Continue reading »]]> International Student Chooses Rutgers-Camden for Graduate Studies in Chemistry

Received prestigious scholarship from Turkey’s Ministry of National Education

by Ed Moorhouse

December 13, 2011

CAMDEN — When the time came to choose a university to pursue his master’s degree in chemistry, Muslum Demir says his decision was an easy one.

“Rutgers–Camden was always my top choice,” Demir says with a smile while working in a chemistry lab on the Rutgers–Camden campus. “Even while still living in Turkey, I knew very well that Rutgers is one of the best universities in the U.S.”

Demir, from the city of Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, was awarded a scholarship last year from the Republic of Turkey’s Ministry of National Education. The prestigious scholarship allows Turkish undergraduates to pursue a master’s degree and doctorate at a university of his or her choosing anywhere in the world.

“I have friends from Turkey studying at Rutgers–New Brunswick, so I’d heard about Rutgers through them while I was still a student in Turkey,” says Demir, who completed his undergraduate degree in chemistry at Cukurova University in Turkey. “Rutgers was always a place I wanted to be.”

With Rutgers on his mind, Demir reached out to Alexander Samokhvalov, an assistant professor of chemistry at Rutgers–Camden.

“After I had a conversation with Professor Samokhvalov, I knew Rutgers–Camden would be a good fit,” says Demir, who began taking classes at Rutgers–Camden this semester.

Demir is working on a research project that seeks to remove harmful aromatic sulfur compounds present in petroleum and liquid fuel.

“If we can remove those unwanted compounds selectively and in non-destructive fashion, using advanced materials called Metal Organic Frameworks, MOFs, it will be beneficial both to our health and environment,” Demir says.

He is quick to point out that studying with Samokhvalov has taught him a lot about research.

“He’s taught me a lot about the uses and the assembly of different instruments required in my experiments,” Demir says.

Samokhvalov says he has been impressed with Demir’s work ethic and accomplishments.

“It’s not easy to adjust to a new environment, especially when taking graduate courses in a new country,” Samokhvalov says. “Muslum has been outstanding. He’s very motivated and hardworking, which is the reputation of all students at Rutgers–Camden, its chemistry department, and the graduate chemistry program.”

Samokhvalov says, “I’m making every effort to contribute to the growing strength and international recognition of Rutgers–Camden through my research, teaching and outreach, and by attracting outstanding international students like Muslum to campus.”

Demir is pursuing a career in academia and when he completes his master’s degree and doctorate, he wants to return to Turkey to teach undergraduate chemistry students there.

“I like chemistry so much and after coming here, I realize how important it is to complete your master’s degree and doctorate,” Demir says. “I’ve only been at Rutgers–Camden for a few months, but already I’ve learned so much about performing research and improving my knowledge of chemistry. That’s something I’d like to share with other students.”

He continues, “I would love to serve as a model and encourage other international students to come to Rutgers–Camden to study.”

source: http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/news-releases/2011/12/international-studen-20111213

Continue reading »]]> Was an Iraqi Scholar the World’s First Scientist?

by Bradley Steffens

Science is the lifeblood of modern life. It is the foundation of our technology. Its discoveries prolong our lives and save the lives of those we love. It fascinates us and sometimes disturbs us with its mind-boggling truths. But what is science, and who was its first practitioner?

Science is the study of the physical world, but it is not just a field of interest. It is a discipline—a system of inquiry that adheres to a specific methodology. That methodology is known as the scientific method. It consists of seven steps: 1) observation; 2) statement of a problem or question; 3) formulation of a hypothesis, or a possible answer to the problem or question; 4) testing of the hypothesis with an experiment; 5) analysis of the experiment’s results; 6) interpretation of the data and formulation of a conclusion; and 7) publication of the findings. One can study nature without adhering to the scientific method, of course. The result, however, is not science.

Many people throughout history have studied nature without the scientific method. Some of the best-known people to do so were the ancient Greeks. Scholars such as Aristotle attempted to explain natural phenomena, but they did not test their ideas with experiments. They based their findings on logic. As a result, they often erred. These mistakes were later discovered by scholars using the scientific method.

In 1589, for example, Galileo Galilei devised a series of experiments to test Aristotle’s ideas about falling bodies. He found Aristotle’s claim that heavy bodies fall at a faster rate than light bodies to be false. Galileo was not the first person to conduct experiments or to follow the scientific method, however. European scholars had been conducting experiments for three hundred years, ever since a Franciscan monk named Roger Bacon advocated experimentation in the thirteenth century. One of Bacon’s books, Perspectiva (Optics) challenges ancient Greek ideas about vision and includes several experiments with light that include all seven steps of the scientific method.

Bacon’s Perspectiva is not an original work, however. It is a summary of a longer work entitled De aspectibus (The Optics). Perspectiva follows the organization of De aspectibus and repeats its experiments step by step. But De aspectibus is not an original work, either. It is the Latin translation of a book written in Arabic entitled Kitâb al-Manâzir (Book of Optics). Written around 1021, Kitâb al-Manâzir predates Roger Bacon’s summary of it by 250 years. The author of this groundbreaking book was a Muslim scholar named Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham.

Born in Basra (located in what is now Iraq) in 965, Ibn al-Haytham—known in the West as Alhazen or Alhacen—wrote more than 200 books and treatises on a wide range of subjects. He was the first person to apply algebra to geometry, founding the branch mathematics known as analytic geometry.

Ibn al-Haytham’s use of experimentation was an outgrowth of his skeptical nature and his Muslim faith. He believed that human beings are flawed and only God is perfect. To discover the truth about nature, he reasoned, one had to allow the universe to speak for itself. “The seeker after truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them,” Ibn al-Haytham wrote in Doubts Concerning Ptolemy, “but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration.”

To test his hypothesis that “lights and colors do not blend in the air,” for example, Ibn al-Haytham devised the world’s first camera obscura, observed what happened when light rays intersected at its aperture, and recorded the results. This is just one of dozens of “true demonstrations,” or experiments, contained in Kitâb al-Manâzir.

By insisting on the use of verifiable experiments to test hypotheses, Ibn al-Haytham established a new system of inquiry—the scientific method—and earned a place in history as the first scientist.

About the Author:

An award-winning author of books for young adults, Bradley Steffens is a frequent contributor to online and print publications, including Gig and Broker Agent Magazine. A copywriter with 25 years experience, he creates website content for health insurance, life insurance, and homeowner’s insurance professionals. His most recent book, Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, is the world’s first biography of the medieval Muslim scholar known in the West as Alhazen.

source:
http://www.ibnalhaytham.net/custom.em?pid=861227#

Continue reading »]]> by Dr. I. YILMAZ

Today, as the prestige of materialism and atheism declines, more and more scientists believe that religion is so essential it cannot be abandoned. Mankind will not be able to achieve happiness without it. But enemies of reality and true science still use false sciences to defend atheism.

But does religion, as the atheists claim, really conflict with science? We can tackle the question in the context of biology. Out of all sciences biology would appear to have the nearest contact with religion because it concerns ‘life’.

Man is, of all living creatures, the most complex and perfect organism. It is man who discovered science and knowledge and it is he who advances it. The first thing that even the earliest man must have been curious about is his own existence as a living creature. There is a something – which we do not know the nature of which distinguishes all living creatures from other existing entities like minerals, rocks, water etc. But all living creatures – men, animals, plants – have this something in common.

It seems reasonable to believe that all living beings are therefore subject to the same law. The Ruler who enforces this law, manifests His power among the living creatures distinctively through His different attributes or names. He who has introduced Himself to us by His personal name, Allah, also reveals His many other names. Among these, Hayy probably has a certain priority; it means the ‘life-giver’. Then, names like Rezzaq – the provider of needs – Musavvir who depicts, shapes and forms – Hafiz the protector, keeper – Mucemmil who creates perfectly and designs beautifully, and so on.

Many non-believers have tried to offer a rational, ‘scientific’ explanation for the original transition form inorganic matter to organic life form. But science is also subject to relativity. Philosophers, scientists – from ancient Greece to today’s biology theorists – have written hundreds of books and contrived many theories about how life began, but that is all they have ever been able to do – offer theories and speculations. They have taken a roundabout route because, up to now no-one has come up with an explanation contrary to the reality of the Qur’an.

The act of creation and giving life belongs only to God. It has not been and will not be explained otherwise. Qur’an, the last holy book, unlike the other holy books, has preserved and protected its originality. One evidence of its superiority to all philosophies and theories is that not one of the accepted hypotheses conflicts with the realities of the Qur’an.

It is encouraging that today many scientists believe that religion has the main role in explaining creation. The biology theorists in particular are trying to build new explanations for the origin of life in accordance with religion.

Despite the great developments in fields like genetic engineering, molecular biology, DNA and immunology, scientists have still not been able to close the immense gap between organic and inorganic matter. ‘Life’ remains the biggest miracle in the universe. False theories like Darwinism and other evolution theories that refuse to accept the miracle of creation are collapsing one after another.

Heinsberg’s theory of ‘indeterminism’ in quantum mechanics, smashed materialism completely, in particular the stubborn notion of ‘cause’ and ‘result’. Later the American philosopher Thomas S. Kuhn, put forward the argument that there are not, and cannot be, any final scientific theories. This is true as, throughout history, we have witnessed that almost all theories have lost their ‘truth’ and been replaced by new theories.

A paradigm, as Kuhn calls it, or a way of seeing, dominates every branch of science for a certain period and then gives way to a new one. According to Kuhn, there is no perfect paradigm in any branch of science. For example a group of researchers begin to work in a certain field within their own paradigm, using their own special methods. In time, an explanation in this field becomes accepted by most or all scientists. Then, the researchers who believe strongly in this paradigm try to develop it as far as they can. Then begins a period of solving problems and riddles, in which the researchers proceed to new discoveries within the boundaries of the paradigm. Kuhn says that this is a stage in which scientific progress is made without cuts. After a while, however, the researchers come face to face with new data which conflict with their paradigm, precisely because all paradigms have certain boundaries. For this reason, there is no paradigm into which you can fit the whole of scientific knowledge at any one time. Arguments amongst the scientists about the data that do not fit the paradigm continue until someone comes up with a new paradigm that can cope with the new data.

So far, all theories, put forward as paradigms, have only explained part of the reality or facts. These paradigms have not all been completely wrong, but they have never been completely right either. For example, certain natural phenomena can still be explained with the physics of Aristotle, while most of the time we use Newton’s laws or, in some situations, Einstein’s theory of relativity. And as regards biology, there are some cases where even Darwin was right.

However, man cannot close his eyes to the reality of creation, as a whole and like an ostrich bury his head in the sand.

The famous philosopher of science, Karl Popper, has a different view on the matter. He measures the health of a theory by checking whether it has too many gaps or missing links, or not. On this ground he states emphatically that ‘Darwinism is not a scientific theory’.

What we can derive from Popper’s ideas or Kuhn’s theory of paradigms is that reality cannot be fully explained by scientific knowledge. Science can only shine a light on some few of the hidden facts of the universe.

Nicholas Maxwell thinks that science will not advance only by increasing the number of experiments for each theory. To explain the purity and the beauty of nature, scientists have to offer theories as pure and as perfect as nature itself. Is it possible to come up with a theory like this? Does man have to push the reality of creation aside – which brings an explanation of everything – to get lost in the mazes of the theories?

The Qur’an explains the origin of life, the ecological balance in nature, the development of the embryo and many other facts so perfectly, that any biologist who reads it must place his head on the ground to worship God.

We expect all scientists to read and respect the Qur’an, because, up to now, no one has proved the knowledge it contains to be wrong. The Qur’an is the word of God and cannot he wrong.

source: http://fountainmagazine.com/article.php?ARTICLEID=38

Continue reading »]]> Sociological Principles of The Qur’an
by Suat YILDIRIM

Sociology is the study of events, trends and relationships in human societies. Through such study we learn the principles that societies are based upon, how they develop and which factors strengthen or weaken them.

The Qur’an, which contains the Divine guidance necessary for humankind, gives the social dimensions of human life the most importance. That is why Muslim scholars reflected upon and wrote about sociological matters long before sociology was recognized as a formal discipline in Europe. Even acts of individual worship commanded by Islam have an essentially social or collective aspect which is evidently beneficial to the community, enabling mutual care and solidarity as well as identity and cohesion.

The principle of worship
Part of the rationale behind the duties of worship established by the Qur’an is to maintain social order by training individuals in submission to the One God of all. The Qur’anic concept of worship is inclusive—it means fulfilling the commands and avoiding the prohibited. Every aspect of a Muslim life is interrelated with every other and oriented to worship. Verses 21-22 of Chapter al-Baqara give the reason for calling human beings to worship:

The Qur’an, which contains the Divine guidance necessary for humankind, gives the social dimensions of human life the most importance. That is why Muslim scholars reflected upon and wrote about sociological matters long before sociology was recognized as a formal discipline in Europe . Even acts of individual worship commanded by Islam have an essentially social or collective aspect which is evidently beneficial to the community, enabling mutual care and solidarity as well as identity and cohesion.
O people! Worship your Guardian-Lord who created you and those who came before you, that you may have the chance to learn righteousness; who has made the earth your couch and the heavens your canopy; and sent down rain from heavens; and brought forth therewith fruits for your sustenance. Do not then set up rivals to God when you know [the truth].

The comprehensiveness of worship reflects the comprehensiveness of the Divine attributes upon which human life depends and of which it is always needy. This is clear in the great opening chapter of the Qur’an, al-Fatiha. Before saying You we worship and to You we turn for help, we praise and glorify God as Lord and Sustainer of all creatures and creation, as the Most Merciful and Compassionate, as Master of the Day of Judgement.
As the Qur’an emphasizes in many verses, worship strengthens and matures the conscience making it individually and socially active on behalf of good. Without it, the Islamic virtues do not become a part of the normal character of either individual Muslims or of their communities. The present condition of Muslims in the world, in spite of their huge numbers, illustrates how, if worship is neglected, families and societies lapse into mutual distrust, feuding and internal wars, making them vulnerable to external manipulation and thereby weakening them further as Muslims.
Worship is the means to contentment both in this world and in the Hereafter. It harmonizes worldly and otherworldly aspirations and activities because it sustains a vigorous, honourable bond of each and all with their Lord and, through their worshipping as the creatures of One God, with each other. Just as people working for a highly regarded company or enterprise are proud to declare their association with it, so too are alert, practising Muslims proud to declare their belonging to God through the service of worship and say: inna li-llah — we are for God, we belong to God.
How worship provides for man’s worldly contentment can be explained as follows:

1. Man is privileged compared to other creatures by his subtle and complex senses and faculties. He is most selective and scrupulous and is born with an inclination towards living rightly and seeking perfection, and a corresponding aversion to what is bad, ugly and gross. The inclination towards perfection means that he has almost infinite needs. Indeed, even to satisfy the needs essential for survival, namely food, clothing and shelter (security), he is obliged to co-operate with fellow human beings. Therefore, man is, essentially a social creature.

The development of three basic faculties—thinking, desiring and using force to achieve objectives—are restrained in all creatures except man. Because man is uniquely charged with the duty of stewardship of the creation, God has put no restraints upon the development of these faculties in man. There is, in consequence, a potential in man to unjust and unruly conduct, to do wrong to his best nature, to live selfishly at the expense and in disregard of others. But social life requires some measure of discipline on the part of a society’s members if it is to function effectively to secure the basic needs for all.

However, though all people agree upon the need for justice, their understanding of justice will differ according to a number of factors such as cultural background and level, conscience, experience, interests and relationships. Hence the need for an overarching authority whose command is acceptable on account of its universality and impartiality. This authority is religion. As the laws of physics, set by Divine command, are constant in their operations and neutral as regards man’s interventions in the natural world, so too the ordinances of religion (the laws of human relationships and relationship with God) are constant, unchanging and impartial.

For man to consent to obey the commands of religion, he must be alert to the Divine Power which created him and all things. He must understand and remember the principles of belief, in particular that he is sent to this world to be tested and perfected, that the One who sent him observes him constantly and knows the condition of his innermost being and hears his every petition. Worship is the principal means to maintain this state of mind and to improve it.

2.Worship awakens conscience and therefore keeps people honest in their social relations and duties.

3. Worship, because of its social dimensions, maintains the quality of human relationships. Regular prayer enables meeting and interaction with other Muslims in the mosque; fasting at least one month each year reminds the prosperous and well-fed of the conditions of the less-fortunate and unites all in a shared discipline; the obligation to pay the alms-tax requires an effort to create prosperity and then share it to achieve distributive balance in the economy; the greater pilgrimage to Makka assembles all the diverse tribes and nations of Muslims in a great, public demonstration of unity and solidarity under One God.

It is hard to conceive of any more effective means of establishing social harmony and mutual responsibility than the duties of worship in Islam.

The principle of striving
One of the laws set in the universe by God is work or striving. As God is always active (Qur’an, 85.16) He commands human beings to be active also and renew themselves. The whole creation is constantly busy in glorifying and praising God (e.g. 59.1). The world of living organisms hums with the rhythms of labouring:
And your Lord taught the bee to build its cells in hills, on trees, and in [men’s] habitations… (Nahl, 56.68)

Many verses (e.g. 56.11-4) tell that day and night, sun and moon and stars etc., are for the service of human beings, to enable their striving in every dimension of human life.

Striving is so much a part of the structure of the universe that to resist it is more burdernsome than to go along with it. That is why a person who lies in bed all day making no effort is less happy than one who strives and struggles.

The principle of constancy in truth
The Qur’an tells us that God will help those who are constant in their adherence to and striving for the faith:
So neither lose heart nor fall into despair: for you must gain mastery if you are true in faith. (Al ‘lmran, 3.139)
The promised help is conditional:
1. There are two Ashari’ahs: the natural and the revealed, or the book of the universe and the Book of Revelation, the Qur’an.

The recompense for obedience or disobedience of the laws given in the Qur’an is seen mostly in the Hereafter whereas the recompense of following the laws given in the universe is mostly seen in this world. For example, the reward of perseverance in the laws of religion is ultimate victory, the reward of incompetence in understanding or applying the laws of nature is misery. It follows that a truthful person may be unsuccessful if he uses the wrong means and an untruthful person may be successful if he uses the right means.

2. Though a Muslim should be the bearer of all Islamic qualities it does not always happen so: a non-Muslim may be a better example of an Islamic quality. That’s why it can happen that an Islamic quality of a non-Muslim triumphs over the un-Islamic one of a Muslim.

Absence of the concept of ‘primitive’ peoples
Sociological and anthropological theory in the West still adheres to the notion that, at the beginning of human history, human beings and societies were ‘primitive’ and gradually evolved and progressed until they reached the ‘civilized’ state of societies as they are today.

The Qur’an does not teach any such notion of ‘primitiveness’. All human beings are descended from the Prophet Adam, who was taught the names of all things, and his wife, Eve. Neither their mode of life nor their relationships nor their religious worship were ‘primitive’.

Human societies frequently declined from their true or original state of recognizing and worshipping One God, and Prophets and Messengers were sent to teach them and guide them to righteousness. Throughout history, many societies and nations of so-called ‘high civilization’ were destroyed on account of their spiritual and moral decadence, and the Qur’an gives warning narratives about them. It is in part because of the absence of a concept of ‘primitiveness’ that Islamic rule over so many diverse peoples of the world has been, in general, tolerant, patient and assimilative with their diversity, whereas Western rule has been, in general, impatient, brutal and destructive.

All civilizations or cultures have a span of life, just as an individual human life has its determined span:
To every people is a term appointed: when their term is reached, not an hour can they delay it, nor advance it. (A’raf, 7.34)

Comparison with Western civilization
The Christian peoples by and large rejected the Qur’an’s offer to hold some common ground between themselves and the Muslims and to leave their differences to the Will of God (see. e.g., Al Imran, 3.64).

Though hard to believe now, at the time of the rise of Islam, the lands of the southern Mediterranean were the wealthiest part, in intellectual, cultural and economic terms, of the then Christian world. When these lands were conquered by Muslims and, with the passage of time, great numbers of Christians accepted Islam, many clerics became quite irrational in their attitude to Islam and presented it, willfully, in the most outrageously false manner. The early climax of this irrational hatred of Islam was the long wars of the Crusades. This dreadful campaign against Islam was formally abandoned seven centuries ago. However, an important part of it was the embedding of images which remain deep in the cultural attitudes (and the languages) of European peoples. Just as it is impossible, despite all the historical evidence to the contrary, to alter the image, created by centuries of Church propaganda, of witches or of Vikings, so too, it seems, it is impossible to alter the negative image of Muslims and Islam in popular Western consciousness.

After the Renaissance, civilization in Europe separated itself from the Christian religion and moved towards materialism and humanism. It took rather more of its inspiration from Greek philosophy and Roman political and administrative order and very little from Christianity. The Islamic civilisation which protects the Revelation continued to be regarded as the major threat and rival throughout the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods. When the military and economic balance had shifted, following the industrial revolution in Europe, overwhelmingly against the Islamic world, the Europeans tended to regard Muslims more with contempt than fear

Now, after the collapse of Communism, some authoritative Western figures have explicitly declared that the only enemy of the West is Islam. At this cross-roads, both parties, Western civilization and Qur’anic civilization, should state clearly what kind of people and society they want so that a choice can be made between them:

According to Western philosophy the basic rule in collective affairs is selfish conflict over who controls and profits from available resources. The outcome of this conflict is determined by power. The best that civilized society can offer is to balance powers within and between groups so that conflict is mitigated to some extent. Solidarity within the group has commonly been expressed as an extension of selfishness to embrace a particular nation or race. This means that the Western nations have felt free to exploit weaker peoples beyond their frontiers, to regard them as lesser beings who do not deserve the same rights and privileges, and should not expect the same share of the world’s goods, as themselves. The consequence of this philosophy has been continual tension between peoples expressed in overt or covert war. Within societies the same philosophy has been expressed in the conflict between economic classes and in ever-increasing levels of alienation and anxiety. In certain respects, community life, even family life, have ceased to function as a resource for people. Having no other status than as consumer units, and finding no other means of consolation, of belonging to society, the great mass of people are reduced to pointless consumption.

In absolute contrast, the Qur’an assures us that the basic rule in both individual and collective life is seeking the pleasure of God. Since God is the Most Merciful and Compassionate, seeking His pleasure means seeking virtue and contentment instead of pleasure and self-aggrandisement. It means that virtue is a practicable goal for a human society, that the governing principle of collective life is cooperation, not conflict. It means that what unites a people as a community is not primarily race or nationality but their shared status as servants of the One God and the bond of religion. That is why, in the Islamic world, by and large, mutual help and social welfare programmes were reasonably effective in spite of comparatively low levels of gross wealth. In the Western countries, expenditures on such programmes constitute a fraction of gross wealth and are under constant threat because the basic motive of these programmes is not mutual caring but the avoidance of class conflict: if gross wealth declines (as is happening at present) the level of ‘social spending’ is reduced in spite of the ‘social cost’ in civil unrest and crime.

Western civilization, for all its many splendid achievements is bound to fail, because of its radically unsound basic principles, to bring happiness to humankind. It can and does provide great material prosperity (amid great waste) to a segment of a segment of the human population. The Qur’an commands a balanced growth and development because it defines human beings, individually and collectively, as belonging to this world and the Hereafter, and as answerable, all equally, to their One Creator.

source: fountainmagazine.com

Continue reading »]]> Most theories about ancient unknown civilizations are based on absolutely no physical evidence, usually just hearsay and speculation. What really would shake the basis of our knowledge of history would be an actual artifact. This probably wouldn’t be something spectacular like finding a sunken city in the Atlantic, or armor-piercing bullets embedded in a dinosaur skeleton. It would probably be something that only an expert in the field would recognize as anomalous.

More likely, this artifact would be a document or tradition from the past which reveals a deep understanding of some scientific fact recently discovered. This could be a description of the structure and function of DNA, knowledge of astronomy or physics which is only known to modern science . . . or accurate maps of the earth drawn long before the “Age of Exploration”. The Piri Re’is map appears to be just that artifact.

The Piri Re’is Map is only one of several anomalous maps drawn in the 15th Century and earlier which appear to represent better information about the shape of the continents than should have been known at the time. Furthermore, this information appears to have been obtained at some distant time in the past.

Piri Re’is, Ptolomy (2nd Century A.D.), as well as Mercator and Oronteus Finaeus, well-known 15th Century map-makers, included the traditional southern continent in their world maps, as did others. Antarctica was not discovered until the 19th Century, and it was largely unexplored until the middle of the 20th. This is just the start. Anomalous maps also show the Behring Strait as linking Asia and America, river deltas which appear much shorter than they do today, islands in the Aegean which haven’t been above water since the sea-level rise at the end of the ice-age and huge glaciers covering Britian and Scandinavia. Long dismissed as attempts by cartographers to fill in empty spaces, some of the details of the old maps look very startling when correlated with modern (very mainstream) knowledge of the changes in the Earths’ geography in the geologic past, particularly during the Ice Ages.

The Piri Re’is map is most interesting because of the attribution of the source of its information, and the extraordinary detail of the coastal outlines.

The Piri Re’is map was found in 1929 in the Imperial Palace in Constantinople. It is painted on parchment and dated 919 A.H. (in the Islamic calendar), which corresponds to 1513 AD. It is signed by an admiral of the Turkish Navy named Piri Ibn Haji Memmed, also known as Piri Re’is. According to Piri Re’is, the map had been assembled from a set of 20 maps drawn in the time of Alexander the Great.

This map and others were analyzed by Charles H. Hapgood and his graduate stutents. Hapgood was a historian and geographer at the University of New Hampshire, in his book Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings (1966). Only the conclusions of this book are sensational; for the most part it is a technical monograph on the history and geography of the anomalous maps, employing spherical trigonometry to associate map features with actual geographic locations. This book has recently been republished, and we highly recommend it.

The conclusion that Hapgood reached was that a civilization with high seafaring and mapping skills surveyed the entire earth in the ancient past. They left maps which have been copied by hand through many generations. The Piri Re’is map is a patchwork which has gaps (most notably the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica) which can be explained as non-overlapping areas between the source maps. Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings and Hapgood’s other book The Earth’s Shifting Crust, in which he advanced a theory of polar shifts, are controversial, and earned him the scorn of offical academia.

More evidence has appeared in recent years. Hapgood may yet be vindicated (at least his guess as to the signficance of the anomalous maps). The Piri Re’is map is one of the cornerstones of the growing body of evidence for an unknown Ice Age civilization. Along with this we can include the book Hamlet’s Mill, by De Santillana and von Dechend (1969), and the works of Graham Hancock.

One striking thing about this map is the level of detail of the coasts and interiors in South America. Although the scale is somewhat off, a long, high mountain range is shown as the source of the rivers flowing to the coast of South America.

However, the best-known feature in the Piri Re’is map (and other pre-modern maps) is the Antarctic coastline. In Hapgood and others’ opinions, this represents the outline of the coast of Antarctica without glaciers.

Our modern knowledge of the coastline under the ice was obtained using seismic sounding data from Antarctic expeditions in the 1940s and 50s. Sonar is one way to map the coast under the Antarctic glaciers. The other way would be to have surveyed them when they were ice-free. According to Hapgood, who based the claim on 1949 core samples from the Ross Sea, the last time the particular area shown in the Piri Re’is map was free of ice was more than 6000 years ago. More recent studies show that this may be off by a couple of orders of magnitude. In any case, this geography should have been unknown to the ancients. If this is correct, there are some big mysteries to explain.

A number of writers have rushed in and attempted to do just this. One school of thought about the Piri Re’is map is the ‘Atlantis in Antarctica’ thesis. The chief proponents of this are Rand and Rose Flem-Ath in their book When the Sky Fell, though there are others. The Flem-Aths buy into both Hapgoods’ Sea Kings and Polar shift thesis. In the latter, Hapgood claimed that the inclination of the Earth’s axis of rotation shifted suddenly in the year 9,500 B.C. causing Antarctica to move hundreds of miles to the south. This transformed its climate from semi-temperate to freezing. In contrast to the Sea Kings hypothesis, there is no evidence that a rapid polar shift actually occured at this time and much negative evidence that it didn’t.

There is no scientific explanation for a mechanism which could cause such a global transformation in a matter of hours without completely destroying the crust of the planet. A planetary collision would be required, of the sort that has not occurred since the early period of planetary formation. If such a collision occured in 9,500 B.C., it is fairly certain that all life on Earth would have been wiped out, which is obviously not the case. While it is not impossible that some instability in the planet could cause the Earth’s axis to change its inclination, this would not occur overnight. Additionally, a polar shift would probably leave an obvious mark in the geomagnetic strata found in sea floor cores, which is not the case.

Much has been made of Einstein’s endorsement of Hapgood’s polar shift theory. This proves nothing, since Einstein was not a geologist. Furthermore, although Einstein’s theories have stood up to rigorous experimental and observational evidence, it’s important to note that he was a human being and wasn’t always right. Part of Einstein’s greatness was his ability to admit his errors.

In any case, the Flem-Aths propose that this shift destroyed a hypothetical Antarctic civilization, located somewhere in the present-day Ross penninsula. They attempt (with mixed success) to relate this to Plato’s Atlantis. Unfortunately, proving this would involve doing archaeology under an ice sheet thousands of meters thick. This is an excellent example of ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof’.

One subconscious influence on this may be fantasy writer H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, which places the abode of the Ancient Gods, R’lyeh, in Antarctica. Lovecraft’s mythos is completly fictional, even if it has resemblances to actual mythologies.

While features suggestive of advanced geographical knowledge are shown in the map itself, the annotations and illustrations paint a different picture. Skeptics will note that the Piri Re’is map of the Antarctic coast, of which so much has been made, is notated as follows:

This country is a waste. Everything is in ruin and it is said that large snakes are found here. For this reason the Portuguese infidels did not land on these shores and these are also said to be very hot.

There are also pictures of some mythical animals in the same vicinity, of which the text reads:

And in this country it seems that there are white-haired monsters in this shape, and also six-horned oxen. The Portuguese infidels have written it in their maps. . . .

This doesn’t invalidate the startling landforms, but does indicate that whoever wrote these notes (presumably Piri Re’is) never actually visited Antarctica. Non-skeptics might argue that when the source map was surveyed there could have been 1) large snakes, 2) unknown varieties of land mammals, as well as a 3) “very hot” climate in Antarctica, but there is no physical evidence that this has ever been the case. This also does not explain the other fanciful illustrations and notations on the map, including a sketch of a red-haired headless man (with his face on his chest) in the Andes area. This takes us out of the realm of the possible into the fantastic, a line which Hapgood was careful not to cross, at least in Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings.

– J.B. Hare
from: http://www.jimblog.net/wp-content/uploads/sacredtexts/piri/index.htm

Continue reading »]]> In contrast to the Bible, statements about scientific phenomena made in the Qur’an are perfectly in conformity with the modern sciences, states French surgeon, Dr. Maurice Bucaille.

As most people in the West have been brought up on misconceptions concerning Islam and the Qur’an; for a large part of my life, I myself was one such person. Let me cite one or two specific examples to indicate the kind of inaccurate ideas generally current.

Misconceptions
As I grew up, I was always taught that ‘Mahomet’ was the author of the Qur’an; I remember seeing French translations bearing this information. I was invariably told that the ‘author’ of the Qur’an simply compiled, in a slightly different form, stories of sacred history taken from the Bible; the ‘author’ was said to have added or removed certain passages, while setting forth the principles and rules of the religion he himself had founded. There are moreover Islamic scholars today in France whose duties include teaching and who express exactly these views, although perhaps in a more subtle form.

This description of the origins of the Qur’anic text, which is so out of touch with reality, might lead one immediately to assume that if there are scientific errors in the Bible, there must also be errors of this kind in the Qur’an! This is the natural conclusion to be drawn in such circumstances, but it is based on a misconception. We are well aware that at the time of Muhammad – the Qur’anic Revelation took place between 610 and 632 A.D – scientific obscurantism prevailed, both in the Orient as well as in the West.

In France, for example, this period corresponded roughly to the reign of King Dagobert, the last of the Mrovingians. This approach to what was supposedly the Qur’anic text may on first sight seem logical, but when one examines the text with an informed and impartial eye, it becomes clear that this approach is not at all in keeping with reality. We shall see in a moment the truth of this statement, which is obvious from the texts.

Whenever there is textual proof of the existence in the Qur’an of statements that are in agreement with modern knowledge, but which in the Bible are related in a manner that is scientifically unacceptable, the stock response is that, during the period separating the two Scriptures, Arab scientists made discoveries in various disciplines which enabled them to arrive at these supposed adaptations. This approach takes no account whatsoever of the history of the sciences. The latter indicates that the great period of Islamic civilisations, during which, as we know, science made considerable progress, came several centuries after the communication of the Qur’an to the communication of the Qur’an to man.

Furthermore, scientific history informs us that, as far as the subjects dealt with in this present book are concerned, no discoveries were made during, the period separating the Bible from the Qur’an.

When this aspect of the Qur’an is mentioned in the West, however, we are likely to hear it said that while this may indeed be so, nowhere is this fact referred to in the translations of the Qur’an which we possess today, or in the prefaces and commentaries that accompany them.

This is a very judicious remark. Muslim – and indeed non-Muslim – translators who have produced a French version of the Qur’an are basically men of letters. More often than not, they mistranslate a passage because they do not possess the scientific knowledge required to understand its true meaning. The fact is, however, that in order to translate correctly, one must first understand what one is reading. A further point is that translators – especially those mentioned above – - may have been influenced by notes provided by ancient commentators often came to be regarded as highly authoritative, even though they had no scientific knowledge – nor indeed had anybody else at that time. They were incapable of imagining that the texts might contain allusions to secular knowledge, and thus they could not devote attention to a specific passage by comparing it to other verses in the Qur’an dealing with the same subject – a process that often provides the key to the meaning of a word or expression. From this results the fact that any passage in the Qur’an that gives rise to a comparison with modern secular knowledge is likely to be unreliably translated.

Very often, the translations are peppered with inaccurate – if not totally nonsensical – statements. The only way to avoid such errors is to possess a scientific background and to study the Qur’anic text in the original language.

Scientific Errors
On the subject of man, as well as the other topics mentioned earlier, it is not possible to find any corresponding data in the Bible. Furthermore the scientific errors contained in the Bible – such as those describing man’s first appearance on earth, which, as we have seen, may be deduced from the Genealogies that figure in Genesis are not to be found in the Qur’an. It is crucial to understand that such errors could not have been ‘edited out’ of the Qur’an since the time they first became apparent: well over a thousand years have elapsed since the most ancient manuscripts and today’s texts of the Qur’an, but these texts are still absolutely identical. Thus, if Muhammad were the author of the Qur’an (a theory upheld by some people), it is difficult to see how he could have spotted the scientific errors in the Bible dealing with such a wide variety of subjects and have proceeded to eliminate every single one of them when he came to compose his own text on the same themes. Let us state once again, that no new scientific facts had been discovered since the time the Bible was written that might have helped eliminate such errors.

In view of the above, it is imperative to know the history of the texts, just as it is essential to our understanding of certain aspects of the Bible for us to be aware, of the conditions in which it was written.

As we have noted earlier, experts in Biblical exegesis consider the books of Old and New Testaments to be divinely inspired works. Let us now examine, however, the teachings of Muslim exegetes, who present the Qur’an in quite a different fashion.

When Muhammad was roughly forty years old, it was his custom to retire to a retreat just outside Mecca in order to meditate. It was here that he received a first message from God via the Angel Gabriel, at a date that corresponds to 610 A.D. After a long period of silence, this first message was followed by successive revelations spread over some twenty years. During the Prophet’s lifetime, they were both written down and recited by heart among his first followers. Similarly, the revelations were divided into suras(chapters) and collected together after the Prophet’ death (in 632 A.D.) in a book: the Qur’an. The Book contains the Word of God, to the exclusion of any human additions. Manuscripts dating from the first century of Islam authenticate today’s text, the other form of authentication being the recitation by heart of the Qur’an, a practice that has continued unbroken from the time of the Prophet down to the present day.

Uncorrupted Nature of the Quran
In contrast to the Bible, therefore, we are presented with a text that is none other than the transcript of the Revelation itself; the only way it can be received and interpreted is literally. The purity of the revealed text has been greatly emphasized, and the uncorrupted nature of the Qur’an stems from the following factors:

First, as stated above, fragments of the text were written down during the Prophet’s lifetime; inscribed on tablets, parchments and other materials current at the time. The Qur’an itself refers to the fact that the text was set down in writing. We find this in several suras dating from before and after the Hejira (Muhammad’s departure from Mecca to Medina in 622 A.D.) In addition to the transcription of the text, however, there was also the fact that it was learned by heart. The text of the Qur’an is much shorter than the Old Testament and slightly longer than the New Testament. Since it took twenty years for the Qur’an to be revealed, however, it was easy for the Prophet’s followers to recite it by heart, sura by sura. This process of recitation afforded a considerable advantage as far as an uncorrupted text was concerned, for it provided a system of double-checking at the time the definitive text was written down. This took place several years after the Prophet’s death; first under the caliphate of Abu Bakr, his first successor, and later under the caliphate of Omar and in particular that of Uthman (644 to 655 A.D.) The latter ordered an extremely strict recension of the text, which involved checking it against the recited versions.

Text of Quran Uncorrupted
After Muhammad’s death, Islam rapidly expanded far beyond the limits of the area in which it was born. Soon, it included many peoples whose native language was not Arabic. Very strict steps were taken to ensure that the text of the Qur’an did not suffer from this expansion of Islam: Uthman sent copies of his entire recension to the principal centers of the vast Islamic empire. Some copies still exist today, in more or less complete form, in such places as Tashkent (former U.S.S.R) and Istanbul. Copies have also been discovered that date from the very first centuries after the Hejira; they are all identical, and all of them correspond to the earliest manuscripts.

Today’s editions of the Qur’an are all faithful reproductions of the original copies. In the case of the Qur’an, there are no instances of rewriting or corruption of the text over the course of time.

If the origin of the Qur’an had been similar to those of the Bible, it would not be unreasonable to suppose that the subjects it raised would be presented in the light of the ideas influenced by certain opinions of the time, often derived from myth and superstition. If this were the case, one might argue that there were untold opportunities for inaccurate assertions, based on such sources, to find their way into the many and varied subjects briefly summarised above. In actual fact, however, we find nothing of the kind in the Qur’an.

But having said this, we should note that the Qur’an is a religious book par excellence. We should not use statements that have a bearing on secular knowledge as a pretext to go hunting after any expression of scientific laws. As stated earlier, all we should seek are reflections on natural phenomena, phrases occasioned by references to divine omnipotence and designed to emphasise that omnipotence in the eyes of mankind throughout the ages. The presence of such reflections in the Qur’an has become particularly significant in modern times, for their meaning is clearly explained by the data of contemporary knowledge. This characteristic is specific to the Qur’an.

Unexpected Discoveries
It was not until I had learnt Arabic and read the Qur’an in the original that I realised the precise meaning of certain verses. Only then did I make certain discoveries that were astounding. With my basic ideas on the Qur’an – which to begin with were inaccurate, just as those of most people in the West – I certainly did not expect to find in the text the statements that I in fact uncovered. With each new discovery, I was beset with doubt lest I might be mistaken in my translation or perhaps have provided an interpretation rather than a true rendering of the Arabic text.

Only after consultations with several specialists in linguistics and exegesis, both Muslim and non-Muslim, was I convinced that a new concept might be formed from such a study: the compatibility between the statements in the Qur’an and firmly established data of modern science with regard to subjects on which nobody at the time of Muhammad – not even the Prophet himself – could have had access to the knowledge we possess today. Since then, I have not found in the Qur’an any support given to the myths or superstitions present at the time the text was communicated to man. This is not the case for the Bible, whose authors expressed themselves in the language of their period.

In La Bible, le Coran et la Science (The Bible, the Qur’an and Science), which first appeared in the original French in 1976 and which subsequently appeared in English in 1978, I set forth the main points of these findings. On November 9, 1976, I gave a lecture to the Academie de Médecine (French academy of Medicine) in which I explored the statements of the origins of man contained in the Qur’an; the title of the lecture was Données physiologiques et embryologiques du Coran (Physiological and Embryological Data in the Qur’an). I emphasised the fact that these data – which I shall summarise below – formed part of a much wider study. The following are some of the points which arise from a reading of the Qur’an:

*

a concept of the creation of the world which, while different from the ideas contained in the Bible, is fully in keeping with today’s general theories on the formations of the universe;
*

statements that are in perfect agreement with today’s ideas concerning the movements and evolution of the heavenly bodies;
*

a prediction of the conquest of space;
*

notions concerning the water cycle in nature and the earth’s relief, which were not proven correct until many centuries later.

All of these data are bound to amaze anyone who approaches them in an objective spirit. They add a much wider dimension to the problem studied in the present work. The basic point remains the same , however: we must surely be in the presence of facts which place a heavy strain on our natural propensity for explaining everything in materialistic terms, for the existence in the Qur’an of these scientific statements appears as a challenge to human explanations.

That does not mean to say, however, that the statements in the Qur’an – especially those concerning man – may all of them be examined in the light of the findings of modern science. The creation of man as described in both the Bible and the Qu’ran totally eludes scientific investigation of the event per se.

Similarly, when the New Testament or the Qur’an informs us that Jesus was not born of a father, in the biological sense of the term, we cannot counter this Scriptural statement by saying that there is no example in the human species of an individual having been formed without receiving the paternal chromosomes that make up one half of its genetic inheritance. Science does not explain miracles, for by definition miracles are inexplicable, thus, when we read in both the Qur’an and the Bible that man was moulded from the ground, we are in fact learning a fundamental religious principle: Man returns from where he came, for from the place he is buried, he will rise again on the judgment.

Side by side with the main religious aspect of such reflections on man, we find in the Qur’an statements on man that refer to strictly material facts. They are quite amazing when one approaches them for the first time. For example, the Qur’an describes the origins of life in general and devotes a great deal of space to the morphological transformation undergone by man, repeatedly emphasizing the fact that God fashioned him as He willed. We likewise discover statements on human reproduction that are expressed in precise terms that lend themselves to comparison with the secular knowledge we today possess on the subject.

Interest to Men of Science
The many statements in the Qur’an that may thus be compared with modern knowledge are by no means easy to find. In preparing the study published in 1976, I was unable to draw on any previous works known in the West, for there were none. All I could refer to were a few works in Arabic dealing with themes treated in the Qur’an that were of interest to men of science – there was, however, no overall study. Over and above this, research of this kind requires scientific knowledge covering many different disciplines. It is not easy, however, for Islamologists to acquire such knowledge, for they possess a mainly literary background. Indeed, such questions hardly seem to occupy a place in their field of classic Islamology, at least as far as the West is concerned. Only a scientist, thoroughly acquainted with Arabic literature, can draw comparisons between the Qur’anic text – for which he must be able to read Arabic – and the data supplied by modern knowledge.

There is another reason why such statements are not immediately apparent: Verses bearing on a single theme are scattered throughout the Qur’an. The book is indeed a juxtaposition of reflections on a wide variety of subjects referred to one after the other and taken up again later on, often several times over. The data on a precise theme must therefore be collected from all over the Book and brought together under a single heading. This requires many hours’ work tracking down verses, in spite of the existence of thematic indexes provided by various translators, for such lists may perhaps be incomplete and indeed, in many cases, they often are.

http://www.islamfortoday.com/bucaille01.htm

Continue reading »]]> by Nehal El-Hadi
Muslims believe the world is God’s gift to mankind and that there is proof of His existence in every natural object. The finest grain of sand, with its patterned arrangements of atoms, displays the minute detail of His reckoning. From the smallest of viruses to the largest of plants and animals, every living creature presents signs of God’s creational capacity. The universe serves as a reminder that the extent of His creation is still unknown to man, and in this wondrous Universe, man’s place is that of the ultimate creation.

Muslims believe that the Qur’anis the word of God (Allah) as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). It serves as the source of the Muslim worldview — together with the Hadith and Sunnah — and contains all the information needed to lead a good, true Muslim life, from the basic tenets of Islam to laws governing Muslim societies.

The Qur’an describes the special status of humans in creation, and is another piece of evidence of Allah’s existence. The natural world, like the Qur’an, is considered irrefutable proof of Allah’s existence, and Nature is usually referred to as “the second book” of Allah.

A Story of Creation

Islam’s story of creation is narrated in the Qur’an, and the purpose of creation was for Allah to be known and worshipped. He created the Universe and everything in it with a single command; [Creator of the heavens and the earth from nothingness, He has only to say when He wills a thing: 'Be' and it is] (Al-Baqarah 2:117).

However, this is not a haphazard or whimsical creation. Rather, it demonstrates Allah’s infinite power and capability — [It was not in sport that We created the heaven and the earth and all that lies between them] (Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:16).

Laws were set for the functioning of Allah’s universe, and in the Qur’an all creation submits to Allah’s will; “Islam is thus not limited to humans, but is applied to the whole universe and to everything in it” (Othman, 1992).

Nature and the Origin of Humanity

The story of the origin of man in Islam is similar to those in the teachings of Judaism and Christianity; Allah created Adam from clay. Allah then breathed His spirit into man, thus favoring him over all of his other creations. Humanity was appointed Allah’s khalifah (vicegerent) on earth because of this; “the status of man is definitely higher than the place of non-living objects, plants and animals because the number of attributes of God in man is much greater than in other creatures” (Hashmi, 1967).

Mankind’s elevated status in the world therefore gave humanity two major privileges not afforded to other creatures: 1) freedom of choice, and 2) specialized knowledge, or “creative knowledge” (Rahman, 1980).

The world being humanity’s gift and legacy from Allah (humanity does not assume ownership, the ownership of the universe belongs to Allah, humans are merely “caretakers”) has resulted in two prevailing attitudes about the natural world. The first is that because Allah placed His creation in the hands of humanity, it became a trust and according to the laws of Islam, was to be protected and maintained. The second is that since man holds a special place in the world, which is a gift to mankind, then all environmental concerns can be addressed with the sentiment “Allah, in His infinite Mercy and Generosity, will provide”.

Ideally, the presence of the former attitude would provide a greater regard for the natural world. The second attitude stems from a blind faith in divine intervention and a general sense of arrogance and irresponsibility. However, the majority of ordinary Muslims, like the majority of the world’s population, remain in a state of inactivity, unaware of the threats to the planet and its inhabitants.

Muslims believe that when Allah created the universe in submission to His will, He made everything with great care and measure and then left it to its own devices, governed by the laws he gave:

[He ushers in the dawn, and made the night for rest, the sun and moon a computation. Such is the measure appointed by Him, the omnipotent and all-wise] (Al-An`am 6:96).

Everything was created in balance, and left for mankind to look after. The earth was made rich in bounty and gifts that humanity was invited to discover and use to its benefit. Because of negligence and irresponsibility, however, the delicate balance of nature has been disturbed with negative consequences.

Every Living Thing From Water

According to some Muslim scholars, the natural world can be divided into three main components: the first being water, the source of all life; second, the atmosphere; and finally, the plant and animal kingdoms (Ba Kader et al., 1983; see also Khalid and O’Brien, 1992). The teachings of the Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad contain guidelines on how to interact with these components of the natural world.

Water holds a special place in Islam as it is considered the source of all life. Picture © Microsoft.com

Water is the source of all living things in more ways than one — [We made every living thing from water] (Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:30) — and is essential for their survival. Because of the importance and necessity of water, under Islamic law all living beings are granted equal privileges and equal access to water as a right. In this case, no distinction is made between humans and any other creature.

In addition to being a source of drinking and irrigation, water plays another role as a life-giving substance; aquatic ecosystems sustain a rich array of living creatures, and water’s value as a life vessel is two-fold.

As we have come to discover all over the world, water shortages make conservation and preservation of freshwater resources crucial, at least until a more viable method of desalination is produced.

Islamic law also designates protocol and guidelines for water use in a way to minimize dispute over what is considered to be an inalienable right.

The Air, the Plants, the Animals

The atmosphere — in this case including oxygen required for breathing as well as air movements — is also a creation of Allah that is in our best interests to protect. Emissions and toxic waste released into the atmosphere taint Allah’s creation, causing global warming and exposing all living creatures to toxins. Islam teaches responsibility for ensuring that our actions do not negatively affect others, yet the effects of air pollution are global.

In Islam, greenery is loved and gardens are considered to hold properties similar to Paradise. Planting trees is a virtuous act, earning favor from Allah.

As mentioned earlier, mankind was given special status and elevated above the rest of creation. However, because all living creatures are considered by definition Muslim, as Muslims believe that all creation submits to God, and they all have designated roles in the universe, Islam forbids the harming of any creature apart from what benefits mankind.

The Qur’an reminds humanity that animals and plants also have their purpose in life and fulfill roles assigned to them by Allah.

Each human being has a responsibility for preservation and protection of self and all others. This is represented in the teachings of Islam by the prohibition of substances that may pollute the mind or body, such as narcotics, alcohol, or anything that may cause potential harm.

Mankind’s Responsibility

Humanity has a duty to protect and take responsibility for the well-being of Allah’s creation. The world and everything in it provides for needs of mankind.

However, the utilization of this creation should be done in a respectful and responsible manner, all the while recognizing the generosity of Allah. Muslims believe in accountability, and cruelty to Allah’s creation and lack of respect of the natural world will be one of the bases for judgment.

The religious duties of Muslims that are relevant to dealings with the environment are as follows:

*

No extravagance, excessive use or over-utilization;
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No illegitimate or unlawful attempt at destroying the natural resources;
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No damage, abuse or distortion of the natural environment in any way;
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Construction and development of the earth, its resources, elements and phenomena through the improvement and betterment of natural resources, the protection and conservation of all existing forms of life, the cultivating of land and the reclamation and cleansing of the soil, earth and water (Ba Kader et al., 1983).

In Shari’ah, there are regulations and guidelines on how we are supposed to treat the natural world. This ranges from the prohibition of cruelty to animals, which includes overworking them or causing them undue stress, to the allocation of water resources, as well as the process behind land designation.

Cruelty to living creatures is absolutely forbidden. A variety of stories and anecdotes exist in Islamic teachings regarding the evil of those who mistreated animals, and the virtue of those who went out of their way to demonstrate kindness to animals.

It is forbidden in Islam to kill animals without necessity. The slaughtering of animals for consumption provides food and clothing, while hunting for sport is considered unnecessary cruelty.

It is also prohibited to cut down trees without just cause. Damage to the natural environment and all living things is a criminal offence and laws do exist for protection, assigning punishments to those who oppose the law.

The punishment of crimes against nature, as well as the duty to protect and conserve Allah’s creation, makes Islam very much in tune with the needs of the environment.

Let There Be Light

Knowledge is light, and one of Islam’s strongest themes is the pursuit of knowledge. Only with knowledge can humans discover the extent of Allah’s creation, and be left with no other recourse than to submit to His worship. Following this principle, educating people about issues affecting the environment, and how the consequences of their actions and behaviors can have positive or negative effects on their surroundings should ideally lead to a more favorable relationship with the environment.

Islamic law needs to be applied in environmental cases. For everything ranging from animal rights violations, to large-scale pollution, Shari’ah provides a detailed and comprehensive method to approaching the environment and its resources.

Sources:

Ba Kader, A.; Al Sabbagh, A.; Al Glenid, M.; Izzidien, M. (1983) Basic Paper on the Islamic Principle for the Conservation of the Natural Environment. Switzerland: International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Dawood, N.J. (2003) The Qur’an – a translation. London: Penguin.

Hashmi, A. (1967) An Introduction to Islamic Ideology. Karachi: Ali Book Depot.

Khalid, F. and O’Brien, J. (1992) Islam and the Future of Mankind. London: Alhani International Books Ltd.

Rahman, F. (1980) Major Themes of the Qur’an. Chicago: Bibliotheca Islamica.

source: http://www.readingislam.com/servlet/Satellite?c=Article_C&cid=1154235115001&pagename=Zone-English-Discover_Islam%2FDIELayout

Continue reading »]]> “Science considers any fact established through empirical methods to be scientific. Therefore, assertions not established through observation and experiment are only theories or hypotheses.

As science cannot be sure about the future, it does not make definite predictions. Doubt is the basis of scientific investigation. However Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, who was taught by All-Knowing, made many decisive predictions. Most have come true already; the rest are waiting for their time to come true. Many Qur’anic verses point to recently discovered and established scientific facts. As pointed out earlier, the Qur’an mentions many important issues of creation and natural phenomena that even the most intelligent person living fourteen centuries ago could not have known. Furthermore, it uses the Prophets’ miracles to allude to the farthest reaches of science, which originated in the Knowledge of the All-Knowing One.

Does the Qur’an contain everything? The Qur’an describes humanity and the universe. It declares:

With Him are the keys of the Unseen. None but He knows them. And He knows what is in the land and the sea. Not a leaf falls but with His Knowledge, not a grain amid the darkness of the earth, nothing of wet or dry but (it is noted) in a Manifest Book. (6:59)

Ibn Mas’ud says that the Qur’an provides information on everything, but that we may not be able to see everything in it. Ibn ‘Abbas, the “Interpreter of the Qur’an” and “Scholar of the Ummah,” asserts that if he loses his camel’s rein, he can find it by means of the Qur’an. Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, a major scholar who lived in Egypt in the 15th century CE, explains that all sciences or branches of knowledge can be found in the Qur’an.

How can a medium-sized book, which also contains a great deal of repetition, contain everything we need to know about life, science, conduct, creation, past and future, and so on?

Before explaining this important matter, we should point out that to benefit from the Qur’an, which transcends time and location and is not bound by its audience’s intellectual level, we have to prepare ourselves to do so. We should have firm belief in it and do our best to implement its principles in our daily life. We must refrain from sin as much as possible. As the Qur’an declares we only get what we strive for (53:39), we should, like a deep-sea explorer, dive into its “ocean” and, without becoming tired or bored, continue studying it until we die.

Moreover, we need a good command of Arabic and sufficient knowledge of all branches of the natural and religious sciences. A good interpretation necessitates cooperation among scientists from all natural and social sciences, and religious scholars who are experts in Qur’anic commentary, Hadith, fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), theology, and spiritual sciences. While reciting and studying the Qur’an, we should regard it as being its first addressee, consciously aware that each verse addresses us directly. If we consider, for example, its historical accounts of the Prophets and their peoples as unrelated to us, we will derive no benefit.

According to its nature and significance, worth and place in existence, everything has its own place in the Qur’an:

The Qur’an contains everything, but not to the same degree. It pursues four purposes: to prove the existence and Unity of God, Prophethood, bodily resurrection, and worship of God and justice. To realize its purposes, the Qur’an draws our attention to God’s acts in the universe, His matchless art displayed through creation, the manifestations of His Names and Attributes, and the perfect order and harmony seen in existence. It mentions certain historical events, and establishes the rules of personal and social good conduct and morality, as well as the principles of a happy, harmonious social life. In addition, it explains how to worship and please our Creator, gives us some information about the next life, and tells us how to gain eternal happiness and be saved from eternal punishment.

Everything is contained in the Qur’an, but at different levels. Therefore, not everything is readily apparent. The Qur’an’s main duty is to teach about God’s perfection, essential qualities, and acts, as well as our duties, status, and how to serve Him. Thus, it contains them as seeds or nuclei, summaries, principles, or signs that are explicit or implicit, allusive or vague, or suggestive. Each occasion has its own form, and is presented in the best way for making each Qur’anic purpose known according to the existing requirements and context. For example:

Human progress in science and industry has brought about such scientific and technological wonders as airplanes, electricity, motorized transport, and radio and telecommunication, all of which have become basic and essential for our modern, materialistic civilization. The Qur’an has not ignored them and points to them in two ways:

• The first is, as will be explained below, by way of the Prophets’ miracles.
• The second concerns certain historical events. In other words, the wonders of human civilization only merit a passing reference, an implicit reference, or an allusion in the Qur’an.

For example, if an aircraft told the Qur’an: “Give me the right to speak and a place in your verses,” the aircrafts of the sphere of Divine Lordship—the planets, the Earth, the moon—would reply on the Qur’an’s behalf: “You may take a place here in proportion to your size.” If a submarine asked for a place, the submarines belonging to that sphere—the heavenly bodies “swimming” in the atmosphere vast “ocean” would say: “Compared to us, you are invisible.” If shining, star-like electric lights demanded the right to be included, the electric lights of that sphere—lightning, shooting stars, and stars adorning the sky’s face—would reply: “Your right to be mentioned and spoken about is proportional to your light.”

If the wonders of human civilization demanded a place based on the fineness of their art, a single fly would reply: “O be quiet! Even my wing has more of a right than you. If all of humanity’s fine arts and delicate instruments were banded together, the delicate members of my tiny body would still be more wonderful and exquisite. The verse: Surely those upon whom you call, apart from God, shall never create (even) a fly, though they banded together to do it (22:73), will silence you.”

The Qur’an’s viewpoint of life and the world is completely different from the modern one. It sees the world as a guest-house, and people as temporary guests preparing themselves for eternal life by undertaking their most urgent and important duties. As that which is designed and used mostly for worldly purposes only has a tiny share in servanthood to and worship of God, which is founded upon love of truth and otherworldliness, it therefore has a place in the Qur’an according to its merit.

The Qur’an does not explicitly mention everything necessary for our happiness in this world and the next for another reason: Religion is a divine test to distinguish elevated and base spirits from each other. Just as raw materials are refined to separate diamonds from coal and gold from soil, religion tests conscious beings to separate precious “ore” in the “mine” of human potential from dross.

Since the Qur’an was sent to perfect us, it only alludes to those future events pertaining to the world, which everyone will see at the appropriate time, and only opens the door to reason to the degree necessary to prove its argument. If everything was explicit, the test would be meaningless, for the truth of the Divine obligations would be readily apparent. Given that we would then be unable to deny or ignore them, the competition behind our testing and trials would be unnecessary, for we would have to confirm their truth. “Coal” spirits would remain with and appear to be no different from “diamond” spirits.

As the great majority of people are always “average,” the Qur’an uses a style and language that everyone can understand. An ordinary person and a great scientist can benefit from the Qur’an, regardless of his or her specialization. A most suitable way to do this is through symbols, metaphors and allegories, comparisons and parables. Those well-versed in knowledge (3:7) know how to approach and benefit from the Qur’an, and conclude that it is the Word of God.

Earlier civilizations would neither have benefited from nor understood Qur’anic accounts of modern scientific and technological discoveries, so why mention them? Also, scientific “truths” change constantly and therefore are not eternal.

God Almighty gave us intelligence, and the Qur’an urges us to use it to study ourselves, nature, and surrounding events. If it mentioned modern scientific and technological discoveries or everything pertaining to life, nature, history, and humanity, creating us in our present form would have been pointless. God created us as the best pattern of creation, and gave us many intellectual faculties. But if everything were clear, we would not need these, for we would already know everything.

Finally, if the Qur’an contained explicit references to everything we want to know, it would be so large that its complete recitation would be impossible. We would be unable to benefit from its spiritual enlightenment, and would become really bored while reciting it. Such results contradict the reasons for the Qur’an’s revelation and its purposes.”

from http://en.fgulen.com/essentials-of-the-islamic-faith/690-science-and-religion