In his Twentieth Word, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, a 20^th century Islamic scholar and teacher, uses an interesting phrase, where he argues that the miracles of the prophets represent the highest points that scientific developments would ever attain and as such, they are set as goals which humanity should seek to accomplish. In interpreting the verse about the miracles of Jesus, upon whom be peace, in which it is said that Jesus would raise people from the dead by God’s leave, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi indicates that there is a cure to every disease which can be found through research. He also employs an interesting phrase in this section: “It is even possible to give a temporary tinge of life to death” [1]. While some suggest that with this intriguing sentence Nursi points to recent developments in medicine such as those involving organ transplantation or the use of ventilators, it appears that this phrase implies going one stage further.

The Holy Qur’an relates several miraculous events regarding raising the dead in the present, worldly life. In Chapter Baqara (2:67-73), the Holy Qur’an tells us of the incident upon which the chapter was named: Prophet Moses, upon whom be peace, and his people were told by God to slaughter a cow and strike a dead person with part of the slaughtered cow, afterwards the dead man was resurrected and told them who had killed him. Thus, the Qur’an reasserts that God Almighty has the power to resurrect people. Reflecting on this verse, Fethullah Gülen maintains that in addition to the miraculous nature of striking the dead body with a piece of the cow, the mention of this incident may imply that humanity is guided toward a scientific or technological goal [2]. In medicine, biological drugs used to treat certain diseases are produced from certain animals. Also, certain medications, such as insulin, can be produced making use of the ability of bacteria to produce genetically coded proteins. Perhaps, biological drugs to be obtained with the help of other living organisms may contribute to being able to give a temporary tinge of life to death. In this regard, researchers are particularly interested in stem cells and their potentials. In this method, it may be possible to use a person’s stem cells to produce organs, tissues, and replace malfunctioning organs with new ones without the risk of rejection. We have so far heard no positive results in these directions, but it was demonstrated that stem cells taken from a person and transplanted into an embryo of another living being started to grow [3]. God knows best, but this method may be part of the truth behind the act of striking the man’s corpse with a part of a cow in reference to the verse in question.

Chapter Baqarah gives two more examples concerning resurrection in worldly life. A man passed by a town that had fallen into utter ruin and asked himself in bewilderment, “How will God restore life to this town that is now dead?” God made him remain dead for a hundred years and then raised him to life, and asked him, “How long did you remain in this state?” He said: “I remained so for a day or part of a day.” God said, “No, you have rather remained thus for a hundred years. But look at your food and drink: it has not spoiled; and look at your donkey!” The verse tells us that only bones were left of the donkey (2:259).

The next verse is about Prophet Abraham, upon whom be peace, who prayed God to give him certainty in the heart about resurrection. He had to kill four birds and then put them on different hills which resulted in them being restored to life and flying back to him (2:260). While it may not be related to resurrection fully, the story of Ashab al-Kahf (“People of the Cave” or “Seven Sleepers”) is certainly intriguing and carries a similar theme. God made seven men fall sleep in a cave for roughly 300 years and then restored them to life temporarily, however they had believed that they had fallen asleep for only a very brief period. They were probably considerably skilled and well-educated young people with high positions in society, however falling asleep for three centuries caused them to lose their positions and possibly disappoint those who had invested in them at that time. Yet God Almighty’s wise purpose requires otherwise by making those people send a message to future generations, i.e., us, and giving them praiseworthy remembrance after their death. The same sura also describes the travels of Prophet Moses, upon whom be peace, accompanied by Yusha’ ibn Nun, during which the cooked fish they were carrying with them for supper was resurrected and swam into the sea (18:61-64). In a tradition of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, it is recorded that he talked to a dead girl by God’s leave upon her parent’s request, but the girl refused to come back to this world as she had found something better there [the Hereafter] [4]. 

The prevention of aging, alongside the wish to attain immortality, has long been one of the greatest aspirations of human beings. Several scientists and philosophers of the previous century argued that this might become possible in the 21st century. Chapter Baqarah refers to a prototypical society with greed for life, noting that people of that society wish “if only [they] might be spared for a thousand years” (2:96). Perhaps, the ultimate goal of today’s medical research is to try to ensure human beings live forever in this world. Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, warns that this is a vain thought, although we should seek healing by all possible means: “O servants of God, search for remedy for your diseases. Indeed, God has created no incurable disease except one: old age (or, death, in another narration)” [5]. Nobel laureate Alexis Carrel maintained that human cells are immortal under favorable conditions but Leonard Hayflick, later, demonstrated that cell divisions are limited due to DNA damage and shortening of telomeres [6, 7]. According to the Hayflick limit, the maximum lifetime a person can get even if he or she lives under the best conditions is 125 years. Telomeres are the structures located at the end of the chromosomes that protect DNA, and during cell regeneration, the length of telomeres decreases with each cell division and the number of divisions declines after a critical limit. Scientists dream of slowing down the aging process by reactivating these telomeres, but they have not made much progress despite some positive results in experiments with rats.

Big technological corporations have recently been making considerable investments in order to find ways to further increase human lifespan. Venkatraman Ramakrishan, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2009, said, “Californian billionaires are having such a good time at the party of life that they don’t want it to stop” [8]. The investments and efforts in this field do not seem very promising because the human body is not suitable for immortality. Instead, scientists are pursuing the idea of merging human brains with machines, which would require uploading a human brain to a computer. In today’s world where research on artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing, a human being’s habits and memory are supposed to be transferred to a computer. Elon Musk, the founder of Neurolink, a company that seeks to restore memory using gadgets planted into the human brain, once said that digital intelligence and biological intelligence would converge over time with increased interaction between the two. This sounds promising for the treatment of certain diseases such as Alzheimer’s. There is, however, another lead in this research according to Josh Bocanegra: “When the time comes and all the necessary advancements are in place, we’ll be able to freeze your brain, create a new artificial body, repair any damage to your brain, and transfer it into your new body” [9]. This may be an artificial body developed using stem cells with possible aid from diverse robotic devices. Ray Kurzweil, who works on Google’s machine learning project, argues that the use of tiny robotics that connect a human brain to computers may be possible by 2029, which will in turn extend human lives considerably. Another futurist, Ian Pearson predicts that in 2050, humans will achieve virtual immortality and a person’s personality transferred to a computer will be able to communicate with people in the future [9]. A recent New York Times article suggests that brain implants could change humanity [10].

Ultimately, it is hard to predict the extent of scientific and technological developments. The idea of eliminating death reminds us of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi’s saying that it is impossible for the lake of Barla (the town he lived in at the time) to be destroyed for the time being, but people can imagine such destruction and this imagination does not change the reality. Yet even the very imagination of eliminating death may serve as a false hope for people who rationalize everything and try to forget about the idea of death, and in this way, they stick to worldly pleasures more fervently. At this point, Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, shows us the correct manner of thinking: “Remember death frequently as it dulls out pleasures” [11].

In the Qur’an, the most important verses concerning raising the dead are about the miracles of Jesus, upon whom be peace. It is emphasized that he would breathe into something fashioned out of clay in the shape of a bird, and it would become a bird by God’s leave, and that he would revive the dead and heal ill people (3:49). As a matter of fact, Mary becoming pregnant with Jesus and Jesus speaking when he was a baby are also medical miracles. It is interesting to note that today, just as in the time Jesus, materialistic thought dominates the scientific and medical research, which are mostly construed solely with a materialist perspective. Almost all discoveries are used as evidence for disbelief, and they reinforce the self-conceit of those who make them. Bediuzzaman predicts that as Christianity will be purified from superstitions in the End Times, and that science will have the upper hand in rule and power. If such a purification will occur, then one tends to think it is not going to be only in political and administrative fields. Possibly, the change of scientific, or more specifically, medical perspective may constitute a major stage in the purification process that could save modern medicine and science from materialism and become instruments of discovering the truth. Who knows? God Almighty may make a vulnerable and weak baby speak to send a message to a purely materialistic community as a manifestation of His divine power.

References

1. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, 20th Word, First Station, Words.
2. Fethullah Gülen, Kurandan İdrake Yansıyanlar.
3. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/science/chimera-stemcells-organs.html
4. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, 19th Letter, Letters.
5. Bukhari, Tib 1; Abu Dawud, Tib 1; Tirmidhi, Tib 2.
6. Carrel A, Ebeling AH. Age and multiplication of fibroblasts. J Exp Med 1921.
7. Hayflick L. The limited in vitro lifetime of human diploid cell strains. Exp Cell Res 1965.
8. https://www.livemint.com
9. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/307675
10. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/opinion/sunday/brain-machine-artificial-intelligence.html
11. Tirmidhi Hadith No. 2307.

Hayah, which can be translated as liveliness and being alive, means that a heart which is already dead because of ignorance, misguidance and unbelief, comes to life through belief, and knowledge and love of God. The verse (6:122), He who was dead (in spirit), and We raised him to life, and set for him a light by which he moves among people without any deviation, makes this point clear.

The scholars of truth regard life as being when one is freed from the imprisonment of the body and corporeality and rises to the level of the life of the heart and spirit. The aspect of this favor which is represented by the master of the creatures, upon him be peace and blessings, who, although an individual, gained universality, can be seen in the verse (42:52), Thus, We have revealed to you from Our (world of) Command (the Qur’an as) a spirit (promising life to the hearts). The aspect which concerns all others who promise life is indicated in the verse (8:24): O you who believe! Respond to God and to the Messenger when the Messenger calls you (in the name of God) to that which gives you life (with respect to the religion and the world).

The life of the earth, with all its revival and instances of growth and flourishing, is essentially related to the soil and its content, water with its vitality, air and the gases contained in the air. Similarly, true human life is dependent on the knowledge of truth, a strong will-power and endeavor, a sound character and good morals, a deep desire for God’s company, and rejoicing at the awareness of such a great favor. All these together serve as a runway or ramp from which to rise up to the realm where souls fly and attain the eternal life.

The earth derives all its riches from the source described in (16:65): God sends down from (the direction of) the sky a kind of water and therewith revives the earth after its death; in (50:11): We have revived with that water a dead land, and so is coming forth (from the graves); and in (21:30): We have made every living thing from water. Likewise, dead souls exposed to a dearth of faith, and lack of knowledge and of love of God, are revived through belief; they begin to feel what life really means through their knowledge of God, they dive into its depths through love, and attain a full life through resolution, will-power and determination. Then, as long as initiates realize the goal of Follow God’s way of acting [1] under the guidance of the supreme exemplar of good morals, the one who is praised in the verse (68:4), Surely You stand on an exalted standard of character, they attain God’s company in the infinite air in which they beat their wings, and feel constant gratitude and enthusiasm. When the time is due, they feel so expanded with the rapture of being in God’s presence that it is as if they transcended the limits of time and space and been favored with the rank, When I love My servant, I become his hearing with which He hears and his sight with which he sees and his hand with which he holds and his feet on which he walks [2]. And as stated in (56:89): Then (there is for him) comfort in eternal relief, and abundance, and a Garden of bounty and blessing, their spirits continue, by the Power of the All-Powerful Sovereign, flying toward eternity in the Gardens of Paradise, the Presence of the Lord of the worlds, and the company of the Most Compassionate of the compassionate.

In this rank, which is the essence of true life, there is neither death nor decay. Death and decay only occur with respect to the carnal soul and corporeality, and there is permanence with respect to the heart, spirit and other spiritual faculties. This permanence is also viewed as “self-annihilation in God” and “subsistence by Him and with Him.”

There are three breaths in the life of an initiate who has reached this degree: the breath of fear, the breath of expectation, and the breath of love. As the carnal soul fulfils an important mission on behalf of corporeality and the body, fear, expectation, and love are each an important dynamic for the life of the spirit and heart. Always feeling fear and love of Him causes the conscience of the initiate to feel an overflowing pleasure by far greater than what a child feels upon seeking refuge in the arms of the mother who has just chided him. Thinking of Him as the All-Compassionate, All-Loving Lord, and considering the depth of His Mercy, is such a spiritual pleasure that if it were to take on a physical form, it would appear like a Garden of Paradise. Finding or reading His Names on the face of His works, breathing His Attributes on the climate produced by the manifestations of His Names, and feeling the pleasure embedded in wonder at the consideration of the relation between His works, Names and Attributes, gives such an indescribable pleasure that only those who have been able to realize this degree of spiritual ascension can feel it.

Those who can most swiftly reach this most precious goal, even though they are unable to feel the grace of this sacred journey at every step, are those who set off by being able to ac-knowledge their poverty and helplessness before God, and their gratitude and enthusiasm. They know how to become an ocean while each of them is still a drop; they know how to travel among galaxies while each is still a particle, and although they see themselves as nothing, they are able to live in the wheel of existence in accordance with its ultimate goal. They always travel saying, as Ibrahim Haqqi said:

I have attained pride through poverty,
and supplicating to the Ultimate Truth,
I always utter, O the All-Living, O the Self-Subsistent!

They overflow with enthusiasm and gratitude, and are enraptured with the lights of the true life and existence, which are found a step beyond this horizon. Without considering the assertions of some, such as the Unity of Being and the Unity of the Witnessed, they feel the truth of life and existence beyond all conceptions of modality, and say: This life is not sufficient for such an expanse of pleasure.

O God! Guide us to the Straight Way, the way of those whom You have favored. And bestow peace and blessings on the master of the creatures, the means of the life of the two worlds, and on his Family and all of his Companions, all of them.

References

1. al-Jurjani, at-Ta‘rifat, 1:216.
2. al-Bukhari, “Riqaq,” 38.

I am sure that there are a lot of people who’ve found themselves in a similar situation to the man above. Unfortunately, most of us are usually not aware of the things happening in this universe. One of the things we tend to overlook is the cleanliness of nature. This is a topic which needs to be considered carefully, but I will just touch on some important aspects of this issue.

First, let’s look at the oceans. The oceans cover three-fourths of the Earth’s surface. There is a bigger world under the ocean than above it. This huge mass hosts jelly fish and tuna, dolphins and octopus, crabs and plankton, sea stars and sea plants. Currently, there are 120,000 species living in the ocean. This is just the number of the species, and doesn’t account for how many variations there are within each species. When we consider the number of living organisms, there are millions of them. Every single day, lots of these organisms die. If there are millions of organisms and thousands of them die each day, then why cannot we see them on the surface of the ocean? Even if these dead organisms are very small, such as plankton, which has a size range from 0.2 m to 20mm, when millions of their dead bodies cluster on the surface, we should be able to see them. The answer lies in a perfect arrangement. For example, the job of cleaning the dead bodies of plankton (also the live bodies!) is performed by fish, sharks, and whales. A large percentage of the daily diet of these animals depends on plankton. Since these animals perform their job well, it is impossible to see any dirt that would have been caused by the dead plankton.

It might seem easy to get rid of the dead bodies of plankton, because they are small organisms. But what about big animals such as whales? What happens to dead whales? Let’s consider the cleaning of dead whales. When a whale dies, its dead body sinks to the bottom of the ocean. This is called a “whale fall” by scientists. There are a lot of species whose diet depends on dead whales. In 1988, a group of researchers at the University of Hawaii found that there are at least 12,490 single organisms which supply their daily diet from a whale fall in the deep North Pacific Ocean. After bigger organisms, such as fish, finish their job, which includes eating the flesh of the dead whale, the other cleaners come to the scene to perform their roles. At this part of the fall, bacteria play a key role in cleaning the bones left from the whale fall. This is not as easy as it might seem. Actually, it takes several years to really clean the dead body from the bottom of the ocean. This is not just a cleaning process at all. While the whale fall is being cleaned from the bottom of the ocean, the ecosystem is supported by the energy from the dead whale.

This cleaning process is not only seen in the oceans, but also on the land. Even though it is more apparent than undersea, we are not totally aware of the cleaning process on land. Decomposition is the chain of events by which a dead organism breaks down to its smaller parts. We must stop here and ask this question: “What would happen if these dead organisms stayed on the land forever?”

So let’s look at what happens to a dead animal on land.

When an organism dies, the process of decomposition starts shortly after its death. There are some stages in the decomposition of an animal. Shortly after the death of the organism, the enzymes in the cytoplasm of the cells start to break down the tissues. This process is called autolysis. It is one of the stages of decomposition in which bacteria plays a role. Bacteria start to break down the tissues. This is called putrefaction. Bacteria are not the only players who have roles in this process. Besides them, some fungi, insects, and even some carnivores are also involved. Live animals, water, air, and temperature (higher temperatures increase the decomposition rate) also help this process. During this time, fungi and bacteria, by using compounds from the dead organisms, convert carbon to carbon dioxide and organic nitrogen to ammonium (NH4+), and so they contribute to both the Carbon and Nitrogen Cycle. After this process is done, many organisms living in the ecosystem have benefitted. At the end of this cycle, soil is enriched with new nutrients which will help the new plants to grow up and the Carbon and Nitrogen cycles are enhanced.

By looking at the processes above, as well as other cycles (e.g. the Carbon cycle), it can be said that the Earth has its own recycling system. While modern societies have only recently understood the importance of recycling, Earth has been using this system thanks to the arrangements given to it.

The things shown here are just some examples of the extraordinary systems existing on the Earth. These systems have always been like this, since the very beginning of the universe. These perfects systems in nature perform their tasks without any human help. The only thing for us to do is to appreciate this harmony, understand its value, and keep it going for the next generations.

In the northern hemisphere, where annual average rainfall is around 100 kg per square meter in cold and dry regions, boreal forests, with needle-leaf trees, dominate. The southern hemisphere is dominated by savanna; bushes and meadows occupy millions of hectares.. In these regions, natural fires can be the most important factor of ecosystem changes. When looking at the results of these fires, it sometimes seems they were preprogrammed as to when, where, and how they spread.

Examples of fire dependent ecosystems

The cone of the Jack Pine species (Pinus banksiana), which is widely distributed throughout North American forests, requires absolute forest fire in order to release its seeds. The cone of this species can remain on the trees without releasing seeds for years because of climate and the resin layer covering it. Seeds preserved in the cones wait for the next fire; the cone’s scales open with the heat generated during such a fire. The seeds then start their journey towards a piece of soil that they can grow into. Here the role of fire is very important, not only for the dispersal of seeds but also in preparation of germination. The high humidity and low temperatures in the forests of these regions delays the decomposition of fallen leaves. This layer of dead material over the mineral soil is another hindrance for seeds to meet the soil. When scales of the cones open with the help of forest fire, this thick layer of dead leaves is also removed, having burned down to create fertile new soil.

Another example of fire benefiting plants is the chaparral vegetation of the North American forest. This type of plant cover is composed of short, perennial wooden plants and annual non-woody plants. During the hot, dry weather of summer, this vegetative cover becomes particularly vulnerable to fire. A dark black cover composed of unburned parts, frames, and ashes of the plants is left behind. This sight, which is saddening at first, actually hides various beauties in it, and these beauties only emerge after a series of events.

Golden eardrops (Dicentra chrysantha), which is a member of the perennial Chaparral family, is deeply affected by fire. The seed of this plant requires a fire event in the germination season and should be exposed to smoke for at least 10 minutes.

The positive effects of forest fires can also be seen in the healthy survival of an ecosystem. Due to its thick bark, the widely distributed Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), of North America, is minimally affected by the low, medium level cover fires that happen every five to twenty years. The weak and unhealthy individuals in this dense forest get burned as a result of natural forest fires, leaving healthy, thick barked trees. This way, possible epidemics of harmful forest organisms, via these unhealthy trees, is prevented. In the meantime, due to periodic fires, dead cover, or fallen and dead trees are removed, thus preventing bigger fires.

In the eastern Mediterranean, brutia pine, yellow pine, black pine, aleppo pine, and stone pine can are widely distributed. Among these, brutia pine is spread across a wide area, especially in most fire sensitive regions. It is created with a thicker bark around the trunk compared to other pines. This species can be minimally impacted from low and medium level cover fires. On the other hand, seeds in the cones of brutia pine are thrown far away by the heat of the fire, reaching fertile germinating grounds, thus helping to spread the forest.

References

• Fuller, M. 1991. Forest Fires: An Introduction to Wildland Fire Behavior, Management, Firefighting, and Prevention, SD421.F84, Wiley & Sons, Inc., NY, pp. 238.
• Keeley, J. E. 2007. “Chaparral and Fire,” Fremontia, Volume 35:4, pp. 16-21.
• Bond, W. J., Wilgen, B.W. 1996. Fire and Plants, SE18HN, UK, Chapman & Hall, UK, pp. 259.

New Jersey-based Helping Hands Relief Foundation (HHRF) is one of those relief organizations that have quickly responded to the call for help from the Horn of Africa. Many volunteers of HHRF have already taken off to Somalia to deliver donations and food to the victims.

The world is undergoing several major tests. The problems caused by economic crises one after another, terrorism, global warming, and others have to be tackled with immediately. But the emergency of the current famine has no comparison, and we have to act now. It is time to delay our own needs today and rush for help to the victims of the famine. This is the greatest test we as the human family have to be pass.

No, not all of us.

Jill Carroll presents us with a legendary example of hope from our recent past, showing us that there can always be a solution, even at the cold touch of the barrel of a weapon, or with the blood-chilling knowledge that your town has been targeted. In this issue, she shares with us a truly interesting story she was told last summer in Fuzine, a village in Croatia’s Gorski Kotar district.

Croatia, now an independent state, was one of the six republics which formed the former country of Yugoslavia, a country that was devastated after a war in the ’90s. We shiver when we remember the massacres of Bosnian civilians before the eyes of the entire world, under the so-called protection of UN forces, when some had proclaimed that we had reached the zenith of human civilization. The massacre of Srebrenica, the fifteenth anniversary of which was marked last July, has no doubt left indelible stain not only in the lives of its victims-at least, those who survived-but also in the conscience of all of us who could do nothing more than pray. One observer who participated in the ceremony last July described Srebrenica as a town in which “the dead are more alive than the living, the living more dead than the dead; the dead visiting homes at night, the living visiting the dead during the day.” The story Jill reports from Gorski Kotar, Croatia features civil leaders and media members who heroically acted “faster than the dead” and perhaps saved their towns from being another Srebrenica – despite the consequences they faced in the years that followed.

The lead article describes another story of heroism, which is displayed at a global level. Gulen praises those educational activists who have gone all around the world and built schools and dialogue centers in hundreds of countries. The people Gulen describes are filled with love for humanity regardless of race, color, religion, and language, and they are convinced that universal peace can only be realized by overcoming ignorance. Gulen calls this volunteer movement “A Movement Originating Its Own Models,” perhaps because they are so precious to Gulen that he cannot compare them with any other social movement in the world, and perhaps because these volunteers truly come forward with an authentic approach for engaging our modern world and times.

“It is I who created you out of a pool of mud and it is again I who resurrected you after your death. Yet, you object to me and complain about the good things I have done for you?”
“Father! God commands me to respect my parents but not to obey them if they should encourage me to associate partners with Him. You are no more than a servant bringing the blessings of God to me; and you are no more than a human, just like me.”
“You have been blinded by the stories of old times…”

Science and technology have developed tremendously over the last century and are still developing. Almost everyday we see new and improved instruments entering our daily lives, such as cellular phones, the Internet, faster cars and planes. Each of these instruments changes our life styles and affects our relations with other people. However, there are always two ways to use the technology that produces these instruments. It can be used for the common good of humanity, thereby turning this world into a paradise. Alternatively, technology can be exploited for the benefit of a certain group of people at the expense of human rights and moral values. Particularly in the twentieth century, we have witnessed several examples of genocide, terrorist bombings, and destructive actions that threaten humanity, each carried out with a strong technological infrastructure. Therefore, humanity is facing a severe challenge in the face of the opportunities brought by technology. One has to ask, “How are we doing in terms of evaluating the powers we have been given? Considering the future of science and technology, are we ready to handle much greater power?” In this article, let us travel to the future to see the state of science and technology so that we can have an idea about the increasing importance of moral values in the face of the expanding powers that mankind can exercise.

First, we need a reliable means of transport to take our imagination to the future and to obtain accurate and useful data. According to Said Nursi, the miracles that the messengers of God showed and other miraculous historical events related in the Qur’an are clues about the future limits of science and technology.¹ So, we are going to embark on these miracles and survey the future level of science.

Transportation and communication

The miracles that help us on this way come from the prophets Muhammad, Solomon, and the people of the cave (the seven sleepers). It is reported that on the night of the Ascension (Isra 17:1), Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, traveled from Mecca to Jerusalem and from there to the heavens, receiving direct revelation from God, and then returned to Mecca (621 AD). When he returned, his bed was still warm.

The other event, which is from Prophet Solomon, is concerned with the transportation of the throne of the queen of Sheba. It is reported that either Solomon himself or a servant of his brought the throne of the queen of Sheba from a long distance in a time less than a blink of an eye (Naml 27:38-40). It is also said in the Qur’an that Solomon was able to travel one month’s distance in a night. It is interesting that the distances referred to are given in terms of time and not with an exact distance as “so many kilometers.” This shows that the distance traveled within a given time frame is relative. It is a fact that we can observe if we compare the mode of travel today to that of the 1700’s. Today, the distances traveled in spaceflight correspond to years of travel in the past. Similarly, one month’s travel with the available technology today will be traveled over night in the future. Therefore, this verse gives an indication that it will be possible to cover long distances in a short time as technology advances.

The people of the cave are reported as the few Christians of their time who escaped the prosecution of the local Roman government. During their seclusion or refuge in a cave, they felt that they had slept for a night or even less. However, the Qur’an tells us that they slept for 300 years (Kahf 18:9-26).

The first three events explained above, i.e. the Miraj, the transportation of throne of the queen of Sheba, the travels of Solomon, are related to traveling long distances in a very short time, which can be understood as the contraction of space, as well. Traveling one month’s distance over night and the passage of 300 years over night, on the other hand, are related to the slowing of time for a group of people, which can be interpreted as the contraction of time. If we look at the future with the clues given in these miracles, we see that distance in space and time will lose its meaning. Due to the high speed of transportation, the entire world, perhaps even the solar system, will become a village. This fact is depicted in a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad in which he says that “the approaching or contraction of time and space is a sign of the end of time.”²

Medicine and cybernetics

Medicine has been the common point on which many prophets showed miracles. Therefore, much can be said about this subject, if all of these miracles are examined. For brevity, some key events are going to be discussed here. Both Jesus (Al Imran 3:49) and Muhammad,³ peace be upon them, showed many miracles concerning the healing of the ill or disabled people. Considering that those illnesses were incurable at the time, the mentioned miracles tell that every illness eventually can be treated with a proper cure.⁴ For instance, it is known that both prophets healed the blind by God’s leave. It is not surprising today to hear some blind people gaining the ability to see after a successful operation. Another promise in this context is the removal of the effects of old age. This is expressed by “the conception of a baby at old age,” which happened with the wives of the Prophets Abraham (15:53-55) and Zachariah (19:2-11). These prophets had sons as a response to their prayers when both themselves and their wives were at significantly old age.

In terms of human birth, the creation of Adam, and the birth of Jesus are examples of human birth that did not follow the regular ways we are used to. According to Qur’an, Jesus, peace be upon him, was created without a father (Al Imran 3:47); and Adam was created with neither a father nor a mother (Hijr 15:28-29), but rather he was created out of mud. In conjunction with these birth cases, consider the following miracle of Jesus. It is told in the Qur’an that, with an order from God, Jesus made the figure of a bird out of mud, and then blew on to it. With the leave of God, the “bird-shaped mud” became an actual bird and flew off (Al Imran 3:49). These two unusual birth cases and the creation of a living bird out of mud give a clue about the possibility of obtaining human generations, or even other animals, without needing biological parents. The creation of living organisms out of mud can also be interpreted as a sign of the future level of cybernetics, when humans will be able to make androids that can emulate the living creatures in many aspects.

Another branch of the miracles under this subject is about the reviving of the dead. Prophets Moses (Baqara 2:72-73), Jesus (Al Imran 3:49) and Muhammad,⁵ peace be upon them, all showed miracles about reviving of the dead. Prophet Abraham, also, experienced a parallel event as a response to one of his prayers (Baqara 2:260). He asked for a sign from God about the resurrection. God told him to acquire four birds, and tame them; then to slaughter the birds, mix their flesh, and distribute this mixture to four mountaintops. When Abraham called the birds back, each flew back to him all resurrected to their original bodies. All these mean that near the end of time, with the advancements in medicine, it will be possible to sustain the life of the people who have deadly illnesses or injuries, or in other words, people who might have died according to our understanding today.

Before proceeding further, it is necessary to take a moment here to discuss the meaning of certain terms in conjunction with the abilities given to humankind through science. When we refer to the creation as done by God, we talk about an action that needs nothing as its starting point, i.e. God does not need earth or natural laws to create living beings, or others to help Him acquire the knowledge on that matter. But, when we talk about creation as done by humans, then we have to account for some raw material, and an acquired knowledge, which is the common scientific heritage of humanity. Without proper education and mindset, it is an inherent temptation to engage the meanings associated with God’s creation to our actions. So, one has to watch out for this kind of corruption that can eventually harm the faith.

Death and resurrection are two other terms to be clarified in this context. Consider a patient with a chronic heart disease whose heart has been replaced by an artificial one with a surgery; or, think about a patient who entered a shock due to a deadly accident, and recovered upon undergoing several operations and receiving intensive care. If we were to have someone from, say, 10th century witness these examples, it would look like the doctors are resurrecting the dead, or extending the life of an almost dead. Similarly, with the further advancements in medicine, we may reach a point where all illnesses are cured and average life expectancy grows to three-digit years of age. For example, a person whose body is severely crushed in an accident or was severely burned in a fire may be brought back to life with complete health. With the eyes of today, this would look like resurrecting the dead. Nevertheless, it will be the recovery of someone who has not died, yet, according to the understanding of that time. So, the above examples point to the fact that there is a difference between death and severe disruptions in the functioning of the body due to different reasons. These disruptions force the soul and the spirit of the individual change the form of life they are experiencing, and death is an irreversible change of form of life. However, there are other intermediary forms of life between the form that is attained after death and the form we are experiencing now.⁶

A person who may look like dead can actually be alive but experiencing the conditions of a different form until actual death comes when one”s soul leaves the body or a medical recovery occurs. Within this context, the medical technology we practice is a permission of interference with the execution of the life among these different forms. As humanity grows older, we learn the extents of the permission we are given, and use it for the betterment of life. A natural question at this point is that if we will ever be able to achieve eternal life using technology. We do know that no matter what we do in this world, there will be an ultimate end to the life of the universe and everything in it. So, we can strive for the betterment and extension of life in this world, but there is an appointed time of death for everyone and everything, which cannot be brought nearer or farther with human interference. For this reason, it is possible that people who do not have strong faith are going to be inclined towards the assumption that they are achieving immortality with medical achievements. Nevertheless, it is God who enables us to exercise control and power in this universe, and it is Him who is going to bring the ultimate death to everybody and everything as He promised.

Space science

Two miracles from the Qur’an related to this subject are the splitting of the moon by the Prophet Muhammad, and the travels of Dhu al-Qarnayn. The first sign, which was the parting of the moon (Qamar 54:1-2), is further discussed and explained in the Risale-i Nur7 and in the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.⁸ According to these resources, one night, as a miracle shown primarily to the Meccan people, the moon split into two with a gesture of the Prophet”s finger, and then reunited. This event might be an indication of the force that powers future explorations into space; a force that can part the heavenly bodies into pieces. As far as the second miracle, it is told in the Qur’an that in one of his journeys, Dhu al-Qarnayn met some people who lived on a place that did not have a veil to protect them from their sun (Kahf 18:90). In another verse (Anbiya 21:32), the Qur’an describes the atmosphere as a protecting-cover around the earth. Based on these two verses, it is reasonable to imagine that the people mentioned are living on a planet that does not have an atmosphere. The only way to achieve sustained human existence on a planet without an atmosphere is to have advanced technology that will enable the traveling of long distances in space within reasonable time and that will help establish a human-friendly environment with all the vital supplies.

The end of time

Now, imagine the world with the aspects discussed until here: We, humans, can travel worldwide instantly, go to different places in the universe within reasonable time, and establish settlements on the planets that do not have an atmosphere. Besides, due to advances in medicine, all medical problems are cured, and as a result, our average life increases to limits that are beyond imagination. In terms of engineering and cybernetics, we can make machines that serve us like human servants… If all these come true, then people will be tempted to forget that they are just mortal creatures. Likewise, too proud of the scientific achievements they made, some people might doubt of God”s existence, imagining their human selves as the maker of everything. They might start asking if “the stories of the ancient people about the existence of a God and a judgment day” were real. Some people might literally start considering themselves as gods. Very few people will persist to believe in God, and say, “all this is given to us out of God”s grace; our capabilities are His signs for us and He is certainly able to bring the end of time; and He will do so as He promised in His holy books.” This will be the time when humanity will have concluded its developmental journey in terms of science, exercising full power as the representatives of divinity in the universe. These trends are explained in similar ways in some of the hadiths9 of the Prophet Muhammad.

Along with these hadiths, it is a thought-provoking fact that the example of the Pharaoh, who rebelled against God by claiming divinity, is mentioned in different chapters of the Qur’an: The Pharaoh said: “O Haman! Build me a lofty tower so that I may attain the ways; the ways of (peering into) the skies, and that I may have a look at the God of Moses, even though I am sure that he is a liar.” Thus were his evil deeds decked out to be appealing to the Pharaoh, and he was debarred from the (right) way. And the scheme of the Pharaoh ended in nothing but destruction. (Mu”min 40:36-37) In analogy to the example of Pharaoh, with the ability to control everything, people might start defying God in their thoughts, feelings and actions. Due to their corrupt situation, this state is going to look appealing to them, as in the case of Pharaoh. The end of such a period will be “the end of time,” and God will end everything with the catastrophic events that are explained in detail in the Qur’an. Whether all these events come just like explained here or not, this is an imaginative journey to the future based on the interpretation of some of the clues given in religious sources. As you take your breaths at this very moment, realize that we are not there, yet. Although it is in our hands to yield to bad moral values, thereby bringing our own end in this universe, it is also in our hands to achieve the high moral and religious values, which are heavenly technologies, to extend our existence in this world and receive the eternal prosperity.

Notes

1. Nursi, S., The Words, 20th Word, p. 266, The Light, Inc., Istanbul: 2005.
2. Gulen, M.F., The Messenger of God: Muhammad, The Light, Inc., New Jersey: 2005, p. 60.
3. Nursi, S., The Letters 1, 19th Letter, Truestar, Izmir: 1995, pp. 165-172.
4. Bukhari, Kitab al-Tibb, 1.
5. Nursi, 1995, p. 188.
6. Nursi, 1995, p. 1-3.
7. Nursi, 1995, pp. 254-259.
8. Bukhari, Manaqib, 27.
9. Gulen, 2005, p. 49.

Dating back to the sixteenth century,¹ the Grand Champs des Morts was unique among Istanbul’s necropolises, with burial grounds for followers of both Islam and Christianity in close proximity. Beginning at Taksim (roughly on the site where the Ataturk Cultural Center now stands) and extending down the slopes of Gumussuyu and Findikli lay the graves of Muslims, while the area stretching northward toward Harbiye was divided into separate sections for the city’s various Christian communities. The English traveler Julia Pardoe describes the site in 1836:

The first plot of ground, after passing the barrack [the artillery barracks of Selim III at Taksim], is the grave-yard of the Franks; and here you are greeted on all sides with inscriptions in Latin; injunctions to pray for the souls of the departed; flourishes of French sentiment; calembourgs² graven into the everlasting stone, treating of roses and reine Marguerites; concise English records of births, deaths, ages, and diseases; Italian elaborations of regret and despair; and all the common-places of an ordinary burial-ground.³

Immediately in a line with the European cemetery, is the burial-ground of the Armenians. It is a thickly-peopled spot; and as you wander beneath the leafy boughs of the scented acacias, and thread your way among the tombs, you are struck by the peculiarity of their inscriptions. The noble Armenian character is graven deeply into the stone; name and date are duly set forth; but that which renders an Armenian slab. . . peculiar and distinctive, is the chiseling upon the tomb the emblem of the trade or profession of the deceased.

The Turkish cemetery stretches along the slope of the hill behind the barrack, and descends far into the valley. Its thickly-planted cypresses form a dense shade, beneath which the tall head-stones gleam out white and ghastly. The grove is intersected by footpaths, and here and there a green glade lets in the sunshine, to glitter upon many a gilded tomb. Plunge into the thick darkness of the more covered spots, and for a moment you will almost think that you stand amid the ruins of some devastated city. You are surrounded by what appears for an instant to be the myriad fragments of some mighty whole; but the gloom has deceived you-you are in the midst of a Necropolis-a City of the Dead.⁴

The vastness and natural beauty of the Grand Champs des Morts captured the attention of foreign residents and visitors to Istanbul alike, and few travel accounts and diaries from the past fail to mention-even if only in passing reference-the cemetery on the outskirts of Pera. The Grand Champs des Morts presented a sharp contrast to the densely packed inner-city churchyards which served as the principal burial grounds in so many of Europe’s cities up to the nineteenth century. Although some chroniclers considered the size of the Pera cemetery, as well as the great necropolises bordering other districts of Istanbul, a hindrance to urban expansion and development,⁵ the advantage of such a spacious, sylvan tract of land for burial of the dead was also recognized.

Not far from this [Taksim] we entered upon one of those vast burying-grounds which form one of the most conspicuous features of every Turkish city. . . In a few words. . . I may state that the cemetery. . . covers an area of more than 100 acres, and that a thick forest of cypresses (resembling in shape the poplar, but with a dark green foliage) overspreads it with a solemn shade, extremely appropriate to its ordinary uses. . .⁶

Cemetery planners in Western Europe, spurred on by public calls for improvements to the hygiene and appearance of local burial grounds, cited precedents in Istanbul-as well as other areas of the East-in their effort to close inner-city churchyards and replace them with larger, more salubrious cemeteries outside settled areas. This process of reform essentially began in France during the eighteenth century. It was encouraged by authors such as the naturalist Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737–1814), who, in his celebrated atudes de la Nature, praised the Turkish custom of burying the dead in the countryside (a tradition also observed in classical antiquity and contemporary China) and recommended the implementation of similar practices in Paris. He proposed “landscaped lysces as the burial-place of the great and good, and public cemeteries (essentially landscaped gardens where the dead would be buried and, if prosperity allowed, monuments erected). . . Public cemeteries should be created in the vicinity of the city, planted with cypresses, pines, and fruit-trees, and monuments erected in such a setting could only induce profound moral feelings and tender melancholy in those who visited them.”⁷

By the late 1700s, new methods for disposing of the dead were of absolute necessity in most of Europe’s major cities, and not simply for esthetic purposes, but for maintaining public health. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the municipality of Paris took the first steps by closing old burial grounds, such as the ancient Cimetire des Innocents, and establishing new cemeteries, including the famed Pre-Lachaise, Montparnasse, and Montmartre early in the next. A similar course of action occurred somewhat later in London, commencing with the opening of Kensal Green in 1832, the first of seven new private cemeteries founded over the next decade on the outskirts of the city.⁸ Finally, in 1852, all graveyards inside the city limits were closed with the passage into law of the Metropolitan Burial Act. By that time, London’s churchyards, many dating from the Middle Ages, were in a critical state. One contemporary journal, The Builder, asserted in 1843 that 50,000 bodies yearly were piled one on top of the other in these overcrowded graveyards, where-left to putrefy and rot-they gave out exhalations and darkened the air with vapors. Charles Dickens cynically portrayed the grim situation in the Uncommercial Traveller:

Such strange churchyards hide in the City of London; churchyards sometimes so entirely pressed upon by houses, so small, so rank, so silent, so forgotten, except by the few people who ever look down into them from their smokey windows. As I stand peeping in through the iron gates and rails, I can peel the rusty metal off, like bark from an old tree. The illegible tombstones are all lopsided, the gravemounds lost their shape in the rains of a hundred years ago, the Lombardy Poplar or Plane-Tree that was once a drysalter’s daughter and several common-councilmen, has withered like those worthies, and its departed leaves are dust beneath it. Contagion of slow ruin overhangs the place . . .⁹

Considering the dismal, unwholesome state of burial grounds in their own countries, it is no wonder that Europeans often waxed eloquent about the cemeteries of Istanbul, highlighting the aura of life which they engendered. Julia Pardoe offers a particularly vivid description of the burial grounds in the Ottoman capital, where the present generation readily merged with those of the past.

[The Turk] looks upon death calmly and without repugnance; he does not connect it with ideas of gloom and horror, as we are too prone to do in Europe,-he spreads his burial places in the sunniest spots-on the crests of the laughing hills, where they are bathed in the light of the blue sky; beside the crowded thoroughfares of the city, where the dead are, as it were, once more mingled with the living,-in the green nooks that stretch down to the Bosphorus, wherein more selfish spirits would have erected a villa, or have planted a vineyard. He identifies himself with the generation which has passed away-he is ready to yield his place to that which is to succeed his own.¹⁰

For the cemetery reformers of Europe, such descriptions offered an ideal in their quest for more wholesome, esthetically appealing burial grounds. Located in the hilly countryside on the fringes of the city, the Grand Champs des Morts and Istanbul’s other great necropolises served as a model for those who strove to create new cemeteries for the sanitary disposal of the dead, as well as provide an idyllic environment for the expression of one’s most tender feelings and deepest sentiments. Contemporary author Samuel Taylor Coleridge even commented on the emotive aspect of Turkish burial grounds.

Nothing can make amends for the want of the soothing influences of nature, and for the absence of those types of renovation and decay which the fields and woods offer to the notice of the serious and contemplative mind. To feel the force of this sentiment, let a man only compare in imagination, the unsightly manner in which our monuments are crowded together in the busy, noisy, unclean, and almost grassless churchyard of a large town, with the still seclusion of a Turkish cemetery in some remote place, and yet further sanctified by the grove of cypresses in which it is embosomed.¹¹ /

Specific reference to the Grand Champs des Morts and other Turkish cemeteries as archetypes to imitate in the West also appear in the writings of John Claudius Loudon (1783–1843), one of the most influential cemetery reformers of the nineteenth century. A Scottish landscape gardener, Loudon proposed that burial grounds should be on elevated ground, distant enough from urban centers as not to endanger the health of the populace, yet near enough to lessen the time and expense of funerals and encourage visits by the living to the tombs of the dead. To make the site attractive, he favored a garden-like setting, and suggested the planting of various types of trees and shrubs. Istanbul’s necropolises offered exemplary models of these principles, and Loudon quoted descriptions of them in his works on burial ground planning and design. “The Turkish cemeteries are generally out of the city, on rising ground, planted with cedars, cypresses, and odoriferous shrubs, whose deep verdure and graceful forms bending in every breeze give a melancholy beauty to the place, and excite sentiments very congenial to its destination.”¹²

Besides the location of Istanbul’s cemeteries in the midst of nature and removed from the habitations of the living, the local tradition of single interments also impressed European observers. As Julia Pardoe remarked, the remains of the dead were not disturbed once laid to rest, a practice followed in both the Muslim and Christian burial grounds of the Grand Champs des Morts. “There is no burying and reburying on the same spot, as with us. The remains of the departed are sacred.”¹³ In stark contrast, Europeans-largely due to space restrictions in their heavily populated cities-regularly opened existing graves and filled them with new cadavers, to the point that some churchyards became pestilential pits, seriously endangering public health. By the late eighteenth century these unsanitary conditions had become intolerable. Through the influence of reformers, many of whom took inspiration from the burial practices of the Ottomans, new laws were instituted regulating methods of disposing of the dead. A French decree passed in 1804, for instance, prohibited burial in common graves, where the dead were stacked up one on top of the other.¹⁴ Instead, each cadaver was to be buried in its own space, dug to a specific depth and separated from other graves by a set distance, a method of sepulture eventually adopted in other European countries as well.

More than Ottoman burial practices, however, the unique social life which revolved around Istanbul’s cemeteries, especially in the Grand Champs des Morts, aroused the interest of foreigners. Both Muslim and Christian inhabitants of the city followed distinct rituals for remembering their dead, and families of all religious persuasions made regular visits to their respective burial grounds, maintaining their link with the generations which had preceded them. The pleasant surroundings of the cemeteries (places to avoid in Europe’s municipalities) encouraged this communion with the departed. Moreover, the great necropolises were more than resting places for the dead. “The Champs des Morts,” as Julia Pardoe recounts, “is the promenade of the whole population-Turk, Frank, Greek, and Armenian. . .”¹⁵

It was known to the locals as a place of keyif, or an area connected with ease and enjoyment.¹⁶ Spacious, fresh, green, and in close proximity to the residential quarters of Pera, the burial ground served as a kind of parkland-an attractive area of rest and relaxation for the populace of Istanbul. With whatever views they pay these visits, it is certain that the burying-ground is their favorite resort, where they spend many of their spare hours. Whole families, parents and little children, may be seen gathered around a tomb in silence and seriousness, or in animated and joyous converse. All the burying-grounds, Turkish, Jewish, and Christian, are chief places of public resort.¹⁷

The Grand Champs des Morts even had a cafe at the crest of the hill overlooking Dolmabahce, where customers could while away the day smoking water pipes, drinking Turkish coffee, and gazing out at the sparkling waters of the Bosphorus in the distance.¹⁸ Itinerant vendors also wandered through the cemetery, offering refreshments to visitors. Water sellers usually followed in their wake, carrying huge dripping jars and shouting their distinctive cry buz gibi su! (ice-cold water),¹⁹ ready to quench the thirst of those strolling or lounging among the tombs. Yet, perhaps the most fascinating sight for Europeans were the public fairs held in the necropolis. More than just a place for commemoration, quiet contemplation, and repose, the Grand Champs des Morts was also the site of lively festivals and celebrations. On such occasions, the burial grounds—primarily those of the Christians—were transformed into an animated spectacle of gaiety and amusement. Julia Pardoe describes in colorful detail one such fte for the living amongst the monuments of the dead.

I have already spoken elsewhere of the indifference, if not absolute enjoyment with which the inhabitants of the East frequent their burying grounds; but on the occasion of this festival I was more impressed than ever by the extent to which it is carried. The whole of the Christian cemetery had assumed the appearance of a fair. . . Grave-stones steadied the poles which supported the swings—divans, comfortably overlaid with cushions, were but chintz-covered sepulchers—the kibaub merchants had dug hollows to cook their dainties under the shelter of the tombs, and the smoking booths were amply supplied with seats and counters from the same wide waste of death. Every hundred yards that we advanced, the scene became more striking. One long line of diminutive tents formed a temporary street of eating-houses; there were kibaubs, pillauf, fritters, pickled vegetables, soups, rolls stuffed with fine herbs, sausages, fried fish, bread of every quality, and cakes of all dimensions. . . . Here and there a flat tomb, fancifully covered with gold-embroidered handkerchiefs, was overspread with sweetmeats and preserved fruits; while in the midst of these rival establishments, groups of men were seated in a circle, wherever a little shade could be obtained, smoking their long pipes in silence, with their diminutive coffee-cups resting on the ground beside them. The wooden kiosk overhanging the Bosphorus was crowded; and many a party was snugly niched among the acacias, with their backs resting against the tombs, and the sunshine flickering at their feet.²⁰

Undoubtedly, Europeans were amazed by the merging of the realms of the living and the dead that occurred at Istanbul’s Grand Champs des Morts, where, as French embassy member Charles Pertusier remarked, ‘those who weep are not disturbed by the lyric songs of joy, and those who laugh pay no attention to those who weep.’²¹ Visiting—much less taking one’s pleasure in—burial grounds would have been almost inconceivable in the West. However, in the first half of the nineteenth century, this had already begun to change with the closing of inner-city churchyards and the creation of cemeteries on the periphery of urban areas in Europe. Planted with a rich variety of trees and shrubs, the burial grounds founded in Paris and London during this era constituted a distinctly new style. Essentially funerary gardens, they served both as cemeteries and parklands. Burial grounds such as Pere Lachaise, Montmartre, Kensal Green, and Highgate became renowned for their natural beauty, and were frequented—much like today—both by mourners wishing to commemorate the dead as well as visitors seeking a quiet spot for meditation and repose. Ironically, even as Europeans in the nineteenth century were opening new burial grounds influenced by models from Istanbul, sections of the very cemeteries from which they had derived inspiration (including portions of the Grand Champs des Morts) were being lost in the wake of rapid urban development. During the course of this transformation—spurred on by a desire to rebuild the city in contemporary Western fashion—it was inevitable that many of Istanbul’s old burial grounds would lessen in size, or vanish completely from the map. The city was unique in that so many of its immediate environs were taken up by vast necropolises for the dead, a conspicuous feature which left a distinct impression on foreign travelers, such as Stephen Olin, who in 1853 remarked on the loss of the cemeteries in the wake of urban growth.

Indeed, so vast a space has been devoted to the dead around Istanbul, that it is no longer possible to respect the sanctity of their abode without interfering greatly with the convenience of the living, and even the entire sacrifice of public convenience. Immense as the city is, I am quite sure that much more ground is occupied by tombs and graves than by the habitations of the living. The whole country about Constantinople, Scutari, and Pera is occupied in this way, and a vast number of tombs and burying grounds are enclosed within the walls. In forming roads, streets, and in building, it is no longer possible to spare them, and one often treads upon causeways or pavements made of sculptured grave-stones and monuments.²²

Between 1840 and 1910, the area of Istanbul stretching northward from Taksim to li was transformed from open countryside to densely inhabited residential settlement. Early nineteenth-century maps of Istanbul show much of the area in this direction taken up by the non-Muslim burial grounds of the Grand Champs des Morts, with the Frankish section directly in the path of the main route of expansion. Already, by 1842, this burial ground was being whittled down, as a contemporary account by Reverend William Goodell attests. One of the founders of the American Board mission to the Armenians at Istanbul, Goodell had lost his nine-year-old son, Constantine Washington, to gastric typhoid in 1841 and buried him in the Frankish section of the Grand Champs des Morts.

February 18, 1842. On account of the encroachments. . . on the Frank burying ground, I had to remove the body of our beloved boy. The grave . . . had been dug deep, and the coffin was scarcely damp. Every thing was sweet and still. The new grave which we have prepared a few rods distant was also deep and dry; and there we laid the body, to rest in its quiet bed till the resurrection morning. Beloved child, farewell!²³

However, little Constantine’s tranquility lasted far less than expected, disturbed again by a flurry of construction in the early 1860s, including the widening of the main road running from Taksim to Pangalti. In July 1863, the remains of more than a dozen Americans, including those of Constantine Washington Goodell, were exhumed from the old Frankish burial ground in the Grand Champs des Morts. They were transferred, along with their grave markers, to a new Protestant cemetery in Ferikiy—created by order of Sultan Abdulmecit I in the 1850s—for re-interment.24 The land occupied by the former burial ground was turned into a public park (in a modern Western sense), a project finally completed six years later with the opening of Taksim Garden in 1869.²⁵ As the urban environment around Taksim expanded in succeeding decades, the other burial grounds of the Grand Champs des Morts also disappeared. The Armenian cemetery, which lay to the north of the Frankish burial ground, was still delineated on the 1925—26 Pervititch insurance maps of Istanbul, but labeled as ‘ex-Cimetire Armenien,’ apparently indicating that it had ceased to be an active place of interment. Most of the Muslim burial grounds which had covered the slopes of Gumussuyu and Findikli had already vanished by the First World War; an aerial photograph taken from a balloon at that time shows a small portion—evident as a thick patch of cypresses—still straddling the side of the hill between the Taksim barracks an the military hospital in Gumussuyu.²⁶

The scant remains of the once great necropolis would cease to exist by the mid-twentieth century.²⁷ All the while, as the great cemetery shrank—sacrificed for the sake of public convenience—reformers in Europe were transforming the spatial relationship of the living and dead in the West. The nineteenth century witnessed an innovative concept in European burial ground design, with the introduction of expansive, magnificently landscaped cemeteries. Serene and picturesque, they served as additional public parks in many towns and cities. Whereas the small, noxious churchyards of previous ages had been shunned, the new necropolises were considered an ideal place for a relaxing stroll or family outing, not to mention a site of regular pilgrimage to pay respects to the well-loved dead. This shift in custom and attitude was the culmination of several decades of reform, which—to no small extent—was inspired by the traditions of sepulture in other lands, including the Ottoman empire. Remarkably, at a time when the Ottomans were actively borrowing ideas and institutions from Europe in an effort to modernize the empire, their centuries-old customs of burial and commemoration of the dead helped fuel a vital social advance in the very countries they looked to for guidance. At the same time, urban development in the Ottoman capital, influenced by Western models, led to the closure of the Grand Champs des Morts—Istanbul’s ‘City of the Dead,’ a world-renowned necropolis which had provided inspiration, as well as an ideal, for the cemetery reformers of Europe.

Footnotes

1. By some accounts, the earliest interments at the Grand Champs des Morts date to c. 1560, when Istanbul was struck with a severe epidemic of plague, and the open fields around Taksim were used to bury the great numbers of dead; see Istanbul Ansiklopedisi, s.v. ‘Ermeni Mezarliklari.’ The tombstone of a Dutch physician, Willem Quackelbeen, who died of the disease in 1561, offers physical evidence of this conjecture. It is currently located in the Roman Catholic cemetery at Ferikiy, where it was most likely transferred when the Frankish section of the Grand Champs des Morts closed in the mid-1800s, see A.H. de Groot, Old Dutch Graves at Istanbul, Archivum Ottomanicum 5 (1973): 6. Robert Walsh, chaplain to the British Embassy at Istanbul in the 1830s, recounted in his memoirs that the earliest grave-marker in the Frankish burial ground was that of Ludovicus Chizzolo, a Jesuit who succumbed to the plague in 1585, see R. Walsh, A Residence at Constantinople, vol. 2 (London: Richard Bentley, 1838), 441.
2. Calembourg: a pun, or play on words.
3. Julia Pardoe, The City of the Sultan, 4th ed. (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1854), 51.
4. Ibid., 53—54.
5. For instance, Lady Mary Wortley Montague, writing in 1717, commented: ‘The burying fields about it (i.e., Istanbul) are certainly much larger than the whole city. ‘Tis surprising what a vast deal of land is lost this way in Turkey. Sometimes I have seen burying places of several miles, belonging to very inconsiderable villages. . . .’ See Hans-Peter Laqueur, ‘Cemeteries in Orient and Occident: The Historical Development,’ in Cimetires et Traditions Funcraires dans le Monde Islamique (Ankara: Turk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, 1996), 2: 3.
6. An American, Sketches of Turkey in 1831 and 1832 (New York: J. & J. Harper, 1833), 158.
7. James Stevens Curl, The Victorian Celebration of Death (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Ltd.), 17.
8. These included West Norwood (1837); Highgate (1839); Brompton, Nunhead, and Abney Park (1840); and Tower Hamlets (1841).
9. Charles Dickens, The Uncommercial Traveller (London: Oxford, 1860) 233.
10. Pardoe, The City of the Sultan, 36.
11. John Claudius Loudon, ‘On the Laying Out, Planting, and Managing of Cemeteries and on the Improvement of Churchyards.’ The Gardener’s Magazine, 1843, p. 100.
12. Ibid., 405.
13. Pardoe, The City of the Sultan, 50.
14. Thomas A. Kselman, Death and the Afterlife in Modern France, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993, 169—70.
15. Pardoe, The City of the Sultan, 50.
16. Charles White, Domestic Manners of the Turks in 1844, vol. 1 (London: Henry Colburn, 1846), 15-16.
17. Stephen Olin, Greece and the Golden Horn (New York: Carlton & Philips, 1854), 249.
18. Pardoe, The City of the Sultan, 51.
19. White, Domestic Manners of the Turks in 1844, 1: 15—16.
20. Pardoe, The City of the Sultan, 134—35.
21. Petusier further states: ‘To form a correct idea of these heterogeneous scenes, we must be on the spot, for no description can do justice to them; and even when we see them, for the first time, it appears such a complete illusion, that we can scarsely conceive its reality.’ See Charles Petusier, Picturesque Promenades in and near Constantinople and on the Waters of the Bosphorus (London: Sir Richard Phillips and Co., 1820), 96.
22. Olin, Greece and the Golden Horn, 219.
23. E.D.G. Prime, Memoirs of Rev. William Goodell, D.D. (Robert Carter and Brothers, 1876), 275.
24. Burial Registry of the Ferikiy Protestant Cemetery, no. 331—343, 1863, Governing Board of the Ferikiy Protestant Cemetery, Istanbul, Turkey.
25. Zeynep Celik, The Remaking of Istanbul, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1986, 69.
26. For a copy of this image, see Celik Gulersoy, Taksim: Bir Meydanin Hikayesi (Istanbul: Istanbul Kitapligi, 1986), 37.
27. Some tombstones from the Frankish section of the Grand Champs des Morts still survive in the Protestant and Catholic cemeteries in Istanbul’s Ferikay district, where they were transferred after the old burial ground closed in the mid-1800s.

The theory is simple: Cosmic particles coming from outer space continuously collide with stable carbon-12 atoms in CO2 molecules, which are widespread in the atmosphere. Each carbon-12 atom takes up two neutrons and is converted into a radioactive carbon-14 atom. Radioactive carbon-14 atoms rapidly mix and become uniform throughout the atmosphere. Deep oceans, the biosphere, and carbonate rocks are giant reservoirs of carbon and with the addition of the atmosphere they constitute the carbon cycle of the Earth. Within this cycle, radioactive carbon-14 is continuously created and disintegrated. Both processes are in equilibrium. Since the total amount of carbon on the Earth is constant, a constant ratio is established between the amount of stable and radioactive carbon. This same ratio is valid in all the reservoirs of carbon in this giant cycle. In the biosphere, both carbon-14 and carbon-12 atoms are added to the food chain via assimilation; first by plants through photosynthesis and then by animals through consumption of the plants. For an animal or a plant, a carbon-14 atom is no different from a carbon-12 atom in assimilation. Living beings continuously take up both atoms, so the ratio of both atoms in their bodies remains constant throughout their life. When an organism dies, the uptake of exogenous carbon is terminated. After this point, although the amount of carbon-12 remains constant, carbon-14 continues to disintegrate and the ratio starts to decrease after the body dies. Because the ratio after death is related to the time that has passed since death, it is possible to determine the date of death by measuring the amount of radiocarbon present.

The half-life of radiocarbon is 5,730 years. This means that after 5,730 years half of the total amount of radiocarbon in a dead body disintegrates. The remaining half decays in the following 5,730 years and only a quarter of the first amount remains. This goes on until a very minuscule, undetectable amount remains. In bodies less than 50,000 years in age the amount of radiocarbon can be detected. For an older body, the amount of radiocarbon is so small that the instruments would be unable to measure the amount of radiocarbon present. In addition, such a test obviously works only on the remains of things that were once alive, such as bones or wooden parts of an old structure.

But how accurate is an age determined by this method? How dependable is this technique for enlightening us about the past? Although the theory seems quite consistent from a general outlook, one can see it is not the case when analyzed more rigorously.

Archeologists have tried different ways to test the accuracy of the method. The results have revealed long-term and short-term variations from the actual ages. Long-term variations show systematic deviations of the radiocarbon age from the real age; that is as the date of the sample gets older the deviation increases. On the other hand, short-term variations show irregular fluctuations in the radiocarbon age from the real age. These deviations apparently reveal that the assumptions made concerning the radiocarbon technique were not accurate. The results of these important abnormal conclusions in radiocarbon dating were summarized in the Introduction to Prehistoric Archaeology as follows: “for years, it was thought that possible errors could have minor effects, however, recent research shows that the natural concentration of carbon-14 deviates at some certain periods, significantly affecting the calculated ages.”

The method is based on two assumptions that should be examined carefully: Firstly, the method assumes that the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 has remained constant in the atmosphere from the time the body died to the present. However, recent scientific research has proven that this ratio has not remained constant during geological time.

Secondly, the method also assumes that the carbon supply to the organism was made only by the global carbon cycle and no other source of carbon has affected the system.

Initial concerns about the possible sources of error were focused on the constant ratio assumption. So, why did the constant ratio assumption turn out to be incorrect? Actually, many reasons were found to refute the validity of this assumption. The most important ones are explained below:

Changes in the Earth’s magnetic field are believed to be responsible for long-term deviations in radiocarbon dating. By investigating the orientation of magnetic minerals in ancient rocks, geologists have proven that the magnetic field surrounding the Earth has not been constant throughout the time. Today, it is widely accepted that both the strength and direction of the Earth’s magnetic field has changed. Interestingly, these changes are appreciable even within a century. Changes in the geomagnetism affect the radiocarbon production in the upper atmosphere; cosmic rays are deflected according to the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field. If the magnetic field is high, more cosmic rays are deflected away from the Earth and the production of radiocarbon falls. If it is low, production rises. When the production rate changes, a new equilibrium concentration in the carbon cycle as a whole can only be established after a considerable amount of time has passed. The likely time scale for achieving the complete new equilibrium level is about 10,000 years. This is about the same as the age of the sample that is to be dated! The bottom line is that anything that affects the density of cosmic rays reaching the atmosphere will affect the rate of radiocarbon production, thus affecting the ratio.

Short-term changes might be the results of different factors. One of these is the variation in sunspot activity. Sunspots appear as dark places on the surface of the Sun for a short period of time and generate strong geomagnetic storms. Sunspot activity increases the Earth’s magnetic field and leads to a decrease in the radiocarbon production rate. Therefore, again, anything that causes a change in the Earth’s magnetic field will affect this ratio.

Other effects for short-term variations are the changes in the Earth’s climate. It is widely accepted that the amount of carbon in the atmosphere during geological time is strongly related to temperature changes on the Earth. This fact is also key in understanding the global greenhouse effect, which occurs with the release of high amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by hydrocarbon combustion. The global sea level has also been affected by these climatic changes. During low temperature seasons (ice ages or glacial periods), large ice sheets covered most of the continents and as a result of this, the sea level dropped appreciably. During these periods, a high amount of carbon (as carbon-dioxide) was kept inside glaciers and they became C-14 depleted (dead carbon). By the end of the Ice Age, large amounts of dead carbon had been released into the system and they had decreased the global ratio of radiocarbon.

Actually, three more resources of dead carbon make a negative contribution to the ratio. One of them is the dead carbon that comes up from deep Earth through volcanic eruptions. Radiocarbon dating of an organism that lived in the vicinity of a volcano gives inaccurate results. Because of the expulsion of dead carbon, samples found close to volcanoes have less radiocarbon in their body than others. Consequently, the age determination of these samples gives significantly incorrect results.

As is obvious from the previous examples, the main problem arises in the lack of knowledge about the history of the sample being dated by this method. Another example is when the sample being tested is wood from the inner part of a tree; the radiocarbon method gives an incorrect result in this case. The reason for this is that the innermost part of a tree finishes the carbon cycle before the tree dies. If a sample was made from this part of the tree (it is impossible to know which part of a tree is being used) then the date produced would be greater than its real age.

Even human activity is an important resource for dead carbon. Although only effective since the last century, a high amount of dead carbon in the carbon dioxide has been released into the atmosphere by the burning of fuel. So the ratio of radiocarbon has decreased. Actually, compared to the factors above, this effect has a more profound influence on the application of radiocarbon dating: No recent organic material can be used as a modern standard. Because of this, the zero point of the timescale chosen is to be 1950 AD, as determined by the US National Bureau of Standards for quoting radiocarbon results.

Consequently, the ages determined by the radiocarbon method are not taken seriously by archeologists because of the problems in the basic assumptions upon which the method was established. Occasionally, the radiocarbon method is used to roughly determine whether an object is modern or of considerable antiquity; in essence, it is used as an authenticity test. Even then the answer may not be clear-cut; for example, an old piece of timber could have been carved to produce an authentic looking sculpture!

Radiocarbon dating is an example of how scientific tools should be used carefully to unfold the reality around us. Scientific theories are only poor models of what is happening in reality. The history of science is full of such examples, which sometimes may be misleading if not handled carefully.

Reference

Radiocarbon Dating, Sheridan Bowman, University of California Press, 1990

The merchant asked: ‘What gift may I purchase for you, my pretty pet, and carry back for your pleasure and delight, all the way from India?’

The parrot spoke straightaway, as though he knew he would be asked and so had prepared an answer: ‘I will not ask that you bring me back any gift, but I would ask a favour of you, a task to perform for me in India.’

‘Ask, my pretty pet,’ said the merchant, very curious, ‘and if it is in my power to do what you ask, I will do it, God willing.’

‘Well, then,’ said the bird, ‘when you reach India and you see there many parrots like myself, address to them this speech. Say:

“So-and-So Parrot sends you his greetings. He longs to be with you, but he cannot be. He is, by the decree of Heaven, a prisoner of the good merchant who brings you this message, a slave in a cage, locked up.,,

Then convey to those parrots from me. “So-and-So Parrot begs you to remember him. Remember him, imprisoned in his cage, when you fly about freely in gardens of fragrant roses. Remember him, alone and without the company of his fellows, while you go about with one another, cheerful and jolly.”

Add also this plea to your speech, since the one who will understand it may be listening. Say: “What! Have you forgotten your friend so soon, that you can fly about happily in the company of others? It may be that I was at fault in my service of you, and you are punishing me by forgetting me in this way. Is that as it should be? Is it right to answer a wrong with a wrong? Would it not be better to answer a wrong with a right?

“And yet, because it is you, still you, who have turned away from me, your turning away is dear to me. It arouses my love the more. Even your anger, your revenge on me, is dearer to me than my own life. Your anger is fire, and it burns me with love. If that is the affect of your fire, how must your light be? If I ever escape this cage, I swear I shall make straight for your rose-garden. There, I shall sing songs of desire like the nightingale. The nightingale’s songs gather the thorns as well as the roses, the bitter as well as the sweet, in the same joyful embrace. In the songs of the nightingale, love surpasses the pleasures and pains of love, and is entirely and purely itself.”

The merchant listened to every word and promised to deliver his pet’s complaint as best he could.

Towards the end of his journeying in India, he came across a rose-garden in which were a company of parrots like his own pet bird. To them, according to his promise, he faithfully recounted the parrot’s words. One of the parrots who had been listening began to tremble and shake, then fell from its perch in the rose-tree, and lay on the ground, dead. The merchant was deeply upset. He said: ‘I have been the cause of that poor creature’s death!’ and he regretted that he had kept his promise.

On returning home, the good merchant gave to all the servants in his household the gifts that they had asked for. To the parrot, he said nothing. But the parrot demanded of him: ‘What of me? Did you not do what I asked? If you did, tell me what you saw and heard.’

‘I did do it,’ said the merchant, ‘and how deeply I regret that I did. I wish I had kept silent and not conveyed your words.’

‘Why do you repent of keeping a promise and fulfilling a trust?’ asked the parrot. ‘What has caused you to be so remorseful and upset?’

‘I conveyed your complaints to the parrots where I found them, and one was so touched by your pain that she trembled and dropped down dead.’

As soon as he heard this, the merchant’s parrot also began to tremble, then he seemed to lose balance, and fell onto the floor of his cage, cold and senseless.

The merchant was now so struck with grief and despair, he began to tear his hair and clothes. ‘My dear, sweet companion!’ he cried, ‘My singer of sweet songs! Keeper of my secrets! Ah, what shall I do without you? How shall I live without you?’ Then, in his great sadness, not knowing what else to do, the merchant took the corpse (as he thought) of his beloved pet out of the cage and laid it gently on the palm of his hand.

Suddenly, the parrot awoke and flew, through the open window, to the safety of the high branch of a tree in the garden. The merchant was relieved to see his pet well. He looked up into the tree at the bird and said:

‘Dear friend, explain to me the meaning of what that Indian parrot did, which enabled you to devise this trick to escape from your cage.’

‘She gave me excellent advice’, answered the parrot from the tree. ‘By her dying, she conveyed this advice to me: ‘Your own fine voice is the cause of your being in a cage. You are held in that way so that you may entertain people with your singing and your speech. Their praise and the flattering love of your master are the walls of your cage. Renounce your cage-renounce your voice and your master’s affection. Become dead as I am dead, and find freedom.’

‘Go in peace under the protection of God!’ said the merchant. ‘You have shown me the way to a far country to which we must all go, sooner or later. That is the great journey and I must prepare for it.