Termites, one of the most common insects in the ecosystem, have very interesting specifications and social behaviors. These insects are of interest due to their ability to digest cellulose and to recycle organic foods found in rotten leaves, dead wood or wood chips. Although they are considered by some to be harmful to the economy-in the USA alone 600 million dollars every year-because they eat wood, in truth they bring about more benefit than harm. As a result of the activities of these insects, our forests are able to respire and regenerate. Termites break down old, decayed, and fallen trees, digesting them and thus helping nature to renew with a continuous circulation of vital substances. Despite the depth of information that is known about the ecological and economical importance of termites, only a little is known about their biological structure and behavior. Two characteristic features of these insects are that they live in social colonies and that they are very susceptible to infections, as they build their nests in soil or rotten wood. Since their environment is covered with damp and warm earth, they are also surrounded by an abundance of bacteria.

How termites arrange their social lives and how they protect themselves against illness are two main subjects being investigated by biological scientists. When termites encounter fatal fungal infections, the termites that first become aware of the disease start to send warning signals to the other members of the colony. Even at the cost of their lives, these members will continue to send warning signals. That is, for the health and prosperity of the whole society, some individuals of the group will sacrifice their own lives. One of these signals consists of the contractions and vibrations sent by the termite that caught the disease. One type of termite that makes its nest in wood starts to eat and destroy its nest when it catches an infection. The vibrations and sound of this activity are received by the other members of the colony, and they quickly realize that they are faced with an emergency situation. They then spring into action to move their nest to a more secure place. These communication experts exhibit different movements and behavior in order to inform others of different kinds of dangers. They use different methods to warn others about the existence of an intruder, or a hole in the nest, or a disease they have caught. Consequently, the vibrations and oscillations caused by the movements of the termites constitute a kind of Morse code for termites. In other words, termites talk to each other through these oscillations and vibrations, which to us appear as no more than a strange puzzle for us.

J. Traniello from Boston University investigated the communication systems termites use to inform each other about disease-making microorganisms as his research subject (Mechanisms of Disease Response in Termites) . He made a rectangular shaped Perspex (clear acrylic) nest which he has divided into two sections. The material used for the divisions allowed the termites to pass from side to side. Moreover, some tubes were also placed around the nest so that the termites could leave the nest. He placed termites in both of the sections. After an adaptation period, one part of the nest was infected by spores of a fatal fungus called Metahizium anisopliae, with the change in the behavior of the insects being observed and recorded. Termites that sensed the infected parts of the section started to move their bodies up and down and back and forth, as if they were breathing deeply and continued to depict seismic waves like oscillations and vibrations. Termites in the clean part of the nest felt these vibrations and within an hour had completely abandoned the nest. An interesting observation in the experiment was that the termites in the infected part stayed in the nest and continued to vibrate. In order to determine that the termites left the nest only after receiving the vibrations sent by the termites that had detected the infection, sound absorbent foams were placed between the sections, and the same experiment was carried out three times more. In the experiments conducted with the absorbent foam, despite the existence of the disease, the termites in the uninfected sections did not leave the nest. This proves that termites were receiving the vibrations from the infected termites and were replying to them by immediately deserting the nest.

It was thought that the termites in the infected area would also leave the nest after sending messages to the termites in the other section. This hypothesis, however, proved to be false. They stayed where they were and continued sending warning signals until they died. This was another example of the sacrifice observed in social insects that give up their own lives for the continuation of their society. The termite perceives the existence of a fatal bacteria attack and immediately starts to send warning signals; and by not abandoning their nest, they successfully put into effect a quarantine system. These social insects, without any intelligence, apply the quarantine system in such a precise manner that the disease is completely prevented from spreading. What is more, by sacrificing themselves for their society, they show that the principle of “if a person’s endeavor is for his nation, that person becomes a miniature nation on his own” is not only valid for human beings.

Ants, using a different method than termites, synthesize bacteria eliminating chemicals in their saliva glands that protect them from infectious diseases. These chemical combinations are very effective against bacteria and fungi. Ants protect themselves by covering their bodies with these substances at certain intervals. Termites, although in appearance not very different from ants, do not produce antiseptic substances in their bodies. Termites use a different strategy by establishing a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria that live in their intestines. Some termites that feed on decayed wood need enzymes to digest the cellulose. The cellulose needed by termites is synthesized by the bacteria in their intestines and turned into sugar. Thus, termites receive the glucose they need for survival and bacteria are provided with a comfortable berth in the bodies of the termites. Because of this symbiotic relationship, the production of fatal antibiotics that would kill the bacteria would be harmful to the termites themselves.

Instead of producing chemical compounds or antibiotics like ants, the seismic movements and self-sacrificing behavior depicted by the termites has given scientists the idea that it may be possible to benefit from termites as an early warning system for earthquakes. This idea is reflected in the Holy Qur’an, chapter Naml (The Ant), verse 18:

Until, when they reached a valley of ants, one of the ants said: “O you ants! Get into your dwellings lest Solomon and his army crush you unawares.”

This verse shows us the sensitivity of ants to vibrations. They have organs in their feet that are sensitive to movement. For one of those ants to have been able to warn the other ants, it must either have seen or sensed the coming of Prophet Solomon’s army. As obviously an ant cannot see an army coming from a long distance, they must have felt the vibrations made by the feet of the soldiers. We know that sound waves move very fast and are strong in solid objects. Because of this, by placing an ear onto railway track one can hear the vibrations of a train from far away. Termites most likely have an organ that receives vibrations that is similar to that of ants, because if a species can produce a signal (e.g. light, sound, or vibrations) for communication, they must also have an organ that is capable of receiving this signal. Since termites communicate with vibrations, they must also have an organ that is sensitive to weak vibrations. From this respect, if the code that is based upon some of the behaviors and vibrations used by the termites can be decoded, then are techniques of predicting earthquakes can be considerably improved.

The Prophet Muhammad is like the core of all the good deeds, prosperity and divine blessing. He is the unfailing, unerring guide, the exemplar to be taken as a model by all, and the one who leads to the Right Path, who establishes the best methods to serve God and mankind and thus ushers a new era to enable human beings to live humanely.

He is the means, appointed by God, to take people out of darkness to the light. Accordingly, he will be given the equal of the reward earned by the good deeds of his community. In accordance with the principle “one who causes is like the doer,”¹ the same amount of reward for the good and righteous deeds done by his people will go on being written in his book of reward till the Day of Judgment.

To the Prophet belongs the Maqam al-Mahmud, the praised position or rank assigned to him as intercessor in the Day of Judgment. His book of reward will not be closed from the time of his death. Rather, abundance of good works and pious deeds will be added to it, his rank will increase ever higher, the scope of his intercession will expand further,² and thus, as God wills, he will have a right to intercede for greater numbers, masses, of the people of his community. For this reason, we will look at this question from two different angles:

First, by uttering the formula calling God’s benediction on the Prophet, we renew our oath to the Prophet and the desire to belong among his community. That is, we say: “We remembered and thought of you as our Prophet and prayed God to increase your worth and degree, and we join and relate ourselves to you.” Since our prayer is made with the intention that God will increase the degree of esteem of the owner of the Maqam al-Mahmud, his sphere of intercession will expand and thus many more people will be able to benefit from his intercession on the Day of Judgment.

Secondly, one’s prayer to God that the Prophet’s rank be increased is a means to be taken under the protection of the Prophet and thus one’s hope of intercession is enlarged. That is why it is we, rather than the Prophet, who are in need of invoking God’s blessings and peace upon him. By doing so we acknowledge the Prophet as the Prophet, his greatness and authority, and, at the same time we acknowledge our smallness, our nothingness, our need for belonging to his community. Just as a person can regard the state of which he is a subject or citizen as potent to assist him in case of need or danger, so do we stand in need, on account of our incompetence, poverty, and the anxiety of a terrible Day of Reckoning-even now, in advance, we can feel the oncoming, shock of that Day- of the refuge and safety of the Prophet, and we seek that refuge through our invocations, inform him of our present state and give him a petition to be remembered.

May God honor us with the intercession of His Prophet, the one who has by God’s leave, the widest right of intercession on the Day of Reckoning. Reflect, too, on the good news that God allows to every Prophet something that he may pass on to his people. When the other Prophets were granted the right to ask something for their peoples, they all asked for something in this world. But the Prophet said: “I left what I would give to my people to the Hereafter, and that is my intercession.”³

Notes

1. Muslim, Imara, 133; Tirmidhi, Ilm, 14; Abu Dawud, Adab, 115.
2. Bukhari, Adhan, 8; Abu Dawud, Salat, 38.
3. Bukhari, Tafsir al-Sura, (17) 5, Tayammum, 1; Muslim, Iman, 326-327, Masajid, 3

People of heart are monuments of humility and modesty who are devoted to a spiritual life, determined to stay away from all the material and spiritual dirt, always vigilant to corporeal desires of the body, and ready to struggle with such evils as hatred, resentment, greed, jealousy, selfishness and lust. They always endeavor to give what is right the highest esteem, to convey to others what they feel about this world, as well as the next, and they are always patient and cautious. People of faith and action who, rather than talking and making noise, live as they believe, present an exemplary personality for others. Such people move on, never pausing, teaching those who are walking toward God how to do so. Inside, they have a pyre that can never be extinguished. Yet, in order not to disclose this painful burning inside, such people never complain to others. As such, they are constantly emitting heat to the spirits of those who seek shelter in them.

A longing for the transcendent realms is evident in the eyes of people of heart. Dedicated to the consent of God, they are such people of progress and of struggle with distances that they run like a purebred Arabian steed until they reach their Beloved One, without expecting, in the meantime, anything in return.

People of heart are such sincere adherents of the truth that all they think of is to stabilize the justice on earth and they are willing, when it comes to His consent, to give up their own desires and wishes. They open their hearts to everyone, welcoming them affectionately, and appearing as an angel of preservation in society. Regarding their deeds and attitudes, they try to be compatible with everybody, they try to avoid vicious competition with others, and they avoid resentment. Even though such people make choices from time to time in favor of their convictions, beliefs, methods and ways, they do not compete with others. On the contrary, they love all who serve in the name of their religion; they love their country and their ideals. Furthermore, they give generously to other people in pursuit of positive activities and they try to show as much respect as possible to the philosophy and ideas that other people adopt.

Along with such endeavors and activities, people of heart who are seeking ways to incur His help also give utmost importance to God’s aid and assistance. They pay particular attention to union and solidarity, which are considered a means of God’s aid. They are ready, wholeheartedly, to cooperate with anybody who is on the straight path. Moreover, for such an understanding of union, they, in spite of themselves, follow a path. Believing that union incurs mercy, and dissension and disunion lead nowhere, such people do their best to gain the help and good will of all, ever receptive to showers of Divine aid.

People of heart are lovers of God, and devoted seekers of God’s consent. They connect their deeds to His pleasure, regardless of the circumstances. They display great ambition to please Him, and are willing for the sake of this purpose to use or abandon all that they possess-of this world or not. There is never any room in the realm of their thoughts for unpleasant expressions like “I did it,” “I succeeded,” or “I managed it.” Such people take pleasure in the fulfillment of the tasks of others, as if they had carried such actions out themselves, they take the same amount of pleasure in such achievements as if it were their own and they follow humbly after these people, leaving also the honor and the title of leading to them. What is more, as they consider others to be more eligible and successful in serving religion and humanity, they provide other people with more comfortable facilities, and, taking a step back, continue in their service as an “ordinary person.”

People of heart are too busy fighting their selves and their misdemeanors to be interested in the misdeeds of others. In contrast, they set an example to others of what a good person should be, leading others to attain higher horizons. They turn a blind eye to what other people may do wrong. Responding with a smile to those who have displayed negative attitudes, such people nullify bad behavior with kindness, not thinking to hurt anybody, even when they have been hurt over and over again.

For the man of heart, a soldier of the reality that has been devoted to gaining God’s good pleasure with feelings, ideas and deeds, the first priority is to lead a life based on perfect faith and equipped with sincerity. Thus, it is unlikely that such a person will be dissuaded from reaching their goal, even if they were offered the heavens in addition to the world.

People of heart never compete with those who bear the same ideals and who walk on the same path, nor do they envy them. In contrast, they complete what has been left incomplete by others, and, when interacting with other people, they treat them as if they were as closely connected as organs of the same body. With a complete understanding of renunciation, pushing their counterparts into the limelight, in every earthly as well as unearthly matter, they withdraw to the background. They act as spokespersons for the accomplishments of others, applauding them and welcoming their achievements with the same joy that they feel on a festival.

Relying to a great extent on method and manner, people of heart conduct all of their acts in accordance with their nature. They try, however, to remain respectful to the acts and thoughts of others. They are able to live harmoniously and to share, developing common projects. They struggle to replace the word “I” with the word “we.” Above all, they sacrifice their happiness for that of others. In so doing, they never expect any appreciation or respect from anyone. They even think that such expectations are a form of moral corruption and, thus, they avoid appearing in the limelight, they avoid fame and fortune, much as they would a snake or a scorpion, hoping only to be soon forgotten.

People of heart do not violate the rights of any other people, nor do they seek revenge. Even in the most critical circumstances, they tend to behave calmly, and do whatever a person of heart should do to the utmost. They always reply to evil acts with kindness, and, considering badness to be a characteristic of evil, treating those who have harmed them as monuments of virtue.

People of heart lead a life illuminated by the light of the Qur’an and the Sunna, and also within the framework of the consciousness of taqwa (piety), blessing, and sainthood. They are on constant guard against feelings of egoism, pride, fame, etc., feelings which kill the heart. The glories performed by such people are attributed to the Real Owner, saying, “All is from Him.” With those things that depend on will power, they avoid uttering “I,” instead taking refuge in “We.”

People of heart are afraid of no one. No single event can send them into a panic. “Relying on God, he works hard, expecting the rest from His aid,” sums up their character, and they never break their promise.

People of heart never lose their temper with anybody, nor are they offended by those whose hearts are attached to God. When they see any of their brothers or sisters-in-religion doing wrong, they do not abandon them. In order to avoid embarrassment they do not make any wrong-doing publicly or personally known, either. On the contrary, they blame and question themselves for witnessing any immoral act.

People of heart avoid commenting on the attitudes of believers that are apt to be interpreted differently. They think positively of what they see and hear and never perceive such actions as being negative.

In every act and deed, people of heart keep in mind that here, this world, is not a place of reward, but rather one of service. Accordingly, they perform the duties that they are responsible for in strict discipline, regarding it as being discourteous to God to be concerned about the consequences. They consider it a priority to perform actions in the name of God and with God’s consent in order to serve the religion, belief, and humankind, and however great their achievements may be, they attribute all to God, without thinking about taking a personal share for themselves.

The destruction of order cannot leave people of heart in despair, nor does the opposition of other people disturb them. “This world is not a place for conflicts or rows, but one for endurance,” they say, and patiently clench their teeth. They seek ways out of any situation that they may find themselves in, not losing hope even at the most critical of times, and they are constantly producing with adamant perseverance multifarious strategies. Today, when we find that human values are despised, when there are cracks appearing in religious thinking, when every place resounds with the disturbance caused by the carefree ones, we need people of heart as much as we need air to breathe and water to drink.

Can a person live without sleep?

Sleep is known as one of the basic needs that are necessary to sustain life in addition to eating, drinking, and respiration. There have been some studies about the endurance of people to sleeplessness. The period that a normal person can do without sleep is three or four days on average. At the end of this period, some problems arise such as absent-mindedness, irritability, not knowing the time, hallucinations, stammering, not understanding what is said, trembling of the hands, inflammation in the body, pain, and defective vision. The longest one of these experiments was carried out on an American undergraduate student. After 11 days of sleeplessness, the experiment was ended when his health was under serious threat.

How much sleep does a healthy person need?

Various studies on sleep show that the period of sleep we need for a healthy and balanced life is between 4-10 hours for an average person, depending on genetic factors. It is about 6-8 hours for adults. On the other hand there are some studies that show that we do not have to sleep eight hours a day, on the contrary six, five, even four hours can be sufficient.

What are the consequences of too much or too little sleep?

Those who sleep too much or very little tend to face health problems as compared to those who enjoy regular sleep. In a long-term study, more than 71,000 women were observed over ten years and two important points were determined: firstly, long hours of sleep increased the risk of heart disease; secondly, those who slept too much faced as many health problems as those who slept very little. Sleeping too much can cause obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, a decrease in muscle volume, a reduction in the immune system function, and depression.

What kind of relationship is there between the amount of sleep and rest?

We can see in our own experiences and that of others that there is no direct proportion between the amount we sleep and the amount we rest. A person who sleeps little can feel rested more than one who sleeps too much; the former one has had a restful sleep that is sufficient.

What should be done to enjoy quality sleep?

There are some important points in daily life and prior to sleeping that need to be focused on:

– One should have a light meal in the evening, at least two hours before sleeping. Heavy meals carry risks for those who have problems with snoring and respiration. Drinks that have stimulating effect, such as tea, coffee, and cola delay sleeping.

– The sleeping atmosphere is important. The ideal atmosphere for quality sleep requires low light, quiet, and a warm room with a bed which is not too hard or too soft.

– One should have a regular sleeping habit. One of the conditions for enjoying quality sleep is to sleep and wake up at the same hours. It is particularly important to have regular sleep on week days. The disruption of this regularity at the weekend is one of the stumbling blocks standing in the way of a quality sleep.

– One should lie on the right or left side. Lying flat on one’s back or lying prone can bring certain problems. Snoring or interruption of respiration only occurs while lying flat on one’s back. The most suitable position for sleeping is to turning to the right or left. A person unconsciously moves and changes position 10 or 15 times during his sleep as a result of Divine Mercy. Here one remembers the verses of the Holy Qur’an about the sleeping positions of the “people of the cave”: . . . We caused them to turn over to the right and the left… (Kahf 18:18). It is striking that there is no expression of lying flat on one’s back or lying prone. Moreover lying on one’s right is also the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.

During which hours should we sleep?

In order to determine the ideal hours for sleeping it is important to know the events that occur in the human body during sleep at different periods. We should know that the pineal gland is installed in the human body as a system. Located in the mid-lower part of the brain, this gland has to secrete certain hormones. One of them is melatonin. God eases sleep with this hormone and regulates the cycle of sleep and waking. The secretion of melatonin begins in the evening and goes on until it peaks at two or three o’clock. That means a system was innately installed in the human body that makes sleeping easy in the evenings. On the other hand, being exposed to extreme artificial light, watching television at midnight, and external effects, such as electromagnetic fields, decrease the production of melatonin and is harmful to the running of the system.

Further research has shown that sleep plays an important role in bringing the TSH hormone under control. TSH helps control our metabolism and, indirectly, our levels of energy. Therefore, nowadays those who have low TSH level, that is about 25 or 35 %, are recommended to wake up during the night. This new scientific research is completely in accordance with the habit of the Prophet; he used to sleep shortly after Isha prayer (earlier than most people sleep nowadays), and wake in the very early morning hours (sometimes as early as midnight) again to pray. This sleeping system takes its resource from Holy Qur’an. God orders the Prophet in the Qur’an as follows:

O you enwrapped one! Rise to keep vigil in the night, except a little; Half of it, or lessen it a little; Or add to it (a little); and pray and recite the Qur’an calmly and distinctly (with your mind and heart concentrated on it). We will surely charge you with a weighty Word (and with applying it in your daily life and conveying it to others). Rising and praying at night impresses (mind and heart) most strongly and (makes) recitation more certain and upright.” (Muzammil 73:1-7)

There are also some facts about napping. The best time for a nap is midday according to the experts. A half-hour siesta consisting of a deep and slow period is equal to two hours of nighttime sleep. Therefore when one sleeps at midday, they will need less sleep at night. Midday is known as being the least efficient period of day and human beings have the tendency to sleep at this time. By having a short siesta, one spends other periods in the day more energetically and efficiently. This sleep is frequently practiced in hot climate zones. In some companies in Japan, certain places are allotted in order to encourage people to sleep at midday.

The day time nap is a sleep that the Prophet Muhammad practiced and advised, which is known as “qaylula.” This sleep lasts from mid-morning to just past noon. This sleep is part of the Prophet’s tradition as it allows a person to rise at night to pray. In this way one is prepared for midnight prayer.

There are two more periods of time in the day and it is not recommended to sleep at these times. The first one is “ghaylula.” This is from pre-dawn to forty minutes or so after the sun has risen, the time when prayer is allowed, but not recommended. Sleep at this time is contrary to the practices of the Prophet. The time most appropriate for preparing to work for one’s livelihood is when it is cool. When this time has passed, lethargy descends. It has been established through numerous experiences that just as this is detrimental to that day’s labor and indirectly to one’s livelihood, so also is it the cause of unfruitfulness. In a hadith, the Messenger of God said: “The early morning has been blessed for my Community.”1 As a matter of fact, when the Prophet was about to send an army, he sent it at an early time of the day. Sahr ibn al-Wada, the conveyor of above-mentioned hadith, was a merchant and used to begin his travels very early in the morning. Therefore, he became rich and he had much property. It is also a known fact that the best time of working for sustenance is the early morning.

The other sleep that is not recommended is “faylula.” This is from the afternoon prayer till sunset. This sleep leads to a diminution of life, that is, it makes the life of that day shorter and makes it pass in a state of semi-sleep due to drowsiness, thus causing a physical deficiency. So too, in an immaterial aspect, since most of the results of that day, material and immaterial, became apparent after the afternoon prayer, to pass that time in sleep is as if one has prevented the results of one’s action and makes the day feel as though it has not been lived.

In brief, the “sleep” mentioned in the Holy Qur’an is a great bounty for human beings. However as with all bounties, it is important to find the middle course in sleeping if we want to live a balanced life and to benefit from this bounty during the recommended hours and in the recommended ways.

Note

1. Abu Dawud, Jihad, 85; Tirmidhi, Buyu, 6.

References

• Nursi, S., The Flashes Collection, Sozler Publications, Istanbul: 1995.
• Kaynak, H., Uyku (Sleep), Turk Uyku Arastirmalari Dernegi (Turkish Sleep Research Society), http://www.tsrs.org.tr/
• Burns, K., MH, ND, “Studies Show Fajr Prayer is Healthy,” http://www.islamonline.net/
• “Sleep, Blessed Sleep,” http://media.wiley.com/

There may be some credit to the idea that it is not proper to compare the immigrants in France to those in Germany, due to the historical and cultural differences in their social structures. However, the typical characteristics of ghettos and the similar approaches of the governments to the immigrants imply that such unpleasant events can always take place. First of all, the immigrants who are pushed into ghettos and usually cannot be assimilated are in an isolated position from the main society in terms of language, culture, and education fields. There are clear examples of this in Germany; the large numbers of immigrants living in certain regions bring along serious language and education problems. Many young people start life without a good educational degree, without career opportunities, and after having had negative experiences in school life. Such young people are mostly idle, have achieved nothing close to a satisfactory educational level, and, not caring about human values, they tend to solve their problems through violence as well as being open to manipulation. We face potential danger as long as this situation remains the same. Riots like in Paris might happen in other countries as well. Developing early solutions and maintaining social peace before such unpleasant events happen is in no doubt a better alternative than having to send riot police to the suburbs. Politicians and local administrations should adapt more sensitive approaches to the immigrants, or rather the minorities, who live in the ghettos and similar locations that have such potential.

Germans, for instance, should first of all give up trying to blame the problems on ethnic and religious reasons and form the main frame of a fresh vision of living together. Actually the German constitution does have the relevant essentials for such an approach. However, in spite of the first article of the German Constitution “The dignity of man is inviolable,” Germans in administrative positions often fail to fulfill this principle. Anybody who observes German society in this respect can witness how the dignity of the immigrants is violated, how they are looked down upon, and psychologically isolated at schools, factories, and other workplaces. Beyond violating the individuals’ dignity, insulting words or behavior sometimes even amounts to insulting an entire nation. What is more, unfortunately sometimes even some statesmen present such behavior prompted by the media.

As a matter of fact, the ghettos and similar locations in Germany were not consciously formed by the minorities. The immigrants who came to the country as workers about forty years ago started living around their workplaces in the beginning. Therefore, the number of foreigners at the schools in these neighborhoods started to increase more and more. So the formation of the ghettos started with the dwellings centered around workplaces and then it affected the educational institutions. On the other hand, the fact that in most German cities landlords refused to let out their apartments to immigrants had and still has a role in the formation of the ghettos.

Despite this fact, a minister in one of the parties in Germany made an interesting comment, particularly for the Turks, saying “Turks consider themselves to be superior to Germans, so they prefer to live in ghettos instead of integrating into German society.” On hearing such opinions, one cannot help but remember the old Nazi view of the Jews.

One of the reasons for such attitudes is that some politicians try to gain credit by adopting such policies in order to attract nationalist votes. Surely, these policies do not benefit society and history proves that those who trigger social chaos become the first ones to pay the price. When the hostile and provocative manners of politicians cause unrest, it is the media that should assume the responsibility for maintaining the peace.

Unfortunately, let alone playing a positive role, a significant part of the German media just fans the flames. Almost everyday they exaggerate marginal events and German society is misinformed about Muslims. The result is a biased society that is afraid of all Muslims. Thus, the media is in fact preparing grounds for similar social troubles that happened in France; for ignorance and fanaticism trigger the same kind of reaction on the opposite side.

Even after the provocative events of publishing a caricature that insults the Messenger of God and thereby all the Muslims in the world, most Muslims protested the event within a democratic framework. In spite of this, some European media organs used the freedom of press as an excuse to violate the sacred values of Muslims and they also tried to reflect all Muslims as pro-violence by showing some street demonstrations and violent events, as if millions of Muslims had approved of using violence. The fact that European Muslims protested the provocation within their democratic rights has been overlooked and unfortunately Islamophobia still continues to grow.

The following is a concrete example of the insistent negative attitude of the German media against Muslims. At a news program on the ZDF Channel, the reporter asks questions about the events in the Paris suburbs to Daniel Cohn-Bendikt, the French senator of the Greens in the European Parliament. The program was an evident proof of the terrible need for a radical change in the German mentality about Islam and Muslims. Two points were emphasized by the reporter: the role of religion and the young people’s refusal to integrate! The senator just laughed and his answer revealed how superficial the reporter’s comments were: “the events in the suburbs are in no way related to religion. Some of the people who have been left to their own fate and discriminated against for decades might have turned to religion, but the rebellion doesn’t have a religious motive. Look at the education given in the ghettos. Lots of young people want to benefit from education opportunities, they want to be integrated. But they see how they are discriminated when you look at the terrible condition of their schools.”

The integration policies in Germany, Britain, Holland, and France have all failed. But why? Because the cultural identity of people has been ignored; policies that require them to abandon their religious and national identities and become assimilated into the culture of the country in which they live are being imposed. Today, European countries need to both revise their integration policies to date as well as developing a new “vision of living together” that is beyond integration. The events in Holland at the end of 2004 and the events in Paris in 2005, along with the latest one, the impertinent caricature, give food for thought to state authorities and should allow them to draw important conclusions. The initial precautions to be taken can be to seek ways to enhance educational opportunities in the suburbs and urge the media to give up horror scenarios, rather preparing sensible and informative news to contribute to peace in society.

On the other hand, integration-oriented problems in Europe are generally more common with Muslim immigrants. It is known that in some countries the integration policies towards Christian immigrants have succeeded. The Spanish and Italians in France and the Poles in Germany can be given as examples. The same integration policies didn’t work for Muslims in countries like France, Germany, and Holland. For this reason, terms like “integration” do not make much sense for Muslim immigrants now. After a few decades of integration policies, most Muslims still don’t know with what they are to integrate. No one denies that they should abide by German laws, conform to the social rules, and learn the German language. When the German minister, Prof. Maria Bohmer, said that the immigrants should speak German, learn about German history, recognize the social values, and abide by the legal system of the country this was, of course, approved by all sides.

At this point, both sides need to present a positive approach to reach a healthy solution. On the one hand we have many Muslims who are maintaining their identity and who are citizens that are respected by their German friends. On the other hand, some extremists in the German community just adhere to their bias against foreigners, no matter how they behave. Nevertheless, one shouldn’t jump to conclusions and make an overgeneralization about all Germans.

Sooner or later, good efforts will be shown the respect they deserve. When both sides come together with honesty and good intentions at dialogue activities, we witness that the new “vision of living together” is not a dream, but a reality that is at hand. One should keep in mind that feelings of love, kindness, and the relevant positive responses are inherent in human nature. All of us have the conscience mechanisms to appreciate these feelings. What falls to us is to turn the inherent feelings in human nature in the positive direction, which is already in compliance with what the religions teach.

The discipline in which medicine and engineering truly meet and face new challenges is the field of “biomedical engineering,” an emerging discipline that is only a few decades old. In each sub-specialty of biomedical engineering, researchers study the human body, develop new materials and structures using engineering sciences, either as a treatment method for disease (e.g. artificial bone implants, artificial blood, vascular stents, cardiac valves, etc.) or to diagnose them (e.g. imaging methods and other diagnostic instruments in hospitals). Biomedical engineers face the incredible challenge of developing materials and devices that are compatible with biological systems and capable of working inside the human body to substitute bodily functions. Needless to say, the extreme complexity of the human body makes it impossible to mimic the original system or function of the organs in any way. However, even a poor replacement part or a functional improvement provides great benefit to the patients.

One of the most complex systems of the human body is the nervous system, which consists of the central area (the brain and the spinal cord) and the peripheral parts. The branch of biomedical engineering that deals with the nervous system is “neural engineering.” In this article, we will touch upon a specific subject in the broader area of neural engineering, that is, “neural prosthetics.”1 As the name implies, neural prosthetics is an area where engineering knowledge is utilized to treat neural disorders.

The building blocks of the nervous system are called “neurons.” Neurons generate electric pulses to communicate with each other. The fact that these electric pulses can be elicited by artificial means, i.e. by applying small electric currents to the neurons externally, forms the very foundation of the field of neural prosthetics. Neural engineers can input information into the nervous system by taking advantage of this phenomenon, called “neural stimulation.” Likewise, the information content of neuronal activity can be deciphered by recording the electrical pulses from the neurons and interpreting them according to neuronal function. This two way traffic, monitoring and controlling the neural activity, allows researchers in this field to develop methods of treatment for some sensory, motor, and psychological disorders.

Some of the most successful neural prosthetic applications have been in deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease,

cochlear prosthesis in hearing impairment, bladder emptying and respiration in spinal cord injury, and vagus nerve (10th cranial nerve) stimulation in epilepsy and psychological depression. These are neural prostheses that are readily available as a treatment method for the given ailments. There is a whole host of others that are in the research and development phase. We will review a couple of examples.

In certain diseases of the inner ear hearing is lost as a result of damage to the hair cells inside the cochlea. In normal cochlea the sound information reaches these hair cells after traveling through the ear drum (tympanic membrane) and the structures of the middle ear, causing them to vibrate. This vibration of the hair cells is mechanically transported to the spiral ganglion cells that form the hearing (auditory) nerve. The hearing nerve carries the sound information to the brain in the form of electric pulses. The ganglion cells are healthy and functional even if the entire population of hair cells has been lost as a result of disease. Neural engineers take advantage of the fact that the spiral ganglion cells (which normally accept input from the hair cells) can be electrically stimulated, thus mimicking the function of the hair cells and producing the sensation of sound.2 During a simple surgical operation, the surgeon inserts an electrode into the ear canal which spirals into the lumen of the cochlea so that the sites where the electric current emits from the electrode are adjacent to the spiral ganglion cells (Figure 1). To summarize the principle of the operation; the audio signals are captured by a microphone, processed, converted into electric pulses (A in Figure 1), and transmitted to the implant over a transmitting antenna (B in Figure 1), or headpiece, held in place by magnets. The implant (C in Figure 1) applies the signals to the ganglion cells in the cochlea through tiny electrodes (D in Figure 1). The hearing nerve (auditory nerve) carries the sound information to the brain, where it is “heard.”

Even though the human spiral ganglion has tens of thousands of nerve cells that provide a rich sense of hearing, the cochlear implant, using only six stimulation contacts, can produce auditory perception with sufficient fidelity to enable a deaf individual to use an ordinary telephone.3 Individuals with cochlear implants can also improve their hearing with practice. Thousands of patients have been implanted with cochlear prostheses to date, including children.

The second neural prosthesis application we will review is the retinal prosthesis, which, unlike the cochlear implants, is still in the research phase. Retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration both lead to photoreceptor degeneration in the eye and result in a significant visual deficit or blindness.4 A growing body of research supports the feasibility of replacing the function of the photoreceptors with an electronic device. 5–7 A retinal prosthesis is analogous to the cochlear implant in many ways. In a healthy retina, the photoreceptors initiate a neural signal in response to light. In a retinal prosthesis, electrical pulses are utilized to initiate a neural response in the remaining cells of the retina, the bipolar and ganglion cells. It is hypothesized that the perception of shapes and images will be possible through pattern stimulation of the retina. Initial results are encouraging, but the quality of vision that can be attained with this approach is still a question to be answered. A conceptual retinal prosthesis system is shown in Figure 2. The system consists of an external unit coupled to an implanted stimulator with a wireless link. A video camera in the external unit captures an image and converts it to digital data. The implanted unit receives the signal, recovers power and data from the signal, and generates the stimulating current. The stimulus pattern is applied to the retina via the electrode array, which contains distinct electrodes that interface at many locations on the retinal surface. Recent implants in human subjects suggest the feasibility of this approach where individuals attain perception of bright dots in the visual field called ‘phosphenes.’ Furthermore, blind subjects are able to perceive edges when a few of these bright dots are lined up in their visual field.

Figure 3: A conceptual diagram of a Brain-Computer Interface for high level spinal cord injury or patients with ‘locked-in syndrome’ (adapted from Wolpaw et al., see note 9). The recorded neural activity from the motor cortex is processed and converted into command signals to control, for instance, a wheelchair, or to generate electrical signals to activate hand muscles for grasping an object.

Both cochlear and retinal implants are sensory prostheses, i.e. aids for sensory impairments. Another family of neural prostheses deals with motor impairments. Severe motor disability results from high level spinal cord injuries (quadriplegia) where most of the body is paralyzed, sparing only some face, neck, and shoulder muscles. Quadriplegic individuals are in extreme need of a means to control their environment; they need to be in control of their wheelchairs, bed, the room temperature, lights, TV, etc. Because of the level of paralysis it is impossible for them to generate any control signal, except perhaps by sipping or puffing on the end of a tube, which produces a very poor control signal. In the case of a ‘locked-in syndrome’ the condition of the patient is even more serious, with only some functions remaining in the facial muscles. The term ‘brain-computer interface’ has been coined to refer to attempts whereby the motor output of the brain is recorded and interpreted to generate the control signals needed by these patients (Figure 3,9). The ultimate objective of this research will be accomplished when the patients are able to control anything they need to control in their environment, including a computer. The brain-computer interfaces vary in the invasiveness of the approach. The least invasive methods utilize the electroencephalogram (EEG) signals recorded from the scalp. Unfortunately, the signal quality is poor and only ‘on/off’ type of command signals can be generated using this method. In the most invasive, yet most successful applications, an array of electrodes is implanted directly into the motor cortex of the brain at a depth of a couple of millimeters. The recorded signals contain volitional information as the patient makes intentions to move their arms or legs. These signals can be controlled by the patient, and they can in turn be used to control their environment. The current level of success in this type of BCI allows the user to have three dimensional control of a robot arm. This is of invaluable benefit to a quadriplegic individual.

Concluding Remarks: Reflections on Divine Wisdom

Even the subtlest parts of the nervous system are extremely complex. Just to name a few examples, from the highest centers in the brain down to the skeletal muscles in a descending order; the neural circuits of the short-term memory in the hippocampus, fine motor control circuits of the cerebellum, central pattern generators in the spinal cord, and even the control of skeletal muscles in graceful movements of the limbs are impossible to reproduce by artificial means. The Seal of Divine Design is clearly visible in these neural systems, as they are far more complex, far more compact, and far more functionally efficient than any system engineered by mankind. If anything, the growing experience in neurosciences teaches us that the vertebrate nervous system is full of wonders of engineering design. Therefore, it is a great blessing to be a student of both neurosciences and engineering disciplines. This bestows neural engineers with a unique perspective to understand the beauty embroidered into the human nervous system and contemplate on the Divine Wisdom. In spiritual terms, we may think of the human nervous system as a window opening to the works of Divine Wisdom, with manifestations of His Beautiful Names at the brightest level. It is an overwhelming joy to be able to open this window a crack, once in a while, and take a little peek.

References

1. Wise, K.D. ‘Silicon microsystems for neuroscience and neural prostheses,’ IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Magazine, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 22- 29, Sept.-Oct., 2005.
2. G.E. Loeb, ‘Cochlear prosthetics,’ Annu. Rev. Neurosci., vol. 13, pp. 357–371, 1990.
3. J. Helms, V. Weichbold, U. Baumann, H. von Specht, F. Schon, J. Muller, B. Esser, M. Ziese, I. Anderson, and P. D”Haese, ‘Analysis of ceiling effects occurring with speech recognition tests in adult cochlear-implanted patients,’ ORL J. Otorhinolaryngol Relat. Spec., vol. 66, no. 3, pp. 130–135, 2004.
4. E.L. Berson, ‘Retinitis pigmentosa. The friedenwald lecture,’ Invest Ophthalmol. Vis .Sci., vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 1659–1676, Apr. 1993.
5. E. Zrenner, ‘Will retinal implants restore vision?,’ Science, vol. 295, no. 5557, pp. 1022–1025, Feb. 2002.
6. J.F. Rizzo III, J. Wyatt, J. Lowenstein, S. Kelly, and D. Shire, ‘Perceptual efficacy of electrical stimulation of human retina with a microelectrode array during short term surgical trials,’ Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci., vol. 44, no. 12, pp. 5362–5369, 2003.
7. M.S. Humayun, J. Weiland, G. Fujii, R.J. Greenberg, R. Williamson , J. Little, B. Mech, V. Cimmarusti, G. van Boemel, G. Dagnelie, and E. de Juan, Jr., ‘Visual perception in a blind subject with a chronic microelectronic retinal prosthesis,’ Vision Res., vol. 43, no. 24, pp. 2573–2581, 2003.
8. Weiland, J.D. and Humayun, M.S., ‘A biomimetric retinal stimulation array,’ IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Magazine, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 14-21, Sept.-Oct., 2005.
9. Wolpaw J.R. et al., ‘Brain-computer interfaces for communication and control,’ Clinical Neurophysiolology, vol. 113(6), pp. 767-791, 2002.

…And We sent down Iron, in which is great might, as well as many benefits for mankind… (Hadid 57:25)

The above verse in the holy Qur’an uses the Arabic expression “anzalna”which means “sent down” for iron. But why? Early commentators understood this as having a metaphorical meaning to explain that iron has been sent to benefit people. But after understanding the nature of one of the most powerful explosions in the universe, you realize that the direct meaning “being physically sent down from the sky” miraculously points out to a very important scientific fact that was discovered only very recently. To understand and appreciate this miracle of the Qur’an, we will first talk about the life and death of stars and then come back to this verse to describe its relevance in detail.

Just like human beings, stars are also born, live, and die. One big difference is that they can live billions of years compared to the less than 100 years of human life. Also, for us, there is no way of knowing how long we will live or how we will die. But for a star, given its mass, you can predict its lifetime and the way it will die. Stars about the size of our sun live for a long time (a couple of billion years) and die gradually. Whereas massive stars with a mass of about 8 times the mass of our sun or more have short lifetimes (tens of million years) and die in a quick and incredibly violent explosion known as a supernova.

Supernova explosions are one of the most spectacular astronomical events observable by human beings. Normally, in a typical galaxy there are about 10 billion stars. A supernova happens to be one of these ordinary stars until it explodes. During the explosion, the amount of energy released by the supernova can exceed the energy of all the other stars combined in its galaxy! The power of this explosion is far too big even to imagine. The energy released is even greater than the total energy our sun will put out during its 10 billion year life!

The brightest supernova of modern times was an extragalactic supernova recorded in 1987. Since it was the first supernova in 1987, it was labeled as “1987A.” This is by far the best studied supernova of all times. In Fig. 1, the left panel shows the region of the sky two weeks after the supernova exploded. The supernova is still very bright. The right panel shows the same region before the explosion, with the arrow indicating the star undergoing the supernova explosion. This particular supernova was 160,000 light years away from us. This means that the actual explosion happened 160,000 years ago, but because it was so far from us, it took 160,000 years for the light rays from the explosion to reach us.

Fig 1. After and before images of the 1987A supernova. The left panel shows the region of the sky two weeks after the 1987A supernova exploded. The supernova is still very bright. The right panel shows the same region before the explosion and the arrow indicates the star undergoing the supernova explosion.

Since the supernova becomes extremely bright, it is even sometimes possible to see it with the naked eye in daytime. In fact, there are historical reports from ancient times concerning supernova explosions. On July 4th, 1054 A.D., Chinese astronomers noticed a “guest star,” which was visible in daylight to the naked eye for 23 days. Its remnant was discovered by the British amateur astronomer John Bevis in 1731. We now know that this bright “guest star” was a supernova. Its remnants, known as the Crab Nebula, are shown in the left panel of Fig. 2. This supernova is one of the very few that have been observed in our Milky Way galaxy. The last supernova to explode in our galaxy was in 1607 (see Fig. 2 right panel).

Supernova explosions are one of the most violent events that happen in the universe. They release an unbelievable amount of energy. But why would a star explode anyway? If it has so much energy still, why does it not remain shining peacefully as it does for most of its lifetime? To answer these questions, we need to remember how stars work.

Figure 2 Supernovae remnants. The left panel shows remnant of the supernova that exploded in 1054. It is about 6,500 light years from earth. It consists of diffuse interstellar gas and dust (nebula) spread in a circular region of a diameter of 6 light years.(Image Credit: FORS Team, 8.2-meter VLT, ESO ). The right panel shows remnants of the last supernova, which exploded in our galaxy in 1604. This combined image — from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, and e Chandra X-ray Observatory — unveils a bubble-shaped shroud of gas and dust that is 14 light-years wide and is expanding at 4 million miles per hour (2,000 kilometers per second). It is about 20,000 light years away from us.(Image and caption credit: NASA )/

Let us start by answering a more basic question: What is the energy source of stars? Stars produce their energy through a process called nuclear fusion. The idea is very simple; you fuse together light nuclei, like hydrogen, to produce heavier nuclei, like helium. In this process, the combined mass of low-mass nuclei is more than the resulting fused massive nucleus. This difference in the masses is converted to energy through the Einstein’s famous E=mc2 equation, where E is the energy released, m is the mass difference that is released in the reaction, and c is the speed of light.

But since the nuclei are positively charged, they repel each other, so there must be extremely high densities and temperatures to overcome this barrier. The most common form of fusion that takes place in stars is the fusion of four hydrogen nuclei to produce one helium nucleus. The temperature needs to be about 8 million C0 for this reaction to occur. It requires higher temperatures to fuse nuclei that are heavier than hydrogen. For example, fusing helium requires temperatures higher than 100 million C0.

During most of their lifetime, stars produce energy by fusing hydrogen into helium. After they run out of hydrogen, if the temperatures in their cores are high enough, they start to fuse helium nuclei into carbon and oxygen. And when they run out of helium, they then start to fuse carbon and oxygen. As mentioned above, fusing heavier elements requires extremely high temperatures and high pressures, so it can only happen for massive stars in the late stages of their lives where such conditions are met. For lighter stars like our sun, temperatures are not enough for this.

Even for the massive stars, fusion reactions cannot continue forever. The game of building heavier and heavier elements stops when iron is produced in the core. Iron is a very special element. It has the highest binding energy per nucleon. This makes it the most stable element. You actually lose energy when you fuse iron nuclei together rather than gain energy, so elements heavier than iron cannot be made during these cycles. At this stage of its life, the star looks like an onion, in the sense that it has a layered structure. At the core there is iron, surrounding this core there are layers of lighter elements in the order of their atomic weights, with hydrogen being at the outermost layer (see Fig. 3).

At this point in time, a very delicate balance that holds the star steady becomes unstable. Normally, the gravitational attraction tries to compress everything together. Therefore, the star has a tendency to collapse onto itself due to gravity. This is balanced by the outward radiation and thermal pressure that are generated by intense fusion reactions that are occurring in the core. But when the core turns into iron, fusion can no longer take place. That means there is no longer a supporting outward force that prevents the star from collapsing.

Figure 3 The onion skin model of a supernova. As it gets close to its death, a pre-supernova star has a layered structure that resembles an onion. Heavy elements produced by nuclear fusion inside the star are concentrated toward the center of the star. Iron, being the most stable element, sits at the core.

After the iron core gets to a certain size, this iron core suddenly collapses onto itself. This collapse happens so fast that it takes only a fraction of a second for the initially earth-sized core to shrink to a radius of 60 km. As the core collapses, the outer layers of the star start to collapse and rush in to fill the gap created by the collapsing core. At this point, another drastic event occurs. The iron core cannot compress forever. When the density in the core reaches the nuclear density, it rebounds. This time the core starts to move outward. But wait, the outer layers are still collapsing! When the collapsing envelope of the star meets with the rebounding core, one of the most powerful explosions in the universe occurs. This is known as a supernova explosion, which can be seen millions of light years away!

This gigantic collision ejects the outer layers of the star into the interstellar medium. As a result of the extreme conditions generated by this, the fusion of heavier elements (heavier even than iron) occurs. As the material from the exploding star collides with the interstellar gas and dust, a whole range of light emissions (from visible to X-ray) occurs. Colorful nebulae (as seen in Fig 2.) that will glow for thousands of years are thus generated.

One of the most important outcomes of supernova explosions is that heavy elements, including iron, are ejected into the interstellar medium. In fact, the only source of heavy elements is such events. All the heavy elements that are found in our solar system are made in one of these violent explosions. They cannot be made in our solar system, as they require extremely high temperatures. That means, the carbon that makes our cells, the hemoglobin that carries oxygen in our blood, and basically almost everything in our body are all made of elements produced in these explosions. We are, in the most literate sense, stardust. It is estimated that on average each carbon atom in our body went through four of these cycles in the past.

It is very clear that these explosions are important for the existence of life on earth. But, understanding the mechanism of these events was only possible in recent years.

It is extremely surprising to hear that iron and almost every other element in our body were made during one of these explosions. Even more astonishing is when we look at what the Holy Qur’an says about iron.

In the Holy Qur’an, there is a special chapter about iron, known as “Hadid” or “Iron”. The first thing that surprises you about this chapter is its chapter number: 57. The interesting thing about this is that it matches the atomic weight of one of the isotopes of iron. Iron can have stable isotopes with atomic weights of 54, 56, 57, and 58. The most common form of iron is the one with atomic weight 56 (56Fe).

The reason why this chapter is called “Iron” is the fact that in one verse of this chapter, the Holy Qur’an talks about iron. The second thing that is surprising is the verse number of this particular verse: 25 (or if you count the basmala, it becomes 26). This number (26) is the number of protons in an iron nucleus. And the third numerical code is the total number of verses in this chapter and that is equal to 30. This is equal to the number of neutrons in the most common form of iron nuclei (56Fe). Additional numerical codes can be found through a more detailed inspection of this Qur’anic chapter. No one knew anything about the iron nuclei in the 7th century when the Qur’an was revealed in its present form. And the chance of these numbers being purely coincidental is less than one in a thousand.

After studying these numerical codes, the content of the verse is even more interesting and closely related to our topic. In this verse, the Almighty says: …And We sent down Iron, in which is great might, as well as many benefits for mankind … (57:25). The expression “sent down” used for iron in this verse is the English translation of the Arabic word “anzalna”. This can either be understood as having a metaphorical meaning to explain that iron was given for the benefit of people. But, if the literal meaning, “being physically sent down from the sky,” is considered, we realize that this verse miraculously indicates the scientific fact that all the iron in our solar system came from the sky from supernova explosions.

Another interesting aspect is the fact that the verse says “…in which is great might …” The Arabic word “shaded” used to describe this can also be translated as “in which is great power” or as “in which is great violence”. If you assume this phrase is referring to iron, you can understand it to mean that iron has a great strength. Or a deeper meaning would be to consider the fact that iron nuclei is the most stable nuclei, i.e. the fact that it has the highest binding energy per nucleon. If you consider this phrase as referring to the act of sending down, in that case it reminds you of the great violence in supernova explosions.

In summary, supernova explosions are the violent deaths of massive stars. The course of events that leads to these gigantic explosions, as well as their far reaching consequences, is very interesting. They are the only source of iron and other heavy metals found in our solar system. They show the mercy of God, as life on earth without them would not be possible. At the same time, they can be thought of as an incredible show of divine power. As the Holy Qur’an says at the end of the verse that mentions iron:

Surely God is the All-Strong, the All-Glorious with irresistible might. (Hadid 57:25)

The Anglo-Australian Observatory (http://www.aao.gov.au/)

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030914.html

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_219.html

For more detailed discussion, see for example: Adam Burrows, Nature 403 (6771), 727 (2000).

http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/illustrations/superPre.html

For example, according to numerological (abjad) calculations, the abjad of the word “Al-Hadeed” in Arabic, when the numerological values of its letters are added up is also 57 and numerological value of the word “Hadid” alone is 26. ( http://www.miraclesofthequran.com/scientific_30.html )

Can we control time?

Some people say yes, we do, some say possibly, but the reality is we do not and we cannot! Time flows without interruption or interception. We grow, we change, we suffer; time laughs at us. And then comes our end, but time never ends… Controlling time could be possible if we were the creator of time. We make watches, clocks, and bell towers to keep track of time, but none of us is capable of stopping it for a second. Time is beyond our dimensions.

Time management methods

Currently there exist several methods to manage time. Everybody, including Dale Carnegie, suggests several different ways of planning for the best agenda.1-3 One of them¹ is to start with a “personal time survey,” and this helps you with a “study-hour formula,” asking you to prepare a daily schedule on a poster board, or some other surface, while suggesting practicing critical behavior:

“Don’t be a perfectionist”

“Learn to say no”

“Learn to prioritize”

“Combine several activities”

And here we give a “personal time survey” which has been presented as a means to oversee your current usage on an hourly basis:

1. The number of hours of sleep each night

________ X 7 = _______

2. The number of grooming hours per day

________ X 7 = _______

3. The number of hours for meals/snacks per day – including preparation time

________ X 7 = _______

4a. The total travel time, weekdays

________ X 5 = _______

4b. The total travel time, weekends

________

5. The number of hours per week for regularly scheduled functions (clubs, worship, get-togethers, etc.) ________

6. The number of hours per day for chores, errands, extra grooming, etc.

________ X 7 = _______

7. The number of hours of work per week

________

8. The number of hours in class per week

________

9. The number of average hours per week socializing.

Be honest! ________

Now add up the totals: ________

Subtract the above number from

168 – ________ =________ 1

What’s wrong with these systems?

Dale Carnegie passed away tragically. Something was missing in his life, leading him to commit suicide, despite being one of the time management experts for a better life. So, what was really important and what was it that he failed to notice?

The most valid explanation is that the spiritual nature of human beings was not taken into account. Such experts seem to think that if we put things in order externally, our lives will be organized and consequently we will be happy. But evidently, we cannot progress without spiritual satisfaction.

Below are the key concepts in perfect time management:

• Priorities

• Careful organization

• Spiritual needs

Priorities

Since time is immutable, we have to adjust ourselves to the speed of time. We have to list what is important for us and categorize them to see if there are possible combinations for extra time savings. It is truly important in such a concept to know our short term and long term goals, without excluding our needs and any dependants. The first priorities list may not work properly, but sooner or later, we will arrive at the optimum schedule.

Careful organization: A successful agenda

Regardless of our professional lives, every one of us needs sufficient time to relax. Thus, a cleverly organized day is what we should work towards first. Most studies show that a morning-afternoon-evening type division is insufficient to prevent the tediousness of long working hours. Counting every minute is the other extreme, if one desires to be fully organized. There should be some other way to divide up the day in the best way to ensure full-capacity performance.

So glorify God when you reach evening and when you rise in the morning; for all praise is His in the heavens and on earth, and towards the end of the day and when you have reached noon. (Rum 30:17-18).

This succinct daily plan mentioned in the Qur’anic verse above would be a good program if it can be applied (it is important to note here that this verse is not concerned with time management per se).

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, in his 9th Word,⁴ talks about the meaning of this verse, including how to glorify God. And also he mentions the parts of the day and their corresponding meaning with spiritual insight. He basically divides the day into five parts. A day starts with “early morning,” continues with “just past midday,” “afternoon” follows, and “sunset” leads you onto “nightfall.” By dividing one’s day into spiritual sections, it is possible to review the day and the progress between these parts.

Spiritual needs

Human beings are not animals. They feel, they choose, they live as they want. And they are free to go in any direction. They have a soul that guides their way of living. There are plenty of stories that have unhappy endings solely due to an ignorance of a spiritual life. Time management, of course, is directly related to the spiritual life of the individual; the choices people make are formed in their souls. They desire, they plan, and they implement. Thus, people also need time for their desires, and due to the large number of wishes people have to manage their time. An individual sets their priorities to achieve their goals. But due to the external effects (mostly other people) the schedule of this person changes to the best-suited model. Some people like such changes, but the majority do not. This is actually not very surprising, as human beings have different personalities and characters arising from their spiritual background. Therefore, anything that has an impact on spiritual life has to be important in managing our time.

To have the ability to control our life and to manage our time, we have to look within ourselves and discover what is in our hearts. For example one of my close friends told me that he had been able to experience a highly-ordered daily life when he left home after having read some verses from the Qur’an. He added that in a busy day, with tons of work, he still manages to handle all of it if he reads from the Qur’an at the beginning of the day. But if he doesn’t do this he loses control and everything becomes confused, and his mind jams. What is happening here is that perhaps he is able to clarify his mind by taking a spiritual shower that gives him strong support throughout the whole day.

Once we get into a spiritual flow we will be able to realize that everything has a harmonic rhythm that will help to build our schedule on the path we have anticipated. The key concept is, then, keeping our spiritual life balanced in a way that does not let anything interfere. My friend found the perfect key; this should also be possible for every one of us.

Action plan

Knowing that priorities, careful organization, and spiritual needs are key concepts in time management, one should find the best way for them to succeed. Below is a possible to-do list:

1. Identification of priorities: What is really important for me?

2. Planning the time: How do I like to do things?

3. Feeding your spiritual self: What can help my mind to be perfectly clear?

4. Reviewing the status: Where I am?

To start or give feedback if you have been carrying out a feasible plan you must be able to observe your present course. Prof. Rustu Kalyoncu suggests a plan with 15 MINUTES slices at this point: “Write down what you’ve done for every 15 MINUTES (for a couple days) and criticize how efficient you have been. I promise you’ll find lots of free time waiting for you…”

Notes

1. www.gmu.edu/gmu/personal/time.html
2. www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art2.html
3. www.tsuccess.dircon.co.uk/timemanagementtips.htm
4. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, The Words, (translated by Sukran Vahide), Sozler Publications, 1998.

As it has been remarked, there are many questions confronting us daily:

• How did the endless universe we live in come into being?

• How did the equilibrium, harmony, and order of this universe develop?

• How is it that this Earth is such a fit and sheltering place for us to live in?

Questions such as these have attracted attention since the dawn of the human race. The conclusion reached by scientists and philosophers searching for answers with their intellects and common sense is that the design and order of this universe are evidence of the existence of a supreme Creator ruling over the whole universe.

At this point, it is beneficial to reflect on these questions from an Islamic perspective. As it has been observed, In His holy book, the Qur’an, God states that He has created the universe when it was not, for a particular purpose, and with all its systems and balances specifically designed for human life.

In the Qur’an God invites people to consider this truth in the following verse:

Are you stronger in structure or is heaven? He built it. He raised its vault high and made it level. He darkened its night and brought forth its morning light. After that He smoothed out the earth… (Naziat 79:27-30)

Elsewhere it is declared in the Qur’an that a person should see and consider all the systems and balances in the universe that have been created for him by God and derive a lesson from his observations:

He has made night and day subservient to you, and the sun and moon and stars, all subject to His command. There is certainly Signs in that for people who pay heed. (Nahl 16:12)

In yet another verse of the Qur’an, it is pointed out:

He makes night merge into day and day merge into night, and He has made the sun and moon subservient, each one running until a specified time. That is God, your Lord. The Kingdom is His. Those you call on besides Him have no power over even the smallest speck. (Fatir 35: 13)

The Fallacy of Materialism

Nursi has made extensive reference in his writings to the defects of materialism. He notes that the materialists, whose use of reason is limited to what is immediately apparent to them, have, in their nonsensical philosophies, based on futile foundations, taken the transformation of particles, a thing they regard to be the result of coincidence, to be the fundamental basis of all their principles and have shown that divine works and creatures result from those transformations. Anyone with a grain of intelligence would know how unreasonable it is to attribute the creation adorned with infinite examples of wisdom to something based on a purposeless, meaningless coincidence, which is quite without order.

Furthermore, as has been remarked, even if we leave out the human values, lofty truths, ideals, and spiritual happiness, which have all been sacrificed for the sake of material development, modern civilization based on scientific materialism has caused mankind much harm.

The products of science are usually exploited in favor of the great world powers to consolidate their dominion over the world. In addition, developments in genetics, biology, physics, and chemistry threaten the very life of humanity on the earth. Modern civilization, as pointed by Said Nursi is founded upon five negative principles:

*It is founded and rests upon power; power tends to oppression.

*It aims at the realization of individual self-interests; pursuit of their self-interests causes people to rush madly upon things in order to possess them and gives rise to pitiless rivalry and competition.

* Its understanding or philosophy of the nature of life is struggle; struggle causes internal and external conflicts.

* It seeks to unify its people on the basis of racial separatism, fed by swallowing up the resources and territories of “others”; and racism leads to terrible collisions between peoples.

* The service it offers to people is satisfaction of the novel caprices or desires it arouses in them (whether the satisfaction is real or not); this service brutalizes people.

Modern materialistic civilization stimulates consumption and therefore gives rise to new, artificial needs and increases them daily. Through the power of propaganda and advertisements to exploit some disprovable human tendencies, such as “keeping up with the Jones’,” materialism imposes its demands upon people. As a result of this way of life it necessarily leads to producing to consume and consuming to produce, upsetting people’s balance and causing extraordinary increases in mental and spiritual illnesses. In such a way of life there is left room for neither spiritual profundity nor true intellectual activity. For intellect is put under the command of pragmatism and always earning more.

Another disaster that materialistic science has brought upon mankind is the destruction of nature and environmental pollution. “What a pity it is that nature, this magnificent book, this charming exhibition, which God, the infinitely Merciful One, has created and presented to us to observe and study and to be exhilarated by, is no longer given any more care than is given to a heap of junk or rubbish. Worse than that, it is more and more becoming a wasteland and like a dunghill. Today, air, that magnificent conductor of Divine commands, is a suffocating smoke and a perilous ‘whirlpool.’ Water, that source of life and other Divine bounties, is either a hazardous flood or is altogether absent to form desolate expanses of desert. And the earth, that treasure of Divine Grace and Munificence, is a wilderness that is no longer safely productive and whose ecological balance has been ruined.”

The five essentials of Islamic civilization

* It should rest upon right, not upon power; right requires justice and balance.

* It should aim to encourage people to virtue, which is a spur to mutual affection and love.

* Its understanding or philosophy of the nature of life is not struggle but mutual help, which leads to unity and solidarity.

* It should unify people on the basis of a common belief, shared values and norms, which can lead to internal peace and brotherhood.

* It should guide people to the truth. Therefore, in addition to encouraging them towards scientific progress, it should elevate them, through moral perfection, to higher ranks of humanity.

This civilization is that which the Qur’an proposes to mankind and urges them to establish.

The following passage by Nursi, written at the beginning of the 1930s, is most illuminating:

Reality and the wisdom [purposiveness] in the existence of the universe require that the heavens should have conscious inhabitants of their own as does the earth. These inhabitants of many different kinds are called angels and spirit beings in the language of religion.

It is true that reality requires the existence of angels and other spirit beings because the earth, although insignificant in size compared with the heavens, is continually being filled with and emptied of conscious beings. This clearly indicates that the heavens. . . are filled with living beings who are the perfect class of living creatures. These beings are conscious and have perception, and they are the light of existence; they are the angels, who, like the jinn and mankind, are the observers of the universal palace of creation and students of this book of the universe and heralds for their Lord’s kingdom.

The perfection of existence is through life. Moreover, life is the real basis and the light of existence, and consciousness, in turn, is the light of life. Since life and consciousness are so important, and a perfect harmony evidently prevails over the whole of creation, and again since the universe displays a firm cohesion, and as this small ever-rotating sphere of ours is full of countless living and intelligent beings, so it is equally certain that those heavenly [realms] should have conscious, living beings particular to themselves. Just as the fish live in water, so those spirit beings may exist in the heat of the sun. Fire does not consume light, rather, light becomes brighter because of fire. We observe that the Eternal Power creates countless living beings from inert, solid substances and transforms the densest matter into subtle living compounds by life. Thus it radiates the light of life everywhere in great abundance and furnishes most things with the light of consciousness. From this we can conclude that the All-Powerful, All-Wise One would certainly not leave without life and consciousness more refined, subtle forms of matter like light and ether, which are close to and fitting for the spirit; indeed He creates animate and conscious beings in great number from light, darkness, ether, air and even from meanings and words. As He creates numerous species of animals, He also creates from such subtle and higher forms of matter numerous different spirit creatures. One kind. . . are the angels, others are the varieties of spirit beings and jinn.

Nursi on Decadent Civilization and Virtuous Civilization

As it has been observed, for the last three centuries Islamic scholars have debated what the attitude of the Muslim world should be towards Western/Christian civilization. Nursi found himself in the middle of this debate at the critical moment in the 20th century, when the westernization/modernization currents were rapidly gaining strengths. Today, once again, given the global situations, it seems, the Muslim world is asking pertinent questions with regard to its cultural/economic relationship with the west. Given the significance of these questions and their serious potential consequences on world affairs, globalization and inter-cultural/religious understanding and dialogue, I will attempt to shed some light on what can be offered on this, and at times troubled, relationship: Islam and the west; Islam and modernity/westernization. In contrast to those rejecting western civilization all together, Nursi distinguished between two Europe, representing two civilizations. The first Europe ‘follows the sciences which serve justice and right and the industries beneficial for the life of society through the inspiration it has received from true Christianity’. He called this ‘virtuous civilization.’ The second Europe, whose source is philosophy rather than religion, which claims that mankind can find happiness only in vice, Nursi called the ‘decadent civilization’. It is because this second Europe is characterized by its encouragement of vice that Nursi rejects capitalist culture and decadent civilization. Nursi observes that ‘absolute vice’ is being called civilization. He is very critical of this ‘decadent civilization’.

In a letter Nursi calls it ‘low’ civilization and elsewhere he says that it cast humanity down to the level of animals: …its alluring service is to excite lust and the appetites of the soul and facilitate the gratification of whims, and their result is vice. The mark of lust and passion is always this: they transform man into a beast, changing his character; they deform him, perverting his humanity. If most of these civilized people were turned inside out, you would see their characters in form of apes and foxes, snakes, bears, and swine. Nursi moreover states that the goal of decadent civilization is ‘mean self-interest instead of virtue’, while virtue is the basis of Qur’anic virtuous civilization. Virtuous civilization takes all man’s subtle faculties into account, causes him to progress spiritually, and to rise higher than angels. In Nursi’s words: Its aim is virtue instead of self-interest… Its service takes the form of guidance and direction instead of lust and passion. And the mark of guidance is progress and prosperity in way benefiting humanity; the spirit is illuminated and perfected in the way it requires. In my view, Nursi’s thoughts on decadent and virtuous civilizations are extremely significant and timely. They establish the bankruptcy of those who promote the clash amongst civilizations, in particular between Christianity and Islam. The clash is not between civilizations, but between decadent and virtuous civilizations. True Christianity and Islam form the front in virtuous civilization, while secularism, laicism, and capitalism are the three allies on the front of decadent civilization. Therefore, Nursi’s writings and reflections on these matters could serve to promote Muslim-Christian dialogue at these troubled global times. In all, Nursi sees the following contrast between the ‘second’ European and Qur’anic civilization. In Seeds of Reality Nursi clearly summarizes some elements of difference between the two visions. Nursi observes that, the Qur’an, which is a mercy for mankind, only accepts a civilization that comprises the happiness of all, or at least of the majority.

He then remarks that, modern civilization has been founded on five negative principles:

1. Its point of support is force, the mark of which is aggression.

2. Its aim and goal is benefit, the mark of which is jostling and tussling.

3. Its principle in life is conflict, the mark of which is strife.

4. The bond between the masses is racialism and negative nationalism, which is nourished through devouring others; its mark is collision.

5. Its enticing service is inciting lust and passion and gratifying the desires.

But lust transforms man into a beast. However, the civilization Islam comprises and commands is this: its point of support is truth instead of force, the mark of which is justice and harmony. Its goal is virtue in place of benefit, the mark of which is love and attraction. Its means of unity are the ties of religion, country, and class, in place of racialism and nationalism, and the mark of these is sincere brotherhood, peace, and only defense against external aggression. In life is the principle of mutual assistance instead of the principle of conflict, the mark of which is accord and solidarity. And it offers guidance instead of lust, the mark of which is human progress and spiritual advancement.

According to Thomas Michel S.J. the contrast is clear; the Qur’an proposes very different principles. In the civilization envisioned by the Qur’an (and the teachings of the earlier prophets):

1. It is truth, not might, which makes right.

2. Virtue, non self-interest, is the proper motivation for human acts.

3. Unity rather than conflict should be the basis for social relations, and

4. Mutual assistance instead of cutthroat competition.

5. It upholds divine guidance rather than human whims as the norm for ethical behavior.

A society built on such principles Michel S.J. remarks, will be characterized by values like justice, harmony, love, peace, brotherhood and solidarity. It will attract others by virtue of its own good qualities, rather than by imposing its views or by dominating and looking down on others. When a civilization accepts the principle of ‘might makes right,’ the result is injustice. This, as well as the ‘cherished’ principles of conflict, competition, and enmity, valued in ‘second’ Europe, will inevitably result in war and destruction. Even a casual look at the state of our world today, will clearly show how correct Nursi has been in his observations.

This article has been extracted from Dr Kamran Mofid’s paper ‘To Heal Our Broken World: Bringing Economics, Religions and Spirituality together for the Common Good’ presented at the International Conference on Spiritual Dimensions of Said Nursi’s Risale-i-Nur, in Istanbul, August 2005.

In order to get a sharp image, ideally one point on the image (film) should receive light rays from only one point on the object. In practice, this ideal case can not be achieved in case of a large pinhole. If we have a large pinhole, as seen in Fig. 4, the light rays emerging from one point on the object reaches multiple points on the film. Also, multiple points on the object can arrive at a single point on the film. The result of both cases is a blurry image. For a small pinhole, however, there are light rays emerging from a point on the object in all directions, and only a very small amount of light is received on the film. To produce a decent image on the film, the exposure time needs to be very long, especially when a very small pinhole is used. Of course, we can make the pinhole a little larger to capture more light. But, wait! This would make the image blurry. Therefore, for pinhole photography, the size of the pinhole sets the quality of the image and the minimum exposure time. Also, we can take the picture of a still object, but a moving object cannot be captured easily by a pinhole camera due to the long exposure time. One important question is: Can we make reduce the size of the pinhole size to increase the quality of the image? Well, physics says: “No!” Fig. 5 shows a comparison of the images of a filament taken by a pinhole camera.⁶ As the size of the pinhole gets smaller and smaller, the effects of the diffraction phenomenon are more and more pronounced, and the image becomes blurry again. We also notice that the image is barely formed with a very small pinhole, indicating that very little light is received.

How can we gather more light and still make the image sharp? Can we achieve this with just the pinhole? Apparently not. That is why we mention lenses when talking about any imaging system. This is what a lens basically does. A lens gathers more light, and still preserves the one-to-one correspondence between the points on the object and those on the image. So, a lens is very useful for imaging. Most cameras have one or multiple lenses. Our eyes have lenses. We should remember, though, a pinhole camera takes a picture, but the compromise is the exposure time. Now, we see that a lens solves the exposure time problem, but is there a price to pay? To answer this question, let’s take a look at once again Fig. 2, where we see two pictures, one taken by a pinhole camera, and the other one by a lens camera. Look at the pictures carefully, and try to understand the difference before proceeding. As you probably observed, in the pinhole camera image everything in the picture is in sharp focus, from the close-by plants to the far distant beacon, and the clouds in the sky. However, in the lens camera image, only the closest daisy is in focus, and the other daisies, only a few meters away, are blurry. Indeed, we lose the depth of field in our images when using a lens camera. Depth of field can be defined as “The distance between the nearest and farthest points that appear in acceptably sharp focus in an image.” This is actually something we live with everyday. Try to focus your eyes on a mountain far away; the objects that are very close will not be in focus anymore. So, our eyes, consisting of lenses, also have limited depth of field. A nautilus eye, on the other hand, has an infinite depth of field, as it has a pinhole eye. Therefore, the price paid for gathering more light with a lens is that not everything will be in focus.

We can understand why lens cameras have a limited depth of field while a pinhole camera has nearly infinite depth of field if we consider the focusing mechanism of a lens. Given a pre-determined film position, a lens can only form sharp images of an object at a certain distance from the lens. Other points that are farther from or closer than same section of the object will be out of focus. However, if the size of the object is not large, we usually do not notice this effect. When we want to take pictures of close-by objects, then this effect is clearly seen, as Fig. 2 (b) shows.

Actually, we can correct this problem. The image of the farther points of the object forms at a farther point on the film. So, multiple light rays coming from one point will end up on the film. If we place an aperture next to the lens, then we can block some of these light rays. If we make the size of the aperture sufficiently small, we can get a sharp image of the farther point. Our original question about the lenses can be posed once again at this point: By using the aperture we make the image sharper, but what do we lose? Of course, since we block some of the light rays, we lose the light-gathering ability of the lens. Now, if we make the aperture size smaller and smaller, we finally reach the pinhole, and an almost infinite depth of field!

Our eyes also use similar mechanism of placing an aperture. The amount of light allowed to enter each eye is controlled by the iris, a circular diaphragm that opens wide at low light levels and closes to protect the pupil (the aperture) and retina (light detector of the eye) at very high levels of illumination. As illumination changes, the diameter of the pupil (positioned in front of the crystalline lens) reflexively varies between a size of about 2 to 8 millimeters. When illumination is very bright, the pupil narrows and light rays from the side are excluded from the optical pathway.⁷ The result is a sharper image on the retina. A very narrow pupil (approximately 2 millimeters) produces diffraction artifacts that spread the image of a point source on the retina, similar to the image of the filament captured by a very tiny pinhole (Fig. 5)

In conclusion, a pinhole camera is a very instructive tool for learning about imaging concepts. A pinhole camera has an infinite depth of field and the ability to produce sharp images regardless of the distance of the objects. This comes with a price, though: the small size of the pinhole limits the amount of light received by the film, so long exposure times are needed. A lens helps to gather more light, but compromises the depth of field. These concepts are used in imaging technologies, and can be found in the eyes of living organisms.

Notes

1. E. Hecht, Optics, 2nd edition, pp. 199. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.
2. http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/aencmed/targets/illus/ilt/T045986A.gif.
3. http://www.kosara.net/gallery/.
4. http://www.eyedesignbook.com/.
5. http://www.spylife.com/pinholecam.html.
6. http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~ramani/cmsc426/Lecture3.pdf
7. http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/lightandcolor/humanvisionintro.html.