Climate change is the main cause of fires

Zhuang et al. Quantifying contributions of natural variability and anthropogenic forcings on increased fire weather risk over the western United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. November 2021 

New research showed that climate change has been the primary cause of the large wildfires in the western US that destroyed substantial land over the past two decades. Between 2001 and 2018, the size of the land destroyed every year is 13,500 square kilometers, which is twice as much as between 1984-2000. How much of this massive increase was caused by human-induced climate change and how much could be explained by natural atmospheric and climate variation have been an intensive debate. To address this major question, scientists specifically focused on the factors that control “vapor pressure deficit” (VPD), which measures the amount of moisture the air can hold when it is saturated minus the amount of moisture in the air. The greater the deficit, the more water is drawn into air from soil and plants which ultimately dry out and become conductive to fires. Strikingly, analyses of VPD data between 1979-2020 showed that 68% of the increase in VPD is due to global warming. The natural atmospheric variations were only responsible for the remaining 32% increase. These findings suggest that the western United States have passed a critical threshold in which human-induced climate warming now plays a greater role for the increase of vapor pressure deficit than natural variations in atmospheric circulation. This also shows that the effects of climate change are accelerating faster than society is equipped to deal with. And most of this rapid change seemed to have occurred since the beginning of the 21st century, much earlier than everyone anticipated. Greenhouse gases generated by human activity, primarily fossil fuel use, has already warmed our planet about 1.1 C° since the pre-industrial era. Global warming will likely continue to intensify conditions that dry out the landscape. This means, unfortunately, a higher risk of more severe fire conditions in the US and the rest of the world.

Eco-friendly flying microchips 

Kim et al. Three-dimensional electronic microfliers inspired by wind-dispersed seeds. Nature. September 2021. 

Engineers recently developed the smallest ever human-designed flying machine: a flying computer chip with the size of a sand grain. The main goal of the project was to develop miniaturized electronic devices to sense the environment for contamination monitoring, population surveillance or disease tracking. The team first analyzed the aerodynamics of wind-dispersed seeds of tristellateia plant and tried to understand how air flows around these microfliers. It is common for engineers to copy elements of nature to produce objects that behave in certain ways within certain environments, a concept called “biomimicry.” Tristellateia seeds have bladed wings that catch the wind to fall with a slow and rotating spin. By studying tristellateia seeds, engineers unravel the ideal structures for slow and controlled flight, which would provide the microfliers disperse over a broad area and stay in the air for a long time to better monitor the air. The microfliers consist of two major parts: millimeter-sized electronic functional components and their wings. As the microflyer falls through the air, its wings interact with the air to generate a slow, stable rotational motion. The engineers can now integrate a variety of electronics into these microchips, including circuits to detect airborne particles, sensors to monitor water quality, light detectors to measure sunlight, electronics to harvest and store energy from light, a CPU and memory, and an antenna to wirelessly transfer data to a smartphone, tablet, or computer. These miniature devices can generate massive amounts of data, but also massive amounts of garbage. Thus, the team aims to produce an environment-friendly dissolvable microlfyer. To this end, they have already started to use degradable polymers, compostable conductors and dissolvable integrated circuit chips that would naturally vanish into environmentally benign end products when exposed to water.

Targeted brain stimulation to treat mental illness 

Basu et al. Closed-loop enhancement and neural decoding of cognitive control in humans. Nature Biomedical Engineering. November 2021.

A recent landmark pilot study showed that artificial intelligence merged with targeted electrical brain stimulation by brain implants can now improve specific human brain functions related to self-control and mental flexibility. Strikingly, brain implants in this new method were able to successfully sense the electrical biomarkers of cognitive deficits and respond by stimulating specific brain regions. For the study, researchers recruited 12 subjects who are undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy, in which hundreds of tiny electrodes are placed throughout the brain to record its activity and pinpoint where seizures originate. Researchers then used all this data to identify unique areas of the brain called the “internal capsule” that they believe is responsible for cognitive control. The internal capsule is thought to involve in the process of transitioning from one thought pattern or behavior to another, which is impaired in most mental illnesses. In an example of depression case, affected person typically can’t get out of a “negative thought.” An integrated machine learning algorithm also helped the team isolate the patients’ control abilities from their brain activity and their actions. At the end, the system was able to read brain activity, decode from that when a patient is having difficulty and apply a small burst of electrical stimulation to the brain to boost them past that difficulty. Researchers think this system is a lot like an electric bike. When someone is pedaling but having difficulty, the bike senses it and augments it. They have basically made the equivalent of that for human mental function. Some of the patients in the study had significant anxiety in addition to their epilepsy. When given the cognitive-enhancing stimulation, they reported that their anxiety got better, because they were more able to shift their thoughts away from their distress and focus on what they wanted. This method offers a whole new approach in treating mental illness where most interventions are typically developed to suppress symptoms. But now the new method can provide patients a tool that allows them take control of their own minds. The team is almost ready for clinical trials. Since improving cognitive control by deep brain stimulation is already approved by the FDA, translation of this care to current medical practice could be relatively faster.

Question: We are living in a time in which minds are confused, especially in matters of faith. What needs to be done to address the problems of our age in the best way?

We tend to look back to comfort ourselves with the achievements of the past, when today we fail in knowledge and thought and cannot find anything to be proud of. We turn back to the foregone dreamy days to see how our ancestors advanced in science and culture, and so should we; otherwise, it would not be fair to ignore what was accomplished before. Yet, in the words of Yahya Kemal, “we are a future with roots in the past.” So, if it was done in the past, why cannot we do it now? Self-comforting with history does not help when we do not make the best of today and be people of the future.

This does not mean we should deny the seeds, roots and the tree that make us who we are. Making the best of today is possible when we can transform the legacy of the past into the seeds of the future. This means that we should evaluate yesterday, today, and tomorrow together at once. Failing to do this, we will imprison ourselves inside a wall we will build with our own hands; we will keep on reciting the legends of the past with no words to say for the future.

There are so many problems piled up waiting to be solved. Minds are confused about faith and religious practice. Especially the youth are not being nourished from authentic sources, thus they are lacking firm foundations of religious knowledge. The minds of those who are in positions to address questions are not clear either. There are some good works being done, but not in sufficient numbers. Destruction is too big, so much so that many are falling into doubt about their belief and values. The consequences are even worse due to the poor education of the society.

Bediuzzaman Said Nursi was a genius who perceived the problems of his time way in advance and offered prescriptions accordingly. However, we failed to benefit from the work he left behind. We even misunderstood his words like “Read; your heart will benefit, even if your mind does not.” We were strapped and imprisoned by this sentence for so long. We could not set sail to the horizons of his vast work, and we failed to provide cures to the diseases of our time.

There is a need for a revolution in the heart and mind. With a new thinking, language, and format of reading, we need to revisit the issues we always thought we knew everything about. Without wasting our time with footnoting and annotating any more, we need to introduce new interpretations and expansions according to our day and age. This is what will bring soul and spirit to our lives.

We are uninformed about the backdrop of much of the knowledge we think we possess, some of which we have even memorized. Since we are unaware of the intricacies and details of the truth that lies behind all of that knowledge, we sacrifice so much of it – which are as precious as gold – with our over habituation and lack of deep deliberation. So much of that treasure is waiting to be rediscovered. Many of the reasonings found in our scholarly heritage need to be reviewed according to today’s circumstances and reintroduced to humanity. Even the holy scripture and the Prophetic tradition must be studied as if the former one is being revealed and the latter is being heard right in this moment, so that brand-new truths are unearthed to address the necessities and conditions of our day.

If we believe this heritage has not worn out and that humanity needs them today more than ever, then we need to put forward serious effort to fashion them in a new way convenient to the contemporary age. This effort requires dealing with the matter not only for the general masses, but also at academic level, by way of establishing institutes and study groups which can go deeper in different fields.

There are thousands of exegetical works that have been produced over the centuries. The scholars who produced these works did not say, “there are already too many books authored on this subject; why should I write?” Those who followed the predecessors brought in new perspectives and contributed to the scholarship in accordance with their own time.

One dimension of the solution could be to formulate a new way of reading that can save us from habituation. Unfortunately, we keep repeating what we have memorized. We read books only as a habit, just to complete a ritual. This does not take us anywhere. We need to find a new way of reading that will resuscitate our thoughts and feelings, refine our human relationships, correct our understanding of the creation, and will positively influence our life of worship. Then we will perceive what we are doing when we stand, bow, and place our heads on the floor in prayer. If we fail to renew ourselves, our “immortal” works will be put to death in our own hands, and our values will be deemed worthless by no one else but ourselves.

Calm your raging eyes
Fuel not a hollow fire
Lower your accusing gaze
Point not at a whirling lily

Liberate the flower of sublimity
From the shackles of your enmity

Let it dance to a divine melody
Let it mix the blue into the green
Let it reach out to God
Let it feel the earth

Stab it not
With words of hostility
Let it love
With a heart of glory

Let the petals turn to wings
Watch it radiate in a celestial glow
Do you still wish it ill?
Do you still wish for it to wilt?
Can you not see in it
The infinite bounty
Of the Lord,
That turned a praying flower
Throwing itself at His mercy
To a symbol of love and peace
Soaring in the sky?

Have you ever thought about what your world would be like without numbers? Would we be able to build our civilization without numbers? We encounter them everywhere and we need them to survive. They are not only to use them to count, measure, and do calculations; numbers rule our lives. We are identified by Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, and telephone numbers. Science, economy, and business are all about numbers. As a society we are organized with the help of numbers.

Some define mathematics as the science of patterns – and there are observable patterns in nature. With numbers can we make sense of these designs. With pi, for instance, we can see the ratio between a circle’s circumference and its diameter, and this is possible only if we can mathematically identify it. The numbers allow us to understand countless fascinating and useful patterns of nature that we would never be able to discover otherwise.

In everyday life many occasions contribute to the growth of the mental work of knowledge and meaning associated with a number. Although numbers are always a part of our lives there are still situations that have little to do with mathematics. The numbers that help us understand mathematics are sometimes used in contexts that have nothing to do with mathematics. When you think of the number 7 for instance, you can ask why there are so many things related with it: Why are there seven days a week? Why is James Bond encoded with 007? Why are there seven dwarfs in Snow White fairy tale? Why are there seven sleepers in the Biblical story? Why is the number of circumambulations seven in the Ka’ba? Why does the rainbow have seven colors? Why are the wonders of the world are called the Seven Wonders of the World? Why is the number of notes seven in music? Why are there seven stars in each of the Big-Little Bear constellations? Why are there seven verses in Surah al-Fatiha? Why is the number seven so unique?

Interestingly, the number 7 shows up in a survey in which researchers asked 30 thousand participants the same question: “What is your lucky number?” Almost 10% of the participants answered it was “7,” the most preferred number in the survey. So the question comes up to the mind: why did most people choose the number 7? Does it have anything related to the “why questions” mentioned above? Or is the juxtaposition of three sevens in jackpot machines, called a lucky 7, influential in this case? Regardless of the reason, almost three thousand out of thirty thousand people feel this number unique to themselves. Researchers also asked why they thought the number was lucky and participants gave different answers: waking up at 7:00 every day, the door number of their birthplace, songs that lasted around 7:07 minutes, etc. As understood from the given responses most of them were related to people’s personal preferences. Therefore these responses seem not helpful to understanding the questions above, such as why a week is seven days or why the earth and the skies are considered to have seven levels.

When the 30 most preferred numbers were listed, the number 3 comes second after 7, then numbers 8 and 4 follow them. What are the special features of these numbers that make them to be the most preferred? I have pointed out remarkable properties of some of these numbers:

Almost 7% of participants have chosen number 8 in the survey. It is plausible in many far eastern cultures that the number 8 is considered a lucky number to the point of obsession. Number 8 means good chance in Chinese culture because the Chinese word for “eight” sounds like “wealth.” Also, turned on its side, it represents the infinity symbol – which means “forever.” The Beijing Olympics opened on 8/8/08 at 8:08 pm – not a coincidence!

It seems the number 4 is in fourth place, but surprisingly, unlike number 8, it calls for bad luck in the Far East. The pronunciation of the number four in Japanese is very similar to the word “death.” Because of this, four have been considered bad luck in Japan, Korea, and China. It is often deemed to be terrible luck to give a gift made up of four pieces to someone. Many buildings with dominantly Asian populations do not have the fourth floor, much like the number 13 in parts of North America. You might find a hotel without a 4th floor or a product line without a series 4. For example, Nokia mobiles went from series 3 to series 5 product range. In Western culture, four isn’t necessarily considered lucky or unlucky; however, there are a few unlucky fours. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Christian Bible and most swear words are called “four-letter words.” As far as these are disadvantages for number 4, still 5.6% of thirty thousand participants in the survey selected it as their lucky number.

The next number is 5, which is in fifth place. Another weird coincidence! 5.1% of participants in the survey have chosen it as their lucky number. The number 5 is impressive because it occurs a lot in nature. Humans have five senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing); and five fingers on each hand and foot. Some fascinating creatures, such as the starfish, have five-fold symmetry which means they can be rotated five times and will still look the same.

In the sixth place we have a thrilling number: 13. Out of all participants 5% consider it to be their lucky number, but it is accepted as an inauspicious number in most western countries. Even in some buildings, there is no floor or flat with this number. The fear related with number 13 even has a name: Triskaidekaphobia. Historically, this belief is based on two events: First, according to Christian faith, there were 13 people in total at Jesus’ last supper before his crucifixion on a Friday; Jesus and the 12 apostles. The second incident related to number 13 is about the templar knights in the fourteenth century who were arrested by the orders of the French King Philip and approval of Pope Clemens, on Friday, October 13, 1307. The bad luck of the number 13 and the source of “Bloody Friday” is also attributed to this inquisition cruelty. Another event why bad luck is associated with number 13 is the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, a year whose numbers adds up to 13.

The number 42, coming after the top ten, is exceptional. To understand the story of why this number, which is considered the myth of modern times, was preferred, we need to analyze a novel which is the origin of this myth: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (d. 2001). The book mentions an imaginary race of hyper-intelligent beings who lived millions of years ago and dominated all dimensions. To put an end to the futile debates on life’s meaning, two of the most intelligent and brilliant people are assigned to build an enormous supercomputer – perhaps a quantum computer – that can calculate Life, the Universe, and Everything. After the building of the computer is done, they call it “Deep Thought,” and asks it to give the answer for the meaning of life. Deep Thought’s response is, “I’ll have to think a little bit. Come back in seven and a half million years.” After 7.5 million years, everyone fills the square with enthusiasm when the big day comes. The supercomputer says, ‘You really will not like it at all,’ and says 42. Yes, the number 42. Although this answer confuses everyone, it has become very favored over time and has inspired many. So much so that an asteroid which was discovered in February 2001 was named 2001DA₄₂. In the 42nd episode of the “Doctor Who” series, the band Coldplay referred to this book with their song of the same name. “Lost,” one of the two most mysterious series in TV history, featured 42 in the enigmatic issue that will bring the world’s end: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42. By the way, all these numbers except number 15 are among the top thirty most preferred in the survey. The apartment number where the lead character, “X Files,” another mysterious TV series, was also 42. The first building of Googleplex was “Building 42.” According to some, this name was given to the building in reference to the novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. CERN Laboratories, which also includes the Large Particle Accelerator, has an office building named 42 for the same reason. How many antennas are at the “Allen Telescope Array” of SETI, which investigates extraterrestrial life? Yes, you guessed it right: 42! Also searching “answer to life the universe and everything” on Google shows number 42 with a calculator!

Some selected numbers may have come to the front due to their numerical properties. For instance, “Pi” and “e” (Euler’s number) come in the 18th and 28th place respectively in the list of the most preferable numbers. It is not surprising why the Pi number made it into the list considering its reputation. This number, whose number of digits after the decimal point has not yet been determined and have thought to extend to infinity, is considered sacred by many people. Assuming that it has a purely random property, if pi is long enough, you can find every string of digits in your life in pi. So your birthday, phone numbers, or any number you randomly type in are somewhere in the pi. Let’s go further. With a code that can convert letters and numbers, you can theoretically find the name of any person or institution, a word, a sentence, or even a book, in the number pi. Those who think that all life is represented inside this number are not few. Some even memorize it as worship. According to Guinnes Book of records, the record on memorizing pi belongs to a Chinese named Lu Chao with 67,890 digits and it took him 24 hours and 4 minutes to recite all the digits. In 2006, a Japanese named Akira Haraguchi said that he memorized 100,000 digits after the decimal point in almost 18 hours, but this was not officially validated by Guinness.

4 is an interesting number, too, which interestingly comes fourth among the “lucky” numbers. Some Muslims consider number 4 to have a special significance because of several reasons: The number of the Rightly Guided Caliphs is four; there are four Archangels, four holy scriptures, and four major sects in Islam, which may indicate a divine connection among all these.

“The universe cannot be read until we have learned the language and become familiar with the characters in which it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word,” said Galileo Galilei. This early adage is never more relevant than today, when mathematics is the key to so much of our contemporary era.

The hater, my son the hater – enraged by his latest drug of choice – stood on his stepstool in the town square and yelled at us. His topic today was the same as yesterday’s; the words didn’t matter. He hated. 

I made the same mistake I made so many times before. I caught his eye. I engaged him and tried to reason with him.  I applied logic to emotion with just as much success as quoting the constitution to a swarm of angry bees. Finally, I walked away, humiliated once again by unreason and sorrow. I was aware of nothing but my failure and his hatred, and all day I let myself feel reduced by that encounter.

A new morning came to interrupt my despair. Once again, I walked to the town square. Once again, I tried to reason with unreasoning anger. Once again, I failed. And so it went. Day after day, it went on.

One day, I was stopped by a stranger who asked me the way to the town square. He had heard, he said, of the madman and felt it would be entertaining to watch his antics.

“Why?” I asked him. “Why would you listen to the hatred? Why listen to him standing there on his stool, yelling at us all? Do you think it funny?”

The man sniffed, then spoke clearly and precisely.

“No, not the hater. I mean to watch the madman. The one who argues with the hater. The one who fails every day, but does the same thing the next day, without fail.”

Finally, I saw what I had become, what I could not see while engaged in insanity with the hater. I saw the madman.

That day I did not engage the hater. I did not try to help him. That day I engaged myself on my own behalf so that I would find the life I had lost and my own steps in the eternal dance, not his. That day, I left my son to his madness so that I could address my own. Where before I had never approached the locals, I began conversations with older men and women who tarried in the afternoons, sitting at the sides of the square then in shade and drinking their strong coffees, playing endless games of chance with faded cards and marked dice. I willingly lost small monies to them and bought coffees, and eventually learned of their lives and kin.

Later, many days later, my son again carried his stool to the market square and stood upon it. As he began his tirade, I slipped into my seat at the coffee shop. The old man, the easterner who makes the coffee, brought me a pot and mug and my daily biscuit. Friends came over and we shared silence. I had changed this year, since I stopped trying to change my son, and I gained friends.  They were there all along, but I did not see them until I gave myself permission to see something other than him.

There was no use trying to talk until the shouting was done. My son was punctual as any clock, if more obnoxious.

But just then, after only a few minutes, and as I sat there in comforting presence of my friends, the shouting stopped. From one word to the next, it just stopped and the hater stepped down from his stool and began to walk away. He hesitated and looked my way, and my heart thudded but there was nothing more, just a look.

I called for more coffee and my friends and I began to chat about the day ahead, our duties, and what we’d heard of the wider world. I was sad, but I had found some measure of peace since I stopped my own mad attempts to change my son. He was what he was, as was I, and I felt free to live again. It was a gift I had given myself.

After weeks, perhaps months, change began. The hater, having finished his spew, picked up his stool and walked through the square to where I sat. This had happened several times before, and each time I had motioned for my friends to leave. Each time, as they left, the hater turned about and left as well. Each time, I sat alone and cherished my action, my refusal to engage. 

I resented his approach. I had come to cherish these mornings with my friends. These were women known as wise within the community and men whose words were heeded. That they had chosen to sit with me, the madman and father of the hater, had astonished me at first. Yet, I could see their calm acceptance and patient tolerance had gone a long way toward reducing the anger most townsfolk felt toward my son and myself. Truth to tell, it had done so for me as well, and I had come to look forward to those mornings as my safe harbor. And now the hater, my son the hater and addict, threatened that as well.

I had enough. That morning I did not ask my friends to leave, and they stayed and watched in calm surmise as the hater approached. As he placed his stool down by us and sat upon it, the wise around me smiled calmly at the hater, then turned their gaze upon me. I felt flushed with anger, near to bursting. I felt that my very survival had been challenged and I rose to spew forth my own hate at this violation of my sanctuary. Then, one of the women spoke, but to the hater, ignoring me and my righteous indignation.

“Welcome, young man. We’ve been waiting for you. Have a seat.”

One of the others, an older man, then turned to me where I stood, fists clenched and shaking with rage and fear.

“You are welcome to stay, of course, as long as you can be calm. We’ve spent many mornings here preparing a safe harbor. All are welcome.”

And having heard what they were telling me, and understanding my own true nature, I took my stool and walked to the center of the square and placed myself where I belonged.

We have taken turns, my son and I, in the market square. One day soon, I hope to have the courage my son demonstrated, to turn away from the madness and to take a seat at the table of sanity. My son waits there for me, in the presence of the wise, in the shadow of the divine, in safe harbor.

We always want more. We sometimes so much more for selfish reasons only, turning this desire into greed, and we become oblivious to the needs of others. Greed has made many people wild in history and still does. The Gilded Age, a period of gross materialism and political corruption in U.S. history, serves as a prime example. Mehmet Akif, a famous Turkish poet, describes the harms of greed in the following lines: People became savage; even more so than hyenas / If one were to become toothless; his own brothers would devour him. The desire of wanting more made people cruel even to their own kind. Said Nursi advises to suffice with contentment should one desire more. The pros of having less outweigh the good that comes with having excess. As a result, having less is more valuable. In other words, less is more. This formula is relevant in many aspects of our lives.

Our life consists of the decisions we make. An average person makes around 35,000 decisions every day, most of which are unnecessary. Making unnecessary decisions affects our life more than it is assumed. In 2000, psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper from Columbia and Stanford universities discovered a relationship between the number of decisions we make and the time we spend to make each decision by doing “The Jam Experiment.” One day, they set a display table with 24 kinds of jams in a market. On another day, shoppers saw a similar table, except that only six varieties of the jam were on display. Although the display table with more jams received the most visits by people, when the time came to purchase, people who saw the large display were one-tenth as likely to buy as people who saw the small display.

As a result of similar experiments it was proved that as the number of decisions increases the time to make each decision becomes longer and harder. The relationship between them can be drawn as a parabola; the more useless decisions we make, the time we waste exponentially increases. If we decrease the number of decisions we have to make every day we would see that we have much more time left at the end of the day. As such, we should cut down on some needless decisions that we make such as which cup we will drink tea out of or which perfume we will use.

Children make eleven times fewer decisions per day than adults. Some scientists assume that, therefore, they tend to be happier and less depressed than adults due to the increased simplicity of their lives. The fewer decisions we make the more time we will have and happier we will be. Less is more…

The tongue is a great blessing. At first, it appears to be just a piece of meat but it serves many purposes including as the “translator of the mind.” Ibn Al-Qayyim, an important medieval Islamic jurisconsult, theologian, and spiritual writer stated that “A person’s tongue can give you the taste of his heart.” It can drive a person to either success or ruination in this world and the Hereafter. Words reflect a person’s soul, faith, thoughts, ideas, and ideals. The ears only hear, the eyes only see, and yet the field of the tongue is much larger. It has ample space for good and evil. At first, talking so much may seem that it makes a person wise but in reality it does the opposite. An excess of everything is very harmful. An Azerbaijani poet and philosopher Nizami Ganjavi said, “Although water has the purity of a pearl, it also brings harm when being drunk too much.” When we talk so much we also start talking unnecessarily. This trend can be observed even in economics: when the amount of a commodity increases its value tends to decrease. Talking in a concise manner is the most rewarding, however it is not easy. But, if a person measures every word they say and make their words pass through the filter of the mind and virtue, then their words will increase in value and benefit. Less is more…

We have been blessed with many gifts in this world including the gift of food. In the Qur’an, God says, “Eat, drink, but do not waste” (Araf, 31). From that perspective, we may think that we can eat as much as we want. However, wasting does not only include throwing excess food away but also means that we should not harm our bodies, which ultimately do not belong to us, by eating too much. In a normal diet our stomachs produce routine enzymes for nutrients that break them down in order to make them digestible. In the meantime, we should not forget that our stomach spends energy. But when overeating, the stomach needs to produce a lot of enzymes thus requiring more energy to produce excess enzymes. In a normal diet, stomach digestion is easily performed within 3 to 4 hours and the heart is able to function perfectly well. But when eating too much the heart is tired by 4 to 6 times more so that digestion, circulation, and excretion can be done. Not only the heart but all organs in the digestive, storage, and excretory system are highly affected by this extra work. As an ironic consequence food that we use to feed and benefit ourselves is thus used to harm our bodies. Eating less also brings about more benefits than eating more.

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has many times stressed the importance of talking less. For example, he said, “The one who stays quiet is saved” along with, “Should I tell you the easiest and the lightest worship for the body? Silence and good morals.” The Prophet also advised to eat to live, not the other way around: “Fill one-third of your stomach with food, fill one-third of it with water, and leave the other one-third empty.” Umar ibn al-Khattab (r.a), the second Caliph of Islam prayed: “Oh God, give me only as much as I need. Having enough to meet my need is better than having excess.”

Excess often harms us, but there are exceptions, including prayer, good work, and helping other people. It is indeed better to push ourselves to go above and beyond in these regards without going to an extreme point where we are overwhelmed.

Formula One (F1) auto racing, organized by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, [1] consists of a series of races held in specially built circuits in different countries. Drivers and teams are evaluated based on the total points they scored at the end of each season.

Michael Schumacher, who suffered a severe brain injury in a skiing accident in 2013, has a joint-record seven World Drivers’ Championship titles. In today’s F1 races the maximum speed is nearly 400 km/h and Lewis Hamilton holds the record of average speed of 264.4 km/h throughout the race.

Unless you are a Formula 1 driver, the maximum speed you can reach is 200-220 km/h in a car, an average speed of 300 km/h on a high-speed train, or approximately 1,200 km/h on a plane.

The truth is we are already moving with a much higher speed on a much faster vehicle, which we call the planet Earth. When calculated at the Equator, Earth rotates around its own axis with an approximate speed of 1,669 km/h. It may sound scary when you image the world is spinning at such a high speed, but we do not get dizzy or lose our balance and fall because of it.

The Earth’s speed is much faster on its journey around the Sun, which is an approximate of 107,000 km/h. This is about 40 times faster than the speed of a bullet. Despite this seemingly alarming speed, how come can we continue our lives without feeling anything? The gravitational force is the agent assigned to ensure our safety in this matter. The fact that we are moving at the same speed with the world encapsulated in the atmosphere is like being on board a plane midair, and in both cases we can freely move unaffected by the speed of the “vehicle” we are in.

Our world is a part of a dynamic universe wherein everything moves in orderly fashion – just as implied in the word “cosmos,” which etymologically means “order.” Earth is a jewel of this wondrous system that moves in harmony with other celestial bodies that move at different and great speeds like stars.

The Earth does not only rotate on its axis and revolves around the Sun, but it also moves with the Solar System, which in turns moves with the Milky Way, which already has its own movements and rotations.

All of this speed may seem overwhelming to some, but it is impossible to slow down or speed up this mechanism. Billions of celestial bodies act in a specially designed system that if they do not move with their current speeds, many problems would arise one after another.

Suppose that Earth’s speed of rotation around its own axis is increased by 1 km/h. According to a study by Witold Fraczek from the University of Wisconsin, if this would ever happen [2] then we could expect the following things:

As the speed increases water would migrate from the poles to the equator and the sea around the equator would start to surge. This change would affect the tide in the oceans thus causing further alternations in the ecosystem and the order of life.

The increased speed would also cause the centrifugal force generated by Earth’s rotation to go up, disrupting the balance between it and the gravitational force that counters it. If Earth’s rotational speed increased to 27,000 km/h the centrifugal force would be equal to the gravitational force on the equator. This means that the gravitation would be effectively canceled out and the system is disrupted and the life on Earth would come to an end. For instance, the water in the oceans and seas would move toward the atmosphere.

Increased rotational speed would result in stronger winds and hurricanes. Stronger hurricanes would have more destructive effects. Earth’s rotation is one of the causes of wind formation. If Earth was not moving at all, the winds from the North Pole would directly blow toward the equator (or vice versa). However, Earth’s rotation ensures that winds are deflected eastward, which is one of the reasons why winds or hurricanes ever occur.

Another effect would be on Earth’s crust as it would slowly flatten out at the poles and bulging around the equator. This would in turn trigger the movement of tectonic plates, resulting in more earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

All of these changes and upheavals would be greater in proportion to the increase in Earth’s rotational speed.

In our final analysis we are like microscopic living beings on a basketball spinning around its axis with a speed 40 times that of a bullet.

Today, scientists believe that Earth was spinning at a greater speed some 4.4 billion years ago when a huge celestial body crashed into Earth and the moon was formed thus giving our planet its current shape and speed.

If this theory is true, then this collision had been so precise that even a deviation of 1 in 1,669 (Earth speed of rotation on its own axis in km) would have caused disorder and disruption in this macro system. These amazing events can hardly be explained if all these complexities were to be dependent on blind chance or the non-existent will of these celestial beings. If we choose to rely on chance for an explanation, then we would be living with fear as people had once feared that Halley’s Comet could crash into Earth. Scientists say that there are approximately 2 billion stars in our galaxy. Yet, the distance of Halley’s Comet to Earth was 35 times the distance of the Sun to Earth, i.e., approximately 1.5 million km.

Notes

1. https://www.fia.com
2. https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Witold-Fraczek-35661189

REFERENCE

1. https://www.popsci.com/earth-spin-faster

(continued from the previous issue)

God’s Lordship and the lights of His Existence and Lordship which shine on things and events are stressed in many verses of the Qur’an such as: God, there is no deity but He; the All-Living, the Self-Subsisting (by Whom all subsist.), Slumber seizes Him not, nor sleep. (2:255); Alif-Lam-Mim. God, there is no deity but He; the All-Living, the Self-Subsisting (by Whom all subsist.) (3:1-2); Say (O Messenger): “O God, Master of all dominion! You give dominion to whom You will, and take away dominion from whom You will…” (3:26); (He) the All-Merciful, established Himself on the Throne (20:5); And say: “All praise be to God, Who has neither taken to Him a son, nor has He any partner in His dominion (of the whole creation); nor does He need, out of weakness, anyone to own and protect Him; and exalt Him with all His limitless greatness.” (17:111), and Say: “He is God, the One; God is the Eternally Besought-of-All. He has not begotten, nor been begotten. There is nothing equal to Him.” (112:1–5). A conscience which discerns this majesty of the Divine Lordship, feels deeply and eagerly the necessity to worship Him in the face of this all-encompassing scene or in these concentric scenes of Lordship, and responds with: All praise and gratitude is for God, the Lord of the worlds. The All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. The Master of the Day of Judgment. You alone do We worship and from You alone do we seek help (1:1–4). It demonstrates its readiness to serve Him in response to the Divine proclamation, O humankind, worship your Lord (2:21); receives from the warning, Worship your Lord until certainty (death) comes to you (15:99), the message that His eternal Lordship requires perpetual servanthood; and understands from the declaration, Worship God, devoted to Him alone in all your religious practices (39:2), that we must fix our eyes on Him exclusively.

The banner of the declaration, “O unbelievers! I do not worship what you worship” (109:1–2) undulates over our head, and determines the nature of our position with all else save Him. We demonstrate the purpose for our creation by proclaiming, You alone do we worship (1:5), and we acknowledge with utter modesty and a feeling of insignificance that We rely on Him alone in order to realize this purpose, declaring, And You alone do we ask for help (1:5). In order to fulfill the task that is required by near- ness to Him and the rank of addressing Him directly which the two declarations above indicate, we reinforce our acknowledgment of His being the sole Deity to be worshipped and applied to for help, with the prayer: Guide us to the Straight Way, the way of those whom You have favored! (1:6–7). Following this, we exhibit our care and sincerity in this petition, continuing: Not (the way) of those who have incurred (Your) wrath (punishment and condemnation), nor of those who are astray (1:7). Thus, traveling at least forty times a day from our acknowledgment of God’s Unity in Lordship to His Unity in Divinity, and thence to His Unity in being the Sole Object of Worship, we try to fulfill what is required by our having been created as the best pattern of creation.

In short, the Qur’an is clear and precise concerning the matter of unity. It orders that we should admit that God is both the sole Lord of creation, the One Who creates, maintains, protects and provides—and the sole Deity. In all its chapters, from the longest (Suratu’l-Baqara, 2) to the shortest (Suratu’l-Ikhlas, 112), the Qur’an declares, teaches and reiterates unity explicitly or implicitly. In Suratu’l-Ikhlas, in addition to emphatically teaching that God is the sole Lord of creation, it is also emphasized that He has Attributes of Perfection and is above having any imperfections. Suratu’l-Kafirun (109) warns us that only God is to be worshipped, and calls on us to turn only to Him in our beliefs, lives, and expectations. A careful study of the Qur’an will show that it turns on the axis of unity. All the verses mentioning God and His Names, Attributes and Acts are proclamations of His being the sole Deity, while the declarations referring to worshipping the Absolute Object of Worship, Who has no equals, opposites or rivals, and which forbid the worship of anything or being other than Him, are indications of His being the One and Only Lord.

From another perspective, believing in God’s being the sole Lord of creation, which is also called “unity with respect to knowledge,” means confirming all the truths pronounced by the master of creation, upon him be peace and blessings. As for believing in God’s being the one and only Deity, which is also known as “unity with respect to practice,” this denotes doing the religious commandments as they should be done, avoiding those things that have been prohibited. Unity with respect to knowledge is perfected by knowing the All-Holy One as One Who has Attributes of Perfection and in believing that He is above all imperfections. Unity with respect to practice can be realized by worshipping and loving the All-Majestic, All-Exalted One, by being sincere toward Him, and by preserving the balance between fear of and expectations from Him.

Travelers to God who are at the beginning of the journey, a journey of which they are expected to reach the end, advance in the company of proofs, indications, and observations of their inner world and the world around them. These are the strongest groundings of unity. At every stage of their journey, travelers feel and sense the signs that come to them according to the rank and capacity of each, and review them. To the extent that they reach deeper perceptions and experiences, they can feel or see in the proofs and indications the One indicated by them. They reach through signs and witnesses to the One Witnessed. Then, in the broad atmosphere of spiritual discoveries, pleasures and feelings, they begin to feel, see and hear the messages brought by the Prophets beyond the normal scope of the senses and feelings. They experience delight in observing the truths that are demonstrated by proofs and indications, but without needing them any longer, for they have passed beyond all concepts of quality and recognition through examples, and beyond the normal scope of perception.

So, this concept of unity—unity which becomes visible as God’s special stamp on things and events by means of the proofs and indications that are observed and experienced in the inner world of people and in the outer world—is an objective concept, and an observatory from which everyone can attain certain knowledge of God. One who admits of it can, if possessed of the necessary capacity, advance as far as being able to perceive the true nature of apparent causes (in nature) and the means of knowing the Almighty. One sees that all those causes and means are lost before their Creator, Who is the real agent beyond them, and one witnesses that all proofs and indications end in an inner perception beyond the scope of the senses. The deeper the state one gets into and the greater the pleasure one feels, the more pro- found and vivid the degree of the concept of unity one can reach. Travelers to God who have reached this point live immersed in the special favors that come as a reward for their inner perception and the insight they have attained by starting from the proofs and indications. Because of the light which the Eternal Witness has placed in them, all their thoughts, speeches and acts become “light.” They walk intoxicated by the manifestations of the “Facial” Lights of Him Who has created the light. When proofs and indications have developed into the voice of their state, they no longer need them, nor do they seek an apparent cause to rely on the Creator of all causes, nor run after other means. Rather, they begin to see, know, and love by Him, and to transform what- ever they see and hear into knowledge and love of God, and into attraction and the feeling of being attracted by Him. They spend their life in the tides of absorption and distinguishing.

At this point, where the initiates feel as if they are seeing the Necessarily Existent Being in everything with their eyes, apparent, external causes fade away and lose the ability to be a means for happiness or salvation, although they continue to exist as mere causes. Whereas the internal causes of belief, confirmation, and the knowledge and love of God are felt more deeply. It is for this reason that, so long as the travelers to the Ultimate Truth advance on the spiritual journey, they feel an increasing passion for worship and other acts of obedience to God. As they grow in the knowledge and love of God, they feel that they are overflowing with prayers and invocations and they become like a nightingale singing ceaselessly in the court of God. They always mention Him with the voice of their heart. In addition, neither their being able to observe from here the worlds beyond, nor crossing distances by flying through the heavens, can harm the self-pos- session that they maintain in their humble servanthood to God.

As for the unity the Necessarily Existent Being has assigned to Himself—a unity based on His bearing witness to Himself—it is an attainment belonging, first, to the Prophets, and then to their true successors. It is not possible for us to perfectly perceive such a horizon of knowing and feeling God. It is an extremely great favor from Him by which He endows the perfectly pure hearts with the necessary capacity to feel that perfect conception of unity, which He expresses in verses such as:

God, there is no deity but He, the All-Living, the Self-Subsisting (by Whom all subsist) (2:255).
God bears witness that surely there is no deity but He (3:18). Surely, I am God, there is no deity but I, so worship Me (20:14). He is God: there is no deity but He (59:22).

It is a great favor of Him to enable those so favored to voice this perfect conception of unity with their hearts, and cause them to understand and express their poverty and helplessness before Him and the fact that whatever they have is from Him, with confessions such as follows:

We have not been able to know You as knowing You requires, O the One Known!
We have not been able to worship You as worshipping You requires, O the One Worshipped!
We have not been able to mention You as mentioning You requires, O the One Mentioned!
We have not been able to thank You as thanking You requires, O the One Thanked!

He makes them express this favor in consideration of the requirement to know Him as He must be known, and with a consciousness of servanthood, and an attitude of helplessness and poverty, and with a yearning for thankfulness and praise. It is not possible for others to perceive this. How can it be possible, seeing that this is a special gift from the All-Bestowing, no matter how it was prompted or if prompted at all? Only those who can bear the weight of His gifts are loaded with them.

Only the Prophets and their true, pure successors can feel this degree of unity in the perfect form, and they can reveal to others only the part of it that they are allowed to reveal. The pure, perfected scholars, who are the true successors of the Prophets, run in the spacious field of this unity and try to breathe it out with certain ambiguous symbols according to their capacity. Saints who follow them whisper it to themselves when they deem it necessary, but none of them reveal the state they are in nor the pleasures they feel. They consider its revelation to be a grave error committed against the honor of Divinity, and tremble with fear at giving away the secrets with which they have been entrusted.

What should be done here, in this respect, is to regard the messages of the Prophets as sufficient, and by admitting that acknowledging one’s incapacity to perceive Him is perception itself, attribute to God the knowledge of truth and the concept of unity that belong to the most distinguished among the elect.

It is essential that while thinking of unity as viewed by the elect, either with respect to creed or as an expression of the spiritual state and pleasures, one should strictly follow the guidance of the master of creation, upon him be peace and blessings. For it is always probable that even the lights brightest in appearance, and the deepest pleasures and any knowledge of God not found within the Prophet’s guidance are no more than carnal pleasures and ostentation.

It would be appropriate to end our article on unity with a verse from Çelebizade Abdulaziz Efendi[i] found in Gulshan-i Niyaz, which resembles the poem of Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum concerning the Islamic creed, which begins “My Deity, my Lord! My Prophet is surely God’s Messenger:”

I have a conviction that the Divine Being is one,
and I confirm that He has Attributes.
Knowledge, Power, Life, Hearing, and Seeing,
are concealed in His All-Holy Being.
Though the Attributes eternally exist in the Being,
they are neither the Being Himself nor separate from Him.
Those who attempt to qualify You
are unable to understand Your Attributes.
We have not been able to know You as knowing You requires.
He has no equals nor likes in His Oneness,
and He needs no assistants in His sovereignty.
You are not a substance or a body;
nor are You composed nor shaped.
You are the All-Holy Being from nowhere.
Your Attributes are not of the kind of those of the created;
You have no eyes, nor ears, nor any other organs;
You are One without number; and You have no limits;
You are not composed, or separable or dissolvable.
Neither time nor space, O the All-Exalted,
has any meaning in relation to You.
It is also inconceivable that You have any relation with
eating, drinking, getting dressed, or sleeping.
He is All-Majestic and absolutely pure in His Majesty;
He is absolutely above all desires and lusts.
The verses, “He has not begotten nor been begotten,”
have put an insurmountable barrier
before His having parents and children.
You have undoubtedly no beginning or end.
He is the First without a beginning, and the Last without an end.
He is the Eternal Being Who brought the universe into existence,
and each of His creatures is a ray from His all-comprehensive Grace.
His work is the universe and Adam—humankind.
Existence and non-existence are according to His command.
All creation, including the heavens
with all the celestial bodies, and the earth,
have come into existence by His command, “Be!”
If He had not given existence to the universe,
we could not have known Him or known how to bear witness to Him.
He it is Who creates both good and evil; He it is Who is the origin of all deeds.
He has established what is right and what is wrong.
And it is He Who will reward or punish.

O God! Show us the truth as being true and enable us to follow it, and show us falsehood as being false and enable us to refrain from it. And bestow blessings and peace on our master Muhammad, the means for attaining unity, and on his brothers among the Prophets and Messengers, who had strong self-possession.

[i] Karaçelebizade Abdulaziz Efendi (1591–1658) was one of the Shaykhu’l- Islams (the highest religious authority) in the Ottoman State. His Gulshan-i Niyaz (“Rose-Garden of Invocations”) and Rawdatu’l-Abrar (“The Garden of the Godly”) are famous.

Philosophy is described as the rational, abstract, and methodical consideration of reality as a whole or of fundamental dimensions of human existence and experience. The term philosopher, from ancient Greek, is a person who practices philosophy, especially one who deals with or learns philosophy as an academic discipline. Philosophy is also used in the sense of “wisdom” because when philosophers are mentioned more “wise” people come to our minds. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, and systematic presentation [1, 2]. For centuries, philosophers have illuminated their own time as they shared their thoughts on the universe, life, and science.

However, this was not always the case: many thinkers and philosophers were killed because of their ideas, while some were exiled, and some had to leave their countries for their own safety. Between the two world wars many German scientists were forced to leave their country to save their lives and continued their services in exile for other nations. For instance many German academics who escaped from the chaotic environment of Germany in those years ended up in Turkey where they made great contributions to the university reform that started in 1933 [3]. Ironically, after 2016, many Turkish academic staff had to leave Turkey and migrated to Western countries such as Germany, Sweden, and England.

I am an academic who left his country and came to the United Kingdom in 2020. I recently read a biographical work about Fethullah Gülen. Among many aspects of his life, I was particularly impressed by the fact that Gülen, as an imam with supposedly a classical training, read both Eastern and Western classics and examined western philosophy during his youth.

David Hume, whose name I saw for the first time in the same book on Gülen, was one of the most important names of Western philosophy as a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian who lived in the 18^th century [4]. Gülen, who read almost all the important western classics tried to get to know Shakespeare, Balzac, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, Zola, Goethe, and also read Russell, Pushkin, and Tolstoy. Many philosophers and thinkers are identical with the nation or society in which they grew up. Greece comes to mind when they say Plato, and China when they say, Confucius. Shakespeare brings to mind England, Balzac France, and Goethe Germany. However, as in the example of Avicenna and Einstein, some philosophers or scientists also acquired a universal identity.

I was surprised that the names of David Hume, who lived in Scotland in the 18^th century, and Fethullah Gülen, who still lives in America, are on the “philosophers of religion list” together [5]. During my visit to Edinburgh, a statue of an imposing figure reclining in a chair on the Royal Mile further increased my curiosity about him. The Scottish philosopher David Hume was probably one of the most important philosophers of his time, known as the Age of Enlightenment. Since he was a historian, economist, librarian, and essayist as well as a philosopher, who is best known today for his highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism.

Although they have lived in different geographical and time periods, philosophers have always been influenced by each other. Albert Einstein, in 1915, wrote that he was inspired by Hume’s positivism when formulating his theory of special relativity. Similarly, Immanuel Kant credits Hume as the inspiration who had awakened him from his “dogmatic slumbers” [4]. Although some Western writers argue that Imam Ghazali declared war on philosophy with his work “The Inconsistency of Philosophers” (Tahafut al-Falasifa) and that’s why the environment of free thought has disappeared in the Islamic world; those who approach the subject more broadly and objectively state that Imam Ghazali influenced names such as Pascal and Enlightenment philosopher David Hume in the West [6].

Hume’s thinking showed the crucial importance of logic and evidence in deciding what conclusions could be reached within human understanding and pointed out its probable limits. According to him, it is in vain to expect that any logic, which speaks not to the affections, will ever engage him to embrace sounder principles [7]. Here are several quotes from David Hume [8]:

“Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.”

“Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.”

“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.”

“Custom is the great guide to human life.”

“Liberty of any kind is never lost all at once.”

David Hume’s philosophical works include A Treatise of Human Nature, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. In addition, he wrote the massive six-volume The History of England, which became a bestseller and the standard history of England in its day. Being his very important philosophical achievement, A Study of Human Understanding and a Study of Moral Principles has been accepted as one of the most important in the history of Western philosophy. Hume is one of the world’s great philosophical voices and will remain an outstanding philosopher.

Fethullah Gülen, on the other hand, is an influential scholar from the Muslim world, and have inspired millions to take part in a movement of intercultural-interfaith dialogue and educational activism. Gülen movement represents novel approaches to the synthesis of faith and reason, education, spirituality, and peaceful co-existence in diverse societies [9]. In his writings he touches on a variety of disciplines from economics, philosophy, sociology, history, religion, to literature [10]. Although he also read Western philosophy, thought, and literature, his thinking is not governed or shaped by Western thought [11]. However, Gülen is effective in seizing upon the statements of philosophers critical of science, and the developments in modern science that contradict earlier discoveries or find agreement with the Islamic viewpoint. It has also been argued that in the mold of “new intellectuals,” Gülen combines the ideas of classical and modernist Islamic thought with references to secular thinkers like Albert Einstein, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant. Remarkably, he is careful to choose sources and cite evidence in agreement with the Islamic interpretation of nature. He cites Hume, who argues that an event recurring repeatedly in the past does not necessitate its repetition in the future given similar circumstances. Gülen expands upon Hume’s argument to say that the forces of nature cannot be understood by reason alone and must be understood within a larger metaphysical context [12, 13].

His philosophy transcends commonly held dichotomies. He reconciles science and religion, sacred and profane, mind and heart, east and west, and modernity and tradition [14]. At the core of his philosophy lies the human being and their education. He argues that the right type of education and socialization plays a key role in bringing up loving, compassionate, and peaceful human beings. The core values of his thinking are “hospitality, wisdom, compassion, and charity … grounded in love” [15]. According to Gülen, science and knowledge should seek to uncover the nature of humanity and the mysteries of creation. Any knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is commendable especially if it sheds light on the mysteries of human nature and enlightens aspects of existence left in the dark. Again, according to him, “There are many scientists in many different countries in today’s world but even if they were to work all together they are not enough to establish a new, happy, and seamless world.” For this reason, he argues that there is a need for a new way of thinking, a new approach to science, a new life philosophy, and new educational institutions [16]. Gülen promotes trustworthiness, compassion, integrity, hard work, dedication, prudence, humility, and altruism and that these values must be taught by living a life that exemplifies them [17, 18].

In the philosophy of Gülen, education is a life-long process of transformation. Gülen’s philosophy for peace involves achieving inner and outer peace and is based primarily on transforming the individual. He argues that peace on earth can be achieved by peaceful individuals [19].

Jon Paul, the author of the first critical English-language biography of Gülen, says that although there are very distinguished thinkers who analyze, criticize and deconstruct phenomena and systems in today’s world, very few of them are still able to actively offer alternatives and implement their ideas; Fethullah Gülen can be considered among these very few intellectuals [20]. Indeed, Gülen was among the world’s top 100 intellectuals selected by “Foreign Policy” in 2008. It is understood that Gülen, who was influenced by the intellectuals of his age by reading both local and global philosophers, also greatly benefited from the intellectual legacy of the influential Sufi scholar and writer Bediüzzaman Said Nursi [21]. Like Nursi, who was forced to exile and isolation in his country and imprisoned for many years, a great portion of Fethullah Gülen’s life, especially the last two decades, have been spent in exile as he faces unbelievable accusations in his own country.

Conclusion

The example of Gülen and Hume being listed in the philosophers of religion inspires me to think how knowledge and wisdom are fruits of all humanity. Although the religion of Islam emerged in the Arabian Peninsula, the philosophy, logic, and systematicity that existed in its essence and spirit emerged in the Khorasan. German philosopher J. W. Goethe says that “Science and art belong to the whole world, and the barriers of nationality vanish before them.” According to French chemist Pasteur, “Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.”

References

1. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Philosophy”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Aug. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy. Accessed 28 July 2021.
2. “Philosopher” Wikipedia, Free encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher. This page was last edited on 18 July 2021.
3. Aras, Şükrü., Armutcu, Ferah., Dinç, Gülten. “In the history of Department of Biochemistry of Istanbul Medical Faculty (1933–1957) three German scientists; Werner Lipschitz, Felix Haurowitz and Zdenko Stary. Turkish Journal of Biochemistry 40;5 (2015) 423-430.
4. “David Hume” Wikipedia, Free encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hume. This page was last edited on 25 July 2021.
5. “List of philosophers of religion” Wikipedia, Free encyclopedia. This page was last edited on 5 October 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_philosophers_of_religion.
6. “Al-Ghazali” Wikipedia, Free encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ghazali. This page was last edited on 15 July 2021.
7. David Hume: An enquiry concerning human understanding. Edited by Millican Peter. Oxford University Press, July 10, 2008.
8. David Hume – Quotes. https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/45726.David_Hume. Accessed July 11, 2021.
9. Gülen M. Fethullah. Pearls of Wisdom. Tughra Books, Abridged edition 2007.
10. Yucel, Salih. 2014. “Gulen as a spiritual leader in a global Islamic context.” In Salih Yucel & Ismail Albayrak (Eds.) The Art of Coexistence: Pioneering Role of Fethullah Gulen and the Hizmet Movement. Tughra Books.
11. Hermansen, Marcia. (2015) “Who is Fethullah Gülen: An Overview of His Life”. In Hizmet means service: perspectives on an alternative path within Islam, ed. Martin E. Marty. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
12. Yavuz, Hakan. “The Gülen Movement: The Turkish Puritans,” in Turkish Islam and the Secular State. Yavuz and Esposito, eds. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press), 2003.
13. Saritoprak, Zeki and Sidney Griffith. Fethullah Gülen and the ‘People of the Book.’ The Muslim World 2005; (95): 329-340.
14. Khan, Maimul Ahsan. The vision and impact of Fethullah Gülen. New York: Blue Dome Press, 2011.
15. Yaman, Adnan. 2020. “Addressing anti-foreigner sentiments in Europe: Fethullah Gulen’s philosophy of peace, Master’s Thesis, University of Jaume I.
16. Gulen M. Fethullah. Toward a Global Civilization of Love and Tolerance. The light, Inc. 3r impression New Jersey, 2006.
17. Gage, Tom. Gülen’s dialogue on education: A caravanserai of ideas. Seattle: Cune Press, 2014.
18. Conway, Trudy D. Cross-cultural dialogue on the virtues: the contribution of Fethullah Gülen. London and New York: Springer Science & Business Media, 2014.
19. Esposito, John and Ihsan Yilmaz. Islam and peacebuilding: Gülen movement initiatives. New York: Blue Dome Press, 2010.
20. Pahl, Jon. Fethullah Gülen: A Life of Hizmet. New Jersey: Blue Dome Press, 2019.
21. Greg, Barton. Fethullah Gülen and Said Nursi “Muslim world in transition: Contributions of the Gulen Movement” 2007, London. https://www.gulenmovement.com/fethullah-gulen-and-said-nursi.html. Accessed July 28, 2021.

The holy mystery called mercy embraces all beings. It is manifested in the most brilliant manner, particularly in the compassion of mothers. The mystery of mercy makes the mother’s womb the first place for preparing an infant for their brief visit to this world. The mystery of mercy makes all resources in the mother’s body available for the infant. Thanks to this mystery, specific processes, such as being able to produce breast milk, are specifically designed to satisfy all of the daily needs of the infant. Every moment, this mystery of mercy is woven into the very fabric of life, including the eternal life.

Just as human beings are equipped with reason and willpower and these attributes are always mirrors of mercy, mothers of unconscious living beings exhibit pictures of mercy. One of these beings is the Surinam toad (Pipa pipa), which carries its eggs on its back and makes its young go out of its skin. In this scene of divine wisdom, the mother toad keeps its eggs on its back buried under its skin until they hatch and attain sufficient maturity. Thus, toadlets are embraced in an envelope of mercy in the most secure environment, safe from dangers.

Pipa pipa is a toad in the family Pipidae. This interesting animal is prevalent in northern parts of South America. Although its name refers to Surinam, this toad lives also in countries neighboring Surinam as well. In particular, it lives in tropical and subtropical rain forests, muddy ponds, swamps, and certain rivers in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Equator, Guyana, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.

General physical characteristics

This toad derives its name from its shape. Its body is completely flat. It appears as if it has been crushed in an accident. Unlike other frogs, it does not stand up on its rear feet. This gives it its flattened form. Its head is triangular and its wide body is like a thin pentagon. In Spanish, pipa means a “kite.” Indeed, when viewed from above, the toad’s shape is like that of a kite. While its average length varies between 10 and 13 cm, specimens that are as long as 20 cm were also reported. Male toads are smaller in size than female ones but their front legs are thicker. The eyes of Surinam toads are black and small. They have no eyelids, teeth, or tongue.

There are star-shaped extensions at the end of long arms of their front legs. Therefore, they are also referred to as the “star-fingered toad.” At the tip of these star structures are fibers which are very sensitive to touch. Compared to front legs, rear legs are stronger because they are used to push the animal forward. Likewise, its rear legs are webbed and very large. It is observed that male frogs frequently fight with each other using their heads and front legs.

The Surinam toad is a master of camouflage as it can be likened to a brown leaf floating in the water with its general structure and gray, brown, or olive color. Thanks to its pale color, flat body, and the fact that they generally lay motionless on the ground they are perceived as a plant fragment or a dead animal. This camouflage ability is closely related to its being an ambush predator.

Its skin is covered with wart-like, pointed protrusions. Small, tentacle-like appendages go out of the edges of its chin. Some toads feature a dark gray line stretching from the center of their throats to the end of this abdomen. The upper part of this line is crossed by a horizontal line extending along its chest, forming a T-like shape.

Hunting

Like all other frogs, this toad has a virtually aquatic life and when its habitat gets dryer or during heavy rainfall it can be found in damp areas. Actually, drought and saltiness are the greatest danger for toads that have naked skins. The nakedness of their skins may result in fast dehydration of its body but one significant advantage is that they can breathe in considerable amounts through their skin. In case of danger, it dives to the bottom of a lake or river and goes to the surface every 30 minutes in order to breathe. Sometimes they can stay underwater for more than one hour.

This toad is blessed with very sensitive neural receptors at the tips of its long star-shaped fingers so that it can hunt in muddy and dark waters. It lays an ambush for its prey and swallows them in one move. The Surinam toad feeds on worms, insects, crustaceans, and fish.

As is also the case with fish, Surinam toads have a lateral line organ on both sides of their bodies. This organ is sensitive to changes in water flows and pressure and helps the toad to be aware of movements in the water of other animals and locate them. Therefore, this organ is crucial in hunting and avoiding being hunted.

A different reproductive strategy

As an extraordinary creature, the Surinam toad is created differently from other frogs in terms of its reproduction strategy. First, the male toad attracts the attention of a female one with the sounds he produces underwater. As in other frogs, the eggs released by the female toad are fertilized by the male. After the fertilization the male cleans the dirt sticking to the gelatin protective layers around the eggs with its feet. Meanwhile, the webbed feet open like a curtain and the male uses its feet like a shovel to carry the eggs on the back of the female. It is interesting to note that the eggs cling on to the back of the female but not to the male’s feet. The full details of this marvelous incident are yet to be explained.

This process of laying eggs and placing them on the female’s back are repeated many times. Eventually, 69-100 eggs are placed on the female’s back. After all the eggs are placed the male moves away from the female. The mechanisms of mercy start to operate at the places where the eggs are placed. These eggs have to be buried within the skin of the female’s back during the first 24 hours. To this end, the skin on the female’s back starts to get thicker and be enriched with blood vessels just as the mother’s womb is prepared for reproduction in mammalians. This process can be likened to the act of hoeing the soil for aeration before spreading seeds in an arable field. The mother toad’s skin starts to swell and surge and embrace the eggs, which are slowly buried inside the skin. A womb made of back skin, resembling a honeycomb, is prepared to host an egg in each pocket.

Later, toadlets break out of hatching eggs inside these pockets. They grow up and start to squirm, riding on the back of the female. Bubbles form on the female’s back like popping pimples when the toadlets reach a certain size. It takes some four months for toadlets to grow up in these special pockets.

At the end of these stages the fully formed toadlets push and make holes in their mother’s skin and finally break free. It is an amazing sight to see them bring out their feet first and then their heads and their bodies out of the pockets. Starting from that moment, they are ready to meet their own needs, swim, and hunt. At once, they start to hunt their prey. The female’s skin, damaged with the leaving of toadlets, is shed and replaced with a new skin is for the next reproduction season and for new toadlets.

References

• Helena Nery Alves-Pinto et al. (2014). Morphometric Variation of Pipa Pipa with Notes on Diet and Gonad Development, Herpetology Notes, Vol. 7, pp. 347–353.
• owlcation.com/stem/The-Surinam-Toad-A-Strange-Amphibian-With-Babies-on-Board
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Surinam_toad
• animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/surinam-toad
• sta.uwi.edu/fst/lifesciences/sites/default/files/lifesciences/documents/ogatt/Pipa_pipa%20-%20Suriname%20Toad.pdf