Continue reading »]]> by Kenan Cetinkaya

kchetinkaya@hotmail.com

September 4, 2010

Similar to the example of a King or Queen who chooses certain days in a year to show his/her generosity and love toward his/her folk, God uses the holy times as a reasons to spread his mercy and blessings, much more than the common days and times, to his servants, Children of Adam. I believe that Holy months such as Ramadan and nights such as the night of the Qadir, has such a implication in Islamic faith. If we analyze the Holy Scriptures, mainly Quran and Bible, we can come cross the conclusion that all mankind is from a single person named Adam (pbuh). After him many people came and passed away and children Adam divided into very complex groups and nationalities. This division somehow made them forgets that they eventually came from the single father. I believe that the Holy nights remind us that we are all from the single parents and they were from the earth. Even though we as keeping specific

qualities different from each other, at last, can come together around the same table as the children of the same father in order to share celebration of the fasting.  Ramadan in this aspect, by keeping the self away from any kind of eating, drinking and sexual relationship, teaches Muslims that they must be humble in their action and be away from any kinds of arrogance. When a person abstains himself from these daily attitudes, he become weaker physically which help him to control the carnal desires. It is always easier to take in control the weaker person than strong and full person. Regarding to keeping the self and the society in control, Ramadan teaches Muslims that;

- They are not the real owner of their life and the possessions. God is the one who gives mankind whatever they have including their life. That is why Muslims generally pays their alms-giving (Zakat) in the Ramadan by acknowledging the reality that they all come from the real owner of the universe.
- Because Muslims feel weaker in strength they understand that in reality people are so weak. In every second they have everlasting demands and request from God. Because they exactly feel what the poor and the sick people feel, during their fasting they are commanded to pay fitr sadaqa (small amount of food given for the poor)
- By obeying God’s rules during the day and taking control the carnal self, they confess the reality that real owner of the universe asks from people to love God and serve him accordingly. In Islamic terms serving for humanity is serving for God also. That is why instead of staying away from the community and keeping themselves in seclusion, Muslims are encouraged to integrate into the community and strength their relationship with the others, which reaches to its peak during the Ramadan. Therefore, in Muslim societies it is not weird to see families host families, neighbors and relatives in Ramadan much more than other days. In the public squares of the towns Ramadan tents are set in order to entertain and teach Muslims about the wisdoms of Ramadan and being good citizen for their community and good servant for God. At the end of Ramadan this kinds of activities reaches their peak with the celebrations of Ramadan as the community.

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A nine-month old boy in Dagestan, a North Caucasian region bordering Chechnya, has become the object of pilgrimage after his parents and the village imam reported seeing Quranic verses, in Arabic, appearing on his skin. These have been attested by the local doctor but not by the Russian-speaking doctors at the hospital where he was born. There are photographs and videos all over the web; there is of course a naturalistic explanation, “dermographic urticaria”, of which the Patient UK site says:

People with this condition develop the rash on areas of skin that have been firmly stroked. (Because of this, you could “write” on someones skin by applying firm pressure with a finger or other object. The rash follows the line of the “writing” on the skin.) The affected area of skin is usually very itchy, but in some mild cases it does not itch much.

Well, at least this means that the parents can produce this writing without causing much pain to the baby. So if this is not child abuse, as opposed to mere exploitation, what exactly is being exploited?

The further way from the story, the more obvious this becomes: for the Moonie-owned Washington Times, it is straightforward child abuse, which the Russian authorities must stop. “This hoax inspires the type of fanaticism that can kill people. Hopefully Russian child protective services will investigate the parents for child abuse.”

On YouTube there is a war of videos, with people claiming that this is clearly and obviously a miracle. The Swedish researcher Niklas Bernsand whose account of the matter is the clearest I have been able to read (I don’t speak Russian) points out a couple of really remarkable facts. Dagestan situated immediately to the east of Chechnya, and fear that war will break out there is widespread. So the main function of the supposed miracle is to reassure Muslims that God has his eye on them, and will not allow the war to come there.

Bernsand’s version of the story also contains an element common to all miracle stories of this kind: the role of the local community and of the priest/imam in deciding how to interpret the symptoms:

Other sources claim that the parents didn’t at first know what srt of marks were continually appearing on the little boy’s body. They photographed the markings and showed them to doctors who couldn’t give any explanation for the “birthmarks” and it wasn’t until they began clearly to resemble some kind of script that they took them to the local imam, who recognised them as verses from the Qur’an.

But the oddest thing in his story is the reaction of the local Salafis. You would have thought that a Muslim miracle famous as far away as Moscow would have cheered them up; but, no. they have threatened to burn down the family’s house because the baby’s father is a policeman, and thus an agent of the infidel Russian government.