Nose cells as the key COVID-19 entry point

Sungnak et al. SARS-CoV-2 entry factors are highly expressed in nasal epithelial cells together with innate immune genes. Nature Medicine, April 2020.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Detection of the virus was first reported in Wuhan, China and has since spread worldwide and emerged as a global pandemic. COVID-19 primarily affects the lungs and airways and has a wide range of symptoms including fever, coughing, and sore throat. One of the scariest aspects of the virus is that some people may not manifest symptoms but can still carry and spread it. In severe cases, the virus causes pneumonia that can ultimately lead to death. Studies suggest that the virus is thought to be spread through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes and appears to be easily transmitted within affected areas. COVID-19 has spread to more than 184 countries and claimed more than 190,000 lives so far. One of the major questions scientists around the world are trying to understand is how the virus spreads, how we can prevent transmission, and how we can develop an effective vaccine. To discover the target cells involved in COVID-19 transmission, scientists analyzed the gene expression profiles of thousands of cells from 20 different human tissues including the lung, nasal cavity, eye, gut, heart, kidney, and liver. They specifically looked for individual cell types that expressed both of two key COVID-19 entry proteins – the receptor protein ACE2 and the TMPRSS2 protease. These analyses revealed that mucus-producing goblet cells and ciliated cells on the inner lining of the nose have the highest level of COVID-19 virus proteins of all cells in the airways. While there are many external and internal factors that contribute to the virus’ transmissibility, these findings are consistent with the rapid infection rates of the virus. The location of these cells on the surface of the inside of the nose makes them highly accessible to the virus and also may assist with transmission to other people. Interestingly, ACE2 and TMPRSS2 were also found in cells in the cornea of the eye and in the lining of the intestine. This suggests another possible route of infection via the eye and tear ducts, and also revealed a potential for fecal-oral transmission. These findings have important implications for understanding viral transmissibility and could have critical translational implications. For example, given that nasal carriage is likely to be a key feature of transmission, drugs and vaccines administered intra-nasally could be highly effective in limiting the spread of the virus.

Neutrinos Could Explain Why the Universe Has So Much More Matter Than Antimatter

The T2K Collaboration. Constraint on the matter–antimatter symmetry-violating phase in neutrino oscillations. Nature, April 2020

The current laws of physics propose that 13.8 billion years ago, at the time of the Big Bang, every particle of matter had been created with a counterpart called antimatter. Antimatter is precisely the same as matter but with an opposite physical property such as an electrical charge. The great mystery for physicists is why there is so much more matter than antimatter in the universe. If there had been equal quantities in the beginning then each particle would have wiped each other out in a blaze of energy and left the universe full of just photons and dark matter. To understand the mystery behind this asymmetry, scientists have utilized an experiment known as “T2K.” T2K is a collaboration between 500 international scientists that employs a proton accelerator in Japan that generates beams of subatomic particles called muon neutrinos and antineutrinos which then travel 295 km to the gigantic Super-Kamiokande detector, located in a tank filled with 50,000 tons of water under a mountain in Kamioka on Japan’s west coast. During this trip, the muon neutrinos and antineutrinos change in flight to electron neutrinos and antineutrinos, demonstrating the phenomenon of neutrino oscillations. The team observed for the first time that there is a significant difference between neutrino and antineutrino oscillations. Neutrinos were found to turn into electron neutrinos at a much higher rate than their antineutrino counterparts and, as a result, would propagate regular matter at a higher rate than antimatter. These results show that although matter and antimatter look so similar to each other, they can behave completely different. Previously, scientists have found some differences in behavior between matter and antimatter versions of other subatomic particles called quarks, but the differences observed did not seem to be large enough to account for the dominance of matter in the universe. This new data indicates that subatomic particle neutrinos might be the very reason the universe is dominated by matter. While the scientific community is very excited about these results, most experts suggest collecting a lot more data in order to get the confidence level of their results up over the current ratio of 95%.

Humans Tend To Go With Our “Gut Feelings” Over Evidence-based Decisions

Konovalov& Krajbich. Mouse tracking reveals structure knowledge in the absence of model-based choice. Nature Communications, April 2020.

A new study showed that when faced with a decision, humans prefer to follow their “gut feeling” or habits instead of taking all facts into account. In the study, participants played a simple computer game in which identifying patterns could make them more money. While following the patterns led to success most of the time, there was still a 10-40% chance that it would not give the best outcome. The researchers observed that 56 of the 57 participants were able to identify the pattern to make the decision that gave them the highest chance of success. However, only about 20% of players consistently went with that choice after it failed them. The other 80% of players diverged and made choices based upon their gut feelings. The researchers suggest that participants decided to go with their gut feelings when making in-game decisions because choosing the best pattern only led to a slightly higher chance of success. This study highlights how decision-making works in real life. People can learn what choices lead to the best outcomes; but putting that knowledge into practice can often be difficult as it likely takes a lot of mental and sometimes physical energy to always make decisions based upon your knowledge of your current environment. Moreover, the rewards of following the best strategy aren’t always obvious in real life. Following a familiar strategy may increase your success by only a small percentage. In our decision making, there is always the dilemma – what we should do from a statistical perspective versus what worked out well recently, typically in an anecdotal manner.

Many yearly rituals of Ramadan will continue even as some change in deference to our social responsibility to respect God’s laws in the universe. 

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan will be different this year. Around the world, mosques will be closed, when they would normally have worshipers spilling out onto the street. Extended families will remain apart, when they would typically gather for Iftar to break the fast and share homemade treats. And shopping malls, cafes and streets will be eerily quiet, when they would normally come alive after dark.

Ramadan still began on Thursday evening, though, and in the early hours on Friday morning, households gathered, as they have for centuries, to share a sleepy suhur — the pre-dawn meal.

Even as the world grapples with COVID-19, the yearly rituals of Ramadan will continue. Throughout the holy month, most of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims will fast between dawn and sunset, spend time in Quranic recitation, self-reflection and prayer in an effort to become closer to God, and give thanks for our blessings. But this year, the prescribed exceptions from fasting for young children, travelers, pregnant mothers and anyone who is sick will now be extended to those feeling symptoms of COVID-19.

And this year, our prayers will include special emphasis on the health care workers, emergency workers and other essential employees who are on the front lines of the fight to protect our communities. In the eyes of God, saving human lives and benefitting humanity are most noble endeavors: The Quran likens saving a life to saving the whole of humanity, and the Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be God’s peace and blessings) says that the best of humans are those who benefit other humans.

Our obligation to help and support those in need also takes on added meaning this year as our neighbors and communities face sickness, grief, economic hardship and the loneliness of self-isolation.

Perhaps the most difficult obligation for many, though, will be forgoing the long-planned gatherings of the season, in order to comply with precautions issued by authorities. But following these measures is a duty of our citizenship and a necessity of our social responsibility to respect God’s laws in the universe. For instance, the Prophet Muhammad — whose belief and trust in God was beyond description — even advised quarantining a town in the event of an infectious disease.

Each of us should take the extra time and space afforded by the pandemic’s social distancing measures as an opportunity for further examination of our connection with God, our families and our core values. This time offers a mandatory retreat from the busy nature of our daily lives and a chance to turn toward God, deepening our faith, knowledge and practice. I hope that imams will offer reminders about these opportunities to their congregations.

This period also forces us to rely on the internet and the technologies built upon it. Our young generations have been well-versed in these technologies ahead of their parents. Throughout history, messengers of God and those who strive for the enlightenment of humanity always used the available cultural tools and practices to spread their messages. We also must take this time to connect with our communities in new ways, including making our spiritual resources accessible to younger generations using their language and their familiar technologies.

The challenges of responding to the pandemic and altering our lives might push some of us to seek people to blame or to criticize. As we enter Ramadan, it is paramount that we devote ourselves to helping those in need, rather than finding others to blame. Even as people, groups or nations with whom we have had past differences may be suffering, each of us must reject as inhumane the thought that anyone deserved a calamity.

In a globalized world, nobody is isolated from a potent problem, be it environmental, medical or economic. This is a time to share data, and to collaborate to find solutions. This is a time to realize our interdependence as nations, as communities and as inhabitants of a global ecosystem — a time to recognize that we all are members of the human family and each have the opportunity to show the true potential of humanity.

As we enter this holy month, it is crucial that we look forward with hope and not despair, which stifles people and progress. Humanity has overcome great challenges in the past, and we will find ways to overcome this challenge, too. If we focus on the opportunities this pandemic presents, we will be able to keep our spirits high and reach the end of this tunnel much quicker.

Our observance of Ramadan will necessarily be different this year. But in many ways it will be like any other year: We will fast, we will pray, we will recite our holy book and we will take time for reflection and charity throughout the holy month. May God enable us to benefit fully from the feast of bounty in Ramadan.

This article has first been published on NBC News

Translated by Alp Aslandogan, the executive director of the Alliance for Shared Values.

Ebru, the art of crafting images and pictures with special paints on the surface of water, originated on the continent of Asia, spread to Anatolia, and from there to the rest of the world. Ebru has long been the name given to the original Turkish art of “paper marbling” [1].

Enchanted by their interaction with water, human beings started practicing the art of paper marbling. By practicing Ebru, one may interpret the time on the marbling tray as a sort of time travel in which the wiggles of the water take a journey between the past and the future.

For ages, people have been using long-lasting rock surfaces to transfer information to future generations. These artworks and writings are reminders of past civilizations and they have always gained the attention of mankind around the world.

Some natural ingredients for traditional Ebru art include rose branches, dust paint, bile juice, and gum from a wild licorice plant. This natural combination of each ingredient of Ebru art ensures its uniqueness.

Each careful sprinkle of a color on the surface of the water is the reflection of the emotions that are felt by the artist yet are difficult to express otherwise.

Ebru is a delicate reflection of a civilization in which water is exalted as glorious and precious. It is one of the major elements of our world, that are essential for existence, along with soil, air, and fire. Ebru is the art of enthusiasm presented with sincere feelings.

Ebru gives a new perspective to the world of art and to cultures that are not familiar with it, since the concept of water serving as a base might initially seem impossible.  Throughout history, eastern and western civilizations were established around sources of water. Water in fact attracts human beings to its vibrancy like a magnet. It is the source of life for all the people from different ethnic groups, colors, languages, and religions. The mosaic appearance of Ebru art reflects human diversity in its tank with harmony and coherence [2].

In the past, people used to write thing they didn’t want to remember on water. Anything is doomed to disappear on the surface of water other than Ebru.

Using water as a medium is paradoxical because water signifies change as opposed to permanence. However, embroidery on the surface of the water is not something to be planned beforehand but rather an art form that the Ebru performer comes up with at the moment. A single stroke can be transformed but not reversed.

Once the artist has reflected his or her soul’s shape, and the colors have taken their place, the paper is gently laid on the water.

Ebru is like life itself; even if we think we do the same things every day, every moment differs from the others and is unique in its own way.

Ebru is either in the sky or on the Earth [3];

“O eye, do not sprinkle tears into my heart’s fierce fire, for there will be no way you can put out such a fire.
Is the revolving sky’s color the color of water? Or is it my tears that cover up the sky, I cannot know.”

Those who are interested in the art of Ebru and put their hearts into it will connect with a feeling of spiritual serenity and tranquility. Life in contemporary times is a never-ending wave of turmoil. Those who want to escape the hustle of the routines of life will never be rejected and will be welcomed to the ambiance of serenity by the peaceful waves of Ebru.

It takes people from their own world and brings them to another world of imagination where they can reflect on their feelings and get rid of the negative emotions within them.

For those who are stuck in the modern cycle of never-ending tasks, it is a way for them to reach a peaceful state of mind and relax.

Ebru art might take the artist back to their childhood when they used to play with dirt and mud. Perhaps the lack of preserving their childhood feelings can be remedied.

Ebru craftsmen use the biz, a tool used like a pencil to write on the surface of the water. In Ebru, every move on the water gives color patterns.

The art of Ebru in such a small container can take a human to anywhere that they wish to be or can be a canvas for any image that they wish for, such as a garden of flowers or a limitless sky. It will be anywhere other than any negative emotions inside.

Ebru art eventually makes the performer, as well as those that enjoy it, joyful once it is placed onto the wall of a house or at work and is thus able to begin emanating its bliss.

* This article was based on the speech given by Mualla Yazici in the Fountain Talks meeting at Fishers Public Library, Indiana.

References

1. Saracoğlu M. “Ebru or Water Marbling.” The Fountain 72 / November-December 2009.
2. Refik İ. “Uçsuz Bucaksız Bir Okyanusta Renklerin Dansı: Ebru.” Yağmur 3 Nisan, Mayıs, Haziran.1999.
3. “Su Kasidesi – Altın Nefesler,” Yeni Ümit Ekim, Kasım Aralık 1998.

For lust of knowing what should not be known/ We take the Golden Road to Samarkand. [[1]]

The Silk Road has always been known for providing pathways that allow the Far East to exchange goods and ideas with the European West. History often remembers that the Silk Road helped Europe expand and flourish. However, the cities that lived in close proximity to the Silk Road routes also benefited economically and culturally. Samarkand, specifically, became a multi-ethnic city of trade under the leadership of Tamerlane in the 14^th century. According to historian Christopher I. Beckwith, Tamerlane formed Samarkand into a “model city” [[2]]. But was it Tamerlane’s skill as a political leader, or the influence of the trade routes that brought glory to the grand city? While Tamerlane’s empire was vast and incredible, it is impossible to deny that the Silk Road played a larger role in the flourishing of Samarkand due to the market established in the city, as well as its toleration of those with different cultural and religious identities.

Timur the Lame, or Tamerlane, was a successful military and political ruler in the city of Samarkand. As a child, Timur found himself living on the Central Asian steppes where he and his tribe would migrate at the mercy of the seasonal weather [[3]]. However, as he grew older, Timur soon found himself gaining a foothold and conquering tribes, making alliances with other warlords, and looting as a missionary throughout Central Asia [[4]]. One of Timur’s most influential alliances was made with the Balkh warlord Amir Husayn. Throughout the course of the alliance between Timur and Husayn, tensions were high and it eventually disintegrated [[5]]. Despite Timur facing betrayal during his previous experience with Husayn, the two again joined forces to eventually overthrow the Sarbadar government in Samarkand in 1366 [[6]]. While ruling alongside Husayn in Samarkand, Timur gained many followers. Timur was regarded as a brave, intelligent, and generous ruler among his people though it was well known that he was also ruthless to his enemies [[7]]. With his skill to gain followers and prestige all across the Central Asian steppes and cities, Timur was finally able to make his way into the Mongol courts. After Genghis Khan died, Timur was able to cement his control as the sole ruler of the Chagatai territory on April 9, 1370 [[8]].

The ancient city of Samarkand is well known to be a melting pot of people with different races and religions. The Sogdian people are considered to be one of the first to populate the area. In fact, the first traces of the Sogdian people date back to 700 BC. Valerie Hansen of Yale University writes that it is likely that the early Sogdian settlers lived peacefully within the city as merchants, farmers, and servants. She also states that the Sogdians were also able to continue using their native language although it was not the mainstream language of the city [[9]]. However, the Sogdians were not the only people to occupy the city. When Ruiz Gonzales de Clavijo visited the city while on embassy in 1412, he noted that there were people from across the world living in the city. Clavijo wrote:

…The population now of all nationalities gathered together in Samarqand… [Amounting] to about 150,000 souls. Of the nations brought here together there were to be seen Turks, Arabs and Moors of diverse sects, with Christians who were Greeks and Armenians, Catholics, Jacobites, and Nestorians…[[10]]

These different religious and ethnic groups likely lived in peace and toleration of one another and focused on improving commerce within the city.

While Tamerlane was a successful ruler and won the respect and loyalty of his citizens, that alone did not cause the city of Samarkand to become great. Instead, the Silk Road routes are most likely the reason for the city’s strong economy. The Silk Road was a series of trade routes that stretched from China, located in the Far East, to the European West. These dangerous trade routes allowed merchants to not only sell silk, but also chemicals, spices, minerals, leather goods, and paper [[11]]. While China traded with many different countries across the known world, the country mainly focused its trade with Samarkand. The Chinese likely had a special trading partnership established with the Sogdians, who were seen as the “main contributors” to the Silk Roads [[12]]. Hansen refers to the painting that was seen in the Panjikent House. In this painting, a woman is shown who appears to be a deity. The style of art was likely influenced by the Chinese because of their relationship with the city [[13]].

The city of Samarkand also had an elaborate trading marketplace set up with the city itself. Ruiz Gonzalez de Clavijo also mentioned that the city of Samarkand was stocked full of goods and other merchandise from around the world. Some items were even exclusively sold within the city. Spices from India, for example, were “never to be found in the markets of Alexandria.” According to Clavijo, when Timur succeeded in conquering new lands, he would often bring the best craftsmen of the conquered territory to Samarkand. For example, Timur brought weavers from Damascus, gun smiths from Turkey, as well as glassmakers and armorers that were found in other locations [[14]]. Additionally, the fertile soil in the areas surrounding the city helped farmers to harvest wheat, wine, fruit, and cotton. The price of goods was then controlled to prevent inflation from rising too high. Clavijo mentions that the price of a pair of sheep would normally cost a “ducat,” which is equivalent to about six shillings. A person in Samarkand could also pay a “half a real,” equivalent to about three pence, for a bushel and a half of barley [[15]].

Aside from the strong economy and ethnic tolerance in the city, Samarkand is also known for its beauty. On his trip, Clavijo noted that Samarkand was larger than Seville and also noticed surrounding suburbs, orchards, and vineyards outside of the city. It is noted that the “most noble and beautiful houses” are also located among the vineyards, gardens, and farmlands [[16]]. Inside the city, Samarkand also possessed beautiful buildings. Historian Xinru Liu of the College of New Jersey writes that the city’s close proximity to the Silk Roads and the cultural influences from within caused Samarkand to have several different cultural buildings erected from within. For example, Liu mentions that Islamic scholars traveled along the Silk Roads and, eventually, Islamic architectural building and centers sprang up throughout the city [[17]].

Initially, the city of Samarkand was established as a military garrison by the Arabs after defeating the Turks in 712 [[18]]. Overtime, the city became prosperous and a large trading hub where people from across the world could trade for exclusive items. How did the city of Samarkand become such an influential power at this time? Some, including Christopher I. Beckwith, and Clavijo, argue that the rule of Tamerlane is what expanded the city’s influence, wealth, and power. However, it is more plausible that the presence of the Silk Roads and the city’s multi-ethnic identity is what made it great. Today, Samarkand still remains a prosperous city of trade with multi-ethnic identity [[19]].

Bibliography

• Beckwith, Christopher I. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of the Bronze Age to the Present (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009).
• de Clavijo, Ruiz Gonzales. “Clavijo’s Embassy to Tamerlane.” University of Washington, http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/clavijo/cltxt1.html (accessed April 26, 2017).
• Flecker, James Elroy. “The Golden Road to Samarkand.” AllPoetry.com, https://allpoetry.com/The-Golden-Road-to-Samarkand (accessed April 24, 2017).
• Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road: A New History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
• Liu, Xinru. The Silk Road in World History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
• Marozzi, Justin. Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World (Cambridge: Da Capo  Press, 2004).

Footnotes

[1] James Elroy Flecker, “The Golden Road to Samarkand,” AllPoetry.com, https://allpoetry.com/The-Golden-Road-to-Samarkand (accessed April 24, 2017).

[2] Christopher I. Beckwith, Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009), 203.

[3] Justin Marozzi, Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World (Cambridge: Da Capo Press, 2004), 28.

[4] Ibid, 30, 40-48.

[5] According to Justin Marozzi, Timur and Amir Husayn, formed an alliance via a marriage between Timur and Aljai Turkhan-agha, who was Husayn’s sister. The two men went undercover as missionaries when Timur decided that he did not want to submit to Moghul rule. It was even during this time as a missionary that Timur most like injured his leg, which never healed, giving him the nickname “Timur the Lame.” In 1365, the partnership ended when Husayn left Timur on the battlefield after resentment tore the two allies apart. They eventually worked together once more in the battle for Samarkand, but while ruling the city, the alliance once more became strained due to differences in political policies and beliefs. Husayn, reportedly, began to tax Timur and his followers because the two leaders had opposing styles of leadership. The alliance between the two officially ended when Aljai, Timur’s wife and Husayn’s sister, died. In 1370, Timur, backed by the government in Bukhara marched with his followers on Balkh to conquer Husayn’s city. Husayn was captured by one of Timur’s men and reportedly tried to bribe the guard with pearls. He was eventually brought before Timur, surrendered, and then executed.

[6] Ibid, 40.

[7] Beckwith, 197-200.

[8] Beckwith, 198.

[9] Valerie Hansen, The Silk Road: A New History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 117, 120.

[10] Ruiz Gonzales de Clavijo, “Clavijo’s Embassy to Tamerlane,” University of Washington, http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/clavijo/cltxt1.html (accessed April 26, 2017).

[11] Hansen, 5.

[12] Ibid, 4.

[13] Ibid, 126-127.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Clavijo’s Embassy to Tamerlane.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Xinru Liu, The Silk Road in World History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 106-107.

[18] Beckwith, 133.

[19] Liu, 66-67.

Scrap paper loves me.

I spent my college years in a state after the Soviet Union collapsed where finding a pencil, notebook, or even just a sheet of paper was hard because of the economy. Students were blessed if their parents managed to buy school supplies such as these. But ever since becoming close friends with scrap paper, scrap paper has loved me.

Any time I come across a piece of scrap paper, I know this paper is so precious and not easy to find. I collect it and put it in my folder to save for another day; therefore, scrap paper loves me.

I use every inch of both sides of the paper to solve math problems; therefore, scrap paper loves me.

I recycle scrap paper to bring it back to life in different forms. I believe if scrap paper is alive, it can see me and love me.

Ever since I have become a teacher, I have been teaching my students how and why we value and save scrap paper. Once, my students made kites with blank sheets of paper, and once they drew pictures, pouring their hearts out on scrap paper. I recommend my students use scrap paper and let them feel free to express themselves to paper; therefore, scrap paper loves me.

Many years later, I moved to the United States to live in a place where wasting pencils, notebooks, and paper is common.

I was afraid that scrap paper would hate me if I did nothing to protect it.

I value my friendship with scrap paper, and believe I can make scrap paper love me again. I collect scrap paper and talk to scrap paper for many reasons – solving math problems, making kites for children, drawing pictures, and revealing my innermost thoughts; therefore, scrap paper is starting to love me again.

I took one more action to rebuild my friendship with scrap paper: I made a notebook with a bunch of scrap papers and used them often; therefore, scrap paper is starting to love me again.

Now, I make so many scrap paper notebooks to share with others – from my kids and students to friends; therefore, scrap paper loves me again.

People are amazed and ask me how they can become friends with scrap paper, too. Now, scrap paper has more friends; therefore, scrap paper loves me.

Even when many years pass, scrap paper will still love me because I made it friends with many more people. Scrap paper is not alone anymore.

I am proud to say that I set scrap paper free. I made scrap paper feel at peace with you and me. Scrap paper keeps me free to believe, too. Without scrap paper, I could not share what’s inside of me. My heart would be bottled up inside, but scrap paper gives me a place to express thoughts. Scrap paper gives me a place to feel free. I love scrap paper, and I know that scrap paper loves me.

For the many other people in the world who are afraid to express themselves on scrap paper, scrap paper can make you feel free too. Building a relationship with scrap paper is one of the best things you can do. Pour your heart out to scrap paper, and scrap paper will love you just like scrap paper loves me. If you and I are there to save scrap paper, scrap paper will also be there to save you and I.

Dreams are some of the most odd, and sometimes most uncomfortable, experiences for us. They can sometimes also be so realistic that we do not even know if we are awake or still dreaming. One can feel the same after a false awakening, where one dreams of having been awakened. In a false awakening, the room in which a person becomes awake is commonly similar to the room in which he fell asleep. This feeling may end with a sign during a dream and then it suddenly dawns on the person that he is experiencing a dream instead of reality. This is called lucid dreaming, which can be described as being aware that you are dreaming and are in control of your dreams. A person can also enter the dream state while he is conscious and can control the dream. Before exploring the endless possibilities of lucid dreaming, we will start with the physical nature of dreams. The spiritual nature and interpretation of dreams from a metaphysical standpoint are discussed in previous articles [1-4] of The Fountain Magazine.

Dreaming is a state of consciousness in which one can experience anything imaginable [5]. What you can do or experience in dreams is usually not limited to physical boundaries. We walk, run, fly, and even pass through walls. We see many symbols that may represent multiple meanings. Dreams can relate to the past, present, and the future of a person. They can help us to remember our pasts, understand the present, and shed light upon the future. Dreaming is an interesting part of our lives and the contents of our dreams are usually fed from our daily experiences.

Dreams are defined as a succession of thoughts, images, sounds, or emotions which the mind experiences during sleep [6]. It is also described differently in many areas: physiologically as a response to neural processes during sleep; psychologically as reflections of the subconscious; and spiritually as messages from God, the deceased, or predictions of the future [7]. Dreaming is not only unique to humans. Studies show that some animals, and even plants, have high brain activity while they sleep which could mean that they dream. However, remembering dreams is unique to humans. It enables communication with the inner mind, helps self-knowledge, and advances an individual and society [8].

Dreams are also an important source of inspirations in history. We know many examples of inventions that were inspired by, and problems that were solved with, the help of dreams. Niels Bohr, famous Danish physicist, got the Nobel Prize in physics in 1922 due to a dream that enlightened him to figure out the structure of an atom. George Frideric Handel, German-English Baroque composer, heard the last pieces of his most popular work, The Messiah, in a dream he had. Elias Howe was inspired with a dream for his famous needle design that was required for a lock-stitch sewing machine. Famous chemist, Friedreick Kekule’s (1829–1896) dream helped him to make one of the amazing discoveries of his time [9], the discovery of benzene ring. After spending so much time on scientific problems, they become a part of their subconscious and feed their dreams.

There are mental blocks that prevent us from thinking creatively such as “a problem can’t be solved by using a specific method” or “a scientific approach against our current understanding of the theory”. Ray Kurzweil, one of the world’s leading inventors, thinks that these assumptions and limitations are relaxed in our dream state and so we can think about new ways of solving problems without limiting ourselves with these constraints [10]. Also, during dreaming our rational faculties are not evaluating whether an idea is reasonable or not, which helps us to think outside-of-the-box and produce creative solutions. Another constraint with these scientific problems is time. Repetitive experiments take quite some time with many unfruitful results. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the practical electric light bulb, literally tested thousands of different substances as filaments that would work in his experiments. Dreams can provide an opportunity to rapidly work on time consuming problems within a relatively short time span.

A common misconception regarding dreams is that we experience hours’ worth of events and activities  in a matter of seconds. Despite this common belief about the expansion of time in dreams, they seem to flow at the same rate as time does in the real world [11]. Five minutes of activity in our dreams probably would take about five minutes in our daily life. In that case, how can we explain that some of our dreams seem to last hours, days or even longer? The answer to this perception of time seems to be that dreams are cinematic. Movies generally cover a longer time period than the two hours that we spent in front of the screen. Just like these movies, we concentrate on the interesting parts of the dreams and leave out the rest. If you are trying to solve a scientific problem in your dream, wouldn’t it be nice to skip all the repetitive, unproductive, and time-consuming parts such as planning, research, experiment design, decision making, and analysis of the results?

All of these advantages of dreams for solving problems requires being awake and even in control of your dreams as is the case with lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is not a new term, as it was coined by the Dutch psychiatrist and writer Frederik van Eeden (1860–1932). The existence of lucid dreaming is well established and has been researched scientifically [12]. During a lucid dream, a person can actively be in control and change experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can start as a normal dream when the person realizes that he or she is dreaming (DILD, Dream-Initiated Lucid Dream), or a person can go from a normal state to dream state while preserving the consciousness (WILD, Wake Induced Lucid Dream). There are many techniques to induce lucid dreaming such as dream-recall, reality testing, identifying dream-signs, mnemonic induction, and napping.  Many people experience lucid dreaming, but it is a skill one can develop. With proper training and exercise, one can increase lucid dreaming frequency from once per month to once per night.

A common method to determine if you are in a dream is called reality testing. The test simply includes performing an action and checking whether the expected results are consistent with real life. An unexpected result of the test lets the person realize that they are in a dream. When the person is lucid and aware in a dream, then he can exercise control and practice basic tasks, even the actions that contradict with known physical rules. A new world opens its doors to endless possibilities where all the actions are bound only with imagination. Flying, jumping from a plane without a parachute and landing safely, walking on water, teleportation between distant locations, transforming scenes, and telekinesis would be your everyday activities. You may feel how limiting our daily life is and that you are meant to live in a world where you can use your unlimited imagination.

An obvious benefit of lucid dreaming is being the basis of the most effective therapy for nightmares [13]. If you are aware that you are dreaming then there is no need to fear anything, including even the most horrifying monsters, because nothing can cause you physical harm. This may encourage you to face the threat rather than avoiding it. Lucid dreams feel extremely realistic and it is not easy to differentiate from real life. Many people use lucid dreaming for rehearsals. It can be used to improve public speaking, artistic performance, athletic activities, and courage for competitions. Realistic features of lucid dreaming can be used to fulfill one’s longing for his loved ones, relatives living abroad, or even for ones passed away. Lucid dreaming can be used as a meeting place for the ones living apart and do not have a chance to meet regularly. This will be a virtual meeting not only in the sense of telepresence but also the ones you meet will be a construct of your brain.

The brain is highly active during dreaming and not constrained by physical senses. This contributes to creative thinking and novel combinations of events and objects in our dreams. When combined with the cinematic behavior of dreams, lucid dreams can provide a platform for creative thinking and ideas for scientific issues by skipping the repetitive and time-consuming steps. There are other ways to use lucid dreaming for educational purposes. A quickly scanned book can be recalled from memory and read thoroughly. One can practice memorization of scriptures or even dictionaries. It can be used for learning and practicing a foreign language and all other repetitive learning processes.

Another area of application for lucid dreaming is healing. Patients can use dreams to enhance waking performance, improve physical health, alleviate and soothe pain, overcome phobias, achieve self-confidence, practice physical skills, recover neuromuscular functions, recover from injuries, and an increased sense of freedom for the disabled. Our last example but maybe the most exciting application area of lucid dreaming is entertainment. The movies and computer games cannot provide the experience as realistic as you can get in your dreams including even movies with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars and the latest projection technologies. You can create your own big budget movie and be the main actor in your lucid dream. How would you design your new Jurassic Park or Matrix movie?

The realistic experience in dreams leads us to the question, “If this is not real, what is?” What if the world we think and live in is another construct and that we are waiting to wake up into another “real” world? We need to look beyond our daily lives and question the nature of reality and our purpose in this life. Are we living in this world to be a small actor in a dream or to take back the control and get ready to wake up into the “real” world? Maybe it is time for a reality check…

Acknowledgment: This article was produced by using MERGEOUS [14], an online article and project development platform for authors and publishers dedicated to the advancement of technologies in the merging realm of science and religion.

References

1. John Young, “Interpreting Dreams,” The Fountain, Issue 29, January–March, 2000.
2. John Young, “Dreams: A Spiritual Approach Part II,” The Fountain, Issue 30, April–June, 2000.
3. Muhammed Toprak, “A Historical Review of Dreams,” The Fountain, Issue 65, September–October, 2008.
4. Stephen LaBerge, “Lucidity Research, Past and Future”,
5. http://www.lucidity.com/NL53.ResearchPastFuture.html
6. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. 2000. Retrieved 2009-05-07.
7. Wikipedia, “Dream”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream
8. School of Metaphysics, “The Intuitive Nature of our Dreams”, Retrieved 2010-06-05.
9. Halil I. Demir, “Forbidden Inspirations”, Mergeous Pre-print Articles.
10. http://www.mergeous.com/articlepreprintins.asp?aid=57&type=fulltext
11. Association for Computing Machinery, “Singularity: Ubiquity Interviews – Ray Kurzweil”.
12. Daniel Erlacher and Michael Schredl, “Time required for motor activity in lucid dreams”, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2004. 99, 1239-1242.
13. Watanabe Tsuneo, “Lucid Dreaming: Its Experimental Proof and Psychological Conditions”. Journal of International Society of Life Information Science (Japan), 2003. 21 (1): 159–162.
14. The Lucidity Institute, “Frequently asked questions about lucid dreaming”, Version 2.3, July 16, 2004.
15. Mergeous, online article and project development platform. http://www.mergeous.com

The foot is a limb that is not given much importance when compared to other vital organs such as the brain or heart. However, the foot is a very complex mechanical structure that is made of 26 bones, 33 joints, and more than 100 muscles and ligaments. About a quarter of the bones in the human body and about a fifth of the joints are found in our two feet. That is why Leonardo da Vinci described the human foot as an engineering and artistic masterpiece.

A healthy person takes about 5,000 steps a day. Given a life of eighty years, a person takes about 150 million steps throughout their life. Assuming that each step is 75 cm, a person walks about 110,000 kilometers throughout his life. This corresponds to walking around the equator about 3 times. Apart from that, a typical person stands for around 2-4 hours a day. During all these activities, the human foot carries the entire body’s weight. In standing position, body weight is supported by two feet while activities such as walking and running are done by only one foot for a certain period of time. While standing, the feet carry 100% of their body weight, while walking, this rate rises up to 150%. While walking, the foot that needs to be lifted from the ground approaches the ground again with an acceleration in the same direction as gravity. Therefore, the impact force at the moment the foot touches the ground corresponds to 150% of a person’s body weight. In cases of severe effects such as running and jumping, this force easily increases up to 5 times the body weight and up to 10 times in some people. For a person weighing 70 kilograms, this force can be 105 kg (or about 1050 Newton) in walking, and easily 350 kg (or about 3500 Newton) in running or jumping. Assuming that a person walking for an hour takes 5,000 steps, the foot pulls a total of about 500 tons of load (5,000 steps x 105 kg). In running, this figure will increase approximately three times.

The foot has been created with a wonderful mechanical and construction design that is able to consistently sustain such high loads. The bones and muscles of the foot add two different belt designs to it. One of them, the structure called the longitudinal belt starts from the heel bone (calcaneus) and ends with its metatarsal bones (Figure 1). Some researchers claim that the long arch is divided into two parts as the inner (medial arch) and the outer arch (lateral arch). However, both structures resemble bridges built in arches. The second arch on the foot is called the transverse arch. This belt is perpendicular to the long belt from the right side of the foot to the left side and is shorter in length (Figure 2).

Therefore, the foot is a marvelous structure consisting of roughly two arches. This structure of the foot can be compared to arch bridges or a dam. The arch structure is known as the strongest structure against steep loads in construction areas due to the robustness of the designs against compression forces in cases of vertical loading. Therefore, hydroelectric dams are constructed in the form of arches or arcs in order to make the most resistant model against hydrostatic pressure.

The arch structure of the foot is very flexible and can also move up and down like a car suspension and acts as a shock absorption. If there was no such structure on the foot, the impact forces during walking and running activities would be higher and cause chronic foot pain. The flatfoot complication is a result of a damage in the arch structure in the foot which comes from birth or develops afterwards. Flatfoot patients are often unable to perform long-term activities and experience foot pain as well as complications in other organs of the body.

Our feet’s arch structure is not the only factor involved in shock absorption that is designed against mechanical forces. The layer of fat on the bottom of the foot also contributes to this process. In a healthy person, this fat layer, which has a height of 2.5 cm under the heel, drops to 5-7 mm in the front part of the foot. It also helps to distribute the vertical and horizontal forces caused by standing or walking evenly on the sole of the foot. At the same time, it serves as a source of heat insulation and helps protect our feet from hot or cold surfaces. In some diseases such as diabetes, in which this fat layer melts or decreases, wounds called foot ulcers can develop because the shock absorption and load distribution get damaged. Mechanical pressure is calculated by dividing the amount of mechanical force by the surface area on which it is applied, meaning that smaller surfaces areas are subjected to more pressure. This is why very tiny needles, despite weighing almost nothing, can pierce our skin and cause pain. Similarly, damage to the fat layer under the foot causes the forces applied under the foot to act on a limited surface area. For example, the reduction of fat in the area just below the heads of the metatarsal bones reduces the “cushioning” effect in this area and causes a pressure in high values. This extra pressure can cause tissue damage along with the aforementioned foot ulcers.

Such a situation that will cause pain in a normal person cannot be felt by many diabetics. If diabetes is not well controlled, neuropathy or a “lack of feeling” may occur as a complication. Dead nerve cells become unable to feel pain which can result in people not knowing about harm that is being done to their body. Diabetic patients who develop neuropathy would not feel fatty layer damage and accompanying high pressure values whereas a typical person normally would. Untreated foot ulcers can become infected and can turn into gangrene. Since the gangrenous foot has to be cut, diabetes unfortunately causes a large number of amputations. Such amputations are sadly quite frequent throughout the world due to diabetic neuropathy. Dr. Paul Brand, who studied diabetic foot ulcers, defined pain as a gift from God that no one wanted. Sometimes, what we do not like might be better for us (Qur’an 2:216); likewise, pain can cause a lot of trouble to people but it can also alert us of dangers and harm to our bodies.

Thus, foot care is very important in diabetics. The following three actions are recommended to patients; daily inspection of the foot; daily washing; and control of the inside of the shoes. The pest, pebble, or similar hard object in the shoe that can be very harmful for diabetics with loss of sensation would be removed this way. On the other hand, when such a hard object remains in the shoes, patients may step on them repeatedly without feeling it which will likely lead to an ulcer case.

With its pain that works like a health alarm, extraordinary mechanical loads it carries, heat insulation and shock absorbing features, the human foot is a wonder of art that calls for contemplation.

Truffles are potato-shaped underground mushrooms that grow in all kinds of different environments ranging from high-rise forests of pine, oak, linden, fir and wild hazelnut to scrubs, under bushes, and in steppes and deserts. They maintain a symbiotic relationship by attaching to the roots of certain herbaceous plants and have a unique aroma with a sharp odor. Some cultures nickname truffles as bingos or buckthorns. There is also the belief that the mushrooms sprout faster under lightning or thunder thus earning them the nickname “daughters of thunder.”

Symbiotic association between truffles and plants

Nature thrives in a harmony that is based upon assistance and solidarity. Truffles have a special place in this harmony. For example, as plant seeds germinate and begin to grow into roots, the hyphae of truffles wrap around the plant roots, just like a glove does around fingers, and help the emergence of a special structure called “mycorrhiza” which facilitates food exchange between truffles and plants. Approximately 90% of plants coexist with different types of mushrooms, and some plants even need truffles to survive. Unable to photosynthesize, truffles need plants for organic nutrients, and plants need truffles, especially for the intake of more water and minerals from barren and arid soil.

It is estimated that the mushroom hyphae can be as long as 1 km in the forest soil is estimated to be more than 1 km. Truffles help to increase the contact surface of the tree roots with the soil hundreds of times while ingesting the water and minerals from remote areas where plant roots cannot reach. In this way, as soon as a drop of rain falls on the soil, it is relayed to the benefit of plants with hyphae that are invisibly thin and kilometers long. If this partnership did not exist between truffles and plants then the giant trees that we see in forests would not be able to grow tall enough and would possibly remain as bushes due to a lack of water and minerals from the soil.

Truffles and wildlife

A similar relationship exists between truffles and animals in the forest. Since they are generally active at night and cannot benefit from sunlight sufficiently, wild animals meet their vitamin D needs especially from truffles, an important food source. Recent studies show that some wild animal species survive solely on truffles. A large number of mice, squirrels, bears, deer, rabbits, hedgehogs, and bird species in the US eat truffles along with some monkeys, kangaroos, and bird species in Australia.

While the toadstools in the open can spread their billions of spores to the environment, the spores of underground mushrooms remain confined in their tissues. It is thanks to animals that can spot and extract the mushrooms that these spores spread from their tissues into the rest of the environment. Wild animals can locate, dig up, and eat underground truffles due to the strong and attractive aroma of the mushrooms. On the other hand, the spores that are expelled from the animals’ digestive systems lead to the production of fresh hyphae to partner with new plants via germination. This allows underground mushrooms to have the opportunity to sustain their generation and expand their natural habitat.

The conservation of animal species that face extinction also depends on the preservation of the variety of truffle species. From this point of view, truffles in the natural habitats are the sustenance of wild animals. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (d. 1960), a renown Turkish religious scholar, said: “Our share is in vineyards and gardens. God Almighty allocated our sustenance there. These wild fruits are the sustenance for the wild animals. We should not touch their portion.” It is also known that Bediuzzaman discouraged his students who came across plenty of apple and pear trees on the mountains from eating those fruits. This approach also sums up a guiding insight about sustainable forestry and ecosystem.

Nutritional value and medical benefits

Truffles are richer in protein and minerals than other mushrooms. Their nutritional value consists of 53-76% water, 9% protein, 7% carbohydrates, and 8% minerals. Although they have high nutritional value, the most important feature making truffles superior to other mushrooms is their distinctive aromatic compounds. Due to their unique aroma, truffles attract the attention of many gourmets. It is no surprise that truffles have an exceptional place in exclusive cuisines.

Since ancient times, the medical benefits of truffles have been frequently reported. For example, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) is known to have recommended truffles for healing weakness, nausea, pain, and wounds.

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, “Truffle is a sustenance like manna. Its sap is also a cure for the eyes.”

The belief in the nutritional value of truffles is also common in the Christian world. Between 827 and 844, Pope Gregory IV had advised the consumption of truffles to gain strength in battles.

Current studies have found that truffles contain several compounds that are essential for human health. A study published in 2016 is an important step for chronicling the fact that the extract obtained from truffle mushrooms proved to be useful in healing eye infections.

Economic value

The number of commercial-value truffles collected from natural habitats constantly decreases worldwide: it has dropped from 2000 tons in 1884 to 100 tons in 1990. Today, it is around 40 tons. The main factors of this decline are the destruction of oak forests, climate change, environmental pollution, global warming, and uncontrolled picking.

Despite the dramatic decrease in the number of truffles collected from natural habitats, they are sold between $250 and $4,000 per kilo depending on the type and quality.

Growing truffles

Under current conditions, truffles have to be grown by special means. People must grow the types of truffles that they wish to consume.

The first idea for the production of truffles came from a French farmer named Joseph Talon. At the beginning of the 19th century, Talon planted fresh seeds in the oak patches where truffles grew naturally. The existing truffle hyphae in the soil infiltrated the roots of new oak saplings and led to an increase in the production of truffles in the natural habitat. In the following years, Talon created new truffle production areas by planting the saplings he had already produced in other patches. Talon’s method is still used today.

In the 1960s, a period when there was a great decrease in the production of truffles in natural habitats, studies were conducted to find new methods. The methods developed by French and Italian scientists in the 1970s led to a massive success in truffle production. Truffle spores were inoculated at the root of oak saplings and plants were grown in greenhouses to develop only the desired truffle mycorrhizal system in tree roots. Having ensured that mycorrhiza had settled in the roots, the first truffle began to be harvested four or five years after planting the oak saplings in open areas. These methods have allowed truffle production in countries such as Australia, the USA, and New Zealand where truffles are not grown naturally.

Commercial truffle types

It is estimated that there are about 10,000 different types of truffles in the world with different sizes, colors, structures, and aromas. These mushrooms, which are now listed in restaurant menus and stocked on the shelves of luxury food suppliers, are only some of the truffles numbered in thousands.

Some of the commercial types are listed below:

Tuber magnatum: Known as the white truffle of Italy, it grows in the Alba region as attached on the roots of oak, hornbeam, pine and poplar trees. It is different from all species by its peculiarly pungent aroma. It is known as the most expensive food in the world because it grows in a very limited area and cannot be grown as a cultivated mushroom.

Tuber melanosporum: Known as the winter black truffle, it grows during winter by attaching to the roots of oak, hazelnut, and pine trees in Italy, France, Spain, and the Balkans. It has a distinctive aroma and has a wider growth area as compared to the white truffle. It is the most cultivated type of truffle in different continents of the world.

Tuber aestivum: Known as the summer black truffle, it grows by attaching to the roots of oak, nut, and pine trees in a wide geography spanning from Portugal to Azerbaijan, Morocco to Poland, and Sweden to Afghanistan. It bears lower economic value because it is widely grown and has an easily extracted culture and a lower-density aroma.

Terfezia claveryi: It grows in the spring across steppes and deserts by attaching onto the roots of herbaceous plant species belonging to the genus Helianthemum. It has a unique aroma and has a huge market in the Arab countries. Its culture has started to be extracted in recent years.

Oregon truffle: It grows in winter as attached on the roots of fir trees in Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver. It has white and black types. It has an important market in the U.S despite not being as valuable as the black and white species found in Europe. No results have been obtained from cultural studies yet.

Harvest of truffle

Picking truffles is like picking apples from a tree with the difference that truffles are collected from the root of the tree. It is difficult to understand whether the truffle underground has ripened or not. If the extracted truffle is not ripe enough then its economic value immediately suffers. That is why special dogs are bred to locate truffles. Sensitive to the truffle aroma, these dogs lead their owners by simply pointing out to the places where ripe truffles are found. These dogs are motivated by rewards and are encouraged with better rewards for finding higher quality, larger, and more ripe truffles.

References

• Alhussaini S.M., Saadabi A.M., Hashim K., Al-Ghanayem A.A. (2016). Efficacy of the Desert Truffle Terfezia claveryi to Cure Trachoma Disease with Special Emphasis on Its Antibacterial Bioactivity, Trends in Medical Research, doi: 10.3923/tmr.2016.28.342016, Volume: 11, Issue: 1, pp. 28–34.
• Bukhari, 5708; Muslim, 2049; Abu Dawood, Tibb, 12; Ibn Majah, Tibb, 8.
• Hall I.R., Brown G., Zambonelli A. (2008). Taming the Truffle: The History, Lore, and Science of the Ultimate Mushroom, Timber Press.
• Sahiner Necmeddin, Son Sahitler, Istanbul: Nesil Yayinlari, 2011, Volume 1, pp. 113.
• Trappe M, Claridge AW (2010). “The Hidden Life of Truffles”. Scientific American. April 2010: 78–84.
• Wedén C. (2008). Tryffel. Infotain &Infobooks Sweden AB, Stockholm.

Self-concealment means that the perfected servants of God who attribute to God whatever good or virtues that they may have, try to be known as ordinary people by constantly keeping secret the special blessings and extraordinary attainments with which the Eternally All-Generous favors them, as well as the blessed times when they come. But such an attitude is by no means false pretense or deception. It is usually felt during the tides between seeing everything annihilated in God and distinguishing the Existence of the Truly Existent One and the relative existence of others. Those who are seeking self-concealment are in constant pursuit of sincerity and frequently question themselves to ensure that they are really preserving their devotion and loyalty to God. They do their best to keep God’s special favors to them that come in different forms as sacred secrets between themselves and their Bestower, out of respect for Him, and they consider whatever comes from Him as a secret gift. Whatever good or blessing has been attributed to them, they always draw attention back to the Almighty and, if there is not anything to make them absolutely obliged to display their blessings, they will always try to find ways to conceal them, as in the allusions of Prophet Abraham, who said, I am sick (37:89) when he was invited to the religious festival of his people, and, Rather, (some doer) must have done it—that is their biggest (21:63), when he was asked whether he had smashed the idols [1]. They shy away from becoming a person who is sought after in the same way as others shy away from snakes and other vermin.

Perfected persons of self-concealment are extremely careful not to display any inward riches and spiritual profundity. Even if they should sometimes feel they are really profound in spirituality, they try to persuade themselves of their essential insignificance. However, in trying to impress on others that they do not have any extraordinary virtues, they avoid causing Islam to be criticized for being a religion that brings dishonor and ignominy to its followers. Without saying or doing anything to suggest that they have been specially favored by God, they are always deeply devoted and loyal to Him. They regard attributing to themselves whatever good or spiritual attainment that others may discern in them as usurpation. Even if at times they are in the center of the Divine favors, they always act with good manners and modesty, saying to themselves: “You are neither the source nor the owner of these favors. These gifts which sometimes appear to you and then disappear can in no wise belong to you. As you can clearly see that it is not you who has brought them about, nor is it you who takes them away, you must see that you cannot own them. Your position with respect to them is that you are essentially a dark mirror; therefore you must attribute these gifts to the Eternally All-Generous and draw attention to Him.” When Divine gifts and favors do not come in abundance, they think: “You must conceal the Divine secrets and His treatment of you. You must be able to do so in order that His transactions with you may continue, and so that these gifts, which are beyond your capacity, may not lead you to gradually perish because you think that you own them.” Such people are quite ordinary among people; they are extremely careful to keep their inner world pure and they are very sincere in their exclusive devotion to God and attributing to Him whatever virtue they have.

Heroes of self-concealment follow a secure way to verification and always pursue God’s approval and good pleasure. They never think of others’ approval or appreciation and they expect nothing from others. They try to make their feelings and devotion deeper and to rise higher and higher without stopping; they are in a state of continuous self-supervision. They always control themselves so that they can be with God even while mixing with other people. They try to direct others to the way of the light, which is the way of knowledge and love of God and a source of spiritual pleasures, although those pleasures should not be sought. They show the way to Paradise to those who linger at the crossroads between Paradise and Hell, and they try to inculcate lofty ideals in the hearts of those who are living aimlessly. They can establish good relations with all, be they from any segment of society, without any difficulty or ceremony.

Heroes of self-concealment are always in self-negation and self-denial and try to attract the attention to the Almighty in everything they do. But some scholars, like Harawi [2] and Ibn Qayyim [3], went to extremes in evaluating this virtue; the former asserted that it is the Almighty, not the servant, Who conceals His servant from others, while the latter denied this state altogether. For this reason, I would like to remind the reader once more that self-concealment denotes that travelers to the Ultimate Truth, who have attained spiritual purity by carefully performing their obligatory religious duties, have become deeper in their attachment to supererogatory acts of worship in order to be favored with God’s company and have become polished mirrors reflecting His manifestations of Majesty and Grace. The All- Generous becomes the eyes and ears of His servants who have reached this point; they see and hear with Him, and He never leaves them to suffer loneliness and helplessness without anyone to claim them. By means of the criteria which He inspires in them so that they view life, things and events appropriately, He causes them to reach the best results in both this world and the Hereafter. He causes them to see things that others cannot see and to hear things that others cannot hear, and he employs them to carry out His will in the human realm and to convey to people the things which He is pleased with and the things He wills others to do.

The Qur’anic statements, When you threw, it was not you who threw, but God threw (8:17), and Those who swear allegiance to you (O Muhammad), swear allegiance only to God. God’s Hand (of aid) is over their hands (48:10), refer to this point, in that those who have reached this rank are absolutely convinced of Divine Unity, but sometimes they see everything annihilated in God and sometimes they are able to distinguish the absolute (Divine) Existence and the relative existence (of other beings) from each other. Although the rank indicated by the verses belongs primarily to the Prophets, who are the purest of all and incomparably superior in self-concealment, as in all other virtues, other heroes of self-concealment have a share in it. However, the self-concealment experienced by travelers on the way to God is concerned with the Divine Attributes, not the Divine Being, and the unchangeable rules of the Shari‘a determine its limits and nature. The throwing and hitting, seeing and speaking, and exalting by participating in allegiance, which are mentioned in the verses just cited, signify that the Ultimate Truth manifests His Attributes of Majesty and Perfection, not His Divine Being, on the chosen, matchless being, upon him be peace and blessings.

This consideration is expressed in the following words of Jalalu’d-Din Rumi, although they also suggest to some extent annihilation in God and subsistence by Him:

Noah said: O people leading rebellion to God, I am not myself;
I am dead with respect to my soul, but alive to the Beloved.
I died and was annihilated with respect to some senses of Adam, the father of humanity,
And the Ultimate Truth has become (a means of) hearing, seeing and perceiving for me.

From the very beginning, the people of truth have stressed that existence arises from self-annihilation and that the assertion of self-existence ends in annihilation. The best and most appropriate approach in this respect is that travelers to the Ultimate Truth annihilate themselves with respect to their carnal souls and ego and that they find a new life in spirit and heart.

Our Lord, do not let our hearts swerve after You have guided us, and bestow upon us mercy from Your Presence. Surely You, only You, are the (Munificent) Bestower. And bestow blessings and peace on our master Muhammad and on his Family and Companions to the fullness of the earth and heavens.

Notes

1. “Rather, (some doer) must have done it—that is their biggest,” in a manner to cause the people to understand that the biggest one had done it, although he did not say so. (Tr.)
2. Abu Ismail ‘Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Harawi (1005–1089) was born in Herat in Afghanistan. He was a Hanbali devoted to the Qur’an and Sunna. He was also well-versed in Sufism. Kitabu Manazili’s-Sairin is his most well-known work on Sufism. (Tr.)
3. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya Shamsu’d-Din ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr (1292–1350) is the most famous pupil of Ibn Taymiya (1292–1350), one of Islam’s strictest religious scholars. He lived in Damascus. He followed the Hanbali School in Islam. Kitabu Fawaidi’l-Musawwiqa ila ‘Ulumi’l-Qur’an wa ‘Ilmi’l-Bayan is among his well-known books. (Tr.)

As far as the origin of language is concerned, Abrahamic traditions agree on the fact that language is a gift of God to humanity. To exemplify, the Holy Bible in Genesis 2:20 (King James’ Version) states that: “[20] And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” Identically, the Holy Qur’an in Surah Al-Baqara (The Cow) voices the following verse: “And He taught Adam the names of all things; then He placed them before the angels, and said: ‘Tell me the names of these if ye are right’?” Both of these divine expressions indicate clearly that mankind was created from the beginning with an innate capacity to use language. Therefore, a theist from any level of society does not have any doubts about the origin of human language; for him the explanation is both simple and persuasive.

However, for those who do not subscribe to such a faith tradition, it is rather nerve-racking to come up with a unanimous answer as to the emergence of language since there are so many competing and contradictory theories and hypotheses. Efforts to explain the origins of language usually sound dubious and are collected under two main hypotheses in linguistics that are based upon human invention and necessity. According to the “pooh-pooh hypothesis,” the first words originated from involuntary exclamations expressing a human’s pleasure, dislike, pain, hunger and so on, which later on led to the expression of more complicated feelings and ideas. Given this, the first human words would have been involuntary “Aa!”  “ouch,” “ha-ha-ha,” etc., which were used to name the actions that resulted in these sounds. Yet, the problem with this thesis is that emotional exclamations not only constitute only a small part of any human language but also that they are highly language specific. Apart from sneezes, tears, and laughter, exclamations show variations among languages. For instance, English people say “ouch,” Russians “ol,” and native Indians “eee” to indicate sudden ache or discomfort. That is, their forms mostly hinge on a specific language that already exists rather than preceding language.

The second is Charles Darwin’s own “ta-ta hypothesis” (which he himself finds rather erroneous) about the origin of language. For him, human speech might have come from a kind of mouth pantomime according to which speech organs were used to imitate different forms of hand signs. That is to say, human language originated from body movements which were soon imitated by speech organs; therefore the first-ever words used to be lip icons of hand movements. However, here again we notice inconsistency because the meaning of human gestures vary from culture to culture, such as the “thumbs-up/thumbs-down” once used by Romans to decide upon the life of a defeated gladiator. While for Western people the “thumps-up” gesture implies a positive remark expressing mainly a task well done, it surprisingly has negative implications in Greece, Russia, Italy, Latin America and West Africa where it instead stands for the middle finger.

These are only two amid various other inconsistent hypotheses (which include the “ding-dong”, “bow-wow”, warning, “yo-he-ho”, and lying hypothesis) offered as an explanation for the origin of language. What is interesting is that in the late 19th century, the Linguistic Society in London and Paris forbade any commentary and debate on the emergence of human language for valuable time was wasted to find a sane thesis.

This reminds me of letters from the Islamic scholar Said Nursi in which he states that just showing the evidence is sufficient to prove the presence of anything; otherwise you have to inquire of the entire world so as to show its non-presence. In Islamic law, two witnesses are enough to resolve any skeptical case; this may be a lawsuit, a dispute, doubt or disagreement between people. For example, if two people testify that they have seen the crescent, which is the harbinger of the holy month Ramadan in Islam, there is no need to ask other people for verification of the same sight. Even if thousands of people oppose the sighting, it is worthless and does not change the truth. Perhaps, what Abrahamic traditions are teaching us on language is the only source to verify its origin.