Rewinding the clock of human skin cells

Gill et al. Multi-omic rejuvenation of human cells by maturation phase transient reprogramming. eLife, April 2022.

The cells in our bodies perform their functions slower and begin to dysfunction as we get older. When skin cells age, they produce less collagen which leads to wrinkles form and cuts are slower to heal. Scientists have recently discovered a secret to younger skin. A new technique developed for rejuvenating skin cells can rewind the biological clock of patients by almost 30 years. This new approach utilized the revolutionary scientific method used to generate stem cells, originally developed by a Nobel laurate scientist named Yamanaka in 2007. Yamanaka’s molecular approach essentially erases cellular identity to convert any cell in the body to a stem cell. For this study, researchers used the Yamanaka’s molecular approach for a shorter period to make human skin cells younger without erasing the identity of skin cells. Yamanaka’s process of stem cell reprogramming takes around 50 days by activating 4 transcription factors in somatic cells. In this study, scientists followed the same protocol but only for 13 days. The scientists have chosen a common type of skin cell called fibroblasts. They collected fibroblasts from three old donors (average age of 50), applied their molecular reprogramming paradigm and investigated their age-related biological changes. Strikingly, the rejuvenated 50-years-old skin cells looked chemically and genetically as 20-years-old skin cells that are collected from younger donors. Moreover, when they tested the function of rejuvenated fibroblasts in wound healing assay, they observed that the rejuvenated cells behaved the similar to younger cells, as they moved fast and filled the gap in healing wounds. This work holds great potential for regenerative medicine and could be used to repair damaged cells and tissues in many different diseases. The long-term aim of regenerative medicine is to extend the human health span, rather than the lifespan. Very first potential application of this approach could be to rejuvenate skin in older people in parts of the body where they have been cut or burned.

Microplastics found in human blood

Leslie et al. Discovery and quantification of plastic particle pollution in human blood. Environment International, May 2022.

Vast amounts of plastic waste are disposed into environment each year. It is estimated that 188 million tons of plastic was dumped in 2016 and this number will double over the next 20 years to become 380 million tons in 2040. Smaller plastic fragments that can never fully break down are called microplastics. They have been found in oceans, forests, drinking water and even feces of babies and adults. Now, scientists have found them in human blood. The new study looked at the blood samples of 22 people and found that 17 of them (77%) had microplastics in their blood. The participants had an average of 1.6 micrograms of plastic polymers in every milliliter of blood. That plastic concentration is equivalent to a teaspoon of plastic in 10 large bathtubs of water. In the light of these numbers, scientists estimate that average person eats approximately 5 grams of microplastic every week, which corresponds to the amount in a credit card. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), used in water bottles and other food and beverage containers, was the most common type of plastic found in human blood. Polystyrene, used in packaging like Styrofoam, was the second most common type of plastic. While finding plastic in our blood is frightening, it is not actually that surprising. We eat, drink, and even breathe microplastics every day. It is still unclear what that means for our health. Studies on common chemicals in plastics have linked them to increased risk of cancer, fertility, and developmental problems. However, most of these studies has focused on single molecules or additives like BPA, rather than the plastic polymers. More research is needed to tell us what health complications could occur through these daily plastic exposures.

5,000 exoplanets uncovered and counting

Cosmic Milestone: NASA Confirms 5,000 Exoplanets. NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program, March 2022. https://exoplanets.nasa.gov

The universe is full of many other worlds, orbiting their own suns. For almost 4 centuries now astronomers have been looking through telescopes at distant stars and dreaming about the planets hiding behind. In January 1992, astronomers at NASA discovered two objects that changed our understanding of space completely. They discovered two exoplanets, also known as extrasolar planets, which were whirling a star 2,300 light-years away. After 30 years of exploration, now NASA has confirmed the existence of 5,005 exoplanets; over 8,700 still stay as candidates as of March 21^st, 2022. Among the 5,005 exoplanets, 4,900 are located within a several thousand light-years away from us. The farthest exoplanet discovered so far is 27,727 light years away while the closest is only 4 light years away. Exoplanets come in different sizes and content. Some are smaller than Mercury, others are more than double the size of Jupiter. Some are freezing-cold, others are boiling hot. Some are rocky with surface and others are completely gaseous. Astronomers can now confidently say that our Milky Way galaxy have likely more planets than stars. They have also found some rocky exoplanets about the size of Earth, that reside in the potentially habitable zones and that has the right conditions for liquid water. But no one has yet discovered evidence of life in another planet’s atmosphere yet. So far, Earth is a quite rare planet with the right conditions for human life. However, one should remember that living organisms can adapt to variety of life conditions that are regarded as very harsh such as temperature, radiation, and acidity. It is still possible that life might have started on other worlds and adapted to quite different conditions. With the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers expect not only to discover more exoplanets but also inform us more about them. According to NASA, there are likely as 100 to 200 billion exoplanets left to discover in our Milky Way galaxy.

The true Beloved is our Lord, the Merciful and Everlasting. Company with Him is to feel His presence all the time, with our entire being. One thing we should note before we expand on this companionship is that we need to be careful when we speak about God Almighty, for we cannot conceptualize the Divine within our limited mental capacity. Our human standards are not the right measure to make assessments on God and on matters related to Him. This is a matter that calls for extreme sensitivity. The Messenger of God prohibited his followers to think about the “essence” of God. We can only contemplate on the Divine names and attributes, as well as on His creation. Our intellect is not designed with the capacity to comprehend the truth of His essence. Going in that direction may lead us to attribute certain material, human qualities to the Divine. This is not a domain where a person can freely make claims.

Companionship in the world

Companionship with God is when a person can transcend his or her bodily remoteness and the physical veils they are wrapped in, allowing them to reach the Divine with first-hand experience (dhawq) and inner discovery (kashf). This is a spiritual station we always seek in our prayers. Once a familiarity with this companionship is felt, then people always seek Him, think about Him, do everything in His name, begin with Him, and circle only around His good pleasure. Being in the presence of a saintly figure even once, you cannot help but feel their aura having an influence on your feelings, thoughts, and actions. The secret behind the greatness of the Companions of the Prophet is connected with this. They were honored with the company of the Prophet and colored from his paint. Imagine the state of a person honored with the company of God Almighty.

The company of God, even though we always ask for it in our prayers, is not an easy target. The path in this world that leads to this company goes through absolute faith, knowledge of the Divine (marifa), and love of the Divine (mahabba). This means that if you can attain true faith, turn that faith into knowledge, crown it with love and sincere enthusiasm, then God will take you in His company. You will feel this presence in proportion to the vastness of your knowledge. This is something that can be experienced by those who sincerely seek this honor when they turn to God as they bow and prostrate in the joyful moments of the night. They can feel this in the form of a breeze; if that breeze comes when they put their foreheads on the ground, they wish for prostration to never end.

Company in the Afterlife

We do not know the exact nature of company with the Divine in the Afterlife. Things will be very different there as opposed to here—colors and shapes will be different, perhaps non-essentials and essentials will change places. Company with the Divine, then, will also be beyond our imagination. Bediuzzaman says that thousands of years in paradise would not be worth a moment of seeing the Beauty of the Divine. Everything lived in this world is metaphorical compared to Afterlife – the worldly life is “nothing but a pastime and play,” according to the Qur’an (29:64). Life here is like a sleep, and death is when we make up. The real life is in the Afterlife. This means true companionship with the Divine will also take place in the Afterlife. There, you will witness and feel the source of life, all beauties, and Divine manifestations.

All the words and actions in this world, your prayers, commitments, horizons of your Divine knowledge, fervor, and relationship with Him will appear in the Afterlife in the form of different surprises. Some narrations report that God will manifest with His perfect beauty on Fridays—whatever Friday stands for in the calendar of the Afterlife. We do not know how this manifestation will take place, but the Prophet said it will be as if we see the full moon on the horizon, as clear as without any veils in between. (Ibn Abi Shayba, Musannaf 1/477; Tabarani, al-Mu’jamu’l-awsat 2/314).

These are all descriptions to help our minds better connect with the phenomenon. Otherwise, the nature and truth of this manifestation is far from our knowledge. What we only know is that everyone will be enraptured, as it were, with the experience, and that every individual’s experience will be in accordance with the depth of his or her Divine knowledge. It is told in Bad’ul-Amali, a work that narrates the Islamic creed in a poetic form, that those who will see the Divine beauty will forget all the blessings they otherwise enjoy in paradise. Their eyes do not seek any of those gifts in that moment after what they saw as the beauty of God.

The first step, then, is of course to attain Divine companionship in this worldly life. What we will be blessed with in the Afterlife will be based on what we attain in this life. For instance, those who do not believe in this gift of “seeing God,” who are not at ease with this idea and do not feel anything about it deep down, will not be blessed with this honor in the Afterlife. As expressed in the verse, “And that human has only that for which he labors, and his labor will be brought forth to be seen” (53:39-40), what one will find in the Afterlife will be rewards for his or her true belief, sincerity, supplications, prayers, enthusiasm, and efforts.

Conversations on the Beloved

Companionship of the Beloved is an important blessing and honor, and the best road that leads there is conversations on the Beloved. This entails a deep love for God, and for such lovers to orient every thought and conversation back to Him. In a well-known prayer of the Prophet he said, “O God, indeed, I ask You for Your love and the love of those who love You, and for the action that will cause me to attain Your love” (Tirmidhi, Daavat 75).

Conversations on the Beloved may sometimes come about by speaking directly on the All-Merciful, and at other times through indirect means that lead to Him. It is sometimes the holy scripture when you stroll through verses. Other times, it is the Prophet in whose footsteps you reach your goal. At other times, it is the book of the universe which you contemplate on to increase your knowledge. All of this will carry you to the companionship of the Divine.

To conclude, it is important to saturate one’s heart, mind, spirit, intellect, conscience, and all the faculties in his or her possession with contemplation of the Divine so one can reach His companionship. It is God’s right, and our duty, that we free ourselves from all worldly affairs and turn to Him with a sense above all neediness to reach His company.

On a cool, starry summer night
I slumber on my fluffy bed

As the ray of the sky’s eye
Shines upon my tired body

My soul goes to the world of dreams
And see spectres staring at me

One of them speaks, saying,
“I’m dead, you’re alive; change your life,”

Asking in a low voice why,
They said, “Once you’re done, no more.”

My soul shivers at that thought of
Having no chance to fix one life

I rise up to the real world
And eat food, greeting “Morning!”

Realizing that there’s only
One chance for me to do it right

Saying my thanks, I go on
To give praise for a fruitful life

I am now happy to do good
For I know I have one more chance!

Many of us must have watched a video in which a mother antelope is sacrificing herself when she saw a crocodile was approaching from behind her fawns.

Such incidences in the animal kingdom draw our attention to the innate feeling of compassion in humans and its effects on other emotions. A human whose feeling of compassion has dried up cannot show the sacrifice that the antelope has shown to her little fawns—not toward others, not even to their offspring. Studies in the field of psychology have established important facts about compassion and its effect on other emotions, especially forgiveness. When internalized, the feeling of affection plays a central role and positively influences other feelings. When this feeling dries up, a person becomes more susceptible to evil or cruel acts. American psychologist Kristin Neff gives the example of a battery when describing compassion toward our beloved ones and friends. She asserts that acquiring this emotion is a way of emotionally recharging our batteries and says that compassion strengthens our tendencies to forgive the wrongdoings of our friends.

It is striking that Ms. Neff considers forgiveness and compassion from the point of one’s close circle of friends. According to her, an internalized compassion makes forgiving easier and, to an extent, gives us the opportunity to heal the emotional wounds caused by others. However, by stressing that forgiving doesn’t mean giving up defending our rights, Neff also points out the need to keep balance between compassion, forgiveness, and justice [1]. When a criminal act is committed, a personal or public right is violated. People tried and found guilty by an independent, just, and impartial court must be penalized.

Source of bad intentions

Psychotherapist Beverly Engel, who has written books on emotions, draws attention to the complications that a lack of compassion can cause in human psychology. According to her, the source of every evil desire in individuals is a deficiency of compassion. Beverly Engel states that reinvigorating the feeling of compassion can help healing other emotions that have been damaged [2]. For Tara Brach, to be compassionate means to be courageous—to love ourselves, each other, and the whole world [3].

Norwegian Theologians Einar Berg and Oddbjørn Leirvik, who conduct research about Islam, investigate the religious grounds that compassion can blossom upon and link this feeling with the Holy Qur’an and its unequalled representative Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Leirvik compares Prophet Muhammad’s forgiveness to Prophet Joseph (peace be upon him); just like Joseph forgave his brothers who had treated him cruelly, Leirvik reminds us that Prophet Muhammad forgave his enemies when he conquered Mecca [4]. According to Berg, compassion and forgiveness are what the Holy Qur’an often emphasizes [5]. Berg sheds light on the feeling of compassion by highlighting the following verse: “Inform My servants that I am the Forgiver, the Merciful” (Surah Hijr – The Rock- verse 49).

As also mentioned by Berg, in Islam a great emphasis is placed on compassion and forgiveness – for forgiveness is a manifestation of compassion. God introduces Himself to us with His divine names al-Rahman (the Gracious) and al-Raheem (the Merciful). Many verses of the Qur’an mention God’s blessed name, al-Rauf (the most Benevolent, most Compassionate) [6]. Manifestations of these divine names can be seen to the utmost level in Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), who is described as “the Sun of Compassion” and “the Prophet of Mercy.”

Al-Ragheb al-Isfahani and Al-Jawhari (two prominent Muslim scholars) state that compassion and mercy are the most significant attributes of our Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). They explain that the word “Rahma” in the verse, “We did not send you except as mercy to mankind” (Surah Anbiya -The Prophets- verse 107), means deep affection and kindness which require being tender-hearted, forgiving, and beneficent [7]. For this reason, Muslim scholars often refer to the following Hadith of Prophet Muhammad: “God the Gracious treats with mercy and kindness those who treat each other with feelings of mercy. (So) you act with mercy and kindness toward those on earth so that those in heavens shall show you mercy” [8].

Real chivalry

Fudayl bin Iyadh, too, addresses forgiveness relating to close friends and says that real chivalry is to forgive the faults of one’s companions. Wahb bin Munabbih mentions compassion together with benignity and states that, “Compassion is the twin sister of benignity” [9]. According to Imam Ghazali, one believer forgiving another believer’s mistakes is one of the rights of brotherhood [10].

In the teachings of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, compassion has an important place. For him, compassion is one of the “fastest and safest” ways leading us to truth, and it is also one of the principles among the laws established in nature. He states that compassion has an all-comprehensive truth and acts as a mirror for the divine name al-Rahim (The Merciful). A person whose senses and emotions have gained integrity and wholeness, begins showing affection, not only to his or her own offspring but to all innocent beings. Bediuzzaman draws attention to the point that compassion is a sincere, pure, and gratuitous feeling that does not expect any return, and shows animals’ adorable and self-denying affection toward their little babies as evidence for this fact [11].

When we consider the mercy and compassion of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, we see that correctly and properly fulfilling the duty of conveying and instructing the divine message is strongly linked with earnest compassion and tender mercy. No matter when they live, it is absolutely fundamental for the conveyors of this divine message to never deviate from this path [12]. Scholar Fethullah Gülen reminds that Islam advises forgiving by any means possible, not to surrender to the urges of grudge or hatred, and to never be possessed by the feeling of revenge [13].

References

1. 1. Kristin Neff, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, 2011.
2. Beverly Engel, It Wasn’t Your Fault, New Harbinger Publications. 2015.
3. Tara Brach, Radical Compassion, New York: Viking, 2019.
4. Oddbjørn Leirvik, Islams Etikk, Universitetsforlaget, 2002, p. 45.
5. Einar Berg, Islam: Fra konfilikt til dialog, Universitetsforlaget, 1982.
6. Nur 24:20; Nahl 16:47; Tawbah 9:128.
7. ar-Ragib al-Isfahani, al-Mufradat, p. 191; al-Jawhari, as-Sihah, V, 1929; al-Munjid, “rhm,” p. 253. Bukhari, Janaiz 32, Ayman 9, Tawhid 25; Muslim, Janaiz 9, 11; Abu Dawud, Janaiz 24.
8. Tirmidhi, Birr 16; Abu Dawud, Adab 58.
9. Imam Ghazali, Ihya-i Ulumi’d-Din, Edited by: Dr. Mehmet Yavuz Şeker, Işık Yayınları. 2015.
10. Ibid.
11. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Mektubat, Istanbul: Şahdamar Yayınları, 2014, p. 29.
12. www.herkul.org/kirik-testi/sefkatle-acilan-kapilar/
13. M. Fethullah Gülen, “İnanmış İnsanın Nitelikleri”, Çağlayan, Ağustos 2020.

Constant progress within science and technology helps shed light on secrets related to life as well as wisdom and the real purpose behind many phenomena. Science also helps us to realize that many events we assume to be unconnected actually exist in harmony and solidarity with each other.

Our world is like a giant aquarium: 71% of its surface is covered with water, and it has a lamp, a heater, and air pumps, and there are biological systems for cleaning and food supplies.

This giant aquarium covers a surface area of 361 million square kilometers; its volume is 1.3 billion cubic kilometers, and it has an average depth of around 3,700 meters—and a maximum depth of 10,994 meters (the Mariana Trench). A wide range of interesting creatures, each having unique biological characteristics—from 30-meter-long whales to microscopic plankton [1]—live within this magnificent aquarium. Since the Sun lights up only the upper zones of the seas, the remaining majority is always in darkness. Certain temperature and depth ranges provide natural living environments for certain species.

The night lamp

Bright moonlight is a significant factor for the growth of larval fishes [2]. When the moonlight emerges, the larval fishes approach the surface of the sea while the predators that feed on them simultaneously move to the bottom.

In a study carried out on the larval fishes of the sixbar wrasse (Thalassoma hardwicke), in the family Labridae, known for its thick lips, it was found that their growth rate was maximized with the rise of the moon—i.e., when the first half of the night was dark, and the second half of the night was bright. Yet, the light mentioned here was not just light from any source, but the light coming from the rising moon. It was also found that lunar phases were significant, too: the new moon provided the most efficient time period for growth whereas the full moon was the least efficient time for growth. In addition, cloud-covered nights had a negative effect on growth.

Upon the emergence of moonlight, the zooplankton, the tiny animals on which the sixbar wrasse feeds most, approach the surface, while the lantern fishes, a major predator, stay deep under the sea. Meanwhile, the plankton called “Noctiluca scintillans” emit blue light under the moonlight via a chemical process called bioluminescence. In lamps invented by mankind, a significant portion of energy dissipates in the form of heat; bioluminescent fish and plankton lose no energy. It was also found that the ecosystem is harmed by the intensive artificial light and surface pollution in coastal cities. It is certain that more effective ways of managing of fisheries needs to be developed.

The heater

The heater of this magnificent aquarium is the Sun. The amount of light that penetrates into the oceans and seas depends on the position of the Sun at any given moment, as well as the density of the water. Most of the sunlight that hits the surface of the water is reflected back. The red wavelengths are absorbed by water molecules in the top few meters of the water. The yellow and green wavelengths can penetrate a bit deeper, while the blue and purple wavelengths can penetrate as deep as 1 km. On the other hand, the blue surface color is the result of a variety of factors, such as dissolved chlorophyll.

The water in the part of the oceans below 1,100 meters, called the “deep zone,” is colder and consists of almost 80% of the total ocean volume. The average temperature of the world’s oceans is only 3.9 °C.

The upper 200 meters of the ocean, called the “sunlight zone,” is the part of the ocean where photosynthesis takes place, and it is also the zone which contains most of the biodiversity. The plants that live in the parts of the ocean deeper than the sunlight zone are unable to photosynthesize. For the survival of life in the depths, another source of heat is granted, in addition to the Sun. This source consists of the hydrothermal (hot water) channels that extend from magma to the ocean floor. Hydrothermal vents, containing mostly sulfur compounds of volcanic origin and fine-grained clay minerals, form the basis of special ecosystems, where the organisms are specially created to live in such environments.

The oceans and seas are equipped with unseen water pipelines. These are the ocean currents, which have been perfectly designed to bring food and increase the diversity of species. They also help create global heat transmission, which plays a dominant role in shaping the climate of many of Earth’s regions. One of the most striking examples of this is the hot water current called the Gulf Stream. The circulation of hot water guided by this stream along a specific course makes northwest Europe much more temperate than any other region at the same latitude.

The food

“And We have sent down iron, in which is stern might. And it has a lot of benefits for humankind. So that God may mark out those who help (the cause of) God and His Messengers, though they do not see Him. Surely God is All-Strong, All-Glorious with irresistible might” (Al-Hadid, 25).

The common opinion about the phrase “We have sent down” in the Qur’anic verse above is that the iron in our world came from the gigantic stars in space. Heavy metals like iron are created at the cores of giant stars. Iron can only be produced in giant stars, which are much larger than the Sun, at temperatures up to a several hundred million degrees. The Sun’s temperature of about 15 million degrees does not suffice to form iron. When the amount of iron in these stars exceeds a certain level, the star cannot withstand it and explodes—also called a “supernova.” Meteoroids that contain iron are dispersed into space, and they travel until they are caught in the gravity of a celestial body and merge with it. Not only iron but also other elements such as nickel (⁵⁹Ni) came to our world from outside the solar system.

Another opinion suggests that thousands of small and large meteoroids, known colloquially as shooting stars, scatter by colliding with our atmosphere and descend to the Earth in the form of dust. Asteroids enter the atmosphere at a very high speed, are heated due to friction and burn to pieces, with a significant portion of them turning into dust. Iron atoms abundant in this dust are a source of food for plankton in the oceans, which have a vital role in the production of most of the oxygen produced through photosynthesis, and thus in the life chain on Earth. This dust is an important source of the iron that the plankton need for photosynthesis.

Iron-rich grains of sand that reach the oceans after sandstorms in great deserts are assigned the same duty: ensuring the proliferation of phytoplankton, followed by a plenitude of fish in certain periods.

According to a study carried out by the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University [3], the blue whale, one of the largest mammals, feeds on krill [4], one of the smallest creatures; krill feed on zooplankton, which in turn feed on phytoplankton. In other words, the beginning of the chain of life is connected to the existence of plankton, while the viability of plankton depends on the iron sent from space by meteors, like food provided to an aquarium tank.

This magnificent aquarium, which is home to about 230,000 identified species iso far, still has secrets waiting to be discovered. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 95 percent of the ocean floor is yet to be explored. Today, the surface of Mars is better known than the deep oceans. Due to risks such as the high pressure, more people have gone into space than to the deep ocean floor.

As scientific developments progress, it is understood that a thing is not just what it seems, and life is full of wise and hidden purposes that we do not know or understand. The sheer interconnection of the visible and invisible parts of the entire ecosystem continues to amaze fair-minded scientists. The connection between moonlight and the unicellular plankton that produce bioluminescence, the magnetic protective shield that produces the aurora borealis, and shooting stars that provide sustenance to some sea creatures in the form of iron dust, are perfect scenes offered for our observation.

Notes

1. Microscopic creatures that aquatic animals feed on.
2. Jeffrey Shima et al. Lunar rhythms in growth of larval fish. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2021, 288. 20202609. 10.1098/rspb.2020.2609.
3. “PNAS Study: Migrating blue whales rely on memory more than environmental cues to find prey”, today.oregonstate.edu/news/pnas-study-migrating-blue-whales-rely-memory-more-environmental-cues-find-prey
4. “Krill”, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krill

Tim and Adam work at the same office. It was Monday. They went to Central Park to have their lunch together. It was a beautiful, cool, cloudy fall day.

On their walk to the park, they mostly talked about nature. While walking towards an empty bench, dry leaves crunched underfoot. A cool breeze swept their faces.

After finishing their lunch, they walked in the park. The sun appeared between clouds, showing its weak but warm smile.

They talked about the fall foliage, which was at its peak, and the view being just like one of Bob Ross’ paintings. The beauty and balance of nature, not touched by human hand. Then the conversation moved to the cosmos and its perfect balance and its renewal across millions of years.

Does it all happen on its own? Could it be just by accident or nature?

While leaves crunched underfoot, Adam said, “Too bad all of these leaves are dead now. I remember when they were green, fresh, and alive.”

They kept walking.

“They were beautiful when they were attached to the trees, all green and lush. Now they are dead; but they have a different beauty in them: changing colors, falling in slow motion in harmony, drying, breaking under our feet,” agreed Tim.

“It is beautiful to look at, I’ll give you that. I am in awe of their transformation. It’s how nature works. I don’t know how else to explain all of this. Too bad it is all going to be wasted and become part of the carbon cycle and that is the end of them,” Adam responded.

Tim picked up a greenish yellow leaf and contemplated its details—its shape, the veins going across it. He thought that there must be a connection between his eyes and this leaf, as his eyes really enjoyed looking at it. Then he turned to Adam and asked, “You think there is no purpose in these leaves’ existence?”

“Well, yes,” Adam said. “That is exactly how I see it. And you know what is worse is that we, too, will turn into dust and become part of the carbon cycle. I honestly do not care what happens to me after I die, you know. Part of the carbon cycle, ozone cycle, nitrogen cycle, or oxygen cycle; it does not matter to me. It makes me feel like I am here to be part of one these cycles and that is it. This entire world is like a huge recycling center.”

Tim had known Adam for a couple of years now. He was a lively, carefree, and worldly person. Tim heard something different in his tone of voice that he had not heard before: it sounded heavy. A sadness or deep contemplation; he was not sure what to call it, but it was different. Maybe it was the melancholy of the fall.

He heard more than what Adam explained. He heard Adam’s soul screaming “I do not want to be lost. I do not want to turn into dust and be gone forever. I want to live. I want to stay alive forever.”

It was painful to hear. Wasn’t this one of the base desires of human nature? To live forever?

Tim thought about this for a second and then said, “What would you think if dying, going under the soil, becoming dust, so to speak, is not actually the end of your life?”

He waited a second for Adam to take it in and then continued. “What do you make of all of this? How does it make you feel?”

Adam picked up a brown leaf with holes in it and said, “Me and this leaf are the same; we will both live and eventually die, go under the soil, and life will end for both of us.”

Tim asked, “What makes you think of that?”

“How couldn’t I? Regardless of the recycled version of me, I am g-o-n-e! Call it gas, dust, particles, atoms… Nothing matters afterwards, because I am gone from this world.” He continued: “Just like plastic, paper, or glass dumped at the recycling center, I will be dumped into the dark, wet, and cold soil and the recycling will begin. And I am finished forever! Perhaps a new form of life will emerge from our remains.”

Tim asked, “Have you ever seen how a recycling center works?

Adam replied in surprise, “No. Why?”

Tim answered, “You are partially right with your recycling analogy. After all those materials are being dumped into the recycling center, they are sorted, cleaned, melted, combined, and after all that preparation, they are given a new purpose and a new life: something new is made from them, completely different than what they were before. They are new, they work, they have a new purpose and a life to serve us all over again after they are used, broken, and thrown away!”

“And it is humans making it on their own! Guess where the inspiration comes from?” Tim smiled while asking this question.

“Nature?” Adam asked hesitantly. “I had never thought about that.” He scratched his head. “So, are you suggesting we will go into the nature’s recycling center, so to speak, and will be given a new life and a purpose after we die?”

“That was not the question I had in mind” Tim replied.

“What was it then?” asked Adam.

Tim took a deep breath of the crisp, clean autumn air and continued after a pause: “The purpose of being in this world! What do you think?”

“I always wondered about my purpose in this life” Adam said. “But I have never found the answer. And I concluded there is none with all the evil, fights against the evil, egotism, hunger… And we all die in a way; maybe some in pain and some in comfortable beds, and we are soon forgotten.”

Tim asked Adam, “What should be the aim of our lives then?”

Adam replied cautiously, “Maybe, it is living a decent life, making a difference, and leaving a positive legacy behind us?”

“Isn’t this one of the most bewildering questions? Why are we here? What am I doing here? What is my purpose? Isn’t it what everyone wonders?” Tim thought.

Still holding the leaf he picked up a while ago, Tim examined it and showed it to Adam. “Think about it,” he said. “This leaf is perfect in its own way. It has a life, a purpose, and a destiny. Right?”

Adam nodded.

“Does just being a leaf mean being purposeless? Was it just for decoration? Do you think it just hangs there and does nothing other than furnishing the tree?”

“It was part of a big tree,” Tim continued.

Adam said, “In spring, it budded, grew; some turned into flowers, and some turned into fruits, and some buds became a leaf. And now it will die and be part of one of the cycles, I guess.”

“I think so too,” agreed Tim. “And if we agree that it has a purpose, what could it be?”

“Something to do with photosynthesis, oxygen production, cleaning the air, maybe?”

“Agreed. To me it feels like nothing is wasted in nature. They get new lives, purposes. So, how come we don’t get one after we die—or don’t have one already?” Tim asked.

“So, do I need to be happy that I will die and decompose? Is that a good thing?” Adam asked. “Am I right?”

Tim smiled.

“You agreed, you and the leaf are the same: alive now, will die tomorrow, decompose, and turn into dust. Here is the question: if the living leaf cleans the air, produces oxygen so we can breathe, and if your dead body serves many purposes just like a simple looking dead leaf does, don’t you think it is only fair that you, as a breathing human, should have a bigger and more important purpose when you are alive?

“You are as perfect and as complicated as any creature on the surface of the earth; don’t you think we have a bigger purpose than a leaf?

“Can you explain why else people have this brain of ours? Isn’t it only logical that we have a greater purpose than a simple leaf?”

Tim checked the time on his phone, and they realized their lunch break was almost over. They rushed back to work while listening to the music of fall under their feet.

“They will say: ‘Our Lord! You have made us die twice, and given us life twice, so we acknowledge our sins. Is there, then, any way to get out?” (al-Mu’min 11)

The verse refers to dying twice. This entails that one has to be alive before each death. Before fertilization, both sperm and ovum are alive, and with fertilization, they complete their functions and die. The duty of the sperm and ovum are to add 23 chromosomes each to make 46. In the zygote phase (nutfah in the Qur’anic description), the sperm and ovum die, only to acquire a new nature [1].

Of approximately 400 million sperms, each having 23 chromosomes, only one can enter one ovum, having the same number of chromosomes. Thus, the lover meets the beloved, but their fusion results in both of their deaths: as the sperm enters the ovum, the process by which two cells die starts. The membrane at the head of the sperm disintegrates upon collision with the ovum, and the sperm uses an enzyme that is secreted upon this collision to pierce through the membrane of the ovum and enter inside. During this short-lived “welcome” ceremony held for only one cell, all border crossings are closed with an electrical activity inside the ovum. There is no room for another lover in the heart of the beloved as it has found its lover.

Multiple pregnancies occur either when several ova are fertilized by a sperm each (dizygotic multiple pregnancies) or when the fertilized ovum or zygote splits into two at an early stage (enzygotic multiple pregnancies).

In the process of this first death, the tail and membrane of the sperm disintegrate. 23 chromosomes, which the sperm is required to deliver to the ovum, are located at its head, which is 4,000th of a millimeter wide. When these chromosomes fuse with the other 23 chromosomes at the center of the ovum, i.e., when the mission is accomplished, the process of death commences.

Sperm cells are produced in a male’s testes, and their journey begins there; they travel a long way to meet the ovum of the mother. The distance an average size sperm travels is proportionately equivalent to almost 2.4 million km for a human with an average height, which means traversing the world’s 40,000-km circumference 60 times. A sperm has a length of 25-350 micrometers [2].

In this voyage, the sperm attains a speed of 40 km per hour. If we compare it with the running speed of a human being, this is like a person running at a speed of 600,000 km per hour—i.e., approximately 500 times the speed of sound [3].

Although some 400,000 ova are produced, only 400 of them are delivered to the womb via tubes from the ovaries.

This voyage culminates in the formation of a zygote. As such, both the sperm and the ovum have performed their duties, i.e., bringing together 23 chromosomes from each, before dying. Meanwhile, some 400 million sperms competing with each other to reach the ovum first secrete certain enzymes to help the winner of the race. In a sense, they die a sacrificial death.

This process, starting with the formation of a zygote, is described in the Qur’an as follows:

“We created humankind (in the very beginning) from a specially sifted extract of clay. Then We made it into a fertilized ovum in a safe lodging. Then We created of the fertilized ovum a clot clinging (to the womb wall), and (afterwards in sequence). We created of the clinging clot a (chew of) lump, and We created of (a chew of) lump bones, and We clothed the bones in flesh. Then We caused it to grow into another creation. So Blessed and Supreme is God, the Creator Who creates everything in the best and most appropriate form, and has the ultimate rank of creativity” (al-Mu’minun, 23:12-14).

We can say that human beings are created in the womb in seven phases:

1. sifted extract of clay (organic and inorganic elements, protein soup)
2. zygote (nutfah)
3. clot
4. chew of lump
5. creation of bones
6. clothing bones with flesh
7. causing it to grow into another creation (blowing of the soul).

Death is not the end; on the contrary, it is the beginning of a new life. The first death, mentioned in the verse, is the death of sperm and ovum after fusing with each other and their clinging as a “clot” to the inner layer of the womb, which can be considered a grave where they can start a new life. This first death is a means for being born to this world. The death at the end of the life in this world is the “second death,” referenced in the verse, and as a result of this death, one will be resurrected for a second time in the eternal world. God knows best.

In Sura an-Najm, there is another subtle coincidence related to human being’s being born twice and dying twice: “And He it is Who (by His Will, Power, and creation) enables to laugh and to weep. And He it is Who causes to die and gives life” (an-Najm, 53:43-44).

In the 43rd verse, laughing is mentioned before weeping, while in the 44th verse, death comes before life; in other words, laughing is linked to death while weeping is associated with life. When the sperm and the ovum, in a sense, die when it clings as a clot to the womb, this sends a signal to the mother, telling her that her pregnancy has started. The embryo being buried in the grave of the womb is the first death. This news brings happiness to the parents, making them laugh. Nine months later, the child is born, crying.

The sperm and the ovum perform the function of bringing together the sound chromosomes. When they fuse, they die a sacrificial death in order to be resurrected. Just as sound chromosomes brought by the sperm and the ovum are means for the birth of a sound body, the righteous deeds we brought to the Hereafter may be means for us to earn God’s mercy and right to enter the Paradise. Our duty is to be diligent about faith and righteous deeds, safeguard them carefully, and take them safely to the eternal abode. The road is a long and arduous one, with many predicaments, but the destination is very beautiful and worth everything. In all of these processes, God knows every lodging and disposition.

“No living creature is there moving on the earth but its provision depends on God, and He knows its every lodging and disposition (every stage of its life), and the duration of its stay, and the moment of its transition therefrom. All is in a Manifest Book” (Hud, 11: 6). [4]

Ziya Pasha:

“I glorify God, Whose art amazes the minds
and incapacitates the elites of science, art, and virtue.”

Footnotes

1. Nutfah is the water-like liquid reproductive substance. In the Holy Qur’an, nutfah means the single cell that results from the fertilization of the ovum with a sperm. In embryology, this cell is called a “zygote.” In the late 18th century, it was understood that human beings are created from zygotes. Yet, the Qur’an clearly states this fact in this and many other verses. (See Suat Yıldırım, Kur’an-ı Hakim’in Açıklamalı Meali̇ (Annotated Translation of the Holy Qur’an), Istanbul: Define Yayınları, 2007, p. 348).
2. R. Baker and M. Bellis, “Number of Sperm in Human Ejaculates Varies in Accordance with Sperm Competition Theory”, Sperm Competition in Humans, Ed. T. K. Shackelford and N. Pound, Boston: Springer, 2006, pp. 131–134.
3. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe reached a velocity of 532.000 km per hour.
4. Elmalılı Hamdi Yazır, Hak Dini Kuran Dili, Istanbul: Eser Neşriyat ve Dağıtım, 1979, Vol. 4, p. 2757.

Denoting abandonment of all (worldly) pleasures and delights, and the affliction and hardship one bears when overcoming corporeality, chila (suffering) is used to express an initiate’s spending at least forty days in strict austerity and self-discipline in the name of spiritual training. During this period, initiates keep to the absolute bare minimum in meeting such bodily needs as eating, drinking, sleeping and speaking, and spend most of their time in worshipping, mentioning God, thinking and self-supervision. As if they had died before dying, they concentrate on death and are annihilated with respect to their carnal soul and prepares for a new, spiritual life with the necessary endowment to be persons devoted to God.

Dervishes spend the period of suffering either in a silent corner of a dervish lodge or in a quiet room in their homes. Associated with austerity and even serving to fulfill some of its functions, suffering is an attempt to gain nearness to God or an active expectation of meeting with Him in the spirit. The original word used, chila in Persian and arba‘in in Arabic, means forty, because such a period lasts at least for forty days, although it may last for many more days or even months or years. It may even occur that the dervish feels obliged to suffer the whole life long in order to surmount the animal aspect of his or her nature. Regarding all hardships that they suffer on God’s way as His precious gifts, they like life more as its griefs and hardships increase, and they welcome afflictions in the delight of living a conscious, deeply felt life. Some people of the heart consider such sufferings and afflictions as Divine favors presented in those forms, and desire more. Fuduli expresses his thoughts in this respect in the voice of Majnun as follows:

Never reduce Your grace on people of affliction;
that is, make me addicted to more and more misfortunes.

Jalalu’d-Din Rumi likens suffering and afflictions to a guest knocking on our door every morning and stresses that the dear guest should be welcomed and entertained:

Every moment a grief comes upon your heart like a dear guest.
When an emissary of grief visits you, welcome it as a friend.
In fact, it is not a stranger to you, for
you and it are acquainted.

Ibrahim Haqqi voices the same thoughts, dressing them in the style of his age:

If grief and melancholy come upon your heart,
suffer it and know that it is acquainted with you.
If anything occurs to you from the Ultimate Truth,
accept it with warm welcome.
Sorrow is a guest, entertain it, so that
God may find you welcoming every misfortune.
….
Hold not back from affliction so as not to become unmanly;
Many people relying on God are happy with affliction.

For Esrefoglu Rumi [1], even poison is like honey or sugar:

Esrefoglu Rumi, this is what behooves
those who love the Beloved,
They should swallow poison
as if it were sugar for the sake of the Friend.

In this way, it is essential to be very welcoming toward afflictions, and to welcome with the same contentment whatever comes from God—good or bad, happiness or suffering. Moreover, there are some other principles which dervishes should observe during certain periods of suffering that they spend in retreat.

Suffering, which usually lasts for forty or a few forty days, is the most direct way for travelers to God who are in pursuit of lofty ideals to purify their minds and hearts and to deepen in thought and feelings in consideration of the world beyond, and to rise to the level of life in the horizon of the heart and spirit where they will share the same aura with spiritual beings. Suffering exists in all the heavenly or unheavenly religions and religion-like spiritual systems; it is necessary in order to discover the innate power of the spirit. But here we will not discuss that aspect of it, which rather concerns mystical movements and parapsychology.

Muslim Sufis base their consideration of suffering on the forty days which Prophet Moses spent on Mount Sinai before being addressed by God (see, the Qur’an, 2:51; 7:142). They also refer to the forty years the Children of Israel had to spend in the desert of Sinai as a punishment for their refraining from fighting and as a preparation for their future life. In Christianity, there is the time of Lent (a period of forty days before Easter), which shows that suffering is common to almost all religions and religion-like systems. Furthermore, even if it only lasts at most for ten days, retreat into a mosque without going out during the last ten days of Ramadan for the purpose of more devotion can also be considered as having some relation with suffering.

In the Muslim, Christian and Jewish worlds, and in different schools of thought in Islam, there have always been retreat and seclusion for the purpose of spiritual refinement and training. While such refinement and training have been performed in special rooms of retreat and seclusion, called houses of suffering, followers of other religions have performed the same in the seclusion of their places of worship.

Dervishes are taken into a retreat or a house of suffering by their spiritual guide. There they live alone, eating, sleeping, and speaking little, and spending most of their time in worship. They hold themselves under strict control and self-supervision, continuously breathing life into the heart, and traveling in the mind between their inner world and the outer world. Wholly dedicated to attaining a purely spiritual life, they try to feel the Lord with all their being and to see beyond the door half-opened on the heart. Endeavoring to discern and attain unity, they fear missing any signs of the Divine manifestations that may dawn on the hills of the heart. They express the limits of their capacity and the insufficiency of their willpower with sighs of poverty and helplessness, and become more hopeful with their reliance on the limitless Power of the Ultimate Truth. When left with no means at all, they expect to be surprised by the opening of a door, and unburden themselves to their Lord, Who sees everything, in the manner of a poor beggar, saying like Muhammed Lutfi Efendi:

Be kind to me, O my Sovereign,
do not abandon favoring the needy and destitute!
Does it befit the All-Kind and Munificent to stop favoring His slaves?

As long as they grow in knowledge and love of God, they deepen in relationship with the Lord, and devote themselves wholly to feeling and thinking of the Divine. Keeping the satisfaction of their essential needs to the barest minimum, and overcoming their corporeality, they become confidants of heavenly beings in their states, attributes and being, and begin to breathe the breezes of friendship with the Sovereign. (to be continued in the next issue)

Note

1. Esrefoglu Abdullah Rumi (d. 1484) was a Sufi scholar and poet who lived in Iznik in the North-Western Turkey. He was taught by Haji Bayram Veli in Ankara and Husayn Hamawi in Hama, Syria. His Muzakki’n-Nufus (“The Book Which Purifies Souls”) is very famous. (Tr.)

The solar system consists of planets, dozens of moons, and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteors revolving around the Sun at its center. Along with all these celestial bodies revolving it, the Sun turns around the Milky Way. This movement model is called the spiral model.

The planets in the solar system, based on their proximity to the Sun, are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars (terrestrial planets), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (Jovian planets), and Pluto (if accepted as a planet). The terrestrial planets are closer to the Sun. They are smaller and denser than Jovian planets. They have rocky surfaces and their cores are molten. Venus, Earth, and Mars have atmospheres. Mercury, on the other hand, does not have an atmosphere, as its surface gravity is not enough to keep atmospheric gases around the planet. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, but the surface temperatures on Venus are significantly higher compared to Mercury due to its dense atmosphere (also known as the greenhouse effect). For this reason, Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system.

Jovian planets are larger than terrestrial planets. They consist mainly of gases, and they have lower densities and do not have rocky surfaces. They have a small, liquid and solid core. Their atmospheres consist of the same elements as the terrestrial planets. The density of Saturn is 0.687 gram per cubic centimeter. This makes it the only planet in the solar system with a density less than water. Neptune and Uranus are the coldest ice giants of our solar system.

Pluto is small and cold, and it is hard to observe. It consists of ice and rocks and has a thin atmosphere and a very low gravity.

As is seen, although they are assumed to have formed from the same nebular dust, each planet is unique manifesting magnificent beauty.

The Sun accounts for 99.86 percent of the total mass of the solar system. All other celestial bodies combined (planets, asteroids, satellites, meteors, etc.) make for only 0.14 percent of mass. This is similar to the fact that about 99.9 percent of an atom’s mass belongs to the nucleus and 0.1 percent is coming from the electrons. The Sun is approximately 333,000 times heavier than Earth. It is so large that it can house approximately 1.3 million Earths inside it [1]. However, the Sun is a medium-sized star compared to hundreds of thousands of stars in the Milky Way.

The Sun’s mass is 27 million times greater than that of the Earth’s moon [2]. During a total eclipse of the Sun, the moon moves in between the Sun and Earth. The moon’s diameter is approximately 400 times smaller than the Sun’s, and the moon is approximately 400 times closer to the Earth than the Sun [3]. The moon’s perfect positioning makes a total eclipse possible.

Distances and dimensions in the universe are so huge that astronomers use special units to define distances in space. Commonly used units for space include astronomical units (AU), light years, and parsecs.

An astronomical unit is the average distance of Earth from the Sun. Earth’s orbit is elliptical, and the Sun is not properly at its center. The minimum distance between Earth and the Sun is approximately 147 million km, and the maximum distance is approximately 152 million km along the semi major axis. The average of these distances is called 1 AU and equals approximately 149.6 million km [4].

One light year is the distance light can travel in space in one year, and it is calculated as 9.46 trillion km. The speed of light in a void is around 300,000 km per second (299,792,458 km/s). 1 parsec is approximately 3.26 light years.

The distances of planets to the Sun are not random. They seem to follow a mathematical sequence called Bode’s sequence. This sequence was first announced by German astronomer Johann Daniel Titius, in 1766. The sequence, popularized later by J. E. Bode in 1772, became very popular among the astronomical community as it held true for the distances of six planets – all that were known at that time – from the Sun [5]. The planets were found to conform considerably to this sequence. This sequence became all the more important with the discovery of Uranus, in 1781, as this sequence predicted the distance of Uranus from the Sun. Bode’s sequence starts with 0, followed by 3, and then, the next number is the twice the previous number.

0;    3;    6;    12;    24;    48;    96;    192;    384; …

Actual distances of planets from the Sun:

To adapt this sequence to the distances of planets from the Sun, Bode added 4 to these numbers before dividing them by 10. These changes do not break the original sequence. Adding 4 to the numbers of Bode’s sequence:

0+4=4;    3+4=7;    6+4=10;    12+4=16;    24+4=28;    48+4=52;    96+4=100;    192+4=196;    384+4=388

and then, dividing them by 10, we get:

0.4;    0.7;    1;    1.6;    2.8;    5.2;    10;    19.6;    38.8 (AU).

Looking again at the distances of planets from the Sun, we see that these distances are very much like the numbers calculated by Bode:

This sequence suggests that there should be a planet at a distance of 2.8 AU from the Sun, but there is none. However, there is the asteroid belt (between 2.2 AU and 3.2 AU) at this position. Bode’s law led to the discovery of the asteroids as a result of a search for a planet between Mars and Jupiter. The largest astronomical object at a distance of 2.7 AU from the Sun is Ceres. Ceres is the largest object in the main asteroid belt in orbit between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres has a width that is the half of the moon’s, but its mass is 1 percent of the moon’s. That is, it has a very low density. It is the largest asteroid in the solar system and has a round shape thanks to its gravity. Many astronomical sources refer to Ceres as a dwarf planet.

Neptune is the only planet that does not conform to Bode’s sequence.

As seen, the planets are not randomly lined up around the Sun. It is not a coincidence that these planets are positioned like beads of a rosary according to a special mathematical formula.

References

1. How large is the Sun compared to Earth? | Cool Cosmos (caltech.edu)
2. Currents: NOAA’s National Ocean Service Education
3. Why do the sun and moon seem like the same size? | Space | EarthSky
4. Solar System Math (nasa.gov)
5. Bode’s law – Oxford Reference

Love is one of the few words in the human dictionary that has no clear definition. It is an ignorance of knowing and a force of feeling that keeps humans in a state of churning and longing, no matter what they encounter in the natural world. In universal and historical human experience, it has become painfully clear that love is not to be found in the physical, in direct contact with our senses. Love is frustratingly immaterial, and material things have failed time and time again to satisfy the spiritual and mental lust that have produced this “sacred” notion. Love has no business anywhere, except the transcendental and the a priori. But as it possesses physical beings, love must also have an attachment to the material world. For humans, love must be an attraction to a beauty of perfection that is beyond the physical but partly manifest in it. Apart from this point, which is agreed upon by many seekers of truth and wisdom, any further details have been unresolved.

Is love the end or is it just the means to an end? In Plato’s Symposium, love—or eros, as it is called—is discussed by several people who are unable to give a whole enough definition to satisfy Socrates, the final speaker. According to Plato, love in its true and best form goes beyond romantic and erotic love. It is not merely sexual attraction or the emotional bond in a human relationship, hence the popular term Platonic love. It has a higher, truer form than physical affection. In Socrates’s words, love is neither knowledge nor ignorance but something in between. It is neither poverty nor wealth but something in between. It represents the lack of something good and beautiful but at the same time, holds the wisdom and passion to attain it.

Humans can only feel love for things they do not have. The object of love has to be beauty—the greater the beauty, the greater the love. In order to feel and practice the best love, Socrates argues that one should look for higher forms of beauty; the highest beauties should be those that leave the physical and join the abstract and divine. He calls love or eros a daemon or a being of a nature between the divine and the natural. This indicates that love is a messenger between heaven and earth, a carrier that serves as the tether for humans to the abstract      and spiritual, to a beauty of perfection and to something higher and more meaningful than themselves and the world around them. Once this is realized, Socrates continues to explain that the object of love then needs to shift from beauty to the good. Love needs to become a desire for the good to be one’s own. Once love is directed at the perfect beauty, it needs to shift to the ultimate higher good for it to be complete and attain virtue. Love is the yearning for the true and divine form of Beauty, and its ultimate goal is the true and divine form of the Good, both   of which exist in and of themselves, in accordance with the Platonic perception of forms. Socrates makes this point abundantly clear, as he argues that true love longs for an ultimate divine form of  beauty and good.

Once Socrates explains the object and nature of love, he moves on to describe the act of love or eros. Love needs to lead to an action towards the object of its focus or desire. However, rather than possessing beauty, love is wanting to give birth in beauty. Love is the desire to engender or bring birth from what is beautiful. According to Socrates, experiencing and feeling beauty helps the lover give birth to something. In other terms, being in beauty or within the presence of beauty causes one to give birth to that which is the end result that love longs for.

In its most simple, crude form, this suggests intercourse with a physically beautiful body, thus giving birth to a child. But Socrates claims that there are higher forms of birth, just like there are higher forms of beauty, and the desire for one in the other arouses higher forms of love or eros. The object of love—beauty—becomes the means to a greater end, the birth. Giving birth grants a form of immortality, the highest form of existence, to the birth giver or the pregnant. Whenever the pregnant comes near beauty, they become glad, rejoice, dissolve, and produce offspring by giving birth. In a way, one who is beautiful releases the pregnant from labor pains through this divine act of love.

The offspring may come in many forms with ranging values and elevate the birth giver or the lover to a state of immortality, the level of which ranges according to the level of the offspring, the beauty, and the love. This indicates that the higher the love and beauty, the greater the offspring, and the greater the immortality. Therefore, the lover should always naturally look for the highest and best beloved in order to give birth to the best offspring and attain the highest attribute of immortality, something that all humans desire in a temporary, finite world. Once more, this shows how love always looks for something greater, higher, and outside of the physical world. Love is a desire for something it doesn’t possess. Ultimately, the only thing humans find themselves lacking or unable to have, is the divine perfection of good, something abstract and supernatural. As it is an impossibility in the physical,   natural world, there exists a spirit of eros that knows wisely enough of this beauty but is too impoverished and worldly to reach it completely. This eros has nothing to do but possess the poor mortals and help them realize the true beauty.

Socrates gives a guide on how to do just that. He argues that a person  needs to start by loving the beauty they are able to see around them, and, one by one, learn to recognize a higher level of beauty and redirect their love accordingly. To clarify, the lover needs to start feeling love for lesser beauties, and then pass on gradually to a love for higher beauties.

As this happens, one should naturally feel contempt for lesser beauty and aspire only for higher  beauty. For example, a person should first feel love for a specific beautiful body, move up to love of all physical bodies, then move to a love of beautiful minds, then elevate to love the beauty of knowledge, then have a love for wisdom  and continue on until the ultimate beauty and the ultimate good are reached. At each rung of  this ladder of love, the lover should give birth to an offspring in the beloved, whether that is a child, a discovery of truth, or an idea in someone’s head. In the pursuit of love to behold the beautiful, a person should help the ones they behold, including themself, become more beautiful, so their love can magnify as beauty falls out of previous reach. In conclusion, Socrates  explains this process of love to make the grand point that love in its entirety and true form, is a desire for the highest beauty and good, existing outside of the physical world. All other  intermediate things are veils and stones, obstructing the way.

Love is the heart churning for what is higher and greater than what it possesses. It is a paradoxical state of neediness and fulfillment that drives the lover mad in the pursuit of the highest beloved. Just like Majnun, the true lover becomes insane as they wander in the desert, knowing and yearning for its Layla but never being able to possess it. According to Plato, humans are trapped in the desert of the physical and material while desiring the abstract and divine even though it is out of their reach. From this arises the origin of love. Socrates is just one in a long list of lovers in the painful pursuit of the highest and perfect beauty and good, existing outside of the natural realm, in a higher place that is divine, abstract, and spiritual. Love is what pulls us up, as our feet keep us down.