Existence is in two kinds: self/independent and dependent. “The One that essentially exists” exists by and of oneself and this attribute is exclusive only to God Almighty, the unconditionally rich One Who is in need of nothing, the absolutely Independent, the One free from all shortcomings, Who is neither a matter, a substance, nor a quality, nor is He bound with space, the one and only Lord of eternity and the Possessor of all perfect attributes. The Truth in this sense is one of the beautiful names of the Divine, and all other truths and rights are nothing but Its manifestations and disclosures in their respective ways. The agreement between oneself and the outer world and their uniform nature are not as such by themselves or by their own rights; they exist by His right, because He deems them necessary, thus granting them the right to exist and be. It is false to bind their being to themselves, for self-existence is not possible for them—things are real only in relation to the Truth. They maintain temporarily in this world bound with the calendar of Divine destiny, and indefinitely in the world to come.

In this respect, truth is One in its independent existence. It is the absolute and immutable existence of the Divine Truth; everything else is a ray thereof. All things other than Him exist dependently, thus are defective due to their permanent need for a point of support. Yet, because they exist through the rays of the Truth, they are considered to be existent and constant. All that we consider constant in its existence is a ray of the light of the Truth’s existence. Each emergence, development, work, activity, duty, and responsibility that occurs in “the realms of acts and works” carries a value as long as it is related to the Truth. Any activity that cannot be connected or related to the Truth, anything that is not operated, started with, analyzed or synthesized according to this relationship, is false and a means of devastation. All kinds of operations, initiations, and activities, and whatever outcome they may yield, even faith and virtuous deeds (if virtuous is still the right word) that are not related to the Truth are nothing more than delusions, propositions, and—in the words of the lawgiver Prophet—“fatigue in vain.”

True believers relate all their deeds to the Divine name of The Truth; it is indispensable, and with this conviction they take action. They consider being faithful to The Truth as a compulsory levy, and as a sign of Divine grace (jabri-lutfi). Respect for The Truth adorns their lives, and they are always occupied with it. They value transient, perishable, and seemingly deceptive things—things that are in one sense the opposite of truth because of their dependent, relative worth, which is the measure of their engagement with them. Believers seek for what is eternal and permanent—for that which promises direction and a good ending, for that which reminds of Him, for that which speaks of Him in plain words, for that which falls within the Truth in the true sense of it, for that which prompts considerations of the Truth in the spirit. They always thrive to walk along the axis of truth determined by the True One. Their path is as wide as a highway along which they believe in truth, act in truth, relate in truth, speak in truth, stand with truth, and behave in truth. They call upon the Truth to overcome all obstacles as they head for the True One’s pleasure. They carry out their works faithful to the truth, are always occupied in truthful activities, and tirelessly work to elevate truth. When they are supposed to take, they take only what is due to them. For the rights they are expected to grant, they do so without failure. They are always cautious about those things that do not have any relationship to the truth, for they lead to falsehood.

Truth—and rights in relation to it—has a wide domain of connotations: the opposite of falsehood, the heavier side of the scale balancing power, everyone’s lot, and the fulfillment of individual rights pertaining to interests, privileges, needs, and obligations as recognized by a legitimate regime.

The real proprietor of all these rights is God, the Truth, to whom all parts and wholes, substances and qualities, causes and effects belong to. Nevertheless, through some authorized posts, He conferred these rights to some in the form of interests and authorizations, and to others with the capacity to benefit from these interests and to assume authorities. Those who take on these capacities have to maintain a balance by caring for public rights as much as individual rights.

On the face of what we can see in this world, these rights are assumed by individuals or corporate bodies. Still, as touched upon above and to emphasize once more, all rights belong to God, the True One, and they have been entrusted to human beings as gifts. What we call “the rights of God,” “the rights of human beings,” or “civil rights” arise from legal judgments developed from these rights and pertain to the jurists’ terminology. Now, let us open a small window into the jurisprudential classification that deals with rights under three headings:

1. The rights that are due only to God, as God Almighty is the true Owner of everything. Public law that “relatively” belongs to the society is considered within these rights.

2. Rights of individuals by virtue of natural provision that allows people with the capacity to possess, appropriate, increase, and benefit from them.

3. Rights bound with provisions under common law that relates to both individuals and the society with respect to interests, benefits, and capacity to appropriate.

Rights that are due to God only are superior to all other rights. These rights are immune from all interventions, the way they operate cannot be changed, and they have priority—no other right can surpass them. Pardons cannot be operated, conciliations cannot be sought, nor can they be forfeited, not even can it be attempted. Violation of any of these rights, in whatever form and nature, relates to the public and renders all of society the plaintiff; however, the protection of these rights has been conferred to the state on behalf of the public to investigate violations. Every member of society has the right to complain about such violations and testify when necessary.

Rights of God in Islam include worship (salah), fasting (sawm), purifying alms (zakah), pilgrimage (hajj) as well as taxations like ushr (tithe), sadaqa al-fitr (compulsory charity paid after the month of Ramadan), haraj (land tax), legal punishments and expiations. Rights in kind, receivables, and provisions on individual freedoms under private law are also considered within this category according to their respective degree of significance. In Islam, individuals are granted the full discretion of things they are eligible to use, as long as they do not waste and use extravagantly. They may choose not to benefit from some of their due rights, and redistribute them to others, or spend in learning and education, establish foundations and thus convert their charity into a lasting one. Individuals may give up from some of their rights and forgo some of their claims from other individuals or the public.

Benefits and interests in common law belong to both individuals and the public, thus decisions over these rights are made according to the balance whether a certain right weighs heavier on the scale of the individuals or the public. Such matters are usually taken care of by jurists.

Human rights are what we speak of more than ever in our age. According to Islam, every human being is born free. Every one is equal to one another in their rights and worth. Freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of conscience are indispensable rights of every individual. Islam recognizes the same rights and opportunities for everyone regardless of race, sex, language, and religion. As a whole these rights cover the spiritual and physical aspects of human beings, in addition to the rights defined today and those that will be defined in the future.

Throughout human history, human rights have evolved through lengthy processes until we have attained the current level of understanding; yet, it is questionable whether this level is sufficient. There have been great struggles in this direction many times: definitions were stretched to extremes, and many false actions were taken—while correcting one falsehood, another was produced. When a certain framework was finally drawn, efforts to perfect it with revisions, editing, and fine-tunings have never come to an end, and are not likely to very soon. Corrections, expansions, and elaborations have brought along new sets of mistakes. Frequently, good will and endless efforts have brought about nothing but disappointment, which either resulted in a loss of hope or back to square one. Problems have never ended, neither have alternative searches. Many thoughts have been rendered worthless due to oppositions and disputes, while many fantasies have been chased after in delirium for no greater purpose than to fill in the gaps; this delirium does not appear to be coming to an end soon.

Human rights were comprehensively defined with the advent of Islam. These rights, which were expressed in earlier religions only in general terms, or left latent as allusions that needed explanation with independent reasoning, were established once more by the very clear style of the Qur’an and the Prophet’s practice, without leaving room for deviation.

The Holy Qur’an has outlined human rights in detail in an utterly unique language. One can see a great emphasis on the protection of these rights in the Qur’an, which declared certain sanctions according to the conditions in question. The lawgiver Prophet clearly delineated these rights with the transactions he carried out himself. He warned insistently that these rights also pertain to the rights of God, and being in full compliance with them is necessary.

In Islamic terminology, all rights originate from God’s will, and each are a blessing entrusted as a sign of His grace even if out of our will (jabri-lutfi) to humanity. Rights, therefore, are granted to every human by creation and they cannot be purchased or traded, reduced, increased, or exchanged; they cannot be passed on to the discretion of the sovereign nor can they ever be used as a commodity. The greatest assurance of rights is when members of a society and the respected and honest authorities embrace this definition of rights wholeheartedly, and make it a part of their nature, honor it like their own souls, and strive for its protection.

This perception of rights is only be possible in a society that recognizes these rights as gracefully bestowed by God Almighty, a society that is appreciative to all the blessings of the Divine, a society that proceeds straightforward with an extraordinary refinement, believing in the fact that they will be held accountable tomorrow for what they do today, a society that upholds the truth and respects all rights. It is not possible to talk about human values and human rights in the truest sense of the word among masses who have no faith in God and the Day of Judgment, masses who do not follow scriptures or acknowledge messengers—they do not value rights nor do they show respect to truth. They have no appreciation for essential matters of belief; they give the impression of having some kind of faith, but a faith of their own, which revolves around sensuality. For them, it is not faith if it does not give way to their carnal desires; it is not science if it does not comply with their wishes. Those who are not from among them cannot be a scholar, and—when completely lost in delirium—they consider everyone other than themselves ignorant and every believer reactionary. They defame those who do not think the same as outdated, and in classifying individuals they divide society into camps. Indeed, their thoughts do not stem from common sense, and their behavior is bigoted. The satanic intellectual legacy they have inherited is an overused, worn-out conflictual dialectics that is deceptive. The crude power they employ against truth is a desperate, diabolical product of impotent reason; when they fail intellectually, it is customary for them to resort to demagogy or conflictual dialectics, a method implemented for the first time by Satan at the mysterious order of God to prostrate to the Prophet Adam. Thus, Satan can be considered as the inventor of conflictual dialectics; its later subcontractors have been the abusers of power who failed against the truth.

Muslims always strived at the highest of their capacity to observe human rights in the most scrupulous manner, not least during the Age of Light—the time of the Prophet. Their firm faith in God and the Hereafter, their well-settled spiritual conviction for the superiority of the rule of law, and their determination to continue on the straight path required them to act in harmony with the nature of their being. A genuine aspect of their condition was to be in sincere servanthood to God Almighty. They painstakingly fulfilled what was expected of them, and remained upright by their inner inclinations, which were shaped by the consciousness of “perfect goodness,” or ihsan—consciousness that God is All-Aware and All-Seeing. They did what they did because they were ordered to do so, aware of the fine line between obedience and disobedience. They welcomed all the orders and advice of the Prophet, the Master of the Law, wholeheartedly; during his time, opposition was limited to a small circle of hypocrites. None of the Prophet’s words were left floating; whatever he said reached its target and went far beyond mere semantics.

When the Prophet honored Medina, he meticulously observed the stipulations of the Charter he signed with a diverse community of different faiths, worldviews, and ethnicities. Regardless of religion, race, and social rank, the law was equally implemented for everyone, and the city of Medina became a safe haven for each community. It was a golden age and the town of the Prophet was like a garden of Paradise. Those who remained close to this age have been close to God and to fellow human beings, while others who failed to strive against their carnal desires and ambitions and darkened their centuries have turned to dust.

Neither the Medina Charter, nor a few examples confined within this framework, were all Islam had to say about human rights. The Sultan of Messengers taught us about human rights throughout his lifetime. He warned us to pay the utmost attention to all rights, and never to ignore even seemingly minor ones. For him, anything that is underestimated is no longer minor. He reminded us how far the respect and fear of God Almighty could reach, so that he could prevent the violations of major rights. He was determined, and always implemented what he said. He was known for his sensitivity and virtue, and these qualities made every believer set a throne for him in their hearts.

Just before he passed away to his Lord, he gave his farewell to an angelic community of tens of thousands during the hajj—his one and only major pilgrimage—and addressed not only them, but all his followers to come until the end times. One last time, he recounted all the principles he had been teaching for years, and each of his statements during the sermon were a human rights declaration. Masters of speech could indeed discern that every word of his final sermon resonated with his lifetime message. His audience, not unfamiliar with these sayings, perhaps was honored to hear those pearls from him again, though they were stated rather differently this time. The Prophet declared his message one last time to his community, a community of loyal followers who drank in his words and practiced them, to pass them on to the next generation.

The Sultan of Speech touched on many diverse issues that day, from the rights of God to family law, and laid down in one sense the core of his mission. The majority of all rights belongs to God, and thus he started his sermon, naming other rights according to their significance, though it may be to the extent of a passing note or an implication. “Fear God and refrain from disobeying Him” was his first word. As a matter of fact, belief in God and obeying Him with due respect would be an assurance and sanction of respect for all human rights. Lack of it would render respect for human rights very difficult, perhaps impossible.

Then he pointed to the duties and responsibilities of spouses to one another, repeatedly emphasizing that women are blessings preciously entrusted, and must be treated accordingly. He warned about the harmony within the family as an essential principle that makes a society what it is and urged us to fear God in this respect. He trod on all the deeply rooted customs from the time of ignorance.

Protection of one’s property, life, mind, religion, and progeny was one of the key issues he stressed over and over with refreshed breath, as if he was speaking from beyond, standing on the rim of the other world. “Your Lord is one, and your father is one: all of you are of Adam, and Adam was of soil,” and he raised his voice, offering a golden key to solve a major problem that afflicts our age like a plague.

In the sermons he delivered during the farewell hajj, he always referred to a grand court where each of us will be questioned on the minutiae of our lives, and enjoined us to carefully observe rights of all kinds. Certain issues of human rights have not yet been resolved even in modern times. Islam, however, established very firmly the principle of lawfulness centuries ago. Unless definitely judged, no one is a criminal, and even the convicted has certain rights that can never be taken away. No one should be interrogated based on probabilities; no one should be tortured. Each right is precious and should never be undermined. The power should be dependent on the right, and no right can be sacrificed against power.

Power has always been like the arch-enemy of truth, be it in social, economic, administrative, and political life. Those who have crude power used this power according to their own self-interest. They interpreted life as an arena of conflict and struggle, thus denied rights to others as much as their power and prevailing circumstances allowed them to; “I have the power!” they cried, as they deliriously raised their sword to the sky.

But for those who take the truth and what is right as their point of support, they have preferred the good pleasure of the True One, placing virtue over their personal interests as well as they could. They considered all rights as manifestations of the beautiful Divine name of the Truth, and observed them accordingly, as they have embraced all human beings as brothers and sisters, and rushed to their help when needed. Such truthful believers strived to restrain their carnal desires, and tried to live as mystics, spending their lives turned toward Heaven, thus turning this world into a heavenly garden.

These people of light used lasting solutions for the protection of minorities, laborers, children, the sick, the homeless, and the unemployed, through various funds and foundations. It was not basic human rights only that were under care in the world of Islam: others also had rights over the possessions of Muslims—it was a tax on the wealthy for those who were in need. And as they shared their belongings, believers were very careful not to make others feel indebted for this favor.

For as long as we represented our values, this is how we have believed, lived, and behaved. When significant junctions like belief, religion, and goodness have cracked apart, then falsehood has replaced the truth, the powerful have oppressed the weak, and rights have been violated. Then God has taken away from us consciousness of fraternity, feelings of security and compassion, respect for rights, and all the blessings He had graciously entrusted. Would He give them back? I do not know. But He always granted them to those who were truthful in their liabilities, faith, submission, and patience. He never deserted those who were loyal to their word and turned to Him in devotion to truth.

God has an infinite number of names, starting with the Truth
How great it is for a servant to uphold it,
Think, why did the blessed Companions read sura Asr,
Before they adjourned.
For well-versed in this chapter is the secret of salvation
True faith comes first, followed by prayer
By truth and perseverance: this is humanness,
When all four are combined, there are no more worries for you.
M. Akif

Original Article: Ramirez G. et al., Science 331, 211 (2011).

We have had to deal with tests and exams in academic and professional life from childhood on. Though we are motivated to perform our best, the pressure-filled situations generally cause us to perform below our abilities. University of Chicago researchers were interested in finding an intervention that would improve performance under such conditions, especially for those students who do not do well on exams because they are blocked by anxiety. Their study showed that simply writing down our thoughts and concerns immediately before a high-stress event can increase performance from 5–12 percent when it matters most. The simple brain-focusing exercise of writing down feelings for ten minutes before an exam reduces anxiety and increases exam scores significantly. The researchers concluded that writing allows individuals to reexamine the situation and revaluate concerns, reducing anxiety and increasing one’s ability to focus. This type of writing may help people perform their best not only on tests but also in variety of high-stress situations—a big presentation to a client, a speech to an audience, or even a job interview.

2- Life Without Starlight

Original Article: Hooper, D. & Steffen, J.H. (arXiv:1103.5086v1).

Liquid water is considered the common solvent to catalyze carbon-based life on planets. This assumption defines a rather tight region around stars, which is called the “habitable zone.” The energy absorbed from the host star through its light allows planets in the habitable zones to melt water into liquid. Water would either evaporate or remain ice if the planet is too close to or distant from the star. A recent study suggested that starlight may not be the only energy source that can convert ice into liquid water and maintain it in that state. Dark matter annihilation may produce enough heat in special circumstances for planets that may not be sufficiently heated by their host star. Ordinary matter constitutes only about 20 percent of the matter in the universe, while dark matter makes up about 80 percent of all matter. It is believed that dark matter weakly interacts with atomic nuclei. Therefore, one of the leading models for dark matter is called “weakly interacting massive particles” (WIMPs). In cases where dark matter interacts with nuclei, WIMPs can transfer momentum to the nucleus. Then they can get gravitationally captured and subsequently decay as energetic particles. This process can produce heat as a consequence. On Earth, the concentration of dark matter at its center is not sufficient to produce observable contributions to the planet’s total heat budget. However for planets around stars that are closer to the centers of their galaxy, where the concentration of dark matter is significantly higher, just enough heat may be produced by gravitationally captured and annihilated dark matter. The abundance of planets detected by NASA’s satellite mission-Kepler suggests that perhaps life in the universe might be more abundant than we thought.

3- How Much Digital Information Can Mankind Store?

Original Article: Hilbert, H. & López, P., Science 332, 60 (2011).

Have you ever wondered how much total information is stored by human beings? We store information in two different forms: analog storage such as books, printed photos, and audio cassettes, and digital storage such as hard drives, CDs, DVDs, and the like. A recent paper analyzed how the total information storage and processing ability of human beings changed between the years of 1986 and 2007. The study estimated that the total information stored as of 2007 is 295 exabytes. An exabyte is equal to one million terabytes or one billion gigabytes. If all this information was stored on CDs, this stack of CDs would reach beyond the moon. If it was stored in books, it would be enough to cover the entire United States with 13 layers of books. Interestingly, the information stored by DNA in one single human body is about 300 times larger than the entire amount of information stored by humanity. In 2000, only 25 percent of known information was stored in digital form; this ratio increased to 94 percent in 2007. The area in which the “information revolution” is most evident is computation. The study found that the global computing capacity increased by 58 percent per year during this time. But even at this fast rate of growth, in 2007 the total instructions per second that humankind can carry out on its general-purpose computers were about the same as the maximum number of nerve impulses executed by one human brain per second.

4- Tricking the Brain to Attack Alzheimer’s Disease

Original Articles: Atwal, J. K. et al., Science Translational Medicine 3, 84ra43 (2011) & Yu, Y. J. et al., Science Translational Medicine 3, 84ra44 (2011).

Alzheimer’s disease affects many people, especially in later stages of life, and as the lifespan of humans increases, it becomes much more prevalent everyday. The primary cause of Alzheimer’s disease is unknown, but scientists generally associate the disease with the appearance of plaques and tangles in brain cells, often caused by a protein called amyloid. Hence, a natural strategy would be to attack these proteins that form these plaques. Yet, the biggest obstacle in our brain is the blood-brain barrier, which prevents viruses and other unwanted visitors from entering our most delicate organ. Scientists have tried to overcome this barrier with many different drugs and strategies, but there is no clear winner yet. Two recent studies reported in Science Translational Medicine journal give us a new hope in our fight against Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists devised a clever strategy to trick the gatekeepers of the blood-brain barrier into escorting antibodies against the Alzheimer’s-associated proteins. This method reduced the levels of amyloid by up to 50 percent inside mouse brain cells. Designed antibodies had two arms—one arm to target the enzyme, BACE1, which produces the amyloid, and the other arm to bind to the transferring receptor, which in turn deceived the endothelial cells from the blood-brain barrier to internalize the antibody. There are many other brain disorders that we have a limited arsenal against because of the blood-brain barrier. Hence this new method can be used for these diseases, which opens up a whole new venue of targeting strategies.

Don’t most people think that being happy is the most important thing? Isn’t eating one of the most accessible pleasures we have? Why should people limit their culinary pleasures? More outrageous, why should we afflict ourselves by fasting? Why do Islam and Judaism restrict their adherents from the simple pleasure of food each year? For the entire month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from first light until sundown, abstaining from food, drink and marital relations. The Qur’an says, “Oh you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may (learn) self-restraint” (2:183). Why should the Torah decree for Jews a day of fasting (Leviticus 16:29, 23:27) when for twenty-four hours adult Jews (in good health) are supposed to trouble their bodies by abstaining from eating, drinking and marital relations? Both religions teach us that what we do not eat may be even more important than what we do eat.

All animals eat, but only humans choose not to eat some foods that are both nutritious and tasty. Some people do not eat meat for religious or ethical reasons. Jews and Muslims do not eat pork for religious and spiritual reasons. On fast days such as Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement and the ninth of Av (a day of mourning like the Shi’a observance of Ashura on the tenth of Muharram)—Jews do not eat or drink anything at all, and abstain from marital relations for twenty-four hours. Fasting results in many different outcomes that help bring us closer to God.

First of all, fasting teaches compassion. It is easy to talk about the world’s problem of hunger, easy to feel sorry that millions of people go to bed hungry each day. But not until one actually feels it in one’s own body does the impact truly hit home. Compassion based on empathy is much stronger and more consistent than compassion based on pity. It is a feeling that leads to action. Fasting is never an end in itself; it has many different outcomes. But none of the other outcomes are of real moral value if compassion is not enlarged and extended through fasting. As the prophet Isaiah said, “The truth is that at the same time you fast, you pursue your own interests and oppress your workers. Your fasting makes you violent, and you quarrel and fight. The kind of fasting I want is this: remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. Share your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor” (Isaiah 58:3-7).

Second, fasting is an exercise in will power. Many people think they can’t fast because it’s too difficult, but actually the discomfort of hunger pangs is relatively minor. A headache, muscle soreness from too much exercise, or a toothache are more severe than the pain temporary hunger produces. I have on one occasion fasted for three days, and found that after the first twenty-four hours the pain decreases slightly, as the stomach becomes numb. The real reason it is challenging to fast is because it so easy to break the fast, since food is almost always in easy reach — all you have to do is take a bite. Thus the key to fasting is the will power to decide again and again not to eat or drink. Our society has increasingly become one of self-indulgence; we lack basic self-discipline. Fasting opposes our increasing “softness” in life; when people exercise their will power to fast, they are affirming their self-control and celebrating mastery over themselves. We need continually to prove to ourselves that we can do it, because we are aware of our frequent failures to be self-disciplined.

The third outcome of fasting is improved physical health. Of course, one twenty-four hour fast will not have any more effect than one day of exercise; only prolonged and regular fasting promotes health. The annual fast on Yom Kippur can, however, awaken us to the importance of how much and how often we eat. For many years, research has shown that when animals are slightly underfed, receiving a balanced diet below the normal quantity for maximum physical health, their life spans were prolonged from 50 to 100 percent. With all the additives placed in food these days, a reduction of total food intake is healthful. More important, since our society has problems with overabundance, fasting provides a good lesson in the virtue of denial. Illnesses caused by overeating are increasing in affluent Western countries, such as the incidence of diabetes. Sixteen million people in the United States have diabetes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Diabetes can lead to blindness, kidney disease, heart disease, nerve damage, amputation and sometimes death. The prevalence of the disease is related to high rates of obesity and sedentary lifestyles, which increase the risk of developing the disease. More than half of adults in Los Angeles are overweight, and 60 percent do not get regular exercise. One-fifth of all those who are obese will develop diabetes. Thus going without any food, or even water, for a twenty-four hour period challenges us to think about the benefits of the spiritual doctrine “less is more.”

Fourth in our list of outcomes is that fasting is a positive struggle against our dependencies. We live in a consumer society, and are constantly bombarded by advertising that tells us we must have this or that to be healthy, happy, popular, or wise. By fasting, we assert that we need not be totally reliant on external, material things, even essentials such as food. If our most basic need for food and drink can be suspended for twenty-four hours, how much more may we learn to limit our needs for all non-essentials? Judaism and Islam do not advocate asceticism as an end in itself; in fact, it’s against Jewish and Muslim law to deny ourselves normal physical pleasures. But in our overheated consumer society, it is necessary periodically to turn off the constant pressure to consume, and forcibly remind ourselves that “Man does not live by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

Fifth, fasting serves as a penance. Though self-inflicted pain may alleviate some guilt, it is much better to reduce one’s guilt with offsetting acts of righteousness. This is why charity is an important part of Yom Kippur, and the same is true for Muslims during Ramadan. Indeed, Judaism teaches that fasting which doesn’t increase compassion is ignored by God. The concept of fasting as penance helps us to understand that our hunger pains can be beneficial. Contemporary culture desires happiness and comfort above all else. Any pain or suffering is seen as unnecessary, even evil. Though we occasionally hear people echo values from the past that suffering can help one grow, or that an existence unalloyed with grief would lack certain qualities of greatness, many today think that the primary goal in life is to always be happy and free from all discomfort. The satisfaction one derives from the self-induced pain of fasting provides insight into a better possible reaction to the normal, external suffering we will all experience throughout our lives. Taking a pill is not always the best way to alleviate pain, especially if by doing so we allay the symptoms without reaching the root cause.

Sixth, fasting is good for the soul. It often serves as an aid for spiritual experiences. For most people, especially those who have not fasted regularly before, hunger pains are a distraction. People who are not by nature spiritual or emotional individuals will probably find that a one-day fast is insufficient to induce an altered state of consciousness. Those who have fasted regularly on Yom Kippur might like to try a two- to three-day fast (liquids permitted after the first 24 hours). It is best to go about daily activities and devote late evening or early morning to meditation and prayer. Having already fasted for Yom Kippur, one may simply extend the fast another thirty-six to forty-eight hours. We are prohibited to fast prior to Yom Kippur; eating a good meal prior to Yom Kippur Eve is a mitzvah (religious duty), because Judaism, like Islam, opposes excessive asceticism.

The seventh outcome of fasting is the performance of a mitzvah, which is the one fundamental reason for fasting on Yom Kippur. We do carry out mitzvot (religious duties) in order to benefit ourselves, but because our duty as Jews requires us to do them. Fasting is a very personal mitzvah, with primarily personal consequences. Fasting on Yom Kippur is a personal offering to God, from each and every Jew who fasts. For more than 100 generations, Jews have fasted on this day; fasting is part of the Jewish people’s covenant with God. The principal reason to fast is to fulfill God’s commandment, but the outcome of the fast can be any of a half-dozen forms of self-fulfillment. But simply knowing that one has done one’s duty as a faithful Jew is the most basic and primary outcome of all.

Finally, fasting should be combined with the study of Torah (the five books of Moses specifically, or Scriptural texts in general). A medieval text states, “Better to eat a little and study twice as much, for the study of Torah is superior to fasting.” Indeed, the more one studies, the less one needs to fast. Fasting is a very personal, experiential offering. However, though study is also a personal experience, it takes place with a text and/or a teacher. The Divine will is often more readily and truly experienced in study or in spiritual dialogue with others than in solitary meditation.

May our fasting become a first step toward the removal of the chains of self-oppression and narrow-mindedness that enslave us, our neighbors, and our world! May future years of shared fasting by Muslims and Jews lead to a greater understanding and respect through increased acceptance of religious pluralism. May we always be part of those organizations and movements that are fully committed to contributing to world peace, and who are equally committed to respecting both our own religion and our neighbor’s.

Muslim scholar Fethullah Gulen points out that the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and some non-Abrahamic faiths (Hinduism) accept that there is only One source for all religions, and pursue the same goal. Gulen states: “As a Muslim, I accept all Prophets and Books sent to different peoples throughout history, and regard belief in them as an essential principle of being Muslim. A Muslim is a true follower of Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and all other Prophets. Not believing in one Prophet or Book means that one is not a Muslim. Thus we acknowledge the oneness and basic unity of religion, which is a symphony of God’s blessings and mercy, and the universality of belief in religion.” Gulen’s description of universal religion as a symphony is an excellent illustration. One cannot have harmony if everyone plays the same notes; and one cannot have symphony if everyone plays the same instruments. Individual conductors and composers are different, but the source of musical creativity is One. According to a hadith narrated by Abu Huraira, Prophet Muhammad said, “The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, yet their religion is one (because they all have the same father)” (Bukhari, Book 55, Hadith 652).

Allen S. Maller is the former Rabbi of Temple Akiba in Culver City, California. He has authored several books and is currently the editor of a series of prayer books for the Jewish High Holy Days.

Every blessing of God is an opportunity given to human beings that calls for a corresponding responsibility.

Health is a blessing that should be used to fast, to pray, and to strive on God’s path so that one can express gratitude for this blessing. If a person gives this gratitude, God will return that body in the next world for eternity and without flaw, and with all its potential revealed.

Intelligence is one of God’s favors. If the horizon of one’s mind has been enlightened by the lights of revelation, and he is therefore distanced from inappropriate things and makes decisions according to the true path, intelligence is a source of inspiration. If he uses the blessing of his mind appropriately and introduces Truth to those who have strayed, he is giving the mind its due. On the contrary, if he only uses intelligence for worldly or evil tasks, he is being ungrateful for that blessing.

Power of expression is one of the greatest blessings that God has given humanity—so much so, that the name of the Qur’anic chapter where this is explained is called Rahman (Mercy). Al-Rahman is one of the Exalted Names of God. Some of the manifestations of God’s Mercy are giving means of subsistence in a broad circle to everyone even if they are not believers, and nourishing creation with various blessings, including human’s power of expression. This ability makes them eligible to be an addressee to God. They may understand God’s words and at the same time express their thoughts to Him. God says, “Come, pray to Me and bow in My presence.” Then they can say, “praise be to God” and with faithful and obedient devotion they can stand in God’s presence. In one sense, this is understanding God and speaking with Him. One of the Successors (the generation after the Companions of the Prophet) said, “If a person who reads the Qur’an says that he spoke with God, it would not be a lie.” Therefore one who says, “praise be to God” can be considered to have spoken with God.

The prayers that believers recite every day actually reflect a conversation with God:

You are the Most Beneficent and the Most Compassionate: You first gave me consciousness and then the ability to express this consciousness. This is a manifestation of Your Mercy.

You are the Master of the Day of Judgment: I am preparing for that day within the framework of Your commands.

I serve only You and I seek help only from You: I do so in order not to be smashed under the weight of servanthood.

Most people probably never really ponder the prayers in this way, but if they were to reflect, the prayers allow them to rise to a very honorable station.

If a person went and spoke with a head of state, he would talk about it everywhere; he would find an opportunity in every environment to mention that conversation. Therefore, if a person views talking with a head of state as this important and mentions it everywhere, then he should think deeply about what it means to have the privilege of addressing God.

A sacred saying from the Prophet (hadith qudsi) is stated as follows:

“I share the recitation with my servant in prayer; half belongs to Me and half to him and what My servant wants will be given to him. When the servant says, ‘Praise be to God, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds,’ Exalted and Glorious God says, ‘My servant praised Me!’ When he says, ‘Most Glorious, Most Merciful,’ God says, ‘My servant glorified Me.’

“When he says, ‘Master of the Day of Judgment,’ God says, ‘My servant exalted Me.’ When he says, ‘You do we worship and Your aid we seek,’ God commends him: ‘This is a pledge between Me and My servant. I gave him what he wanted.’

When the servant says, ‘Show us the straight way, the way of those on whom You have bestowed Your grace, Those whose portion is not wrath, and who go not astray,’ God says, ‘This belongs to My servant and he has been given what he wants.’”

In recitation, the chapter al-Fatiha is divided between the servant and God—some is spoken by the servant, and some is answered by God. In a sense, this is nothing other than a conversation with God. Consequently, the power of expression is a great blessing from God, and its greatest right is to praise God, who honored human beings with the power of expression.

Like a town crier, we must speak of our Lord, who gave us the capability of expression, everywhere we go. If you give a crier a little money, he will promote his wares from morning till evening in the marketplace. Salesmen do the same thing; they go to houses, fawn on people and try to sell their goods. In the end, what they will sell is one or two pots and pans. In the same way, Heaven will be given to us for doing very easy tasks. We are in a position to be made worthy of seeing God’s Beauty by using, in the best way, the power of expression bestowed upon us by God. Even if no one remained on earth to hear us, then we have the responsibility to climb the mountains to the skies and live for the excitement of talking of God to the jinn and demons. As a friend of truth said, even if one is imprisoned and there is no one around, then he should try and teach the demons about God to fulfill his responsibility.

The subject is the importance of a person returning a favor given by God by making the best use of the ability bestowed. Only by means of this kind of reciprocation can gratitude for that blessing be fully shown. God will continue bestowing that blessing here and in the next world. If a person only gives the right of property, but does not give the right of his mind, health, or power of expression, then he still will have been ungrateful. If a person cannot speak, he has a pen. If he does not give the due of the pen, then he will have shown ingratitude before God. If one who has strong mental abilities does not use them for God, then he will have been unjust. Whatever God has given a person should be used on the path of God to teach others about Him.

If a person does not give gratitude for his other blessings, but only gives financial aid when his financial situation is favorable, then at least he has performed a large part of his responsibility. If he gives help beyond the alms tax, financial aid is a serious sacrifice, and voluntary acts and altruism within this framework is great, because it is the virtue of giving for God’s sake. In fact, our Prophet said, “Generosity is like a tree. Its roots are in Heaven and its branches have hung down to this world. Whoever lives under that tree and behaves generously, sooner or later he will hold on to one of the branches and rise to Heaven where the tree’s roots are.” It can be understood from this that a generous person, even if he is a sinner—God willing—will eventually enter Heaven. If a sinner does not deny God, and he is generous, it is said that he will enter Heaven. Saying, “A stingy person is closer to Hell,” our Master used an expression of warning for miserliness. We can infer that since generosity is one of God’s attributes, He will not put a person with that attribute into Hell.

Attributes are very important; people must give what is due to the attributes God blessed them with. In this way, one’s work should be arranged according to God’s blessings. Worldly tasks should not be forgotten and neglected. Regardless of where he is, a believer should always be at the forefront of those living in his own time. Doing this, he will always be avant-garde—but while doing this, he should put his life in order and never neglect God’s rights. In short, a believer should use all the abilities God has bestowed upon him, and use them in such a way that he has given those blessings their due.

“[The Gulen Movement] educates and socializes individuals without individualizing and politicizing the social.” (p. 152)

The Gulen Movement (hereafter GM), as it is usually referred to in English, has attracted the attention of “critical public minds and scholarship” throughout the world in recent years for two important reasons. First, Fethullah Gulen’s ideas and praxis demonstrate the potential role of religion in reshaping the present violent, conflict ridden world into an inclusive, humanistic society and world order based on the principles of pluralism, intercultural dialogue, and mutual living. Second and more important, Gulen, through his twin tools of Islamic hermeneutics and public actions, particularly in the field of education, has restored the “humane face of Islam” in the public eye—something that was lost due to centuries of a radical, positivist, secular and Orientalist narrative of Islam and more recently due to acts of violence in the name of Islam—and has demonstrated the complementarity of Islam and modernity. This reconciliation of faith and reason—both in terms of theory and action—solves a conundrum that has plagued the Islamic scholars for long.

Çetin’s Gulen Movement: Civic Service Without Borders is an important contribution to a chain of literature that has surfaced on the GM in recent years. The title itself is an indication that the author sees the movement in transnational perspective and attempts to uplift the movement from “its narrow Turkish national location,” which is otherwise a dominant trend in the scholarly writings on the GM. Though the author did locate the emergence of GM in the national-political context of modern Turkey, the “Islamic civil ethic” or “service ethic”—what is called hizmet in Gulen’s Islamic philosophy—has inherent potential to outgrow the originating national-political context.

No scholarly work on Islamic movements in modern Turkey is possible without a reference to the background of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi and his work. Nursi was a remarkable scholar of twentieth-century Turkey who, through his Risale-i Nur collection of epistles on Qur’anic thought, preserved the religious spirit in the secularizing society. However the near absence of reference of Nursi’s work in this book is surprising. This may be partly due to author’s approach and methodology that treats GM as social phenomenon rather than a religious phenomenon. This approach helps the reader to understand Gulen and the Hizmet movement that has flourished around his ideas and inspirations as a transnational social service movement. Çetin thus circumvents misperceptions that are very likely to arise from exclusively religious labels and associations. The Islamic dimension of the GM comes through the inspirational and motivational dimension of Islamic history and Islam-inspired values that Gulen utilizes in constructing a non-violent, peaceful, multicultural world. All this is done without having an exclusively “Islamic project,” which is otherwise the hallmark of political or cultural-social Islamic movements throughout the world.

The strength of Çetin’s book lies in his comprehensive treatment of the GM. This is one of the first scholarly works that provide a detailed description of diverse features within the GM. Most of the previous works on this subject matter has dealt with one or another aspect of the GM. This integrated approach helps in enriching the understanding of the full breadth of the movement. Using the framework of multi-causality, or what author called “syncretic perspective,” Çetin first examined the dominant social movement theories (particularly, Resource Mobilization theory, Political Opportunity theory and Frame theory) and found them inadequate in explaining a faith-based movement such as the GM in non-Western societies. These theories, according to the author, suffer from the limitation of a political economy perspective that does not take into consideration the role of a “subjective idea” or at best treats it as a “dependent variable” in the emergence of a particular social phenomenon or movement. But this restrictive theoretical framework is incapable of comprehending the non-conflictual, voluntary, philanthropist, altruist, faith-based GM as political economy theories primarily operate on the “principle of selective cooperation and opposition” to state actions. The author strongly contends that the GM has registered a strong social presence (in people’s consciousness) through chains of study centers, publishing houses, periodicals, training and scholarship, institutions for preparatory courses for university entrance exams, healthcare facilities, dormitories for the students, aid to poor and vulnerable sections of society, press and media organs and other socio-educational public institutions. This social position was established before the GM became highly visible in the public sphere in Turkey and Çetin rejects the perspective that links the emergence of the GM with the recognition and tacit support of state institutions, particularly in the 1980s, a period marked by “Islamic-Turkish synthesis nationalism.” Rather, the author exposes the politics of the elite, or what he called the “protectionist group,” in the name of “secularism” and “nationalism” in order to perpetuate its hold over the resources of the country and to this end long throttled the emergence of the democratic potential of Turkish society. It was Gulen’s Islamic mediated ideas, viewpoints, ethical and moral messages and the GM’s plethora of associated educational and social activities, which were/are conducted with sensitivity to “due process of law” and legal diligence, that gradually brought a shift in normative-cultural meaning of life that focuses on the cooperative instincts of human beings, the value of living together, dialogue and respect for multiple identities, which in turn also affected people’s perceptions and norms of “politics” and “development” and in the process refashioned the public space and revitalized and consolidated the process of democratization.

Çetin tries to envision—though more elaboration is needed—Gulen’s humanitarian ideas as an alternative theory for constructing a human society based on principles of cooperative instincts, the ethics of self sacrifice, and the compassionate behavior of human beings—a theory over against the modernist assumption that treats human beings as primarily selfish, egoistic, conflictual, hedonistic, and violent, naturally needing to be controlled and disciplined through coercion and indoctrination in order to create the kind of order found in the mechanized, contractual human society. This partly also explains why Gulen’s philosophy, like that of Mahatma Gandhi, does not evoke the perception of the “other.” Unlike many contemporary Islamic movements, Gulen does not see the West as the “threatening other” but a source of many positive values that Muslims need to reflect upon.

Combining the framework of a “material-ideational matrix” with an outsider-insider perspective and drawing largely from an empirical investigation based on interviews and questionnaires, the author seeks to explain both the emergence of the GM primarily as a “cultural actor” and also its multifaceted dimensions: democratic, participatory, peaceful, non-violent, insistent on working within the legal framework of the political system, voluntary and autonomous participation, lacking any organizational power, non-political, non-ideological, absence of any central text, non-requirement of formal membership, no ritual, no insignia, etc. In summary, the movement aims at the moral and ethical transformation of the individual self in the light of Islamic values and norms in order to sensitize the individual self about the “goodness” of collective civil action without politicizing the same or stimulating an expectation of material gain. The quotation by Çetin as highlighted in the beginning of this review best captures the mood, orientation, and thrust of the GM.

A cursory reading of this book gives an impression that Nursi’s search for “unity of heart and mind” has found a place in the GM. However, since this book studies the GM from a social movement theory, it does not deal with the key concepts or doctrine of Fethullah Gulen or even his philosophy of education—the most important dimension of the GM upon which rests the creation of Gulen’s “golden generation” that will shape the future world. The notion of hizmet, or ethic of service, is an Islamic value as old as Islam itself, exemplified in the institution of waqf. What, therefore, explains the re-emergence of an ethic of service as a central category in Gulen’s Islamic thought and the wider dissemination and acceptance of this value as an “everyday Islamic working value?” In this regard, the book does not address the question of “how and why?”—the agency, processes and reasons for the emergence of the GM—but describes and narrates only the “what?” about the movement.

No single book is sufficient to cover all aspects of a social phenomenon as global as the GM; thus, having read this book, the reader is still left with some difficult, unanswered questions: Why will the moral and ethical values which are deeply embedded in Gulen’s notion of hizmet, philanthropy, altruism, and voluntarism resonate with large masses in today’s context? Is the GM a postmodern phenomenon? Is it an Islamic movement, a social movement, or something in between? Is it a class-based or multiclass phenomenon? What is the dominant social base of this movement? Has the GM adopted the postmodern conceptions of life process that reject nation-centered discourse and focus on people-centered discourse, which, in turn, might partly explain its success and appeal?

Despite such questions unaddressed, the book is a must-read for all students and scholars who have an interest in discourse about social change.

Anwar Alam
Professor and Director, Centre for West Asia Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

The cell is the structural, functional, and biological unit of all organisms. All information needed for numerous processes in a cell, including repair and division, is contained in DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid). DNA is a huge single molecule with intriguing features. How can a single molecule have such a dominant role in preserving information essential for the continuation of life? What are the mechanisms and levels of organization during its function? What does DNA mean for a single cell or for a human being? It’s impossible to answer these great questions in a single article; however, understanding the ways DNA exerts its role, DNA’s impact on multiple levels ranging from a single cell to an organism, and coordination between various levels, can potentially open up new frontiers in our mind and in our perception of life.

“Double helix” architecture of DNA DNA has an elegant structure that forms the basis for all of its functions. DNA is a repeating structure of nucleotides. Each nucleotide is formed of a phosphate group, 5-carbon sugar (deoxyribose) and a nitrogen-containing base attached to the sugar from outside to inside (See Figure 1a for a schematic view of DNA). There are four types of nucleotides in DNA, differing only in bases. We can consider bases as the identity of nucleotides. These four nucleotides are shown with letters A (adenine), T (thymine), G (guanine) and C (cytosine). Thousands of nucleotides bound with sugar-phosphate covalent bonds come together to form long strings. The sugar-phosphate backbone can be imagined as the steelwork of a skyscraper. The nice thing about nucleotides is their specific match to each other in double helix. A forms a base pair with only T, and G forms a base pair with only C. These pairs are bound to each other with hydrogen bonds. This feature is the key that makes DNA a double ladder. Two strings of nucleotides form a double helix by selective interactions of As with Ts, and Gs with Cs (See Figure 1b for 3-D structure of DNA). In DNA structure, hydrophobic bases tend to stay inside of double helix and hydrophilic sugar-phosphates stay outside interacting with water in nucleus. This feature helps DNA to form a double ladder. The length of the sugar-phosphate backbone is more than the bases. To compensate for the length difference, the sugar-phosphate backbone wraps around the bases inside, as a road wraps around a mountain to climb to the top. This simple difference is the main reason for DNA to form a helix.

The double-stranded nature of DNA with specific base pairing is one of its key features as genetic material. DNA is replicated using one strand as a template. Replication machinery reads one strand of DNA and builds the second strand by putting As against Ts and Gs against Cs. If a mutation occurs in one strand, it can be repaired using the second strand. This system is like photocopying DNA from itself instead of building it from scratch every time. That is why specific base pairing of nucleotides in the double helix makes it possible to replicate DNA through generations, protecting its integrity and information content. The code of DNA, an alphabet with four letters DNA contains the information to produce nano-sized cellular machineries called proteins. We mentioned that there are four types of nucleotides. Nucleotides are like letters in DNA, three of them are code for one amino acid of protein. We can make it more understandable by giving an example: “ATG-GCC-CTG-TGG-ATG” as a nucleotide sequence of DNA corresponds to the first five amino acids of a protein called insulin (a hormone regulating blood glucose level that is important in diabetes) and amino acid sequence is methionine-alanine-leucine-tryptophan-methionine. The code is so sensitive that even a single mistake in the sequence of DNA can cause serious diseases in humans such as sickle-cell disease or cystic fibrosis. With all these nucleotides, DNA can be thought of as a book containing amino acid sequence information for thousands of proteins (about 30,000 in humans). The amount of information contained in DNA is incredible: a typical human cell contains 2 meters of DNA that is tightly packed by proteins in the nucleus. If we tried to write the information from DNA into books, the book would contain over one billion words and 1,500,000 pages. DNA-protein interdependency and the cell as a micro-factory DNA can be thought of as an instruction manual that stores information for proteins and RNAs. Proteins, as molecular machines, perform particular tasks such as energy production and synthesis of DNA and RNA (See Figure 2 for the structure of proteins). Certain proteins read the information on DNA and make a transient copy of certain regions of DNA. These copies are called messenger-RNAs (mRNAs) and mRNAs are transported from nucleus to cytoplasm (See Figure 3 for representation of mRNA production from DNA by proteins). In cytoplasm, the information on mRNAs is read by protein complexes called ribosome. Ribosomes produce new proteins processing the data from mRNAs. This information flow from DNA to proteins is called central dogma in molecular biology (Figure 4). The data that is encoded in DNA can be read, translated, and put into the form of product only by proteins. We can conclude that for a protein to be produced, DNA is essential; for DNA regions to be read into proteins, proteins are essential. So, there is interdependency between proteins and DNA. Proteins without DNA have no future and no ability to regenerate and DNA without proteins is just like an instruction and manufacture manual of a computer without the user and computer itself. We can imagine the cell as a sophisticated factory, and proteins as the machines of the factory. DNA includes the instructions for the factory to be rebuilt and for itself to be rewritten for every new factory. It has instructions on how to build every machine in the factory. It has also codes for when and how much of these machines should be produced (we will discuss more about these codes on DNA in the next section). On the other hand, the timing and control of all these productions also depend on machines in the factory. Some of these machineries read and decode the instruction manual, some of them produce new machines by reading the decoded copies of the instruction manual, some of them act as sensors for the signals, some of them transmit signals to other machines, some of them produce signals by measuring the levels of materials in the factory, some of them function in communication with other factories, and so on. As we can see, DNA and proteins are meaningful for life only when they are together in the excellent cell context. This is a perfect example of the principle that the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts, because each element of the cell system has limited potential, until it comes together with the others to blossom into life.

The famous term “Gene” We can think of genes as functional units of DNA. A gene has the information content for at least one protein. Humans have about 20,500 genes that are read by protein machineries to produce proteins. Special proteins read the information on genes and make a transient copy of these certain regions of DNA. The process of making a copy of a gene as an mRNA is called transcription.

Genes don’t only store information; they have an intrinsic architecture of design to coordinate transcription utilizing three main components: promoter, coding region, and terminator. The promoter is the gene region that signals for the start of transcription. Protein machineries bind to the promoter and activate transcription. The coding region has the information for the amino acid sequence of the protein. The terminator region gives the stop signal for transcription. There are different functional regions on DNA located between separate genes such as enhancer regions that are platforms for binding regulatory proteins to tune the transcription.

The coding region of genes has multiple reading blocks for amino acid sequences and these reading blocks are called as exons. For some genes, different combinations of exons can be put together to give rise to different proteins. This mechanism allows one gene to be able to produce multiple proteins, increasing the efficiency of genetic material. A similar mechanism is used to produce antibodies (proteins recognizing foreign antigens) by the immune system. Different regional genes come together by a mechanism of DNA rearrangement (V(D)J recombination) and their differential combinations form many different antibodies. For example, a part of the antibody that is called a heavy chain is produced by a DNA region containing 65 variable (V) genes plus 27 diversity (D) genes and 6 joining (J) genes (5, 6). This produces a combination of 65 V genes x 27 D genes x 6 J genes = 10,530 heavy chains. There is a similar mechanism of rearrangement for light chain and variable region of antibodies, which result in millions of different antibodies for host antigens. A single example in the immune system shows us that DNA not only has a decent design for the coding system, but it also has ingenious and creative mechanisms to maximize its potential.

Gene expression is orchestrated during development and formation of organs The human body which consists of more than 1013 (ten trillion) cells is generated from a single cell called the zygote (see Figure 5). This tells us that, in a single cell, all the information and instructions to build and coordinate the systems of human body is encoded. Different tissues and organs including muscles, nerve cells, connective tissue, and eyes are fruits of one single cell. They all contain the same genetic information. Then what makes them different?

Promoters, enhancers, and repressors located in and nearby genes are important in spatial and temporal control of gene expression in different cell types of the body. Each cell type in our organs expresses a different subset of genes; this is what gives a cell its identity. For example, in muscles, myosin is expressed and in the eye’s retina, rhodopsin is expressed. Myosin functions in contraction and rhodopsin functions in vision. What determines the expression of rhodopsin in the eye but not in a muscle? The determination process occurs during development by programmed interactions of specific proteins called transcription factors, and restricted regions of DNA including promoters and enhancers. During development, certain regulatory proteins in a specific cell type, bind to DNA regions of only some genes (for example, in future retinal cells of the eye, rhodopsin gene would be activated but not myosin) and this predetermination orchestrates differential expression of genes to give rise to hundreds of different types of cells.

Different layers of complexity and organization related to DNA

There are different layers of function for DNA—each subtitle of this article tries to focus on a certain layer of function. DNA as a molecule has a double helix structure and is replicated through generations to preserve genetic information. It stores genetic information and has a four-letter alphabet for the expression of proteins. In the second layer, DNA has an informational unit called gene and thousands of genes are encoded in DNA to contain information for proteins. Each gene is controlled individually by making use of promoters and enhancers. In the third layer, all processes in the cell micro-factory as an entity are performed through interactions of DNA and proteins with each other and among themselves. Proteins read DNA code and work as cellular nano-machineries. In another layer, temporal and spatial expression of genes on DNA are orchestrated and different subsets of genes give rise to different cell types and organs. Organs communicate with each other to function properly and keep the balance and homeostasis of the body. The information stored in DNA not only coordinates highly sophisticated processes of a single cell, it simultaneously projects the whole body system of a human being, which is billions times bigger than a single cell.

DNA functions in all these different layers and keeps a great harmony in coordination between various layers of function. After grasping this complexity, organization and communication from a single molecule, to proteins, to a single cell, to tissues and organs, and to a human being by utilization of DNA, should not we ask ourselves, “can these elements come into existence by random forces and collisions?

References

1. Calladine, C. R. et al. 2004. Understanding DNA: The Molecule and How It Works, Academic Press

2. http://www.genome.gov

3. Li A, Rue M, Zhou J, et al. 2004. “Utilization of Ig heavy chain variable, diversity, and joining gene segments in children with B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia: implications for the mechanisms of VDJ recombination and for pathogenesis.” Blood 103 June (12): 4602–9.

That morning, however, was unusual for one of the ants, Sayhon. He was intrigued by the noises coming from all directions. He had recorded and investigated the noise generated by bugs when carrying chips of wood, the sound a fly makes when landing on a dry leaf, the clamor of the creeks as they hit the rocks, and so on. But regardless of the cacophony of the sounds, Sayhon was always able to filter out a background noise that showed up consistently. It was as if something or someone was omnipresent in every occurrence, making itself heard. After realizing this, the poor ant found himself in seclusion to concentrate on this subtle message. After a while, not able to figure out the source of this constant noise, nor able to come up with an explanation about its meaning, Sayhon spiraled down into an endless depression. In hard times like these, he always took refuge in the warm friendship of Nurson.

Nurson also conducted his own research, modeling the dynamic geometry of the forest. By formulating the variations in the locations of the fruits on the ground or those on the branch, he benefited the worker ants in establishing the optimum routes for collection. Even more challenging was Nurson’s interest in predicting the time and place of the birth of a new fruit. It was so demanding, this prediction effort, that it shook his antennas wildly. During his research, Nurson had come to the conclusion that, existing or newborn, all the fruits were moving apart from each other. This effect was more evident in the observation of a fruit at large distances.

One day when it was raining, Sayhon was observing how the raindrops splashed on the water, how they created a blasting sound. At the same spot Nurson was studying the expansion of the waves in the puddles made by raindrops. After some gloomy moments, Sayhon wanted to open a conversation.

“Hey dude! Do you hear any noise generated by those waves?”

“YES!” replied Nurson hysterically.

Sayhon was not expecting this kind of a “YES” to his question. Rather, it sounded like an answer to something else. This, in fact, was the case, because Nurson had had an epiphany with Sayhon’s question: “The noise you are detecting everywhere is due to the expansion of the forest.”

Sayhon was startled by the answer he had received for his teasing. Nevertheless, he was eager to continue this conversation: “Hey! Easy now, easy.”

“Look! The noise you are detecting everywhere points to an entity or occurrence that is omnipresent. To date, we don’t know an entity everywhere, but we do know an occurrence that is everywhere: the moving apart phenomenon. So, the only thing that can create this noise you are so curious about is the expansion of the forest. Every fruit, every branch-tip in this forest is moving apart from each other, while leaving behind a signature in the form of sound. Now everything makes sense.”

Enlightenment suddenly seized them both with a shiver throughout their bodies. When they came back to their senses, they couldn’t help but smile; it didn’t take long before Sayhon and Nurson started squealing in joy.

Soon, the entire ant colony was in a tumult about the discovery of the expansion of the forest, but with some subsequent thoughts. For example, an ant suggested that the omnipresent noise must be propagating through some unseen but all-pervading substance; but the experiments to verify this suggestion failed. Another thought was about the size of the forest. Some claimed that it was not possible to know the size of the forest, while others said it was finite, since otherwise it would result in an infinitely intertwined forest. A third item in this list of hot discussions was the age of the forest. According to the expansion theory, if the forest is expanding now, and if you rewind this process long enough, you end up with a single tree, and eventually a single seed, out of which this endless forest has formed. They called this unimaginable start the “big germination.” Based on the big germination theory, some ants suggested billions of years of age for the forest; but some others claimed an age on the order of thousands based on interpretation of their ancient texts.

In the fresh vibrations of these findings, the discussions of the ants about the start of the forest eventually became a discussion of their own existence. What was the origin of life in the forest? How had the living beings come to their current states, each with an optimum design for the survival of their own species and for the well-being of the entire habitat? Were they merely fallen off a tree as a result of a coincidence?

As the founders of the big germination theory, Sayhon and Nurson were invited to speak in huge assemblies where thousands of curious ants were gathered. They had given several interviews, and participated in many events on the subject of the origin of life. The two friends had differing points of views on this matter, but their discussion was as respectful as it was rational.

Sayhon held the view that the living beings had come to existence through a chain of events that are not yet readily known to the ants, but can be discovered with advancements in science. As his initial hypothesis, he proposed a common ancestor to all kinds of animals in the forest, like the start of the forest from a single seed. He supported his theory of a common ancestor with the observations of common traits among different organisms. But eventually, he admitted that his hypothesis is only tentative, and needed further scrutiny. He was open to change his views with new findings and observations, and never suggested that his hypothesis be used as the criterion to judge the veracity of new perspectives.

Nurson, on the other side, claimed that the origin of life in the forest was by the hand of the Creator, just like He was the one who had created the forest in the scenario of the big germination. In the same context, he thought that the scientific studies must be aimed at learning how the Creator was making different kinds of animals in the forest. Nurson said that his view did not essentially differ from Sayhon’s views in terms of scientific foundations or implications, but he positioned himself against unscientific interpretations of scientific findings. For example, he requested that, as he admitted his belief in the Creator is an unscientific presumption, Sayhon must admit his claims about a common ancestor is unscientific, since there was no absolute proof to it. Nurson also expressed his resentment about the ants who inferred the absence of the Creator in the scientific texts as a rejection of Him, since such inference was clearly irrational as well. Overall, Nurson neither tried to alienate Sayhon nor curse his views, he merely requested that both parties characterize their views properly, which was wholeheartedly approved by Sayhon.

In return to the request of Nurson, Sayhon invited him to admit that they don’t have a complete understanding of how creation occurs, and that interpretation of implicit information in the ancient texts cannot be binding. Nurson humbly agreed.

Despite the friendly opposition between Sayhon and Nurson, the ant colony was severely divided into two groups: some siding with Sayhon and others agreeing with Nurson. Each group projected their own view as the ultimate truth, unlike the two friends’ admittance of the unscientific parts in their views. Although Sayhon and Nurson both admitted the tentative and immature level of science in the matter, the public preferred to embrace them as complete and unchangeable. Thus, these two groups socially expelled each other, and showed intellectual hostility. Rejecting the other’s views in their entirety, they mutually evolved into antagonists.

Strange enough, as the tension between these groups increased, the climate in the forest started to change dramatically. Rain became more abundant, yet the weather also warmed up incredibly. They had yet to discover the significance of these drastic changes, but this threat to the entire colony acted as a uniting agent among the ants, and mitigated the divisions on the origin of life.

In one of those hot days, the ants noticed large cracks forming in their nests, which eventually evolved into large channels, through which a violent stream came and flooded the forest. Many of the ants were saved by embarking on the leaves. Now everything was underwater, and would be until it soaked completely into the soil, which was unlikely to occur in their lifetimes. Facing extinction, the big germination and the subsequent expansion of the forest felt like meaningless topics in their hopeless state. Yet, the origin of life was of the highest attention. Even the most bigoted ants who denied the Creator wanted to believe in a higher Hand that could penetrate the doom they were facing and deliver them to salvation.

The flood did not return the ants back home but carried them to another one. By the time they arrived at this new forest, the flood had faded to a nice stream, and the ants could safely disembark from their leaves. But with nothing in their possession, everything had to be reconstructed: a home, a safe environment, and most importantly, the hope for restoration.

Sayhon and Nurson were among these survivors. Seeing that their home forest actually had an end had shocked them. In light of this fact, they had to reconsider all their thoughts from scratch. This was not to be done publicly, because the colony was struggling for survival. Amidst this new land of uncertainties, everyone was in need of a certainty to cling to, and the suppositions of Sayhon and Nurson were the last thing they looked for.

As the colony’s efforts for reconstruction and the internal quests of these two ants continued, they came across the most unexpected thing: another ant colony just like them. It was as shocking to the native ants as it was to themselves. And as their relationship deepened, it was a subtle, mind-altering experience for all of them to see that they both had religious texts telling the same brief story about the origin of life.

In a study conducted by social psychologists Tversky and Kahneman, people were asked to guess the percentage of African nations that were members of the United Nations. Two groups were first asked to estimate whether this number was lower or higher than a threshold: the first group was asked whether it is more or less than 45 percent and the second group was asked whether it is more or less than 65 percent. Then both groups were asked to give their estimates of the actual percentage. The researchers demonstrated that the group that was given the lower threshold estimated a lower value for the actual percentage of African nations that are members of the United Nations. The group that was given the higher threshold estimated a higher percentage. The pattern has held in other experiments for a wide variety of different subjects of estimation. A bias in the estimation of African members of the United Nations may not sound like a big deal, but how about decisions that affect people’s lives seriously?

Consider sentencing in court trials. Social psychologist Mussweiler and colleagues asked trial judges with more than 15 years of experience to consider sentencing demands made by non-experts in a legal crime case before issuing a final sentence. The two sentencing demands were 34 months and 12 months. The judges, despite their experience and despite the fact that the crime was the same, were influenced by the demands. Judges who considered the high demand of 34 months prior to their decision gave final sentences that were almost 8 months longer than judges who considered a low demand of 12 months initially. If prior exposure to a piece of information can make a difference as much as 8 more months in prison, then we ought to know what is going on. The examples above illustrate a psychological heuristic known as “anchoring and adjustment.” The heuristic suggests that when faced with a decision-making or estimation situation, people start with an anchor, or a reference point, and make adjustments to it to reach their final estimate. The anchor serves as a first approximation and then the person makes adjustments to it to reach a final estimate or decision. Why does the human mind utilize this heuristic? The answer is simple—we do not always have a whole lot of information to reach an accurate estimate or best decision.

Therefore, the mind sometimes needs shortcuts, especially under pressing circumstances. To understand this process, let’s have a look at the limitations of human cognition. Models of human cognition Cognitive psychologists and sociologists have worked to develop models of human social cognition. These models emphasize four aspects of our social cognition, which is the way we perceive others. The first is the role of prior knowledge versus information immediately available. For example, when we see a policeman directing the traffic, we use our prior knowledge in our perception. We may assume that he is carrying a gun and he has communications equipment to talk with his station. We deduce these features from our prior knowledge about the traffic police, even if we may not be in a position to observe that particular policeman’s gun or communications device. Relying on prior information in our judgments is called “top-down” processing as opposed to “bottom-up” or data-driven processing. Typically, relying on top-down processing, such as relying on stereotypes, requires fewer processing resources.

The second aspect is the limitation of our cognitive processing capacity. The human cognitive system is modeled to consist of our sensory organs, a sensory register (memory) that temporarily stores our perceptions of external stimuli, a short-term memory, a long-term memory, attention resources and executive control processes. When we receive information in the form of audio-visual or other sensory stimuli, they are processed by our cognitive system and transferred to our short-term memory. Through a process of encoding and categorization, the information is organized and stored in the long-term memory. A part of the long-term memory is “active” or readily accessible. Our further use of information in our long-term memory activates the information, and the lack of use deactivates it, making it less readily accessible. Our behavioral response results from our processing of information. According to this information-processing model of human cognition, the amount of information that can be processed by our cognitive system is restricted in terms of storage, flow and inference (Huitt, 2003).

The third aspect is the amount of cognitive processing that is determined by capacity (amount of free resources) and motivation. Factors such as interest, importance, and relevance determine the motivation to allocate more cognitive resources. We are more likely to devote more cognitive processing resources to subjects that are more interesting, important or relevant in our judgment. The fourth aspect is the interplay between automatic and controlled processing. Automatic processes require fewer resources. Given our limited processing capacity, time and other types of constraints have consequences for our cognitive processing. Under constraints, most individuals tend to simplify their processing by relying on less information, relying on automatic cognitive processes as opposed to conscious ones, or relying on prior information as opposed to information available in the circumstances. Anchoring is one such a simplification. The nature of the situation we are facing will determine which of these mechanisms will be selected. They will be reused or abandoned depending on whether they provide a sound basis for our responses to the social environment. If the simplifications lead to interpretations that harm us, we are likely to abandon them. If, on the other hand, there is no harm or there is a benefit, then we are likely to reuse those simplifications.

Anchoring effect Anchoring is defined as the effect of a prior judgment of an object, the anchor, on our future judgments regarding another object. These judgments may be about a numerical value, a probability, or even a moral or legal judgment. As an example, consider the situation where people are asked whether the population of a city is greater than or smaller than a value. Let’s say two groups of people are asked the same question with two anchors: Group A is asked whether the population of Houston is more than or less than 500,000. Group B is asked whether the population of Houston more than or less than 2,000,000. In this example, the values of 500,000 and 2,000,000 serve as anchors. Both groups are then asked: What is your estimate of the population of Houston? Experiments indicate that the people who were given the lower anchor on average give a lower estimate for the population and vice versa. How does anchoring happen? Cognitive psychologists tell us that human judgment is essentially relative or comparison based, even if we are not asked to make a comparison explicitly. So, in evaluating the present object or person, our minds search for an anchor. A particular anchor may be selected because it is readily accessible, because it is suggested to us, or “self-generated via an insufficient adjustment process” (Mussweiler et al). Our prior cognitive processing of the anchor increases the accessibility of anchor-consistent knowledge, which influences our subsequent judgments. For example, when we meet a person from a country, the first person we met from that country may become our anchor. If we had a positive experience with the first person, we are likely to interpret the actions of this new person with a positive light. While cognitive heuristics such as anchoring help us make quick decisions under constraints, they may also lead to errors. The price we pay for the economy provided by the heuristics is “systematically biased judgments under certain conditions.” (Bless et al., p. 24). For instance, a car dealer may offer you a very high price as an anchor and ask you to make a counter offer. Experiments have demonstrated that under such circumstances, the value of the initial offer has a significant effect on what people will be willing to pay for the final price of the car. If the initial offer is very high, the customer is likely to accept a higher negotiated price and vice versa. The anchoring effect can also be observed when we take a few characteristics of a person and consciously or subconsciously fit them to a stereotype.

In such cases, we may misperceive their motivations or misunderstand their circumstances. Sometimes the anchor can be manipulated by some person other than ourselves, as in the case of the car dealer. Sometimes, we may pick the anchor unintentionally based on information obtained from the mass media. As the mass media tend to focus on rare events that tend to be negative, the stereotypes formed based on information solely derived from the mass media may be misleading (Said, 1997). What are some of the lessons we can derive from our discussion of the anchoring effect? For one, we need to point the mirror at ourselves and ask: Are we forming stereotypes of others that may be inaccurate? Are we influenced by the anchoring effect in our judgment of other people? To see whether we may have anchors for evaluating people of different backgrounds consider your initial thoughts about Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Americans, Russians, Asians, Africans, Mexicans, etc. Are these anchors based on scientific data or news media coverage of events or personal encounters with one or more individuals? It may be infeasible to try to collect encyclopedic information about every nationality, religion, or culture that we encounter. But in matters that impact our society we ought to do a better job of researching a diversity of resources. But perhaps a more important lesson is this—the anchoring effect is here to stay as part of the reality of human cognition. If we would like to provide accurate, reliable information to people about ourselves, our culture and values, we should reach them before they form a negative anchor or stereotype. If we would like our cultural background, religion, or values to be understood without distortion, we need to reach out to as many people as possible around us and interact with them. We need to hold conversations, and share meaningful experiences with them to anchor their future judgments in an accurate reference point. The anchoring effect is demonstrated to be pervasive and robust in psychology. It is not likely to disappear in the foreseeable future. However, we do have the opportunity to reach out and help form positive anchors for better human relationships.

Further reading

• Bless, H., Fiedler, K., Strack, F. 2004. Social Cognition, New York: Taylor and Francis.
• Huitt, W. 2003. The Information Processing Approach to Cognition. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University.
• Mussweiler, T., & Strack, F. 2001. The Semantics of Anchoring. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 86, 234–255.
• Said, E. 1997. Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World, New York: Random House.

Heart regeneration in mammals

Such heart regeneration holds the promise for the treatment of heart failure following heart attacks. But so far, the adult human heart is known not to show adequate regeneration or replacement of dead tissue with functional tissue such as beating cardiomyocytes (cardiac muscles) and arteries. When a patient has successive heart attacks and myocardial infarctions (death of cardiac muscle resulting from interruption of the blood supply), the number of dead cells increases due to the decreased level of oxygen reaching the heart tissue. That’s one of the reasons heart disease is so deadly.

The rates of cardiac regeneration, from fish to amphibians to mammals, demonstrates a decreasing trend — high in fish, moderate in amphibians, and limited in mammals. The regeneration mechanism is thought to occur via incorporating stem cells, using differentiation into cardiac muscle and other cell types, or via dedifferentiation of cardiomyocytes. It is known that the heart of an adult zebra fish can regenerate without scar formation, whereas adult rodents and humans respond with a fibrous scar, without obvious cardiomyocyte regeneration. This remarkable phenomenon had been demonstrated in other fish and amphibians, but never before in a mammal. Recently, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center showed that a newborn mouse’s heart can fully heal itself.

Sadek’s group at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas showed that the mammalian heart demonstrates a temporary regeneration capacity in newborn mice. After slowing down the body functions by cooling the body of a mouse, they performed a very delicate heart surgery, removing about 15 percent of the apex of a 1-day-old newborn mouse heart. Within a short period (three weeks), they showed that heart had healed and the function of heart had returned to normal. But when mice are a week old, this remarkable ability of regeneration disappears, and damage to the heart results in the thinning of the heart wall at the site of injury, and the loss of the pumping capacity of heart, also known as heart failure. There seems to be a barrier to regeneration after 7 days. This 7-day window in mice could correspond to a few months after birth in humans. Several reports suggest that human heart may also have some ability to regenerate in infancy.

If newborn animals and infants are able to regenerate their hearts, there could be ways to remind the heart how do this or restart this ability in adulthood to allow regeneration in a broader window. Could there be means to induce regeneration by gene therapy, using small molecules, drugs or hormones? This new discovery brings new approaches to study heart disease and hopes that one day, heart disease — the number one killer in the world — could be treated. More studies are needed and a number of labs have already started to invest in this new model of heart regeneration.

Human heart cell turnover and regeneration

The heart is the least regenerative organ in our body. Once cardiomyocytes are damaged through heart attacks, the heart heals by scar formation instead of regeneration. This results in a loss of contractile function and often ends in heart failure. Lack of regeneration in an adult heart is associated with the complexity and inability of cardiomyocytes to divide, along with the absence of adequate muscle-producing cardiac stem cells in the heart.

Cardiomyocytes proliferate extensively during embryonic development but slow dramatically around birth. The growth of heart continues after birth through the increase in cardiomyocyte size, known as hypertropy. This allows DNA synthesis and nuclear division and results in binucleated cardiomyocytes.

Increasing evidence strongly suggests that the human heart shows a degree of cardiomyocyte repopulation (introduction of new cardiomyoctes). It is always challenging to study human heart cellular homeostasis, as it is limited in the availability of human samples and the means to work on it. Who knew nuclear testing during the Cold War would help to uncover dynamics of human cardiomyocyte turnover? Using a technique based on radiocarbon dating of DNA with carbon-14, released from nuclear tests, Bergmann and his colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden showed that the cardiomyocyte turnover rate is about 1 percent per year at age 20, with a decline to 0.4 percent per year at age 75. This is based on the idea that people born during nuclear tests following World War II until the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1963), any cardiomyocyte repopulation should result in lower carbon-14 concentrations. These findings imply that around age 50, about half of the cardiomyocytes in the human heart are generated after birth. However, another study puts emphasis on the importance of cell deaths (apoptosis) for heart cell turnover, asserting that these rates could be much higher (7-40 percent per year). Those findings bring new hopes to heart disease. If the repopulation potential of heart could be therapeutically targeted, the rate of turnover could be extended to overcome the inability to recover cardiomyocyte loss and cardiac contractility after heart attacks.

The better regenerative capacity of fish and amphibians, compared to that of mammals, seems to stem from the presence of species-specific differences. It has been suggested that the limited regeneration potential of mammalian hearts following injury increases survival by prioritizing homeostasis and fibrosis (scar formation by excess connective tissue). Bleeding from the heart in a high-pressure circulation probably favors the more rapid fibrous healing, instead of regeneration, whereas small animals have a low-pressure circulatory system and oxygenation isn’t needed all the time. This phenomenon probably applies to the regeneration of the newborn mouse heart, which also made the removal of the apex of the newborn mouse heart possible.

Cardiac stem cells for regeneration

The heart is a mosaic of various cell types including valvular, arterial, smooth muscle, pacemaker, endothelial, autonomic ganglia, fibroblasts and cardiomyocytes. Those cells have essentially the same genetic makeup but they show a great diversity. Could there be a common cardiac stem cell that gives rise to all those cell types in the heart? There are a number of studies suggesting the presence of such stem cells, though why they fail to regenerate the heart following heart attacks remains unknown.

There have been a number of attempts to discover cardiac stem cells. Some stem cells have been studied in animals and even considered as possible therapies in human trials. Sources of those stem cells could be classifies as resident and non-resident (exogenous) cells of heart. Exogenous stem cell types include skeletal myoblasts, hematopoietic stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow and circulating endothelial cells. Many approaches to identify resident cardiac stem cells are based on knowledge from hematopoietic stem cells. Using surface proteins on the cells known to enrich bone marrow stem cells, several types of resident stem cells are shown to exist in the heart. There are limited improvements in cardiac function using those cells, but the benefits of those cells are thought to be through other mechanisms instead of replacement of dead tissue in the damaged heart.

A study demonstrating the renewal of a newborn mice heart does not completely rule out resident cardiac stem cells as a source of new beating heart cells, but points out the likelihood of their originating from cardiomyocytes by dedifferentiation. Along with a number of attempts to treat heart failure by using stem cells, recent findings offer hope that researchers and doctors will one day able to cure heart disease. Knowing that “there is no disease that God has created, except that He also has created its treatment,” our duty is to study hard and to develop new technologies to find the prospective treatments for heart failure to serve humanity.

References

• Porrello et al. 2011. “Transient Regenerative Potential of the Neonatal Mouse Heart.” Science 25 February: 1078–1080.
• Bergmann et al. 2009. “Evidence for Cardiomyocyte Renewal in Humans.” Science, 3 April: 98–102.
• Charles E. Murry and Richard T. Lee. 2009. “Turnover after the fallout.” Science, V324.
• O.Bergmann et al. 2009. Science 324, 98.
• Simonetta Ausoni and Saverio Sartore. 2009. “From fish to amphibians to mammals: in search of novel strategies to optimize cardiac regeneration.” JBC. 184 (3).
• Martin-Puig et al. 2008. “Lives of a hear cell: Tracing the origins of cardiac progenitors.” Cell Stem Cell 2. April.
• Nevada Nuclear Testing Site: http://mason.gmu.edu/~kcherrix/atomichome.html
• Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 7, Book 71.

Adjusting her position on the floor, Hannah told herself, “I have just one choice now. I have to pray to God.” She raised her eyes to the ceiling, where she thought there was a heaven, where she thought she might find God. But her mind was unclear about what to do or say next. She didn’t really know how to pray but she hoped, if there was a God, He would hear her wherever she was…wouldn’t He? She didn’t really know much about belief. Religion didn’t play a big part in her family’s life; perhaps this had led her to believe she didn’t need religion or God in her life.

For the past 10 years, she had been living like so many young people of her time, never once contemplating God, religion, or even the difference between right and wrong. She had followed the crowd and her own egotistical desires. Ironically, it was this crooked path that led her to God’s door. She was standing now at a dangerous intersection, 30 years old with no home of her own, no job, pregnant out of wedlock, and trying to make a responsible decision for the life she carried inside.

Growing up, it was clear that her parents had hopes and dreams for all their children to be successful, good people. Her generation had their marching orders: make the family proud. They strove to be the brightest in school, the most talented musicians, and the toughest players on the football field. Her family was well-known in town for owning the biggest house, buying the best clothes, and driving the newest cars.

As a child, she had lived a sheltered, lonely and isolated life. Her playmates were her cousins and siblings. When she grew older, her friends became the most important people in her life. And although she tried, she didn’t fit in with her peers; perhaps the reason was because she didn’t belong to a community of faithful believers, or perhaps because her skin was a shade too dark. Being different had impacted her identity negatively. Despite all the love her family had shared, she was unhappy with herself. Hannah couldn’t wait to get away from that town, that family, and the unanswered questions about why she didn’t fit in.

Hannah’s life changed drastically after she went to college. There, she was free. What she did with her newfound freedom was not inhibited by her skin color, her parents, or by any relationship with God. She cared nothing about what God thought of her, and only about what people thought of her. Her sole ambition was to appear liberated from any sense of guilt or shame, even after wronging herself or another.

After college, her parents expected her to move back home, but Hannah refused. By then, her taste for freedom had become as precious as gold, and she couldn’t imagine losing even one piece of it. So, with her parents’ reluctant support, she moved to New York City to pursue her dream of becoming a rich and famous songwriter and singer.

After seven years, and some success in the music business, she returned home—secretly pregnant. Deeply disappointed by her mistakes and the dissatisfying path she had chosen, Hannah sought shelter in her mother’s home, until she could figure out what to do next. In her room, Hannah prepared to pray, closing her eyes and fearing God. Praying was something she hadn’t done since she was an innocent child. She wondered,“Will God listen to me? But then, why should He?”

Hannah struggled to find the right words, to move beyond her fears and doubts. How could she ask for something from someone she hardly knew or trusted? Finally, she managed to speak: “God, I am unworthy; too unworthy to ask for your help.”

With her head bowed, Hannah began to sob, “But I’m in trouble. You have to help me…I have nowhere to turn, no one else to ask. Oh, dear God. Please help me…”

In tears, and feeling her prayer was futile, Hannah was about to give up, when she was struck by a clear, cold reality: God was her only Helper. This truism awakened a longing deep inside of her. She kept pushing, praying, putting aside her pride, and then, she began to beg: “Oh, my God, I’m going to do the most impossible thing. But You…You have to help me, because without Your help, I couldn’t do it…”

She heard her own voice, crying out, asking for a change in her life. Like the Israelites, who had cried out to God from the depths of their souls to be released from slavery. God answered their cry and gave them Moses.

Praying was evidence of a change taking place within Hannah. But she had to wonder, was it really enough, if absolutely nothing about her situation had changed? She had no plan of action, no partner, no place to live, no money, and no job; and yet, she now believed that everything in the universe could change by God’s will:

“…Truly, never will God change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves…”

Hannah began to think of other changes she could make to her life, asking herself for the first time: “Could I change my way of life? Would God guide me if I asked to be guided?”

When she finished crying and praying, and opened her eyes, Hannah felt better. She had an inexplicable sense of peace, and felt confident about her sudden decisiveness. She passed her hands over her face, still wet with her tears and whispered into the air: “I’m going to have this baby and God is going to help me.”

From that day forward, Hannah’s awareness of and deep need for God would determine all her choices. For Hannah, it was the beginning of a renewed relationship with God, a way for her to learn how to trust in God. Some call it “a leap of faith.” But years later, Hannah would describe the experience in her room as the day she surrendered to God. She experienced the true meaning of faith that day; the moment of her surrender came when she realized with her whole heart that she had only One True Helper.

Tears dried and spirits surprisingly high, Hannah left her room and headed downstairs to the pantry. Starving, she held a salty pickled turnip in one hand and a sweet piece of baklava in the other, when her mother came upon her and asked innocently,“What are you doing, Hannah? Why are you eating both of those at once? You’re going to get sick!”

When she saw the love and concern on her mother’s face, and thought about the gift from God growing inside her body, Hannah was overcome by a profound sense of gratitude, and the vision of a new life, with God as her guide.

“Say, ‘Come, I will rehearse what God has really prohibited you from: Join not anything as equal with Him; be good to your parents; kill not your children on a plea of want.’ We provide sustenance for you and for them…come not near to shameful deeds, whether open or in secret. Take not life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law. Thus does He command you that you may learn wisdom.” (Qur’an 6:151)

Afterword: Hannah and her child never experienced a single day of want. Today, her son is 28 years old and has far exceeded the hopes and dreams a mother could have for a child. She often refers to him as the “jewel in her crown.” And each fall she makes him his favorite dish, salty pickled turnips.