Two principal kinds of indications have been defined for ‘termination of pregnancy’. The first, called ‘medical indications’, are: 1) That continuance of the pregnancy would put the life of the pregnant woman at risk, or put her physical or mental health or that of any existing children, at greater risk than if the pregnancy were terminated; 2) There is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously disabled.

The second kind of indications, the so-called ‘social indications’, are more complex and vary between cultures and epochs. Examples are: pregnancies resulting from extra-marital relations, from rape or incest, unwanted or unplanned pregnancies, pregnancies at too young or too old an age, expecting a baby of the ‘wrong’ sex – the information being provided by recent medical technology. We may note that it is primarily ‘social reasons’ of this sort that lead parents to seek abortion. The actual termination of pregnancies has been carried out either by health professionals or by some unqualified person, sometimes even by the pregnant woman herself.

Abortion has always been discussed by doctors, philosophers, lawyers and theologians from different perspectives. Here I shall go over some of these arguments, and try to come to a conclusion about the ethics of abortion. Actually, as Dunstan observes (1978, p.7S), we shall be considering the ethics of a practice already very widespread, and likely to become more so, in all regions of the world, developed and developing. At least fifty million abortions are carried out annually world-wide, and, for example in France and Japan, half of all pregnancies end in abortion (E.B., 1982, vol.2, plO69). One and half million abortions are performed in USA each year, one-third of them on teenagers between 12 and 17 years old (Poots & Diggory, 1983, p.287). Therefore, it is rather difficult to discuss the moral acceptability of something which has already been so widely accepted. A 1991 Harris poll showed 81% of adults in England in favour of a woman’s right to choose’ to have an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy (Cole, 1992, p.2) Mason (p.113) states that: ‘The significant feature is not so much the total number of abortions but, rather, the steady escalation in numbers over the years. The figures indicate that there must be an increasing public acceptance of abortion as a natural way of life’. Dunstan (1974, p.87) commenting on this fact writes: ‘Abortion is now being more widely legalized and practised because that is what people want – an indication for medical intervention for the destruction of life unknown in our ethics before’.

Writers on the abortion issue have concentrated most on two matters: first, the ‘rights’ of the fetus and the mother, in particularly the property right of the woman on her body; second, the question of the ‘personhood’ of the prenate (i.e. the unborn child). Judith Jarvis Thomson is one of the pioneers among writers who approach the issue from the perspective of the ‘rights’ of the fetus and the mother. She has no difficulty recognizing the ‘personhood’ of the fetus. She says every person has a right to life, so the fetus has a right to life. However, she believes that the mother has a right to decide what shall happen in and to her body (Dunstan, 1974, p.203).

The ‘personhood’ or legal, moral status of the prenate is a very involved legal, philosophical question which I have addressed elsewhere (see Aksoy, 1996).

People who have defined views on the issue generally take one of three positions: 1) abortion is always wrong and must never be performed at any time for any reason; 2) abortion may be carried out at any time for any reason; and 3) abortion should only be allowed up to a certain stage of pregnancy, after which it should not be allowed except under certain special conditions.

The people in the first group are not very many. They follow the Roman Catholic teaching. which maintains:

‘We cannot be absolutely certain when animation takes place, or when the conceptus or the fetus is a human person; but it may well be precisely at the moment of conception. This being so, it would be seriously wrong to destroy the fertilized ovum even then, because one might be killing a human person’ (Mahoney, 1984, p.69). According to this strict line, abortion is impermissible even when the mother’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of an indecent event, like rape or incest.

The second position is held by those who advance the ‘personhood’ argument. Harris (1990) is one of those writers who suggest that: ‘A person is a creature capable of valuing its own existence. And non-persons or potential persons cannot be wronged in this way because death does not deprive them of anything they can value. If they cannot wish to live, they cannot have that wish frustrated by being killed.’

The third position which may be defined as ‘moderate’ maintains that abortion should not be allowed after a certain stage of pregnancy and only if particular circumstances justify it. For instance, it is a very common view that abortion should be permitted in order to save the mother’s life. Some people believe that abortion is also morally permissible when pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, and when a severe fetal abnormality has been diagnosed. There are also writers who suggest that termination of pregnancy should be permissible if the potential mother is too young.

One exceptional circumstance which justifies abortion, on this view, is the diagnosis of severe abnormalities in the fetus. The argument is that it is wrong to bring avoidable suffering into the world and we are morally obliged to terminate the life of severely handicapped fetuses. One writer has explained that it is a misconception to regard this justification as ‘on behalf of’ the fetus (Mason, p.106). In reality the suffering being avoided is being avoided on behalf of the mother and other potential carers. We need to be clear about whether the termination due to disability is being considered in the supposed interest of the unborn child – that it is ‘better’ for that child not to live at all then to live with a foreseeable handicap – or in the ‘interest’ of those who would have the care and burden of that child’s life, including its suffering and pain (Dunstan, 1974, p.84). Williams (1987, p.297) is explicit that abortion on such grounds relates to the welfare of the parents, whose life may be blighted by having to rear a grossly defective child, with perhaps in the background such secondary considerations as costs to the public purse.

For all the debate, the suggestions and counter-suggestions and alternatives, it seems likely that abortion will remain the dilemma it has been for centuries. However, we must bear in mind the fundamental fact that abortion is termination of the life of a living creature. We must approach ending the life of a prenate as cautiously and sensitively as we would ending the life of any other living creature, and we should not end the life of any living being unnecessarily and without very good reason. On the question of the ‘personhood of the prenate, we can be sure only that we will never be sure about it, unless we discover some sort of ‘Turnasol Paper’ like indicator to decide the matter. As the moral status of the prenate is not something material, we need to refer to the authority of metaphysical and transcendental knowledge, and the religions are among these sources. As I have tried to show elsewhere (Aksoy, 1966), not only all religions but also many philosophers from Aristotle onwards have declared that a human being consists of body and soul. In the religious perspective, the earthly existence of a person ends when the soul departs the body. At the other end of this ‘silent journey’ (Aksoy, 1995), the human person begins when the soul joins the body. We do not know very much about the when and how of the soul’s departure, but there are clear statements in the Qur’an about the time and the process of ensoulment. There is also some information related to this in the Talmud, and some detailed explanation in Aquinas’s works.

All the scientific (anatomical and physiological) and metaphysical (religious and spiritual) arguments tell us that, if there is a time between conception and birth at which the prenate ‘enters humanity’, ‘becomes a person’, ‘becomes morally important’ or however we call it, it is most likely to be at some time in the eighth week (Aksoy, n.d.). In sum: even at the very beginning of its existence we owe respect to the unborn, but after eight weeks time to terminate its life should be defined as morally unacceptable.

It may be asked, if the prenate ‘becomes a real person’ after eight weeks, then how do we regard embryos? Donceel (1984, p. 15) suggests that, ‘Although a prehuman embryo cannot demand from us the absolute respect which we owe to the human person, it deserves a very great consideration, because it is a living being, endowed with a human finality, on its way to homonization. Therefore it seems to me that only very serious reasons should allow us to terminate its existence.’ Apparently, it is one thing to say that an entity lacks the dignity of being a person in the strict sense of ‘person’, and another thing to say that it does not have any value. The embryo may, in this respect, be regarded as similar to a human corpse. At the moment in question neither of them are existing human persons. The embryo will be one, as the dead body once was. And we owe respect to both. If we mutilate and disgrace a human corpse it is something immoral and shameful, even though not illegal. Similarly, if we destroy or terminate the life of an embryo, it is not an attack on an individual human being but still inhumane and undignified. However, sometimes it might be necessary to undertake an undignified and inhumane action to undo the signs of another ‘more’ undignified and inhumane action, like rape.

The way Dunstan has expressed the dilemma of abortion (1974, p. 85-6) gives a most helpful direction to our moral thinking on it; ‘We should pass from the question, what harm are we doing to the fetus by destroying it, to the question, what harm are we doing to ourselves, to humanity, when we do so?”

References

• AKSOY, S. (1995) ‘The Silent Journey’, The Fountain, 2 (12), PP. 42-4.
• (1996) ‘What makes a person?’, The Fountain, 14, (n.d.) ‘When does a human individual begin to be? A philosophical, embryological and theological perspective’. (Unpublished paper)
• COLE, L. (1992) My Baby, My Body, My Choice, Lloyd Cole Books,Maidenhead.
• DONCEEL, J.F. (1984) ‘A liberal Catholic’s view’ in Joel Feinberg (ed.)
• The Problem of Abortion, Wodsworth, Belmont CA.
• DUNSTAN, G.R. (1974) The Artifice of Ethics, SCM Press Ltd, London.
• E.B. (1982) Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edn, Chicago, vol.2, p.1069.
• HARRIS, 1. (1990) ‘Wrongful birth’ in David R. Bromham, Maureen E.
• Dalton & Jennifer C. Jackson (eds) Philosophical Ethics in Reproductive Medicine, Manchester University Press.
• MAHONEY, J. (1984) Bio-ethics and Belief Sheed & Ward Ltd. London.
• MASON, J.K.. (1990) Medicolegal Aspects of Reproduction and Parenthood, Dartmounth, Hants.
• POTTS, M. & DIGGORY, P. (1983) Textbook of Contraceptive Practice, Cambridge University Press, New York.
• PRICE, D.P. (1988) ‘Selective reduction and feticide: the parameters of abortion’, Criminal Law Review, PP. 199-210.
• REISER, S.J., DYKE A.J. & CURRAN, W.J. (1977) (eds) Ethics in Medicine: Historical Perspective and Current Concerns, MIT Press, Cambridge Mass.
• WILLIAMS, G. (1987) Textbook of Criminal Law, Stevens, London.

1. To make the realm to its activity more spacious for the spirit, one should have a firm religious belief and develop spiritually through regular worship and asceticism. The more refined matter is, the more free and active the spirit. Austere practices-less food, more fasting, less sleep, refraining from all kinds of sins and regular and more frequent worship-are advised in this way. If one has innate capacity to develop one’s spiritual faculties, one can go beyond the limits of this material world, travel in the spirit in other dimensions of existence and, to some degree, get in contact with the past and future. It may be understood by means of the following analogy:

While you are in a room, you can see the things within the confines of the four walls. When you go outside, your viewing range will be broadened and include your immediate surroundings. You can see a still wider area from the top of a hill. As you ascend higher, the area you see is further enlarged. It is the same with time. The more free the spirit is from the imprisonment’ of matter and the body, the broader the realm of its activity is with respect to both time and space.

This way is usually the way of the Prophets and saints. Either through travel in spirit in time and space or through being taught by God, the Knower of the Seen and Unseen, they can penetrate into the depths of time and space just as the light of the sun, although it is a material body, can be present in numberless places at the same time, so the spirit of a Prophet or a saint, especially one belonging to the group called ‘substitutes’ (abdal), can be present in many places at the same time in the immaterial or energetic form of its body. The Qur’an points to this: the Spirit (many interpreters of the Qur’an are of the opinion that it was the Archangel Gabriel) was seen before Mary the virgin, mother of Jesus, in the form of a human being. There are many authentic narrations about some saints who were seen in different places at the same time. This is, as pointed out above, like the sun being reflected in innumerable transparent things at the same time.

The spirit of a saint which has acquired enough enlightenment or luminosity comes across symbols or signs of past or future events while it is travelling in time. The saint interprets those visions of his and gives news of certain past or future events. This is comparable to interpretation of dreams. However, the saint may sometimes err in his interpretation. However, a Prophet, since he receives revelation and is directly taught by God Almighty, the Knower of the Unseen, never errs in his interpretations and predictions. Whatever the Prophets predicted always came true. For example, the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings predicted numerous future events. Most of his predictions have already come true, while others are waiting for their time to come true. (For many of his predictions, see, Said Nursi, The Letters, vol. 1, pp. 111-130; F. Gulen, The Infinite Light, vol. 1, pp. 67-82).

Muhy al-Din ibn al-’Arabi is a Muslim saint who lived in the thirteenth century. Although he died about half a century before the foundation of the Ottoman State at the beginning of the fourteenth century, he predicted numerous important events of Ottoman history. His work Shajarat al-Nu’maniyah, manuscripts of which are available in libraries in Edirne and Istanbul in Turkey, is like a history of the Ottoman State written in symbols. For example, he predicted that his burial-place would be discovered when Salim entered Damascus, and it happened as he predicted. Again, he predicted that despite nine months of siege, Hafiz Ahmad Pasha would not be able to capture Baghdad and Murad, the Sultan, would conquer it in forty days. He also predicted that Sultan ‘Abd al-’Aziz would be dethroned and killed. All these predictions of his came true.

Similarly, Mushtaq Dada of Bitlis, who lived in the first half of the eighteenth century, predicted that, following a war, Ankara would be made the capital of Turkey by one named Kamal. It happened exactly as be predicted. His Diwan, the book containing his poems, where this prediction can be found, is available.

It is certain that these beloved servants of God, whether Prophets or saints, make predictions only by God’s leave and power. God Almighty enables and allows them to make predictions. He declares: My servant can draw near unto Me in no safer and better way than performing his obligatory religious duties. He becomes nearer to me through supereregatory prayers. Once he becomes near to Me, I become his eyes with which he sees, his ears with which he hears, and his hands with which he holds.

2. The second way to travel in spirit in time and space or to penetrate into further and deeper dimensions of time and space is to follow the guidance of the relevant Divine Name or Names. All existence depends on the manifestations of Divine Names. We see because, as the manifestation of His Name the All-Seeing, God Almighty has made us able to see; as the manifestation of His Name the Self- Subsistent and the One Causing to Subsist, we are able to continue to exist. If He were to cease the manifestation of His Name, the One Causing to Subsist, in connection with existence, the universe would go to ruin all instantly.

Similarly by following the guidance of God’s relevant Names, spirit beings, like angels and jinn can take on the form of another being by God’s leave; for example, they can assume the form of an animal or human being. Especially jinn can enter the body of an animal and govern its actions. Likewise, they can even take a human being under their influence. So, by discovering the Divine Name which gives one the ability to penetrate into farther dimensions of time and space and to follow the guidance of that Name in a particular affair, one can travel by God’s leave in time and space and see and hear certain things which others cannot.

3. Supranormal phenomena like telepathy and spiritualism are widespread in the world. Millions of people, who seek peace and happiness in a world where technology and materialistic world-view and tendencies dominate human lives, minds and spirits, attend special seances for the sake of so-called transcendental experiences.

Some people are more inclined to and have the innate capacity for supernormal phenomena. For example, a woman medium called Madame Gibson had predicted the partition of India in 1947 and the murder of John Kennedy. Likewise, Fenni Bey from Ordu, Turkey, who fought at the front of Madina during the First World War, relates:

‘We were under siege in Madina. I was unable to communicate with my family in Istanbul. One night in a dream I saw fire and smoke in my house. In the morning I sent for a private of mine, who was a medium. I told him to go into a trance and, travelling to my house-I told him where it was situated-describe to me what he saw. He did what I told him and began to describe: “1 have reached the house, I have knocked on the door and an old woman in a head-scarf has come out with a child in her arms.” I told the private to ask the woman if there was anything wrong in the house? He related to me: “She says your wife died yesterday.”

Spiritualism is one of the more widespread supranormal practices nowadays. Before further explanation, I should point out that my aim in mentioning such supranormal phenomena is to emphasize that existence is not normal phenomena is to emphasize that existence is not restricted to matter. Rather, as in the case with a book or a piece of writing whose main existence lies in its meaning, what is metaphysical or spiritual or immaterial is the essential part of existence; matter is accidental and a changing means for the manifestation of the immaterial. It is true that some great saints like Muhy al-Din ibn aI-’Arabi, are known to have communicated with the spirits of the dead and even of those who had not yet been born-the spirits of all human beings were created long before the first man came to the world and the spirit of each person is breathed into him while he is about a six-month old embryo in his mother’s womb-but those who practise spiritualism in the modern world today communicate, rather than with the souls of the dead, with the unbelieving jinn or satans who appear to them in the form of the dead person with whose soul they wish to communicate. Also, mediums who predict future events usually make contact with the jinn from whom they report what they report jinn are a kind of beings who live longer than humans, are active in broader dimensions (realms) of time and space and act much more speedily than human beings, and who can see some things which normal people cannot. However, they are unable to see the future and we should not believe their predictions even though, very rarely, these may prove true. Actually, it is a known fact that the intelligence services of the US and the Communist Russia competed with each other in making use of supranormal ways of communication like telepathy. As will be explained later, in a not too distant future, world powers will be using jinn in communication and especially in secret intelligence activities. However, it is dangerous to seek to contact and communicate with jinn or satans, because they can easily bring the people who contact them under their influence and govern their actions. And, as was pointed out above, those who practise spiritualism usually communicate with members of the unbelieving party of jinn, who appear to them in the form of the dead ones whose souls they are calling.

A friend of mine, who is a psychiatrist, relates:

‘I was invited to a practice of necromancy in a house in Samsun (a province in Northern Turkey). The youngest daughter of the family arranged cups and letters on a table. One of the friends present invited the soul of his late grandfather. After several calls, a man appeared. When we asked him insistently who he was, he answered: ‘Satan’. We were greatly astonished. A while later, I asked him why he had come although we had not called him. He wrote on the table with the cups: ‘So I come!’ I asked him whether he believed in God. He wrote ‘No!’. When I asked whether he believed in the Prophet, again, he wrote, ‘No!’. I began reading to him some passages from a book concerning the existence of God. When I read, ‘A factory with such and such features points to the engineer who planned and built it’, he wrote, ‘True’; but when I read, ‘So too the universe with all the planets and particularly the world with all plants and animals in it indicate God’, he wrote, ‘No!’. This continued for some time, and I began reciting to him from Jawshan, a collection of supplications to God. While I was reciting, the cups were moving on the table. Meantime he wrote: ‘Give up that nonsense!’ When I continued to recite, he could not endure listening and disappeared.

Like such supernormal experiences, observations of some doctors at the time of death also prove the existence of the spirit and spirit beings. What Bedri Ruhselman reports in Ruh ve Kainat (‘The Spirit and the Universe’) from a doctor is in complete agreement with the observations of a group of doctors from Holland, which were published in newspapers.

A doctor narrates: ‘My wife was ill. When she went into the pangs of death, two things resembling two clouds descended into the room and hovered above her head. Meanwhile a form appeared, which was connected to my wife on the nape of the neck with a cord and was fluttering. This continued for five hours. In the end, the cord broke off and the form, the spirit, rose away. This was the end of my wife’s life.’

Obesity is harmful to infants as well as adults. Obesity during infancy may, in later life, cause such diseases as arteriosclerosis and the other ailments which often accompany it. Arteriosclerosis in adults is a factor in high blood pressure or hypertension, and in certain diseases of the heart eyes and kidneys. Obesity can also lead to diabetes.

There is a good deal in classical Islamic sources on the subjects of over-eating and obesity. The Qur’anic verses. Eat and drink but not to excess (7.32), and Do not cast yourselves into destruction by your own hands (2.195), may be mentioned (besides their other meanings) as Divine warnings against transgressing the limits in eating and drinking and doing harm to ourselves because of carelessness. All ibn al-Husayn ibn al-Wafid said. God put all medicine into half of one verse [of the Qur’an] when He said: Eat and drink but not to excess.’ The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, also drew attention to obesity and over-eating. For example, as recorded by al-Haythami, on seeing a fat man, he said: If you did not have a paunch, it would be better for you. He also said: Overeating does not go with good health. The criterion established by Islam, and reiterated by the Prophet, is: The middle way [avoiding extremes] is the best in every affair.

Among other sayings of the Prophet which warn against the dangers of overeating and obesity are:

Avoid filling the stomach with food and drink. Overeating exhausts the body and causes illnesses. Follow a middle way in eating and drinking as this improves the body. God does not love fat bodies.

The son of Adam [i.e. man] fills no container worse than his stomach. Let him have just a few mouthfuls to strengthen the limbs.

One third of the stomach is for food, one third for drink, and one third for air.¹

The following saying uttered in relation to the spiritual harm caused by over-eating, can also be read in relation to heart diseases arising from overeating:

Do not kill your hearts by eating and drinking too much. For the heart is like a sown field: over-irrigation causes the seed to rot.²

‘Ali, the fourth Caliph, said:

Having suet is a disease. He also said: Fullness causes heart spasms.³

‘Umar, the second Caliph, said: Avoid getting a pot-belly, for it spoils the body, causes diseases, and makes doing the prayer tiring. And avoid all excess, for God hates a learned man who is fat.⁴

Harith ibn Khalada, the physician of the Arabs, was once asked: What is the best medicine? He replied: ‘Necessity- that is, hunger.’ When asked what the disease was, he said:

‘The entry of food upon food.’

lbn Sina, the renowned Muslim physician and philosopher, said: ‘Never have a meal until the one before it has been digested.’ He also advised against excessive salt and fatty meat. His list of food for dieting mostly included vegetables. The prescription is much the same today.

The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, also drew attention to obesity and over-eating. For example, as recorded by al-Haythami, on seeing a fat man, he said: If you did not have a paunch, it would be better for you. He also said: Overeating does not go with good health. The criterion established by Islam, and reiterated by the Prophet, is: The middle way [avoiding extremes] is the best in every affair.

The Prophet declared:

Avoid filling the stomach with food and drink. Overeating exhausts the body and causes illnesses. Follow a middle way in eating and drinking as this improves the body. God does not love fat bodies.
The son of Adam [i.e. man] fills no container worse than his stomach. Let him have just a few mouthfuls to strengthen the limbs.
One third of the stomach is for food, one third for drink, and one third for air.¹
The following saying uttered in relation to the spiritual harm caused by over-eating, can also be read in relation to heart diseases arising from overeating:
Do not kill your hearts by eating and drinking too much. For the heart is like a sown field: over-irrigation causes the seed to rot.

Contrary to some popular superstitions, fat babies are not healthy babies. On the contrary, over-eating is also harmful for children. Children fed on starchy foods without the necessary amount of vitamin D are susceptible to rickets (rachitism). Ibn Sina advised the same nine centuries ago: ‘Avoid giving babies too much food. Over-nutrition of babies causes their urine to be light-coloured’. The fact that a baby goes on suckling does not always mean that the baby is hungry; sometimes suckling is just a reflex action. Dark-coloured urine in babies indicates undernutrition; while a light colour is symptomatic of overnutrition.

Ibn Sina was of the opinion that over-feeding provokes eclampsia (convulsions) in babies. Anther Muslim physician, Abu Bakr al-Razi, also pointed to this link. He said that some infantile convulsions can abate after proper regular nutrition. lbn Sina and al-Razi may have been referring to the kind of eclampsia caused by rickets emerging as a result of obesity: in the syndromes named after Frohlich and Martin-Albright obesity is accompanied by eclampsia.

Ibn Khaldun, a Muslim sociologist and historian famous for his Muqaddima, also mentioned that over-eating causes many diseases. He said: ‘Know that hunger is better for health than eating too much. Even if we cannot remain hungry, eating less is good. Eating less is better for the development of body and mind.’⁵

Other Muslim physicians such as Haji Pasha and Hafiz Hasan Effendi also wrote that giving babies too much milk was harmful for their health. It is now a well-established fact that feeding babies too much milk causes obesity.

Advice on eating and drinking

There are many sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessing, on medicine. They encompass a great variety of subjects including eating and drinking and the mention of certain kinds of food particularly useful for health. In later centuries Muslim scholars collected these sayings, usually under the title of Tibb al-Nabawi. The collections of lbn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti and Abu Nu’aym are among the most famous.

Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d.1505), one of the greatest scholars of the Muslim Middle Ages, recommended eating cold foods in summer and hot ones in winter. Hot food should be preferred with cold, sweet with sour, fat with salt and acid with fat. Variety of foods excites the constitution; it is best to eat with relish and enjoyment. Having the same food several times one after the other and eating hurriedly causes loss of appetite and laziness. Eating a second meal without fully digesting the first is harmful. Al-Suyuti also wrote that one should avoid food and drink that has been left uncovered. The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessing, commanded this: Cover your containers and stop up the mouths of your water bottles.

The Prophet disapproved eating food while it is too hot. He never used to blow on his food or drink, or breathe into a container. He also forbade eating lying down.

Taking a walk after eating a meal or doing the prayer is beneficial, specially for the digestive process. The Prophet said: Digest your food with the Name of God and with doing a prayer. And do not go to sleep immediately after eating as this will make you constipated.

The hands should be washed alter as well as before eating. One whose stomach is over-stuffed with food cannot think clearly or wisely. The less a man eats, the less he drinks; and the less he drinks, the less he sleeps; and the less he sleeps, the better he will be in old age. The body of a man over-filled food will be badly nourished, his self will be in a bad state, and his heart will grow hard. Therefore one should avoid too much food as it poisons the heart and slows down the limbs of the body in fulfilling one’s responsibilities toward God. One should also avoid drinking very cold water, for it is harmful to the respiratory system, specially after a hot meal, or after sweet food, or after a hot bath.

The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessing, forbade drinking water at a single gulp. Anas ibn Malik transmitted the tradition that the Prophet used to drink with three pauses and, at each pause, remove his mouth from the container.

Healthy exercise

Moderate exercise is a most effective means of preserving good health. It warms the organs, helps dissolution of waste products, and makes the body light and active. The best time for exercise which does not over-tire the body or make it red. When sweating begins, exercise should be stopped. The type of exercise which increases sweating is not ‘moderate’ but ‘heavy’.

The body’s organs are strengthened and made more vigorous by regular exercise. The same applies to the inner faculties. One who wishes, for example, to improve his memory will improve it by memorizing. There is a specific exercise proper to every organ.

The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessing, advised a form of exercise which is good for our bodies and our hearts when he said: Travel, for you will grow healthy. He also said: Fasting brings health.

Sleep

According to al-Suyuti, the best time to go to sleep is after food has been digested. Over-sleeping is bad for the health; and sleeping face down is forbidden. Sleeping during the hour following sunrise and before sunset is bad for one: it may lead to ailments and indolence. However, a short sleep in the middle of the day is useful for the health and helps one to rise for prayer during the night.

The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessing, used to sleep on his side, facing the qibla (the Ka’ba in Makka). And it is better o go to sleep in a state of wudu.

References

1. The narrations can be found in Tanbih al-Ghafilin by Abu’I Leys al-Samarkandi, (Turkish translation), p. 799, and, lhya Ulum al-Din by Imam Ghazali (Turkish trans.) Vol. 3, p. 186.
2. al-Ghazali, ibid., 3.186.
3. Celal Yildirim, Asrin Kuran Tefsiri, Izmir, :1987, 1.478.
4. Imam Dhahabi, Sifa Demetleri, Istanbul, 21.
5. I. Haldun, Muqaddima (Turkish trans.), Ank. 1977, 1.232.

Harold stayed at a good hotel near the beach. He woke up very early on the first morning and decided to go out for a walk along the beach before breakfast. Out on the beach, he watched the beautiful sunrise out to sea. As he walked on, he noticed many starfish on the beach – they must have been carried there by the tide the previous night and had got stranded. He felt sorry for them because they could not survive long out of the water. Thinking that there was nothing he could do about the plight of the starfish, he went on with his walk.

Then, the professor saw a young man in the distance. He too was walking along the beach but, every now and then, the young man seemed to stop walking and go through a series of odd movements. Perhaps he is doing some sort of morning exercise, Harold thought. Curious, he walked towards the young man and noted that his movements consisted of bending down, straightening up and flinging his arm out toward the sea. Now, the professor was of the opinion that the young man was engaged in a ritual that entailed picking up something from the beach and throwing it into the sea. From his clothes the young man seemed to be from the rural areas, he definitely was not a city dweller.

Harold approached the young man and asked him what he was doing.

‘I am throwing starfish into the sea,’ was the simple reply. ‘As you know, they can’t survive for very long out of the sea.’

‘But there are hundreds of them all along the shore,’ said the professor. ‘And throwing them one by one doesn’t really achieve anything. Do you think it makes any difference?’

The young man bent down and picked up another starfish. He threw it into the sea, looked at the professor and said: ‘It made a difference to that starfish.’

Harold was touched and impressed. He felt rather ashamed that, for all his learning and academic achievement, he was not as conscious of responsibility to the environment – as this simple young man was.

So he too bent down, picked up a starfish and tossed it back into the sea. Every morning for the rest of his holiday, the professor joined the young man on the beach. And together they threw starfish into the sea, trying to make as much difference as they could.

Daylighting is becoming more popular in commercial buildings and manufacturing facilities in the United States. After Thomas Edison invented the electric light, most architects changed their building plans and designed for more and more artificial lighting. As a result, only a very small percentage of the light used in major buildings and facilities came directly from the sun. Recently, the Europeans have realized the importance of daylighting and begun to use a reasonable percentage of sunlight in their buildings. The Rocky Mountain Institute, Snow-mass, Colorado, has investigated the benefits of daylighting and reported that daylighting increased productivity and reduced absenteeism by 15 percent. Also, sunlight reduces the heating and cooling bill.

In 1993, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. opened a prototype store in Lawrence, Kansas, with nine special skylights designed by Andersen Corp., Bayport, Minnesota. The architectural firm of Leo A. Daly, Omaha, Nebraska, opened an office building in 1983 with l5ft high window walls and a glazed roof. About 50% of its electricity bill for lighting was saved as a result (Reno Gazette-Journal, November 27, 1995). Daylighting is an inexpensive way of lighting interiors since the sun is a ‘free’ light source which can be further exploited by installing skylights on the roof. On an overcast day, the light entering through a 2 sq. ft skylight area is equivalent to three 100-watt light bulbs.

There are two additional reasons for installing skylights. First, the cooling load of a building can be reduced by using daylight. The reason for this is that whereas about 80% of the power of an electric light is converted to heat, sunlight has a far lower heat content and therefore requires far less air-conditioning. Second, just at the time when there is the heaviest demand for electricity (and other utilities) from manufacturing facilities, namely during the summer, sunlight is at its most plentiful and available: in short, skylights can significantly reduce peak load stresses and costs.

An illumination level of 50 footcandles (540 Lux) at the work site is the design standard in industrial facilities. A large portion of this illumination level comes from electric lights of fluorescent and incandescent lamps. Almost 5% of electricity consumption in the US is used up to provide adequate illumination in commercial and industrial buildings.

In production facilities generally, there is a lack of awareness about the energy conservation potential of skylights. Some manufacturers are so unaware about the cost savings that can be achieved by daylighting that they do not have skylights in their production areas, and leave lamps on in work areas throughout daylight hours. In other places which do have them, skylights have been neglected to the extent that they are so dirty they block the incoming sunlight.

Since heating and cooling load are increased with increased skylight surface area, there is a limitation associated with this measure. Some authorities have suggested that the optimum skylight surface area should be reckoned at between 2 and 4% of roof surface area. However, since the measure depends upon local climate conditions, the range should be allowed to vary between 2 and 10%. In many potential sites, heating only (and not cooling) is the principal consideration. Generally, therefore, building designers with heating costs in mind tend to prefer 2% for cold climates and 10% for warm climates.

Heating load and costs will increase when skylights are installed. However, the increase in heating cost is considerably smaller than the saving from reduced lighting cost. The average unit cost of electricity is three times greater than that of natural gas (typically preferred for heating). In any case, heat loss from the skylights can be minimized by double glazing them. In view of the favourable financial balance and the productivity improvements to be expected from daylight working, the benefits from installing skylights generally offset any negative consequences of doing so.

The amount of savings in electric lighting consumption and costs depends on climate and operating periods. The payback period for installing skylights ranges from one to five years. They can be an expensive roof aperture, but it is relevant to note that the lifetime of a skylight is more than twenty years. The skylights need to be cleaned at least once annually, which means that service and maintenance costs are negligible. Skylights are most cost- effective in uninsulated ceilings in climates, like that of southern California, which have no heating season. In such climates, the workplace roof is typically covered with corrugated metal sheets making skylights both easy and cheap to install: corrugated fibreglass sheets can be cut and fitted in place of the metal sheets wherever the skylights are required.

References 

• MURDOCH, B. J. (1985) Illumination Engineering: From Edison’s Lamp to the Laser, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York.
• NUTFER, D. W., BRITTON A. J. and HEFFINGTON W. M. (1993) ‘Conserve Energy to Cut Operating Costs’, Chemical Engineering, September, pp.126-37.
• PIERSON, J. (1995) ‘Natural light gets warm welcome’, Reno Gazette-Journal, November 27, pp.2ff. 

Danilevsky’s view that the transference of civilizations from one country to another is impossible has received a general welcome from sociologists. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi expressed another excellent view that since Islam is the last religion which encompasses all the truths contained by the previous Divinely revealed religions, one who gives up Islam is like the butter spoilt, while one who gives up either of the other religions is like the milk spoilt, as those religions were already corrupted. As is known, the butter spoilt cannot be eaten, where as the milk spoilt can be. The youth of Muslim countries are victims of both the useless efforts to import Western civilization into their countries and the rejection of Islam on a large scale, while the youth of the West suffer from the corruption and denunciation of Christianity and from suffocating materialism.

Some of our intellectuals have preferred to weep in the face of the pitiful condition of the young. Pained to witness the collapse of a once glorious state, some sighed; 

I have become like the owl which laments over ruins,

When I have seen this once paradise-like land in it’s autumn.

If I lived in the time of roses I’d become the nightingale to celebrate it;

O Lord! I wish you had sent me to the world earlier!

However, lamenting without doing anything practical will be of no use. In order to solve the problems of the young, what must be done first is to diagnose those problems well. What is the origin of those problems? Are the young responsible for them? Why are those problems so grave today, graver than in any other period of history? Did the young come to the world as they are, or were they not, rather, brought up and educated in our homes and schools? Are the problems which we see as originating from the young really their problems or are we ourselves responsible for them?

Man comes to the world like a raw metal to be wrought, without knowing anything about life. When an animal comes to the world, it comes equipped with all it will need during its life. Some of them learn and are adapted to the conditions of life in a few minutes or hours. A sparrow or a bee acquires in so short a time as twenty days all the faculties it needs to be fully active and mature; a human by contrast needs about twenty years. This means that the main life tasks of an animal and a human are quite different. Man’s basic duty in life is to find the true way in thinking and believing and, by using his outer and inner faculties like the five external senses and the intellect, the heart and feelings, to attain physical, intellectual, spiritual and moral perfection. Unless this can be done, it is inevitable that we must face many problems in life. We should not forget that all problems originate in man and end in him.

In order to diagnose the problems of the young, we must discover the character of man and know it very well. As long as man remains unknown, the problems concerning him will remain unsolved. To know man requires being able to answer the vital questions every individual asks himself: ‘Who am I? Where do I come from? Who has sent me to this world and why? What is the purpose for my life? What does death ask of me? What is my final destination in life? Unless man can find convincing answers to such questions, answers which will make him at peace man can neither find true happiness nor will it be possible to solve his problems.

The first school where man receives the necessary education in order to be perfected and find the answers to the questions above is the home. Both for the raising of a healthy generation and the continuation of a healthy social system or structure, the home is of vital importance. However important a good school is for the education of man, the responsibility of home cannot be restricted to the period before school, rather, it continues throughout a whole life. A man receives the first impressions in his family. Those impressions cannot be easily deleted in later phases of life, rather, they are of a kind to show their effect throughout life. Further, the control of the family over the child exerted in the garden, among other children and toys, is to be continued at school among friends, among books and in the places he visits. The function of the parents in bringing up their children is like the duty of a shepherd to his flock: as a shepherd may be regarded as having done his duty so long as he finds good pastures for his flock, prevents them from grazing in fields belonging to others and protects them against dangers, so also the parents must keep their children within lawful courses, shape them in good manners and virtues prepare them for the future phases of their lives and educate them to be useful members of the society: and enable them to seek eternal happiness in the eternal world.

For a man to receive a good education at home, a healthy family life should be established and preserved. For this reason, marriage should not be seen as something to enter into for mere pleasure. One should marry to form a healthy family life and thereby contribute to the permanence of one’s nation in particular and the human population in general, and to restrain one’s carnal desires. Since the first condition of peace, happiness and security at home is mutual accord between the spouses, the accord in thinking, morals and belief, the couples who have decided to marry should know each other very well and consider, rather than wealth and physical charm, the purity of feelings, chastity, morality, and being virtuous. The condition of the children who grow up in a house where the parents repel each other like the particles charged with the same sort of electricity, is truly heart-rending. Discord between the parents causes the children to grow up unable to get on well with others.

There are many families founded on sound logic and reasoning in reliance upon God. They function like a good school during a whole life and secure the future of their nation by means of the ‘students’ they educate. For this reason, the nations which have succeeded in making homes into schools and schools into homes have guaranteed the peace and happiness of future generations. A building deserves to be called a ‘home’ only if its inhabitants have the necessary human values. 

Man comes to the world like a raw metal to be wrought, without knowing anything about life. When an animal comes to the world, it comes equipped with all it will need during its life. Some of them learn and are adapted to the conditions of life in a few minutes or hours. A sparrow or a bee acquires in so short a time as twenty days all the faculties it needs to be fully active and mature; a human by contrast needs about twenty years. This means that the main life tasks of an animal and a human are quite different. Man’s basic duty in life is to find the true way in thinking and believing and, by using his outer and inner faculties like the five external senses and the intellect, the heart and feelings, to attain physical, intellectual, spiritual and moral perfection.In the family, the elders should behave toward those younger than them with compassion and the younger ones should show respect for their elders. Especially the parents should love and respect each other and treat their children with compassion and due consideration of their feelings. Without compassion, which envelops the universe warmly and resonates in man as a melody of creation, it is impossible to raise the children to true humanity. The parents should also treat their children justly and should not discriminate between them. They should not bring up their children jealous of one another. They should never shake their children’s trust and confidence in them.

The parents should not neglect to give their children good, meaningful names, say greetings to them when they come in and go out of the house, assign to their children certain things like particular rooms, beds and so on, follow their games and work with sincerity, frequently ask about their health and problems, share their joys and sorrows, and sometimes embrace and kiss them. Although they should make their children feel that they are aware of the wrong they do and sometimes punish them lightly, the children should also feel that the breeze of forgiveness and tolerance blows in their home.

School

After home, the school is so vital a part of the making of human beings that it may be considered as a laboratory in which an elixir is offered which can prevent or heal the ills of life, and teachers are the masters by whose skills and wisdom the elixir is prepared and administered.

The school is a place of learning where everything related to this life and the next can be learnt. It can shed light on vital ideas and events and enable its students to understand their natural and human environment. It can also quickly open the way to unveiling the meaning of things and events, which leads man to wholeness of thought and contemplation. In essence the school is a kind of place of worship whose ‘holy men’ are teachers.

Good schools worthy of the name are pavilions of angels, which develop feelings of virtue in their pupils and lead them to achieve nobility of mind and spirit. As to the others, however soundly built they may appear they are in fact ruins – they instil false ideas into their pupils turning out monsters. Such schools are nests of snakes, and we should be consumed with shame that they are called places of learning.

As it is in the school that life, flowing outside in so many different directions, acquires a stable character and identity so too it is in the school that a child is cast in his or her true mould and attains to the mysteries of personality. Just as a wide, full river gains force as it flows in a narrow channel, so too, the flowing of life in undirected ways is channelled into unity by means of the school. In like manner, a fruit is a manifestation of unity growing out of the fruit-tree’s diversity.

School is thought to be relevant only in a particular phase of life. However, it is much more than that. It is essentially the ‘theatre’ in which all the scattered things of the universe are displayed together. It provides its pupils with the possibilities of continuous reading and speaks even when it is silent. Because of that, although it seems to occupy one phase of life, actually the school dominates all times and events. Every pupil re-enacts during the rest of life what he or she has learnt at school and derives continuous influence therefrom. What is learned or acquired at school may either be imagination and aspirations, or specific skills and realities. But what is of importance here is that everything acquired must, in some mysterious way be the key to closed doors, and a guidance to the ways to virtue.

Information rightly acquired at school and fully internalized by the self, is a means by which the individual rises beyond the clouds of this gross world of matter and reaches to the borders of eternity. Information not fully internalized by the self is no more than a burden loaded upon the pupil’s back. It is a burden of responsibility on its owner, and a devil which confuses the mind. That kind of information which has been memorized but not fully digested does not provide light to the mind and elevation to the spirit, but remains simply a nuisance to the self.

The best sort of knowledge to be acquired in the school must be such that it enables pupils to connect happenings in the outer world to their inner experience. The teacher must be a guide who can give insight into what is experienced. No doubt the best guide (and one that continually repeats its lessons) is life itself. Nevertheless, those who do not know how to take a lesson directly from life need some intermediaries. These intermediaries are the teachers- it is they who provide the link between life and the self, and interpret the manifestations of life’s happenings.

The mass media can communicate information to human beings, but they can never teach real life. Teachers are irreplaceable in this respect. It is the teachers alone who find a way to the heart of the pupil and leave indelible imprints upon his or her mind. Teachers who reflect deeply upon, and impart the truths will be able to provide good examples for their pupils and teach them the aims of the sciences. They will test the information they are going to pass on to their pupils through the refinement of their own minds, not by such Western methods as are today thought to provide facile answers to everything.

The students of the Prophet Jesus, upon him be peace, learnt from him how to risk their lives for the sake of their cause and were able to endure being thrown into the mouths of lions: they knew that their master had persisted with his teachings even in the face of death threats. Those who put their hopes on, and gave their hearts to, the Prophet Muhammad, the greatest exemplar of humanity, upon him be peace and blessings, realized that suffering for the sake of truth resulted in peace and salvation. His students observed their master wish peace and felicity for his enemies even when he had been severely injured by them.

A good lesson is what is taught at the school by the real teacher. This lesson not only provides the pupil with something, but it also elevates him or her into the presence of the unknown. The pupil thus acquires a penetrating vision into the reality of things and sees each event as a sign of the unseen worlds.

At such a school one is tired of neither learning nor teaching, because the pupils, through the increasing zeal of their teacher, sometimes rise to the stars. Sometimes their consciousness overflows the boundaries of ordinary life, brimming with wonder at what they have thought or felt or experienced.

The real teacher seizes the landmarks of events and happenings and tries to identify the truth in everything, expounding it by using every possibility.

Rousseau’s teacher was conscience; Kant’s was conscience together with reason… In the school of the Mawlana and Yunus, the teacher was the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings. The Qur’an is the recitation, its words are Divine lessons – they are not ordinary words but mysterious ones surpassing all others, and they manifest the highest unity in multiplicity.

The good school is the holy place where the light of the Qur’an will be focused, and the teacher is the magic master of this mysterious laboratory. The only true master is one who will save us from centuries-old pains, and, by the strength of his wisdom, remove the darkness covering our horizon.

Therefore, the products existing in nature should be far more sophisticated than ours. Investigating any species of plant or animal whether it be a microscopic or a giant creature, we reach the following conclusions: They have been specially designed to adopt their environment. They own the precise and perfect skills, organs and defence mechanisms, needed for their survival. They are so perfect that none of our engineering skills are enough to produce anything even approaching the quality of these organisms. We need also to mention that products in nature are alive, a concept which has not yet been precisely understood or described despite all our advances in technology and science. Examples supporting the above argument are innumerable, covering all branches of science. I will present only a few for illustration purposes. Fish flow in a medium of liquid. They are exposed to two components of pressure while swimming, the static pressure and the dynamic pressure. The static pressure is directly related to the weight of the water above them and does not vary while swimming at constant depths. However, this is not the case with dynamic pressure. It increases or decreases depending on the velocity of the liquid flow around the body. Researchers have found that the eyes of fish are precisely located on the body so that the dynamic pressure is always zero. This means that vision is not distorted while the fish are swimming at varying speeds. The heart of the fish is located at a point where the dynamic pressure is most negative. This enables the functioning of the heart to be much easier at high swimming speeds. The mouth is placed at the very front of the body where the total pressure is highest. This high pressure makes it easier to take water for oxygen during fast swimming. Consider another example, the octopus, which is one of the more primary creatures in the so-called evolution process.

For thousands of centuries, the octopus has been using the conservation of momentum principle. The octopus takes in water and propels it through a narrow pipe in a direction opposite to its line of movement. This jet propulsion principle has been effectively used in man-made motors only in this century. It should be evident then that these sophisticated designs and techniques cannot be generated by those animals themselves, still less randomly produced by the trial and error of blind (unguided) natural forces. The physical laws and the perfectly adapted designs must originate from the same source, the Supreme ‘Engineer’. This explanation is the most rational and logical. Other explanations, which attempt to attribute design and engineering skills to plants and animals or to blind and deaf nature, make no sense at all. Another example is the development of the embryo. From the manufacturing point of view, this development can only be explained by the term miracle. In engineering practice, the size of each part in a product is predetermined and manufactured separately. Those parts are then assembled together to form the final product. Let us call this type of manufacturing static manufacturing, since the sizes of the parts remain the same during assembling. In the case of an embryo, the sizes of organs are changing with time while a continuous assembling takes place under those conditions. New organs are created inside, without any interference from outside, developing in size over time, yet holding the assembly in a perfect condition at each interval of time. This process is an example of dynamic manufacturing which is, to put it bluntly, quite impossible for us to achieve. In usual manufacturing, the size of a part is smaller than the raw bulk of material from which it is produced, and some of the material is wasted. In some cases, moulds are used to achieve the desired shapes. In the creation of an embryo, however, there are no moulds at all, no spare parts thrown away, no wastage.

These manufacturing techniques are by far beyond the limits of humanity. Note that we have not yet mentioned the events that take place at the micro level inside the cells. Even a general glance at the global events shows us how extraordinary the development of an embryo is. A final example will be given from the mechanics of materials. For birds to be able to fly, they must balance minimum weight with maximum strength. Their bones can be considered as hollow pipes. Calculations reveal that the ratio of the inner radius of the bones to the outer radius is selected in the optimum way precisely so that, with minimum weight, maximum strength is achieved. We have not mentioned the macro creation process (cosmos, galaxies, solar systems etc.) since these topics are more related to pure sciences such as physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology etc. An understanding of creation, even then not comprehensive, requires knowledge of these pure sciences together with knowledge of engineering and design. The Creator of the earth and cosmos describes Himself as ‘the Best of Creators’ (Mu’minun, 23.14). The reader may consider what we have said here as a tiny effort towards understanding this verse. 

Among all living beings, it is also man who needs the longest period of care and upbringing. Although most modern legal systems have set the age of discretion at 18 years, it may be said that, with rare exceptions, a person does not reach the age of discretion much before 30 years. Almost everyone, even a genius, needs to consult with others before taking important decisions. Besides, everyone is susceptible to making errors and therefore in need of correction. This is because man is a fallible social being compelled to live together with his fellow-men and co-operate with them. The first school where he receives education and learns social manners is his family.

Especially in infancy, man is in dire need of love and affection. For man to grow into a resolute, well-educated, well-mannered and loving, useful member of society, and a strong, sound, healthy individual, the warmth of a family environment is of the greatest importance. In this environment, the mother has a special place. It is the mother who nourishes the infant with her milk. Probably more than her milk, the love, care and affection of the mother for the baby have great significance for the development of sound human personality and character. 

A baby has the deepest need for its mothers direct care and close attention especially in the symbiotic penod. Even in the most professionally-run nurseries the baby cannot find a substitute for the affection, love and interest its mother can show it. Whereas the baby is embraced by a halo of care and love in the family and attracts the direct attention of its mother, in nurseries it has to share the care of a stranger, however professional or efficient a carer he or she may be, with at least ten or fifteen other infants. Whereas it is embraced, caressed, kissed and played with many times in the family, and is in the lap of love, in a public nursery it is abruptly deprived of almost all of these things in an alien environment.

The first twelve months of the relationship between mother and baby is called the symbiotic period during which the baby feels a deep attachment to its mother. Indeed, in the first six months or so, the baby cannot distinguish its mother as a being separate from itself. It begins to do so only after this period. During this first year of life, the love of the mother forms the foundation of the baby’s spiritual personality and develops in it the feeling of self-confidence. The mother’s love is also an important factor in the development of the baby’s intelligence and in enabling the baby to grow as a social being. Long or short term separation of the mother from the baby gives rise to depressive anxiety.

Dr R. Spitz, a modern psychiatrist, defined two syndromes in children who have grown up without sufficient maternal love. One of these syndromes, called anaclitic depression, arises from short-term separation of the baby from its mother after the first six months. This usually occurs when the baby is placed in a public nursery. The baby thus separated from its mother reacts initially with long, loud cries. If one approaches it when it stops crying, it begins to cry again. After this initial reaction it stops crying and an expression of exhaustion and sulkiness appears on its face. Dr. Spitz called this the period of protest: the baby begins to eat less and lose weight and its physical development ceases. Vomiting and diarrhae may accompany these symptoms.

The period of protest, usually two or three weeks, is followed by a period of depression when the baby is sulky and mournful. After two months, these emotional reactions become less frequent. The baby now becomes uninterested in its environment and in those who approach it. In short, it introverts.

The meaning of these phases of response is easily understood. The baby first of all reacts against separation from its mother with long, loud cries to call her back. After that, it grieves. Then, when it is no longer hopeful of reunion with its mother, it suffers depression and becomes introverted.

If the separation does not exceed three months, the baby can recover and restore to its former state. But if the separation continues beyond three months, the baby does not recover fully and develops a long-term separation depression.

This kind of depression arises in infants separated in very early life and brought up in public nurseries or hospitals for long periods. It is characterized by insufficient bodily, spiritual and intellectual development and growing up as a dissociable being.

A baby has the deepest need for its mother’s direct care and close attention especially in the symbiotic period. Even in the most professionally-run nurseries the baby cannot find a substitute for the affection, love and interest its mother can show it. Whereas the baby is embraced by a halo of care and love in the family and attracts the direct attention of its mother, in nurseries it has to share the care of a stranger, however professional or efficient a carer he or she may be, with at least ten or fifteen other infants. Whereas it is embraced, caressed, kissed and played with many times in the family, and is in the lap of love, in a public nursery it is abruptly deprived of almost all of these things in an alien environment.

Children separated from their families in the early years of their lives and left in public nurseries suffer difficulties in adapting to new environments and circumstances in later life, and give late responses to different stimulants. They develop tics and other involuntary movements such as swinging their legs while sitting, leaning against something, hitting the head against a wall, pulling their hair, playing with their ear- lobes, and shaking the head. Such behaviour in an infant left without its mother is in part an attempt to compensate for the loneliness and deprivation it feels. In addition, some sort of mental retardation may be observed in them. Studies have shown that, even in properly and sufficiently nourished children, rates of susceptibility to illness and death are higher. Compared to their equals in age, they are usually less in height and weight. Although thirsty for love, they respond with indifference or suspicion when they are shown love and nearness.

Some of the children deprived in this way grow up destitute of self-confidence; some become timid, reserved and passive, others become aggressive. They display signs of ill-breeding such as petty theft and truancy. Some of them are disposed to criminal behaviour and violence. They may also commit suicide or attempt it. Studies done on criminals and the mentally ill have shown that most of them spent their childhood separated from their families, deprived of love.

Character weakness and personality defects which arise as a result of long-term separation from the mother are, unfortunately, long-lasting. The younger a baby is when placed in a nursery and the longer it remains there, the more undesirable the effects are.

In sum: the love and care a mother shows her baby is so important for the growth, education and character of the child, that nothing can compensate for the lack of it. The symptoms observed in children growing up separated from their families also appear in adopted children. These children cannot adapt easily to the new family and can never have the same feeling towards their adoptive mothers as they have towards their own mothers. The state of children in divorced families or ‘broken homes’ is more pathetic still.

It descended upon thee from out of the regions above,

That exalted, ineffable, glorious, heavenly Dove.

‘Twas concealed from the eyes of all those who its nature would ken,

Yet it wears not a veil, and is ever apparent to men.

Unwilling it sought thee and joined thee, and yet, though it grieve,

It is like to be still more unwilling thy body to leave.

It resisted and struggled, and would not be tamed in haste,

Yet it joined thee, and slowly grew used to this desolate waste,

Till, forgotten at length, as I ween, were haunts and its troth

In the heavenly gardens and groves, which to leave it was loath.

Until, when it entered the D of its downward Descent,

And to earth, to the C of its centre, unwillingly went,

The eye (I) of infirmity smote it, and lo, it was hurled

Midst the sign-posts and ruined abodes of this desolate world.

It weeps, when it thinks of home and the peace it possessed,

With tears welling forth from its eyes without pausing or rest,

And with plaintive mourning it broodeth like one bereft

O’er such trace of home as the fourfold winds have left.

Thick nets detain it, and strong is the cage whereby

It is held from seeking the lofty and spacious sky.

Until, when the hour of its homeward flight draws near,

And ‘tis time for it to return to its ampler sphere,

It carols with joy, for the veil is raised, and it spies

Such things as cannot be witnessed by waking eyes.

On a lofty height doth it warble its songs of praise

(For even the lowliest being doth knowledge raise).

And so it returneth, aware of all hidden things

In the universe, while no stain to its garment clings.

Now why from its perch on high was it cast like this

To the lowest Nadir’s gloomy and drear abyss?

Was it God who cast it forth for some purpose wise,

Concealed from the keenest seeker’s inquiring eyes?

Then is its descent a discipline wise but stern,

That the things that it hath not heard it thus may learn.

So ‘tis she whom Fate doth plunder, while her star

Setteth at length in a place from its rising far,

Like a gleam of lightning which over the meadows shone,

And, as though it ne’er had been, in a moment is gone.

(Translated by E. G. Browne, A Literary History of Persia (London 1906), vol. 2, pp. 110- 11.)

The Creator’s being One means or requires His being absolutely independent. God made man as the exhibition of the manifestation of all His Names and attributes, and His being independent is manifested on man as the desire of freedom. Therefore, in the worldly life, which the Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, described as a few minutes’ halt in the shade of a tree during a long journey, and Ibn Sina likened to a flash of lightning on the grass, man’s primary concern is freedom.

We have witnessed that many atheist communists-who regard life as only this worldly and ascribe all human motivation to economic factors-have sacrificed their lives for the sake of an illusory communist society. It has always seemed to me unreasonable that one who does not accept meta-economic values and does not believe in an eternal life, sacrifices his life which must be his only aim, for the ‘economic relations’ which are the means of living that life. So, there must be some other motives behind such a person’s sacrificing his life. Man can manage without ‘bread’, but he cannot manage without freedom, nor can he easily give up his inborn nobility as a human being. Since he is noble in creation, he pursues guidance, but sometimes the ‘stone’ of misguidance falls on his head. In consequence of his ego, man can become trapped in a vicious circle, his inborn dignity and freedom, his nobler aspirations to justice and equality, being exploited by certain centres of power or leaders of communist movements.

The ontological nature of man

The universe, an integral, composite entity all of whose parts are interrelated, interlinked with one another, may be likened to a tree. Particularly in oriental traditions, it has been so likened and some Muslim sages have even written books on it under the title of ‘the Tree of Creation’.

As everybody knows, a tree is grown from its seed or stone. The whole future life of the free, the program of its life, is pre-recorded, compacted in the seed. The laws, such as the law of germination and the law of growth, which the Creator has established for the seed to germinate in propitious land and climate and grow into a free, have the same meaning for the tree as his spirit has for a man. With the sowing of the seed in earth, the life of the tree proceeds through certain stages to yield its fruit and, having begun in a seed, ultimately ends in another seed which is almost identical with the original one and includes the whole past life of that tree. 

Sometimes he has felt himself to be like a stone cast down aimlessly on the desert of the world, seen the world as devoid of intellect, the heavens devoid of feelings, and the whole of existence as meaningless, and regarded suicide as having the same meaning as sacrifice. Consider this: In order for a book to come into being, it must first exist in meaning in the mind of its author. If that author does not put that meaning in his mind into words on a page, it does not mean that the book does not really exist. By putting the meaning in his mind into words on a page, the author ‘materializes’ that meaning so that it takes a form visible to others. What we intend to conclude from this is that the origin, the real existence, of something is not its material, visible form. Rather, it is the meaning, which is invisible and whose existence is not material and does not need matter to subsist which constitutes the essence of existence or creation. Thus, the real existence of the universe, which we have preferred to call the tree of creation, is in its primordial form in the Knowledge of Cod as a meaning. It is by the action of the Divine Power on the premordial forms of things in the Knowledge of God, in accordance with the measures of the Divine Destiny, that things come into existence in different worlds, one surrounding the other like concentric circles. Like things reflected in different forms and dimensions in different mirrors facing each other, all things or beings have different forms of existence in those worlds according to the particular conditions of each. Muslim sages call some of those worlds the high empyrean world, where God Almighty manifests His Names almost without veil and therefore things exist in almost pure forms, the world of unconditioned existence, the world of symbols or ideas, the visible, material world, the intermediate world between this and the next, and the other or eternal world. In the material world, things or beings exist in a hierarchy formed by elements, plants, animals, certain unseen creatures like jinn, and human beings.

Any work points to the one who does it. A book shows its writer. Similarly, all creatures which come into existence by the manifestations of the Divine Names-they exist because there is One Who eternally exists and makes them exist; they have relative powers of seeing and hearing because there is One Who absolutely sees and hears and makes them see and hear; they have relative powers of acting and speaking because there is One Who never rests, nor sleeps, nor dozes, and Who has the absolute power of speech; they may have certain knowledge because there is One Who is the All-Knowing and enables them to learn; they have relative power to do some things because there is One Who is the All-Powerful and gives them power- function as signs to demonstrate the Almighty Creator or signposts to lead to Him and make Him known. So, this naturally requires that there should be one equipped with certain faculties like intellect, consciousness and heart, who will recognize God and serve as a most comprehensive mirror to reflect Him. There are other creatures like angels who have a certain knowledge of God, but since they are devoid of free will, they cannot be such comprehensive mirrors as to reflect God with all His Names and attributes. Also, they are not so perfect as to be able to acquire perfect knowledge of things and use them as steps to reach God. For this reason, the Divine wisdom in the creation of the universe required that a being that would manifest all of the Divine Names and attributes, primarily including Knowledge and Will, should appear in the realm of existence as the furthest and most perfect fruit of the tree of creation. This being is man.

The existential reality is almost the same and identical in the whole of the universe as macro-cosmos, in man as normo-cosmos and in an atom as micro- cosmos. Whatever God has included in the universe, He has compacted it in man’s nature. So, being a specimen of creation, as Muslim sages tend to describe him, man, with his pure spiritual aspect, corresponds to angels, with his memory and power of conception, to the Supreme Guarded Tablet where all things and events are pre-recorded and preserved both before and after they appear in the universe, with his bodily composition, to the main elements in nature, with his evil-commanding self, to devils, and with his power, lusts and certain negative feelings and qualities requiring to be disciplined (like vindictiveness, cunning, deception, greed, rapaciousness, etc.) to certain animals each of which is distinguished with one of these qualities.

Thus, man mainly has two aspects: one angelic, pure and spiritual; the other, turned to elements, plants and animals, as he is the ‘child of the world’. He has been equipped with lusts to maintain his worldly life-lusts for the opposite sex, offspring, money, earning, and the comforts of life; with wrath or the power of anger to protect himself and his values; and with intellect. Besides, he is, by nature, fallible, forgetful, neglectful, fond of disputing, obstinate, selfish, and jealous, etc. Since man is distinguished from other conscious beings like angels by his being endowed with free will, these powers, faculties and negative-seeming feelings of his have not been restricted in creation. However, in order to attain happiness as a social being, both in his individual and social life, in the world and in the Hereafter, and climb the steps of elevation to higher and higher ranks of humanity, he should either restrict them according to certain precepts or channel them into virtues. For example, obstinacy can be channelled into steadfastness in right and truth, and jealousy into a feeling of competition in doing good things. Humanity lies in man’s struggling against the negative aspects of his nature and restricting them or channelling them into virtues, and in his acquiring distinction with his good qualities, thus becoming a useful member of society. The Last Prophet of God, upon him be peace and blessings, said: 1 have been sent to perfect the standards and beauties of good morals.

Man in the course of falling

Many writers and thinkers in the West assert that Christianity (of course, in its corrupted form, not its original form as preached by the Prophet Jesus, upon him be peace) stood against natural knowledge and learning. By condemning man’s desire to learn as a veil separating him from knowledge and love of God, by assigning the ‘heavenly’ value and quality of the earth to churches and monasteries, by denying man free will before God’s absolute Will, and by the doctrines of original sin and atonement, it caused man to stand aloof from learning, separated him from nature, prevented him from acquiring authentic belief based on investigation, and regarded him as fallen and sinful by birth. Additionally, after its acceptance as the formal religion of the Roman Empire by Constantine and finally being almost identical with the Roman type of government after the agreement of the Pope and Emperor Charlemagne the Great, Christianity came to be seen as a religion approving injustices for the sake of the continuance of a worldly, unjust power disguised as a sacred, theocratic one.

The Renaissance movements in the West developed against the world-view of Christianity and its views of man, life, things and art. Likewise, the Reformation movements aimed to reform the Catholic Church. While Catholicism regarded man as a desperate, wretched one sinful by birth, Protestanism did not grant to him any will-power to reform himself. Rather, it held that man is sinful by birth and, whatever he does, he cannot be saved through his actions. Instead, whoever God pre-ordained to be saved, only he can be saved, and what demonstrates that one was pre-ordained to be saved is that he works unceasingly. Thus, man was confined within the vicious circle of working, earning and consuming or working to consume and consuming to work.

It may be said that in the West following the Renaissance Huxley’s Brave New World has been steadily becoming more and more of a reality and less a satirical fantasy. In this world human beings are produced, classified and conditioned in tubes according to the functions they will serve in society as Alfa, Beta, Gama, Delta and Epsilon types. The old world where traditional values and feelings such as fatherhood, motherhood, kinship, love, sacrifice, altruism and chastity were still prevalent has been replaced by this new one. Having freed man from religion, morality thought, art, production sufficient for a moderate life, and sharing and mutual helping, the new world has reduced the individual and community to the functions of consumption, entertainment and stability. But the proper dignity of man is to carry the trust laid upon him which comprises the human ego and the risks and promises of freedom-a burden so heavy that man’s reason, free will and power are scarcely able to bear it.

As Alexis Carrel puts it, in the modern world as established by engineers under the guidance of scientists, man lives in metropolises where he has set up factories, opened offices, founded schools and invented various kinds of devices for amusement. The house where he lives and the office where he works are no longer dark and dingy. The devices of heating and lighting keep the temperature at the desired level and all kinds of measures have been taken against changes in weather. He is no longer oppressed by either freezing storms or suffocating heat. He no longer has the trouble of using his feet while going to work or returning home. Distances have diminished and, due to the gigantic advances in transportation and communication, the world has become like a big village. Wide highways, comfortable houses, air- conditioning devices, washing machines, fridges, electrical and electronic appliances of all kinds, modern baths, luxurious cars, computers and tele-communicative devices incite modern man to sing songs of victory-the victory won against the traditional values and nature!

Man has done all this and he can achieve many other things. But he has not been able to solve the mysteries of his ego, to know the meaning of being human, and he has not been able to perceive that he is a part of the natural environment to which he is related with unbreakable ties. As Mefisto says in Goethe’s Faust, when he attempts to recognize any living being, what he does first is to drive away its spirit. In order to meet ever-increasing needs, natural sciences-which Muhammad Iqbal described as a flock of vultures, crowding round the flesh of nature and after each picking a part of it, flying off- have developed greatly but man has not fully grasped that he is as unable as ever to make even a blade of grass, a gnat’s wing, a single living cell. Sometimes he has felt himself to be like a stone cast down aimlessly on the desert of the world, seen the world as devoid of intellect, the heavens devoid of feelings, and the whole of existence as meaningless, and regarded suicide as having the same meaning as sacrifice. He has supposed that he would be able to overcome the threats and worries of life by co-existing with his fellow-men and co-operating with them but his selfishness and materialism have not allowed him to do so with sincerity. He has submitted his ego, which he has deified before God in rejection of Him, to worldly enjoyments, his freedom to his endless desires and the manipulations of a cheating minority who try to continue their dominion by ‘finger-counting’-that is, attempting to find the truth in quantity and therefore the dominion of quantity over the truth and quality-a dominion which they have established over the majority by making use of certain possibilities such as coming to the world earlier, cunning, deception and the power of wealth. He has also submitted his honour and dignity to consumption, luxuries and cynicism. This is natural for a being who has broken with God and his primordial nature. Such people are described in the Qur’an as more astray than domestic animals, that is, they are more unable than domestic animals to find the true path they should follow and therefore need to be guided. It is not a coincidence that man is described in the West as an animal: a responsible animal, a symbolizing animal, a rebellious animal, a social animal, a hypocritical animal, an imagining animal, and so on.

In the delusion of thinking to discover himself by rejecting servanthood to God (as Erich Fromm explains), to be himself and attain his true freedom, man has not been able to escape the realities and requirements of his inborn disposition and be freed from the need and emotions of worship. As Erich Fromm also points out, modern man has numerous fetishes, he has more deities or idols than the primitive man. Causality, ‘nature’, means to attain something, desires, ambitions, power-seeking and lusts are modern man’s deities. Fetishism, totemism, ritualism, self-dedication to a party or state and idolizing certain men are some aspects of his modern religion. The Prophets of revealed religions have been replaced in his religion by politicians, ‘stars’ of football and music, stage and cinema, and those who ‘set’ fashions. Although modern man supposes that he himself determines his way (of life and thinking), he is little more than a robot programmed by the mass-media and an oppressing minority which own them. Banks, cinemas, universities, night clubs, stadiums and factories are the temples of modern man’s religion.

There are walls between men today; man is the wolf of man. The relations between men are no longer human, they are of the kind that each sees the other as a tool to use or an enemy to remove from the earth or a rival to defeat. Market laws direct the relations between men. In the capitalist’s view, man is only a machine, a means of production, an object to exploit. Modern man sells himself like selling merchandise. The manual worker sells his labour, the businessman, the doctor, the official, their skills. The answers given to the questions ‘What is your occupation?’, ‘How much do you earn?’, determine one’s social standing and value. One’s respect for oneself consists in what others think of one. Not being liked by anyone at all means being non-existent.

The traditional man who lived together with his family, brothers and near relatives, has been replaced by modern man who, as Erich Fromm states, in order to overcome his weakness and helplessness, seeks refuge in trade unions or the power of monopolist capital or the shade of weapons or other such things. Multinational companies continually gnaw away at humanity just so as to earn more and more, and man lost in supermarkets is seen in the crowds of metropolises as less than even the simplest things, reduced to nothingness among skyscrapers. The sounds coming from TV, radio, cassette player, do not allow him to speak, and advertisements addressing his desires and passions both stimulate consumption and determine his taste and choice.

Neither contemporary arts, nor modern socio-political systems, nor philosophies such as existentialism and structuralism, nor class consciousness, nor superior-race theories, nor new-world-order theses and fantasies, nor man’s tendency toward destruction, can satisfy modern man who plays the role of a Faust who studied not theology but modern sciences. In such an atmosphere as this, neither Satan-worshipping dealt with in best-sellers, nor false beliefs and practices such as necromancy, ‘transcendental’ meditation and reincarnation, sorcery and fortunetelling and so-called mystical movements, nor false occult sciences with which innumerable Europeans and Americans are preoccupied, can replace the true religion and give to modern man who, by losing his true human identity freedom and personality, has fallen to the lowest of the low, the possibility of ascending to the heaven of true humanity. 

Imaginations as sweet as the joy felt at religious festivals!

And yet the first step taken into the world is also the first step

those who have come to the world take toward the Last Abode.

At the same time as a bitter wind blows in the neighbouring house,

the fragrance of spring is felt in the maternity hospital.

It is inevitable for one who has come to this world

to travel on to the eternal world, to the grief of those around him.

The mind fails into a void as wide and deep as skies,

Lightning strikes feelings deep in his heart, and man

finds himself dragged toward a place unknown.

He shivers with what he hears and is driven to frenzy.

As he advances in pains left from his life

far away from the shores where he once lived,

as he blindly limps through the pits in his soul,

he finds himself dragged into a dark Inlet.

Finally that deep sleep comes to an end,

And it is seen that life is but an illusion.

Dreams end. Day begins to dawn in the real world.

One shivers as if the Last Trumpet’s been blown.

He moves on, looking first ahead and then back;

his old world destroyed, the new as yet unknown.

Death lifts up, one after the other, the veils

before the other world rising as silently as the full moon.

The spirit is surprised, man is startled in fear.

Throngs of men are dragged with no obstacles before them.

You think them like leaves scattered around,

Like leaves blowing in a strong, powerful wind.

They hasten forward with eyes fixed on a point,

where time is no more, no sounds of clocks heard.

There is no returning back, even if they want to.

A different ground, different skies, and signs of the final truth.