But many powerful, eloquent voices are giving expression to what sincere conscience must feel both in view of what our history tells us-which is full of lessons and warnings, sometimes ennobling and dignifying for us to recall, sometimes a cause for shame-and in view of contemporary reality which, likewise, can be encouraging or frightening. They speak because they are aware of the momentous changes and developments that are beginning to take shape and will emerge in the future. The Fountain as a small, young voice, humbly joins this great chorus, in the hope of playing its part in the enlightenment of mankind.

Destruction, spilling of blood, hunger and misery, are indeed pouring in around us from every direction. In spite of this, The Fountain firmly believes, trusting in the Might of the Creator and in the power of faith which can never be defeated, and because of the truth and sublimity of what it aims at, that the spirit of Islam will rise up among Muslims and that, thereafter, an awakening will follow in every sphere of individual and collective life-moral, social, scientific, literary. The Fountain firmly believes that the darkness which threatens to prevail in the world will not prevail, rather, it will be defeated and the horizons now appearing dark will be lightened. Its aim then is to be a sign of, and a voice for, that change which must come.

We consider that The Fountain’s first appearance at just this time, in the midst of most troubled times which are nevertheless brimful of hopes and bright possibilities, is itself a sign of the first dawning of that possible future. And we thank those who have supported and contributed to its publication.

All aspects of this life are a rehearsal for the afterlife and every creature is engaged in action to this end. In every struggle order is evident; in every achievement compassion is present. It is not possible that this effusion of compassion should go unnoticed.

Clouds hover above our heads on wings of compassion, from the centre of which rain comes down to our aid. Lightning and thunder bring us good tidings of rain with an uproar from the secret domain of compassion. The whole universe with every particle of its being ceaselessly sings the praises of the All-Compassionate. The whole of creation extols compassion all together with voices peculiar to each.

Consider the worm; it is in much need of compassion being under foot, but itself displays compassion. Affectionate soil enfolds it, in turn it deposits thousands of eggs in each handful of the earth. The soil through this operation is aerated, swells, and reaches a state propitious to the sowing of seeds. While the soil is a means of compassion for worms, worms are a mercy for the soil. Words fail us to describe such careless ones who burn grass and roots to obtain manure. Poor man! He is unaware of being merciless to both soil and worms. Consider the bee approaching flowers, or the silkworm burying itself in its cocoon! What difficulties do they not encounter to take part in the symphony of compassion. Is it possible for us not to notice the pains those creatures suffer in order to provide man honey and silk?

That is not all. Have you ever considered how heroic the chicken is that allows its head to be bitten off by a dog in order to save its young, and how praiseworthy the wolf is which, forgetting about its own hunger, offers its young the food it has found?

Everything speaks of compassion and promises compassions, because of this the universe can be considered a symphony of compassion. All kinds of voices proclaim compassion so that it is impossible not to be aware of it, and impossible not to feel the wide mercy encircling everything.

How unfortunate are there souls who do not perceive this.

Man has a responsibility to show compassion to all living beings as a requirement of being human. The more he displays compassion, the more exalted he becomes, while the more he resorts to wrongdoing, oppression and cruelty, the more he is disgraced and humiliated, becoming a shame to humanity.

We hear from the Prophet of Truth that a prostitute went to Paradise because she gave water out of compassion to a poor dog dying of thirst, whilst another woman was condemned to the torments of Hell because she left a cat to die of hunger.

Mercy begets mercy. If one is compassionate on earth, then many good tidings come from heaven.

Having perceived this secret, our ancestors founded a great many homes of compassion everywhere including foundations for protecting and feeding animals. A man of compassion was so deeply touched by a bird with broken legs, and a stork with damaged wings that he established a sanctuary for injured birds; this kind of behaviour was entirely usual with Ottoman Turks.

We ought to be as compassionate to human beings as our ancestors were to animals. Alas! Just as we have not been compassionate to ourselves, so too, we have ruined the next generation by showing complete indifference and pitilessness to the earth. We have actually caused the deterioration of the environment, in which it is ever more difficult to live.

We should point out, however, that abuse of the feeling of compassion can be harmful or even more harmful than being devoid of compassion altogether.

Oxygen and hydrogen, when mixed in the proper ratio form one of the most vital of substances. On the other hand, when this ratio changes, each element resumes its original combustible identity. Likewise, it is of great importance to apportion the amount of compassion and to know who deserves it. ‘Compassion for a wolf sharpens its appetite, and not being content with what it receives, it demands even more.’ Compassion for a rebel makes him much more aggressive, encouraging him to offend against others. It is not fitting to have compassion for the one who takes pleasure in poisoning like a snake; compassion for such a one means leaving the administration of the world to cobras.

Compassion for a bloodstained, bloodthirsty one is tyranny of the most terrible kind to all the oppressed and wronged people. Such an attitude is like being neglectful of the rights of lambs out of compassion for the wolves; it causes the whole of creation to sigh and moan, however much it might please the wolves.

More than 97 per cent of this water is in the oceans. The rest-about 37 million cubic kilometres-is fresh water but most of that is of little use since it is locked in icecaps and glaciers. Current estimates are that about 8 million cubic kilometres are stored in relatively inaccessible ground water and about 0.126 million cubic kilometres are contained in lakes and streams.

Like coal, oil, iron or soil, water is a natural resource. But there are many ways in which water differs from other natural resources. First, it moves. Second, its total quantity on the earth is fixed and can be neither increased nor decreased. Thirdly, water is essential for human survival.

The human being’s biological need for water is modest. A dozen or so cupfuls a day are all that are required for survival. Even so, there are many areas of the earth where even this requirement is difficult to meet. Rainfall in many desert regions is limited to a few millimetres a year, and this often falls at unpredictable times during the space of a few isolated days. Survival in these regions is impossible unless water is imported.

Biological survival, however, is not the issue in today’s water-stressed world. Water is required for household needs, for industry and agriculture. Household needs-drinking, washing and cooking-could be adequately met everywhere in the world by less than 100 litres per person per day, roughly the amount used for an average shower. Of this, only one litre a day is required for drinking. A hundred litres a day is the equivalent of about 35 cubic metres per person a year. If every man, woman and child on the planet were provided with 100 litres of domestic water a day, the water bill for a population of 5 billion people would be 180,000 billion litres a year; or 180 cubic kilometres. In theory, the Amazon river alone with an annual flow of nearly 6000 cubic kilometres could supply the domestic water needs of a world population more than 30 times as large as it is now.

A supply of unpolluted drinking water and the sanitary disposal of human wastes are fundamental to health. Water pollution moves through shared rivers, lakes and seas. An estimated 60 million people died of diarrhoea diseases due to unsafe drinking water and malnutrition, most of the victims were children.

Irrigation is by far the biggest use of water and also the most rapidly expanding. Plants use large quantities of water during their growth. Under dry conditions, it takes about 1000 cubic metres of water to produce one tonne of plant growth. The amount of water used for irrigation has increased 10 times this century and elaborate plans are still being made to extend irrigation to more and more areas. The basic addition is simple: 565 cubic kilometres for domestic, industrial, cooling and livestock use, plus 3,300 cubic kilometres for irrigation. As near as makes little difference, the answer is 4000 cubic kilometres a year, equivalent to 44 per cent of the total reliable run off.

In 1940, total water use was about 1000 cubic kilometres a year. It had doubled by 1960 and doubled again by 1990. The rising need for water has two components: One is that more and more people use water and the other is that they use more of it than they used to.

The Qur’an reminds us that water is the source of all life. “Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then We clove them asunder and We made every living thing out of the water? Will they not then believe?” (21:30).

The phrase can equally mean that every living thing is made of water (as its essential component) or that every living thing originated in water. The meanings are strictly in accordance with scientific data. Life is indeed of aquatic origin and water is the major component of all living cells. Without water, life is not possible. When the possibility of life on another planet is discussed, the first question is always: Does it contain a sufficient quantity of water to support life?

References

• Robin Clarke (1991), Water: The International Crisis. Earthscan Ltd., London, UK.
• Maurice Bucaille (1983), The Bible, The Qur’an and Science, Seghers, Paris, France.
• The World Commission on Environment and Development (1987), Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
• Ahrned Zidan Ann Dina Zidan (1989), Translation of The Glorious Qur’an, Biddies Ltd., Guildford, UK.

In spite of their long history and culture, and except for the period of the Crusades, the Turks hardly figured in Western consciousness until the conquest of Constantinople. Most of the West’s information about them came from the travel or diary recollections of merchants and traders who travelled to the Middle East and the Levant. Later, more copious publications appeared: journalistic or pamphleteering papers; formal studies aiming to describe the history, government, manners, religion, etc. of the Turks; books specifically about Islam as the West wished to have it portrayed, and (later still) plays and operettas with lavish ‘Oriental’ settings with important roles for ‘Turks’ or ‘Moors’ (Aksoy, n.d., p.344).

The earliest English book on Turkish history, the General History of the Turks (1603), was widely used as a standard reference work in Europe. Despite the fact that it was praised by many literary figures like Johnson, Southey and Lord Byron, the work has subsequently been criticized as an outrageously prejudiced collection of bits and pieces. As Bisbee remarks (1951, p.7) ‘whenever an educated Turk (looked) into Western histories of civilization or books on Turkey, he ran into unpleasant passages about his own people.’

Increasing Western interest in the Ottoman system of government, Ottoman culture, traditions and religion, occasioned further studies: for example, The Present State of the Ottoman Empire (1668), A Compendious History of the Turks (1660), Political Reflection Upon the Government of the Turk (1656). In seventeenth-century France too there were several publications which influenced opinion throughout Europe; the Ottoman Empire was at this time a still powerful entity and perceived by Christian Europe as a real threat.

During the eighteenth century, Ottoman decline allowed European powers to play the Ottoman government for their own (often conflicting) political interests. At the same time, literary attentions turned to the Ottoman territories as it became easier than before for travellers to go to Ottoman regions, particularly Istanbul, to satisfy their curiosity and fantasies about the ‘mysterious East’. A distinct fashion in literature became clearly established around 1775-1825 (Brown, Wallace, Cable 1936, pp.70-80). Among other well-known English travel writers of the period were Lady Mary Montague, Charles Thompson, Richard Pococke, Lord Baltimore, Richard Chandler, Elizabeth Craven, and Rev James Dallaway.

The negative image of the Turk in the West derived from the religious fanaticism of Crusaders who were taught to see Muslims as children of the devil or heretic followers of an impostor.

The word ‘Turk’ was thus mainly used either as a generic name for an Islamic state with its characteristic military and government institutions, or as a description of negative character type, of someone by instinct cruel, heartless, etc.

The best known literary images of Turks appeared in Elizabethan plays which used Turkish history as source material, generally turning on conflict or opposition between Christians and Turks. Simon Shepherd (1986, p.142) makes this interesting comparison between the ‘Turk’ and the ‘father’ figure in what he calls the Marlowe period.

There was a fashion for plays about the Turks (and other Islamic nations) in late Elizabethan drama. Similarly, many plays centred on the figure of a father, whereas after the 1590s young men became central. Turks and fathers are topics specific to the Marlowe period, although they are not necessarily connected…

Another significant analogy in those plays is made between Catholic cruelty and Turkish. In other words, Protestant propaganda could designate the alleged cruelty of Catholics in general and Spaniards in particular as Turkish. This contrasts with Foxe’s address to Protestants when he spelled out the true reality of religious intolerance among Christians: The Turk with his sword is not so cruel but the Bishop of Rome on the other side is more fierce and bitter against us…. Such dissension and hostility Satan had sent among us that Turks be not more enemies to Christians than Christians to Christians, Papists to Protestants… (quoted in Shepherd, 1986, p.144)

In most plays sensuality seems to be the dominant characteristic of the Turks. The plots of tragedies in particular turn on various ‘Turkish’ characteristics such as cruelty, revenge, intrigue, pride, passion, terror, treachery, and the like. The Turks are portrayed as the embodiment of such excesses in, for instance, Marlow’s Jew of Malta in John Mason’s The Turks, in Grevilles Mustapha, etc.

In other plays, a somewhat different Turkish stereotype is the figure of the wicked tyrant who is always either a Turkish Sultan or Pasha or general. He usually separates two virtuous lovers (the male character is the Christian Westerner, and the female one is a naive Turkish beauty) after becoming infatuated with the girl he has kept in his possession through force. The strength of the woman’s fidelity to her true lover is either rewarded by God with a happy reunion with him, or she prefers death to the tyrant’s love. Yet another stereotype is the intriguing woman who provokes rivalry among the courtlers enamoured of her. These rivals vie with each other to obtain her love but all fail, losing their lives in the struggle. (Aksoy n.d.,pp.343-8)

In the course of the nineteenth century as more and more people of different occupations and with different objectives travelled to Turkey, the use of these images and myths about the Turks in literary texts reached its height. It was quite the fashion to visit Ottoman lands in order that the travellers might, as it were, confirm for themselves, myths already mediated to them about the Turkish people, their culture, religion, language, etc.

Vathek, originally composed in French and published in London in 1786, was written by Beckford, who had not even once visited the region he was writing about. He used his own family home as the primary setting for his Eastern tale, colouring and transforming it with the resources of a vivid imagination; he is reported to have said: ‘I had to elevate, exaggerate, and orientalize everything’ (Beckford, n.d., p.9). The work reflects the characteristic themes of ambitious quest for power, sadistic sensuality, sexual perversity, etc., developed through a number of scenes and episodes and all wholly imaginary.

Having regarded Vathek as a model for his own work Byron chose a Turkish setting when telling a tale of horror during a contest with Shelley, Mary Shelley and himself. He set his story about a vampire in Izmir: this betrays all too clearly his association of Turkey with crime, horror and cruelty (Prothero, 1902, Appendix IX).

The Western image of the Ottoman world would, of course, be quite incomplete without the various feminine motifs of the veil and the harem and their associations of secret and/or forbidden eroticism, alongside vague notions of something religiously and culturally bizarre. The overwhelming impression from the nineteenth century travellers’ and Orientalists’ writings is that the women of the country were lecherous and voluptuous under despotic repression. In Byron, again, the heroines of the Turkish Tales, Leila, Zuleika, and Gulnare are represented as the beautiful, helpless victims of a despot for whose sake the Western protagonist, or the Byronic hero, confronts his antagonist. The romance turns upon ‘rescue’ from the ‘veil’ (the hidden) and the ‘harem’ (the forbidden).

During the year of the war (1854) and after, many Europeans of diverse professions came to Istanbul and witnessed the Ottoman Empire at the moment of its complete helplessness and (despite the rhetoric of modernizing reforms) inefficiency and administrative incompetence. All of which contributed to the final disenchantment with the myth of the powerful Turk. The books written at the time express a general disenchantment with the East, but particularly with the Turks, which was largely brought about by the defeat. Istanbul, once the fairy-tale location of the East, became the focus of that disenchantment.

Almost as a natural consequence of the Turks defeat, their image in the West shifted into often contemptuous, demeaning caricature. This is particularly noticeable among some Victorian writers such as Thackeray and Charles Dickens.

Thackeray satirizes the Oriental romance and the realities of travel in ‘Punch in the East’, a series of articles he contributed to Punch, and mocks the Byronic romanticization of Turkish themes in ‘Mehmed Ali and the Sultan’ (Spielmann, 1899). Dickens, in his ‘Roving Englishmen’, debunks the sea voyage to Istanbul through his description which ends ‘Oh no! we should have been off anywhere but in Turkey’ (Household Words, 1854-56, IX, p.143). Also (p.142) he describes Turkish soldiers–once powerful, barbarous, cruel, etc.–thus: ‘There is no enthusiasm in martial ideals of glory. Our friends will go listlessly into the battle and listlessly out of it.’ He adds; I know that in saying this, I am not according to popular or agreeable sentiment. The romantic notions of a Muslim warrior are very different; but I know the Turkish soldier pretty well, and pity him sincerely for I know the causes which have sunk him so low.

References

• Aksoy, Yildiz (n.d.) ‘The Turks in 18th Century English Theatre’ unpub. diss. Erzurum: Ataturk Unýversity, Dept. of English Language and Literature.
• Bisbee, Elenor (1951) The New Turks: Pioneers of the Republic (1920-1950), Philadelphia: Unýversity of Pennsylvania Pres.
• Brown, Wallace, Cable (1936) ‘The Popularity of English Travel Books About the Near East; 1775-1825’, Philological Quarterly, 15, p. 70-80.
• Shepherd, Simon (1986) Marlowe and the Politics of Elizabethan Theatre, UK: Teh Harvester Press.
• Beckford, William (n.d.) The Episode of Vathek, London: Stephen Swith.
• Prothero, Rownland (ed.) (1902) Byron’s Works: Letters and Journals; London: John Murray.
• Curzon, Robert (1897) Monasteries of the Levant, London :Georoge Newnes.
• Spielmann, Marion H. (ed.) (1899) Contributions of W.M. Thackeray to Punch from 1843 to 1848, London: Harper and Brothers.
• Dickens, Charles, (1854-1856) Household Words; IX.

But direct vision is very limited and could never be an appropriate way of seeking the Unlimited. Let us explain:

There are innumerable bacteria in the human body, indeed innumerable bacteria in so small a space as a human tooth. These creatures are quite unaware of the tooth in which they live. To become aware of it, they would have to somehow situate themselves out of the tooth, and then, through the use of artificial means (telescopes and microscopes and the like) they might, conceivably, obtain some very approximate notion of the dimensions of the tooth, and then, perhaps, of the larger body to which the tooth is attached. Only through such an effort, which is scarcely imaginable, could the bacteria become aware of the human body which makes up the large ground or sustaining environment of their life. And this scarcely imaginable awareness is itself an immeasurable distance away from anything remotely resembling what we would call understanding.

Though on a very different scale, the sense-awareness of human beings is similarly limited. It may indeed be that, with the assistance of telescopes and other instruments, we can ‘see’ across distances of millions of light years. But all that we ‘see’ in this way is insignificant compared to the dimensions of the whole of which it is a minute fragment. In fact, allowing for the difference in scale, what human beings can ‘see’ is as insignificant as the bacteria’s awareness of the living tissue within which they exist and perish, when compared to the dimensions of the body of which that tissue is a minute fragment.

Further, if we consider the matter closely, we soon realize that our ‘seeing’ (or hearing or any other mode of perception) is conditional upon our understanding. We need to have some general ideas about what we ‘see’ in order to distinguish it and recognize it. If we did not have some idea, however vague at first, of what, for example, a tree is, we should be literally unable to make sense of that object before our eyes which we know as a tree. If our ‘seeing’ is as limited as it is, and if–even for the objects within creation, and within the reach of our ‘seeing’ or our ‘seeing’ instruments–we need some general understanding so that we can make sense of what we ‘see’, how improper a demand it is, how absurd a demand, to ask why we cannot directly ‘see’ or directly ‘know’ the Creator of the whole.

We are created beings, that is, finite, limited in our possibilities and our capacities. Only the Creator, God, is Infinite. By His Mercy, the Creation is available to us as the ground or environment within which we exist and perish, strive for understanding and virtue, and seek our salvation. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said: compared with the Seat of Honour (kursi), the whole universe is as little as a ring thrown upon a desert. Similarly, compared with the Throne (arsh), the kursi is as little as a ring thrown upon the desert.’ From that comparison we gain some understanding of how far the Infinitude of the Creator exceeds our power of apprehending it. How can we even begin to conceive of the reality of the kursi and arsh from which the All-Mighty in His Infinite Majesty sends out His Will and Command and sustains His Creation, let alone begin to conceive of God Himself? 

Why can’t we see God?

The Qur’an teaches: ‘Vision comprehends Him not, but He comprehends all vision’ [6:103].

After the Prophet’s ascent to the heavens, peace be upon him, his Companions asked him:‘Have you seen God?’ It is reported on the authority of Abu Dharr that, on one occasion, he answered: ‘He is the Light, how do I see Him?’ and on another occasion, he answered:’I have seen a Light.’ These statements clarify the well-known saying, ‘The light is the limit or veil of God’. Between us and God is the light which He created. All that we see by that light, within that light–the light is the ground and environment and the limit of our seeing, and that light shields or veils us from God. In fact, we see but a part of that light of creation, we see but a part of what veils Him.

Let us consider the matter from another direction. Ibrahim Haqqi says: ‘In the whole universe of creation there is nothing that is either the like or the equal or the contrary of God. God is Exalted above all form, indeed immune to and free from form.’

It is only because existing things have a like or an equal or a contrary that we are able to distinguish them and perceive them. We know what is ‘long’ only against what is ‘short’ by comparison or contrast; similarly, we know ‘light’ only against what is ‘dark’. How then should we distinguish or perceive One who has neither like, nor equal, nor contrary? This is the meaning of the statement that God is Exalted above form.

The reader will certainly have understood that the question of those who ask to directly perceive God is but an image of the question of those who ask to directly ‘think’ or ‘know’ His Being. But, in truth, we can no more ‘think’ or ‘know’ His Being, than we can ‘see’ Him. Just as He is beyond all measures of form or quality or quantity, He is also beyond all our powers of conception or reasoning. As the Muslims learned in kalam (theology) put it: ‘Whatever conception of God we form in our minds, He is other than it.’ And the Sufis say: ‘God is beyond; and beyond all our conceptions; and we are surrounded by thousands of veils.’

Men of wisdom have said that God exists and He cannot be comprehended by human reason, nor perceived by human senses. The only means to knowledge of Him is through the Prophets, that is, the men whom God appointed as bearers of His Revelation. Where perception and reason have no access, we need to, indeed we must, accept the guidance of Revelation.

Imagine that we are in a closed room and hear a knocking at the door of that room. We may well form some vague impressions about who is knocking, but we can no more than guess at his attributes. We know for certain only that there is knocking at the door, and that we are free to go to the door and, on opening it, ask the person to make himself known to us so that we obtain thereby a more secure knowledge of his true attributes.

This poor analogy may help us to more usefully approach the question of how to seek God. The fact of Creation, the immensity of it combined with an essential unity of form, the sheer beauty and harmony of it, and its usefulness to us as well as its demands upon our labour and our understanding, all make us aware of the existence of the Creator. In just the same way as we deduce from the manufacture of a wonderful diversity of fabrics out of a single material that there is certainly an agent who spins and mixes and dyes and weaves and otherwise prepares the final product, so we deduce from the stunning evidence of the Creation that there is a Creator. While a manufacturer of fabrics can be got hold of and may be persuaded to make himself known to us, no such impertinent curiosity can be addressed to the Creator. Indeed, it would be most incorrect to do so–as well as being impossible–just as impossible as it would be for the fabric to address such curiosity to the fabric-maker. Thus, without assistance from the Creator himself, we can get no further than when, hearing the first knocking on the door, we began to indulge hopelessly vague surmises about who was knocking.

But the reality is that, by the Mercy of God, the Creation of mankind was accompanied by Revelation. Through God’s Revelation to the Prophets and their teaching of us, the door is held open for us. We are enabled to respond to the Creation around us as signs manifesting not only the fact of the Creator’s existence but also His Attributes. Through the Prophets we learn to contemplate His Attributes and to call them–the One, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate, the All-Knowing, the All-Powerful, and so on. A true understanding of these Attributes requires inward experience and contemplation, which are achieved only after sincere and total observance of the Divine decrees, objective study and long, profound meditation, according to the pattern of the Prophets. Only if a person has developed the inward faculties will he be able to grasp the meaning of the Divine works, that is, the Creation, and then rise to contemplation of the Divine Attributes manifested in it.

Even then, it is by no means possible for any person to comprehend the Divine Essence. That is why it is said–‘His Names are known, His Attributes are comprehended, and His Essence exists.’ In the words of Abu Bakr as Siddiq, may God be pleased with him: ‘To comprehend His Essence means to confess that His Essence can not be comprehended.’

What falls to us is to remain committed to our covenant with God, and to beseech Him in this way: “O You who alone are worshipped… It needs no saying that we are unable to attain to true knowledge of You. Yet we believe that You are indeed “nearer to us than our neck-veins”. We feel Your existence and nearness in the depths of our hearts through the universe which You have created and opened to us a like a book, and through the wonderful harmony of form between the least and the largest of what You have brought into being. We come to perceive that we are integrated into the whole realm of Your theophanies, and by that perception our souls are rested and consoled, and our hearts find serenity.’

But there are some who do not seek any such serenity or indeed any inward life at all. They are of a mechanical turn of mind and readily fall into a mechanical kind of sophistry which entraps and paralyses their reason, They ask: 

Given that god created every thing, who created God?

When I first heard this question, I straightway confessed again ‘and Muhammad is His Messenger’, for the Prophet, peace be upon him, predicted that this question would be raised. Indeed, he predicted a great many future events of importance-all have come true and will continue to do so as time unfolds. On one occasion he said: ‘A day will certainly come when some people will sit with their legs crossed and ask: ‘Given that God created everything, who created God?’

Of course, those who put such questions are atheists or inclined to atheism and seek to lead others astray also. The purpose of their question is to avoid the responsibility owed by a creature to the Creator, to avoid belief and worship. At best, the question is derived from the observation of (what are taken to be) ‘cause and effect’ relationships. Every circumstance can be thought of as an ‘effect’ and attributed to an antecedent circumstance or ‘cause’ which, in turn, is attributed to some circumstance antecedent to it, and so on. In the first place, it is obvious to anyone who reasons objectively that the notion of ‘cause’ is only a hypothesis, it has no objective existence: all that objectively exists is a particular, often (but not always) repeated sequence of circumstances. Secondly, if this hypothesis is applied to existence as a whole, we cannot find a creator of it because each creator must have a creator before that creator, in a never-ending chain. (In fact, the futile notion of a never-ending chain of creators was one of the arguments used by Muslim theologians to explain the necessity of believing in God).

It is self-evident that the Creator must be Self-Subsistent and One, without like or equal. If any created being can be said to ‘cause’ anything, that capacity to ‘cause’ was itself created within that being. Thus, no being in the universe can be said to be self-existent; rather, it owes its existence to the Creator who alone is Self-Existent as well as Self-Subsistent. It follows from the fact that the Creator alone truly creates that for each and every being He has determined all possible ‘causes’ and ‘effects’, all things whatsoever that come before or after it. Therefore we speak of God as the Sustainer, who holds and gives life to His Creation from first to last. All ‘causes’ have their beginning in Him, and all ‘effects’ find their ending in Him. In truth, created things are no more than so many ciphers or zeros which, no matter how many we put in a series, add up to nothing, unless a positive ‘one’ is placed before the series to give it value. In just this way the creation could have no real existence nor any value except by God.

What we call ‘causes’ have no direct or independent influence in existence, no direct or independent ‘effects’. It may be that we need to speak of ‘causes and effects’ in order to understand how, in a short space and over a little period of time, some part of the Creation is made (by the Mercy of God) intelligible to us and available to us for our use. But even this but confirms our dependence upon God and our answerability before Him. It is not God who needs ‘causes and effects’ to create; rather it is we who need ‘causes and effects’ to understand what He has created. He alone is the First and the Last, the Eternal, the Initiator and the Determiner–and all our busy little efforts after cause and effect are but veils between ourselves and His Majesty.

Let us and then affirm once more: He, God, is One, the Self-Subsistent and Enternally-Besought of-All, He neither begets nor was begotten, and nothing whatever is like unto Him.

The natural environment contains a mosaic of species (groups of interacting organisms). They do not live in isolation but live in association with one another. It is the arrangement of a particular set of living organisms (plants, animals, bacteria, etc.) and their interaction with each other and with their environment which forms the ecosystem. An ecosystem can be identified on different scales.

On a large scale, the whole world can be considered an ecosystem, while on a smaller scale an ecosystem can be a pond or a wood. The components of an ecosystem (organisms, plants, soil) are linked together by transfers of energy and nutrients (ions).

The environment touches everyone. The air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink and bathe in, the countryside we walk in–all these are affected in one way or another by mankind’s polluting activities. As the results of these activities come to light and the pressures on the environment increase, so does the concern with which we view the world about us.

What are the most important of our common environmental problems?

The greenhouse effect is the greatest environmental threat facing mankind and there are only a limited number of strategies that can be adopted to delay its onset and attempt to reverse the trend. One lesson, which is being recognized increasingly, is that the world uses too much energy of the wrong sort. The most obvious way of attempting to combat global warming is to cut down on our use of fossil fuels. For it is this major source of energy, with its release of carbon into the atmosphere, which is the single biggest cause of the greenhouse effect.

The hole in the ozone layer is not something which most people can witness for themselves and so they rely on experts to tell them it is important. But one aspect of the pollution of the atmosphere, of which people are all to aware, is the smoke and gasses that come from power stations, factories, and car exhausts. Air pollution is a danger which affects us all. Worldwide, more than a billion people–a fifth of the world’s population–live in communities which do not meet the basic air quality standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). For example, in Bombay, simply breathing is equivalent to smoking ten cigarettes a day. In the United States of America it is said that air pollution causes as many as 50,000 deaths a year.

Indeed, there are serious environmental pollution problems in many countries in the world caused mainly by the burning of coal by heavy industries. The discharge from these coal-burning plants goes into the air and water without treatment. Technology for environmental protection is not advanced and legislation, where it exists, is either poorly operated or not operated at all.

Air pollution is not only a problem of industrialised countries. In the Third World, air pollution of a different sort is causing ill-health. In some regions–for example, in Africa– smoke from indoor cooking fires causes severe lung disease in infants. Carbon monoxide in the air reduces the blood’s ability to carry oxygen and this is liable to pose a risk for people suffering from heart disease. Another component, the oxides of nitrogen, are powerful lung irritants and can reduce resistance to infections like flu. In addition, one of the most important consequences of air pollution is the production of acid rain.

In one way or another man is now producing so much waste that he is in danger of being swamped by it. New York has the world’s biggest rubbish dump. Cranes as tall as six storey buildings work round the clock emptying barges of waste from the city–26,000 tonnes of it a day–creating literally a mountain of rubbish. Also, the United Kingdom is producing 80 million tonnes of rubbish each year. In theory, one tonne of rubbish can produce 400 cubic metres of landfill gas–60 per cent of it is methane and around 40 per cent carbon dioxide with a few other trace gasses like nitrogen and hydrogen. Typically, landfill gas is produced fairly quickly over the first few years and then production slowly tails off. On average it takes about 15 years for about a quarter of the waste to rot down, so the danger is long lasting. At most landfill sites the methane and carbon dioxide diffuse into the air. But landfill gas can represent a real hazard. Methane, for example, can explode when concentrations in air reach 5 to 15 per cent. However, if waste tips were properly managed it would be possible for more energy to be extracted from them but that would mean controlling more precisely what goes into them. There is another reason why collecting and burning the gas from landfill sites is worthwhile and environmentally friendly: it reduces the greenhouse effect. Methane is about 27 times less effective as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. That means that if the methane is collected and burnt to form carbon dioxide the net impact on the greenhouse effect is reduced. Burning the landfill gas also breaks down some of the CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) which are in the rubbish and so reduces still further the greenhouse effect.

Methane is not the only problem associated with rubbish tips. Another risk is that noxious substances can leak away, poisoning rivers and aquifers.

Dumping waste is not the only option. There are two other possible ways of dealing with it; it can be incinerated or recycled. Though currently only a small proportion of waste is dealt with that way.

Water is one of the most basic necessities of life. We drink it, wash in it and cook in it. Animals and plants cannot do without it. But increasingly over the last hundred years water has become prone to pollution as the effluent from towns and cities, from industries and from agriculture is discharged into rivers, seas and lakes and contaminations seep down to underground aquifers. Over the years pollution has killed animals and plants and has left many rivers biologically dead. River-borne pollution has brought with it disease and death for man.

In the last twenty years or so man has woken up to the damage being done and slowly, national and international controls over what can be allowed into rivers, seas and lakes are being implemented. Cleaning up the world’s rivers and seas will be a painfully long and expensive business but all those who have studied the problem agree that it is essential. The three main materials dumped at sea are dredgings, industrial waste and sewage sludge. In addition to the accidental contamination of water-ways and land with chemicals from waste disposal, there have been serious problems in some countries as a result of chemicals which have been purposely used on the land–notably pesticides and fertilisers. Both nitrate containing fertilisers and chemical pesticides can contaminate water, and pesticides can contaminate food. There has been increasing concern among environmentalists about the effect of nitrates and pesticides on people. Though the concern about nitrates may be overstated, the problem of pesticide use, notably in developing countries, is very worrying.

One of the prime concerns is the destruction of tropical forests. In 1950 tropical forests covered nearly 25 percent of the world’s land masses. Today they cover less than 7 percent.

Having reviewed some of the significant threats to the environment, the question has to be posed: Is it too late to save the planet? The message is clear. We must act now if we are to attempt to correct the damage which has already been done to our environment. We must reassess our values and priorities before it is too late. We must, in fact, heed the warnings. Today, we must start to choose clean and green technology. Clean and green technology does not mean only clean-up technology. We will try to develop our technology but it should be environmentally friendly.

If we look carefully at the universe, we see in it an ecological balance, a harmonious interrelation and interdependence. Do you believe that this is random? So the balance of the universe created by God must be preserved. ‘Everything with Him is measured’ (13:8). Also, ‘There is not anything, but its stores are with Us and We send down each thing in an appointed measure’ (15:21). ‘God is the One who created everything in due proportion’ (54:49).

Environment is not merely an inheritance from our forefathers, for us to waste; it is a trust and an investment we make for our children. Protection and conservation of the environment is an important and vital human issue. As such, it is also an Islamic issue because the human being is the answerable creature of God, who carries the burden of using and understanding the resources of the creation; within the creation, the human being is both means and end. No other creature can perform the task of protecting the environment.

God gives us some guidance in the Qur’an:

‘He has created you from earth and made you dwell in it’ (11:61).

‘And do not withhold the things of the people unjustly and do not make mischief on the earth’ (26:183).

‘Corruption has overtaken [them] in hand and sea, for what the hands of the people have earned, that He may let them taste some of what they have done, in order that they may return’ (30:41). 

References

• Peter H. Collin (1989), Dictionary of Ecology and Environment, Collins, Middlesex, UK.
• James Wilkinson (1990), Green or Bust, BBC Books, London.
• Jonathon Porritt (1990), Friends of the Earth Handbook, MacDonald Optima, London.
• World Commission on Environment and Development (1989), Our Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
• Ahmet Zidan and Dina Zidan (1991), Translation of The Glorious Qur’an, Biddles Ltd., Guildford, UK.

The Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Chinese, Indian, Greek, Roman, Mexican and Peruvian are the known ancient civilizations. The Egyptian civilization, for example, made a monumental contribution to the advancement of knowledge and technology. They left behind them huge constructions such as their pyramids and palaces which are wonders of technology. They also left their knowledge in other fields which influenced the civilizations that came after them. In particular, the ancient Greeks directly and through the Phoenicians were indebted to them. The Greeks learnt the craft of ship-making and see travel from the Phoenicians and also adopted their alphabet. They in turn created a distinct civilization. The Hellenic civilization encompassing the Greeks influenced the Romans, even though the Romans were their political and military masters. The Romans took over the Hellenic civilization but unfortunately, like their predecessors, they could not get rid of their prejudices or their superstitions. Therefore, they failed to prevent the monopolization of knowledge by a privileged class. Instead of using religion for general enlightenment, their priests used it to create and manipulate prejudices. Their general philosophy and attitudes were racist, their patriotism was cruel and exclusivist. It is not surprising that some of the wisest of the Greek philosophers were indicted by their priests, who were representing a paganistic religion, and the privileged class, put in prison, even executed. In contrast to Greek or Roman civilization, the Islamic civilization which provided a great portion of mankind with a long period of peace and prosperity was guided by the Divine revelation. All the positive developments within Islamic civilization were achieved by the Grace and the Mercy of God. The rise of Islamic civilization is looked upon as a ‘miracle’ by many historians(1) because they cannot otherwise explain so rapid a spreading of knowledge and learning in the Muslim world. The secret of it lay in the Quran.

First and foremost the Qur’an teaches the unity of God, explains its importance and its infinite scope. It invites man repeatedly to think, to use the gift of intellect given him by God. It encourages him to contemplate the universe and the events taking place in it to discover the secret behind them and use his knowledge for the general good of humanity.(2)

The Qur’an also invites man to ponder nature as the wonderful creation of God. (3) Again and again it appeals to in man’s feelings and other faculties and invites him to ponder his own being and nature, and his environment. (4) According to the Qur’an. the knowledge and justice must be one and go together. (5) It gives glad tidings of the highest states to those who lead virtuous lives with steady faith.(6) From the Qur’anic injunctions it is obvious that the prosperity of a man in this world depends upon his knowledge and upon his ability to use it to harness the resources of nature created by God, the Enricher. This, of course, depends upon research, keen observation and experiment. (7) The Prophet Muhammad (peace he upon him) in the light of the Qur’anic teachings demonstrated the Qur’anic precepts in his words and deeds. He commended the pursuit of knowledge to the believers in the modern sense of the term knowledge. That is why the early Muslims leapt forward with such courage and strove to unite their faith with their knowledge and their deeds. As a result, in a short period of time, the Muslims amazed the world with their enterprise and achievement in every field of learning, science and technology, as well as in new general principles and ideas. The world has rightly seen this development as a ‘miracle’.

In the past knowledge and learning were the preserve of the privileged ruling classes and priests or religious intermediaries of some kind. Earlier civilizations were unable to break the monopoly of the exclusive, privileged few. For the first time in the history of mankind, Muhammad (peace be upon him) advanced the idea of the universality of knowledge in the light of the Qur’an (8) and put this idea into practice. Mankind was freed from the tyranny of priesthood, from the monopoly of knowledge by a few. The Scripture of Islam is not for the few–it is the right of all and the duty of all. According to Islam, to seek knowledge is obligatory for every woman and every man. (9) Later, when Islamic rule extended from the gates of India to the Iberian peninsula in Europe, because of this Islamic attitude towards knowledge and learning, the number of Muslim scholars increased rapidly. In this way, the road to learning was opened to ordinary people, and did not remain the preserve of their rulers. The Qur’an (by ridding the minds of men of false gods and by urging them to study and utilize the good things in the creation) opened the road to the astounding innovations and achievements introduced by the Muslims in many scientific fields such as astronomy, chemistry, and medicine, and irrigation and agriculture. Also the same Qur’an urged the Muslims to institute the first ever programmes for public literacy and public hygiene. Because every Muslim had the duty (and the right) to read the Qur’an, and because through tawhid all knowledge was united to the Word of the One God, commoner’s were enabled to enter the distinguished class of scholars through education which had to be made available to everybody. Muslim rulers aimed to guarantee universal education to all their subjects without distinction. In addition, they made personal efforts to learn, and to enable and dispense learning (by setting up libraries, observatories and botanical gardens, for example) to the people. It was the first time that human history witnessed so wide and free exchange of ideas and intercourse amongst scholars from all nations and from every part of the Islamic world: Non-Muslims were not excluded from this achievement since Islam was from the outset a tolerant civilization.

Submission to God and following the tradition (sunnah) of the Prophet (peace be upon him), proved to be the keys to Muslim advancement in every field of life. Islam does not regard virtue and happiness as inevitably and permanently in conflict, nor does it look favourably upon that self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing spirituality which shuns the world altogether. Equally, Islam does not commend a quest for material progress without a moral and spiritual dimension; indeed for such progress to bring real happiness it must be rooted in faith and prayer. Islam attaches great importance to man’s reason and other faculties by which he may understand nature and discover the secret of the creation and so affirm and glorify his Creator, God. According to Islam, neither the pursuit of knowledge, science and technology, nor material prosperity, are ends in themselves. They are means to earn the pleasure of God. These means are legitimate as long as they do not conflict with the framework of precepts which the Qur’an proclaims as the proper environment for man’s moral and spiritual improvement.

Muslim scholars always began their treatises and books with the praises of God the All-Mighty and with salutations to the Prophet (peace be upon him). They always substantiated and supported their explanation of any problem, with verses of the Qur’an and with sayings (Hadith) of the Prophet (peace be upon him). When they put forward their own findings or ideas, they always added in conclusion ‘and God knows best’. In this way they expressed their humility before God and acknowledged that the full truth and complete knowledge of any thing is only with God, the All-Knowing. Therefore, Muslim scholars never idolized or defied knowledge. A leading scholar Al-Biruni (973-1051) wrote in his celebrated work, Kitab-al-Hind: We ask forgiveness of God for our mistakes. For, our every endeavour is for His pleasure. We pray Him to give us sense to distinguish between wheat and chaff. (10)

Modern science, together with its results, may be approved with respect to its contributions to life, understanding of nature, and man himself, and to the solution of man’s vital problems, whether material or spiritual. Besides, because of its true nature, science should be the means to attain true happiness in both worlds by enabling man to recognize his Creator. Otherwise, as witnessed in this last phase of human history science can be too deadly a weapon in the hands of an irresponsible minority. For knowledge devoid of spiritual and moral values may cause degeneration in the social life of man. One may ask, but what do Muslims expect to gain by knowledge? By way of answer, let us quote the views of Al-Ghazali on knowledge: Knowledge is the source of happiness in this world and the world Hereafter because it is knowledge which leads man to believe in God and instills in him moral responsibility. Again it is knowledge which leads him to the love of God. Like a flood which levels and removes the unevenness of the ground, knowledge removes pride from the hearts of men.

A learned man is knowledgeable as long as he feels the need of learning. When he thinks he knows everything he falls into ignorance. (11)

No doubt the Muslims led mankind during what Europeans call the Middle Ages and introduced new ideas and thoughts and a new outlook on life. There is no field of life which was not affected and affected profoundly by Islamic thought and culture. This influence is one modern civilization ought to acknowledge rather than cover up. (12)

It is unfortunate that the modern world appears so unwilling to acknowledge the Islamic contribution to modem learning and scholarship. By the light of Divine Revelation the Muslims developed, under enlightened Muslim rulers, with increasing vigour from the eighth to the thirteenth century slowing down thereafter for a variety of reasons, some internal, some external. Islamic civilization established the value of reason and experiment the study of nature, an explanatory attitude to other cultures, the usefulness of travel and just commerce; it introduced the enduring concepts of public welfare, of ordered and beautiful public spaces, of well-organized and administered markets and libraries and gardens; it proved that slaves have a right to become masters and need not remain slaves; it established a tolerant, enlightened space where people of different nations and races but of different religions could live together and enrich each other’s lives. Why should this not he widely acknowledged and understood?

History bears ample witness to the fact that Islam has never been a hindrance to the advancement of knowledge in arts or sciences. It could not be, because such a magnanimous religion could not be against any activity which is beneficial to man. Any land where Islam was sincerely practised was never backward in learning and knowledge or in science and technology. Unfortunately the present backwardness of the Muslim world is blamed by Islam’s enemies upon and even attributed to Islam–especially by some Western scholars who fear the revival of the Muslims. The truth is quite the opposite. The backwardness of Muslims is due to their neglect of Islamic teachings and the Qur’an. Muslims must return to their own true selves, re-possess their own minds as well as regain control of their own resources. Then, with serious effort and hard work in the field of learning and scholarship they may, by God, recover the high ground and lead the world to a more humane and just future. If they do not do so, the humanity of human beings, perhaps even the fabric of this earth may be irretrievably damaged. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: ‘If anybody goes on his way in search of knowledge, God will make easy for him the way to paradise’ (Sahih Muslim). Let those Muslims who desire to please God and to work for the glory of Islam mobilize their hearts and minds to the task of putting the available human knowledge into forms, and setting it in directions, which will regain for mankind the true purpose of knowledge-namely, the benefit of the creation as a whole (not a handful of privileged nations) and the affirmation and glory of the Creator.

References

1 George Sarton, Lecture on Islam Middle East Institute ‘Islamic Contribution to civilization’, p. 47.

2, 3, 4. The Qur’an 12:109; 22:46; 30:9; 20-25; 36:33-34, 71-73, 78-83; 67:1-5, 15-19;78:4-16.

5 ibid: 3:18; 42:15; 57:25.

6 ibid: 2:25; 4:124; 24:55.

7 ibid: 2:151; 18:66; 29:43; 30:22; 35:28; 17:36.

8 ibid: 10:5; 12:76; 17:36; 39:9.

9 Ibn Majah Muqaddimah p.17.

10 An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrine by Siyyid Husseyin Nasr Cambridge: 1964, p.174.

11 Imam Ghazali, Ihya-i Ulumuddin, Beirut, p.12, 13, 50, 75, 82, 59.

12 The Making of Humanity, Briffault, R. and “Islam Peygamber” Maududi, Lahore, p.20.

American Indians applied its leaves as a poultice to heal wounds, and brewed a cough mixture from its roots. Now its seeds are claimed to have medicinal uses ranging from relieving pre-menstrual syndrome to management of multiple sclerosis, alcoholism and atopic eczema.

The seeds contain approximately 15% protein, 24% oil and 43% cellulose and lignin. The fatty acids in the oil are thought to be important to health because the oil contains 65-85% linoleic acid (LA) and 7-15% gamma linoleic acid (GLA): LA is an essential fatty acid for the body which it cannot make but which it converts to GLA. GLA is one of the components of cells and a precursor of prostaglandins which regulate many body functions. However, the LA GLA conversion step may be blocked by a range of factors including excessive levels of blood cholesterol, a high proportion of certain fatty acids in the diet, ageing, alcohol intake and diabetes.

Supplementing the diet with evening primrose oil (EPO) by-passes the conversion step, thus providing for the presence of GLA in the body. A recent World Health Organisation report suggested that 3% of the total calorific intake of adults should be in the form of essential fatty acids, this figure rising to 5-6% for children and pregnant and lactating women. GLA can be provided by several other sources as well, e.g. borage oil and blackcurrant oil, both of which contain a higher concentration of GLA than EPO but not as much LA.

The quality and composition of EPO used in commercial manufacturing is currently the subject of much research and monitoring work. In the UK research is concentrated on obtaining GLA from other sources e.g. by fermentation from the fungus mucor javanicus.

A concentrated oil from evening primrose, borage and blackcurrant seeds, is now undergoing clinical trials and may be used in second generation oil products of the future. EPO is already used in a variety of beauty and hygiene products, including cosmetic and skin care products, shampoos and soaps.

Trials have been curried out to investigate claims of the effectiveness of EPO in treating many diseases and conditions, including multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease, asthma, atopic eczema, cancer, obesity and premenstrual syndrome. So far the results have been variable but some genuine clinical effects have been seen.

Millions of dollars have been and are being spent on developing new methods of extracting useful natural products for the benefit of mankind. We are now seeing a widespread desire to return to natural resources to cure various ailments. Let us hope that, before mankind destroy their environment, they will come to realize the importance of nature’s medicine-cabinet, and give thanks where it is due. Without that giving of thanks, mankind will not practise the humility and compassion necessary if our common resources are to be preserved both for ourselves and for future generations.

Those who have been detained half-way have been hindered by conjectures.

Who truly seeks will truly find Him, while the indolent can do neither.

For His slaves on their spiritual journey, He is the final destination.

The souls who do not recognize Him as Friend, who do not die to themselves to be raised again in Him,

The souls who did not live nor will die for His sake are utterly bereft and destitute.

Come, friends, let’s set out to reach the realm of the Beloved;

And let us see the rose of His beauty for a moment in light.

The world is pitiless and cruel, all around is fog and cloud;

It is but a loss and waste of time to stay here even for a short while.

We are travellers, and our home coming is with Him alone

What an honour to reach Him; and

Faith is the only means of arriving, this aim by His leave and grace.

Once upon a time, there are two brothers who set off on a long journey together. One is self-indulgent and clever. The other is self-disciplined and wise. After a while they come to a fork in their road where they see a wise old man. They ask him which way to take. He tells them that the right fork requires obligatory observance of the law which governs both roads, but that this burden of observance brings with it a certain security and happiness; while the left fork promises a certain kind of freedom it represents also certain danger and distress. Now the choice is yours, says the old man.

On hearing this, the well-disciplined brother, by relying on God, takes the right fork saying that he accepts dependence on law and order. The other brother takes the left fork just for the sake of freedom. Seemingly, he is comfortable but in truth he feels no tranquillity inside. He reaches a desert. Suddenly he hears the terrible sound of a beast, about to attack him. He runs away and, happening to come across one, jumps down a dried well which is sixty metres deep. Half-way down, he tumbles upon some branches of a tree and grabs on to these to save himself from falling further. He also notices that the tree protruding from the wall of the well has two forks. He hangs down from the branches. Meanwhile, two mice, one white and the other black, are gnawing away at the two roots. The man looks up and sees that the beast is still there. He looks down and there is a horrible dragon almost at his feet, with its large mouth gaping to receive. Having time to do so, the man looks more closely at the wall of the well and notices that it is all covered with labouring insects. He looks again at the tree. It is actually a fig tree but it is a miracle of a tree in that it has a great variety of fruits growing on it, such as walnuts and pomegranates.

There, hanging in the well, he cannot understand that all that has happened to him is in any way special or meaningful, that the scene and the events upon it cannot be merely coincidental. That there should be, must be, some secret to it all, that behind the scene and the events there must stand an arranger and doer of all-none of this, alas, even occurs to him.

Now although this man is well aware of the danger all around him, he gets used to his state of suspense, more or less, and pretends to himself that he is in a garden, having a nice time, eating all kinds of fruits for free but which, it will turn out, are poisonous and harmful to him to consume in this way.

In some of the sacred sayings, God addresses mankind. The meaning of one of those sayings is: I will treat my servant in the way he thinks of Me. This wretched man in the well sees every event that befalls him as no more than itself, as having no further weight or significance and, for him, so it is. He does not die but he does not live well either. He persists merely in an agony of suspense.

Let us now recall the other brother. He is the wiser of the two and, because well-disciplined, not suffering anxieties. He always thinks of the good; affirms the law, and feels himself to be secure and free within it. Whenever, on his journey, he enters a garden and comes across ruined or ugly things in it, he is able to turn his mind to that which is good and beautiful. His brother cannot and does not do the same; he has concerned himself with evil and therefore cannot find ease in such a garden. The wise one lives according to the saying: Take the good not the evil. He is therefore generally happy with everything.

On his way he too reaches a desert, just as his brother did, and the same beast shows up. He too is afraid but not as much as his brother, because he is sure that the beast must be in the service of a certain master. This disciplined man also jumps down a well that happens to be there and, half-way down, catches hold of the branches of a little tree. He too notices the pair of mice gnawing at the two roots of the tree. Looking down, he sees the dragon and, up above, the beast still waiting for him. Just like his brother, he finds this suspense a strange situation to be in. But because he is wise and self-disciplined, he infers that all these strange happenings are arranged by someone, and constitute a sign. He thinks he is not alone and that he is being watched and examined by someone. He understands that he is being directed and guided in some way.

He is curious about the one who arranged all these events and asks: Who is it that desires to make me know him? Even in his curiosity he is patient and self-disciplined, and so this curiosity changes into a sort of love for Him who arranges all these events. And this love causes him a desire to open the secret sign of these events and that desire drives him to be approved by the owner of the sign.

He observes that the tree from which he is suspended is a fig tree but one that bears almost every kind of fruit. He is no longer afraid; he understands that this tree is actually a sort of catalogue of samples of the fruits the owner has. Otherwise, one tree would not bear so great a variety of fruits as this one does. He desires more earnestly and the key to the secret is inspired in him. He declares:

Oh Owner of all this scene and these events, I am your servant and I desire your approval and I desire to know you.

Following this prayer, the wall of the well changes into a door to a wonderful garden. The dragon and the beast become two servants inviting him in. The beast even changes into a horse for him to ride on.

Now, let us compare the positions of these two brothers and see how good brings with it good and evil causes evil:

The unfortunate traveller who took the left way, the way of self-trust and self-willed freedom, is about to fall into the mouth of the dragon; he is continually anxious. He suffers loneliness and considers himself a prisoner facing the attacks of wild beasts. Furthermore, he adds more to this distress, eating apparently delicious but actually poisonous fruits which are only presented as samples, not intended to be consumed for their own sake. This unfortunate one changes his day into darkness; he himself does injustice, changing his situation into a hell-like one.

In contrast, the traveller who took the right way is invited to a fruitful garden with servants all .around him. He studies every strange incident in awe, and enjoys himself. He does not eat up the fruits on the fig tree, only samples them, curious as to why they should be there at all-which is how they are intended to be used.

The other is just like a man who, by not being content with what has been served for him and intoxicating himself with alcoholic drink, denies his favoured situation in a summer garden surrounded by friends, and instead imagines himself to be among wild beasts in winter time, and complains thereof. He does himself injustice and deserves no mercy. The brother who took the right way, the way that accepts trustingly what is given and observes the law, sees and accepts the whole reality and for him it is beautiful. In doing this he respects the One who possesses reality, and that is why this brother is deserving of mercy. By this we may understand, at least in part, the meaning of the Qur’anic phrase: Know that evil is from yourself but goodness is from God.

When we reflect upon the differences between the two brothers we see that the inner-self of one prepared a kind of hell-like situation for him, corresponding to his own attitude to reality, whereas the other’s potential goodness, positive intention and good nature led him to a very favoured and happy situation.

Now, I say to my own inner-self as well as to the inner-self of anyone who has read thus far:

If you desire to be like the luckier of the two brothers, follow the guidance of the Qur’an. The details of the allegory could be explained at very great length, but the gist of it, roughly, is this:

One of the brothers is a believer who is good-hearted and the other is a blasphemous unbeliever. Of two ways the one on the right is the way of the Qur’an and faith, whereas the other is the way of unbelief and heresy. The garden on the way is human society and civilization which has in it both good and evil, cleanliness and pollution. The wise one is he who acts according to the law of this road and so travels peacefully.

The desert in the story is the earth, and the beast who turns up unawares is death. The well is life and the body of man, and sixty metres in depth because that is our average life span. The tree in the well is life itself, the two mice gnawing its roots are day and night. The dragon in the well is the opening to the hereafter and, for a believer, becomes a door to the Garden. The insects on the walls of the well are the troubles people face on this earth. However, these troubles are but little warnings for a believer, to remind him of God. And the fruits on the tree, as we have already indicated, are samples from the blessings of the hereafter.

(There is only one tree in the well but there are various fruits on it. This shows the seal of divinity whose unique virtue is to create everything out of one thing and to change everything into one thing, to make various plants and fruits from one soil only; to create all living things from one drop of water; to make a simple skin for each species from a variety of foods, to nourish and sustain all alike living things and make all parts of body from a simple food.)

To return to the allegory, the sign shows the secret will and purpose of God in creating; this sign is opened with faith and there the key is:

God, there is no god save God. God, there is no god save Him.

For one of the brothers, the mouth of the dragon changes into a door to the Garden. For the other, as for all unbelievers, the grave is the door to a place of trouble, the belly of a dragon, whereas for believers it is the door to the eternal Garden which is the blessing of God for the faithful followers of the Qur’an.

The beast changes into an obedient servant. This means that, for unbelievers, death is a painful detachment from loved ones, a kind of imprisonment after leaving (for them) the paradise-like earth. For believers on the other hand, it is just like going forward to meet friends and companions, it is like going into their eternal home. It is for them a formal invitation to pass into the eternal gardens from the prison of the earth, a kind of retirement from the burden of life.

In sum, the one who chooses the transient life as his aim puts himself into hell even though he stays in what appears to him paradise on earth. By contrast, the one who aims at the eternal life will find peace and happiness in both worlds. Despite all troubles, he still thanks God and will patiently conclude his stay on the earth which, as he properly comes to understand, is merely a waiting room opening up to heaven.

R. Nur Collection (Eight Word)