White blood cells (leukocytes) are fewer in number and their duty is to fight against germs. How this process works is to be expounded by the immune system under a separate title. The red blood cells are my main building blocks and they are born by the dividing of the main cells in the bone marrow. After passing through a few phases, they lose their nucleus and are filled instead with hemoglobin, a magnificent substance containing iron. Hemoglobin’s most vital function is its binding oxygen and then carbon dioxide after releasing it. Hemoglobin reaches everywhere, traveling with the blood stream. When it comes to the lungs, hemoglobin dumps the carbon dioxide and replaces is with oxygen. Then it supplies this oxygen to the cells and removes the carbon dioxide, which is produced by burning organic compounds. So its short life passes with the same ceaseless cycle to continue your life. Hemoglobin molecules’ longevity is approximately 120 days. They contain no cell elements like ribosome, mitochondria, and nucleus and therefore cannot repair themselves. They simply die when they get old. Sad? Not at all! Red blood cells fulfill the duty they were created for and leave the stage for new ones. They are broken down in the liver and bone marrow and the iron they contain is absorbed. A certain part is transformed into bilirubin, giving bile its yellow color. As you see, nothing is truly wasted.

The red blood cells in circulation number around 25 trillion, and this number does not vary greatly, as the dying ones are constantly replaced. Their measuring gives doctors an idea about possible diseases. The amount depends on various factors’ reciprocal balance. A hormone (erythropoietin) secreted by the kidneys increases the rate of production of red blood cells, in response to falling levels of oxygen in the tissues. If you lose blood due to an accident or medical operation, the stem cells in the bone marrow receive an emergency alert to produce more red blood cells. On the other hand, if you get a blood transfer, stem cells are ordered to stop producing, due to the excess of red blood cells. You see, even such basic knowledge about bodily systems fills the learner with wonder.

Deficiency of red blood cells, scientifically known as anemia, should not be ignored. It results in pallor and weariness; you feel like sleeping more. In order to avoid this condition, your body needs different things such as group B vitamins (B6, B11, B12), vitamin C, amino acids, and iron. Since it is hard to pinpoint the deficient substance, doctors generally prescribe iron-rich multivitamin supplements.

Red blood cells divide into four types, which determine the blood groups A, B, 0, and AB. In addition to the blood group, another feature known as Rh (rhesus) factor is important to know particularly before a blood transfer. Transferring the wrong type of blood may result in death.

Platelets, which are scale-shaped cells and circulate with me are not independent; they are pieces which came off bigger cells. In a cubic millimeter of blood, 250 to 350 thousand of these little scales are found and their duty is of vital importance. If it weren’t for these pieces, the slightest cut could cause death because your bleeding would not stop. Clotting is a great blessing. It usually blocks the surface of a wound within five minutes, stopping the flow of blood and saving your life. Clotting is realized through particular molecules in these minute scales as a result of a complex chain of reactions using enzymes, vitamins, and salts. Every step of this chain of reactions is another stitch to fix the wound. Other blood cells pile up and stick together behind this net and they dry up. If such clotting occurred inside the blood vessels, it would make a disastrous effect by blocking the bloodstream. I also have enzymes to break down little amounts of such clotting. As you see, everything is splendidly organized.

Peter! A blood test reveals very critical medical data. As I visit every organ, I exchange certain substances with them. Therefore, detection of an unusual substance in me can be an early warning for a disease. Nowadays, it even helps an early diagnosis of cancer.

It is not so easy for me to explain the wisdom behind all of my duties and capabilities. But to give you an idea, there are specialized departments for studying just me at medical faculties and research institutions throughout the world.

Islam is a universal religion, and the significance it gives to rights is inclusive of all creation. The comprehensive Islamic perspective on the safeguarding of rights benefits not only people, but also animals as well.

Concerning this issue, it is easy to provide many examples dating right back to the time of the Messenger of God, peace and blessing be upon him. Once, while resting on his return to Medina after a military campaign, some Companions saw a bird’s nest and took the chicks out. The mother bird appeared at that moment, and upon seeing her chicks in their hands, she started circling above them in the air. Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him, was worried as soon as he became aware of the mother bird beating its wings in grief and ordered the Companions to return the chicks to the nest (Abu Dawud, Adab, 164). The Prophet’s concern in this incident alone is enough to show that Islam is an all-embracing system that has unequivocally guaranteed the fundamental rights of every living creature; such an all-inclusive concept of rights is beyond the reach of any other system.

As attested in an authenticated hadith, one who dies while protecting his life, intellect, property, lineage, or religion is considered to be a martyr. Accordingly, striving peacefully for the preservation of these basic rights is also accepted as a form jihad. Today, indeed, it is a fact that the preservation of these five universals has established the principles of Islamic canon law and the foundations of the modern law on human rights. First and foremost, Islam calls on Muslims to preserve the religion. Muslims are also responsible and accountable for upholding all other universal principles.

Consequently, Islam approaches human rights in accordance with these basic principles and holds every human being accountable for preserving and maintaining these inalienable rights.

It is only in Islam that human beings are favored with being the vicegerent of God on earth and in which they are delegated to make use of the resources through the vicegerency that has been granted to them. And again, it is Islam that recognizes the right to free enterprise and free activity alongside the right to security and to maintain a family. Islam, therefore, recognizes the inalienable rights and the true dignity of every individual, and guarantees human beings all their rights in perfect compliance with human nature.

For example, the Qur’an explicitly asserts that taking the life of one human being is the same as taking the lives of all of humanity: “He who kills a soul unless it be (in legal punishment) for murder or for causing disorder and corruption on the earth will be as if he had killed all humankind; and he who saves a life will be as if he had saved the lives of all humankind” (Maeda 5:32). It is impossible to see this degree of sensitivity on the issue of rights in any other religion or in modern law. Islam takes the issue so seriously as to equate the killing of one person with the killing of all of humanity. The Qur’an draws our attention to the event that took place between the two sons of Adam, whose names are mentioned as Cain and Abel in the Old Testament, and informs us of the recompense awaiting the first murderer in human history in the following verse: “His carnal, evil-commanding soul prompted him to kill his brother, and he killed him, thus becoming among the losers” (Maeda 5:30).

In another chapter, the Qur’an emphasizes that the eternal punishment of hell is the recompense for one who kills another unjustly: “Whoever kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein. And the wrath and the curse of God are upon him, and a dreadful penalty is prepared for him” (Nisa 4:93). It should be noted that Ibn Abbas and some scholars of the Tabiun (the generation that followed the Companions) deduced from the word halidan being used in the verse that eternal punishment is the recompense of the murderer, the same as that for those who deny God. This signifies Islam’s stance on human rights, which has evolved out of such essentials.

We can only speculate as to when the original man and woman appeared on Earth, which is equated with the Heavens due to the divine art it exhibits, its ontological meaning, and its value largely coming from its chief inhabitant: humanity. According to the calendar we use today, we are at the threshold of the third millennium after the birth of Jesus, upon him be peace. However, since time revolves and advances in a helicoidal relativity, there are different measures of time in the world. For example, according to the measure of time that currently enjoys global acceptance, the world is about to cross the threshold of a new thousand-year period. According to the Jewish calendar, we are already in the second half of the eighth millennium. Within the Hindu timeframe, we are living in the Kali Yuga era. If we follow the Muslim calendar, we are approaching the end of the first half of the second millennium.

We should remember, however, the fact that each measure of time is nothing more than a relative measurement. While a 100-year period is assumed to be the measure for a century, the idea of a 60-year century, based on the life span of an average person, is also worth mentioning. From this point of view, we are already in the fourth millennium after the birth of Jesus, upon him be peace, and third millennium after the hijrah, which is the starting point of the Muslim calendar. I bring up this issue due to the spiritual discomfort engendered by the terrifying auguries believed to be associated with the upcoming millennium, especially in the West.

People live in perpetual hope, and thus are children of hope. At the instant they lose their hope, they also lose their “fire” of life, no matter if their physical existence continues. Hope is directly proportional to having faith. Just as winter constitutes one-fourth of a year, so the periods in a person’s or a society’s life corresponding to winter are also small. The gears of Divine acts revolve around such comprehensive wisdom and merciful purposes that just as the circulation of night and day builds one’s hope and revivifies one’s spirit, and every new year comes with expectations of spring, and summer, so too the disastrous periods are short and followed by happy times in both an individual’s life and a nation’s history.

This circulation of the “Days of God,” which is centered in Divine Wisdom, is neither a fear nor pessimism for those with faith, insight, and genuine perceptive faculties. Rather, it is a source of continuous reflection, remembrance, and thanksgiving for those having an apprehensive heart, inner perception, and the ability to hear. Just as a day develops in the heart of night, and just as winter furnishes the womb in which spring grows, so one’s life is purified, matures, and bears its expected fruits within this circulation. Also in this circulation, God-given human abilities become aptitudes and talents, sciences blossom like roses and weave technology in the workbench of time, and humanity gradually approaches its predestined end.

Having stated this general view, which is neither personal nor subjective but rather an objective fact of human history, it should not be thought that we welcome either winter or winter-like events that correspond to sorrow, disease, and disaster. Despite the general fact that disease eventually increases the body’s resistance, strengthens the immune system, and drives medical progress, it is pathological and harmful. It is the same with terrestrial and celestial disasters. From a theological and moral point of view, they result from our sins and oppression, which are enough to shake the Earth and the Heavens, and from engaging in deeds that have been declared forbidden and despised by law and ethics (whether religious or secular). Even though they awaken people to their mistakes and negligence and provoke developments in geology, architecture, engineering, and related safety measures; even though they elevate the demolished belongings of believers to the level of charity, and the believers themselves to the level of martyrdom, these disasters cause much destruction and harm humanity.

In the same way, we read in the Qur’an: Unless God hampered some (of you) with some other (of you), the mosques, monasteries, and synagogues in which God is worshipped would have fallen into ruins (22:40). In other words, God would be so little known that men and women, who are inclined not to recognize anything superior to them and believe that their deeds will not be questioned in the Hereafter, would completely go astray, thereby making Earth unsuitable for human life. There is also the divine decree: You consider something as evil although it is good for you; you also consider something else as good although it is bad for you (2:126). For example, war is permissible. Although wars based on specific principles and with the intention of improving the existing situation may have benefits, they should not be demanded, since they bring harm; they leave behind ruined houses, destroyed families, and weeping orphans and widows.

Anyway, realities of life cannot be neglected, nor should they be ignored. Human beings are mirrors for God’s Names and Attributes, and therefore are distinguished from the rest of creation with the honor of being responsible for making Earth prosperous in His name. If they cannot grasp the wisdom and purposes behind any good or evil that is sent their way by their Creator, they cannot escape despair and pessimism. For them, as is seen in the Existentialist literature, life turns into a meaningless process, existence into a purposeless vacuity, nonsense into the only criteria, suicide into a meritorious act, and death becomes the only inevitable reality.

The Basic Nature of Humanity

After presenting the issues that constitute the basis of this subject as an introduction, we can switch to our considerations regarding the third millennium.

Human history began with two people who constituted the essence of humanity and complemented each other. People lived a tranquil life during this time of the original mother and father and the families that descended from them. They were a united society that had the same views and shared the same environment and lives.

From that day on, the essence of humanity has remained unchanged, and it will remain so. The realities surrounding their lives, their physical structure, main characteristics, basic needs, place and time of birth and death, selection of parents and physique, innate characteristics, as well as the surrounding natural environment, have not changed. All of these require some essential and vital invariable realities and values. Thus, the development and alteration of life’s secondary realities should be based on the axis of these primary realities and values, so that life will continue as a worldly paradise under the shadow of Heaven.

We mentioned above some issues that seem to be harmful and unpleasant. Similarly, there are human traits that seem to be evil at first glance, such as hatred, jealousy, enmity, the desire to dominate others, greed, rage, and egoism. A human being also has other innate drives and needs that allow the continuation of his or her worldly life, such as the need to eat and drink and the drives of lust and anger. All human drives, needs, and desires should be guided and trained in the direction of the eternal, universal, and invariable values that address the fundamental aspects of humanity. In this respect, the need to eat and drink, and the desire associated with lust and rage, can be tamed and transformed into means of absolute or relative good.

Likewise, egoism and hatred can become sources of fine attributes and goodness. Jealousy and rivalry can be transformed into competition in charitable and good deeds. The feeling of enmity can be transformed into enmity against Satan, the greatest enemy of humanity, and against the feeling of enmity itself and hatred. Greed and rage can force one to perform good deeds without tiredness. Egoism can point out the evil aspects of the carnal soul (nafs), thereby seeking to train and purify the soul by not excusing its evil actions.

All negative feelings can be transformed into sources of good by training and struggle. This is how one reaches the level of “the best of Creation,” by traveling the way of transformation from a potential human being to a real and perfected human being, to becoming the best symbol, model, and personal representative of creation and existence.

Despite this fact, the realities of human life do not always follow these guidelines. Negative feelings and attributes often defeat people, pulling them under their domination to such an extent that even the religions that guide people to goodness and kindness are abused, as well as the feelings and attributes that are sources of absolute good. Human life, at the level of the individual and of humanity as a whole, is merely the summation of internal, personal struggles and their external manifestations. These tides make the personal world of the individual, society, and history an arena of battle, struggle, war, oppression, and tyranny. As a result, it is usually human beings themselves who suffer the consequences.

Men and women always receive the fruits of their deeds. In the first period of its history, humanity lived a happy life as a single society whose members shared their joys and sorrows. But, later on they bound their necks and feet with a rusty yoke composed of chains of oppression as a result of jealousy, greed, and coveting other’s rights and properties. The consequence was Cain’s murder of Abel. As a result of this, humanity entered the path of disunity. Despite the millenniums coming one after the other like days, seasons and years, this “cycle” still continues.

The Second Millennium

The second millennium started with the Crusades and then the Mongol invasions of the Muslim world, which was like the heart of Earth and history at that time. Despite the wars and destruction, and despite the crimes committed sometimes in the name of religion and sometimes in the name of economic, political, and military supremacy, this millennium has seen the apex of the East’s civilizations, based on spirituality, metaphysical, universal, and eternal values, and the West’s civilizations, based on the physical sciences. Many significant geographical discoveries and scientific inventions have occurred.

However, the East’s and West’s civilizations existed separated from each other. This separation, which should not have occurred, was based on the former’s retiring from the intellect and science, while the latter retired from spirituality, metaphysics, and eternal and invariable values. As a result, the last centuries of this millennium have witnessed disasters that are hard to believe. Due to humanity’s growing arrogance and egoism, arising from its accomplishments, men and women have had to live through worldwide colonialism, immense massacres, revolutions that cost millions of lives, unimaginably bloody and destructive wars, racial discrimination, immense social and economic injustice, and iron curtains built by regimes whose ideology and philosophy sought to deny the essence, freedom, merit, and honor of humanity. It is partly because of this and partly because of some auguries from the Bible that many people in the West fear that the world will again be soaked by floods of blood, pus, and destruction. They are quite pessimistic and worried about the new millennium.

Our Expectations

Modern means of communication and transportation have transformed the world into a large, global village. So, those who expect that any radical changes in a country will be determined by that country alone and remain limited to it are unaware of current realities. This time is a period of interactive relations. Nations and peoples are more in need of and dependent on each other, which causes closeness in mutual relations.

This network of relations, which has surpassed the period of brute colonialism and exists on the basis of mutual interest, provides some benefits to the weaker side. Moreover, owing to the advances in technology, especially digital electronic technology, the acquisition and exchange of information grows gradually. As a result, the individual comes to the fore, making it inevitable that democratic governments that respect personal rights will replace oppressive regimes.

As each individual is like a species with respect to other species, individual rights cannot be sacrificed for society, and social rights should depend on individual rights. This is why the basic human rights and freedoms found in the revealed religions came to be considered by a war-weary West. They will enjoy priority in all relations. At the head of these rights is the right to life, which is granted and can be taken only by God. To accentuate the importance of this right in Islam, a basic Qur’anic principle is that: If one person kills another unjustly, it is the same as if he or she has killed all of humanity; if one saves another, it is the same as if he or she has saved all of humanity (5:32).

Other rights are the freedom of religion and belief, thought and expression; the right to own property and the sanctity of one’s home; to marry and have children; to communicate and travel; and the right to and freedom of education. The principles of Islamic jurisprudence are based on these and other rights, all of which are accepted by modern legal systems, such as the protection of life, religion, property, reproduction, and intellect, as well as equality of people based on the fact that all people are human beings, and the rejection of all racial, color, and linguistic discrimination. All of these will be-and should be-indispensable essentials in the new millennium.

I believe and hope that the world of the new millennium will be a happier, more just, and more compassionate place, contrary to the fears of some people. Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all come from the same root, have almost the same essentials, and are nourished from the same source. Although they have lived as rival religions for centuries, the common points between them and their shared responsibility to build a happy world for all of the creatures of God make interfaith dialogue among them necessary. This dialogue has now expanded to include the religions of Asia and other areas. The results have been positive.

As mentioned above, this dialogue will develop as a necessary process, and the followers of all religions will find ways to get closer and assist each other.

Previous generations witnessed a bitter struggle that should never have taken place: science versus religion. This conflict gave rise to atheism and materialism, which influenced Christianity more than other religions. Science cannot contradict religion, for its purpose is to understand nature and humanity, which are each a composition of the manifestations of God’s Attributes of Will and Power. Religion has its source in the Divine Attribute of Speech, which was manifested in the course of human history as Divine Scriptures such as the Qur’an, the Gospels, the Torah and others. Thanks to the efforts of both Christian and Muslim theologians and scientists, it seems that the few-century-long religion-science conflict will come to an end, or at least its absurdity will be acknowledged.

The end of this conflict and a new style of education fusing religious and scientific knowledge with morality and spirituality will produce genuinely enlightened people with hearts illumined by religious sciences and spirituality, minds illuminated with positive sciences, characterized by all kinds of humane merits and moral values, and cognizant of the socioeconomic and political conditions of their time. Our old world will experience an excellent “springtime” before its demise. This springtime will see the gap between rich and poor narrow; the world’s riches distributed most justly according to one’s work, capital, and needs; the absence of discrimination based on race, color, language, and worldview; and basic human rights and freedoms protected. Individuals will come to the fore and, learning how to realize their potential, will ascend on the way to becoming “the most elevated human” with the wings of love, knowledge, and belief.

In this new springtime, when scientific and technological progress is taken into consideration, people will understand that the current level of science and technology resembles the stage when an infant is learning how to crawl. Humanity will organize trips into space as if traveling to another country. Travelers on the way to God, those self-immolators of love who have no time for hostility, will carry the inspirations in their spirits to other worlds.

Yes, this springtime will rise on the foundations of love, compassion, mercy, dialogue, acceptance of others, mutual respect, justice, and rights. It will be a time in which humanity will discover its real essence. Goodness and kindness, righteousness and virtue will form the basic essence of the world. No matter what happens, the world will come to this track sooner or later. Nobody can prevent this.

We pray and beg the Infinitely Compassionate One not to let our hopes and expectations come to nothing.

An adequate supply of water is a fundamental need of any society. Everyone requires water to drink; but also for cleaning, washing and cooking and, if a society is to flourish and expand, water is also needed for irrigation and industry. A supply of water is also desirable for recreational uses, such as filling up swimming pools and watering gardens. Consider the following statistics: you need at least 3 litres of water to produce a can of vegetables, 100 litres to produce one kilogram of pears, 4,500 litres to produce one tonne of cement, 4.3 tonnes of water to manufacture one of steel, 50 tonnes to manufacture one tonne of leather and no less than 2,700 tonnes to make a tonne of worsted suiting.

Even more importantly, the average human being -of which there are now more than 5 billion on the planet- needs to drink a litre or so of water each day in order to stay alive. That is, if he or she is adequately fed. The water requirements of those who are on starvation diets are dramatically higher, because solid food, of which they are deprived, itself consists mainly of water.

Water as the one essential requirement of all forms of food production, is the key global resource. No water, no food. Water is thus a limiting factor in human development and water shortages are heavily implicated in humanity’s present bad condition.

It will be useful to reflect on the relevant Qur’anic verses concerning this subject. Allah who created everything in the universe and beyond reminds us that water is the source of organic vigour:

‘Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together before we clove them asunder and of water fashioned every living thing? Will they not then believe?’ (Qur’an, 21:30)

The phenomenon of life has to be known before this verse can be understood. We know that the basic unit of life is the molecule known as DNA. If the vitality of an organism consisted in this molecule alone and if this molecule had developed from the molecules of water, the verse would have read: ‘We created all living things from water.’ Vitality on the other hand, is the construction of a new and identical molecule using organic chemicals from the original.

There is a subtle difference between life and vitality. Life is a structural characteristic, while vitality is a function of that characteristic. Let us now return to the verse. The word occurring in the verse is ‘the living’, which corresponds to vitality. The meaning of the verse can be understood to be this: ‘We have brought forth all living things from water’. Allah is the best of knowers. Vitality has arisen from, and has gained power from, water. The verse does not say ‘created’ (khalaqna); but ‘empowered’ (waja’al-na). After this the verse ends with the question ‘will they not then believe’ – directed rhetorically at unbelievers, meaning ‘how can they not believe’. The question is especially relevant to the unbelievers of our time, for it is only thirty years since the indispensability of water to vitality has been recognized scientifically.

The relationship between water and vitality is a profound one. In general terms, energy is needed for the continuation of vitality. This energy is obtained by the exchange of ions. A cell is healthy if the water ions within and surrounding it are balanced; otherwise it is diseased or dead.

Water is therefore the basic element not of genesis and life, but of vitality. The verse expresses this subtlety so beautifully that it is impossible not to affirm the Qur’an as a Divine miracle. And that miracle is reemphasized by the question: ‘How can they still not believe?’