase the efficiency of power plants and potentially save millions of dollars a year for electricity generators.
Such molecules could be used in computers thousands of times smaller than current semiconductors with immense memory capability or light-activated medicines. One of the universities is trying to improve upon imaging with the atomic force microscope, one of the tools used to observe life at the nanoscale.
Nanofluids 7
On the medical front, researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute are developing magnetic nanofluids. Magnetic particles attached to medicines, like those used in
chemotherapy, can be concentrated to one part of the body by using external magnets on patients, they speculate
Always clean clothing 8, 9
Imagine textiles that you can neither stain nor wrinkle, but maintain the look and feel of fabrics made from natural fibers. Imagine materials that are 100 times stronger than
steel, but weigh only one sixth as much. Nanofibers could be used in astronauts' suits, moving with them as they work to give them greater flexibility in space, or to allow the disabled greater mobility by acting as extra muscles, Kim speculates.
Imagine batteries that take up less than one cubic millimeter, but that can supply a medical implant with power for years. Imagine sensors, smaller than a pinpoint, that can detect anything in extremely low concentrations, from specific antibodies to toxic chemicals.
Nanotechnology encompasses life sciences, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Through nanotechnology, nano-developers manipulate single atoms and molecules to create new structures to achieve previously unheard of results.
When a big splash of coffee would have left an unmistakable stain on ordinary trousers, can simply be brushed off without leaving a trace on a pair of trousers made of nanotextile. A titanium frying pan and the laser in a fairly modern CD player are both based on nanotechnology. Nanoparticles can be added to wall paint, which then automatically sterilizes an operating theatre, or that filters based on nanotechnology used in water purifiers can automatically kill undesirable bacteria, hence nano-technology is and will increasingly become part of our everyday lives, sometimes without us even noticing.
Roofing tiles that convert solar light to household electricity, to reinforced, self-repairing houses immune to all natural disasters "short of a large incoming meteor.10
Michael Crichton 11
Dr Michael Crichton says "These organisms (self-reproducing tiny computers) will be created by nanotechnology, perhaps the most radical technology in human history: the quest to build man-made machines of extremely small size, on the order of 100 nanometers, or 100/billionths of a meter. Such machines would be 1000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Experts predict that these tiny machines will provide everything from miniaturized computer components to new medical treatments to new military weapons. In the 21st. century, they will change our world totally."
"The potential benefits are spectacular: Tiny robots may crawl through your arteries, cutting away atherosclerotic plaque; powerful drugs will be delivered to individual cancer cells, leaving other cells undamaged; teeth will be self-repairing. Cosmetically, you will change your hair color with an injection of nanomachines that circulate through the body, moving melanocytes in hair follicles. Other nanomachines will lighten or darken skin color at will, removing blemishes, birthmarks and liver spots in the process; still others could cleanse the mouth and eliminate bad breath. Nonsurgical nanoprocesses could even perform liposuction and body reshaping. They also will repair knees and spines."
"Living spaces will be transformed, with self-cleaning dishes and carpets and permanently clean bathrooms. Windows will lighten or darken at will; programmable paint will change color. You can walk through the walls of your house, since they are composed of particle clouds. Your personal computer and your watch will be painted on your arm. Temperature-sensitive clothing will loosen when it gets hot, insulate when it gets cold."
In the future, roving nanomachines will convert trash dumps to energy; solar nanomachines will be coated on the houses to generate electricity; flexible nanomachines will provide earthquake protection. It may be possible to move a house on the backs of millions of nanomachines, across the lawn.
In 1959 in a speech titled “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” delivered at the Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society by Caltech physicist Richard Feynman predicted the advent of nanomachines. In 2003, nanotechnology is still very much in its infancy, however major corporations such as IBM, Fujitsu and Intel are funding nanotechnology research. U.S. Government investment in nanotechnology has gone from virtually nothing only a few years ago to well over $600,000,000 per year by 2003.
At the present, nonotechniques already are being used to make sunscreens, stain resistant fabrics and composite materials in cars. Soon they will be used to make computers and storage devices of extremely small size. One company is now making self-cleaning window glass; another is making nanocrystal wound dressing with antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties. Currently, nanotechnology is principally a materials technology.
Most experts predict that self-reproducing machines are only a decade away. There are man-made, self-reproducing entities released in the environment. The first of these, of course, were computer viruses. The first viruses were created as a game – “core wars,” a 1960’s battle between mainframe programmers, each releasing a program into the other’s mainframe computer. The game was limited to specialists, but hackers began to experiment as well. The growth of computer networking made rapid worldwide transmission possible. Computers viruses, worms on the Internet have become an international threat to information and global business.
Scientists are witnessing some of the problems of self-replicating biotechnology agents.
For example a recent report indicates that modified maize genes are now appearing in native maize in Mexico – despite laws against it and efforts to prevent it. It is only the start of what we may expect to be a long journey to control this new technology. Laws have been passed to put hackers in jail. Delinquent biotechnologists will soon join them.
It is important to have international controls to deal with self-reproducing technologies. At the moment, there are essentially no laws dealing with this subject.
REFERENCES:
1.http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/enterprise/story/0,2000048640,20267134-2,00.htm
2.http://www.rice.edu/projects/reno/Newsrel/2001/20010402_nanotechnology.shtml
3.http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=5481 Richmond, Va., Feb 11, 2003
4.http://cseserv.engr.scu.edu/StudentWebPages/AChen/ResearchPaper.htm.
5.www.nansosensors.com
6. Nano into everyday life by Nino Simic (a Swedish journalist living in Lund). http://www.oresundit.com/composite(1610).htm
7. Ryan Randazzo, RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL, 6/15/2002
8. http://www.agg.com/Practice/Nanotechnology_main.html
9.http://www.oresundit.com/composite(1610).htm
10.www.foresight.org
11. Michael Crichton, " Could Tiny Machines Rule the World?", Parade Magazine, November 24, 2002, pages 6-8.
Some nanotechnology links:
www.about.com/nanotechnology
A search engine that compiles various sources and articles.
Professor Jim Tour's research home page. www.jmtour.com
Professor Naomi Halas' research home page. www-ece.rice.edu/~halas
The National Science and Technology Council's site for nanoscale technology, including information on federal initiatives. www.nano.gov
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Freedom and Islam
Recently, I read an article, “Women in Islam” describing the liberation of women by Islam and Prophet (s). In reality women cannot travel alone to Hujj or visit Mecca (the safest place for any one), and women cannot drive a car in Saudi Arabia. It is not a secret that Muslims in general and Muslim women in particular in the world are the least free and least educated. So, I wonder: Oh Islam! You are a great theory but no practical value, unless you live in the West.
After all, only one thing matters in Islam. Faith is a matter of exclusively personal and private experience. We embrace faith individually just as we confront our death individually. An Iranian Muslim philosopher, Souroush, correctly said it that we have communal actions and but not communal faiths. We can express faith in public but the core of the faith is mysteriously private. The preeminence of Islamic faith is for the hereafter where people are judged individually: "Everyone of them will come before Him all alone on the Day of Resurrection. Surely A-Rahman will show love for those who believe and do right." [19:95-96]. There is no Original Sin that transcends over the goodness of whole mankind in Islam. Therefore, the only things that matter on the Day of Judgment are actions at the individual level. Community actions are useless.
Similarly, the Qur’an states: “Say (Muhammad it is) truth from the Lord of you all. Whosoever will, let him believe and whosoever will, let him disbelieve" (Koran 18: 29) “And so, [O Prophet,] exhort them; thy task is only to exhort: thou cannot compel them to believe.” (Koran: 21-22). “O Prophet.!…Thy duty is not more than to deliver the message; and the reckoning is Ours.” (Koran 13:40). These verses teach that a roof made out safety and liberty is an absolute necessity to develop faith in the hearts. These verses demand Muslims to guarantee freedom and safety for all. Therefore, if governments, Imams, enforced Fatwas demand any public or outward obedience and submission, such outward appearance is not faith. When law, power, force, and tyranny enforce religion, they are taking control of the body not the soul. Unfortunately, many Muslims want to make reign over body the most important tent of Islam even though the Qur’an rejects their craving for power over body: “It is not your meat or blood that reach Allah: It is fealty of your heart that reaches Him” (22:37).
In Muslim majority nations, people are forced to confessed Islamic faith and behave in one voice in religion; but they forget that the rulers cannot fill the heart with genuine faith. I believe that faith chosen freely at the individual level without coercion and without forced conformity is the genuine faith. In a world where the hearts with freely chosen faith, not by forced compliance, pervade, the true religious spirit come alive to establish an ideal society by free choice of the people. This is proven by Muslim history in the first 6 centuries. Muslims helped Jews to create their Golden Age and liberate Christians from tyranny of Roman church. Muslims philosophy and science promoted the Enlightenment and Renaissance of the Europe. We also created the experimental science. In those days, we educated anyone who came our way without force-feeding our faith. Now we have governments that have taken control of our body claiming to send our “meat and blood” to God while Muslims have to beg from non-Muslim societies for their daily bread to keep their body alive.
Prophet (pubh) struggled to establish a free society. Similarly, Muslims must struggle hard peacefully to establish a free society where no totalitarian government, no Imams, no predominant group control us or decide for us. Everyone is equal. If any one wants to be a believer, let him/her be. If anyone wants to be an apostate let him/her be safe to live the life of an apostate. So-called Islamic government is myth created by power hungry people to control Muslim mind and body. There was no such thing as Islamic government. Government is only a means to execute the will of people. The individual members of the government can have Islamic values and faith. Prophet (s) ruled as democratically elected ruler following the invitation by the people of Medina. Prophet (s) never forced a decision upon his community even when he believed that majority decision on a particular secular matter was a mistake as happened in the case of the disaster of Uhud war. A minority including him wanted to fortify the Medina and fight the Meccan forces. But he agreed to go along with the wishes of the majority to fight Koraisch in the open field instead of from fortified Medina even though the strategy of the majority was wrong in his opinion. So, Islam demands Democracy, not tyranny by Ullamahs, King, self-appointed presidents, and military generals.
The concept of so-called Islamic government is oxymoron unless it means a government with Islamic values that community has accepted, not by the opinion or fatawa of an Imam but by totally free discussion in a free press, without coercion and intimidation. Some of the so-called Islamic values that exist in the contemporary Muslim society are the values of some Imams that had never grinded through and experienced a free press. The self-righteous terrorists, and oppressive governments among Muslims want to control the “meat and blood” with the aid of the values of Imams that were not debated in the free society with a free press. However, they neglect the soul that sustains the body. Let the democracy rule our bodies with a free press and let the free choice build our faith. Let us get rid of from our thoughts the enforced forms of outward Islam that demand the conformity and control from our “meat and blood”
The verse 33:5 states: “There is no sin upon you for what mistakes you commit unintentionally, but there is sin what your hearts have intended.” Unintentional mistakes happen much less if mind is exposed to free press, public opinion, and dialogue with reason as guiding principle. Hadith states "Allah has not created any thing better than reason." So, any Muslim opposes a free press and reasoning are committing a sin knowingly because he/she refuses to listen to the merit or demerit of opposing points of view. Koreishs of Mecca rejected Prophet (s) because they refused to listen to reasoning. Muslims must reject Jahilliah paradigm that pervades in our community and in our mind.
Let Imams and scholars issue Fatwas freely without power to enforce over the community. Reject any conformity by force. Reject totalitarianism and kingdoms that want to rule our body. Let the heart and mind fly free to see what is out there. The democracy draws inspiration from the Qur’anic axiom that human being are free. America constitution reflects it as it states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press.” This is candidly stated in verse: “We sent down the Torah which contains guidance and light…Later, in the train of Prophets We send Jesus, son of Mary, confirming the Torah which has been send down before him, and gave him the Gospel containing guidance and light. …Unto to you [O Muhammad] this writ (Koran) and a way and a pattern of life, confirming what were revealed before…Unto everyone of you have We appointed a different law and way of life. And if God had so willed He could surely have you all made one single community professing one faith. But He wished to try you and test you. So try to excel in good deeds” (Koran: 5:44-48). The existence of different kinds of faith and religion competing each other doing good work is the will of God. So, freedom without the enforcement of conformity in religious matters is Islamic. The so-called Islamic governments of the self-righteous violate Qur’anic principles and tyrannize people of all faith including Muslims. Islam will always remain a dream and an excellent theory with no practical value until faith rules the hearts and liberal democracy with a free press rules the bodies. Finally, I thank God for creating America where I do not fear about government taking control of my body and at same time my heart can fly freely to choose my faith.
After all, only one thing matters in Islam. Faith is a matter of exclusively personal and private experience. We embrace faith individually just as we confront our death individually. An Iranian Muslim philosopher, Souroush, correctly said it that we have communal actions and but not communal faiths. We can express faith in public but the core of the faith is mysteriously private. The preeminence of Islamic faith is for the hereafter where people are judged individually: "Everyone of them will come before Him all alone on the Day of Resurrection. Surely A-Rahman will show love for those who believe and do right." [19:95-96]. There is no Original Sin that transcends over the goodness of whole mankind in Islam. Therefore, the only things that matter on the Day of Judgment are actions at the individual level. Community actions are useless.
Similarly, the Qur’an states: “Say (Muhammad it is) truth from the Lord of you all. Whosoever will, let him believe and whosoever will, let him disbelieve" (Koran 18: 29) “And so, [O Prophet,] exhort them; thy task is only to exhort: thou cannot compel them to believe.” (Koran: 21-22). “O Prophet.!…Thy duty is not more than to deliver the message; and the reckoning is Ours.” (Koran 13:40). These verses teach that a roof made out safety and liberty is an absolute necessity to develop faith in the hearts. These verses demand Muslims to guarantee freedom and safety for all. Therefore, if governments, Imams, enforced Fatwas demand any public or outward obedience and submission, such outward appearance is not faith. When law, power, force, and tyranny enforce religion, they are taking control of the body not the soul. Unfortunately, many Muslims want to make reign over body the most important tent of Islam even though the Qur’an rejects their craving for power over body: “It is not your meat or blood that reach Allah: It is fealty of your heart that reaches Him” (22:37).
In Muslim majority nations, people are forced to confessed Islamic faith and behave in one voice in religion; but they forget that the rulers cannot fill the heart with genuine faith. I believe that faith chosen freely at the individual level without coercion and without forced conformity is the genuine faith. In a world where the hearts with freely chosen faith, not by forced compliance, pervade, the true religious spirit come alive to establish an ideal society by free choice of the people. This is proven by Muslim history in the first 6 centuries. Muslims helped Jews to create their Golden Age and liberate Christians from tyranny of Roman church. Muslims philosophy and science promoted the Enlightenment and Renaissance of the Europe. We also created the experimental science. In those days, we educated anyone who came our way without force-feeding our faith. Now we have governments that have taken control of our body claiming to send our “meat and blood” to God while Muslims have to beg from non-Muslim societies for their daily bread to keep their body alive.
Prophet (pubh) struggled to establish a free society. Similarly, Muslims must struggle hard peacefully to establish a free society where no totalitarian government, no Imams, no predominant group control us or decide for us. Everyone is equal. If any one wants to be a believer, let him/her be. If anyone wants to be an apostate let him/her be safe to live the life of an apostate. So-called Islamic government is myth created by power hungry people to control Muslim mind and body. There was no such thing as Islamic government. Government is only a means to execute the will of people. The individual members of the government can have Islamic values and faith. Prophet (s) ruled as democratically elected ruler following the invitation by the people of Medina. Prophet (s) never forced a decision upon his community even when he believed that majority decision on a particular secular matter was a mistake as happened in the case of the disaster of Uhud war. A minority including him wanted to fortify the Medina and fight the Meccan forces. But he agreed to go along with the wishes of the majority to fight Koraisch in the open field instead of from fortified Medina even though the strategy of the majority was wrong in his opinion. So, Islam demands Democracy, not tyranny by Ullamahs, King, self-appointed presidents, and military generals.
The concept of so-called Islamic government is oxymoron unless it means a government with Islamic values that community has accepted, not by the opinion or fatawa of an Imam but by totally free discussion in a free press, without coercion and intimidation. Some of the so-called Islamic values that exist in the contemporary Muslim society are the values of some Imams that had never grinded through and experienced a free press. The self-righteous terrorists, and oppressive governments among Muslims want to control the “meat and blood” with the aid of the values of Imams that were not debated in the free society with a free press. However, they neglect the soul that sustains the body. Let the democracy rule our bodies with a free press and let the free choice build our faith. Let us get rid of from our thoughts the enforced forms of outward Islam that demand the conformity and control from our “meat and blood”
The verse 33:5 states: “There is no sin upon you for what mistakes you commit unintentionally, but there is sin what your hearts have intended.” Unintentional mistakes happen much less if mind is exposed to free press, public opinion, and dialogue with reason as guiding principle. Hadith states "Allah has not created any thing better than reason." So, any Muslim opposes a free press and reasoning are committing a sin knowingly because he/she refuses to listen to the merit or demerit of opposing points of view. Koreishs of Mecca rejected Prophet (s) because they refused to listen to reasoning. Muslims must reject Jahilliah paradigm that pervades in our community and in our mind.
Let Imams and scholars issue Fatwas freely without power to enforce over the community. Reject any conformity by force. Reject totalitarianism and kingdoms that want to rule our body. Let the heart and mind fly free to see what is out there. The democracy draws inspiration from the Qur’anic axiom that human being are free. America constitution reflects it as it states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press.” This is candidly stated in verse: “We sent down the Torah which contains guidance and light…Later, in the train of Prophets We send Jesus, son of Mary, confirming the Torah which has been send down before him, and gave him the Gospel containing guidance and light. …Unto to you [O Muhammad] this writ (Koran) and a way and a pattern of life, confirming what were revealed before…Unto everyone of you have We appointed a different law and way of life. And if God had so willed He could surely have you all made one single community professing one faith. But He wished to try you and test you. So try to excel in good deeds” (Koran: 5:44-48). The existence of different kinds of faith and religion competing each other doing good work is the will of God. So, freedom without the enforcement of conformity in religious matters is Islamic. The so-called Islamic governments of the self-righteous violate Qur’anic principles and tyrannize people of all faith including Muslims. Islam will always remain a dream and an excellent theory with no practical value until faith rules the hearts and liberal democracy with a free press rules the bodies. Finally, I thank God for creating America where I do not fear about government taking control of my body and at same time my heart can fly freely to choose my faith.
Chance: Not Anti-God, but Road to God
Muslims believe that assigning a role for chance in the creation of the universe and its subunits--animate and inanimate--is anti-Islamic and a denial of God’s absolute control of the universe. Many Muslims, particularly Adnan Oktar, known as Harun Yahya, with the help of Christian creationists lavishly promote this belief through Muslim newspapers and magazines and create skepticism, especially among young Muslims living in the West. These young men and women studying in Western universities get little guidance from Imams at their mosques. Many Imams (in the West and the East) have little knowledge of science and its workings. When asked about the human evolution, they say it is a theory but they cannot render a scientific definition of the word. Imams, in general, are incapable of giving believable answers to our budding anatomists, embryologists, paleontologists, molecular biologists, physicists or chemists in our prestigious universities.
Many Muslim parents living in the West have scientific training, which they use in their daily lives. Unfortunately, they too are poor guides for inquisitive young Muslim minds. They tell their children that scientific theories could be proved wrong at a later time. They ask these intelligent young men and women to listen to their Imams and believe what they say. On the other hand they, not only encourage but also sometimes pressure their children to major in scientific fields. What an amazing contradiction! Encouraging the study of science but rejecting its discoveries!! People like Harun Yahya, using out-of-context quotes from scientific journals mislead Muslims, who are scientifically unschooled, into believing the fundamentalist Christian doctrine of the so-called “scientific” creationism. Furthermore, these Muslim cohorts of fundamentalist Christians lead young Muslims, studying science in American universities, into disbelief because they discover the flaws and half-truths in an imported “scientific” creationism.
Yahya and other anti-evolutionist Muslims reject chance events happening in nature. For them, the universe, with its animate and inanimate matter, is a clock and God is the clockmaker. The clockmaker set the clock in motion and it continues to tick away towards the Day of Judgment. This miraculous clock never slows down, never run fast and never stops. A perfect clock!! If the universe does run like a clock, then future events should be precisely predictable. Our whole lives and futures are predetermined and we have no freedom to actualize any possibility or affect any change in the universe. The universe is a mechanical clock whose function is predetermined in the past and all God does is watch it tick away. What we have is an unemployed god!!
What do we mean by chance? Simple meaning of the word is something that happens unpredictably with out discernible human intention or direction and in dissociation from any observable pattern, causal relation, or natural necessity. The events become unpredictable in two ways. They become unpredictable because we are limited by the lack of detailed and accurate knowledge at the micro-level. In such cases chance means that we are unable to determine all the micro-factors of the initial conditions that determine the macro-events. In another scenario, the observed event is the result of the crossing of two or more independent causal chains and we have no accurate information about the chains themselves or the beginning small events or about their point of intersection. Chance also means possibilities that are not visibly actualized. A universe without chance or possibilities exists only if creatures do not have the potential and freedom to steal or not to steal, believe or not believe in God, etc. In a deterministic chance-absent universe, humans cannot choose freely what they want but are forced to submit to destiny. In a deterministic universe, we can say Wahshi had no choice in killing Hamzah (ra) in the Uhud war because it was meant to be. Hind d. Utba, who paid Washsi to kill Hamzah (ra) and, who then cannibalized him, also had no choice in the matter because it was destined to happen. Muslim world is predestined to be ruled by oppressive regimes and their government sanctioned form of Islam. Chance, for the ordinary Americans including to see or not to see the true face of Islam, is irrelevant to their perception of Muslims at large as terrorists!!! Their perception about Muslims as terrorists is destiny too! In the first case, God becomes the ultimate puppeteer who pulls the strings on puppets such as Wahshi, Hind d. Utba to kill and mutilate one of the great companions of Prophet (pbuh)! In the second case, God is responsible for hiding the true face of Islam from ordinary Americans so that they see us as terrorists!!! [May Allah forgive me for depicting Him as what He is not] In a deterministic chance-absent universe, human choices and actions are useless because, not chance but destiny, transforms them into believers or non-believers! Therefore, those who reject the role of chance also reject free will. Humans, like robots, accept or reject God, not through their free will but, because they are pre-programmed to do so! No! Allah is not a puppeteer. He is the All Compassionate, Merciful and Just God, who presents to us with possibilities that allow us the freedom to choose right from wrong. We choose either kill or not to kill, to know or not to know the true face of Islam etc.
God, the Knower of all being (Al-Alim), knows that free will exists only where authentic choices exist. So, he offers us an open future with chance events and a multitude of possibilities that allow us to exercise our free will; otherwise, why should mankind and other creatures be held accountable for their actions, if they have no control over them?
Those who reject the existence of elements of chance in real life are transforming Allah, the Merciful and the Compassionate, into the tyrant that He is not. In Islamic history we observe Imam al-Hasan al-Basri (b.624) rejecting a deterministic universe. In response to a letter from Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan regarding the doctrine of a predestined universe, he replied: “Commander of the faithful; do not alter it or interpret it falsely. God would not openly prohibit people from something and destine them to do it secretly [emphasis added] as the ignorant and the heedless say. If that were so, He would not have said in the Qur’an, 41:40: Do what you wish. He would have said: Do what I have destined you to do. Nor would He have said in Qur’an, 18:28: Whomever wills shall believe and whoever wills shall disbelieve. He would have said: Whoever I will shall believe and whoever I will shall disbelieve.”
According to Qur’an, the current universe is our testing ground where our choices and actions generate data for presentation on the Day of Judgment. . Allah determines reward or retribution based on the data created by our choices during our life on our current universe. The Qur’an states: [Allah] Who created death and life in order to try you to see who of you are best in deed (Qur’an 67:2)” and “ Or do ye think that you shall enter the Garden (of Bliss) without such (trials) as came to those who passed away before you?…(Qur’an 2:214)”. It also reads: “On no soul does God place a burden greater than it can bear. It will receive every good it earned and suffer every ill it earned… (Qur’an 2:286).” Therefore, in the Islamic universe, human beings are free agents, given equal chances and the free will to do moral or immoral acts--equal chances to get to heaven or hell. What humans do matters on the Day of Judgment when God’s absolute justice wills prevails.
The fundamental purpose of the Qur’an and the Prophet’s (pbuh) authentic tradition is to make us aware of heaven and hell and of the moral or immoral decisions that we could take by the use of our free will in an unpredictable world. These sources are also decision- making guides to what actions God allows, prohibits, or considers neutral. He does not, however, determine or preordain individual choices and actions. We are free to choose from contrasting possibilities that are packed as information in each moment of the arriving future. We are free to actualize our choices into visible physical monuments of God’s creation. God holds us accountable if our choices violate the guidance that he revealed to us in the Qur’an. We are not responsible for conditions such as pain and suffering, fairness or unfairness, etc., that are inherent specific properties of each possibilities in the coming future. An analogy will better explain the point: A decides to throw acid on B, an innocent person. A is not accountable for the corrosive properties of the acid but for his decision to throw it to hurt human being. The creation of those characteristic properties of all possibilities including that of acid is in Allah’s domain.
In the predestined universe of anti-evolutionists, our thoughts and resulting deeds are preordained. If so, genuine tests or trials (on earth or Judgment Day) are impossible. An individual whose life is predestined will be arbitrarily rewarded or punished for his choices in the Hereafter Universe (al-Akhirah)! The Day of Judgment becomes a tyrant’s phony court hearing where pre-programmed machines, called humans, who have no control over their actions or decisions, are capriciously judged.
A predetermined universe conflicts with the truth in the Qur’an, the authentic traditions, and Islam in totality. A sound interpretation of Qur’anic truth will show that the acceptance of chance and unpredictability is a first step on the road to God because true believers accept responsibility for their choices in actualizing chances and possibilities that God sends their way. Without such freedom, humans cannot, through their effort and free will, find the Generous (Al-Karim), Merciful (Ar-Rahman) God. Instead, like robots, they are faced with a tyrannical force, which prompts their every move and punish them for what the tyrant programmed them to do.
Anti-evolutionist Muslims acknowledge the truth that Allah used the elements of chance and unpredictability in the historical processes that produced our contemporary nations and ways of life in which happy or horrifying unpredictable events are daily occurrences. If chance exits in the daily affairs of human beings and shapes their histories, how can we reject the role of chance in shaping our biological evolution? The theory of evolution is the history of life. Allah wants us to understand the physical and chemical laws of the universe so we can make rational choices and decisions. However, when He intervenes in our lives, He does not change existing physical laws as that may cause confusion among humans.
How did God design this miraculous universe? What are its mechanics? How does God interfere and answers prayers without violating natural laws? How does He maintain the continuity and directionality in evolution of the universe and life in the presence chance? Inshah, Allah, I hope to explore these questions in my book that is yet to be published.
Many Muslim parents living in the West have scientific training, which they use in their daily lives. Unfortunately, they too are poor guides for inquisitive young Muslim minds. They tell their children that scientific theories could be proved wrong at a later time. They ask these intelligent young men and women to listen to their Imams and believe what they say. On the other hand they, not only encourage but also sometimes pressure their children to major in scientific fields. What an amazing contradiction! Encouraging the study of science but rejecting its discoveries!! People like Harun Yahya, using out-of-context quotes from scientific journals mislead Muslims, who are scientifically unschooled, into believing the fundamentalist Christian doctrine of the so-called “scientific” creationism. Furthermore, these Muslim cohorts of fundamentalist Christians lead young Muslims, studying science in American universities, into disbelief because they discover the flaws and half-truths in an imported “scientific” creationism.
Yahya and other anti-evolutionist Muslims reject chance events happening in nature. For them, the universe, with its animate and inanimate matter, is a clock and God is the clockmaker. The clockmaker set the clock in motion and it continues to tick away towards the Day of Judgment. This miraculous clock never slows down, never run fast and never stops. A perfect clock!! If the universe does run like a clock, then future events should be precisely predictable. Our whole lives and futures are predetermined and we have no freedom to actualize any possibility or affect any change in the universe. The universe is a mechanical clock whose function is predetermined in the past and all God does is watch it tick away. What we have is an unemployed god!!
What do we mean by chance? Simple meaning of the word is something that happens unpredictably with out discernible human intention or direction and in dissociation from any observable pattern, causal relation, or natural necessity. The events become unpredictable in two ways. They become unpredictable because we are limited by the lack of detailed and accurate knowledge at the micro-level. In such cases chance means that we are unable to determine all the micro-factors of the initial conditions that determine the macro-events. In another scenario, the observed event is the result of the crossing of two or more independent causal chains and we have no accurate information about the chains themselves or the beginning small events or about their point of intersection. Chance also means possibilities that are not visibly actualized. A universe without chance or possibilities exists only if creatures do not have the potential and freedom to steal or not to steal, believe or not believe in God, etc. In a deterministic chance-absent universe, humans cannot choose freely what they want but are forced to submit to destiny. In a deterministic universe, we can say Wahshi had no choice in killing Hamzah (ra) in the Uhud war because it was meant to be. Hind d. Utba, who paid Washsi to kill Hamzah (ra) and, who then cannibalized him, also had no choice in the matter because it was destined to happen. Muslim world is predestined to be ruled by oppressive regimes and their government sanctioned form of Islam. Chance, for the ordinary Americans including to see or not to see the true face of Islam, is irrelevant to their perception of Muslims at large as terrorists!!! Their perception about Muslims as terrorists is destiny too! In the first case, God becomes the ultimate puppeteer who pulls the strings on puppets such as Wahshi, Hind d. Utba to kill and mutilate one of the great companions of Prophet (pbuh)! In the second case, God is responsible for hiding the true face of Islam from ordinary Americans so that they see us as terrorists!!! [May Allah forgive me for depicting Him as what He is not] In a deterministic chance-absent universe, human choices and actions are useless because, not chance but destiny, transforms them into believers or non-believers! Therefore, those who reject the role of chance also reject free will. Humans, like robots, accept or reject God, not through their free will but, because they are pre-programmed to do so! No! Allah is not a puppeteer. He is the All Compassionate, Merciful and Just God, who presents to us with possibilities that allow us the freedom to choose right from wrong. We choose either kill or not to kill, to know or not to know the true face of Islam etc.
God, the Knower of all being (Al-Alim), knows that free will exists only where authentic choices exist. So, he offers us an open future with chance events and a multitude of possibilities that allow us to exercise our free will; otherwise, why should mankind and other creatures be held accountable for their actions, if they have no control over them?
Those who reject the existence of elements of chance in real life are transforming Allah, the Merciful and the Compassionate, into the tyrant that He is not. In Islamic history we observe Imam al-Hasan al-Basri (b.624) rejecting a deterministic universe. In response to a letter from Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan regarding the doctrine of a predestined universe, he replied: “Commander of the faithful; do not alter it or interpret it falsely. God would not openly prohibit people from something and destine them to do it secretly [emphasis added] as the ignorant and the heedless say. If that were so, He would not have said in the Qur’an, 41:40: Do what you wish. He would have said: Do what I have destined you to do. Nor would He have said in Qur’an, 18:28: Whomever wills shall believe and whoever wills shall disbelieve. He would have said: Whoever I will shall believe and whoever I will shall disbelieve.”
According to Qur’an, the current universe is our testing ground where our choices and actions generate data for presentation on the Day of Judgment. . Allah determines reward or retribution based on the data created by our choices during our life on our current universe. The Qur’an states: [Allah] Who created death and life in order to try you to see who of you are best in deed (Qur’an 67:2)” and “ Or do ye think that you shall enter the Garden (of Bliss) without such (trials) as came to those who passed away before you?…(Qur’an 2:214)”. It also reads: “On no soul does God place a burden greater than it can bear. It will receive every good it earned and suffer every ill it earned… (Qur’an 2:286).” Therefore, in the Islamic universe, human beings are free agents, given equal chances and the free will to do moral or immoral acts--equal chances to get to heaven or hell. What humans do matters on the Day of Judgment when God’s absolute justice wills prevails.
The fundamental purpose of the Qur’an and the Prophet’s (pbuh) authentic tradition is to make us aware of heaven and hell and of the moral or immoral decisions that we could take by the use of our free will in an unpredictable world. These sources are also decision- making guides to what actions God allows, prohibits, or considers neutral. He does not, however, determine or preordain individual choices and actions. We are free to choose from contrasting possibilities that are packed as information in each moment of the arriving future. We are free to actualize our choices into visible physical monuments of God’s creation. God holds us accountable if our choices violate the guidance that he revealed to us in the Qur’an. We are not responsible for conditions such as pain and suffering, fairness or unfairness, etc., that are inherent specific properties of each possibilities in the coming future. An analogy will better explain the point: A decides to throw acid on B, an innocent person. A is not accountable for the corrosive properties of the acid but for his decision to throw it to hurt human being. The creation of those characteristic properties of all possibilities including that of acid is in Allah’s domain.
In the predestined universe of anti-evolutionists, our thoughts and resulting deeds are preordained. If so, genuine tests or trials (on earth or Judgment Day) are impossible. An individual whose life is predestined will be arbitrarily rewarded or punished for his choices in the Hereafter Universe (al-Akhirah)! The Day of Judgment becomes a tyrant’s phony court hearing where pre-programmed machines, called humans, who have no control over their actions or decisions, are capriciously judged.
A predetermined universe conflicts with the truth in the Qur’an, the authentic traditions, and Islam in totality. A sound interpretation of Qur’anic truth will show that the acceptance of chance and unpredictability is a first step on the road to God because true believers accept responsibility for their choices in actualizing chances and possibilities that God sends their way. Without such freedom, humans cannot, through their effort and free will, find the Generous (Al-Karim), Merciful (Ar-Rahman) God. Instead, like robots, they are faced with a tyrannical force, which prompts their every move and punish them for what the tyrant programmed them to do.
Anti-evolutionist Muslims acknowledge the truth that Allah used the elements of chance and unpredictability in the historical processes that produced our contemporary nations and ways of life in which happy or horrifying unpredictable events are daily occurrences. If chance exits in the daily affairs of human beings and shapes their histories, how can we reject the role of chance in shaping our biological evolution? The theory of evolution is the history of life. Allah wants us to understand the physical and chemical laws of the universe so we can make rational choices and decisions. However, when He intervenes in our lives, He does not change existing physical laws as that may cause confusion among humans.
How did God design this miraculous universe? What are its mechanics? How does God interfere and answers prayers without violating natural laws? How does He maintain the continuity and directionality in evolution of the universe and life in the presence chance? Inshah, Allah, I hope to explore these questions in my book that is yet to be published.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Healthier Living through Fasting
During the month of Ramadan, a Muslim does not eat or drink from daybreak, when a thread of light may be seen on the horizon, until sun has set. During the fasting period one should abstain from sensual pleasures. The principle of fasting is related to that of limitation or restraint. Without limitation, true knowledge is impossible, because it is when we come to the end or limit of a thing that its true nature becomes evident. Ramadan's marking the end to indulgence, or imposing a clear limit to it day after day for a month or for approximately 360 hours, offers an unmistakable spiritual lesson. It also constitutes for a purification and a kind of sacrifice, which, like the pruning the trees, leads to renewal and fresh strength. On the moral plane it brings a direct understanding of the suffering of the hungry. This limitation increases and strengthens one's will power and self-control, so that once can give up bad habits.
Fasting in Other Religions
Fasting is prescribed in almost all religions. The Jews and Christians also fast. Jewish law order a yearly fast on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Many Orthodox Jews require the bride and groom to fast on the day before their wedding. Many Christians fast during Lent, the period of 40 days that Jesus (Isa - Alayhis Salam) spent fasting in the wilderness.
The Buddhists and Hindus also fast. Some religious thinkers, such as Zoroastrian religious leaders are against fasting from food, claiming that abstaining from food has no moral value, when compared with "fasting from evil" with eyes, hands, tongue, or feet. In some religions, people fast during times of mourning. Sometimes, personal or political goals are sought through fasting. M.K. Gandhi of India used fasting both as a penance and as a means of political protest.
Why Should Muslims Fast?
An ascetic element in human life is necessity. No religion is possible without an element of self-denial and asceticism. In order to be able to enjoy the harvest of sensual Perception, one must retreat once in a whilefrom the abundant life of the senses. Thus a certain degree of restraint from the material makes the life of senses balanced and opens in the human soul for the spiritual life. One such restraint is fasting, obligatory upon Muslims during the month of Ramadan and at other times. During the fast, the abstention is directed toward the carnal soul, what the Quran calls "al-nafs al-ammarah." In fasting, the unruly trends of the carnal soul are steadily restrained and soothed through a planned compliance of these trends to the Divine Will. During the fast, the cravings of the carnal sould go unanswered, as the Muslim is reminded that his fast if for the pleasure of Allah
(Subhanahu wa Taala). It is, therefore, important for a Muslim to abstain, not only from food and drink, but also from every form of sensual cravings. During the duration of fasting, food and drink that were taken for granted for the rest of the year become ni'mah or gifts from heaven. The fasting becomes a shield of purity against the passions of the world. In fasting a Muslim chooses the side of Allah over this world of materialism. That is why Prophet Muhammad (Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam) loved fasting so frequently and he said al-faqr fakhri (spiritual poverty is my glory).
The Death of Passion Purifies the Human Soul
It is for this reason that the arrival of the blessed month of Ramadan is greeted with happiness. For in this month the doors of heaven are opened to the faithful and Divine Compassion plunges upon those who seek it. Those who complete the fast of Ramadan feel rejuvenated and are prepared to face another year with firmness to live and act according to the Divine Will.
Science Favors Fasting
What are the benefits of fasting? Scientists have studied the effects of fasting on the body and found that the intake of food increases the body’s metabolism. After fasting, metabolism can become as much as 22 percent lower than the normal rate. Research has also shown that after long periods of fasting, the body tends to adjust itself by lowering the rate of metabolism itself. After fasting, a person should gradually resume eating.
In some studies performed on fasting Muslims, it was observed that there was a slight loss of weight both in males and females. Their blood glucose levels increased significantly. Other parameters such as blood levels of cortisol, testosterone, sodium, potassium, urea, total cholesterol, HDL (high density lipoprotein), TG (triglycerides), and serum osmolatity did not show notable variations.
Another study performed about a decade ago in Iran showed that sporadic restraint from food and drink for about 17 hours a day for 30 days does not alter male reproductive hormones, HPTA (hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid-axis) or peripheral metabolism of thyroid hormones. Any changes noticed return to normal four weeks after fasting.
Dr. Jalila El Ati and her associates ("Increased fat oxidation during Ramadan fasting in healthy women: an adaptive mechanism for body-weight maintanence." Am. J. Clin. Nutri. August 1995), who investigated the possible effects of Ramadan fasting of anthropometric and metabolic variables in healthy Tunisian Muslim women, found that the total daily energy intake remained unchanged whereas the qualitative components of nutrients were markedly affected. Ramadan fasting influenced neither body weight or body composition. Results also indicate respiratory and energy expenditure during Ramadan. Fat oxidation was increased and carbohydrate oxidation was decreased during the light span of nycthemeron.
In non-Muslim countries such as the U.S. the physicians, particularly the family physicians and internists should be aware of changes of glucose and bilirubin during the month of Ramadan.
Fasting may enhance mucosa derived B lymphocyte cell responsiveness while having no effect on B cell responsiveness in both rheumatoid arthritis patients and healthy volunteers. In a study, after a three-day, water-only fast, 7 rheumatoid arthritis patients and 17 healthy volunteers received influenza virus vaccine either orally or by injection. When the blood samples were analyzed for B lymphocyte response a week later, it was found that Blymphocyte response was enhanced in the group receiving the vaccine orally in both arthritis patients and volunteers. The response to injected vaccine was unchanged in both groups.
Fasting helps Longevity
Studies on laboratory animals have shown that restriction of caloric intake increases longevity, slows the rate of functional decline, and reduces incidence of age-related disease in a variety of species. The mechanism of action of caloric restriction remains unknown; however, data suggest that cellular functions are altered in such a way that destructive by-products of metabolism are reduced, and defense or repair systems are enhanced by this nutritional manipulation. Animal and human studies suggest potential benefits of dietary modification, exercise, antioxidants, hormones, and deprenyl.
Fasting and Lactating Mothers
The effects of fasting and increased blood insulin and glucose on milk volume and composition were studies with glucose clamp methodology in exclusively and partially breast-feeding women (producing no more than 200 ml milk per day). There was no effect of milk volume, milk glucose concentration, and total fat content or lactose secretion rate. It is concluded that human milk production is isolated from the homeostatic mechanisms that regulate glucose metabolism in the rest of the body, in part because the lactose synthetase system has a Km for glucose lower than the concentration available in the Golgi compartment.
In a study which investigated the effects of a short-term fast (72 hours) on female reproductive hormone secretion and menstrual function, it was concluded that in spite of profound metabolic changes, a 72-hour fast during the follicular phase does not affect the menstrual cycle of normal cycling women.
Fasting and Healing
Studies are being conducted to treat serious illnesses like osteo rheumatoid arthritis or asthma utilizing fasting for a short duration of few days to medically supervised water only fasts of 30 days to help the body heal itself. It has been known that both children and animals refuse to eat when sick as a natural response. The severely sick have no appetite, but they take the food only at the urging of the family members. The severely sick feel no
hunger because food in severe sickness intervenes with natural response. The body is always trying to heal itself. When the patient is resting and consuming water only, the body heals itself and fasting acts as a facilitating process. One can get rid of coffee, cigarettes, salty or sugary foods, which are addictive, through fasting, as fasting can help clear the taste buds and healthful foods start to taste better again. However, insulin-dependent diabetics should not fast because of ketosis in patients with insulin-dependent diabetics, who cannot break down the ketones and use them as fuel. Healthy people use the ketones (byproducts of fat metabolism) to maintain energy. (To conserve the glycogen stores, glucose becomes restricted to the central nervous system, mainly the brain. Instead of taking the glucose from the brain, the body begins breaking down the fatty acids in adipose (fatty) tissue). People with non-insulin-dependent diabetes (the majority of people who have diabetes) can improve their health through fasting.
Fasting helps cardiovascular disease, arthritis, asthma, non-insulin-dependent diabetes, ulcers, and digestive disorders, lupus, skin problems (including cysts, tumors, and kidney stones). Even quitting smoking and obesity respond favorably to fasting.
Fasting during the month of Ramadan does not cause any adverse medical effects, on the other hand, it may have some beneficial effects on weight and lipid metabolism.
Fasting in Other Religions
Fasting is prescribed in almost all religions. The Jews and Christians also fast. Jewish law order a yearly fast on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Many Orthodox Jews require the bride and groom to fast on the day before their wedding. Many Christians fast during Lent, the period of 40 days that Jesus (Isa - Alayhis Salam) spent fasting in the wilderness.
The Buddhists and Hindus also fast. Some religious thinkers, such as Zoroastrian religious leaders are against fasting from food, claiming that abstaining from food has no moral value, when compared with "fasting from evil" with eyes, hands, tongue, or feet. In some religions, people fast during times of mourning. Sometimes, personal or political goals are sought through fasting. M.K. Gandhi of India used fasting both as a penance and as a means of political protest.
Why Should Muslims Fast?
An ascetic element in human life is necessity. No religion is possible without an element of self-denial and asceticism. In order to be able to enjoy the harvest of sensual Perception, one must retreat once in a whilefrom the abundant life of the senses. Thus a certain degree of restraint from the material makes the life of senses balanced and opens in the human soul for the spiritual life. One such restraint is fasting, obligatory upon Muslims during the month of Ramadan and at other times. During the fast, the abstention is directed toward the carnal soul, what the Quran calls "al-nafs al-ammarah." In fasting, the unruly trends of the carnal soul are steadily restrained and soothed through a planned compliance of these trends to the Divine Will. During the fast, the cravings of the carnal sould go unanswered, as the Muslim is reminded that his fast if for the pleasure of Allah
(Subhanahu wa Taala). It is, therefore, important for a Muslim to abstain, not only from food and drink, but also from every form of sensual cravings. During the duration of fasting, food and drink that were taken for granted for the rest of the year become ni'mah or gifts from heaven. The fasting becomes a shield of purity against the passions of the world. In fasting a Muslim chooses the side of Allah over this world of materialism. That is why Prophet Muhammad (Salla Allahu Alayhi wa Sallam) loved fasting so frequently and he said al-faqr fakhri (spiritual poverty is my glory).
The Death of Passion Purifies the Human Soul
It is for this reason that the arrival of the blessed month of Ramadan is greeted with happiness. For in this month the doors of heaven are opened to the faithful and Divine Compassion plunges upon those who seek it. Those who complete the fast of Ramadan feel rejuvenated and are prepared to face another year with firmness to live and act according to the Divine Will.
Science Favors Fasting
What are the benefits of fasting? Scientists have studied the effects of fasting on the body and found that the intake of food increases the body’s metabolism. After fasting, metabolism can become as much as 22 percent lower than the normal rate. Research has also shown that after long periods of fasting, the body tends to adjust itself by lowering the rate of metabolism itself. After fasting, a person should gradually resume eating.
In some studies performed on fasting Muslims, it was observed that there was a slight loss of weight both in males and females. Their blood glucose levels increased significantly. Other parameters such as blood levels of cortisol, testosterone, sodium, potassium, urea, total cholesterol, HDL (high density lipoprotein), TG (triglycerides), and serum osmolatity did not show notable variations.
Another study performed about a decade ago in Iran showed that sporadic restraint from food and drink for about 17 hours a day for 30 days does not alter male reproductive hormones, HPTA (hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid-axis) or peripheral metabolism of thyroid hormones. Any changes noticed return to normal four weeks after fasting.
Dr. Jalila El Ati and her associates ("Increased fat oxidation during Ramadan fasting in healthy women: an adaptive mechanism for body-weight maintanence." Am. J. Clin. Nutri. August 1995), who investigated the possible effects of Ramadan fasting of anthropometric and metabolic variables in healthy Tunisian Muslim women, found that the total daily energy intake remained unchanged whereas the qualitative components of nutrients were markedly affected. Ramadan fasting influenced neither body weight or body composition. Results also indicate respiratory and energy expenditure during Ramadan. Fat oxidation was increased and carbohydrate oxidation was decreased during the light span of nycthemeron.
In non-Muslim countries such as the U.S. the physicians, particularly the family physicians and internists should be aware of changes of glucose and bilirubin during the month of Ramadan.
Fasting may enhance mucosa derived B lymphocyte cell responsiveness while having no effect on B cell responsiveness in both rheumatoid arthritis patients and healthy volunteers. In a study, after a three-day, water-only fast, 7 rheumatoid arthritis patients and 17 healthy volunteers received influenza virus vaccine either orally or by injection. When the blood samples were analyzed for B lymphocyte response a week later, it was found that Blymphocyte response was enhanced in the group receiving the vaccine orally in both arthritis patients and volunteers. The response to injected vaccine was unchanged in both groups.
Fasting helps Longevity
Studies on laboratory animals have shown that restriction of caloric intake increases longevity, slows the rate of functional decline, and reduces incidence of age-related disease in a variety of species. The mechanism of action of caloric restriction remains unknown; however, data suggest that cellular functions are altered in such a way that destructive by-products of metabolism are reduced, and defense or repair systems are enhanced by this nutritional manipulation. Animal and human studies suggest potential benefits of dietary modification, exercise, antioxidants, hormones, and deprenyl.
Fasting and Lactating Mothers
The effects of fasting and increased blood insulin and glucose on milk volume and composition were studies with glucose clamp methodology in exclusively and partially breast-feeding women (producing no more than 200 ml milk per day). There was no effect of milk volume, milk glucose concentration, and total fat content or lactose secretion rate. It is concluded that human milk production is isolated from the homeostatic mechanisms that regulate glucose metabolism in the rest of the body, in part because the lactose synthetase system has a Km for glucose lower than the concentration available in the Golgi compartment.
In a study which investigated the effects of a short-term fast (72 hours) on female reproductive hormone secretion and menstrual function, it was concluded that in spite of profound metabolic changes, a 72-hour fast during the follicular phase does not affect the menstrual cycle of normal cycling women.
Fasting and Healing
Studies are being conducted to treat serious illnesses like osteo rheumatoid arthritis or asthma utilizing fasting for a short duration of few days to medically supervised water only fasts of 30 days to help the body heal itself. It has been known that both children and animals refuse to eat when sick as a natural response. The severely sick have no appetite, but they take the food only at the urging of the family members. The severely sick feel no
hunger because food in severe sickness intervenes with natural response. The body is always trying to heal itself. When the patient is resting and consuming water only, the body heals itself and fasting acts as a facilitating process. One can get rid of coffee, cigarettes, salty or sugary foods, which are addictive, through fasting, as fasting can help clear the taste buds and healthful foods start to taste better again. However, insulin-dependent diabetics should not fast because of ketosis in patients with insulin-dependent diabetics, who cannot break down the ketones and use them as fuel. Healthy people use the ketones (byproducts of fat metabolism) to maintain energy. (To conserve the glycogen stores, glucose becomes restricted to the central nervous system, mainly the brain. Instead of taking the glucose from the brain, the body begins breaking down the fatty acids in adipose (fatty) tissue). People with non-insulin-dependent diabetes (the majority of people who have diabetes) can improve their health through fasting.
Fasting helps cardiovascular disease, arthritis, asthma, non-insulin-dependent diabetes, ulcers, and digestive disorders, lupus, skin problems (including cysts, tumors, and kidney stones). Even quitting smoking and obesity respond favorably to fasting.
Fasting during the month of Ramadan does not cause any adverse medical effects, on the other hand, it may have some beneficial effects on weight and lipid metabolism.
The Woman as Human Being
Islam was revealed at a time when a lot of people denied the humanity of the woman; some were sceptical about it; and still others admitted it, yet considered the woman a thing created for the humble service of the man.
With the advent of Islam, circumstances improved for the woman. The woman's dignity and humanity were restored. Islam confirmed her capacity to carry out Allah's commands, her responsibilities and observation of the commands that lead to heaven. Islam considered the woman as a worthy human being, with a share in humanity equal to that of the man. Both are two branches of a single tree and two children from the same father, Adam, and mother, Eve. Their single origin, their general human traits, their responsibility for the observation of religious duties with the consequent reward or punishment, and the unity of their destiny all bear witness to their equality from the Islamic point of view.
Establishing this fact, the Noble Qur'an says: " O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person (Adam) and from him (Adam) He created his wife (Eve), and from them both He created many men and women and fear Allah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship). Surely, Allah is Ever an All-Watcher over you. " [ Surah 4:1] That people all people men and women, were created by their Lord from a single person or self, that this self is a nucleus from which Allah created an integral counterpart that completes this original self and is completed by it, is stated in another verse: " It is He Who has created you from a single person (Adam), and (then) He has created from him his wife (Eve), in order that he might enjoy the pleasure of living with her." [ Surah 7:189] Eventually Allah, out of this nuclear pair, scattered the multitudes of men and women, all worshippers of a single God and children of the same parents implying they are united in a fraternity, embracing men and women alike. Because of this fact, the verse commands people to fear Allah as their Lord and be heedful of the duties that the wombs, as symbolic of this bond, impose.
The man on this account is a brother to the woman and the woman is the other half of the pair. The Messenger (blessings and peace be upon him) says, "Women are the sisters of men." [ Transmitted on the authority of Aisha by Ahmad (6/256); Abu Dawud (236); Al-Termithy (113); Al-Doram(1/195) and others.]The Qur'an, on its part, treats this issue of fraternal equality from more than one perspective. On the purely religious level for instance, the Qur'an says: "Verily, the Muslims (those who submit to Allah in Islam) men and women, the believers men and women (who believe in Islamic Monotheism), the men and the women who are obedient (to Allah), the men and women who are truthful (in their speech and deeds), the men and the women who are patient (in performing all the duties which Allah has ordered and in abstaining from all that Allah has forbidden), the men and the women who are humble (before their Lord -Allah), the men and the women who give Sadaqat, (i.e. Zakat, and alms, etc.), the men and the women who fast (the obligatory fasting during the month of Ramadan and the optional Nawafil fasting), the men and women who guard their chastity (from illegal sexual acts) and the men and women who remember Allah muchwith their hearts and tongues (while sitting, standing, lying, etc. for more than 300 times extra over the remembrance of Allak during the five compulsory congregational prayers or praying extra additional Nawafil prayers of night in the last part of night etc.) Allah has prepared for them forgiveness and a great reward (i.e. Paradise). [ Surah 33:35]
On the basic social and religious responsibilities, the Qur'an establishes equality by maintaining: "The believers, men and women, are "Awliy," (helpers, supporters, friends, protectors) of one another, they enjoin (on the people) Al-Ma`ruf (i.e. Islamic Monotheism and all that Islam orders one to do);and forbid (people) from Al-Munkar (i.e. polytheism and disbelief of all kinds, and all that Islam has forbidden); they offer their prayers perfectly (lqamat-as-Salat), and give the Zakat and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah will have mercy on them. [ Surah 9:71]
In Adam's story, Divine Orders were made to him and his wife, both and equally: "O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the Paradise and eat both of you freely with pleasure and delight of things therein as wherever you will, but come not near this tree or you both will be of the Zalim'n (wrongdoers). [ Surah 2:35] What is new, however, about this story as given by the Qur'an is that the temptation is blamed not on Eve but on Satan: "Then the Satan made them slip therefrom (the Paradise), and got them out from that in which they were. [ Surah 2:36] - the reverse of The Old Testament versions. Thus Eve was neither the sole eater from the tree, nor the one who initiated the act. Rather, the mistake was theirs both, and both of them repented and asked for forgiveness: "They said, "Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If You forgive us not, and bestow not upon us Your Mercy, we shall be losers". [ Surah 7:23]
Further still, some verses ascribe the trespass to Adam: "And indeed We made a covenant with Adam before, but he forgot, and We found on his part no firm will-power." [ Surah 20:115] And "Then Satan whispered to him saying, "O Adam! Shall I lead you to the Tree of Eternity and to a kingdom that will never waste away?" [ Surah 20:120] and till "Thus did Adam disobey his Lord, so he went astray." [ Surah 20:121]
This implies that Adam was the one who trespassed first and was followed by his woman. Whatever the case may be, even accepting that Eve did commit a trespass, she, alone, would be responsible without any transmission of accountability to her daughters.
On the question of equality of punishment and reward and eligibility for Paradise, The Almighty says: "That was a nation who has passed away. They shall receive the reward of what they earned and you of what you earn. And you will not be asked of what they used to do. [ Surah 2:134 and 2:141] Concerning the equality of men and women in receiving rewards and the entry of paradise, God says: " So their Lord accepted of them (their supplication and answered them), "Never will I allow to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female." [ Surah 3:195] and Whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, while he (or she) is a true believer (of Islamic Monotheism) verily, to him We will give a good life (in this world with respect, contentment and lawful provision), and We shall pay them certainly a reward in proportion to the best of what they used to do (i.e. Paradise in the Hereafter). [ Surah 16:97]
When it comes to financial matters, the rule of Islam abolished the conventions prevalent among many nations which deprived the woman of the right of ownership, inheritance, and those which created obstacles against her exercise of free and full control of her holdings. As a rule, Islam acknowledges the woman's rights to all kinds of ownership, spending and channelling of her money. It gives her the rights of inheritance, selling, buying, renting, donating, lending, allocating property for religious and charitable purposes, giving alms, legal transfer and mortgage, as well as many other forms of contracts and actions.
The woman's right to seek education or learning is basic and is also guaranteed by Islamic teachings. Islam actualIy makes it incumbent on the woman to seek knowledge; the Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) says, `seeking knowledge is incumbent on every Muslim," where "every Muslim" obviously involves men and women on an equal footing as a rule formalised by all authorities of jurisprudence .
The woman is also required to perform religious ordinances and forms of worship the way the man is. Praying, fasting, Zakat (the alms sanctifying tax), pilgrimage and all the other fundamental practices in Islam are required of Muslims in their capacity, both men and women, as responsible humans. Again the woman's actions are recompensed by Allah the way the man's actions are.
The woman is not excluded from the area of social activity; Allah says: " The believers, men and women, are "Awliy," (helpers, supporters, friends, protectors) of one another, they enjoin (on the people) Al-Ma`ruf (i.e. Islamic Monotheism and all that Islam orders one to do);and forbid (people) from Al-Munkar (i.e. polytheism and disbelief of all kinds, and all that Islam has forbidden). [ Surah 9:71] For instance, she can give refuge for those who seek it. If she hosts a refugee, her action is to be respected and observed. This rule relates back to Um Hanibint Abi Talib's giving relief to a father in-law on the day of the Conquest of Mecca by Muslims. When her brother wanted to kill him because he was an infidel, she complained to Allah's Messenger (blessings and peace be upon him) saying, "Allah's Messenger, my mother's son insists on killing my refugee, Ibn Hubayra."The Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) replied, "We confer asylum on him that you give refuge to, Um Hani". [ Mutafaq aley (agreed upon) on the authority of Um Hani, The Pearl and the Coral (Al-Lu'lu' wal-Marjan) (193)]
With the advent of Islam, circumstances improved for the woman. The woman's dignity and humanity were restored. Islam confirmed her capacity to carry out Allah's commands, her responsibilities and observation of the commands that lead to heaven. Islam considered the woman as a worthy human being, with a share in humanity equal to that of the man. Both are two branches of a single tree and two children from the same father, Adam, and mother, Eve. Their single origin, their general human traits, their responsibility for the observation of religious duties with the consequent reward or punishment, and the unity of their destiny all bear witness to their equality from the Islamic point of view.
Establishing this fact, the Noble Qur'an says: " O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person (Adam) and from him (Adam) He created his wife (Eve), and from them both He created many men and women and fear Allah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship). Surely, Allah is Ever an All-Watcher over you. " [ Surah 4:1] That people all people men and women, were created by their Lord from a single person or self, that this self is a nucleus from which Allah created an integral counterpart that completes this original self and is completed by it, is stated in another verse: " It is He Who has created you from a single person (Adam), and (then) He has created from him his wife (Eve), in order that he might enjoy the pleasure of living with her." [ Surah 7:189] Eventually Allah, out of this nuclear pair, scattered the multitudes of men and women, all worshippers of a single God and children of the same parents implying they are united in a fraternity, embracing men and women alike. Because of this fact, the verse commands people to fear Allah as their Lord and be heedful of the duties that the wombs, as symbolic of this bond, impose.
The man on this account is a brother to the woman and the woman is the other half of the pair. The Messenger (blessings and peace be upon him) says, "Women are the sisters of men." [ Transmitted on the authority of Aisha by Ahmad (6/256); Abu Dawud (236); Al-Termithy (113); Al-Doram(1/195) and others.]The Qur'an, on its part, treats this issue of fraternal equality from more than one perspective. On the purely religious level for instance, the Qur'an says: "Verily, the Muslims (those who submit to Allah in Islam) men and women, the believers men and women (who believe in Islamic Monotheism), the men and the women who are obedient (to Allah), the men and women who are truthful (in their speech and deeds), the men and the women who are patient (in performing all the duties which Allah has ordered and in abstaining from all that Allah has forbidden), the men and the women who are humble (before their Lord -Allah), the men and the women who give Sadaqat, (i.e. Zakat, and alms, etc.), the men and the women who fast (the obligatory fasting during the month of Ramadan and the optional Nawafil fasting), the men and women who guard their chastity (from illegal sexual acts) and the men and women who remember Allah muchwith their hearts and tongues (while sitting, standing, lying, etc. for more than 300 times extra over the remembrance of Allak during the five compulsory congregational prayers or praying extra additional Nawafil prayers of night in the last part of night etc.) Allah has prepared for them forgiveness and a great reward (i.e. Paradise). [ Surah 33:35]
On the basic social and religious responsibilities, the Qur'an establishes equality by maintaining: "The believers, men and women, are "Awliy," (helpers, supporters, friends, protectors) of one another, they enjoin (on the people) Al-Ma`ruf (i.e. Islamic Monotheism and all that Islam orders one to do);and forbid (people) from Al-Munkar (i.e. polytheism and disbelief of all kinds, and all that Islam has forbidden); they offer their prayers perfectly (lqamat-as-Salat), and give the Zakat and obey Allah and His Messenger. Allah will have mercy on them. [ Surah 9:71]
In Adam's story, Divine Orders were made to him and his wife, both and equally: "O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the Paradise and eat both of you freely with pleasure and delight of things therein as wherever you will, but come not near this tree or you both will be of the Zalim'n (wrongdoers). [ Surah 2:35] What is new, however, about this story as given by the Qur'an is that the temptation is blamed not on Eve but on Satan: "Then the Satan made them slip therefrom (the Paradise), and got them out from that in which they were. [ Surah 2:36] - the reverse of The Old Testament versions. Thus Eve was neither the sole eater from the tree, nor the one who initiated the act. Rather, the mistake was theirs both, and both of them repented and asked for forgiveness: "They said, "Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves. If You forgive us not, and bestow not upon us Your Mercy, we shall be losers". [ Surah 7:23]
Further still, some verses ascribe the trespass to Adam: "And indeed We made a covenant with Adam before, but he forgot, and We found on his part no firm will-power." [ Surah 20:115] And "Then Satan whispered to him saying, "O Adam! Shall I lead you to the Tree of Eternity and to a kingdom that will never waste away?" [ Surah 20:120] and till "Thus did Adam disobey his Lord, so he went astray." [ Surah 20:121]
This implies that Adam was the one who trespassed first and was followed by his woman. Whatever the case may be, even accepting that Eve did commit a trespass, she, alone, would be responsible without any transmission of accountability to her daughters.
On the question of equality of punishment and reward and eligibility for Paradise, The Almighty says: "That was a nation who has passed away. They shall receive the reward of what they earned and you of what you earn. And you will not be asked of what they used to do. [ Surah 2:134 and 2:141] Concerning the equality of men and women in receiving rewards and the entry of paradise, God says: " So their Lord accepted of them (their supplication and answered them), "Never will I allow to be lost the work of any of you, be he male or female." [ Surah 3:195] and Whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, while he (or she) is a true believer (of Islamic Monotheism) verily, to him We will give a good life (in this world with respect, contentment and lawful provision), and We shall pay them certainly a reward in proportion to the best of what they used to do (i.e. Paradise in the Hereafter). [ Surah 16:97]
When it comes to financial matters, the rule of Islam abolished the conventions prevalent among many nations which deprived the woman of the right of ownership, inheritance, and those which created obstacles against her exercise of free and full control of her holdings. As a rule, Islam acknowledges the woman's rights to all kinds of ownership, spending and channelling of her money. It gives her the rights of inheritance, selling, buying, renting, donating, lending, allocating property for religious and charitable purposes, giving alms, legal transfer and mortgage, as well as many other forms of contracts and actions.
The woman's right to seek education or learning is basic and is also guaranteed by Islamic teachings. Islam actualIy makes it incumbent on the woman to seek knowledge; the Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) says, `seeking knowledge is incumbent on every Muslim," where "every Muslim" obviously involves men and women on an equal footing as a rule formalised by all authorities of jurisprudence .
The woman is also required to perform religious ordinances and forms of worship the way the man is. Praying, fasting, Zakat (the alms sanctifying tax), pilgrimage and all the other fundamental practices in Islam are required of Muslims in their capacity, both men and women, as responsible humans. Again the woman's actions are recompensed by Allah the way the man's actions are.
The woman is not excluded from the area of social activity; Allah says: " The believers, men and women, are "Awliy," (helpers, supporters, friends, protectors) of one another, they enjoin (on the people) Al-Ma`ruf (i.e. Islamic Monotheism and all that Islam orders one to do);and forbid (people) from Al-Munkar (i.e. polytheism and disbelief of all kinds, and all that Islam has forbidden). [ Surah 9:71] For instance, she can give refuge for those who seek it. If she hosts a refugee, her action is to be respected and observed. This rule relates back to Um Hanibint Abi Talib's giving relief to a father in-law on the day of the Conquest of Mecca by Muslims. When her brother wanted to kill him because he was an infidel, she complained to Allah's Messenger (blessings and peace be upon him) saying, "Allah's Messenger, my mother's son insists on killing my refugee, Ibn Hubayra."The Prophet (blessings and peace be upon him) replied, "We confer asylum on him that you give refuge to, Um Hani". [ Mutafaq aley (agreed upon) on the authority of Um Hani, The Pearl and the Coral (Al-Lu'lu' wal-Marjan) (193)]
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