The phrase “delusion of immortality” means people think they are eternal and immortal. Such people are obsessed with the world, as if they will never die; they live just for the sake of living, without meaning, they are concerned of the present time only. They are consoled by worldly pleasures, and they do not give importance to the past or future.

Sometimes, this delusion develops so gravely that it completely takes individuals under its influence, to the extent that they become more concerned with things that are not within their control. They put aside their own lives-for they think as if they are immortal-and become fixated, for instance on the fear of a Doomsday that will destroy the universe even if it is to take place two or three thousand years later; they feel anxiety exclusively for that. All of this stems from the delusion of immortality. For such people do not think of their own death, but are busy with the death of the universe over which they have no power.

I cannot say this for everyone, but if we look around we see that many people think they are immortal, even if they spent their youth in worship and seclusion. There are times when they have said, “I can move mountains or crush what I hold in my hands,” or it is likely that they can say such things in certain times in their lives. During these times people live the delusion of immortality. This delusion is more likely to take place particularly when a person is healthy and young; certainly there are exceptions, but many young people never think that they will grow older and die. They never think that they will leave everything behind and go to some other world. They never calculate that their wealth and assets will fleet away.

The antidote to be applied to this feeling that will remove the heedlessness in a person is “mental activity.” In other words, it is necessary to engage in an effort to raise the veil with objective and subjective contemplation through meditation into the external world, as well as into one’s inner world, in order to try and glimpse the truth. As a matter of fact, it is very important to raise the veil and to see the truth before the day comes when God raises the veil Himself, perhaps in a rather bitter way. In the Qur’an, God says, “We have removed from you your veil, so your sight is today sharp” (50:22). In other words, We will open pull the veil from your eyes and on that day you will see your destination, the place where you will account for your life and witness the judgment of God, the Universal Guardian and All-Watchful.

Yes, that day will inevitably come. Before that day comes, it is very important to rend that veil with carefulness and contemplation, and to reach the horizon of seeing and feeling Heaven and Hell now and in this world. But because human being is forgetful, when people become a little remote from contemplation they immediately suffer the delusion that they are going to live forever.

Let us clarify the topic a little more with an example: Assume that one of us enters a palace. Everything has been prepared there according to the desires and appetites of our ego. When I say “everything,” I mean everything from banquets to things that will satisfy human carnal desires. However, we understand with certain signs that all of these are forbidden. Consequently, this means that we are not allowed to touch the banquet tables, we cannot come close to the forbidden zone of those who are not permissible to us, and we cannot eat the “forbidden fruit.” For, as stated before, there is a “forbidden” sign on all of them. Sometimes, when faced with such a situation, some people can be defeated by their carnal self. The food can whet their appetites, those attractive things can lure them to turn their eyes on them, and their feelings of lust can push them to do evil things. At that moment they can be tempted to extend their hands to touch those fruits.

If just as they are fully in the total grip of their desires, a curtain suddenly opened and Hell with all its terror and Paradise with all its magnificence appeared before them, then they would neither extend their hands to the forbidden food nor take a step towards sin.

In this respect we can say that what lead people to evil are heedlessness, diving into the world as if they will never die (tul al-amal), and the inability to see the truth. I think that it is this matter that enabled the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, to avoid sin. If by means of a mental activity we could imagine the existence of Heaven and Hell with the certainty that two times two equals four, then we could put a brake on our ego, not enter into evil deeds, always see the next life and live in a measured way. When we are without such an activity, we will be buried under the veil of forgetfulness. Even if we believe in God, we will often be defeated by our feelings and we will do evil under the delusion of immortality. We will commit ourselves to nothing else but enjoying this world to the fullest.

Another way of overcoming the delusion of immortality is meditation on death (rabita al-mawt). For thinking about death is an important method that takes us to the view that this world is transient, destroying the delusion of eternalness. However, at this moment, when we look around, we see that fire only burns what it touches. Only those in whose homes someone dies remember death, and this important topic does not interest anyone else. Whereas, our Prophet reminds us that remembering death and visiting graveyards for this purpose is helpful.

Although visiting graveyards was initially forbidden in Islam, later the Prophet persistently emphasized this. For graves and headstones remind some less vigilant hearts of the next life by association. But it seems to me that our hearts are as if dead due to heedlessness.

Today, I think that only those who have had a close one die even partially remembers death and are able to lessen the delusion of immortality and wake up a little. I recommend to friends that they visit hospitals to keep death in mind. Let them go and visit various clinics and see the situation of those who have lost their health and are waiting for death. It is probable that such a view will remind them that they are each a traveler, and it will trigger their desire to make preparations.

As a result, the delusion of immortality sometimes derives from heedlessness, which in turn stems from a lack of contemplation. Meditation on death is an important method for puncturing this; the other is to observe hospitals and the condition of sick people. Yes, whenever a person is tested by illness or accident or on the subjects of property, life or children, then this delusion is deflated.

In short, we have to destroy this delusion by whatever means it takes. Otherwise, it will strangle us and we will not be able to rise to the level of true humanity. We will not be able to find a suitable atmosphere that will facilitate our ties with our Lord’s mercy. We have to keep two activities always alive: contemplation and meditation on death.

Original Article: Wang, M. et al., PNAS (published online before print on March 1, 2010).

Periodic injections of insulin to manage blood sugar levels is critical for the treatment of diabetes patients. It requires continuous monitoring of glucose levels in the blood and multiple injections of insulin in order to mimic the natural balance of sugar-insulin levels in the human body. Yet, it is often difficult to maintain this extremely sensitive hormone balance without major side effects. These complications include blindness, leg ulcers and amputations, heart vessels problems, renal insufficiency, stroke, and nerve damage in the legs and arms. Moreover, the long-term use of insulin causes the increase of body fat and bad cholesterol. A new research study on non-obese diabetic mice shows that adding leptin- a hormone responsible for appetite control- to the insulin therapy results in better control of blood sugar levels and decreases the bad cholesterol and body fat of Type 1 diabetic mice. This is promising, as it could reduce heart and circulatory complications of Type 1 diabetes. However, the leptin therapy may not have an effect on type 2 diabetes, adult type, because in this type patients already have high levels of leptin. However, it has to be shown that leptin therapy is safe and effective on humans as well. There is a long way to go before we can use leptin in practical areas.

2- Re-teaching speech with music

Original Source: Schlaug G, Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), San Diego (2010).

Nearly 800,000 people in the U.S. are faced with strokes each year, and a quarter of those are affected by aphasia, a deficit in language. Using a new melodic intonation therapy, therapists treat patients by teaching them how to sing words and phrases consistent with the underlying melody of speech. As a result, the patients continue to speak in a more “sing-songy” way than a person with normal speech patterns, according to Dr. Schlaug, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. After 15 weeks, 1.5 hour-long daily sessions with a therapist, the patients gradually learn to piece the sung words together into organized speech. There are two separate brain networks associated with vocal output, with the one in the left hemisphere being engaged with speech and the other one in the right hemisphere strongly responding to music and melody. For the stroke patients that had damage to the left hemisphere, this therapy may help to train similar areas on the right hemisphere, helping them to initiate a speech region in the right hemisphere. Singing facilitates necessary engagement to the right hemisphere. Images of patients’ brains before and after the therapy reveal striking structural and functional changes in the right hemisphere. This study also reminds us of the brilliance of musical therapies employed in early hospitals in the Islamic world.

3- Renewable Jet-Fuels

Original Article: Bond, J.Q. et al., Science 327, 1110 (2010).

The global need for sustainable energy resources is ever increasing and the use of renewable fuels offer promising solutions. Among others, biofuels are especially important due to the presence of direct conversion routes from plant-based waste materials to conventional liquid fuels. However, high synthesis costs and complex processing steps are major hurdles to overcome before putting biofuels forward as economically viable alternatives to fossil fuels. Researchers are therefore trying to come up with more efficient methods -and one group, from the University of Wisconsin appears to have done so. Unlike commonly utilized routes involving microorganisms, they use a novel and environmentally-friendly chemical process which is easier to control and maintain. By using an inexpensive catalyst, they convert the majority of the wasted biomass to gaseous butene and carbon dioxide, with a water-based solution of gamma valerolactone as the intermediate chemical. The butene gas is then easily transformed to high-energy transportation fuels such as gasoline and jet fuel. As an added advantage, the stream of carbon dioxide can be efficiently captured, preventing the atmospheric release of this major greenhouse gas. Under optimized conditions, the system can operate uninterrupted for 90 hours with an overall efficiency of over 75%. Successful work like this will help make biofuels cheaper for mass production, pending the meticulous analysis of its economics.

4- Salt controversy: How much is too much?

Original Article: Bibbins-Domingo, K. et al., NEJM 362, 590 (2010).

Modern humans suffer from high rates of obesity (for instance, 64% of Americans are classified as either overweight or obese) and cardiovascular diseases, with the latter being the no.1 cause of all deaths. A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco suggests that reducing dietary salt by half a teaspoon a day (~ 3g) would lower the annual number of new coronary heart disease, stroke and myocardial infarction cases. Strikingly, such a modest decrease is expected to decrease deaths from any cause by 44,000 to 92,000. According to the National Salt Reduction Initiative, Americans eat at least twice as much salt as they need where 80 percent of the salt in the American diet comes from processed or restaurant-prepared foods. However, eating too much salt is not a problem for people with healthy kidneys since kidneys are designed to flush out unneeded salt. However, when people have a high salt diet, then their kidneys are over-worked. Taking into account that modest salt reduction in one’s diet won’t likely cause harm and taste buds will likely adapt to this minor change effortlessly, it seems wise to refrain from using too much salt. This would trigger bigger health benefits ranging from not overworking the kidneys to reducing the risk of deadly diseases.

5- Why don’t we get thirsty during sleep?

Original Article: Trudel, E. & Bourque, C.W., Nature Neuroscience (published online before print on February 28, 2010).

In mammals, the “internal-standard-time” is kept by a particular subset of brain cells known as “clock-neurons” which display high activity during the day and low activity during the night. A group of scientists recently reported that the clock-neurons also function as a dimmer for water regulation, allowing bodily water content to be controlled by the body. A specialized group of cells, called osmo-sensory-neurons, detect and regulate water levels in the body, through balancing the water intake via thirst and loss via urine production. When water levels are low, the sensory-neurons communicate with some hormone-releasing cells which instruct the body to store water by ceasing urine production. By using isolated brain slices from rats, the researchers showed that the clock-neurons – when active – interfere with the communication between sensory-neurons and hormone-releasing-cells to suppress the water-storage-hormone release. In contrast, when the clock-cells are inactive (i.e., ‘sleep period’) the communication is restored, resulting in an increase of hormone levels to enable water-storage. Such regulation is the reason why we are not much disturbed during sleep by neither frequent trips to the bathroom, nor excessive thirst (that would both impair the sleep quality), and reminds us the verse from the Holy Qur’an: “..and He has made the night for rest…” (Chapter Al-Anaam, 96).

6- A passage to vegetative state through fMRI

Original Article: Monti MM et al., NEJM 362, 579 (2010).

Consciousness in medicine is defined as the patient’s alertness and responsiveness to the outside world. If a patient does not respond to external stimuli, his/her medical state is considered a “vegetative state”. Researchers from Cambridge, England performed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments on 54 patients who had been previously classified as either “vegetative” or “minimally conscious”. Interestingly, 5 of 54 patients exhibited distinct neuronal activities in the corresponding regions of their brains, when they are given imaginary motor and spatial tasks. For the motor task, patients are asked to imagine playing a tennis game. For the spatial task, patients are asked to imagine navigating through a familiar location. A 22 year-old man who had been in coma for five months was further evaluated by being subjected to a simple set of yes-or-no questions such as “Do you have any brothers?” and was instructed to answer these questions using one type of mental imagery, that is a motor imagery for “Yes” and a spatial imagery for “No”. He answered 5 out of 6 questions correctly. This is the first evidence that through fMRI approach one can reach the residual cognitive activity in vegetative patients and establish functional communication, raising question marks about our current handling of these so-called vegetative patients.

Just as in the case of this volcanic eruption, Harold Olcese, one of the finalists in The Fountain essay contest 2009, opens a window in this issue enabling us to see the brighter side of events. His essay is an empowering one and will inspire many to survive even the seemingly most tragic of all misfortunes.

However, chaos is more catastrophic not when a volcano erupts, but when individuals and societies “breathe resentment, swallow hatred, curse all that is deemed to be an enemy with a fixed and determined passion, as if programmed for fury.” The lead article portrays the chaotic drama of persistent denial vis A vis the mystical world of faith.

We learn in this issue that mountains-despite occasional explosions of lava from volcanic ones-are indeed the “water towers of the world.” Quoting from the article, 70% of the human population depends on the water originating from the mountains.

The Matter & Beyond interview with Dr. Katherine Marshall from Berkeley Center for Religion establishes the fact that millions of people still live in misery and at extremely low standards of living. According to Marshall, this imbalance can be solved “with a revival of some of the best traditions of spirituality.”

Another mountain involved in this issue of The Fountain is the famous K2, the world’s second highest peak. Bulut reviews Three Cups of Tea, a book which sold millions of copies, written by Greg Mortenson who tried to climb this peak. However, he ended up in a village where he was inspired to write this book telling of his fantastic adventure to build schools.

Please check out the essay contest 2010 announcement at the back of this issue. “What would you do if you were told you had only 72 hours to live?” is the theme of this year’s contest organized in cooperation with Ebru TV.

. . . emotions base, desire consuming

The meaning that flows over from the gaze is full of contempt for the subject of God.

Akif

Very few are exempt from such a turbulent point of view; no difference remains between what is collective and what is not, between capitalism, communism and liberalism. The distance in nature-between those who attach their lives to the considerations of eating and drinking, resting, and earning money, having a good time in general, and other beings who are bound to spend their lives in a similar way due to the unchanging character of their nature-becomes smaller day by day. The basic differences between the two sides vanish into thin air one by one, and humanity seeks new directions, despite its own nature.

Religion, piety, morality, free thought, our own perceptions of art are rarely given consideration; power has become so ulcerated as to be unrecognizable, fantasy has taken on the image of lofty ideals and these disagreeable ideas are being forced upon others. Indeed, I have to say that I have a hard time understanding the inner drama of such a terrible fanaticism. Nowadays, when enlightenment has become widespread, when intellectualism is at its apex, the fact that science and ignorance seems to meet at the same spot, contrary to the distance that one would expect to exist between them, suggests a dark complicity and makes the existence of a serious problem obvious. Such a contradiction gives us the impression that the emotional will of some people is miles ahead of their intellectual and logical will.

I believe that in such a dark period, when opposites have become intertwined, when in different sections of society chaos is heaped upon chaos, when shadowy acts of different origins have darkened the face of the Earth, when what is underground reigns over what is above, when polemics and dialectics have become so popular with so many, when hearsay, especially through the use of media, is welcomed as acceptable merchandise, when we have begun to feed upon the lives of others, when the soul of unity has been shaken and different groups are scattered everywhere, when hopes are shattered and wills are paralyzed, when souls give up the fight against desire, there is a burning need to turn toward our own spiritual sphere and listen to our own inner world, to tear ourselves from the dark atmosphere of the bodily realm and sail into the magical atmosphere of a hearty and spiritual life. Those who do not fall into lethargy and return to their usual state as soon as possible will feel the magic and charm of their own inner world; the unfortunate who fail to return and remain in between, or who remain on the other side, continue to resent, hate, slander, lie, and feel contempt, they continue in the dissolution and obstinate disagreement which they have practiced until this day, and even in climates where the sun continues to shine they will dream of dark things, they will mutter dark thoughts, always seeking dark places in which to hide and dark corners in which to live.

One hopes that they would be able to feel the joy of the blessed days and nights that we experience, when showers of light reach everywhere. One hopes they too would abandon the heresy, unbelief, dissension, and sedition in their hearts and that they would be able to respect the chosen understanding and stance of every single soul! Maybe one day these wishes will be fulfilled, but the self-proclaimed enemies of God, the prophets, religion, and piety-once having breathed nothing but materialism, having gone into a frenzy denying divinity, and having plunged into the quicksand of anarchy and nihilism-will never be able to breathe this reviving air. Oh dear Lord, had you only made yourself known to them and released the chains from their hearts!

In every community and society there are people who are inclined to abandon their faith and there have been many times when such people have spun out of control; other communities and societies do not have such powerful places to seek refuge when faced by these abysses and weaknesses as we have. Indeed, they have thoughts which soothe, beliefs which reconcile, days and nights which tremble with joy, festivals and carnivals; but, these days, these nights, these festivals, these carnivals are devoid of any holiness. They are like fireworks, shining for a moment and then are gone, giving only instantaneous pleasure; they are ephemeral and physical, not promising anything in the way of spiritual joy. Indeed, in their worlds you cannot feel the greatness of faith to God, nor can you feel that souls are free from the boundaries of time and space; everything starts with a false and transitory happiness, and takes place in a delirium of flesh. All is then transformed into painful memories, regrettable dreams, and disappointed hopes, and finally everything simply disappears.

In this spiritual atmosphere where we are closely bound to God, every sound, every word, every action is felt like a nursery rhyme and listened to like a melody. These shower down upon us like the rain; we soak up the bounties of these showers. The moon changes its form every night, as if signaling particular times and happy hours, the sun moves to a new spot on the horizon at every dawn, awakening our feelings and thoughts in a new period of time, causing our dreams to follow it, presenting memories to us that resemble the river Kawthar, promised to us in Heaven. The past becomes like a veil of many colors draped before our eyes, the happy future is the apex of our dreams, waiting for us with open arms and we, who have been freed from the narrow confines of time, live the multiplicity of yesterday-today-tomorrow simultaneously and, like the angels, feel all the joys of surpassing time. It is impossible for those who are not fed from the same source, those who do not share the same feelings and thoughts, to feel and understand the holy depths or the happiness and joy like the rivers of Paradise to the same extent.

Our faith, our horizons of thought, and our manner-characteristics of the fortunate, but at the same time belonging to a little-wronged nation of the world-have become, through being formed and re-formed in the mold of the collective personality, greatly refined and adorned with universal values. The truth is that in these characteristics the holy sadness of our hearts and the enthusiasm of our souls, like water running between the rocks, are felt and heard. Indeed, those who listen to what we have to say always hear the melodies of the pain of separation voiced along with hope; they hear the notes of reunion, of the sweet and eternal search for home in our intonation and manner. Indeed, while on the one hand we murmur “Oh, cup bearer, I have burnt in the flames of love, give me a cup of water,” on the other we say “I have dipped my finger in and tasted the honey of love, give me a cup of water,” and thus we are able to turn our grief into smiles. Our tongues speak sometimes of love and sometimes of weariness; though love and weariness cause pain to others, in them we always hear, like Rumi, the poem of longing for the realm that we have left to come here. Love and weariness to us are like a plea from the tongue of the soul, stemming from a sorrowful desire for eternity. Since our beliefs and feelings take us to the magical worlds of beyond, we almost always feel sadness and joy intertwined; we hear the sounds of crying and laughing as different notes of the same melody. We respond to the troubled heaving of our breasts with smiles on our faces, as our eyes overflow with tears, our conscience takes upon a red hue with the roses of the Iram gardens.

Even though it may not be easy for every individual, our connection to God is the most natural attitude that we can adopt; our relation with Him is like a spell that transforms all the moments of our life into enthusiasm and joy. Our hearts that beat with feelings toward Him fill and re-fill with the dream of this gaze; we are able to live through the bitterest autumns in our hearts because we have the joy of spring. Our souls adopt the most enviable attitudes with instincts of particular feelings and joy that are the result of our connection with the All-Glorious One; thus transformed, they make us feel a refreshed enthusiasm, a new opening and revelation, even at moments when we are filled with sadness and grief. Pleasure or sadness, revelation or sorrow, all these emotions undergo metamorphoses in our hearts, as they beat with faith and speak to us of the most natural pleasures and the most realistic expectations. It is a fact that we, too, experience interconnected moments of ease and hardship, sweet weeks and bitter days, light and darkness which come and pass, like day and night. However, we sip the unsurpassable benevolence and joys from the hands of all these tribulations, because we have our beliefs, our connection to the Just One and our hopes! Those who do not recognize the trials and pleasures to be the product of the same will writhe in never-ending agony, while in our own atmosphere we see clearly that everything will be transformed into deep compassion. We taste a whole life, with its bitter and sweet facets like Kawthar, the blessed water of Paradise, in everything that we eat and drink, at every place that we inhabit, with all the beautifully divine discoveries of our own inner world. With all of their different wavelengths, we feel our sorrows shrink in the face of happiness, feel our pain melt away in pleasure and feel how our lives flow into glazed cisterns in a spectrum of colors. Our mortality is transformed into eternity; we exude smiles even when we cry.

In our world, the beliefs and the expectations that emerge from the heart of those beliefs are so intertwined with our lives that each chapter of our lives lends us the wings of the station of prayer and takes us to the gate of the Hereafter. It takes us there and lets our hearts drink of the beauties of heaven. In this way, we feel as if we are inhaling the scents of heaven. Even if we should let ourselves be swept along by our daily lives, the calls for prayer, songs that exalt God, the various sounds of prayer, the recitation of the names of God, those who give Him thanks, calling out His Uniqueness, letting this spill from the windows of the mosques, all draw us to their climate; they paint our souls with their hues, they give a tambour-like voice to our hearts, they make them sigh like a flute and excite them with the happiness of music. These sounds excite our souls and we are charmed by the mysteries pertaining to God, the charm of these mysteries which comes galloping from the depths of our inner world and which spreads to all our senses, this charm which tints the gardens of heaven in our thoughts and which flows past our lips like cascades of inspiration. Thus charmed, we stand awe-struck.

This charm, this recognition of the mysteries pertaining to God, reaches a higher level on the blessed days and nights when limitless abundance and bounty are showered upon us. This is true to such an extent that everything around us ascends in a state of joy, every corner takes on a spiritual hue and the excitement of our souls, aiming at metaphysical destinations, reaches its apex, or in Sufi terms, our souls reach the highest heaven of maturity. To the degree that we can hear and listen to what is all around us, we too rejoice like children who feel as if they are in the fair grounds of joy; thus we experience the happiness and joy of a feast day.

In such a world, the dawn flows into our houses from the doors and windows like an awaited guest; the evening comes into our private chambers like a lover; the night clings to us with its associations of reunion with the Confidant; and in every valley hands are raised up toward Him in prayer, ready to receive the gifts that will come from Him, assuming a state of metaphysical tension with the power of the soul, sighing, saying “Hold my hand dear Confidant, hold it, for I cannot do without You.”

In such a world, prayers roar like the booming voices of Gulbang hymns and echo like the voice and breath of the divine depths; the warm solitude of the night envelopes our souls like silk; our pulses beat with the excitement of one who has received good tidings. Perhaps some of us keep singing His praises, come rain or shine, like the nightingale that breaks its heart in an effort to express the ideal rhythm for its emotions with the most touching of sounds. In a word, everyone is humming a melody with never-ending agony and joy, never-fading love and excitement, listening to the shivering of their souls and letting others hear it, too. Everyone sighs with the fever of love and makes other people feel it. Yes, as they reflect on the excitement in their souls and the inspiration of their hearts, expressing themselves one last time, they become the mouthpiece for the feelings shared by all and they are able to speak of the hidden meanings that they want to speak of but fail to verbalize.

The horizon of living yesterday-today-tomorrow at the same time with such a degree of faith and hope, of love and recognition of the mysteries that pertain to God, gives such a depth to life that each heart in the orbit of the hereafter finds itself wrapped up in the melodious harmony of emotions and ideas and is freed from the limiting, stifling effects of matter. I believe that the strongest basis of all human relations, the purest source of all pleasures, and the fountain of all love, longing, attraction, and gravity is this faith and hope. Every disciple of the heart who attains this faith and hope can experience and feel the state of being outside of time, with the ability to sense all of its depths.

Indeed, to the extent that one can attain this view, one can feel existence in a different manner, evaluate things in a different way and melt in on oneself with the color, taste, aroma and accent of manifestations from the Eternal; these attributes pervade everything, and people can reach a second existence with a new “birth after death.” During such joyful hours, when the internal gaze is focused on that which is behind the visual scene of existence, one feels all the joys of being. One feels as if one has taken a shower in wisdom, as if one is freed from the weight of all things that are alien to one. The distant heavens shower blessings down upon these hearts, hearts thirsty for love and galloping with longing and affection; all hearts that live in fear of drying up are quenched. Celestial flowers flourish in these showers adorned with dreams!

Some of us may not be able to comprehend this state-a state which becomes a succession of struggle (to overcome the darkness with its all connotation) and dawn-of these people of faith and horizon; but all these are phenomena of the heart, soul and emotions. Living through the countless revelations of life, no one but the active heroes of the dawn and of the great strife can understand this love, enthusiasm, poetry, and music poured into our souls by the Eternal One. Those who do not understand this will not be able to understand these heroes, either. Those who remain distant to this fine and delicate life live in the darkness, while the comprehension of those who have found a position from where they can view the truth in such a way that it appears as obvious as it really is always feel this gift in all its wavelengths, sip it like the rivers of Paradise and live their earthly lives as if in Heaven.

Who knows how many more times we will speak of this never-ending pleasure and joy, in the delight of a festival, of a feast day! How ever many more times we may speak of it-the faults of the speaker’s mode of expression aside-we will still listen with pleasure and try to share it with others.

Notes

1. A place mentioned in the Qur’an (al Fajr 89:7-8), “. . . the city of ýram, with lofty pillars; the like of which were not produced in all the land.”
2. Hymns sung in the mosque in unison by the congregation .
3. The change communicated along these lines is not to be related to reincarnational notions.

On the face of the Earth, mountain regions are defined as areas more than 1000 m in elevation. Although mountains cover only 27% of the total land area of the planet, the percentage of the world population who are dependant on the mountains is much larger. In terms of water dependency, about 70% of the population uses water originated in the mountains. This ratio becomes close to 100% in arid regions. Interestingly, the water towers of the world are generally located in the arid regions of the world. It is not unusual to see an arid lowland region with a big river crossing it. These regions are usually connected to a nearby mountain from which the river originated. The significance of the mountains is mentioned in the Bible as the following: “For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land” (Psalm 95:3-5).

All great rivers of the world originate in mountains. For example, the arid region of Central Asia is watered by the Tarek, Amu Darya, and Tarim Rivers. All of the big rivers of China and India originate in Tibet. Pakistan is dependant on the Indus River. Asia Minor and Northern Arabian Peninsula are supplied by Euphrates and Tigris Rivers while Northern Africa is supplied by Nile River. All Australian waters are supplied by rivers originating from eastern highlands, and Europe is supplied by the Po, Rhine, and Tiber Rivers, which originate in mountainous areas. This makes mountain water strategically important in these areas, and in fact, some countries prefer to keep their need of mountain water a secret!

Here it is worth discussing the global water cycle in order to understand the peculiar role of the mountains. All of the precipitation onto land comes from evaporation on land and oceans. A significant portion of the land precipitation goes back to seas and oceans via river discharge every year. And the main source of fresh water for humans and other living organisms comes from rivers. For low-land precipitation (as opposed to mountain precipitation) the discharge happens rather quickly, within weeks. Therefore, humans build dams in order keep the water for longer periods of time. Another longer term solution to keep more water on land is planting trees, which benefits not only humans but all other living creatures!

For mountains, the water cycle works quite differently. Since the mountains are in high elevations, precipitation starts early in the late fall and continues until the end of spring. The river discharge does not begin until early summer. Especially in arid regions, the low-land discharge mostly diminishes by early spring, and no predictions can be made as to how arid the coming summer will be. On the other hand, because of lower temperatures in the mountains, evaporation is also minimal, which makes them efficient natural storages. At the end of spring when the lowland precipitation starts to diminish, the mountain water discharge begins in a steady manner and continues during the entire summer season. When we look at the yearly usage of water even in a humid region like Europe, more than 50% of the water during the hottest and driest months of June and July is released from the Alps. This percentage is more than 95% in arid regions of the world, such as Mesopotamia and North Africa. The Holy Quran mentions the storage of bounties, including water, explicitly as the following: “There is not a thing but the stores (for its life and sustenance) are with Us, and We do not send it down except in due, determined measure. And we send the winds to fertilize; and so We send down water from the sky, and give it to you to drink; it is not you who are the keepers of its stores” (15/21-22).

Since lowland water discharge is mainly controlled by precipitation, it is also unpredictable and rather quick. This is particularly inconvenient for farmers who have to make business plans for the entire of the year ahead of time. The knowledge of yearly precipitation is vital for farmers to make reliable investments. In lowland areas, prediction of water distribution months in advance is very difficult, and almost impossible before it actually precipitates! (In fact, an area of geological sciences is devoted to forecasting precipitation. This is also important for preventing causalities in potential floods). On the other hand, mountain discharge offers stability during the year, which makes life much easier for farmers.

Mountains are generally seen in our distant horizons of our living areas with their magnificence and silence. They have many benefits that we may or may not be aware of. Indeed they are the water towers of the world.

H. Huseyin Erdem is an earth scientist living in the USA.

Note

1. More discussion on this topic may be found in The Risale-i Nur Collection (e.g., see The Words, 33rd Word) by Bediuzzaman Said Nursi.

References

1. Wiegandt, Ellen (Ed.), Mountains: Sources of Water, Sources of Knowledge, The Netherlands: Springer, 2009.
2. B. Messerli and J.D. Ives (Ed’s), Mountains of the World: A Global Priority, Parthenon Pub., 1997.

Yet, regardless of our age, gender, culture, religion, or socioeconomic status, we all have existential questions that beg answers. Where did I come from? Who am I? Where am I going to? We can’t help but ask these questions, and it is literally impossible to shut them off. Yet, it is mind-boggling to observe how much we try to avoid these questions by numerous distractions while at the same time, we need clear answers. Because otherwise life simply does not make sense, and we cannot truly enjoy anything. Yet, the urge and need to find answers to these fundamental questions runs so deep in us that we do not want to and cannot accept any dogmas. Ultimately, this search for existential meaning is a search for true happiness. Or I like to call it inner peace.

Because of the way we are (the way we are created), we seek meaning. We seek meaning in our relationships. We seek meaning in life. We seek meaning in material things. And it is impossible to have inner peace and to be in harmony with life and the universe without satisfying this need for meaning. We can describe this as “being in congruence with our creation (the way we are created).” We are given various faculties, such as the heart, spirit, mind, reason, etc., and they are all an integral part of us. Without heart (that is, shutting off our conscience, for instance), we become like beasts and commit atrocities. Without reason (that is, giving undue attention to reason), we fall into the darkness of ignorance. If we were to make a functionalist allegory, a table is a table with four legs (for the sake of the example, let’s assume all tables have or must have 4 legs). In other words, a table missing a leg would not serve its purpose. It would not fulfill the purpose of its creation. Just like this, a human being who shuts off one or more of his or her faculties (heart, mind, spirit) cannot be a perfect human being and cannot fulfill the purpose of creation. Hence, being in congruence with our nature (our creation) requires us to satisfy the needs of all of our faculties. Answering our existential questions, finding meaning in our lives, satisfies both our heart and our mind.

The strategies our egos develop to try to shut off or to ignore our existential questions are many. Some of the most obvious means for trying to silence our inner voice are alcohol consumption, workaholism, and dedicating one’s life to family or social causes to the extent that one becomes consumed with them. Some people just choose to deceive themselves into thinking that we can never find the answers to these questions, hence it is pointless to even try. We are who we are and that’s the end of the story. Yet, all these strategies are doomed to fail and end up in increasing portions of the population tormented with depression.

All of us want to find that happiness that would last forever. In a way, most of what we do in life is to attain that inner peace. Yoga classes, friendships, religious activities, ambition in our careers… And indeed we do find moments of bliss here and there. But seldom does this happiness last. We strive to buy this very nice car, and once we buy it and use it for sometime, it ceases to make us happy. Then we look for another reason to be happy and life goes on like this. But in the meanwhile, we get tired and depressed of this unending quest and endless disappointments. We waste our lives in search for something that we never quite find.

But what is happiness really? Have we ever thought about it thoroughly? What are we looking for? Fulfilling our dreams, passions, needs? Is this the aim of our life, and can this pursuit in itself bring us happiness? Happiness is rather instantaneous. We have randomly dispersed moments of joy, followed by moments of sorrow. Once we have a momentary pleasure or happiness, many times we withdraw and have very sad times. This is why it is said that life is all about ups and downs. Think of your many shopping sprees, and the subsequent plummeting of your emotions for instance!

In fact, the real happiness we are looking for is unceasing and ever-lasting. We want to be happy all the time at a maximum. Even though we have never experienced this feeling of utmost and continuous happiness, we want it with all of our being. This desire is a sign attesting to the existence of such everlasting happiness. Is it therefore possible to attain such happiness?

To be able to answer this crucial question, we need to face our existential questions and first ask who we are and accordingly try to figure out what kind of happiness can make us really happy. What makes us happy can only be something that is in line with who we are, in congruence with our creation. Although we can never change who we are, we sometimes do pretend to be something other than our true selves, with temporary needs, looking for transient joys. But we cannot change our nature or the way we are created.

Therefore, the solution lies in being frank with ourselves, being sincere about our feelings and thoughts, and not deceiving ourselves that temporary sources of happiness can actually satisfy our heart, intellect, and spirit. We need to reach out and listen to our feelings and thoughts that we have been trying to repress. Happiness lies in being peaceful with our reality, with who we are, and acting according to this reality.

Who are we and why are we here?

It seems like many of us spend our entire lives reading hundreds of books, maybe studying for years and years to obtain a PhD degree, or working for days and nights to get somewhere in our careers. Yet, without pausing and pondering upon these existential questions, who we are and why we are here, it all seems so very pointless with death awaiting us at the end. Deep inside, we all wonder who we really are, where we came from, and where we are going. We find ourselves in this mysterious world. We feel strongly connected to endless things in it. Many things in this world attract our attention. A sunny day is something we enjoy, and when we see a beautiful rose, we smile, we feel happy…Yet, we have not really decided on these responses and emotions. It seems that everything is somehow related to us, and we seem to have a close relation with everything in this universe. But surprisingly, all these things that we like fade away, die, and do not last…the rose we admire, the sun that sets, the friends that die…and at the end we know that we will die too. Death is so real, but seldom do we think about it. Every instant, something we attach ourselves to dies or fades away, yet we still refrain from thinking about it. Since death is so real, we cannot help but ask, “Where am I going and what is really going on?”

The truth of the matter is that these questions are vital for understanding who we really are. Interestingly enough, for all of us these existential questions are rather innate. Whether we like it or not, they come to us naturally. But many times, we choose to suppress them, thinking that these questions are too serious and ruin our happy moments! We mistakenly worry that thinking too much about these existential questions would shatter the dream world that we have built, but which is at the same time unable to fulfill our desire for happiness. Only sometimes, when our beloved ones die, or when we have tragic accidents or events, we are reminded again… and sometimes we decide to pursue the answers.

We are literally like guests in a mysterious house full of things that we admire yet we cannot quite hold onto. We are brought here for an indefinite amount of time, and we are taken away suddenly without us having much say in the matter. It is therefore only reasonable and natural to wonder and to want to know what is going on here. What does this all mean? Why am I here, who brought me here, and where am I being taken to? Unless we pursue these questions for ourselves, instead of shutting them off or relying on cliché answers “inherited” from our parents or culture, we can never be truly satisfied and happy.

Eren Tatari is a PhD student at the Political Science Department, Indiana University, Bloomington.

While these conflicts are represented and justified in terms of religion, historical linkages and occurrence, resources, election or ethnicity, a critical look at these “points of division” increasingly clarifies certain underlying currents: group affiliation, attachment and solidarity. It is this affiliation, attachment and solidarity that have informed the increasingly common dichotomy of people, locally and sometimes internationally, between the “we” and the “them,” “the in-groups” and “the out-groups” or, as is used among the Yorubas in western Nigeria, between the “Omo-ilus” and the “Ara-ilus.”

In the Yoruba language the Omo-ilus denotes a group of people who belong to a particular area in terms of religion and culture, and not only reside in such areas, but are attached to the land. Conversely, the Ara-ilus are people who find themselves in the same area as the Omo-ilus, but who are considered aliens by the latter because of history, religion, tribe, etc. Therefore, there is a clear division to the extent that an Omo-ilu tends not to see an Ara-ilu as his tribal brother even when the latter has stayed in the Ilu (village or locality) for more than 20 years, or even where he was born in the Ilu and haz imbibed some of the culture of the land, including its religion. Though elsewhere, this division is termed the native-settler syndrome, the underlying logic is similar.

The “group thesis” as an explanatory paradigm postulated by Arthur Bentley is not new in the social sciences, but its essence and relevance has been a subject of academic standoffs, while the respective groups continue to move towards violent settlement of issues. Even the global system has not been left out in this segmentation of the humanities. While Huntington spoke about a “clash of civilizations,” President George W. Bush partitioned the world into “Our Allies” and the “Axis of Evil,” even as some Arab scholars and leaders publicized an “Arab Renaissance”-sometimes termed “Arabism”-which splits the Northern African countries from other parts of Africa, and in other, more Machiavellian usage justifies conflicts in places like Darfur, Sudan. All these assertions and points of view tend to perceive of the global system as a mixture of groups with mutually exclusive interest and existences. These patterns of thinking, though gaining grounds, qualify as perhaps the greatest form of communal self-deceit. Men will always remain interrelated and interdependent on one another.

It is within this milieu that I propose Justobification, a simple interpersonal disposition to be adopted or adapted by these various groups. Justobification is a personal experiment that has helped me understand, to a large extent, someone from “another group.” Today that someone is my wife. It is simple and replicable in a wider context. Most importantly, it is adaptable in attempting to address some of these socially constructed divisions with a sense of love and respect, emphasizing centripetal rather than centrifugal forces. Justobification is a story, spanning nine years of my life and culminating in my marriage to my friend, classmate and, now, wife, Justina Olatuga. We had different backgrounds in terms of religion, state of origin (a key means of division and appropriation in Nigeria), family background and differing opinions on a number of issues. Though we belonged to the same Yoruba ethnic group in Nigeria, the aforementioned differences created a dialectical summation which made us Omo-ilu and Ara-ilu simultaneously, depending on whether we are in my native Lagos State or in her Ondo State in Nigeria. To complicate issues, our parents are religious leaders: a Pastor and an Alhaji. Justobification is in itself, and originally, an attempt to merge my native name and hers to form a word: Justina and Tobi. It was coined by a colleague of ours who had, unknown to us, watched us since we stated our friendship in 1999. But beyond his coinage, I proceed to justify Justobification.

I have always had the belief that one’s position and stage in life is determined by a number of factors. These factors have been broadly identified as nature or nurture. By nature, it presupposes the fact that a human being’s way of seeing things is shaped by the way he or she was born. Thus, often it is said in some cultures that a fat person is usually friendly and lively, or a baby with a gap in its tooth means that it will be a socialite when it grows up. More clearly, race and ethnicity are key nature-factors; for instance, people who are born by European parents see themselves as Europeans just as an African, in the strictest form, gives birth to an African, though nurture also has a role to play in the formation of racial or ethnic identities.

The nurture angle argues that human beings are influenced by those events that they experience and the circumstances in which they find themselves. This means that the opportunity for and location of their education, their friendship, the books they read, their family orientation and so on all being a function of what occurred after birth. In other words, experiences have an enduring impact on the way we see things. As a factor, religion-without any attempt at interpreting the embodiment of the Books-falls under nurture. Thus, a large number of people are Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sango worshipper, etc., most often because their parents belong to such religions.

However, while nature-nurture makes human beings different in terms of their culture, race, tribe, region, religion, etc, this nature-nurture engendered classification has been at the core of local and international crises. These crises are reinforced by the fact that some of the emergent groups tend to view themselves as superior or more civilized or more indigenous than the other, as can be seen in the native-settler violence in Middle Belt of Nigeria, the Hutu-Tutsi violence in Rwanda, violence in Darfur in Sudan, Kenya with regards to the recent electoral violence, the crisis in Ireland some years ago, pre-1990 apartheid in South Africa among others.

My marriage to Justina exposed me to certain points. First, all religions teach love and respect. Similarly, all ethnic groups, which are likened to race, teach morality in which love and respect are central. There is hardly any religion, race, tribe, etc, that advocates violence and mutual hatred for the followers of other religions or members of other tribes or groups for no just reason. As friends, not only did we love ourselves as creatures of the Almighty, but we also respected our various points of view on nature-nurture factors such as ethnicity, religion, tribe, class, etc. We understood that these views are personal but we also, most importantly, understood that we must not assume that these individual views must be accepted by the other party. The global system can learn from this in the sense that civilizations, to use the words of Huntington, should not claim to be on a mission to civilize another civilization. Instead, efforts should be made to understand and respect the others’ views through love. Love, if present, allows individuals and groups to overlook the mistakes of others. This certainly does not mean that we should ignore human rights violations, injustices, and corruption; more appropriate and influential means of interaction should be used if we truly want to eliminate such violations.

Second, listening to ourselves helped us make sense of some of our beliefs. This helped us scale the hurdle of assumptions and the breaks in communications which are some of the reasons for group related intra/inter-state conflicts. These can be illustrated by such events as the myth of the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, the emergent Sunni-Shiite enmity around portions of the middle east, a failure to communicate between the top leaders of Palestine and Israel, the continuous religious vacuum created in the neglect of some Islamic leaders in Somalia (Oshodi, 2009) and the ethno-religious violence in 1994, 2001, 2002 and 2008 in Jos, Nigeria to mention just a few. Listening to people helps one to understand their respective points of view. The importance of listening allows the Ara-ilus and Omo-ilus to understand one another better. For instance, our interactions have helped me understand some aspects of Christianity that I never knew existed. Also, I was able to relate a number of the verses of the Qur’an to her, even before we decided to marry.

Thirdly, Justobification helped me understand that some of the points of difference among groups could be transformed to points of understanding. We achieved this by learning to see our similarities rather than overplay our differences. Even as there were areas where we did not agree, we laid more emphasis on the centripetal forces such as common humanity and love, while understanding the centrifugal forces by listening to each other with respect and understanding. Unfortunately, some group leaders tend to over-blow these differences to a massive level, leading to the emergence of hybrid interpretations which find expression in the various violence and counter-violence among a large number of the nature-nurture groupings of the world.

Fourthly, Justobification showed me the importance of prayer for peace and friendship. Though it is unquestionable that prayers are a communication between human beings and the Creator, these prayers often have a psychological effect on us. By praying for a person, you tend to wish such a person well, thereby overcoming any hitherto existing antagonisms or hatreds. I recommend that groups pray for other groups. By this I look, hopefully, for a day when Sunnis pray for Shiites in Iraq, and vice versa in their mosques on frequent occasions, or the day when Christians pray for Muslims, Arabs pray for Americans, Yorubas pray for Hausa-Fulanis, or leaders of larger groups/states pray for others. For instance, the Israeli President pray for Palestinian leaders, or ex-President Bush praying for President Ahmadinajad of Iran, and vice versa. Though this may be considered laughable and debateable, there is no doubt that saying a prayer for peace and friendship will soften the hearts of these groups and their leaders.

In conclusion, even as I write there is the threat of nature-nurture related violence in different parts of the world. Societies are dividing along ethnic, religious, tribal or civilizational line. Sadly, this may continue unless we, as humans, begin to see the need to love, respect, expand points of unity and pray for peace and friendship. Simply put… we could all use a little Justobification.

Abdul-Gafar ‘Tobi’ Oshodi is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Lagos State University (LASU), Lagos, Nigeria. Also a trained journalist, Tobi Oshodi specialises in Advanced Specialised Reporting and International Political Economy with bias for the “African Condition.”

References

• Huntington, S. “The Clash of Civilizations,” in Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993.
• Oshodi, T. “Religious Vacuum and the Making of a Failed State: Somalia in the Eyes of the World” a paper presented at the Conference on Religion and International Relations in the Post Cold War Era held at the Uthman Dan Fodio University (UDU) Sokoto, Nigeria, January 16th – 17th, 2009.

“In heaven all is gladness. In hell all is sorrow. Upon this earth, since it lies between, sometimes the one, and sometimes the other. We have our being between the two extremes, and so it partakes of both.” -Baltasar Gracian

I.

At some time in our lives, if we are mildly introspective and equally as observant, the incessant obviousness of life’s modus operandi is unmasked: That life, in essence, operates not as a utopia would, but as a dystopia, wherein woe is inextricably conjoined to its antithesis-felicity. Following this observation, many of us may find ourselves pondering over that timeless question which feigns simplicity: Why do bad things happen to good people? A vast myriad of philosophers have attempted-with little more than modest triumph at best-to make sense of this seemingly cruel paradox. Whether you are one of those who contemplate the visitation of woe upon yourself, or upon the good people you know, is only half of the task; at some point, woe shall manifest itself in our lives and in those of our loved ones. The other half of the task, then, involves acceptance and coping with it.

People of faith and without faith alike find themselves habitually treading on common ground, and they wonder: Is nature inherently our own worst enemy? Is God deliberately targeting us with misfortune for having transgressed? In a word, no; but eminent men and women have speculated. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that “Nature is no sentimentalist,-does not cosset or pamper us. We must see that the world is rough and surly, and will not mind drowning a man or a woman; but swallows your ship like a grain of dust.” Natural laws operate indiscriminately; history has provided endless examples of this, where both the bad and the good perish from disease, natural disasters, or by fang and claw. Not even the intensely pious and god-fearing are exempt from suffering; one only need consult the story of Job in the Bible-and other holy scriptures-to see this. The Prophet Job, a man who was “blameless and upright, who feared God, and turned away from evil,” suffered legendary misfortune, yet did not curse God, nor did he give in to his plight, but accepted it, saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” To say that God and/or Nature contrive, through duplicity, for the good people of this world to taste the suffering which should, as some perceive it, be reserved for the wicked, is positively absurd. What must be kept in mind is the fact that this is not Heaven, and that laws of nature do not discriminate-they simply act.

Menander, an ancient Grecian dramatist, gave prima facie advice on how to avoid woe: “If you want to live your whole life free from pain you must either become a god or else a corpse. Consider other men’s troubles and that will comfort you.” Also, consider the words of stoic philosopher and Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius: “Nature gives and nature takes away. Anyone with sense and humility will tell her, ‘Give and take as you please,’ not out of defiance, but out of obedience and goodwill.” The sooner we accept our humble stations in life, and the sooner we realize that neither nature nor God owes us a life of pleasantries and unending bliss, we can conclude that it is not an applicable question of “why bad things happen to good people”, but a question of “what can I do to live the best amidst misfortune, and how can I assuage my fellows in times of their misfortune?” Misfortune, as the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once wrote, is not “….exceptional; but misfortune, in general, is the rule.” By helping our fellow man, and by not giving in to woe, we can try breaking that rule.

II.

In this dystopia, there is no possible way to traverse along without encountering an unpleasant incident; ironically, however, it is often those very incidences that shape us into exceptional human beings. Nietzsche’s perspicacious adage of “what does not kill us makes us stronger,” should be the byword of humanity and our heroic equanimity when it comes to enduring misfortune. Reflect on how many myriads of good people have suffered and have turned that suffering in on itself, only to rise above, changing themselves-or the societies they live in-into more benevolent mechanisms. Reflect on how many good people have perished in wars, subsequently gaining liberty, or bettering their fellows’ lives by extirpating oppression; reflect on the good people who have endured sickness; and though possibly succumbing, lent us their strength, their hope; and reflect on the good people in your life today, on their misfortunes, and how you, as a good person, may become a better one by assuaging their suffering. Remember that both good and bad people are equal prey, and woe does not differentiate.

My own personal experience with misfortune will hopefully illustrate the point I mentioned above, about how unfortunate incidences can shape us into better people; therefore misfortune, at times, will not always deserve the appellation “bad” but can merit that of “good.”

Close to a decade ago I suffered an injury that forever deprived me of the use of about eighty percent of my body; as a result, I am confined to a wheelchair. The caustic arrow of misfortune that struck me seemed like an exceedingly pitiless one-especially considering the fact that I was only twenty years old, strong, and capable of almost anything. Abruptly I became paralyzed from the middle of my chest down, the arrow of misfortune leaving me with the scar of incomplete quadriplegia. Questions to ask: Was I a good person before woe’s arrow struck me? Good enough. Am I a better person now? Absolutely. Whether it was divine intervention, or the desultory act of nature instigated by my actions, rapidly began to matter little. And as I lay in the hospital, the words of Harriet Beecher Stowe echoed within my mind: “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.” The tide did turn, and my dreadful situation turned into an auspicious new beginning.

Within most of us, there is a better person imprisoned behind the guise of a bad or indifferent one; moreover, for myself, “why a bad thing happened to a good person” was and is not applicable, because I’ve chosen it not to be applicable, simply by the recognition that what could be interpreted as bad was really a good thing disguised as a bad thing, and it changed my life for the better. By believing a misfortunate event in one’s life to be bad, and by agonizing over it unremittingly, we exacerbate the “badness” of it; we unwittingly inundate ourselves with negativity, thereby breeding fresh misfortune; we lament on how much of a good person we were, forgetting that we still can be; and finally, we wrongfully cast maledictions upon God, the world, or the people closest to us. If we accept the misfortune, if we accept the injury, and if we accept the pain-knowing that it will soon regress and dissipate-the quicker we can begin to heal and return to our life’s path.

Thoughts to keep in mind: The misfortune and woe that manifests within our lives will certainly vary in degree; not all of us who are brought low will ever rise up again. Undoubtedly some will perish, and fate-that unstable force impervious to all attempts to be controlled-will operate according to her own dictates, even as the tears of humankind wash over her like waves on a lonely sea…

III.

Long ago, Sophocles said of fate: “Dreadful is the mysterious power of fate-there is no deliverance from it by wealth or by war, by towered city, or dark, sea-beaten ships.” Indeed, fate can be as odious as it can be charitable, analogous to time. The domineering trait ascribed to fate is its immutability. Should fate meddle in an adverse fashion against a magnanimous person (why bad things happen to good people), it may be denounced as a person’s bad luck-or as something opprobrious and unfair. But is it that simplistic? Human beings have a domineering trait of their own-imprudence. A hypothesis not heretofore mentioned is one in which good people are responsible for succumbing to adverse turns of fate based on their own imprudent actions and inactions. The vicissitudes of fortune, then, should not always come as a surprise-nor as something inexorable.

For a moment, let us suppose a person leads his or her life as the absolute paragon of goodness. He/she is charitable, pleasant, humble, and ethical when meeting out all endeavors; in a word, they are like a saint. Now presume they have an unhealthy diet, smoke profusely, and never exercise-all imprudent choices which carry foreseeable fates. Suddenly they find out at a young age that they are diagnosed with lung cancer, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease; suppose that they soon die. Do we attribute these “bad” things (i.e., sickness and eventual death) as bad things happening to a good person? Should we not, instead, label it as mere folly? Their own choices led to them being struck by the arrow of misfortune, and in this example, fate could possibly have unfolded differently had their life choices been more innocuous. This is not to say we should castigate a person for their life choices. Instead, we should offer advice and encouragement which would lead them to obviate an adverse fate.

Indifference, or inaction, can be just as fatal. Charities, for instance, rely on the actions of empathetic people. Thus, if those people were to become wholly indifferent, and were to stop donating their money or time (inaction), how many more good-yet poor-people would suffer misfortune? By being proactive, as a whole, we can ameliorate the suffering of those whose circumstances are less fortunate, and even if it is a one percent reduction in the sum misery of the human race, it shall have been worth it. By contributions of food, medicine, or funds we can alter a worse fate into a better one: we can prevent the arrows of misfortune from striking, and in so doing, give others opportunity to a life in the midst of less woe. In doing nothing, we allow suffering to breed. Therefore, seemingly bad things will happen to good people-all the more so if we remain in moral stasis. A poem by Emily Dickinson inspires us to act:

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

IV.

As avowed earlier in this essay, I attempted to convey why bad things happen to good people, not as a matter of choice by God, who is loving and merciful than any other attribute; nor by nature-in the guise of a nefarious collaborator specifically targeting us-but rather as a consequence of our own choices and the nature of the dystopian structure in which all life, past and present, exists. Misfortune can be overcome by the acceptance of it; thereafter, one can move on without losing stride. Furthermore, as a result of an episode of suffering, we may become better people, and perhaps after we overcome our suffering we can help others through their times of crisis-thereby lessening an adverse turn of fate.

Fate, then, is immutable only to the degree that we allow. By our actions, inactions, and life choices, we contribute to either the sum of misfortune, or to the subtraction of misfortune.

Nothing happens without a purpose, including woe. Yet woe seems to be a sightless archer. Still, if we keep our faith in God, and if we recognize that all anguish and suffering must-and will-come to an end, the arrows of misfortune can do us no harm.

Harold R. Olcese is a history major at Western Connecticut University and will be receiving his B.A. this Fall. He is an accomplished landscape artist and lives in CT. Contact him via email at: harold.r.olcese@hotmail.com.

Around 4–5 billion years ago (bya) my formation began from the remaining matter after the creation of the sun. In time, this matter accumulated and formed the small planetary objects (planetesimals) which were the earlier forms of future’s giant planets. Our collisions continued with the planetesimals that orbited the sun. As a result of these continuous collisions and bombardments, my surface temperature raised to almost 6,000oC. What I am trying to say is that I was an enormous globe consisting mainly of metallic substances that were melted in boiling lava and showered by thousands of meteoroids and comets. God the Creator has hidden many messages of mystery regarding the entire process I endeavored for humans to discover.

When I began to cool down, my surface hardened like a shell, and because I was not yet sufficiently protected by the gaseous shield known to us today as the atmosphere, my shell was destroyed by the ceaseless continuation of the meteoroid bombardment as soon as it began to form. This transformation continued for billions of years. At last when the invasion of the meteoroids began to ease, I started to mature and slowly began the process of cooling down.

4.4 billion years ago

The creation of pieces of land that looked somewhat different than the seven continents at the present began. They were just sections of land floating on my coat of crust. The formation of crust around my surface was subjected to rupture due to the high pressure caused by the intense heat deep down inside me. Over a period of time this crust, which separated into a number of huge fragments (plates), experienced various deformations that resulted in the formation of mountains. This is how the basins of the ocean and the contours of the continents began to emerge. This was the period during which new specimens of rock (granite) and the floor of the ocean (basaltic), consisting of rising magma, formed the core of the continents. Today scientists are studying the oldest granites (billions of years old) that have managed to survive natural disasters and destruction to discover how the first continents were actually formed.

Granite is the rock that forms the cores of the continents (cratons). Cratons are produced by the primary component of the oldest crust. Cratons are light enough to float on my coat of crust; they are a system created in a way that enables the development of continents. These cratons are found especially in central parts of Africa and also in South America, Australia, North America, and Scandinavia.

My surface is made up of integrated fragments called tectonic plates. Even though my crust was created by rock, it was created flexible enough to allow the plates to move a few centimeters every year caused by the intense heat from beneath my surface.

Continents

Ground movement and various changes have occurred over time due to the dynamic structure of the continents and plates attached to the mantle. Discoveries of exactly the same fossils and identical fresh water organisms in two completely different continents far from each other have proved this. The actual reason for the plate’s activity is that my core is much higher in temperature than my surface. The core deep inside me is around 5,500oC. The greater portion of this intense heat occurred in my early days as a result of the collisions and bombardments I faced, and the remaining is related to the disintegration of the radioactive elements which settled particularly in my mantle section. The heat waves which spread from my core were passed on to the next layer of the mantle. The heat melted a section of my mantle layer and magma forced my molten rocks to the surface. The molten rock, which fills the spaces between the cracked plates, enables new rock to develop, and then the plates separate from one another.

Around the same period of the formation of new rocks, my plates and the continents found on them separated. The formation of rocks deep within ocean continues the creation of the range of volcanic mountains even today. The range of under-water mountains continues for about 12,000 miles between the Antarctic and the North Pole and rises above sea level in some places.

The region called Iceland between the North American and Eurasian plates was formed as a result of an enormous volcanic eruption. This is one of the few places where the separation of the continents is clearly visible. The crevasse of Iceland, surrounded by the American plates on one side and the other European plates on the other, is around 3 miles in width. This crevasse is increasing with the formation of new rocks and is expanding the distance between America and Europe. Scientists say that the distance between the continents is increasing by around 1 inch every year, so within a hundred years the distance between America and Europe is expected to increase another 8 feet.

3.4 billion years ago

The main continents were forced together by movement of the tectonic plates forming new continents, and there are still remaining pieces of these continents inside the cratons of Australia and Africa.

2.7 billion years ago

My first super continent is still the ruling territory. But due to the power built up by heat emerging from my core, the tectonic plates are on the verge of separating this continent. Because of the heat from my core, the main land has separated and oceans were formed in my surface. Today these oceans do not exist on my surface anymore; but you can still find their pieces in the continents by a careful look.

1.1 billion years ago

The supercontinent called Rodinia, a continent which contains most of the earth’s landmass, was created. Seven hundred and fifty million years ago (mya), the heat from my core began to break down this supercontinent, and as a result Rodinia was destroyed and a new supercontinent called Pangaea, the origin of all the continents known in the present day, was created.

Two hundred million years later (or five hundred and sixty-five mya): I became acquainted with bacteria, funguses, poriferans (sponges), earthworms, mollusks, segmented worms, and arthropods.

During the time when these creatures lived on me, the climate was moderate. Major volcanic activities occurred during this period when most of the land was covered by shallow seas. The sudden outbreak of the thousands of species of living creatures during this period may seem amazing to you; in fact, this was actually the first period in which complex structural vertebrates were created.

495–435 million years ago

I first became associated with the red and green sea algae. This was also the period in which various fish and sea creatures were created. The enormous landmass of this period called Pangaea gave me a totally different appearance and had a huge impact on the climate. The reason for this was that a large section of the land was so distant from the sea. The climate of the inland regions was showing deep scale signs of change with every season-certain periods of the year were very hot and others considerably cold. During this time, the ocean did not have the effect on the climate like it does today. This is why the climates varied to such an extent. The change of climate played a huge role in the extinction of many species of that period and destroyed almost 90% of the living creatures.

Creation has continued at a distinct magnitude during the millions of years that have passed, and between 270–340 mya larger proportioned variations of vegetation were created. In a short space of time, this vegetation formed into giant trees that covered huge areas of land. The largest deposits of coal were created from the fossilization of these trees, an example of creation that would make your life a little easier in the years to follow.

On the other hand, the territories began to gather together close to the planes of the equator, and this vast land was covered with rain forests resembling the Amazon. These immense lands of greenery were the marshy forests that were home to extinct ferns and the first seeds of the various groups of plant life. The inhabitants of this intense vegetation were mainly insects, centipedes, and scorpions, but much larger than the ones we know today. The plants and forests disappeared suddenly at the end of this period, and towards the end of the same period when the vast lands of Pangaea began to take form, the glaciers expanded, the sea water receded, and the arid climate changed dramatically along with the forestry structure and vegetation. Then the creation of many new creatures occurred.

250 million years ago

The supercontinent Pangaea began to break up, and this separation caused the formation of Gondwana in the northern hemisphere and Eurasia in the south. Throughout the millions of years, South America began to recede from Africa while North America receded from Europe, resulting in the formation of the continents as we know them today. Australia drifted from the Antarctic continent and moved slowly towards more moderate climates. The evolution of the continents continued to form the huge canyons and valleys in America, and the vast range of mountains, including the Himalayas and the Alps. Between 225–190 mya mammals were created, and between 190–135 mya, birds and alga were created, followed in the next period by plantation seeds which almost completed my preparation as a suitable place for you all to live.

100 million years ago

The plan of the present day continents became apparent. Sometimes my land masses would collide in the regions where the plates joined and caused activity like the formation of the mountains. Without this plate movement, there would have been no mountains created on the planet. During this period, the various species of dinosaurs and reptiles became extinct for reasons unknown to humans. Throughout the following 100 million years, the creation of the most significant mountain ranges, like the Himalayas, occurred along with the continuing collisions of the continents. These plates continue to move 5–10 cm every year and still cause collisions today.

Today I am the proud owner of seven continents. Africa-Eurasia is an enormous supercontinent which houses Africa, Europe, and Asia. Beginning from the plateau of Siberia in Russia, it reaches as far as Africa, but Africa-Eurasia is not my only supercontinent. North and South America joined by Panama also have vast territories. If the Bering Strait that separates Russia and Alaska were to freeze, a person who set out from South America could walk as far as South Africa covering a total distance of 25,000 miles.

Although you are may not realize it, the activity of the continents continues today, and my existence that began billions of years ago will continue in the future until the time comes for me to die (you call this doomsday).

There is another aspect of the continental activity that affects you. This occurs in the form of disasters, for instance the earthquake, an event of nature which has occurred for millions of years. This activity of creation occurs as a result of the intersection of the plates, the collision of continents, or the ocean plates submerging beneath the continent. The tsunami disaster in Indonesia in 2004 was the result of a catastrophic movement of these plates.

The exceptionally lengthy process of my creation explains the transformations and progress I have experienced until I reached the condition suitable for the most precious and honorable of all creation: human beings. I hope that every moment and every aspect of the manifestation of science, wisdom, power, and willpower of my life story and creation will be a guide for you in the future and will encourage you to be even more curious about my end and to bow to our Almighty creator in respect of all He created.

Halima walked into the living room and smiled at what she saw. Ahmet was sitting on the edge of the sofa deeply immersed in a book. He had taken off his shoes on the doormat and dropped his backpack nearby.

Although this wasn’t the first time his love for books had captivated her son-Ahmet had mastered reading two years ago in 2nd grade-Halima couldn’t help wondering about the content of this book that had kidnapped him. She placed his shoes on the rack, stored his backpack in the closet, and sat by his side sneaking a peek into the pages he was reading. She realized that it was an elementary school version of the Guinness Book of World Records.

As her son turned the pages, she saw pictures of the tallest man on earth, of the woman with longest fingernails, of the man with longest ear hair, of the woman with the most body piercings.

The book also displayed pictures of a man who pulled a plane, of a man who held 10 rattle snakes in his mouth by their tails, of a man who balanced a car on his head, of a man who ate 36 cockroaches in one minute, of a man capable of producing the loudest burp-you name it.

Reading the “fun facts” beside each picture, Halima was overtaken by a desperate wish to censor her son’s book selection from the school library. But how possible is that? As she felt at a loss for the right words to begin a conversation without triggering objection, Ahmet looked up and misjudging her interest in the book, he asked genuinely:

“Mom, which record should I break?”

Caught off guard, Halima rummaged through the pages with a let-me-see pose and decided to turn the question around:

“Which one would you like to break?”

“I think I could grow really looong nails,” Ahmet answered stretching the adjective.

“Goodness gracious!” sighed Halima trying to conceal her repulse. She looked at his face and resisting the temptation to snatch the book from him, she spoke softly.

“Ok, my son. Let’s say you broke the longest nails record. Who would benefit from it? You would spend your life growing your nails and depending on others for your basic needs, right?

“Your name would appear in this book,” she continued trying not to sound offensive, “you may earn some money, too, and then what?” Halima fell silent to let her question sink in.

Seeing Ahmet inconsolably disappointed, she switched into a softer tone so that Ahmet would not feel guilty for expressing his childish wish.

“The achievements you read in this book may look cool and fun, but are they bringing any good to anyone?

Ahmet, half-convinced, shook his head.

“Yet, there is a record I want you to break, my son,” Halima said, ending the silence with a new excitement that caused his eyes to shine with interest.

“Really?” asked Ahmet without disguising his thrill.

“Sure. I want you to break a record in …”-here her voice turned low and soft, almost into a whisper, as if confiding a secret or waiting for him to fill the blank-“… good deeds.”

Ahmet looked at her in disbelief. What kind of record is that?

“Yes, my sweetheart, there is such a record, and there are infinite ways to achieve it,” she said pausing to collect examples. “For instance, you can be a very trustworthy person who has never told even the tiniest lie.”

“Wow, that’s hard.” Ahmet said, the very thought making him blush.

“Yes it is,” Halima agreed. “But you can try your best.”

Halima decided that she should suggest more appealing options to her hard-to-convince son. “How about being a very generous person who donates all his wealth to help the less fortunate?” Halima continued. Ahmet couldn’t figure out how he could do that. His own allowance never seemed to be enough.

“You can open schools in areas of the world where people can’t even write their names.” Ahmet shot her a disbelieving look, “Can’t even write their names?”

“Think of a scientist who finds a cure to a deadly disease,” Halima went on slowly picking up the ideas along the way. “Imagine being a firefighter who risks his life to assist others in times of disaster. What do you say? Wouldn’t that be nice?” Ahmet nodded with a grin. He still had his toy firetruck as a keepsake.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Halima added. “You can be an influential leader who stands for justice and peace.”

“Like Martin Luther King?” asked Ahmet, as elated as a student who has found the right answer before time has elapsed. He had visited Dr. King’s home in one of his social studies field trip.

Halima nodded with an assuring smile and continued, “How about being a super environmentalist who keeps our planet clean.”

Halima purposefully paused to see his reaction at her last words. Environmental awareness was one of the mission goals in his school. As she expected, a sparkle of recognition shone in his eyes which poured into words in no time.

“Yeah, I can fight against pollution and preserve the natural habitats for endangered animals,” he said very confidently.

Halima hugged Ahmet and smiled. Of all aspirations, no wonder this one had touched the cord of his animal loving heart.

“Throughout history,” Halima continued in a lecturing tone, “many men and women of great integrity have made an impact on the world. Some of their names are written in books, some not. Yet believe me my son that no goodness, even as small as mustard seed, ever perishes.”

As Ahmet was trying to figure out how a goodness can be as small as a mustard seed, his mom brought his train of thoughts to a halt. She took him gently by his shoulders and asked out of the blue: “Do you want to know a hero of our times?”

As soon as Ahmet nodded, they headed to the computer in his room. Ahmet pulled up a chair and sat nearby as his mom typed an unfamiliar name into a Google search.

Haji (Hacý) Kemal Erimez. Ahmet could tell right away that the name was Turkish. Born in USA, to Turkish parents, he was fluent in both languages.

In 0.19 seconds 5,200 search results came up arousing his curiosity. Ahmet watched a 45-min-Turkish video in silence trying desperately to match the pieces of information together and process them in his little brain. He wouldn’t be surprised if his mom asked him to summarize the video content, out of habit of course. His teacher did that too.

“O.K.,”-he thought to himself trying to make mental notes,-“this uncle, called Haji Kemal, spent all his money for the opening of three schools in Turkey and five in Tajikistan. If only I had a paper and pen to take notes,” Ahmet wished.

He thought of asking his mom to pause the video. Then he dismissed the thought altogether because he saw on the screen an army tank strolling through some dusty streets accompanied by soldiers carrying guns.

All ears, Ahmet listened as the video host explained that Haji Kemal not only spent his senior years tending to the needs of schools instead of retiring and relaxing with his grandchildren, he also refused to leave Tajikistan during a civil war that broke in 1992.

Ahmet couldn’t figure out who fought against whom. Despite the urge from Tajik authorities to leave the country, Haji Kemal and other Turkish teachers had very bravely decided to stay and defend the school if necessary. Apparently this had made a deep impression on local authorities, some of whom Ahmet heard mention Haji Kemal with great respect in their interviews, referring to him as “Ata,” which as mom explained to Ahmet meant father in the Tajik language and interestingly in Turkish, too.

Later Ahmet watched a group of Tajik students happily smiling at the camera, showing off their gold medals that they had earned for their country in international math and science Olympiads.

Then the video showed parts of Haji Kemal’s funeral in 1997.

Thousands of people stood in rows under the rain to pay their respects to a great man-as the video host put it. In tears, one Tajik student promised that he and his friends would never forget Haji Ata and that they would work hard to fulfill his dream: serving Tajikistan to prosperity.

At this moment Ahmet noticed that his mom was crying too. She looked back at him and trying to smile she said, “See Ahmet, these Tajik students have found their higher goals in life. That’s a good record to break.”

Ahmet was overwhelmed by a strange apprehension that he was missing some important point in all this discussion. “Haji Kemal amca,” Ahmet thought, instinctively replacing the word uncle with its equivalent in Turkish, “is a very good person, no doubt about it. In fact, he looks like my grandfather with his white hair and beard.” But what makes him a hero? Why do all these people admire him? Ahmet wondered. Realizing that the video, which had ended moments ago, had no more to offer, he decided to ask his mom.

“Mom, why is opening schools so important?”

Halima stood silent for a couple of seconds to think of the right shortcut to simplify this complex topic.

“Long ago,” she said, “I came across an inspiring saying that I think answers your question in a nice way. I don’t remember who said it, but anyway the quote went like this:

“Whoever opens a good school closes a prison.” By the way Ahmet fixed his gaze on her, Halima could tell that her curious son was perplexed by the school-prison link.

“Lack of education leads to ignorance, which in turn leads to poverty, and poverty most of the time leads to many unfortunate troubles for the individual or the society. Do you know what the word society means?” she asked to double check.

“Mom!” Ahmet protested in a tone that gave a hint that he was either amused or upset by such an easy question. “I am studying and comparing the Greek and American Democracies for my social studies this year!”

“Oh, so sorry to assume,” Halima smiled at his sensitive scholarly pride and continued. “Sound education-that is, nurturing of the mind and the heart-is a foolproof way to build a better, peaceful world.”

Ahmet, still not sure whether he understood everything right, felt a peculiar desire nonetheless to go back in time, meet Haji Kemal amca and kiss his hands, a typical Turkish gesture of showing respect.

Halima, looking at the digital clock on the computer screen, realized it was getting late and got up to set the table for dinner.

“Ahmet!” she called to shake him from his daydreaming, “Why don’t you start training for your record breaking by helping me in the kitchen right away?”

Ahmet, smiling, stood up promptly and, as erect as a soldier before the commander, duplicated the response of obedience, “Yes, ma’am!”

Halima laughed at his wittiness and patting him on the shoulder she said,

“Then go wash your hands, my champion.”

Mirkena Ozer had her major in Turkish language and literature. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.