In my view, with its wonderful people, welcoming nature, and geographical features, this realm is no different than a hallway to the heavens. Once upon a time in its golden age this realm used to be perceived as a trajectory to the highest gardens of Paradise, and its value was worth the entire world. In those days, travelers from faraway lands would visit this realm, and once they sipped its dazzling flavor and felt inside the heavenliness in its aura their spirits were raised, and on departure they comforted their hearts with a promise of a revisit.

The inhabitants of this realm were more intimately connected with physical phenomena than we are today; they were in close embrace with all existence, and were like brothers and sisters to nature. Their homes, villages, and towns were in harmony with nature from all aspects; they were spacious and heart-expanding, and their surroundings were like a botanic garden. With their celestial horizons, crystal-clear sentiments, and otherworldly spirits these homes, villages, and towns made people living there feel as if Paradise was only one step away. This was why people considered their graves an important station on this journey of a single step. They decorated their cemeteries with the colors and patterns of their angelic horizons, for they believed the cemetery was the first point of arrival in the Afterlife. They transformed this splendid area, which appears horrific to the materialistic mind’s eye, into a pleasant resort.

When we were ourselves, our homes, streets, and walkways exchanged warm glances with their inhabitants; their demeanor was so meaningful that those who could observe them from the angle of their spirit could feel as if these places were intoning things that were unique to our realm. Almost everyone in this realm was intoxicated with a kind of music originating in their heart and refined in their beliefs, dreams, and subconscious. Every moment thrilled them with a different breeze of meanings and they were overjoyed.

There were occasional occurrences of frustration and sorrow, but they did not last for long. Such moments were immediately followed by the victory of this realm’s unique character, texture, and ever-enchanting nature that would overcome all the tumult in people’s conscience and convert the darkest autumns into the brightest springs. Our days and nights were always cordial, our months and years were all resplendent.

Every day started with a new beauty as the cries of spring were heard everywhere; the morning breeze brought the scent of Prophet Joseph’s shirt and rivers overflowed from the life-giving spring of Prophet Job . . . a kind of joy from the afterlife was being tasted in this realm. As the days were illumined with the rays from the sun, so were our hearts lit with the light from beyond the heavens. Like sunflowers, the eyes of the heart were vigilant for this light, our souls lived on a schedule adjusted according to the prayer times-the propitious times of the day-and hearts would beat with its excitement. Each portion of the day would then become like a new festival; each week, month, and year would come and pass in unique colors, caressing the heads of these fortunate people and reminding them every season that they were strolling on the walkways of Paradise. Every morning in the lands of this privileged community was like a kind of Resurrection; every noon rose with a new touch of heat; a cool breeze was felt everywhere in the afternoon; the music of silence was heard in the depths of the heart every evening . . . the entire day offered a feast of scenery through its windows opened to the beyond. Enchanted by this profundity and color, even the ones with hearts harder than rocks would soften like silk.

The generations of those days were blessed with glowing hearts and an affectionate setting. Unyielding security and peace ruled everywhere. Mobs, anarchy, tyranny, deep state, unsolved murders . . . these crimes that we experience so much today were unknown to those generations. They were foreign words, for order, harmony, justice, and mercy prevailed in their realm.

Ambition, jealousy, ill-gotten gains, illegal hoards, bribery, nepotism, swindling, cheating, embezzlement . . . these crimes were out of the question. Indeed, some of them only existed in the dictionary, for the auspicious people of those days were exceptionally contented with what they possessed, stayed away from what was forbidden, and fixed on what was lawful, and they pursued a life in justice.

Occurrences of enmity, feelings of murder and revenge, mischief and corrupt plots, passion for authority were the rarest things, for the people’s mindset was directed towards a serious dialogue effort, a philosophy of tolerance, an ethics based on love and compassion.

Autocratic rule was regarded as tyranny from ancient times; for them, despots were no different than pharaohs and were mentioned with imprecations; defaming and classifying others were works of despicable ones. People maintained a life in humility, munificence, and generosity-they acted on forgiveness and courage, breathed with sacrifice and sincerity.

In that bright era, alcoholism, drug abuse, smuggling were never as frequently committed as today. You would not see modern problems like “homeless children” or “addictions to various substances” even as entries in dictionaries. For people then behaved with their hearts, spirits, and minds in control; there were people who made intellectual efforts, sincere hearts that beat for their country and humankind.

They were the prototype people of virtue, and in their abode neither filthy affairs such as those listed above nor corruptions like sinfulness, prostitution, impertinence, and bohemian lifestyles that bring disgrace on being human, could exist. Above all, avoiding sin, and maintaining chastity, virtue, divine ethics, and accountability were their most distinct attributes and natural state of being. They were on a straight track with a clear road map in their hands; they were blessed with a humane profundity that prepared them to walk on such a broad road. They lived straight, walked straight, and became a blissful memory for the generations to come. I wonder where we are on this road.

I began my research by reading all the Turkish material I could find on the subject. Most of the works I found were Turkish translations of European travelers’ reports about Ottoman life. Of course, it was necessary to separate fact from fiction, because many travelers, males in particular, described aspects of Ottoman life they had never personally seen-the inside of the harem, for example. But in spite of this, I was able to glean a fairly accurate description of Ottoman women and the harem from a number of different travelers (mostly women) who can be considered as eye witnesses to harem life. The portrait of Ottoman women that emerged reflected a very feminine appearance and demeanor, refined manners and decorum, and a pious and chaste character. Their domestic roles of wife and mother further reinforced this strongly feminine image.

The portrait of Ottoman women I found from my reading was a far cry from the Orientalists’ exotic stereotype. I learned that only approximately ten percent of the young slave girls in the imperial harem were actually royal concubines, and this number included concubines to the princes as well as to the sultan. The rest were groomed and trained for service to the royal family by means of the administrative hierarchy in the imperial harem. Even the belly dance, which is always associated with slave girls in the harem, apparently did not even exist in the imperial harem. That is what we are told by Leyla Saz Hanýmefendi who grew up in the palace from the age of four and who was closely associated with the royal family during the reign of six different sultans during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Armed with the information and knowledge I had gained from many travelers’ reports and secondary sources, I felt ready to challenge the sensationalist myth of the harem. Little did I know at the time, however, that an even greater discovery regarding Ottoman women awaited me in future research.

By a quirk of fate, I found myself spending a year with my daughter who was studying for a master’s degree in Islamic studies at a leading North American university. One of the courses she took was related to the Muslim qadi or judge and Ottoman court records. Much to my amazement I learned that throughout the duration of the Ottoman state (six centuries) women had many significant legal rights, more perhaps during that time than any other women in the world. This was a point that had been somehow overlooked in the many sensationalist books on the harem! Investigating this point further, I learned that Ottoman women had legal agency or, in other words, they could sue and be sued in court independent of their husbands. They could enter into legal contracts like marriage contracts with their husbands, or into business contracts with others. They had the right to own property and to inherit it. They had the right to initiate divorce. They had full control over their own income and property and could do with it as they wished. Ottoman women also had the right to be guardian of their children in case of the death of or divorce from their husband. European women, on the other hand, gained these rights much later, and today in some parts of the world women are still struggling to obtain them. British women, for example, did not have these rights until 1882. Previous to that time they had to turn over any property, inheritance or income to their husband upon marriage. Women did not have legal agency nor were they able to make legal contracts independently. Also they were unable to defend themselves in divorce cases and they could not get legal guardianship of their own children.

Furthermore, I learned that not only did Ottoman women have these legal rights, but that they actively pursued their rights as well. There are thousands of court records that attest to this. By no means were legal rights enjoyed just by a privileged few. They were accorded to Ottoman women of all social and economic strata. For example, one of my favorite cases was taken from early seventeenth-century Kayseri court records. It involves a woman named Teslime who was working on her land when her neighbor’s donkey strayed onto her property. When she seized the animal, her neighbor, who was a man, cursed her. Teslime immediately filed a complaint with the local qadi. Two witnesses were found to support her complaint and she won her case. While reading her case, I could not help but wonder how many women today would take a man to court for cursing them; and if they did so, how many would be taken seriously? There are countless recorded cases of Ottoman women who turned to the courts to get redress for injustices perpetrated against them. Upon review of such cases a different image of the Ottoman woman in the legal arena emerged: a strong and courageous woman who put Haqq (Truth and Justice) above everything else.

It was the discovery of this side of Ottoman women that really clenched my respect and admiration for them, because it enlightened me in regard to how Muslim women should be. They were not only very feminine and refined, but they were also strong defenders of Haqq. Their feminine and masculine natures were amazingly well balanced. As a Muslim convert, I have found the female model I was looking for. Whenever I get into trouble, I first ask myself, “What would an Ottoman woman do?”

Furthermore, I discovered that the spiritual nature of women was honored in Ottoman society.

Ottoman women were honored in the harem, not imprisoned there. Unfortunately, this way of perceiving women has all but been lost today. Much of the time women are perceived mainly as physical beings and, in its lowest form, as sex objects. They are often valued to the degree that they can rival the accomplishments of men. Ottoman women, however, were honored and valued as women.

I wanted to share these discoveries with others. I began lecturing on the subject of Ottoman women in Turkey, and these lectures eventually led to a small book in Turkish entitled, “Osmanlý Toplumunda Kadýn ve Aile (Women and Family in Ottoman Society).” Later on I began thinking about writing a book on Ottoman women in English-not an academic work, but a book giving a general overview that would appeal to any Western reader interested in the subject of women. Again, I rolled up my sleeves and set to work. As the book took form, so did my concept of how the book should be illustrated. I wanted it to reflect the spirit of the Ottoman woman-the beauty and harmony and refinement of her life. Once Tughra Books (formerly The Light, Inc.) agreed to publish the book and the design concept was agreed upon, members of their graphics design department did an extraordinary job that eventually led to the book being a finalist for the 2008 PMA Benjamin Franklin Award in the category of cover design/large format.

My book was published under the title “Ottoman Women: Myth and Reality” at the end of 2007. In the spring of 2008 I went on a book promotion tour in some major US cities: Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Pittsburg, Rochester and Newark. The people I met and spoke to-men and women, young and old, American and Turkish, Muslim and non-Muslim-all responded positively to the book. Many were surprised to learn about the high social status of Ottoman women, particularly about their legal rights. Some, young Turks in particular, were thankful that the myth of the harem was finally being challenged. Almost all commented on the beautiful design of the book. The highlight of the tour occurred on the evening of the annual PMA publishing awards dinner in Los Angeles. That night my long journey of discovery in regard to Ottoman women was crowned when my book won the PMA Benjamin Franklin publishing award in the category of history/politics.

As a final comment, I would like to mention the great contribution to the book of my now deceased son, Sahin Sancar. He was with me every step of the way, from the signing of the contract with my publisher to the final touches in the design. He was a beautiful person and he contributed greatly to the beauty of the book. May he live eternally in beauty and light.

You would have thought them awake though they were asleep. We caused them to turn over to the right and the left, and their dog lay outstretching its two forelegs on the threshold. Had you come upon them unprepared, you would certainly have turned away from them in flight, and would certainly have been filled with awe of them. (Kahf 18:18)

Religion involves abstract concepts, including the belief in a Supreme Being that can intervene in human affairs. Such intervention can take the form of divine communication, which in its written form becomes scripture, the holy word that exceeds in quality and wisdom the literary achievements of mortal writers. These writings outline basic beliefs, and provide counsel that give humans certain guidance as they pursue their mortal pilgrimage in an uncertain world. Besides their profound impact on individuals, these guidelines help to form, and even transform, cultural and behavioral patterns that unify group thinking and social structure, that influence legal codes, that shape educational programs, and that influence life in innumerable ways. Religion, with its reliance on faith in the unseen, seems to clash with the scientific method, with its insistence on empirical data, on proof. Yet no such clash exists in true religion, which embraces all truth, visible or invisible, from whatever source. Faith and science, then, are merely different ways of knowing, two useful means of discerning truth.

Science and religion are so intertwined that some church names announce the connection: Church of Scientology, and Church of Christ, Scientist. Some of the great scientists do not feel there is a science-only limit on their research, and perceive themselves as much more than narrowly-focused scholars. For example, Dr. Francis H. C. Crick (1916–2004), the co-discoverer of the current DNA double helix model, researched the human spirit;¹ Dr. Henry D. Eyring (1901–1981), world famous for his work on reaction rates in chemistry, saw no conflict between authentic religion and accurate science.² These and innumerable scientists have affirmed belief in the existence of the human spirit and life after death.

The claim that the Holy Qur’an is scripture sent by the Creator Himself should be easily verifiable in any stage of human civilization, according to the degree of knowledge a society has at a specific time. Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the last and final revelation of God, the miracle of miracles. It is the ultimate book of guidance and warning for the whole of humanity, a merciful message for mankind sent by God through the Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him). Therefore, Muslims critically investigate the veracity of its claims, and analyze them scientifically; they find every aspect of it to be true according to well established scientific facts. It is pertinent to mention that we are only talking about well-established scientific facts, not theories or hypotheses, which are numerous and prone to change.³ Modern humans, however, too often have sold themselves short by limiting the quest for truth to empirical logic and reason, by granting science supremacy over scripture. This is not to say that the scientific quest is fruitless, simply that it is unduly limited. Islam has made reason the ultimate judge in everything; in the Qur’an, God links disbelief to the refusal to use reason: “Those who disbelieve simply do not use their reason and neither do they understand” (Baqara 2:171). Reason and understanding, then, are meant to buttress belief, to fortify faith. Otherwise, one incurs the merited displeasure of God, who not only compares the disbeliever to one “who hears the sounds of a call but does not distinguish any word or idea,” but also teaches that to converse with such a person “is like talking to the deaf, dumb, and blind” (Baqara 2:171). In the Holy Qur’an, God calls upon humans to look into the universe and discover its construction and structure. He commands them to do so in the conviction that their investigation of the organization of the universe will lead them to the discovery of God and His Unity: “In the creation of the heavens and the earth, in the succession of day and night, in the phenomena of ships sailing across the seas with goods for the welfare of human beings, in the fall of rain water from sky to quicken a dead earth, in populating the earth with all species of animals, in ordering of winds and clouds between sky and earth – in all these there are signs and pieces of evidence for those who reason” (Baqara 2:164).

According to the Qur’an, any scripture claiming to be a divine revelation must also be acceptable on the strength of its own reason and logic. The Qur’an is not a book of science but one of signs (each verse in the Qur’an is called aayaat which also means “sign”). Nevertheless, it conveys scientific knowledge; of the 6,000 or more verses in the Qur’an, over 1,000 of them deal with core scientific facts. For example, Anbiya 21:30 suggests that the discovery of an expanding universe, commonly called the Big Bang theory, was revealed by illuminating inspiration long before it was discovered by such scientific luminaries as Edwin Hubble and Alan Guth: “Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of Creation), before We clove them asunder?” The Holy Qur’an is full of scientific explications, including tantalizing intellectual nuggets that describe the spherical nature of planets, the nature of their orbits, human embryology, and the fundamental role water plays in life on planet Earth.⁴

In this article, we would like to point out a yet another scientific secret that apparently has not been analyzed by Qur’anic scholars. The verse with which this article begins (Kahf 18:18) invites discussion of two important topics that are of interest to modern physicians and others: hibernation, and the prevention of bedsores that may afflict humans during times of extended immobility, as in hibernation or serious paralytic or other illness. In the Qur’anic story of the “people of the cave,” two signs appear: an instance of long-term sleep (hibernation) and a simple method to prevent bedsores.

The chapter state that a small group of youth, believers in One God who were fleeing their own family for fear of persecution, took refuge, and sought divine grace in a large remote cave, for which they are known as the “people of the cave.” They were overtaken by sleep in the cave, which was away from sunlight and is mentioned as one of the Signs of God.

These youth slept in the cave with their dog for an exceptionally long time (309 years according to the verse 18:25), during their slumber their physical position was periodically changed, and the cave was away from direct sunlight.

You would have seen the sun, when it rose, moving away from their Cave to the right, and when it set, turning away from them to the left, while they lay in a spacious hollow in the Cave. That was one of God’s signs. (Kahf 18:17)

Let us now discuss these topics: the hibernation or a state of sleep in which they thought they were awake-a hypnogogic state, the repeated turning over, and the avoidance of sunlight in the cave. First, let us examine hibernation, which is defined as a state in which mammals, and some non-mammals, experience depressed metabolic activity characterized by exceptionally slow breathing and lower body temperature during an extended period of inactivity. A means of rest and energy conservation, hibernation reduces the need for food by relying on fats already present in the body itself. Bears are perhaps best known for their hibernation during winter, when food is more difficult to acquire, but squirrels, bats and rodents also hibernate. The Common Poorwill, a bird found in North America, hibernates, as does the Western Diamondback rattlesnake, and the Dwarf Lemur, which hibernates more than half the year (sometimes in warm temperatures). It should be noted that in the Qur’an the hibernation is described as a hypnogogic state, a state when a person believes that he or she is kind of awake.

Scientists and others are currently intrigued by the potential that hibernation offers to humans. Could induced hibernation save a seriously injured person until appropriate medical help arrives? Could hibernation reduce the demands on the heart and other organs of seriously ill patients? Could life be extended through this means? Would persons suffering from clinical depression benefit from some “time off” with no stress? What about astronauts, who would benefit from hibernation during long flights to distant locations in space?⁵ The Qur’an seems to suggest the possibility of space travel, as allowed by God: “O company of jinn and men, if you have power to penetrate (all) regions of the heavens and the earth; then penetrate (them)! You will never penetrate them save with (Our) sanction. Then, which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?” (Rahman 55:33–34)

Is there any evidence of human hibernation in recent years?

Of course, the story of the believers mentioned in the Qur’an relates to a miracle that occurred long ago and it is mentioned to show the power of belief, and as one of the small signs denoting God’s existence and His mercy. However, documented occurrences of human hibernation in recent years have been highly publicized.

For instance, in 1991, Brittany Eichelberger, a West Virginia three-year-old, was rescued from a late December snowdrift, on a night when temperatures fell to –3 C. She survived, lost only a portion of one toe, and suffered a little from a weak arm and some minor pneumonia. A decade later, thirteen-month-old toddler Erika Nordby seemed to have frozen to death after crawling into the cold one night in Edmonton, Canada in February 2001. Although clinically dead, she came back after serious treatment by doctors who dealt with frostbite issues and were astounded to find that she suffered no major brain or other physical injuries that would be expected for one who had been outside for perhaps three to four hours. Although the brain had been deprived of oxygen for an extended time period, apparently the decreased body temperature and the resultant metabolism slowdown reduced the need for normal brain activity and blood flow. These “miracles” have prompted increased interest in whether similar miracles could be intentionally performed to prolong life. Karlee Kosolofski, a two-year-old, survived a six-hour ordeal in Rouleau, Saskatchewan, Canada on a night so cold (–22 C) that her body temperature plummeted to a documented 14.16 C (which placed her in the Guinness Book of World Records). A physician who helped her survive likened her badly-frozen legs to ice blocks. She lost a leg, had another severely scarred, and required grafts and surgeries. Ironically, Krista Rempel, the paramedic who was first on the scene in Rouleau later arrived first in Edmonton, to rescue Erika Nordby.⁶

To religious observers aware of the dual-rescue “coincidence,” it seemed apparent that the same paramedic was assigned to serve by God again to witness another miracle.

Cryogenics, which deals with the changes in materials when frozen, has helped humans (including astronauts and heart patients) by improving materials that help propel spacecrafts or that make open heart surgery safer. But what about the branch of cryogenics called cryonics, which deals directly with people, specifically frozen people? Could people be intentionally frozen until specialized help arrives within a few hours? What about within a few decades? Could patients be placed in suspended animation until a surgical procedure is improved or until genetic engineering becomes more advanced? So far, cryonicists have not succeeded in freezing and then reviving humans.

Hibernation induction (inducement) triggers (HIT)

Scientists have good reason to hope that induced hibernation can work on humans because it has worked on animals. For example, when HIT-hibernation induction (inducement) trigger-is extracted from the blood of a hibernating squirrel in winter and injected into an active squirrel in the spring, this second squirrel goes into hibernation. HIT can even be shown to induced short-term hibernation in a monkey, which normally does not hibernate.⁷ HIT, which a bear’s body releases when the temperature decreases, is thought be a type of opiate that is similar to morphine in its chemical makeup (http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/animals.html). Could HIT help terminally ill patients, such as cancer patients who take morphine? Could it lengthen the time that animal or human organs can remain independent in transplant operations? Studies have shown that a synthetic substitute called DADLE, can dramatically “increase the time animal organs can survive in the laboratory from 8 hours to 46 hours by using an opiate-like compound in combination with a preservation method that keeps a number of organs from the same donor animal linked with connecting veins.”⁸

In the Qur’an we do not find mention of the hibernation inducing agents that may be present in the cave, but it is intriguing to consider that various kinds of gases, including carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulfide, are found in dark caves. Called oxygen-mimetic gases, these have a molecular similarity to oxygen. Because they mimic oxygen in their binding capacity, these gases can inhibit the body’s capacity to utilize oxygen (known as oxidative phosphorylation). This inhibition is important because it can reduce metabolic activity to the point that a state like sleep or even hibernation can ensue. Later, revival occurs as organisms are again placed in regular air. The cave story in the Qur’an suggests that the cave was intentionally deprived of sunlight and kept cool.

With regard to the second sign, the Holy Qur’an mentions a state of “a very long sleep” in a group of believers and their dog. One of the most interesting aspects of this miraculous sleep is that God says, “We caused them to turn over to the right and the left.” As any health care professional is well aware, a human being cannot lie down on a bed or on the ground for a long time without developing bedsores unless they change positions periodically. It is continual, unrelenting pressure that damages skin and other tissue and causes bedsores (pressure sores), especially when this pressure is applied to areas of skin that cover areas in which bones or cartilage are prominent. The parallel between the modern remedy for bedsores and the universal wisdom of the Qur’an is impressive.

There are numerous secrets in the Qur’an that we see the world has ignored due to apathy, ignorance, or arrogance. Muslims, as well as others who seek for truth wherever it exists, would do well to pay closer attention to the Qur’an and to the aayaat or signs of God. As this article demonstrates, faith complements science at its best, and true science becomes a subset of true religion. Together, the two function more like an intertwined double-helix in DNA than like two geometric rays pointed in different directions.

Notes

1. See Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, 1994.

2. See The Faith of a Scientist, 1969.

3. See Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,1962.

4. These and many other subjects have been explored by many authors-notably Dr. Maurice Bucaille, The Bible, the Qu’ran and Science: The Holy Scriptures Examined in the Light of Modern Knowledge (1990), but also by such scholars as A. Abd-Allah, The Qur’an, Knowledge, and Science (USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts. University of Soutern California. Internet. <http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/scislam.html>. Accessed 30 May 2008.), and Dr. Zakir Adbul Karim Naik, Qur’an and Modern Science – Compatible or Incompatible? (2003; see also http://www.irf.net/irf/drzakirnaik/dznindex.htm (download of text), http://www.irf.net/irf/ drzakirnaik/index.htm, and http://www.islamicvoice.com/may.2000/religion.htm).

5. Tariq Malik, “A Sleepy Science: Will Humans Hibernate Their Way Through Space?”, Science 12 October 2004. Internet. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/ scitues_hibernation_041012.html.

6. CBC News Online, “Hypothermia.” Indepth: Health. 16 July 2004. Internet. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/health/hypothermia.html. See also, Robert Roy Britt, “New Hibernation Technique Might Work on Humans.” 21 April 2005. Internet. http://www.livescience.com/health/050421_hibernation.html, John Harlow, “Race to be first to ‘hibernate’ human beings.” The Sunday Times. TimesOnline. 27 May 2007. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article1845294.ece

7. Great Moments in Science, ABC, http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1038546.htm.

8. (Neil Swan, “Hibernation-Triggering Opioid Extends Life of Organs for Transplantation.” NIDA Notes, Research Advances. Vol. 11, no. 1 Jan–Feb. 1996, See also Chien, S.; Oeltgen, P.R.; Diana, J.N.; Salley, R.K.; and Su, T.-P. Extension of tissue survival time in multiorgan block preparation with a delta opioid DADLE. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery 107:965–67, 1994; Oeltgen, P.R.; Horton, N.D.; Bolling, S.F.; and Su, T.-P. Extended lung preservation with the use of hibernation trigger factors. Annals of Thoracic Surgery; Oeltgen, P.R.; Nuchols, P.A.; Nilekani, S.P.; Spurrier, W.A.; and Su, T.-P. Further studies on opioids and hibernation: Delta opioid receptor ligand selectively induced hibernation in summer-active ground squirrels. Life Sciences 43:1565–1574, 1988; Charles F. Schwartz, MD, Anthony J. Georges, MD, Marsha A. Gallagher, Le Yu, Kenneth S. Kilgore, PhD, Steven F. Bolling, MD, “Delta opioid receptors and low temperature myocardial protection.” Annals of Thoracic Surgery. 1999;68:2089–2092. Internet. http://ats.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/68/6/2089.

I remember Karen Armstrong at the Islamophobia conference in Istanbul, telling us how Americans rushed to the bookstores after the notorious 9/11 events and swept the books they could find on Islam off the shelves, including her own. A Prophet for Our Time holds a critical ground, as attention turns to Islam and the Prophet with every scandalous event, whenever certain persons with “Arabic names” are engaged in violent acts, or some impudent remark or drawing to offend Muslims comes up in the West. Unfortunately, shock waves seem bound to keep coming, for as long as we wait for them to awaken us to the necessity of making an attempt to understand the “other.” As for Armstrong, this is what her efforts are all about: not only understanding the other, but also learning to respect them in order to live in a peaceful world.

A Prophet for Our Time is not a first. In fact, Armstrong published her earlier study Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet in 1991, ten years before 9/11. Armstrong had seen that Western people were in no position to revise their negative impression of the Prophet. She writes that Western culture has a long history of Islamophobia that dates back to the Crusades, and that Christian monks of the twelfth century in Europe insistently defamed him. In her own words, “This distorted version of the Prophet’s life became one of the received ideas of the West, and Western people have always found it difficult to see Muhammad in a more objective light.” After 9/11, things got worse as some sectors of the Western media continued this tradition of hostility, and went so far as to make provoking insults. Her response in the face of this unfair attitude is virtually her mission statement on writing about the Prophet:

“We can no longer afford to indulge this type of bigotry, because it is a gift to extremists who can use such statements to ‘prove’ that the Western world is indeed engaged on a new crusade against the Islamic world. Muhammad was not a man of violence. We must approach his life in a balanced way, in order to appreciate his considerable achievements…”

A Prophet for Our Time is a short biography, but not in the classical sense. The author informs the reader about the culture and conditions of the time, with the awareness of addressing a Western audience. As the events unfold, the book focuses on different aspects of the Prophet’s life such as the underlying reasons behind his wars, marriages, and so forth. We have a portrait of a decent person who made certain decisions and acted in a certain way for fair and understandable reasons. Rather than a holy figure, we are presented with a moral and social reformer who, in the face of a new situation, falls into a deep trance and then comes up with what he “believes” to be revelations to settle the issue. It should be noted that the overall narration reflects in many ways the tradition of Orientalist scholarship in which elements of Islam are explained by reference to the pre-Islamic society of the Arabian peninsula.

Here, one cannot help but remember Said Nursi challenging the critics of the Prophet. He wrote that if a person claims to bring messages from God, he is either telling the truth, or is the greatest liar. What we see in A Prophet for Our Time however, is an attempt to find a position in between. A comment in The Economist about the earlier biography summarizes the author’s stance: “respectful without being reverential…”

The Muslim audience may find the book a bit disappointing. In fact, the book has various points on which Muslims will agree, beg to differ, oppose, and even find offensive. Take the Prophet’s marriages for instance. They are explained in quite an agreeable way. However, Muslim scholars reject the account of the Prophet’s marriage to Zaynab as given in the book. Muslims believe that God Almighty willed people to understand that an adopted son (Zayd) was not like a real son, and the revelation about this marriage simply shattered a pre-Islamic taboo. Although the book notes this dimension, it rather makes the case sound like a love affair. At this point, we had better turn our attention to the sources of the book.

Some Western critics praise A Prophet for Our Time for being based on early Islamic sources such as Tabari and Ibn Ishaq. However, those who are familiar with Islamic studies know that the significance of these scholars of the early period was their compilation and recording of verbal reports which varied in reliability. Their works provided precious material for the next generation’s scholars, like Bukhari and others, who meticulously refined these reports and included the authenticated ones in their books. However, Orientalist researchers have felt very easy about referring to the early period compilations, taking the weak and unauthenticated reports as true, and rationalizing everything in their own way. Thus, most of the narrations from Tabari and Ibn Ishaq in A Prophet for Our Time are actually taken from just such an commentary by Alfred Guillaume.

The gharaniq issue can be given an as example. A Prophet for Our Time repeats the claim that the Prophet did not at first condemn the worship of the cult of the three gharaniq-the idols which pagans believed to be the three “daughters” of God. Different Muslim academics have indicated why such claims are impossible, so it will suffice to draw attention to a simple fact. Belief in one God, with absolute rejection of any idols, daughters, or sons to be ascribed to Him, was essential in Islam from the very beginning: the first martyrs of Islam, Sumayya and Yaser, preferred to die than to accept the idols of the Quraysh.

A Prophet for Our Time useful book from different aspects. Above all, Armstrong’s powerful language is especially commendable for its success in reflecting the author’s positive approach and dedication to mutual understanding between members of different faiths and to promoting a sense of “compassion” across the world. In this regard, Muslims as well as non-Muslims should respond to her call with their support. With due respect to her decent cause, I would still encourage those who would like to learn more about the Prophet to look for publications that are based on more authentic sources of Qur’anic exegesis and Traditions, and to be cautious about information derived from other sources that simply narrates narrations without any filters of authenticity.

Korkut Altay is a staff editor for The Fountain.

The Aral crisis is the best example of an ecological problem with serious social and economic consequences, directly or indirectly connected with all the states of Central Asia. The critical situation caused by the Aral Sea drying off was the result of agrarian economy tendency on the basis of irrigated agriculture development and volume growth of irrevocable water consumption for irrigation.

The Aral Sea was once the fourth biggest inland sea of the world, located between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (formerly in the Soviet Union). It moderated the inland climate for many centuries through water evaporation, which gave life to the surrounding deserts of Central Asia. The Aral Sea also was inhabited by more than one hundred fish species and supported productive fishing industries. Some fifty years ago the Aral Sea was surrounded by prosperous fishing towns like Moynaq.

The water area of Aral has periodically expanded and contracted in the course of history. These changes have affected the climate and the state of the region and led to important migrations in history. In spite of the massive glacier melting in the North and South Pole because of global warming, which would be expected to increase the level of inland waters, the Aral is rapidly losing its water. Because of poor environmental planning and the negligence of humans, the Aral Sea is now dying and according to the experts it will disappear in less than ten years.

The Aral Sea started to dry off in the early twentieth century. In 1918 Lenin decided that the only two water supplies of the Aral, the River Amu and the River Syr should be diverted for irrigation of the desert to increase land for agriculture. The idea was to boost agriculture, and this worked for a short period of time. The Soviets or Uzbekistan became the world’s largest exporter of cotton, which they referred to as white gold. The area of irrigated lands increased from 3 million hectares to 8 million. The population of the region increased from 7 million (1940) to 50 million (2000). At the initial stage of this project which seemed a brilliant idea at first sight, the irrigated land built up the economy of the Central Asian Soviet States and produced millions of jobs. Although, the result of the project was brief joy and success, the price of poor planning turned out to be by far too high.

First of all, the government had decided to grow cotton in a desert terrain. Cotton farming requires lots of water, which would not occur naturally in the desert. They also increased the production of other crops like water melons, cereal, and rice. Diverting the rivers cut the supply to the Aral Sea, and due to evaporation, it began to shrink. The first irrigation canals were initiated in the 1930s; however, these canals were poorly built, extremely inefficient, and wasted more than 50% of the water. Even today in Uzbekistan only 12% of canals are leakproof. The level of the sea has gone down constantly ever since; in the 1960s it became obvious that the sea level was falling; there was an average 20cm fall per year until the 1970s, when the fall became 50–60cm a year, and now it is 80–90cm a year. Especially in the period of 1960–1980 the diversion of water doubled, which reflected on cotton cropping as much as on the decreasing sea level.

The loss of water exposed the salty sea bed in the Southern Aral. Dust storms spread salty soil into the irrigated areas. Farmers tried to fight against salt contamination by flushing the soil with large volumes of water, which makes its way back to the sea. In addition, farmers used high levels of pesticides and fertilizers to increase the efficiency of crop production. However, these chemicals leave traces of nitrogen and other salts in high amounts in the soil. By flushing the soil with water to reduce salt levels, pesticides and fertilizers were also washed out and further polluted the sea.

Even more unsettling is that the Soviet government knew that they would lose the Aral Sea; in 1968 an expert said “it is obvious to everyone that the evaporation of the Aral Sea is inevitable”; and they also knew that fishing would be hit but the sad fact is that the government saw the Aral as an “error of nature.” The consequences of cutting the Aral’s water supplies and the irrigation of the desert were the beginnings of serious ecological and social problems in the 1960s. The sea was lost to fishing and transportation. This business of “killing nature” has not only affected the people living in the immediate vicinity of the sea. They did lose their jobs and they had to restart their lives, but the whole environment was affected too. Loss of water caused an increase in the overall salinity of the sea. Besides that, the bed of the sea, which held toxic chemicals and pesticides, was now revealed. The local drinking water is hence contaminated. The Aral was once the habitat of more than 120 unique species; now it has only thirty-eight. Being a heat reservoir, it had a cooling effect on the environment, but now the temperature can go above 120 degrees, winters still being harsh. Poisonous dust and salt storms take their toll. Infant mortality, tuberculosis, cancer and lung disease are thirty times higher than normal levels because the water is contaminated by fertilizers, pesticides and salt.

Currently the sea has lost more than 60% of its surface area and more than 80% of its volume; as of 2004 the salinity is 45g/l, normal value being 10g/l. While shrinking, it has split into two lakes, the North and South Aral Seas, now 95 miles away from Moynaq, leaving vast areas of salty desert behind. A BBC reporter said, “What appears to be snow on the seabed is really salt. The winds blow this as far as the Himalayas. The children of Moynaq have made a playground out of the wrecks of ships which might have provided food and a future for them.” The drying out of the Aral may lead to even more serious consequences in future if measures are not taken soon. First, increased temperatures may lead to the degradation of mountain glaciers. This could be highly dangerous for the region because the glaciers feed the River Amu and River Syr, and they are the only remaining storage for the supply of fresh water and moisture. Second, the Aral’s sea bed emits massive amounts of salt and dust into the atmosphere. Polluted air is carried over the area by a powerful air stream. Traces of pesticides and salt from the Aral region are now found in the blood of penguins in Antarctica. Moreover, the pollution affects areas thousands of miles away, such as the glaciers of Greenland and the forests of Norway.

In 2003 Kazakhstan decided to make this split permanent by building a dam (Kokaral Dike) between the northern and southern parts. The restoration effort focuses on the Northern Aral which is small and less polluted. This seals the fate of the Southern Aral, and is synonymous with its vanishing. The northern water supply, the River Syr has been restored and diverted back into the sea. Although it will not be the same again for sure, planners think that fishing will be rescued and the North Aral Sea will stabilize the climate by smoothing out the high and low temperature extremes and increasing rainfall. The efforts have helped to lower the salinity level which has even allowed the reintroduction of fishing in this area. The result is surprisingly encouraging. There are other proposals like diverting the Volga, Ob, and Irtysh rivers but this would be very costly and could cause yet another catastrophe.

This story has everything in it. Humans who disregard the ecosystem takes the gift in nature for granted. As we can see, however, nature is not infinite and it is breakable. Hundreds of years may pass until the region completely recovers. The magnitude of the disaster is comparable in scope to those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and might be even worse. This is a great example of short-term greed and ill-guided economic moves disregarding the whole ecosystem and bringing consequences which have to be dealt with in the long run. In this particular case, there could have been other ways to avoid the damaging decision to cut the water supply of the lake fully, such as relying on a different type of crop which requires less water, or making more efficient use of water, and so on.

This disaster is a single example of the type of global catastrophe we might encounter again in the future. This being so it should be kept in mind when we think of our future. A lot of the damage humankind causes might still be avoided if we act firmly and quickly. This is not just necessary for our grandchildren or our children but even for our own generation since the consequences of ecological destruction are being seen more rapidly now. The widely known global warming cannot be belittled, and, as the Aral Sea example might have taught us, the consequences can be terrible. It is likely that more such unpredicted events will afflict us. Added to this, there are water pollution, deforestation, and the destruction of wet-lands. Every day we hear or read about these consequences of negligence and greed. But these geographical features are all in perfect harmony, and we cannot rudely and unthinkingly destroy them. As Lester Brown comments, “Previous generations have always been anxious about the future, but we are the first who decide if the Earth inherited by our children will be inhabited.”

Timur Ceylan is an expert engineer at AMD Technologies, San Francisco.

References

• National report: “On the environment state and use of natural resources in the Republic of Uzbekistan.” State Committee on Nature Protection of Uzbekistan. Tashkent, 1998.
• K.Isentaev. “Geological structure and perspectives of oil and gas reserves of the Aral Sea.” Workshop report. Almaty, 1997.
• Ministerial conference of Central Asia. “Assessment of the environment.” Aarhus, Denmark, 1998.
• J. Mahambetova. Non-government union. “Aral tenizi.” Aralsk, 1999.

How would you comment on the Qur’anic verses “You alone do we worship . . .” (Fatiha 1:5) and “This is the Book: there is no doubt about it. A perfect guidance for the God-revering, pious, who keep their duty to God” (Baqara 2:2).?

In this phrase, the object pronoun “You alone” (iyyaka) is placed before the predicate. This implies a very subtle point: “O God, we wholeheartedly proclaim, acknowledge, and confess that it is only You, and none but You that we turn to, bow before, and seek comfort in. We believe that by Your side alone we can attain serenity and peace.” Another point to note here is the tense; instead of abada, which is the past tense, in this verse na’budu is used for “worship”, the same root in the present. In the past, abada connotes “we did, we made, we performed, etc.” Such a tone, however, would in a way be contrary to the nature of worship, for it sounds like an accomplishment, which implies pride, as if the worshipper fulfilled something all by himself or herself.

The present tense form of na’budu implies that the task is not yet finished, which renders such a misinterpretation impossible. Meaning “we worship,” na’budu refers to the intention and determination to acknowledge the eternal impotence and poverty of humankind before His Presence. This can also be paraphrased as follows, “O Lord! I am determined that I will not sacrifice my freedom to anyone but You and I will not fall in humiliation before anyone or anything. I turn to You fully intent on servanthood and worship; my eyes are fixed upon You and no other. I am filled with a desire for submission and prayer. Resolute to distance myself from anything other than You, I wish to always stand opposed to all that You do not like or want. My intention is my greatest worship; I hope that You will accept my intention as my worship. I plead for Your favor, not in proportion to the number of things that I have done, but to those I have intended to do.”

In this phrase, na’budu, “we worship,” also emphasizes that the worshipper is not alone with such thoughts. Hoping that all others are thinking in the same vein, the worshipper proclaims, “In making this request, I am in full concord with all my fellow worshippers.” Through such an indisputable alliance, the worshipper is empowered with confirmation and testimony, and thus he or she turns to the presence of the Almighty Lord Who meets all needs. In this manner, they can relieve themselves of evil involuntary thoughts, and they can enact a complete form of worship toward the Perfect Divinity.

Perfect guidance

This is the Book: there is no doubt about it. A perfect guidance for the God-revering, pious, who keep their duty to God. (Baqara 2:2)

“Guidance,” in this verse is in the infinitive form. Since the infinitive is a verb form, like in other languages, in Arabic it expresses action and engagement; therefore, it implies that individuals cannot find guidance, or, ultimately, the main goal to which it leads, without having exerted any effort. The word also ends with a tanween (indefinite noun-ending with letter nun); a rule in Arabic grammar suggests that if a concept is used in the indefinite/unconditional form, then its perfect meaning is intended. Therefore, there is no doubt that this book is a transcending divine guidance for the pious. It is perfect guidance for the pious, as it is they who are free from the slightest skepticism, and it is they who are ready to comply with both the injunctions of faith (sharia al-garra) and the principles that are in effect in nature (sharia al-fitriyya). The pious are disposed to acknowledge the truth, and since they are not prejudiced, such perfect guidance can be viable for them alone (with the above-mentioned condition that they have to exert effort).

Nevertheless, there is another use of “guidance” at the end of the same page in the Qur’an in the following verse: “Those (illustrious ones) stand on the true guidance from their Lord” (2:5). Here “guidance” is in the form of a verbal noun (while the infinitive form implies human responsibility, the verbal noun is God’s creation). That is, it is a kind of actual guidance God bestows upon His servants, whomever He will, without the intervention of any cause-effect relationship. As far as we can deduce from the conditional in “for the God-revering, pious,” how one attains such guidance is by attaining a true level of piety. Faith and knowledge of God are the first level of ascending on this path, the last being the pleasure of God Almighty. Finally, as clearly expressed in the verse, only those who can live up to such guidance will attain salvation.

It can be derived from the context of this last verse that guidance is dependent upon God’s having created it. However, the behavior and preferences adopted through the exercise of free will are necessary if such guidance is to ensure safety and comfort in this world and if it is to become a means of salvation in the hereafter for humankind.

To conclude, the first “guidance” is a cause and the second is a blissfully granted result. Both are an answer to the prayer of “Guide us to the straight path” in Fatiha (1:7), while serving as guidelines for those on the road.

Note: See Nursi, The Words, Twenty-Sixth word, Sixth Way, for an explanation on verbal noun and infinitive in Arabic grammar.

The social milieu that provided the background for the emergence of Islam in Arabia is described by Muslims in one term: Jahiliyya, or The Age of Ignorance.² Armstrong argues that this term was not used to define a historical era but to illustrate the spirit that pervaded this time of “spiritual and moral crisis,”³ thus referring “to a state of mind that caused violence and terror in seventh-century Arabia.”⁴ Women were not exempt from this violence and social crisis: infanticide, the burying alive of baby girls, was rife; marriage was not sanctioned;⁵ women did not have the right of inheritance and bequest; they were not treated fairly during divorce; and women were not afforded full control of their wealth.⁶ It is in placing the Qur’an and its principles against the backdrop of such a setting that the reformist spirit of Islam, which restores the true human character, can be seen.

One of the most important principles detailed in the Qur’an which regulates the lives of Muslim women is the spiritual status assigned to women. Viewed by Muslims as the literal word of God, the Qur’an is taken to be the means through which God makes Himself known and describes His laws.⁷ When Islam emerged in tribal Arabia, religion reflected the tribal nature of society and its social structure.⁸ Polytheism and idolatry were dominant, with the Ka‘ba, the shrine revered since the time of Abraham, housing 360 idols. Families banded together to form clans and clans came together to form tribes; tribal allegiance was the most important factor governing an individual’s position in society. One of the points discussed with reference to women in pre-Islamic society is the level of their participation in religious rites and traditions. Some have argued that, while being seen as improving the rights of women, the advent of Islam in fact restricted them. Leila Ahmed, most notably, includes among the roles of Jahiliyya women, “priestesses, soothsayers, prophetesses” and “warrior-leaders.”⁹ However, in his discussion of the feminine in Islamic mysticism, Elias locates the chief reason for women’s involvement in soothsaying, blackmagic and such occupations, as being women’s exclusion from religion.¹⁰ Islam’s emergence drastically altered the spiritual landscape of Arabia for women. One of the most important principles outlined in the Qur’an is the notion of religious, moral and spiritual, obligations being incumbent upon all individuals, regardless of sex. The Qur’an states, for example: “Those who submit to God and accept the true Faith; who are devout, sincere, patient, humble charitable, and chaste; who fast and are ever mindful of God-on these, both men and women, God will bestow forgiveness and a rich recompense.”¹¹ Listing this and another ten sections from the Qur’an, Stowasser claims that these Qur’anic references “converge to establish the absence of the doctrine of woman’s spiritual inferiority in Koranic teaching.”¹² Moreover, in contrast to the central concept of Original Sin in Christianity and Judaism, the Qur’an never mentions that woman is the devil’s gateway or a deceiver by nature:

The Qur’an clearly rejects any such notion of the “inherent” evil of woman. It explicitly demands respect for her “inherent” good as potential child-bearer (and primary nurturer). It places her on absolute par with men in terms of the spiritual potential (to know and serve Allah) and the potential to attain Paradise, provided she and he strive to realize such potential.¹³

The Qur’anic principle of spiritual and moral obligation has meant that women, from the very early days of Islam, have played an essential role, not just in practising the faith and engaging in Islamic mysticism,¹⁴ but also in writing the official history of Islam and compiling foundational works establishing the standards of religious and social practice for Islamic society.¹⁵

Another essential principle pertaining to women which is woven through the fabric of the Qur’an is that of marriage. Ahmed identifies marriage as the area where Islam has introduced the greatest reform, with no institution of marriage present at the advent of Islam.¹⁶ The reformist nature of Islam, however, lay not just in introducing new regulations, but also in overlaying new ideas to existing practice.¹⁷ While the institution of marriage, for instance, did not exist in the traditional form in pre-Islamic Arabia, there were different forms of it that were present.¹⁸ The Qur’an defines marriage as a contract between man and woman, with both assuming equal, though not identical, places. It sees the institution and the sexual relations between husband and wife not as shameful, but as commendable:

By another sign He created for you spouses from among yourselves, that you might live in peace with them, and planted love and kindness in your hearts.¹⁹

The status of women and the family in Islamic society was thus the product chiefly of Qur’anic prescriptions, which endure in affecting the lives of Muslim women.

As a final point, the economic principles detailed in the Qur’an provided such rights to women that women in the rest of the “civilized” world would have to wait until the nineteenth century for these rights to be recognized and granted.²⁰ With the advent of Islam, women were granted the right to inherit and bequeath property, have possession and complete control of their wealth and receive a dowry, while married and after divorce.²¹ The economic autonomy detailed in the Qur’an was perhaps one of the most striking reforms at the time, and still continues to be discussed today.

The principles outlined in the Qur’an which regulate the lives of Muslim women transformed the tribal society in which Islam emerged. While a satisfactory evaluation of each of these principles is beyond the scope of this paper, it is axiomatic that the transformations that Islam induced have had far-reaching implications for the lives of Muslim women and have directly impacted how these lives are played out in ever-changing societies.

Fulya Celik is coordinator of Religious Studies at a private college.

Notes

1. A. Guillaume, Islam, 2nd edn, Harmondsworth, 1956, p.71.

2. H. Smith, ‘Islam’, The World’s Religions, San Francisco, 1991, p.223.

3. Karen Armstrong, Muhammad:Prophet for Our Time, London, 2006, p.34.

4. Ibid., p.19-20.

5. L. Ahmed, ‘Women and the Advent of Islam’, Signs, Summer 1986, p.668.

6. B.F. Stowasser, ‘The Status of Women in Early Islam’, in Hussein, F (ed), Muslim Women, New York, 1984, pp.15-17.

7. Smith, ‘Islam’, p.235.

8. J.L Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path, New York, 2005, p.3.

9. Ahmed, ‘Women and the Advent of Islam’, p.691.

10. J.J. Elias, ‘Female and Feminine in Islamic Mysticism’, Muslim World, July/Oct 1988, p.214.

11. N.J Dawood, The Koran, London, 2003, p.296. (Ahzab 33:35).

12. Stowasser, ‘The Status of Women in Early Islam’, pp.20–23.

13. A. Wadud, Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective, New York, 1999, p.99.

14. See Elias, “Female and Feminine in Islamic Mysticism.”

15. Ahmed, “Women and the Advent of Islam,” p.671.

16. Ibid., p.667.

17. Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path, p.94.

18. Ahmed, “Women and the Advent of Islam,” p.670.

19. Dawood, The Koran, p.285. (Rum 30:21).

20. Esposito, 2005.

21. Stowasser, ‘The Status of Women in Early Islam’, p.15-18.

References

• Ahmed, L, “Women and the Advent of Islam”, Signs, Summer 1986, pp.665–691.
• Armstrong, K, Muhammad: Prophet for Our Time, Harper Press, London, 2006.
• Armstrong, K, Islam: A Short History, Phoenix Press, London, 2004.
• Dawood, N.J, The Koran, Penguin Books, London, 2003.
• Elias, J.J, “Female and Feminine in Islamic Mysticism”, Muslim World, July/Oct 1988, pp.209–224.
• Esposito, J.L, Islam: The Straight Path, OUP, New York, 2005.
• Guillaume, A, Islam, 2nd edn, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1956.
• Smith, H, “Islam”, The World’s Religions, Harper, San Francisco,1991.
• Stowasser, B.F, “The Status of Women in Early Islam”, in Freda Hussain (ed), Muslim Women, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1984, pp.11–43.
• Wadud, A, Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman’s Perspective, OUP, New York, 1999.

The name cholesterol originates from the Greek chole- (bile) and stereos (solid), and the chemical suffix -ol for an alcohol, as researchers first identified cholesterol in solid form in gallstones in 1784.1 Cholesterol is a soft and waxy sterol (a combination steroid and alcohol) found among the lipids (fats) in the bloodstream of all animals and humans. Trace amount of cholesterol also exist in plants. Even though cholesterol can be found in almost every cell, it is mostly found in the brain, heart, bowels, and liver. It is an important part of a healthy body because it is used to form cell membranes and some hormones, and is needed for other functions. A small amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood is enough for the body to undertake all these important functions. But a high level of cholesterol in the blood-hypercholesterolemia-is accepted as a major risk factor for coronary heart disease, which may lead to heart attack. As cholesterol and other fats dissolve, in normal conditions, only in oil, they cannot dissolve in the blood. They have to be transported to and from the cells by special carriers called lipoproteins. There are several kinds of these, but the ones to focus on are low-density lipoprotein (LDL, so called bad cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or the good cholesterol).

The American Heart Association suggests that the risk of coronary heart disease increases in adults with total cholesterol and LDL greater than 200 mg/dl and 130 mg/dl, respectively. It is also advised to keep HDL greater than 35 mg/dl to avoid cholesterol-related diseases. HDL level for young healthy adults is found to be, on average, around 55 and 45 mg/dl for women and men, respectively. Aging, diet, obesity, and menopause are among the factors which increase cholesterol, especially LDL, in addition to hereditary causes. While exercise helps in reducing LDL and increasing HDL, smoking, alcohol, and stress cause the opposite effect.

As you eat, cholesterol from food is absorbed by your digestive tract. It then makes its way into your liver and can circulate through your body in your bloodstream. That is one source. There is also a little-known second source of cholesterol-your body. Cholesterol from food is hard to get away from, even though you may be watching your diet. All foods of animal origin contain cholesterol, including eggs, red meat, and shrimp. Generally, it is also suggested to limit foods that are high in saturated fats or trans-fats. Egg is one of the most controversial foods in our fight against coronary heart disease. On average, one egg contains 66% water, 12% protein, 11% minerals, 10% fat, and 1% carbohydrate. The cholesterol level in one egg ranges from 180–210 mg based on its weight. It is found that each egg cause a temporary cholesterol spike of 3–4 mg/dl in the body, which tend to normalize after its digestion.

The American Heart Association recommends reducing daily intake of dietary cholesterol to reduce the risk of coronary heart problems. However, there are quite a few studies to suggest the contrary2–6. The “dietary cholesterol equals blood cholesterol” view is a standard of dietary recommendations, yet few consider whether the evidence justifies such restrictions.4 Over fifty years of cholesterol-feeding studies show that dietary cholesterol does have a small effect on plasma cholesterol concentrations. The 167 cholesterol feeding studies in over 3,500 subjects in the literature indicate that a 100 mg change in dietary cholesterol changes plasma total cholesterol by 2.2 mg/dL.4 In 1999, Frank B. Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health and his colleagues reported no increased risk of coronary heart disease or stroke in people who ate more than one egg per day. The analysis compared diet and cardiovascular risk among nearly 38,000 participants of two long-running epidemiologic studies.3, 5 In a separate study, Dr. Song and colleagues from the University of Michigan analyzed the diets and blood-cholesterol data of more than 27,000 people selected carefully to be a representative cross-section of the US population.5 They reported that cholesterol was lower in people who ate more than four eggs per week than among people who avoided eggs in their diet. However, a researcher cautioned, “this study should not be used as a basis for recommending higher egg consumption for regulation of serum cholesterol.” Nonetheless, until recently, there were no scientific findings to explain why it is so. Studies have shown that vitamin A, E, B, B6, B12 and folate, which can be found in egg, reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. But it was not until recently that we knew the scientific reasons behind the findings of all the earlier studies. Recent studies have shown that our body is quite intelligent in managing the extra cholesterol increase after eating eggs in a way that limits damage to the heart.

It is well known that the consumption of several eggs a day does tend to increase blood concentrations of cholesterol, particularly the amount circulating in LDLs. However, a new study from the University of Connecticut showed that eating eggs can also increase the amount of cholesterol in HDLs.2 When people ate three or more eggs per day their bodies made bigger LDL- and HDL-lipoprotein particles than when they ate no eggs. That is important because other recent studies have suggested that larger LDLs are less likely than small ones to enter artery walls and contribute their cholesterol load to artery-clogging plaque.3, 4, 6 Similarly, larger HDLs are more effective than smaller ones at moving cholesterol out of the bloodstream and, ultimately, out of the body. In addition, researchers from the University of Connecticut found that not all people respond similarly to cholesterol. Studies have shown that 30 to 40 percent of any given population is made up of “hyperresponders.” In these people, blood-cholesterol concentrations increase disproportionately in response to dietary cholesterol. Surprisingly, such people are found to put an egg’s cholesterol into larger-sized lipoproteins than most other people do. In contrast, among normal responders, only small increases in blood cholesterol occurred during the egg diet, and the size of LDL- and HDL-cholesterol particles covered the full range of lipoprotein sizes.2 These results suggest that any LDL-cholesterol reading that ignores lipoprotein size may exaggerate the heart risks posed by eggs’ cholesterol. Several recent studies have also shown that healthier people tend to package relatively more of their cholesterol in these large LDLs than do people with diabetes or heart disease and the differential effects of small and large LDL lipoprotein particles could be used as a marker for coronary heart disease risk.4, 6

In conclusion, limiting eggs or other foods in our diet cannot be the solution to reduce cholesterol level and thus the risk of coronary heart diseases. Our fight against any disease requires a holistic approach, better understanding of our body and the world around us in addition to choosing a more balanced diet and stress-free lifestyle. Recent scientific findings allow us to put an important question: Is it too simplistic to believe that the One who placed the cholesterol in the egg yolk is the One who created a defense mechanism in the body in a way that limits its damage to the heart?

Bulent Aydogan, PhD, is a research fellow at the University of Chicago Department of Radiation and Cellular Oncology.

Notes

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholesterol.

2. Greene CM, Waters D, Clark RM, et al. Plasma LDL and HDL characteristics and carotenoid content are positively influenced by egg consumption in an elderly population1. Nutr Metab (Lond) 2006;3:6.

3. Hu FB, Stampfer MJ, Rimm EB, et al. A prospective study of egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease in men and women. Jama 1999;281:1387–1394.

4. McNamara DJ. The impact of egg limitations on coronary heart disease risk: do the numbers add up? J Am Coll Nutr 2000;19:540–548.

5. Song WO, Kerver JM. Nutritional contribution of eggs to American diets. J Am Coll Nutr 2000;19:556–562.

6.Yeomin Yoon JS, Hyung Doo Park, Kyoung-Un Park and Jin Q. Kim. Significance of small dense low-density lipoproteins as coronary risk factor in diabetic and non-diabetic Korean populations. Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine 2005;43:431–437.

Use of redundancy in human communication

We make use of redundancy that is present in human language to correct errors. This happens in both oral and written communication. For example, if you read the sentence “There is a miscake in this sentence,” you can tell that something is wrong. So we can detect an error. Moreover, we can even correct it. We are achieving two things here: error detection and error correction. What are the principles that we are using to achieve these goals? First, because the string “miscake” is not a valid word in English, we know that there is an error. Here, the redundancy manifests itself in the form of the fact that not every possible string is a valid word in the language. In a sense, some strings are wasted: potentially they could have been used as words of a language but they are not. The benefit of this “wastefulness” is that it lets us detect or correct errors in communication. Secondly, the word “miscake” is closest to the valid word “mistake” in the language, so we conclude that it is the most likely word intended. Of course, we can also use the context and meaning to detect and correct errors but that is an additional feature, not available to computers. If you enter the string “mistaky” to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, ¹ it cannot find an entry for it; however, it comes up with a list of suggested words, first of which is “mistake.” So the computer is telling us that “mistake” is the most likely word intended because it is closest to the given string. This is called the maximum likelihood principle. As I type this article on my computer I witness many instances of this principle used by my word processor. For instance, when I mistakenly typed “fisrt” it automatically corrected it to “first.”

There are also other ways redundancy is used in natural languages. As already pointed out above, redundancy in context often enables us to detect and correct errors, vagueness and ambiguities. When humans communicate, redundancy, either explicitly introduced by the speaker or author or built into the language, comes into play to help the audience understand the message better and to overcome such obstacles as noise, accent, hearing difficulties, and so on. Shetter [4] gives a number of examples in which redundancy is manifest and useful in languages. We include a few interesting examples from his article here.

1. If we strike out all the vowels in a sentence, “xt slxws yxx dxwn bxt thx sxntxncx xs stxll lxgxblx, xsn’t xt”? (Can you read the part in quotes?) Since the consonants seem to be giving us most of the information we need, there must be a lot of redundancy here too.

2. The sentence “These three dogs are retrievers” shows grammatical redundancy in forms: plurality is expressed multiple times. Examples in other languages are just as easy to find, for instance, obligatory gender agreement in a language such as Spanish: La unica otra senora venezolana “The only other Venezuelan lady.”

3. A language’s stock of words (called the lexicon) shows a lot of redundant overlapping. To be convinced of this, all you have to do is to grab a thesaurus and look up a few words (big, little, fat, to die) that have lots of near-synonyms with only small stylistic differences.

4. Even the way languages are written is highly redundant. Try another experiment: take a piece of paper and cover up the LOWER HALF of all the letters in any sentence you have not read yet. If it is not significantly harder to read, that means that a lot in the shapes of the letters is redundant (could you still manage to read with 2/3 covered?).

Mathematical use of redundancy in digital communication

As we see, redundancy is present and useful in human languages in a number of different ways. Engineers have considered the question of whether computers can use some of the same principles to achieve error detection and correction in digital communication. Since computers have very limited capabilities compared to humans, for example they cannot make sense of words, it is the method of explicitly adding redundancy to original messages (as opposed to using the context) that can be used to achieve this goal in computers using the precise language of mathematics.

To illustrate the use of redundancy in a mathematical way in digital communication systems, consider the following example. Suppose we want to communicate with another party in a simple manner: sending messages that represent Yes or No, Let us agree that a 1 represents Yes and a 0 (zero) represents No. Unfortunately, there is often noise in the communication channel which may distort messages by flipping the binary bit (a 0, or a 1). If we just send the messages as they are, do we have any way of knowing if an error occurred during the transmission? Note that the reason we can do nothing against errors is that all possible strings (that all have length 1 in this simple example) are valid codewords. Codewords in digital communication correspond to valid words in a language. Compare this to the earlier example about correcting the typo in the word “miscake.”

Data of any kind is stored and processed as binary strings, that is strings of 0s and 1s, in computers. Every letter has an ASCII code. For example, the ASCII code of the letter “A” is 01000001. Typically, data consists of billions of bits. A bit is a 0 or a 1. To employ redundancy, data is broken into blocks of a fixed length. We now consider and compare several encoding schemes where the block size is 4.

Scheme 1: Perhaps most intuitive way of adding redundancy is simply to repeat the original message. Instead of sending 1011, we send 10111011. Here 1011 is the original message and 10111011 is the codeword. The string obtained after adding redundancy is called a codeword. What does this scheme buy us? Do we get any error detection or correction capability? If you think about this for a moment, you can see that if there is a single error, then it can be detected. We simply break the received word in half, and compare the two halves. If there is exactly one error, the two halves will not be the same. We also note, however, that we cannot correct any errors. Also, if the number of errors is 2 (or even) we may not be able to detect that, depending on the location of the error.

To quantify what we gain by employing an encoding scheme, let us assume that the probability of a bit error for a channel is 0.001, and there are about 3000 bits on a page. If we do not employ any encoding scheme, we expect to have an average of 3 words in error per page. If we employ this scheme though, there must be at least 2 errors per word in order for an error to go unnoticed. This improves the expected number of incorrect words to 1 in about 50 pages. Can we do better?

Scheme 2: This scheme repeats everything 3 times. So the original message 1011 is encoded as 101110111011. What are the pros and cons of this scheme? It is not hard to see that not only can we detect single or double errors; we can also correct single errors by using the “majority opinion.” This improvement comes with a cost though: only 1 out of 3 bits sent are information bits (so 2 out of 3 are redundancy bits). We say that the rate of this code is 1/3. The rate of the previous code was 1/2. With this improved error correction capacity, the expected number of incorrect words is 1 in about 6250 pages.

Scheme 3: This is a well-known and commonly used encoding scheme that adds a single parity check bit at the end so that the number of 1’s in the resulting codeword is even. Therefore, the original information 1011 is encoded as the codeword 10111. Another way of describing this method is that the modulo 2 sum of all bits (including the redundancy bit) is 0. In modulo 2 arithmetic 1+1=0. It is easy to see that this scheme detects any single errors, but cannot correct any.

Scheme 4: This is also a well-known example of an error correcting code that was one of the earliest codes designed. It was discovered by R. Hamming [1]. In this scheme 3 bits of redundancy are added to the information bits. The first redundancy bit, or the fifth bit of the codeword, is the sum of the first, second, and fourth bits. The next redundancy bits are the sum of the first, third, and fourth bits. The last bit is the sum of the second, third and fourth bits. All sums are modulo 2. According to this scheme, the information bit 1011 is encoded as 1011010. Although it is not obvious, this code can correct any single error. Therefore, compared to the second scheme above, the Hamming code achieves the same error correction ability in a more efficient way: The information rates are 1/3 vs. 4/7.

Although codes used in practice are longer and more sophisticated, the basic principles are the same. These examples show that there are different ways of employing redundancy, some more efficient than others. The question is, therefore, not whether or not redundancy can be useful but how best to use it. Error correcting codes are used in a wide range of communication systems from deep space communication, to quality of sound in compact disks and wireless phones. Researchers are still looking for more efficient codes to make use of redundancy in more clever and useful ways. It is remarkable and surprising that a lot of theoretical mathematics can be used in the design of good codes. Some seemingly useless and abstract parts of mathematics are being used in very practical applications.

Other examples of “redundancy”

We have looked at the use of redundancy mainly in communication systems. But there are apparent redundancies in other places as well. For instance, the so called “vestigial organs” in humans and other living beings are an interesting topic of controversy. Initially, these organs were thought to be useless and non-functional. However, some functions of these organs have since been discovered. The German Anatomist R. Wiedersheim made a list of vestigial organs in 1895 which included approximately 100 organs, including the appendix and coccyx. As science progressed, it was discovered that all of the organs in Wiedersheim’s list in fact had very important functions. For instance, it was discovered that the appendix, which was supposed to be a “vestigial organ,” was in fact a lymphoid organ that fought infections in the body. This fact was made clear in 1997: ²

Other bodily organs and tissues-the thymus, liver, spleen, appendix, bone marrow, and small collections of lymphatic tissue such as the tonsils in the throat and Peyer’s patch in the small intestine-are also part of the lymphatic system. They too help the body fight infection. ³

It was also discovered that the tonsils, which were included in the same list of vestigial organs, had a significant role in protecting the throat against infections, particularly until adolescence. It was found that the coccyx at the lower end of the vertebral column supports the bones around the pelvis and is the convergence point of some small muscles and for this reason, it would not be possible to sit comfortably without a coccyx. ⁴

Another important example we would like to consider is repetitions in the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book. There are several historical events or divine decrees and commands that are repeated in many places in the Qur’an. Some have criticized this as redundant. However, this is a superficial view. The Qur’an is the word of the All-Wise Creator, who has wisdom in everything He does. So, there must be some wisdom behind these repetitions. Seventh-century Arabs were very skilled in literature and poetry. The literary masters of Arabic admitted and appreciated the miraculous eloquence and literary power of the Qur’an. The Qur’an challenged them to make something similar to it:

And if you are in doubt about what We have revealed to our servant, then produce a sura (chapter) like it. (Baqara 2:23)

They have since been unable to meet the challenge. They used to hold literary competitions where the best poems were chosen and exhibited on the walls of the Ka‘ba, and called the Seven Hanging Poems. The Qur’an demonstrated such eloquence that it caused Labid’s daughter to remove the poems from the walls of the Ka‘ba. She declared while doing so, “Besides the verses of the Qur’an these no longer have any value” [3]. When a Beduoin poet heard verses from the Qur’an, he bowed down in prostration before its eloquence despite the fact that he did not convert to Islam. All of this should make us search for the reasons and wisdom behind the repetitions in the miraculous divine book. Nursi gives a number of such reasons in The Words [3]. He says that since the Qur’an is a book of invocation, prayer and summons, the repetition is desirable, even necessary. Also, it speaks of such mighty matters of extraordinary importance that their repetitions are most appropriate. Two examples of verses that are repeated many times in the Qur’an are Which of the favors of your Lord will you deny? (55:13, repeated thirty times in Sura al-Rahman) and Woe on that day to the deniers (77:15, repeated ten times in Sura al-Mursalat). These verses proclaim before Earth, the heavens, the ages, and in the face of humanity and jinn, their ingratitude, unbelief, and wrongdoing. They also proclaim their violation of the rights of all creatures, which brings the heavens and Earth to rage, spoil the results of the universe’s creation, and indicate contempt and denial of Divine Sovereignty’s majesty. If these two verses were repeated thousands of times, in a universal teaching related to thousands of issues, a need for them still would remain. It would be conciseness in majesty and miraculousness of eloquence in grace and beauty [3]. For a more detailed account of the reasons behind repetitions in the Qur’an, we refer the reader to Nursi’s The Words [3].

Conclusion

We have seen many examples where redundancy is very useful. We have seen redundancy is inherently built into the natural languages we speak, and it serves a purpose. Inspired by this fact, we introduce redundancy explicitly into digital communication systems when we want to be able to correct errors caused by noise. We have seen other examples where what appears to be redundant or unnecessary at a first glance really serves a purpose, and hence is not really redundant. We have seen that there are repetitions in the Qur’an but they too serve a purpose. The Qur’an and the universe reflect each other. We see apparent redundancies in both, but in the end we understand that there is a purpose behind everything that may initially appear to be redundant; hence, we cannot really find anything in the universe that is truly redundant. Therefore, we should keep in mind that apparently redundant or useless things in the universe may have hidden treasures behind them. Given that the creator is All-Wise and has wisdom in everything He does, it is our duty to go beyond the surface and seek that wisdom.

Nuh Aydin is an associate professor of Mathematics at Kenyon College, in Ohio, USA.

Notes

1. http://www.m-w.com
2. http://www.darwinismrefuted.com/embryology_02.html#313.
3. The Merck Manual of Medical Information, Home edition, Merck & Co., Inc. The Merck Publishing Group, Rahway, New Jersey, 1997.
4. http://www.darwinismrefuted.com/embryology_02.html#313.

References

Richard W. Hamming, 1950. “Error-detecting and error-correcting codes”. Bell System Technical Journal. 29: 147-160

R. Pinch, “Coding theory: the first 50 years” http://pass.maths.org/issue3/codes/

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, The Words, Sozler, 1992.

William Z. Shetter, “This essay is redundant”

http://mypage.iu.edu/~shetter/miniatures/redund.htm

The complex nature of genetics and its wide implications for all living organisms from viruses to humans provide raw materials for creative imaginations. In the present scenario, many consider it vital to comprehend all the genetic information necessary to support life on this universe. One of the common constraints on the understanding of genetics is the assumption that genes are the sole causes of all activities of living organisms and can explain all aspects of biological life on earth. For example, some believe the behavior and development of an organism can be predicted, if its genetic information is known-this belief is called “genetic determinism.” However, it is true that neither all aspects of inheritance are in all cases well explained, nor that the mere effect of genes on complex traits is well interpreted. The boundaries of the effects of genes on physical existence, development, survival, and the behavior of organisms are not always simple and straightforward. The capacity of humans for genetic manipulation-at least as it is commonly assumed or claimed-is limited in several ways and some of the basic causes of such barriers have yet to be explained. The focus of this article is to point out the limitations on attempts to appoint genes as the driving force of life.

The Central Dogma

Genes are small fragments of genomic DNA, encoding mRNAs which are later translated into proteins that participate in different biological metabolisms, hence conferring different traits on an organism. The biological functions and transmission patterns of genes over generations were being investigated well before the discovery of DNA as hereditary material and date back to the recognition of Mendel’s laws in the early twentieth century. Genetic information is coded in the form of a short string of DNA called a gene, which is employed in the expression of a trait(s) or mechanism(s) through synthesizing a chain of amino acids called proteins. These proteins either can be stored in different body parts or serve as enzymes in various biochemical reactions such as fighting infections. This flow of genetic information from gene–mRNA–protein synthesis is called the “Central Dogma” in biological sciences. In this biological doctrine, a very solid and predictable mechanism is assumed. Prior to the release of the human genome sequence information, the number of genes in the human genome was estimated as ~100,000. However, this estimate was far more than the actual number of genes (~35,000), which led us to question the validity of the “Central Dogma” as an explanation of the complexity of human beings. Out of these ~35,000, only 300 genes are unique to the human species.¹ This is another blow to the authenticity of the original central dogma theory. Are those 300 genes the foundation of all humankind and do they distinguish us from the rest of the mammals? Reducing humankind to its biology and explaining it based on genes has been questioned extensively and could be the subject of another discussion. But even considering such a view valid for purely practical purposes, the big gap between humans and other mammals cannot be due to the existence of this small number of genes.

Recent scientific discoveries have revealed a key point about the structure of genes-that each gene has a set of sub-segments called exons. Each exon can make a new protein. Hence, the gene can be the template for more than one protein. In the presence of other genes and proteins, the code of a particular gene can yield different kinds of proteins under variable circumstances. The flow of information can be both ways, and hence there are no predetermined factors controlling the flow of information. That means, we might know the information on what genes are present, and we can even decode it to know what is in there, but we cannot be sure what result (proteins in this context) will come out at the end when it is in the context of real life.

From physical characteristics to their genetics

Working back from a particular trait and trying to infer the genes that are involved in expression of such trait is a different approach to reveal the role of genes but surely it is not an easy task. Traits that are expressed by a single gene or a small number of genes are known as Mendelian/qualitative traits and their pattern of inheritance is simple and detection of the gene(s) is straightforward. Some of the disease resistance in plants and blood groups in humans are classic examples of Mendelian traits. The main distinction between such traits and the quantitative ones is their discreteness. For example a human being can have only one of four blood types: A, B, AB or O, and each of these groups is solid and no other blood types exist in between. In this type of trait, the role of a particular gene(s) is usually predictable and the pattern of transmissions over generations both for the future and the past can be inferred.

However, only a small percentage of traits is qualitative and expresses Mendelian inheritance. Most traits, such as intelligence, skin color in humans, height of an organism, seed yield of a grain, and diseases that have genetic causes like cancer, are quantitative traits and complex in nature. The ultimate phenotype (what we can see or measure from a trait) emerges from the joint effect of many genes as well as interaction with the particular environment in which the individual develops. The number of genes that is involved in the expression of a particular trait can be hundreds or even more. An objective assessment of each trait and quantification (called the phenotype) is impractical in most cases and could lead to another discussion. But assuming that we can measure a trait feasibly, the inference of genetic bases could still be controversial. Considerable efforts have been devoted to unveiling the effect of genes in the expression of complex traits whose inheritance pattern deviates from Mendelian inheritance. A special genetic technique, known as genetic mapping, is used to identify multiple genes that underlie a complex trait and this has practical applications for crop improvement. In humans, efforts are directed toward the detection of genes which predispose to complex inherited diseases. In this type of situation, the effects of genes on a trait are additive and can only explain a certain amount of change in the trait that we are interested in. Detection of all genes involved in the expression of a quantitative trait is practically impossible. The environment is an important factor with a pivotal role in the expression of such traits. The term “environment” is not restricted to what is present within the cell or surrounding the cell or individual. It rather refers to larger scale effects in the process of biological life that cannot be explained by genetics and the term can be used interchangeably with non-genetic effects.

One of the most striking examples of the role of genes on the expression of the phenotype is the presence of differences between identical twins. Despite the fact that they have completely identical sets of genes, studies have shown that twins can indicate different degrees of psychiatric diseases such as bipolar disorder.² Similar phenomena may be observed in crop species. In crop breeding programs different varieties are usually tested in different environments. In most cases varieties rank differently based on their performance in different environments.³

Genetic background

Genes that do not code any information for the trait of interest can also be a part of the process of expression of the trait. In other words, certain genes can be employed to stop or alter the function of a particular gene. Modifying the utility of a gene can also be done by a series of complicated reactions within each organism through mechanisms known as epigenetics. This type of alteration in gene function is also observed empirically during the process of transferring genes between different organisms through genetic engineering.⁴ Most transferred genes are silenced (turned off) by different mechanisms in a new organism regardless of patterns of inheritance. This is particularly interesting because it clearly indicates that the existence of a particular gene in the body does not necessarily guarantee that it will be functional. Even if it is functional in one individual, it might be silent in others. Even if a gene is functioning in all the individuals carrying it, the degree of expression may be variable.

The end of genetic determinism

With the discovery of the code of genes, we now know more about the biology of living organisms than ever before, as new genetic tools have enabled us to better understand what kind of information is stored in each gene.

Most of the traits of living organisms are affected by the existence of many genes as well as non-genetic effects (denoted as environment in genetics). Although Mendelian traits can be predictable to some degree, yet we can not completely infer all the genes that are employed in the expression of a complex trait, nor the amount of contribution from each single gene and portion attributed by non-genetic factors. So we cannot determine the presence of genes by simply observing the phenotype or expression of a trait.

Considering each individual gene separately will allow us to understand its possible functions more clearly and accurately. Nevertheless, the knowledge of possible functions and structure is not enough to predetermine if the information coded in the gene will be used by the organism, and, even if it will be used, how much of that information will be processed is uncertain. Whether the information that is processed will be observed or not is another ambiguity.

Assuming that we can and will know all components of life by having the knowledge of genes is known as genetic determinism. In some cases, genes are described as independent entities that drive living organisms and manage life because of the assumption that their presence will be enough to predetermine all the biology and the behavior of an organism.

Simply, in order for a gene to be an independent agent by itself, it needs to have the knowledge of all other genes as well as all the non-genetic factors for expression of a simple trait. In reality, genes contain a very limited amount of knowledge which makes them no more than tools or parts of living organisms that are employed in the existence of life on earth. Biological life itself is incredibly complex and its sustainability requires a more comprehensive knowledge that is beyond our current understanding based on the genetic code.

Seyyidhan Mirza is a PhD candidate of Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics. He can be contacted at seyyidmirza@gmail.com.

Notes

1. Siepel A., M. Diekhans, B. Brejová, L. Langton, M. Stevens, C. L.G. Comstock, C. Davis, B. Ewing, S. Oommen, C. Lau, H. Yu, J. Li, B. A. Roe, P. Green, D. S. Gerhard, G. Temple, D. Haussler, and M. R. Brent. 2007. “Targeted discovery of novel human exons by comparative genomics.” Genome Research. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; ISSN 1088-9051/07; www.genome.org
2. Cardno, A. G., Rijsdijk, F. V., Sham, P. C., Murray, R. M. & McGuffin, P. “A Twin Study of Genetic Relationships Between Psychotic Symptoms.” 2002. Am. J. Psychiatry 159, 539-545
3. Epinat-Le Signor, C., S. Dousse, J. Lorgeou, J.B. Denis, R. Bonhomme, P. Carolo, and A. Charcosset. 2001. “Interpretation of genotype x environment interactions for early maize hybrids over 12 years.” Crop Sci. 41:663–669
4. Kooter, J.M., Matzke, M.A., and Meyer, P. 1999. “Listening to the silent genes: Transgene silencing, gene regulation and pathogen control.” Trends Plant Sci. 4: 340–347