Programs and documents on the computer are held in two areas: software and hardware. For scientists, one of many goals is to make the processors or chips, which are like the human brain that consists of nerves, much smaller, but still powerful enough to process many more calculations. There are many differences between the current chips and earlier ones. Chips which will be produced in the future will be smaller and probably process more calculations more quickly.

Programs, which can be seen as being the mechanical counterpart of the human mind, bring the above-mentioned improvements into daily life. New programs boost the capability of the computer in parallel with the capability of their chips. Without these programs, computers would be no more than ordinary electronic machines.

Developed technologies in fields like industry, communication, or the military bring us face to face with new developments and have made the computer an undeniable part of our lives. Mobile phones equipped with new features, medical machines which can easily make a large number of analyses and provide ease in diagnosis and treatment, robots that can operate with minimum error and have a low cost when used in production, and weapons that automatically focus on the target are all part of this progress.

With time, software and hi-tech sensors have enabled computers to communicate with people; there are now systems that are controlled by the voice, which are able to recognize a person from their iris or fingerprints, control systems which are carried out by touching a screen, etc. Such systems are operated with the help of special sensors or by some signals that carry messages from the person or the environment to the computer. The most important feature of these sensors is that the signals produced at the output are very weak and there are few differences between them. An ATM can recognize a particular person’s iris, thanks to the ability of its computer to compare the signals from the ATM’s iris scanner with previously recorded data. In this process, the computer uses the small differences that one person’s iris has to another’s. In this or similar systems, complicated programs are used, called “expert systems” or “artificial intelligence”. These programs imitate human senses, but they aim to operate with an even keener sensitivity and clearer criteria.

A question that is a subject of fiction comes to mind; “Will computers vie with or even fight with human beings?” In the mid-term, the rapid development of technology will create computers which can communicate with humans, which can understand them, and put forward ideas. A negative outcome of such a situation depends, once again, on man. Such a horrific situation could be the result of technology that can cause environmental disasters; this technology is almost identical to the one that we have described above. If we are able to establish an understanding of “civilization” which does not ignore human values for the sake of technological development, then such fears will be groundless.

Artificial Nervous Systems

As we all know, people have imitated nature in many of their inventions. In a way, artificial nervous systems imitate how a nerve cell learns and how it works. Fuzzy systems however imitate how the judgment of a human being works, rather than the nerve cells of the brain. In these systems people try to form a decision making criterion by assuming that there are endless grey tones between white and black or by assuming that there are infinite values between zero and one.

The purpose of the research on artificial nervous systems is to understand how the brain operates, then to make a system that imitates it and carries out the same operations. Artificial nervous systems are made of simple nerve cells which are bound in parallel, called process elements; these allow for real objects to be seen as if they were biological systems.

Here, the program that resembles the nerve cell operates in the same way as a nerve cell. The main part of a nerve cell is formed from the body, called a “soma”, an “axon” that is bound to the body and many “dendrites”. There are many “roots”, or synapses, on the dendrite of a cell which make contact with the dendrites of other cells. A nerve cell either transmits the electrical stimulus that comes through the axon to the other nerve cells through the synapse, or it does not transmit it, depending on whether or not the signal is over or below the threshold value. So a nerve works by itself, but its activity becomes meaningful when working as a part of a nervous system. It would be useful if we consider how the learning process occurs here. It is thought that the required data are stored in the memory center and this fact is taken as a model for some artificial nervous system software that has been successfully developed to date.

A nerve cell and the process of transporting signals from one cell to another can be written as software. It is clear that a natural nerve cell is more complex and that it is bound to more cells than an artificial one can be. The number of communication ports (synapses) of a natural nerve can vary from between 1,000 to 10,000.

An artificial cell produces output if the input value is over the cell’s threshold value; if this is not the case then there is no production. If there is output – as in natural cells – then this output is transported to the next cell group. Each cell produces its output as an input for the next cell.

A cell is separated into three groups: input, the hidden layer and output. Each group is considered to be made up of one layer, while the hidden layer can consist of more than one, according to the complexity of the job. As can be seen, the placement of the layers is similar in the process of the human body. We can compare the cells on the input layer with human senses. In this way we can teach a robot to avoid heat and cold, we can make them see and act according to this information. (Do not forget that a robot is in fact a computer.) It is natural that some sensors must be bound to the cells on the input layer. For instance, a sensor which is sensitive to heat can make the robot react to heat when the temperature is over the limit value or when the temperature is dramatically low it can move closer to a heat source. Or if pictures received from a video-camera are similar to an object that has been fed into the robot such data input can cause the robot to move to that object.

Artificial nervous systems are not only used in robot applications. They are commonly used in making clinical diagnoses, determining market-customer profiles, recognizing voices or pictures, classifications such as determining micro-structures, like germs and cell materials, economic profiles, energy sources, the futures of market shares, some predictive sciences, such as weather forecast, zipping data for computers, process control in industry, checking resources and some other matters in technological areas. As can be seen, there are many application areas for artificial nervous systems, all of which differ from one another.

The Basic Features of Artificial Nervous Systems

The features of artificial nervous systems can be simplified as follows: firstly, they can learn how to solve problems. In order to do this they use sample data and learning styles and while doing this they do not require any special help. Secondly, they can recognize important features and relations to help them distinguish different data forms.

When an artificial nervous system is operated, the first thing to be carried out is the training process. In order to do this, the program needs to have two alternating operations. It may obtain information concerning some results to be achieved, using results that come from the user, or the program is itself asked to produce some results. These two types of learning are not very different from how a human learns. One shows a young child an animal, and repeats the name. Now the child has learned the name of the animal and correlates it with the picture of the same. If no one teaches a child what a bird is, the child will all the same classify all animals that have wings and beaks and that have a certain physical shape, maybe even creating a name for the animal by him/herself. The difference between the computer and the human in this process is that a human has the ability to judge, while computers classify the animals according to their shapes and groups them thus. Naming and giving a naming feature to the computer is again a decision that a human will make. When the training process is finished, the data can be entered into the computer and the desired results can be attained.

Artificial nervous systems are changing and developing day by day. With each new development they become closer to the human nervous system; they are able to recognize different characteristics of different people and they are learning to make sorting decisions, even limited judgments. Whether or not these machines may one day enact a nightmare scenario, taking over from us is not a great threat, as whatever they are capable of doing is up to us to decide, as their “masters”. We should not fear these systems, but try to develop more of them; such systems help us in every day tasks, from drawing money out of the bank to our annual check-up at the doctor’s.

Nowadays, children and parents are estranged, employees and employers are continuously at odds, the government is deaf to the public and the public seems to be unaware of the government, the teacher and the pupil no longer talk the same language; these phenomena can all be explained when we realize the serious lack of communication that we are facing. What has gone wrong?

The reason that we are removed from one another in terms of communication, despite physical distances having been lessened, is that we either are unaware of that important component of human communication, empathy, or we are not giving it due consideration. There are many definitions of empathy; a brief definition is that it is the ability to recognize and understand another person’s perceptions and feelings and to accurately convey that understanding through a com- passionate response. In other words, it means understanding another person so well that you feel as he/she does. Native Americans expressed this as walking a mile in another person’s moccasins. It is being able to listen so intently and to identify so closely with another that you experience that person’s situation, thoughts and emotions. Empathy has many different descriptions, but they all narrow down to the same thing: developing the ability to see the world from another’s point of view without judging. Being empathetic is a bit like being an anthropologist; when an anthropologist goes to study a different people or tribe, there is no judgment or criticism involved, the anthropologist just accepts and describes the way of life, the way of seeing things. One must develop the ability to put oneself in another’s shoes, to see the world as they see it, without judgment or criticism or over-identification and agreement. Good therapists are said to do this; the same can be said for good friends. It is only with empathy that we can understand each other thoroughly and proceed to build close and reliable relationships.

Empathy acts as an inhibitor of aggression and violence. A person with greater empathy tends to act in pro-social ways simply because such a person is able to identify and recognize the plight of others. On the other hand, people acting in antisocial ways are likely to lay the foundations for violent and aggressive patterns. In this respect we can say that there is a strong relationship between empathy and morality. Morality can be explained as a set of principles or ideals that help an individual distinguish right from wrong. It is a term used to cover those practices and activities that are considered significantly right or wrong, the rules that govern these activities and the values that are embedded, fostered or pursued by these activities and practices. It would be correct to say that a man of high moral values is at the same time highly empathetic. This is true because the ability to see the world from another person’s point of view without personal biases or judgments usually leads one to a correct understanding of the situation and therefore assists one in making a correct decision. An empathetic person always places him/herself in the place of the people with whom he/she is in contact, looks at events from their perspective and thereby is able to attain a deep understanding of the situation. When it comes to making comments about the situation, such a person still assumes that he/she is still in the other person’s place and talks as if he/she is not talking to somebody else, but to him/herself. The result of such behavior is perfect comprehension and a correct evaluation of the situation.

To be empathetic in this way is a difficult human relations skill to gain. It would be relatively easier if there were only few people with whom one is in contact. At least then one would know each of these people’s characteristics and could understand each of their situations more easily. But what if there are many people with whom one is in contact, each having his/her own personal differences? Now it is that communicational ability arises and that one must be able to adapt to each situation, without being self-centered. This can only be achieved by a skill that has been fostered by high moral values. A person who has such skills is one that creates a feeling of intimacy and well-deserved trust in others. Such a person becomes someone to whom a story can always be told in confidence, and such a person may even understand a situation better than the person involved.

This is how the Almighty Creator wants us to be and how he expects us to be. This reality is evident in the religions that God has sent to us with His messengers. What is called The Golden Rule is a prevalent idea of Christianity. The golden rule is best interpreted as saying: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. To use this rule, one must imagine oneself to be in exactly the same place of the person who is involved in the action. If we act in a given way toward another person, yet are unwilling to be treated that way ourselves under the same circumstances, then we have violated this rule. To apply the golden rule adequately, we need both knowledge and imagination. We need to know what effect our actions will have on the lives of others. And we need to be able to imagine ourselves, vividly and accurately, in another person’s place in a given situation. With knowledge, imagination, and by applying the golden rule, we can progress far in our moral thinking.

The golden rule is best seen as a principle of consistency. It does not replace regular moral norms. It is not an infallible guide by which to judge the correctness of an action; it does not provide all the answers. It only prescribes consistency – that is that we not let our actions (toward another person) be out of harmony with our desires. It tests our moral coherence. If we violate the golden rule, then we are violating the spirit of fairness and compassion that lies at the heart of morality.

Moreover, Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, the Messenger of Islam, says He who does not feel the hunger of his neighbor when he goes to sleep in his comfortable bed cannot in any way share our values. It is of utmost importance to put effort in empathizing with another’s circumstances and to understand other people well. Islam actually states that the most important of all the divine characteristics that a person should have is their personal relations with other people. That is the only thing for which God, the All Merciful, will not directly show His compassion when the time comes to account for our sins after death. In other words, suppose that you have mistreated somebody in this world; God will first ask the person who has been mistreated whether you are to be forgiven. This is God’s absolute justice, an important part of His character.

There is no doubt that God gives particular importance to communication among people and to their understanding of one another. Taking into consideration the scientific finding that almost 90 percent of human communication is comprised of non-verbal elements, empathy plays a great role in the part of good communication. In the history of humanity so much has changed, but the main component of communication, empathy, has maintained its place as before. It is the invisible bridge that connects our hearts to one another through which we understand and feel one another, a bridge that God wants us to construct to span our hearts, a bridge via which God’s love can be acquired.

For any observed phenomenon, there can be many possible explanations. A chance-based mechanism could be one explanation. We usually associate chance as being indifferent to purpose, and intelligent design as being with a purpose. When a mechanism appears to be unconcerned with or incognizant of any possible outcome, we term it a chance-based, or random mechanism. In other words, chance is invoked when there appears to be no preference for one particular outcome over another.

While a chance-based mechanism can be one of the possible explanations for a phenomenon, we only consider it seriously when the probability of the proposed mechanism is significant. When the probability is insignificant, we must eliminate this possibility and consider other options. Otherwise, we may fall into what the mathema-tician/philosopher Dembski calls the ‘chance-of-the-gaps’ fallacy:

‘Statistical reasoning must be capable of eliminating chance when the probability of events gets too small. If not, chance can be invoked to explain anything. Scientists rightly resist invoking the supernatural in scientific explanations for fear of committing a god-of-the-gaps fallacy (the fallacy of using God as a stop-gap for ignorance). Yet, without some restriction on the use of chance, scientists are in danger of committing a logically equivalent fallacy’one we may call the ‘chance-of-the-gaps fallacy’. Chance, like God, can become a stop-gap for ignorance.’ [Demski, 98]

To illustrate this principle let us consider three examples. The first is from a movie, related by the same author. The event related concerns the supposed spontaneous combustion of a person.

‘In the movie ‘This is Spinal Tap’, the lead singer remarks that a former drummer in the band died by spontaneously combusting. Any one of us could this instant spontaneously combust if all the most rapidly moving air molecules in our vicinity suddenly converged on us. Such an event, however, is highly improbable, and we don’t give it a second thought.’ [Dembski, 98]

Let us consider two other examples: footprints in the desert and a novel placed next to a typewriter.

Footprints in the Desert

When a bedouin sees camel footprints in the desert, he does not attribute these to chance. He does not think that the wind, by chance, formed those patterns on the sand. Instead, he interprets them as signs that a camel has recently walked along this way. The probability of the chance-based scenario is simply too small. Having seen the patterns characteristic of the wind, the bedouin can be almost sure that the camel explanation is the correct one, even if he has not seen the camel itself.

Novel Placed Next to a Typewriter

Imagine you find a novel left next to a typewriter, next to which sits a monkey. One explanation for who might have written the novel could be that the monkey typed the novel, making words and sentences that make sense, solely by chance. We can view this as a chance-based explanation; up to now we have not witnessed any monkey that can appreciate human literature. To make this explanation more plausible, let us assume that when the monkey completes a page, a human checks the page and if it does not make any sense the page is thrown away. If there were an unlimited supply of paper and ink, and if the monkey were replaced by another monkey when it died, you might expect to see a few lines of meaningful literary work after thousands of generations. In the process you would expect to see mountains of thrown-out pages, containing meaningless sequences of letters. If you knew that the monkey could not live long enough to produce a novel, if you knew that it did not have access to enough paper, or if you could not find any thrown-out pages, you would simply have to eliminate the monkey hypothesis. You would consider other explanations, such as that there was a person who was capable of producing literary work, and this person typed the novel and left it next to the typewriter. The idea that a monkey could produce a novel by typing randomly, without regard to content (i.e. by chance) is simply too small a probability. It is not worthy of serious consideration.

These examples illustrate a general principle; highly improbable and ‘preferred’ (independently specified) patterns cannot be generated by chance-based mechanisms. The footprints in the first example illustrate highly improbable events, and shows us how one arrives at a conclusion by preference or purpose. Since Darwinian evolution relies on chance, there is only one way it can produce the diversity of life found on earth. This can be done by exhausting a significant proportion of the possibilities, producing useless organisms in the process, leaving the remains of the unsuccessful organisms on the way and by eventually producing a useful organism after using up a considerable amount of time, matter and space.

Blind or Not Blind?

Some evolutionists argue that evolutionary algorithms are not the same as a blind search, because they include a fitness function which favors certain outcomes over others. In a way, this imagined ‘fitness function’ evaluates which organisms are the most promising in each generation. To understand the concept of a fitness function, consider the selective breeding of animals. The breeders select the members that have the most desirable properties and continue to breed them. They might breed from only the most fertile chickens or the woolliest sheep and succeed in altering the characteristics of these animals. So, the selection criteria of the breeders can be regarded as a fitness function. However, in the case of selective breeding, the human breeder is the one who defines and applies this function. In the case of Darwinian evolution, there is no room for an intelligent being. So, the imagined fitness function must be a result of the physical laws of the universe. It must be a result of the conditions on earth

What the evolutionary algorithms do is to exploit the information already encoded in the fitness function. So, evolutionary algorithms simply ‘shift’ the problem into a different space. If we assume that this fitness function is a result of the conditions on earth, we have to remember that the conditions on earth are highly improbable and specified. So, if this fitness function is assumed to be capable of design, one must explain how it came to be in the first place. Secondly, this function is ill-defined. Even evolu- tionists themselves have difficulty defining what this function is or how it operates. Various attempts to define this function by evolutionists amount to a tautology in order to justify it. ‘In this formulation, the theory predicts that the fittest organisms will produce the most offspring, and it defines the fittest organisms as the ones which produce the most offspring.’ [Johnson, 91]. Noting this trend, the famous philosopher of science Karl Popper once wrote, ‘some of the greatest contemporary Darwinists themselves formulate the theory in such a way that it amounts to the tautology that those organisms that leave the most offspring leave the most offspring.’ Since the fitness function is not well defined, it is also not possible to demonstrate how this function is capable of producing this diversity of life, neither scientifically nor mathematically. In experiments where evolutionary mechanisms were tested, they tend to favor simplicity, whereas in life we see increasing complexity. Limits of the Universe The famous physicist Carl Sagan once said, in reference to evolutionary processes, given enough time, chance will work miracles. While this statement can be true theoretically, one should also consider that chance, given enough time, will produce a disproportionately high ratio of useless outcomes before coming up with a miracle. Furthermore, the universe, as we have observed, has a limited age and a limited amount of matter. So the amount of time that we can assume chance has is limited. The amount of material to be used by the chance-based pro- cesses is also limited. So the next question is, given the age of the universe, the amount of matter in the universe and all the possible sequences of changes that can take place, what is the likelihood of chance producing a single living cell? The answer to this question is important because it will determine whether the chance hypothesis is worthy of our attention. Dembski explains that within the observed universe any probability below a universal probability bound remains improbable, even if it is assumed that all the resources available were exhausted in order to try out all the possibilities. He calculates this number as 10-150, that is 1 over 10 to the 150th power. The details of this calculation and what it means are explained by him as follows:

“It would take at least 1067 times the current lifetime of the universe for the universe to manage to make all possible proteins of length 200 at least once.”

In the observable universe, probabilistic resources come in very limited supplies. Within the known physical universe there are estimated to be around 1080 elementary particles. Moreover, the properties of matter are such that transitions from one physical state to another cannot occur at a rate faster than 1045 times per second. This frequency corresponds to Planck time, which constitutes the smallest physically meaningful unit of time. Finally, the universe itself is about a billion times younger than 1025 seconds (assuming the universe is between ten and twenty billion years old). If we now assume that any specification of an event within the known physical universe requires at least one elementary particle to specify it and cannot be generated any faster than the Planck time, then these cosmological constraints imply that the total number of specified events throughout cosmic history cannot exceed 1080 x 1045 x 1025 = 10150. It follows that any specified event of probability less than 1 in 10150 will remain improbable even after all conceivable probabilistic resources from the observable universe have been factored in. A probability of 1 in 10150 is therefore a universal probability bound. Implicit in a universal probability bound such as 10-150 is that the universe is too small a place to generate specified complexity by sheer exhaustion of possibilities. Stuart Kauffman develops this theme at length in his book Investigations. In one of his examples (and there are many like it throughout the book), he considers the number of possible proteins of length 200 (i.e., 20200 or approximately 10260) and the maximum number of pairwise collisions of particles throughout the history of the universe (he estimates 10193 total collisions supposing the reaction rate for collisions can be measured in femto seconds). Kauffman concludes: The known universe has not had time since the big bang to create all possible proteins of length 200 [even] once. To emphasize this point, he notes: It would take at least 1067 times the current lifetime of the universe for the universe to manage to make all possible proteins of length 200 at least once. [Dembski, 98] It should be noted that the precise value of this universal probability bound is not critical. Even an approximate value is enough to judge a proposed chance-based explanation for an observed phenomenon. Carl Sagan himself estimated the probability of humans evolving from a single living cell as one chance in 102,000,000,000, [Sagan]. Combining this estimate with the universal probability bound discussed above and using common sense, one can easily dismiss the chance hypothesis for the origin of life or for the diversity of life on earth. The Fossil Record Problem Associated with the chance hypothesis, there is also the problem of fossil record which we have not discussed in detail yet in this article. If the chance hypothesis is correct, the failed attempts of the blind processes should vastly outnumber those that are successful. This would imply that in the fossil record we should have found vast numbers of fossils of dysfunctional species compared with a tiny minority of successful species. Just as failed attempts would vastly outnumber successful ones, the fossils of such attempts should reflect the same ratio. While there are signs of extinct species in the fossil record, we do not find a huge record of the fossils of the kind of wild variation we would expect from blind mutations. While the reasons for the extinction of species like dinosaurs are debated, there is agreement that they were successful living organisms during their lifetimes. Conclusion To summarize, when a mathematician calculates the probability of chance producing life on earth, he or she can easily dismiss this explanation because of the aforementioned problems. Life is too complex and intricate. The lifetime of the universe and the amount of matter in it are insufficient to blindly exhaust all possibilities and arrive at the diverse life forms we see on earth. The fossil record does not reflect the ratio of unsuccessful attempts to successful ones we would expect from chance hypothesis. When presented with the chance-based theory of evolution, an objective mathematician would thus feel obliged to say, Either you have to shut off my intellect or I cannot accept this hypothesis. Life must be the product of an intelligent Designer who is All-Wise, Omniscient, Omnipotent and cognizant of what He is doing. The mathematician would thus come to the same conclusion as an unlettered bedouin, who is nevertheless a careful observer and a solid thinker: Camel droppings point to the existence of a camel. Footprints on the sand tell of a traveler. The heaven with its stars, the earth with its mountains and valleys, and the sea with its waves – do they not all point to the Maker, All-Powerful, Knowing, Wise and Caring?

References

• [Darwin, 93] Charles Darwin, The Correspondence of Charles Darwin 8, 1860 Cambridge University Press, 1993.
• [Dembski, 98] William A. Dembski, The Design Inference, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1998.
• [Dembski, 99] William A. Dembski, Intelligent Design, InterVarsity, Downers Grove, Ill., 1999.
• [Johnson, 91] Philip E. Johnson, Darwin on Trial, Regnery Gateway, Washington DC, 1991.
• [Khan] Khan, M., trans. Sahih Al-Bukhari: The Translation of the Meanings. Darussalam Publishers: 1997.
• [Sagan] Carl Sagan, F. H. C. Crick, L. M. Muchin in Carl Sagan, ed., Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CETI) (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), pp. 45-46.
• [Siddiqui] Siddiqi, A. H., trans. Sahih Muslim. Kitab Bhavan: 2000.
• [Harf] Harf Information Technology. Hadith Encyclopedia. Egypt: 1996. [Words] Nursi, S. The Words. The Light, Inc.: 1997.

The creation of evil is in no way evil, it is the committing of evil that is evil. Man is endowed with free will and God enables man’s willed actions. Therefore, it is man’s willing and committing evil that is evil and ugly, not God’s giving objective existence to evil. If God were not to create what man wills, then human free will would be annulled.

Secondly, none of God’s creations are merely one-dimensional, they pertain to the whole universe; therefore any creation should be evaluated according to its aggregate results, not merely to the act itself. To give an example, the results of rain falling are manifold, almost all being useful to mankind. If some people sustain damage from the rain due to their own miscalculation, it is not possible for them to argue that the creation of rain is not a blessing, nor can they claim that its creation is evil. Perhaps rain seems evil to them due to their personal experience. Similarly, there are numerous benefits for mankind in the creation of fire. If some people are harmed by fire due to their failure to use it appropriately they cannot say that the creation of fire is evil. Fire was not created to burn only their hands; perhaps they brought their hands too close to the fire while cooking and made a thing that normally serves us bring them harm.

As a result, a lesser evil is acceptable for the greater good. If an evil which will lead to a greater good is abandoned so that the lesser evil is eliminated, a greater evil will then have been perpetrated. For example, there is certainly some minor material and physical harm and discomfort in the drafting of soldiers to create an army to defend one’s homeland, but in this there is a greater benefit in that the whole country is saved from invasion. If the defense of a country is abandoned in order to avoid such minor discomforts then the greater benefit will be lost and a greater evil will follow. This is most definitely a mistake. Likewise, to amputate a finger that is gangrenous is good and right, although it is ostensibly evil. Yet, if the finger is not amputated then the entire hand will be lost; this is a greater evil.

Thus, the making and the creation of evil, harm, trouble, devils, and other harmful things is not evil or bad; these have been created in order to obtain many important results. For example, devils are not allowed to pester the angels and the angels can therefore not make any advance. Their ranks, although high, are fixed and can never change. Animals cannot make progress either, for the same reason; they maintain their low rank throughout their lives. On the other hand, for human beings there is no end to the ranks to which they can attain, in both directions, high or low. There are countless levels for humans to progress through, from the ranks of the Nimrods and the Pharaohs to the ranks of the saints and the prophets.

Therefore, in order to differentiate and separate those souls which are like coal in their deficiency from those that are like diamonds in being distinguished, an arena of trial, examination, strife, and competition has been established, using the creation of the devils, and the assigning of prophets, thus making humanity accountable for its actions. Were there no struggle and no competition, the coal-like and diamond-like aptitudes in mankind’s disposition would have remained equal. The soul of Abu Bakr the Veracious, who was the highest of the high, would have remained level with that of Abu Jahl, the lowest of the low. As a result, the creation of the devils and evil is neither evil nor ugly as it pertains to grand and cumulative results. Evil and ugly results that arise from individual acts, and perhaps from miscalculations and abuses, should be attributed to man’s acquisition, not to Divine creation.

The following question may come to mind: The majority of humanity has become disbelievers due to the existence of Satan, and hence suffer harm, despite the fact that prophets have been sent. If we judge the state of affairs according to the situation of the majority we must then conclude that the creation of evil is evil as the majority of people are suffering due its existence. We may even be drawn to the conclusion that the sending of prophets was not a blessing after all. Is this not so?

The first thing to say in answer to this question is, quantity is of no significance; we must look at quality. The true majority lies in those of quality. For example, if there are a hundred date-palm seeds that are planted, but not watered and hence they cannot undergo the necessary chemical transformations and demonstrate the struggle for life, then we only have a hundred seeds that have virtually no value. But if instead these seeds are watered and they then partake in the struggle for life, but still eighty out of the hundred rot due to the imperfections inherent in their nature, with only twenty becoming fruit-bearing trees, can we then claim that “watering the seeds was evil because most of them rotted”? Of course we cannot do so, for those twenty seeds will yield twenty thousand more seeds. Therefore, what has caused a loss of eighty and a profit of twenty thousand is not harmful and cannot be called evil.

To give another example, consider a peahen that lays a hundred eggs, each being worth five dollars. If the hen were to incubate those hundred eggs and eighty were to spoil, that would mean that twenty hatch into adults. Can we say that there was a high loss caused by a harmful process, and that therefore incubating is bad by its very nature? No, on the contrary, it is profitable, for these birds lost eighty eggs, worth five dollars each, but gained twenty peacocks worth eighty dollars.

It is in just this way that mankind, by being raised up by the prophets, and by fighting against Satan and their evil-commanding souls, have lost the animal-like members of their race, the disbelievers and hypocrites, who are greater in number but poorer in quality, in exchange for hundreds of thousands of prophets, millions of saints, and billions of men of wisdom and sincerity, who are the suns, moons, and stars of the human world.

Another question that one might want to ask, is that God Almighty sends catastrophes and inflicts us with trials and tribulations; is this not unfair, particularly toward the innocent, even the animals?

The answer to this question is, the sovereignty is His; therefore He reigns over this creation of His as He wishes. Here is a simple example in order to better understand this statement: Imagine that a skilful craftsman hires you as a model. He has you put on a beautiful garment that he has made and in order to demonstrate his skills on it he starts cutting, trimming, shortening, lengthening it and making you sit down or stand as he wishes. Can you tell him that he is making the garment that looks so beautiful on you appear ugly, or that he is tiring you out by making you move all the time? Of course not, he has hired you. Likewise your Maker, All-Glorious, has you put on this fine looking body of yours, which is ornamented with senses, such as hearing, seeing, speaking, etc., and in order to demonstrate the gilding of His various names, He sometimes makes you ill, hungry, thirsty, worried, or sometimes he satisfies you; your life revolves around different states like these. In order to strengthen the essence of life and display the manifestation of His Names, He makes you journey through numerous such conditions. If you say: “Why do you inflict these calamities on me?”, there are several instances of wisdom that will silence you, as in the above analogy.

Another point is that tranquility, stillness, idleness, and monotony are forms of non-existence, and thus are not good states. Action and constant change on the other hand are signs of existence; therefore these are good states. Life finds its perfection through action and it evolves through tribulations. Life encounters various actions through the manifestations of Divine Names and so it becomes purified and fortified; this is how it evolves, expands and becomes the pen with which the determination of its own fate is written, and so deserves to be rewarded in the afterlife.

Derived mainly from the witchcraft practices of Europe in the Middle Ages, Satanism has also been seen to be on the rise in Muslim countries. It has become a problem that now appears frequently on the agenda in Muslim countries, as it has begun to attract the young people as a rebellious alternative to the philosophy and lifestyle of their parents. Brought to the attention of the Turkish nation when two students at the Alman Lisesi (German High School), Asl and Alp, committed suicide in Atakoy, Istanbul, June 22, 1998, Satanism tends to find a place among high school students. Moreover, it has been reported that Satanism has spread among students at private schools and has even become popular with primary school students.

Research reveals that young people involved in Satanism share common characteristics. For example, they are mostly children of well-to-do families or families with an above average income. They receive a better education than their peers, and have little responsibility. They are generally brought up in an upper-middle class environment. How can such a movement find opportunity to spread in a country like Turkey, where the majority of the population are Muslim? What do these young people lack that impels them to adopt a movement like Satanism? How can a movement that originated among the children of Western proletarian families become popular among children of wealthy Muslim families? Who spreads Satanism among our young people and how? Most important of all, why do the young commit suicide for the sake of Satan? People are already asking, What are the reasons that lie behind these incidents? This article will look into the answers to these questions as impartially as possible.

1. How Does Satanism Spread?

Of the factors that help in the spread of Satanism in countries like Turkey, computers and the Internet are at the fore. It is striking that young people who are interested in Satanism are mostly high school students. As most of these young people have learnt a foreign language, they can easily gain access to Satanism via the computer and the Internet. Those who want to learn about Satanism first turn to these resources. It is also known that there are people, with evil intentions, who intentionally encourage young people to become Satanists. The information given in documents and books on Satanism (verified by what happens in practice) indicates that there are some people who are trying to tempt young people into being Satanists, intentionally and systematically. I do not think that either non-Satanists, or those who claim to be Satanists in Muslim dominated countries, really know what Satanism is, which is quite natural. However, venturing blindly into an unknown subject may lead to unexpected results. The young people who were drawn to suicide, who were raped, or murdered are the bitterest indications of this. Insufficient information and ignorance are among the leading reasons for the spread of Satanism among young people. What one must ask here is why the young people in these countries want to become Satanists.

2. Why Do Young People Become Satanists?

Of the answers received to this question, asked to young people who claim to be Satanists, the following ones are especially striking: I became a Satanist because I was angry with God who took away my parents when I was little. I became a Satanist to be a Satanist. I joined the Satanists because I was looking for peace. I sold my soul to Satan because I understood that it was meaningless to live in this world and that I did not belong here. or I wanted more freedom. As can be seen, some young people are angry with God, because of some loss or hardship that they experienced as small children. Some do not even know why they became Satanists. Some look for peace, purpose or freedom in such a cult that they cannot find in their families. Satanism seems attractive to these young people as it encourages them to be rebellious and reactionary against the principles and institutions around them.

The answers given above demonstrate that behind the problem of Satanism lies a lack of spiritual knowledge and education. If young people are taught correctly about God, Who created man as an honorable creature and placed him above all living things, they would learn not to be angry with God and would not side with Satan. Similarly, if they are taught that man was not created in vain, that life and creation serve a purpose, that even man himself does not have the right to take his own life, that such an action incurs terrible consequences, and that there is another world in the Hereafter, they would not desire to end their lives and they would not conceive of life in this world as being meaningless.

Another important point to be made is that no precautions are being taken to combat Satanism, despite the fact that young people are being drawn into this spiritual abyss. They are clearly embroiled in a quest for happiness. They are searching for satisfaction everywhere: in the family, at school, in the community, and in society. Here the question of what kinds of young people join Satanist cults springs to mind.

3. Which Groups Tend More toward Satanism?

Research shows that there are certain groups of young people who are more likely to be drawn into Satanism. Some of these are as follows: children from broken homes or disfunctional families, or children who are neglected or not given the necessary care by their parents. Children who have trouble estab- lishing relationships with their peers and are therefore cast out by their friends and environment, leaving them lonely and vulnerable are also at risk. Children who are not supported or cared for by society and those who have difficulty in the full realization of their identities or personalities, and who are therefore pushed into depression, are vulnerable. Young people with spiritual or psychological problems, those who have failed to overcome the problems of adolescence and therefore suffer from depression, are often targeted by such groups, while those who are trying to find themselves by joining different groups and by being different from others, and those with a rebellious spirit, who “ rightly or wrongly – react against their family, their environment, and their teachers, are easily persuaded to join such groups. Sometimes those born with some disability or who are challenged in some way can rebel against God. On the other hand, those who are financially satisfied, healthy and sound, but who are spiritually hungry, and therefore questing fulfillment, can often be misled. Sometimes, young people can go astray merely due to their adventurous spirits, or their curiosity, or simply because they have not been given a sound religious education.

Moreover, some young people unintentionally fall into Satanism without being aware of its nature, becoming ensnared by their boyfriends or girlfriends.

Research also reveals that a great majority of the young people who tend toward Satanism and commit suicide for its sake are either high school students or of such an age. This leads to the question, Why do students at high-school age tend more toward Satanism? This can be answered as follows: the ages of the young people who tend toward Satanism range from 14 to 20. In Turkey, this range extends to 25. However, as the ages of 14 to 20 correspond to the high school years, the tendency to move toward Satanism is more likely to be seen in this age group, the years of adolescence. During this period, some physical and psychological changes occur in young people, a phenomenon that can lead to several spiritual and psychological problems. Since this age group is emotionally sensitive, these young people are more susceptible to influence and direction. They react emotionally when they make friends or join groups, and they cannot always make logical decisions on whether the friends or the groups that they are joining are sound or not. At the same time, the ages of 14 to 20 are the years when young people form their identities. Consequently, one of the main reasons why young people at high school age tend toward Satanism is the fact that they have not yet fully developed their personality, and some are suffering from some sort of identity crisis. This is also a period when individuality and freedom gain priority, and young people become more reactionary, looking for an alternative life style, something that may be shocking to the older generation. Young people at this stage in their life are easily influenced by events.

4. Some Means Used to Convert Young People to Satanism

Other than computers and the Internet, books, magazines, cassettes and CDs, there are several means used for the promulgation of Satanism. Sex, alcohol, drugs, parties, friends, and money are frequently employed as means of successfully winning new members. Anton Szandor LaVey, the founder and representative of modern Satanism, used music to promulgate his satanic thoughts; he would gather people together by organizing parties, and try to impose his satanic thoughts on people through music.Today Satanist thinking and ideas are given an introduction into young minds through music, especially heavy metal and rock music. Young people are not told, Come and be a Satanist, or We’re Satanists; Come and be like us. On the contrary, they are encouraged to join such gatherings by being told, We are going to get together with some friends. We have a really cool time, we listen to music, it’s really fun. Or Hey, we’ll teach you how to play the guitar. Meanwhile, the young girls who take part in such gatherings make it all the more attractive. Boys are urged to date any girl they want and to have sexual intercourse with her. As far as we know, this is the most effective method of luring youngsters, and girls who join have to submit. They do not even have the right of choice. Once more, LaVey was the first person to use femininity (primarily) at spreading his Satanist ideas and to abuse young girls in this respect. LaVey stated the following, addressed to young girls: Being a Satanist means submittting to every kind of illicit intercourse. It is for this reason that we stress the point that young people do not know exactly what Satanism is. We believe that a young girl would never agree to be a Satanist if she were to know in advance that she would be considered as little more than a prostitute. Unfortunately, young girls constitute the majority of those who commit suicide or who are murdered for the sake of Satanism. In order to convert young people to Satanism, alcohol and drugs are provided for those who come along, in an attempt to lure them into the group. After a recruit has at- tended several such meetings, the members disclose their true identity and say things like, We’re Satanists and now you too are a Satanist. When some young people understand exactly what is going on and want to leave the group, the Satanists show their real nature, saying, That’s out of the question. You’ve been with us up until now and we have provided you with many things. Now you say you want to leave. You are betraying us and our beliefs. It is in this way that young people become a part of a Satanist group and are entrapped in Satanism. LaVey explicitly states that Satanism is a blind alley, impossible to exit, with his threatening words, Satanism is not for everyone. Whoever wishes can become a Satanist; whoever does not wish does not become one. However, once a Satanist, it is no longer possible to get out of Satanism. It seems that most young people just say they are Satanists or take part in Satanist groups without questioning what Satanism really is, without reading anything written on the subject. Basically, being a Satanist is a matter of choice, and one just does not become a Satanist by simply saying that one is so. In conclusion, young people need to be very careful when they choose their friends; they must learn to investigate any group that is asking them to join.

5. Satanic Publications

The Internet and Satanic groups that operate under titles like The Church of Satan are undoubtedly the primary means of spreading Satanism in the West. Also, books written by leading figures like LaVey that include the beliefs and philosophy of Satanism play a significant role in the promulgation of Satanism. Moreover, it is known that some satanic groups publish magazines. In addition, music, CDs and cassettes are used in the promulgation of Satanism. Pieces of music composed by Satanic black metal orchestras lead young people unwittingly into the trap of Satanism. Some kinds of music, like Suicide Song and Lyric, are a prayer to Satan and satanic powers. There are many songs that the Church of Satan recommends, but, as we do not want to provide free publicity here, we will not give their titles. In fact, describing and publicizing the untrue serves its purposes. It cannot be denied that the so-called wars against trends like Satanism and substances like drugs seem to add to their appeal and promote their spread. It is hard to claim that Satanists in countries like Turkey have serious publications in great numbers; Satanism is still quite a recent phenomenon. They have not yet been fully organized. To the best of our knowledge, they have neither the means nor the ability to publish books, journals, etc. on a regular basis. Nevertheless, after a murder and rape occurred in Ortakoy, Istanbul, the newspapers announced that the police had raided places where the Satanists frequented, seizing journals, booklets, cassettes and CDs that were to be sold in certain bookstores.

6. Why Do Satanists Sacrifice Cats?

When Satanism was high on the agenda, some television channels broadcasted some satanic rituals. It was at this time that it became known that they sacrificed cats in some satanic rituals, roasting their meat and drinking their blood. Questions like Why do they sacrifice cats? started to be asked. First, it must be emphasized that Satanists do not only sacrifice cats, but also other animals, such as roosters or rabbits. The shedding of blood is fundamental to satanic rituals. Satanists prefer cats for several reasons. Some people think that this is because cats are considered by some to be unfaithful animals. Some others liken cats to Satan. Since Satanists ultimately wish to destroy Satan and wield ruling power in the world; they realize this symbolically when they sacrifice a cat. Cats are also believed to be one of the animals that represent evil. Moreover, they are easy to find and catch. Yet, there are more sinister reasons behind this choice. First of all, cats are loved by people and fed in their homes; destroying everything that people love and value is one of the principles of Satanism. There is one final reason; Muslims sacrifice animals such as sheep and cattle, the meat of which is considered permissible. Satanists, on the other hand, prefer animals that are not permissible because Satanism strives to represent opposition, siding with the other side, and performing anything that religions forbid. They drink cat blood, thinking that it will give them the feeling of immortality. A reason for imbibing blood is that Satan is regarded as a blood sucker.

7. Why Do Young People Commit Suicide?

Before answering this question, we should first ask two questions. Why does a person commit suicide? How can young people at the age of fifteen or sixteen take the chance of death for the sake of Satan, when they are in the spring of their life without any responsibilities, when they do not have to worry about earning a living, when they have no financial worries, when they should be clinging to life? It is wrong to ascribe young people’s suicides for the sake of Satan to a single reason. There might be numerous reasons. For a Satanist, to die for the sake of Satan or to take the chance of dying when necessary are sacred ways of dying. In other words, Satanists regard dying for the sake of Satan as a glorious act, in the same way as mainstream religions regard martyrdom. In addition, dying for Satan is a sign of loyalty to him. Therefore, a young person who dies for the sake of Satan proves his or her sincerity for the cause. Moreover, some young people are led to confusion when they chat on the Internet. They are drawn toward dead ends and complications with words like Satan wants to sacrifice you! Some young people end up committing suicide. Some are chosen to be sacrifices by ill-intentioned people and en-couraged to commit suicide or threatened with death if they fail to do so. It is in this way that Satanists make their sacrifices. The notes left by young people who have committed suicide contain messages like, We have sold our souls to Satan. Satan sent us a message and ordered us to die. We understood that life is empty and it would be meaningless to live here any more. One of the three suspects who were accused of having killed Sehriban C., as a sacrifice for Satan in Ortakoy, Istanbul, said in the trial at the Second Criminal Court that he had been receiving messages from Satan: There is a certain agreement between Satan and me. At first I was hearing voices. I thought they were all in my head for a long time. Then Satan started talking to me. He gave me orders. He has been leading me for a year. Once I didn’t carry out his order and he punished me. My arm became swollen. I have no religious beliefs. Satan told me that I was his messenger. And I do not belong to this world. I’m fed up with life. ˜Take me,’ I said. He said, ˜First prove yourself, then I’ll do it.’ One day he ordered me to sacrifice a girl. I had to prove that I was the messenger of Satan. I did it with Zinnur and Omar. Satan congratulated me. I passed a great test. This statement reveals that such young people are suffering a spiritual emptiness, have psychological problems, and were not brought up in such a way that they were able to become aware of the realities of society and our values. Here a question springs to mind: Do people really receive messages from Satan? Indeed, Satan can inspire people. One does not have to be Satanist to be inspired. Prophet Muhammad, upon him peace and blessings, says, Every person has a Satan. (Tirmidhi, Adab, 78) Also, the Holy Qur’an mentions that the evil ones inspire their friends (6:121). On the other hand, Satan has no authority over people. His sole duty is to en-courage people to do evil and to deny God (14.22). Moreover, he cannot influence good people. To follow Satan or not is a matter of human will. Thus, Satan can inspire not only Satanists but also any other person. The question is whether one heeds Satan’s inspirations and misinformation. The fact that young people who drift toward Satanism and attempt or commit suicide for its sake in Turkey are mostly children of wealthy families and are in general better educated than the norm, according to Turkish standards, leads us to the question: Is there something wrong with the Turkish educational system? I believe that we can find the answer to similar questions in the words of a young graduate of a foreign school in Turkey who had attempted suicide and was saved at the last moment: ‘At school we had difficulty answering questions like ‘Who am I? What do I expect in life? Where will I go? What’s the meaning of life?’ Using drugs… Having meaningless conversations… Listening to foreign pop music and memorizing the lyrics… Living in this music and atmosphere as if it were real. It was the thing most dear to us.’ This person also mentioned that the deaths of two of his friends had been covered up. He underlined the fact that they were living in a world of emptiness, away from Europe and isolated within Turkey in the following words: ‘Our high school was like an island. Children who had everything lacked sincerity and real friendship on this island. We lived a certain jargon, a subculture in this frame of odd estrangement. We weren’t yet interested in politics. On the other hand, our school taught us how to think. In English and German classes we discussed the meaning of life after reading Kafka, Camus; but the world our foreign teachers took us to was far away. We weren’t living in Europe. We also were completely isolated from Turkish society. If we had been living in Germany, we would have learned individualism, egoism, how to protect our interests from nursery school on. However, everything we wanted was procured immediately, even our breakfast. Our Turkish teachers would enter our classes, however, they were not of the same status as us, and they felt inferior. Foreign teachers would come for a period of 4-5 years and were familiar with neither Turkey nor the Turkish mentality.’ As is evident in these words, some young people read books by writers like Kafka and Albert Camus, books based on existential philosophy. These books tell of how human beings fall in this world and criticizes the meaninglessness of life, encouraging young people to think about the values of the community in which they live. This can be a dangerous thing if a young person does not come from a family with deeply rooted values, or lives in a society where there are no healthy alternatives offered to the traditional values of that society. These young people are brought up in isolation from the history, culture, national and spiritual values of their society, causing them to rebel against their own identity and personality. Such circumstances push young people, if they lack spiritual support, into a spiritual emptiness and finally into a dead end, where the only way out may be suicide. One of the fundamental reasons for such suicides is that these children are being taught nihilist ideals and are being brought up in an artificial environment, an environment which has been transplanted from the West, but one in which only the outward trappings have been taken, and the roots, i.e. the values, have been left behind. This can in no way be a healthy situation, the environment that these children find themselves in is foreign to the environment of their families and neigborhoods, and is lacking everything. Is it any wonder then that these children end up as suicides?

8. Who is Merely Called a Satanist and Who is Really a Satanist?

We should be very careful when we talk about Satanism and we should avoid explicitly calling anyone a Satanist. We should follow the precept ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ Unless a person says that he is Satanist or decisive proof is brought forward, sorting people into various categories and regarding some young people as Satanists may lead to uneasiness and reaction in society. To put it more simply, any wrong move or action made by officials may cause those who are not Satanists to join them. As mentioned before, Satanism is a reactionary movement. One needs to be very careful. These issues were discussed in September-October of 1999, when Satanism was high on the agenda and some reactions were voiced, such as, ‘People should not be categorized according to the music they listen to, the color of their clothes, the style of their hair, or the earrings they wear, and they should not be regarded as Satanist according to such.’ Indeed, not everyone who listens to rock, metal, or heavy metal music is a Satanist. Similarly, not everyone who wears black T-shirts and jeans is a Satanist. People should be able to decide what clothes they wear for themselves. On the other hand, it should be kept in mind that young people who claim to be Satanists listen to rock and metal music, and prefer black because it represents the ‘dark powers’.

9. What Should be Done to Prevent Young People from Falling into the Trap of Satanism?

There is no doubt that the main responsibility for preventing young people from drifting toward Satanism lies with the family. Families play a crucial role in the shaping of a young person; a dysfunctional family may well help in determining whether a young person is inclined toward Satanism or not. We know that young people from broken or dysfunctional families cannot find the essential love, care and support from their families, and thus are in danger of becoming interested in Satanism. Parents should take care of their children as a trust from God and be careful about whom they make friends with, where they go, whether they acquire undesirable habits, what time they get home in the evenings, and whether they attend school regularly. It should be remembered that Satanism spreads in Muslim countries through young people and cliques. A good friend is also a good example and a bad friend a bad example. Moreover, parents should neither oppress their children, yet nor should they be too permissive. They should try to be their friends at times, while trying to understand them. They should try to fulfill the wishes of their children, if it is for something legitimate or they should dissuade the child when such a desire is wrong. They should remember that their children need both financial and spiritual support and they should look for ways to spiritually satisfy their children. Many children today complain that they look for happiness outside their families, mostly in their groups of friends, because they cannot find love, support, and happiness. Finding the love and support that one desires from one’s own parents outside the family is impossible, if the parents fail to provide it. It is not enough to provide young people with money. They need love, care, and compassion as much as they need material things. Parents do not do their children any favor if they grant all their wishes, provide them with endless financial means, and leave them free to make their own choices. Parents should know when to say no, restrict certain behavior, and even make children earn their own pocket money. It seems that some young people have tried everything and have everything they want in life, leaving only Satanism; therefore, they want to try this too. What all this goes to show is that youngsters should be brought up in accordance with the realities of life and should learn how to shoulder certain responsibilities. Some families whose children have been trapped by Satanism say that they fulfilled every financial need, but these families never mention what they failed to provide. To put it more clearly, they, for example, begrudge their child, from whom they withhold no material desire, a religious or moral education. The real reason behind the growth of Satanism is a lack of religious education. In addition, certain precautions should be taken, considering the fact that young people who enter such groups are mostly high school students; motives of sex and freedom play an important role in young people joining such groups, and the tendency to prove themselves is especially powerful at these ages. School principals and teachers can also play an important role in protecting young people from harmful movements like Satanism. They should regard every student as being entrusted to their safekeeping and should struggle to train them first as a good person and then a good citizen. They should inform the children of harmful movements like Satanism, warn them to stay away from such groups, and help those who have entered them. Educators must have sound information about such subjects in order to teach the students properly. However, they should be very careful when teaching such subjects and avoid making them attractive. Furthermore, the parent-school relationship should be strengthened and students should be prepared for life and future with reciprocal communication. Officials also play an important role in the proper education of the young people to whom we will entrust our future. Governments should not neglect these movements, they should not make the mistake of considering them as marginal. Something should be done even if one individual is lost to Satanism. Moreover, we observe that Satanism spreads rapidly among youngsters and that no serious precautions have been taken. However, Satanism is not the only harmful movement that sweeps up young people. The sinister country of alternative, harmful movements includes those entrapped by Satanism, but at the same time there are the glue-sniffers in dark corners or in subways. We should look after all the young people who have fallen into this dark country and protect them from all harmful movements; nobody can guarantee that today’s glue-sniffer will not become tomorrow’s Satanist. Members of the mass media should also take this matter seriously. They should inform people responsibly and with accurate information, sticking to the objective and un-biased principles of journalism. They should not simply regard movements like Satanism as a piece of sensational news, but try to bring forth the real causes that foster the tendency of young people toward such movements. Moreover, they should not ascribe every incident of suicide to Satanism, publicizing the issue by exaggerating it or by putting it on the agenda frequently, making it a matter of curiosity. On the other hand, parents and all institutions should also attend to the youngsters who have been entrapped by Satanism. They should not cast them out or regard them as dangerous people that belong to an eccentric movement, but rather they should try to help them back to the mainstream. They should also look after those who have been prosecuted and those have served a sentence; most youngsters do not know what Satanism is or how dangerous a path it is. If they had known, they probably would not have tended toward such a movement. If parents sense that their children are interested in such a movement, they should not try to cover it up in shame, but rather they should bring it out into the open, asking for help from those are familiar with the subject or from a psychologist or psychiatrist. Those who see such a tendency in their friends should also look after them and inform the parents and teachers of their friends immediately. If school principals or teachers feel that their students have such a tendency, they should attend to these children, in cooperation with the family. They should not try to cover up the issue, in the fear that it might harm the school’s reputation; nothing is more important than human life.

Research has shown that young people who tend toward Satanism or commit suicide for its sake have little religious faith, having had little or no religious education. This is a reminder of the fact that man is not simply a physical being, but also a spiritual one, a bipolar being. If a person is not spiritually satisfied, they will search for satisfaction in another place, sooner or later, no matter their financial status. This search can sometimes lead down the wrong path; Satanism is the most obvious example. Unfortunately, the education given in our schools today does not fill this spiritual void. In fact, it is not aimed at doing so. The rapid growth in the number of youngsters who resort to Satanism, drugs, etc. is the most distressing result of this. Similarly, recent research shows that the age for drinking alcohol has dropped to 13, a fact that jeopardizes the future of these young people and consequently of our society. Parents, educators, religious officials, theologians, society, and government officials should fulfill a role in order to fill the spiritual void suffered by young people. Whether one has religious beliefs or not, we should provide our people with religious information; the majority of the population in Turkey are Muslim. The support our young people need is only available through proper religious education. If we neglect this issue, a spiritual void will emerge. Certain people will exploit this emptiness and the result will be, as in Satanism, that some youngsters will worship inappropriate objects, and even take on the risk of death for their cause. In fact, Satanism is a phenomenon contrary to human nature, as all monotheistic religions regard Satan as man’s greatest enemy, the representative and promoter of all evil. Satan is neither an object of worship nor does he have a claim for divinity. Moreover, he did not in fact reject God (Abraham, 14/22). This is the very reality that lies under the contradiction and inconsistency of Satanism. There is a creature called Satan and some youngsters worship him and accept the risk of death for his sake. This is an anomaly that should be dealt with seriously. If we had informed our young people about God, the Prophet and Satan, nobody would now be worshipping Satan; Satan is a being that should be avoided and stayed away from. However, it is a sad fact that some of our young people worship Satan, man’s greatest enemy, and in this way they help him to ask for help from his enemy.

Conclusion

To sum up, let’s not categorize our young people ac- cording to the music they listen to, the color of their clothes, the length of their hair, or the earrings they wear. At the same time, it is important not to reduce Satanism to certain types of music or certain clothes, hair styles or accessories. If this were the case, then why and for what cause did these young people die or take their own lives? What is to be done now is not to categorize young people into certain groups with certain names, but rather to look for and produce sound and permanent answers to these two questions: What should we do to prevent young people from being entrapped by Satanism? What should we do for those who are already entrapped? Satanism is not a problem that can be solved by security precautions; it is a matter of acceptance or denial. Several social, psychological, familial, and societal reasons might lie behind young people’s drifting toward Satanism, however the real reason for such a tendency toward harmful movements is a lack of religious education and a spiritual void. If a young person regards Satan as a being to be worshipped and dares to commit suicide for his sake, then it is impossible to explain the situation in another way; Satan has become a matter of faith. Immoral behavior that is under the scope of faith can only be corrected by proper religious instruction. We are sorry to say that some families today are paying the price. If we do not want to pay greater penalties, we must attend to our young people; it is to they that we will entrust our future.

References

• Barton, Blanche, The Church of Satan, USA, 1990, 152-158
• Guc, Ahmet, Satanizm: Seytana Tapınmanın Yeni Adı (Satanism: The New Style of Worshipping Satan), Istanbul 1999
• Gunay, Nasuh, Seytana Tapinmada Modern Yol Satanizm (Satanism, The Modern Way of Worshipping Satan), Arayislar (Quests), Isparta 1999
• Russell, Jeffrey Burton, Seytan: Antikiteden Ilkel Hristiyanliga Kotuluk (Translation of The Devil: Perceptions of Evil From Antiquity to Primitive Christianity Ithaca: Cornell, 1977 by Nuri Plumer), Istanbul 1999

In his great works, the main precept of his philosophy was that God had sent people two kinds of books; one that is written and one that is created. Namely, these two books are the Qur’an and the Universe. Since both of these came from the same God as guidance for humanity, there can be no conflict between them. Indeed, it is impossible to understand one of them without the other, because they reveal and explain one another. While the universe can be compared to a book that is filled with multiple manifestations of God’s exalted names and attributes, which are displayed for all existence, the Qur’an can be compared to a manual that guides us through these manifestations on the path to finding God. Therefore, believers should make no distinction between the Qur’an and the universe. In short, the Qur’an and the universe can be called, if I may coin a term, books of coexistence.

In his writings, Nursi examines the universe in the way indicated by the Holy Qur’an, that is reading it for its meaning, learning The Divine Names and Attributes, and other truths of belief. The purpose of this book is to describe its Author and Maker, and to subscribe all evidence of life in the universe to their Creator. Thus, an important element when studying the writings of Nursi, the Risale-i Nur, is to reflect or contemplate, i.e. to ‘read the Book of the Universe in order to increase one’s knowledge of God and to affirm faith in His existence’. By using this method Bediuzzaman solves many mysteries of religion in the Risale-i Nur, such as bodily resurrection, Divine Destiny, man’s will, the riddle of the constant activity of the universe and the motion of particles.

Once one understands that the books of coexistence concept is the central point in Nursi’s philosophy, it is quite possible to see traces of that idea in all his works. In this essay, I will establish the connections between the books of coexistence and Nursi’s Concept of Prayer. This will serve as an appendage to Nursi’s writings on the Concept of Prayer.

The Idea of Prayer within the Books of Coexistence

According to Nursi’s perspective, existence is divided into two parts. The first is that of God, whose source of existence is Himself, while the second is the rest of all existence, created by God Himself. In other words, the first part is the Creator and the second is the creation. Since every single thing in the universe has a purpose, the entire universe must have a purpose too. The purpose of its existence is to display God’s attributes and to worship and praise Him. In that sense, even though the average person does not understand the prayer of creation in a profound way, everything, even every particle in the universe, worships and prays to God in its own language. Like all sentient beings, each particle says “In the name of God” at the start of a motion, and it raises loads infinitely exceeding its strength. For example, a tiny seed carries the weight of a huge pine tree. Upon completion of its duty, a particle says “All praise be to God.” By exhibiting an art that is beautiful and full of purpose and a beauty that is fine and beneficial, astounding to all minds, it displays a work of art like an ode in praise to the Glorious Maker.

In every facet of every motion of every single particle the light of Divine Unity shines like the sun. If a particle is not a representative of God, acting with His permission and under His authority, and if it is not undergoing change within His knowledge and limitless power, then it must have eyes that see everything, a face that looks to all things, and authority over all things. For every particle within each of the four elements acts, or can act, in an orderly fashion, in harmony with all animate beings. The order within things and laws according to which they are formed differ from one thing to the next. If this order was not known to the particles, the particles could not act, or even if they could act, they could not act without error. Nevertheless, we see that everything acts without any error. In which case, the particles which are performing their duties are either acting with the permission and the command, and within the knowledge and at the will of the Owner of an all-encompassing knowledge, or they themselves must have such an all-encompassing knowledge and power.¹

“Those in the heavens and on earth prostrate themselves to God willingly or unwillingly, and so do their shadows, mornings and evenings.” (Qur’an 13:15)”The seven heavens andthe earth, and all beings therein, declare His glory: there is nothing but celebrates His praise; And yet you understand not how they declare His glory! Verily He is All-Clement, Most Forgiving .”(Qur’an 17:44)

After stating Nursi’s point about the purpose of all beings, considering them as worshippers of God, it is then necessary to make clear that this point of view comes from the Qur’an. In other words, Nursi looks at nature, the universe, and the creation from the perspective of the Qur’anic verses. According to him, as the Qur’an is the revealed version of God’s created book, that is, of all of existence, one who desires the most beneficial knowledge concerning existence should read this revealed version. And this is what Nursi continuously does, even though sometimes he does not cite the Qur’an directly. In this sense, the following verses could be considered as the basis of what he takes from the Holy Book, the Qur’an:”Those in the heavens and on earth prostrate themselves to God willingly or unwillingly, and so do their shadows mornings and evenings.” (13/15) “See you not that to God bow down in worship all things that are in the heavens and on earth, -the sun, the moon, the stars; the hills, the trees, the animals; and a great number among mankind? …” (22/18) “And the herbs and the trees both prostrate themselves to God.” (55/6) “There is none in the heavens and the earth but comes unto the Most Gracious God as a worshiper.” (19/93) “The seven heavens and the earth, and all beings therein, declare His glory: there is no a thing but celebrates His praise; And yet you understand not how they declare His glory! Verily He is All-Clement, Most Forgiving.” (17/44) The Concept of Prayer in Nursi’s Works Nursi divides prayer into two main groups: The prayer of all existence, including human beings, and the prayer of human beings, the first of which is subdivided into four.

a. The Prayer of Movement and Cessation

According to Nursi, when we look casually at the universe, we can see that every particle is either moving or at rest. Each particle, be it moving or at rest, is working in an orderly fashion with the other particles in the universe. In other words, even though every particle is, at any given time, either moving or resting in a connected environment with all other particles, there is no chaos that can be observed in the universe. There can be two explanations for this situation; either every particle in the universe knows exactly when every other particle is going to move or cease moving and acts in a manner that takes these factors into account, or every single particle is a representative and worshiper of God, acting with His permission and under His authority, and saying “In the name of God” before every movement and “All praise be to God” before stopping and resting; that is, it is acting with the permission of God and in an orderly manner. Nursi finds the second explanation more reasonable than the first and he regards every movement and cessation of every single particle as a type of prayer; this prayer I have termed the prayer of movement and cessation.²

b. The Prayer of Ability

All creatures pray to God through their language of need. For instance, a sprouting seed prays to God and virtually says: “O my Lord! To be able to display Your Attributes and Names, I need to grow. Please make me grow and give me a chance to reflect your divine names in a detailed fashion. Allow me to become a tree.” Moreover, Nursi sees cause and effect as a prayer of ability. He gives the example of a seed again, and says that when water, the light of the sun, and soil come near a seed, they all pray to God to make the seed grow into a tree. As they do not have the power to make the seed into a tree, the only thing that they can do is to pray to God; they pray to God in their own languages. Therefore, water, sunlight and soil are not the true cause of the tree. As the Qur’an states, even if we do not understand their prayers and their worship, these things are no more than worshipers. The real cause of the tree is God. Otherwise, one would have to admit that water knows how to get help from the sun, and the sun knows the needs of the seed, and the seed knows how to grow into an orange or apple tree.

c. The Prayer of Need

Nursi says that every living being prays to God to get what it needs in the language of need. As living beings do not have the authority or the ability to get what they need, such as water, air, and light, with their own power, that is, they cannot create what they need, they must therefore pray to God in the language of need in order to attain what they require. When we look at nature, we can observe that living things get their needs in an appropriate season in an appropriate amount. They get water from the heavens at the appropriate time in the appropriate amount. They get light from the sun at the appropriate time in the appropriate amount. They get all the oxygen or carbon dioxide they need to breathe from the atmosphere. Does a tree have the power to make clouds bring rain? Does a flower have strength enough to command the sun to shine? Can an animal tell the trees to produce oxygen? Actually, the only power these things have is the power of the prayer of need.³

d. The Prayer of Inability

According to Nursi, when one is in a difficult situation, such as finding oneself in poverty or in distress, helpless, inadequate, or not able to change one’s situation, then this will lead to another kind of prayer, the prayer of inabi-lity. According to his perspective, if a living being is in a difficult situation, such as when a whale is beached and is unable to rescue itself, the inability of that creature becomes a form of prayer to God in its own language, begging to be rescued from the difficult situation.⁴ The best example we can select from the Risale-i Nur concerning the prayer of inability is the story of Jonah. As stated in the Qur’an, Jonah was sent to a town as a prophet. Preaching over many years, he realized that the people of the town were not going to believe him. He then left the town, without first asking the permission of God, and went to sea. While traveling, a hurricane came and he fell into the dark sea. After all these things had happened, he then recognized and accepted that no one could rescue him except God; he had no power to help himself. At that time, his inability, his weakness, his distress became a prayer and then a whale came and swallowed him. Finally, the whale spat him out on the land; it was a miraculous rescue. From Nursi’s point of view, neither Jonah nor the whale had the power to solve the problem. Nevertheless, Jonah’s distress was a prayer to God in its own language and God had the whale help him.⁵

The Prayer of Human Beings

a. The Prayer of the Tongue

The prayer of the tongue is a prayer of human beings in their own languages to attain what they need or what they seek. For instance, a sick person may say “O my Lord! I would love to be healthy,” and beg for such a cure from God. In which case, God will either give this person exactly what he/she was seeking, such as a cure, as he/she had requested, or whatever he/she needs, such as staying unhealthy, if being healthy and full of bodily desires may lead this person to a rebellious life style. Actually, the main purpose of prayer is merely to worship God, to establish a good relationship with Him, and to seek His good pleasure. The earthly effects of prayer are the unintentional effects of the prayer and God’s gifts to the worshiper. Because prayer is the main worship of God, there cannot be any intention in it except to please God. Therefore, the needs of the human being are secondary to the glorification of God. For instance, farmers pray to God for rain at a time of drought, or sailors pray to God when a storm strikes to seek the protection of God. Nevertheless, neither the rain nor the protection of God is the main purpose of such prayers. On the contrary, the drought is the correct time of prayer for farmers and the storm is the correct time of prayer for sailors. In short, every need of a human being is a right cause and time to pray to God and to establish a good relationship with him, but these are not the main purposes of the prayer.⁶

b. The Prayer of Conscious Action

Human beings always have a goal that they are trying to reach. Students attempt to pass their examinations, businessmen attempt to make greater profits, engineers seek to improve product quality, and so on. What these people have in common is that they are trying to attain their goals. Students study to pass the examinations, business men work harder to make greater profits, and engineers put greater effort into their work to produce better quality products. It is at this point that the prayer of conscious action emerges, according to Nursi. In his eyes, every action and the effort of every human being to reach their goal is a kind of prayer in the language of conscious action. The studying of students is a prayer to God in a special language, a prayer to help them pass their examinations, the efforts of businessmen are a prayer to God in a special language, a prayer to gain them greater profits, and the efforts of engineers are a prayer to God in a special language to improve product quality; all these actions are prayers addressed to God to help these people reach their goals.⁷ The roots of this concept are actually hidden in Nursi’s perspective of cause and effect.

Although Nursi’s ideas about cause and effect require a separate article to discuss them in detail, we can shed a little light on them here. Nursi has stated that the causes in nature cannot be the real causes of effects because the causes are not conscious of their effects. Moreover, they do not have the power to create the effects, and they do not always cause their effects. If it were otherwise, there would be as many different powers as there were causes. The result of this would necessarily be chaos in nature. However, the only reality in nature is unity. If there is unity in nature, there must be unity in power too. The only power is the power of God. Therefore, the real cause of the effects is God. Since the causes usually appear before the effects, people think that the cause dictates the effect. Nevertheless, there is no order of cause and effect, but there is just the previous and the next order. As this is the order that God put in nature, a human being must give importance to that order. If people do not respect and follow what God put in nature as an order, they will receive the punishment of nature, which is failure. In short, every action of every human being to reach his/her target is a kind of prayer to God, a prayer that shows respect to the order God has instilled in nature.⁸ In conclusion, Nursi looks at all of existence as a created existence, all of existence that is except God. Since there is just the Creator and the Creation, there can only be one type of relationship between them; this relationship is worship and prayer, and every scene witnessed in nature is a different sort of prayer. As stated in the Qur’an: “The seven heavens and the earth and all that is therein, glorify Him and there is not a thing but glorifies His Praise. But you understand not their glorification. Truly, He is All-Clement, Most Forgiving.” (17/44)

Footnotes

1. Sozler, Nursi, Said, Envar Nesriyat, Istanbul, 1989, pp. 547-548.
2. Ibid, p. 549.
3. Mektubat, Nursi, Said, Istanbul, Envar Nesriyat, 1991, p.299.
4. Ibid., pp.299-300.
5. Ibid., p.300.
6. Lem’alar, Nursi, Said, Istanbul, Envar Nesriyat, 1990, pp.7-10.
7. Sozler, Nursi, Said, p.318.
8. Ibid., p.318.

As human beings, we experience many situations that we do not expect and in which we do not feel comfortable. Sometimes we are criticized by others, caught by illness, exposed to unjust treatment, abandoned, imprisoned, or subjected to other unpleasant experiences. Some people may even lose everything they have. Most people become annoyed, depressed, or frustrated under such circumstances. Others, who have managed to look at life and events from a different perspective, can meet such incidents with patience, tolerance, and courage. They consider these events as warning signs that help them to stay on the right track, or they take on these situations to help them hone their skills and to help resist any current or future problems that they may encounter. As a matter of fact, the interpretation of incidents is a context related issue, and it is up to us to define the borders of the context.

Everything in the Universe is Beautiful

Everything, even things which appear ugly, has a beautiful aspect. In the universe, every incident is beautiful either by itself or because of its results. Although some occurrences seem unattractive and confusing, behind these appearances lie a hidden cause and a covert beauty. Who can point at a futile, unnecessary and unintentional creation in the Universe? Look inside the atom, examine the structure of the cell, study the human body, think about the ecosystem, the solar system, and the infinite space that we live in and ask yourself: Which one of these is futile, accidental or unintentional? We all know that a beautiful spring will follow a cold and blustery winter. For that reason, without merely looking at its cold face, we try to see the beauty inside winter and we try to imagine the beauty that will come after winter. If we cannot see that aspect, then winter is indeed a miserable season. Have you ever encountered people swearing at the wind and the rain? Without thinking about their real functions and benefits, such people get angry with the rain and the wind and swear at these wonderful phenomena because of the trifling harm they cause to their personal comfort. They draw the borders of the context according to their interests only, and interpret events from that narrow and shallow context.

Actually, bad results may follow a good event, while good results may occur after a bad incident. In the Quran, God states, œSomething that you do not like might be good for you, or something that you like might be bad for you. You are not able to know this; however, God knows.(2/216) Many times we have heard from others or we have personal experience that something that we wish to happen does not materialize; however, we eventually realize that the result was the most beneficial for us. Likewise, our memories are full of events which, at the beginning, we did not want to occur, but afterwards we came to understand that they were, ultimately, for the good.

We should not forget that we can obtain good results from our personal perception of events, i.e., from our perspective, our prayers, and our consciousness. Destiny looks at the true causes, yet we humans base our decision-making process on visible, tangible reasons. This divergence is the main reason why we at times can find it difficult to comprehend the justice of destiny.

Do Not Judge a Book by its Cover

History is full of great successes that followed desperate events. One example is the Hudaybiya Agreement that was signed between the first Muslims living in

Madina and the people of Makka, who hated the Muslims and who did not want them to visit Makka for pilgrimage. The signing of this agreement happened six years after the emigration from Makka to Madina. At the time of the agreement the Muslims were resting at Hudaybiya on their way to Makka to visit the Ka’ba. Those who had not accepted Islam did not want the Muslims to visit Makka. After several talks between representatives from both sides, the Hudaybiya Agreement was signed and the Prophet of the Muslims and the people around him had to return to Madina.

According to the agreement, those displaced Muslims who had moved from Madina to Makka and who were living in Makka at that time would not be released while the displaced people who had moved from Makka to Madina would be returned, even if they had become Muslims. Abu Jandal, a young Muslim who had left Makka to escape the torture his father had inflicted on him for choosing Islam appealed to the Prophet not to send him back to Makka. His father was the signatory of the agreement, representing the people of Makka. He said, œThis is the first person that you will return to us in accord with the agreement. It was a very hard decision for the Prophet to make. Umar, one of his closest friends and the second caliph after him, asked the Prophet why, if he was the genuine Prophet sent by God, did Abu Jandal have to be returned to Makka. Abu Jandal was crying and pleading: œAre you sending me back to be hurt and tortured? The Prophet was sure that God would never harm them and whispered to him, œBe patient for a while. Try to endure what you will be exposed to and ask God to be rewarded in return. It is certain that God will create a way out for you and the other Muslims who have no protector there. We can not break our promise given in the Agreement.

After the signing of the agreement, many Muslims from Makka, including Abu Basir, wanted to come to Madina. However, the Prophet did not allow them to, saying œA prophet never refutes his promise! Abu Basir found a place named Iss to live in after being denied entry to Madina. Other Muslims who had fled Makka also moved to Iss. The people of Makka were worried about this development and after a while they asked the Prophet to accept the Muslims in Iss. Thus, these Muslims, who were not to have been allowed to go join the other Muslims in Madina were finally given permission to do as they had wished, and the most irritating article of the Hudaybiya Agreement had now been nullified at the request of the very people who had created it, the disbelievers of Makka.

At the beginning, the Hudaybiya Agreement was perceived as being against the interests of the Muslims. On the other hand, this agreement stipulated that both sides would not fight for the following ten years. They put down their swords and enjoyed an environment that was conducive to dialogue. This situation helped the Muslims to express their beliefs. The people of Makka found an opportunity to learn about Islam and to closely monitor the Muslims and their daily practices, and to become aware of their honesty and righteousness. Important persons, like Khalid ibn Walid, a successful military leader, and Amr ibn al-˜As, a political mastermind, accepted Islam, in which they had earlier refused to believe, perceiving acceptance of this religion as capitulation to the force of the sword. Two years following the agreement, the number of the people who had accepted Islam outnumbered the Muslims that had accepted Islam in the first 20 years of Islam.

As can be seen from the above example from Islamic history, an event or situation that appears to be negative or destructive can result in a positive outcome. The Muslims of Makka were forbidden from joining the Prophet in Madina, but taking the situation in their own hands they changed their fate. The ultimate outcome was that, due to the ten years peace that followed the agreement, the number of people who came to believe in Islam increased more than it would have done had conflict continued. When one finds oneself in a negative or unpromising situation one should not despair; the result is never certain. This is a great part of faith “ we should not judge a situation and give up hope, we must always have faith in God, for He has our best interests at heart.

THE FOUNTAIN: What are the general views of religions toward war?

Dr. Petriano: One could say that in general the world’s religions all preach and promote peace. An example of this can be seen in the gathering of religious leaders from all over the world that took place in Assisi, Italy on January 14, 2002. Religious leaders from all the world’s major religions gathered there to pray and exchange views on how the world’s religions could be a more vital and unified force for peace. One of their commonly agreed upon goals was ‘to proclaim our firm conviction that violence and terrorism are incompatible with the authentic spirit of religion, and, as we condemn every recourse to violence and war in the name of God or of religion, we commit ourselves to doing everything possible to eliminate the root causes of terrorism.’ This was a profoundly important statement agreed upon unanimously by Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and several other religious leaders from around the world.

THE FOUNTAIN: Even though, in general, religions do not counsel ‘war’ unless absolutely necessary in the case of defense, how do you interpret war, including the current terrorism?

Dr. Petriano: My thoughts on this subject are influenced by a recent book by a historian from the University of Notre Dame, R. Scott Appleby. His book is titled, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence, and Reconciliation. He correctly points out that there is, historically speaking, what can be called some sort of ambivalence within religions when it comes to questions of war and peace. On the one hand, religions teach and promote peace, but yet, historically religious passion and zealotry have also been strong factors behind many of the great conflicts of the past and present. Examples of this kind of militancy in the name of God or religious principles are numerous and can be found in many religions. Part of this has to do with what happens when political, ethnic, or nationalist agendas make use of religion or religious values to advance what is really a political or nationalist goal. Another reason has to do with forgetfulness or a convenient neglect of the basic principles and teachings of various religions. You might call this a ‘selective’ reading of the various scriptures, for example, the Bible or the Holy Qur’an, in a way that justifies violence in the name of a religious principle or value. Most of the religions also do have ‘just war’ teachings. Many times, however, I am afraid that these teachings can be invoked in a way that is not consistent with the reasons for which they were first devised.

THE FOUNTAIN: What can ordinary people, from the perspective of their faith, do to prevent wars?

Dr. Petriano: This is an excellent question. I think ordinary people can actually do a great deal. There is a song called ‘Let there be peace on earth.’ One line of the song is, ‘and let it begin with me’. I think peace must begin with each of us. First of all we must learn to find peace in our own hearts. I think religion can help us find that ‘inner peace’. Secondly, we must learn to not just ‘tolerate’, but to genuinely respect people who are different from each other ‘ whether that difference be religious, ethnic, economic or racial. Is this not what Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha and the great Jewish prophets all taught, peace be upon them all? We have to be willing to reach out to others. It is only when we do so that we can begin to realize how alike we really are. Maybe what we are most afraid of is not our differences, but rather our similarities. I would say that ordinary people have a responsibility to be well informed. Fear comes from ignorance, and it is fear that ultimately is the cause of violence. By ‘well informed’, I mean both historically and religiously. Education is central. I teach a course in World Religions here at St. Josephs College, and it amazes me and my students how little we know about other people’s religious beliefs and how much of what we think is based on false stereotypes. The more we learn, the more we realize how similar we are. We cannot stay isolated. By education, I also mean it is important for religions and nations to know and admit the mistakes they have made in the past.

THE FOUNTAIN: Even though people’s lives are affected greatly by war and disasters, can people be tolerant enough to forget all such events? If so, how can this be done?

Dr. Petriano: This is where I think religion has a vital role to play. Religion and religious leaders can exercise a great deal of influence in society, and all the great religions teach forgiveness and reconciliation as important values. One thinks of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa as an example of how an appeal to religious values can have a vital role in helping a society come together after a long history of violence, hatred and torture. Forgiveness and reconciliation are key. There are some very good models of conflict resolution out there, and just as religious passion can sometimes ignite violence, I believe, it can also be used to promote peace and reconciliation.

THE FOUNTAIN: What can we do to stop people losing their lives in wars and disasters?

Dr. Petriano: All loss of life is tragic. In the case of war, it seems so unnecessary. One would like to think that at the beginning of the third millennium, human beings would be able to solve their conflicts without having to resort to war. It seems that this is a possible, desirable and necessary goal. We have to use our intelligence to find ways other than building bigger and more destructive weapons. Dr. Martin Luther King once said that in the modern world the choice is no longer between war and peace but rather that it is between peace and nonexistence. I believe that he was right. It is the very existence of our world that is at stake. We have to find a better way!

THE FOUNTAIN: What do you think about a dialogue between different faiths? How should people from different cultures interact with one another and learn? What methods should be utilized? Do you think it is possible that wars and disasters can bring people together, make them closer, making their faith stronger rather than breaking them apart?

Dr. Petriano: Yes, absolutely. One of the many vivid memories I have of the aftermath of 9/11 was an interfaith prayer service that took place the following week at the Yankee Stadium. There, representatives of all the great religions gathered for a memorial service. They all offered a prayer on the basis of their religious tradition. It was a wonderful moment of religious unity and solidarity, the likes of which I had never seen before. Ever since then, there have been many more efforts, especially among Muslims, Christians, and Jews, to meet to discuss, interact and learn from each other. This has been a good thing, and it must continue. Dialogue is important. Mutual respect is important. I think people getting together, even just socially, can be a good thing. We all like to associate with people who are like us. It is important to provide occasions where people of different faiths can come together and meet one another. I also think participating, to what degree possible, in one another’s religious services can also be a good thing. I have begun the practice of taking students from my World Religions class to a local mosque for Friday prayer. In the beginning the students were a little reluctant to go, but the experience has proven to be a very positive one. The mosque has been very welcoming, and students gain a new respect and deeper understanding for Islam. I think we must do more of these sort of things.

THE FOUNTAIN: What do you think about the power of the media today and how it is being used to form the opinions of people around the globe?

Dr. Petriano: Yes, the media is very powerful and influential. In the United States there is a danger today of the emergence of a few large communications conglo- merates that will control the majority of media outlets. The danger is that people will be exposed to a limited point of view. Also, the media is not always good at reporting issues that have to do with religion. I find that their staff is not always sufficiently knowledgeable about religion and the various religions and that sometimes reports are made in generalities that do not always promote genuine and accurate understanding. Many times, unfortunately, it is news of disasters or controversies that sell a lot.

THE FOUNTAIN: Do you think Armageddon theories in different faiths play a role in current issues?

Dr. Petriano: Armageddon theories do have a role to play in current issues. They are especially prominent among Christian fundamentalists who have read Revelation, which is the last book of the Bible, in a very literal way. In such a literal reading of Revelation, the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ will be preceded by a great battle between the forces of good and evil. This battle is referred to as Armageddon. According to this interpretation, the Second Coming of Christ will occur only when the Jewish people have re-established control of the Holy Land. It is for this reason that some fundamentalist groups have given unqualified support to this goal. I want to stress that this point of view is not held by all Christians. It is found primarily among fundamentalists. The majority of Christians do not share this kind of thinking or this interpretation of the Book of Revelation. I personally do not think this way of thinking is helpful to the world situation today.

THE FOUNTAIN: Being involved in the education community yourself, what are your observations regarding the general level of knowledge about other faiths and cultures of the average American student population?

Dr. Petriano: I think a lot of work needs to be done in this area. In general, students are not well informed about any religious beliefs or traditions other than their own. That is why education is so important; not only education in the classroom, but providing opportunities for people of different religions and cultures to meet and get to know one another.

THE FOUNTAIN: What are the main reasons, as you see them, for Sufism being so popular in the USA?

Dr. Petriano: I believe that Sufism is attractive to many because of its emphasis on universality and its teachings of tolerance and peace. It offers a teaching that stresses what all human beings have in common rather than what separates them. Also, its mysticism responds to a hunger that many people have for spiritual connection. I think people, especially in our fast paced and technological society have a need and hunger for genuine spiritual experiences.

A: Involuntary evil thoughts, fancies, or associations of ideas usually are the result of Satan’s interference. Just as a battery has two poles, there are two central points to our hearts. These two poles work like the two poles of a battery; one receives angelic inspirations, while the other is susceptible to the suggestions of Satan.

Satan attacks those believers who are trying to increase their belief and devotion. If such believers are scrupulous and sincere in their feelings, then Satan attacks them from all directions. When dealing with disbelievers, who follow Satan voluntarily in the indulgences of their whims and desires, he whispers to them strange and abnormal ideas. In this way, he encourages their disbelief and learns new ways to struggle against the true religion and to waylay all believers.

Satan attacks us from all directions:

When Satan was cursed by God for his disobedience, Satan asked for respite until the Day of Judgment, also desiring permission to try to lead human beings astray in the meantime. God granted this request, and Satan then replied: Then I shall come upon them from before them and from behind them and from their right and from their left, and you will not find most of them grateful (7:17).

Satan does everything he can to mislead us. As God manifests all of His Names on us in this testing world, we are very complex beings. We have been sent here to be trained and developed into a mirror of God, and in this way to earn eternal happiness. In order to do this, we must train and develop all of our God-given feelings, skills, and abilities. If we do not bring all of these under control (e.g., our intellect, temper, greed, obstinacy, and lust) nor direct them toward lofty goals, but rather allow these feelings to be abused for disagreeable purposes, our present and future life will endangered. This is also true if we do not bring our natural animal desires under control by satisfying them in ways acceptable to God.

Approaching us from our left, Satan employs our animal instincts and faculties to tempt us into sin. When he approaches us from the front, he drives us to despair over the future, he whispers that the Day of Judgment will never come, that whatever religions say about the Hereafter is no more than mere fiction, and that religion belongs to the past and therefore is irrelevant to our present and future. When he comes upon us from behind, he tries to make us deny the Prophethood, the existence of God and His Unity, the Divine Scriptures, angels, and other fundamental matters of belief. Through such whispers and suggestions, Satan tries to sever our connections with religion and steer us toward sin.

Satan cannot use these means to seduce believers who are devout and believing. Rather, he approaches such believers from the right side and encourages them to be ostentatious and proud, to take pride in their virtues and their good deeds. He whispers to them that they are the best of believers, until feelings of conceit and desire for praise take over in the person. When such a point is reached, these believers begin their journey on the road to perdition. For example, if a believer prays the superrogatory prayer at night and then boasts that he/she has done so in the hopes that others will praise him/her, or if a believer begins to take credit for his/her accomplishments and good deeds while criticizing others behind their backs, then such a person has fallen under the influence of Satan. We must do our best to resist Satan when he comes upon us from this direction.

Another of Satan’s ruses is to make trivial things seem important and vice versa. If believers dispute with each other over trivial matters (e.g., using prayer beads when glorifying God after the daily prescribed prayers), ignoring the fact that their children are being dragged along the road of disbelief and materialism, or that their children are drowning in the swamp of immorality, this is an indication that Satan has successfully seduced them.

Satan suggests disagreeable thoughts and desires:

When Satan fails to seduce devout believers he then whispers disagreeable thoughts and desires to them. For example, through the association of ideas, he pushes believers toward developing negative concepts of the Divine Being or of contemplating disbelief or disobedience. When believers dwell on such thoughts, Satan then will pester them until doubt springs up about their beliefs or until they despair of living a virtuous life.

Another ruse Satan employs is to cause good, devout believers to suspect the correctness or validity of their religious acts. For example a believer may ask him/herself: Did I pray correctly? Did I wash my face and hands thoroughly while making my wudu’? Have I washed the correct parts of my body the correct number of times? Believers who are pestered by such involuntary thoughts, whims, and doubts should know that their hearts play no role in these questions. Just like thieves who attempt to rob the wealthy and strong countries that try to control resource-rich countries, so Satan makes a last-ditch attempt to seduce believers by troubling their hearts.

We can compare such an attack to a person who has high tempera-ture. We know that the antibodies that are formed in the blood of an ill person inhibit or destroy harmful bacteria or germs. This is what causes the temperature of the body to rise. Similarly, a heart troubled by Satan’s evil suggestions defends itself by struggling against them. Thus, it is not the heart that generates such thoughts, nor does the heart approve of these thoughts, nor adopt them. A reflection of something unclean is not itself unclean, and it cannot make others unclean. In the same way, thinking about disbelief is not the same thing as actual disbelief.

We might even say that Satan’s evil suggestions are actually of benefit to believers, for they cause us to remain alert, to struggle against our carnal selves and against Satan, and to progress toward ever-higher spiritual ranks.

How to Keep Free of Satanic Suggestions

In fact, the guile of Satan is not great (4:76). It is like a cobweb that appears in your pathit cannot prevent you from progressing, and you should not attach any great importance to it. Satan only suggests or whispers, he dresses up sinful acts as something desirable, presenting them in cheap, shiny paper. Believers must never accept his invitation. When Satan resorts to whispering, we should realize that he is using his least powerful weapon and ignore him. If we pay attention to these distractions, we may be defeated. Like a commander whose fear causes him to hallucinate and dispatch his soldiers to the front, leaving the flanks exposed, believers who listen to Satan weaken their ability to resist not only him, but their carnal selves. In the end, these are the believers who are defeated.

Believers who want to avoid this trap should distance themselves from sins, all of which Satan tries to make attractive. Heedlessness and the neglect of ones worship open the way to Satan’s “arrows”: If anyone withdraws himself (or herself) from remembrance of the All-Merciful, We assign unto him (or her) a devil as a comrade (43:36).

In order to protect ourselves from Satans attacks we should remember the All-Merciful, think about holy and blessed events, and try to live a pious life. If you hear Satan whispering to you, then seek refuge in God. He is All-Hearing, All-Knowing. Those who fear God and ward off (evil) when a passing notion from Satan troubles them, they remember, and behold, they see (7:200“1).

The Messenger advised: “If you become angry while standing, sit down; if you are sitting, lie down or stand up and make wudu’.” Once while returning from a military expedition, the Prophet called for a halt in a certain place. His companions were so tired that they slept through the dawn prayer. When everyone awoke, the Prophet said that they should leave immediately, for “Satan rules here”. The Prophet also said that Satan flees when the call to prayer is heard.

Satan also uses indecent thoughts and events to lead believers astray. He torments us by enticing us with illicit pleasures. On such occasions, we must remind ourselves that indulging in any such pleasure will engender remorse and may endanger both our present and future lives. We must never forget that life in this world is no more than a passing toy, a comforting illusion, and that the real or true life is that of the Hereafter. When some Companions hesitated to take part in the summer expedition to Tabuk because of the scorching heat, God warned them: The heat of Hell is much more intense, if they would but understand (9:81).

When Satan whispers evil thoughts, believers should realize that he is at his weakest and that he can be ignored. Dwelling on such thoughts only exaggerates and aggravates our weakness and susceptibilities. We also must avoid being careless and be sure that we do not neglect any aspect of our worship; such oversights attract the attention of Satan. If we remember the All-Merciful, focus on holy and blessed events and live a pious life, then will we be able to resist Satans call.

This work by M. Fethullah Gulen is a continuation of a long tradition of books and articles promoting the cause of serving society through the advancement of universal education. Fethullah Gulen is a widely known and respected Turkish scholar, religious leader, educator, and social reformer, whose values stem from his Islamic faith, and whose overriding interest is in the well-being of Muslims as well as all of mankind. Fethullah Gulen’s many life experiences including a teaching post in Edirne Turkey, and those acquired throughout his life within his faith, have contributed to his understanding of the role of education in shaping the world we live in. His corresponding beliefs that tyranny can be eliminated and justice achieved through education for all mankind are copiously illustrated in this and all of his former works.

Readers in the United States and other western countries will discover many comments, shaped by Fethullah Gulen’s wealth of knowledge and experience that are colored by the filter of his own education, culture, religious beliefs, and national origin. These readers can best benefit from his breathtaking perspective, and depth of understanding, by exercising tolerance and acceptance of his background and life experiences. Indeed, Fethullah Gulen has much wisdom to offer those who are truly willing to contemplate his message.

Obvious to any reader familiar with the works of Fethullah Gulen, the overall intent of this book is to both inform and guide readers in their daily lives Some chapters of this book are titled; The Spiritual Life; The Personal Life; Family; Society; Social Interaction. Fethullah Gulen divides each chapter into several subject areas, and in each subject area he provides several short and to-the-point comments (pearls) designed to provoke thought and shape the understanding, and resultant actions, of his readers.

For an example related to politics; in chapter seven, “Government”, in the subject area of “Republic”, Fethullah Gulen writes: “The Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, did not claim kingship, and his four immediate political successors followed his example. Kingship appeared when people grew remote from the Islamic spirit, and eventually this digression became a vehicle for oppression and despotism.” This is indeed an interesting pearl, for it contains wise commentary regarding the his- torical development of politics in the Islamic world, and helps us understand the root cause of many of the problems faced by modern day Muslims. It may also help guide some modern day Islamic countries in developing policies and practices that will lead them out of the political, economic, and cultural quagmires they may be experiencing at this time.

Another example, this time related to the science of metaphysics, can be found in chapter nine, “Ideal People”, in the subject area of “Pearls of Wisdom”: “Matter has no comprehension, consciousness, feeling, or will. It is comprised only of some laws and particles (used to form things). What an embarrassing mistake it is to count it as the essence of existence.” Fascinating insight that encourages us to critically examine the values we and our cultures have adopted regarding the worth and value of property and objects.

In Pearls of Wisdom Fethullah Gulen has assembled an awesome collection of wise thoughts and arranged them in logical subject areas in order that we can use them to examine our lives and benefit from his wisdom. There are literally hundreds of pearls in this book, and every one of them requires our immediate attention.