Following Artemis II, we go with another piece on the Moon. Amna Majid writes on one major secret of our satellite, that it has water! It has been confirmed in 2018 that there is frozen water in the Moon’s craters. What was thought impossible before, water on the moon theory was first proposed in 1961 by Kenneth Watson. Majid gives a brief panorama of the past research up until 2025, and projects a possible future where the Moon could be a permanent space station.  

Pope Francis and Fethullah Gülen. Mustafa Cenap Aydin gives a brief account of these two giant men of faith, one the leader of the Catholic world and the other a prominent Muslim scholar, whose lives and missions overlapped in many aspects. Born and died not so far apart from each other, both men have contributed to the promotion of peace, education, and community connections around the world. Through their examples, Aydin shows how one can remain deeply committed to one’s own faith while building genuine bridges with members of other traditions.  

This issue also brings one strong document from the depths of history that helped build a peaceful society from among warring tribes: The Medina Charter. Yetkin Yildirim et al explains how this Charter, considered by many as the first constitution in history, enabled the formation of a single entity from different faith groups and ethnicities, while recognizing their respective cultural and belief traits. The Charter’s message is reinforced by Aaron Y. Ryan who wrote about racism and how it reveals at the societal level in “Racism: Egoism of Societies.” Ryan quotes Nursi for whom racism is an external projection of an enlarged ego and that racist ideologies rise “just as latent diseases emerge when the body’s immune system is weakened.”

In “Anger Is Never Sudden,” Naim Yilmaz draws an analogy between anger and allergic reactions. When we are hit by a car and immediately become furious, there is in fact something that was already growing deep down. Yilmaz says that anger appears instantly, but it is built slowly. In his piece, he offers good advice on how to control anger and guard ourselves from such allergic reactions.

There are different types of captivity based on why, how, and where it happens. Captivities due to political discrimination, racial and ethnic persecution, religious differences… captivities behind prison bars and those behind raised bridges and gates… captivities imposed by our carnal soul and addictions…. Pick one (or all) for yourself – all available in the marketplace of human history, past and present. What really strikes most in this matter is when a victim of yesterday turns into an oppressor tomorrow. This transformation has a blurring effect on the rule of law, virtue, and humane values, blocking our vision to see truth; what was unlawful before can get a green light when perpetrated by the victim of the past. Eventually, the practice becomes a habit, normalizing tragedy, reducing human life to numbers. This issue of The Fountain covers different types of captivity each pointing to a certain human weakness and showing pathways to freedom.

Cenap Aydin, a long-time Rome resident, Muslim scholar, and interfaith leader, writes about Ghetto Nuovo in Venice, Italy, “where humanity first institutionalized separation” and which was “the first formalized model of urban exclusion.” Aydin’s main purpose is not to delve into the historical details of this communal captivity: we can get rid of the walls in time; but what about the mental ghettos we build to separate communities? Indeed, such ghettos are harder to break through than bricks-and-mortar walls. “Reflections on Venice’s Ghetto” is a sour delight to reflect on – perhaps with some travel plans to Venice.

Yusuf Deniz shares a personal experience of captivity. He was one of the thousands of academics and writers purged and jailed under Erdogan’s rule in Turkey. In his short memoir “A Journey of Self-Discovery: From Darkness to Light,” he explains how his prison time exposed his human weaknesses and, despite the suffering, helped him discover “the genuine beauty and deeper purpose of life.” Deniz’s piece lights a candle of hope in the hearts of many who have been victimized through such a political imprisonment – or any other form of captivity for that matter.

The captivity imposed by our carnal soul (nafs al-ammara) is the most universal type of entrapment hardly anyone can escape from. Dr. Yilmaz writes about electronic cigarettes which seem to be all over the place today. First developed “as a smoking cessation tool and a safer alternative,” e-cigarettes are now questioned, Dr. Yilmaz explains, as to whether they have achieved their intended goals or pose unforeseen risks.

The holy month of Ramadan is an opportunity to free our body, mind, and spirit from such captivities. This is explained in the Lead Article on Ramadan and in Jong Joshua Shin’s contribution on fasting: “Feeding the Body and the Spirit.”

One post in a social media account opened by his fans shows Fr. Thomas Michel lying on the ground with several stray dogs sitting around him. They are at peace being near him, just as kids in another photo who joyfully give hugs to this man of God. I saw him for the first time more than two decades ago in a symposium in Istanbul dedicated to research on the life and teachings of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi (d. 1960), one of the leading Islamic scholars of the twentieth century. Now not surprising at all, he was giving hugs to all that came by, including myself with other youth reading Nursi.

We lost Fr. Michel recently (November 24, 2025). He was 84. A big loss for interfaith dialogue practitioners, Fr. Michel has left behind a legacy of true love on behalf of God, dedication to community work, and promoting dialogue among members of different faith traditions. He never abstained from praising good behavior and charitable work regardless of faith differences. He was so committed to education and dialogue that, despite his age and illness, he continued to work for a school in Thailand, where he passed away. One picture shows him happy as he stood in front of a girls’ dorm still under construction.

Even while suffering from health problems, he continued to deliver academic papers and lectures to the last minute – if the doctors had not disallowed him from travel, he would have flown from Thailand to the United States in September for a conference by Respect Graduate School to honor Fethullah Gülen’s life and service. I remember he had to stay in the US during the lockdown due to Covid. After it was over, he wrote to me he was buying a one-way ticket to Thailand to teach at a school, which he did until his last breath.

Another picture shows a dog on guard where the remains of Fr. Michel is kept. As one enters the premise, one can see an epitaph by Fr. Michel himself, which summarizes his life work: “Helping people understand each other is worth spending a lifetime on.” There are thousands of friends he had over the years from around the world who would firmly testify that Uncle Tom lived such a life.

In this issue, Abdullah Aymaz’s eulogy for Uncle Tom is worth reading.

For those not so fond of believing in God or following any faith tradition in modern times, religion is historically one of the major, if not the main, sources of conflict and violence among nations. Religious traditions – the accusation goes – claimed monopoly on the truth and salvation, and have mobilized rulers and fellow followers to impose their beliefs on others, thus igniting wars to subjugate those who did not tag along. Perhaps this argument is not entirely accurate in most instances, nor would it be fair to make a sweeping claim that lays all the blame on religion.. The blame that had to be laid on our greed and desire for more, has been placed on religion as a scapegoat to free our conscience from that burden of guilt. Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on the Church’s relations with non-Christian faiths, was an important step to dispel such accusations by showing that religious traditions can actually serve as instruments for peace.

The declaration was made on October 28, 1965. Commemorating its 60^th anniversary with many events throughout the year, the Catholic church and many interfaith partners from other traditions are taking this opportunity to reaffirm their commitment to continuing friendly dialogue in this day and age when “mankind is being drawn closer together, and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger” as acknowledged in the Declaration. To contribute to this ongoing dialogue, there are two major contributions in this issue of The Fountain that explore Nostra Aetate and what it means today. The first contribution is by Mustafa Cenap Aydin, the Director of Istituto Tevere, a research center on intercultural and interreligious studies in Rome, Italy, who sees the Declaration as a vision still unfolding. After laying out the tragic background that paved the way for the Declaration, Aydin neatly explains the importance of the fact that the Church did not try to reconcile with Judaism only, but also with Islam. Of course, one important steppingstone in building up dialogue with the Catholic Church and Islam was when Fethullah Gülen, the late Islamic scholar, visited Pope John Paul II in 1998. Aydin also mentions the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” signed by Pope Francis and Ahmad al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, in 2019, as “an even more expansive vision of religious cooperation in addressing the manifold challenges confronting our global civilization.”

The second contribution is by Jordan Denari Duffner, a Catholic theologian, author, and professor who focuses on Catholic approaches to other religions, Muslim-Christian dialogue, Islamic studies, and Israel-Palestine. This is a shorter version of her piece originally published in Living City magazine, which generously gave permission for publication in The Fountain. Duffner calls on Catholics – and all who take this Declaration seriously – “to be on the lookout for all that is true and holy in other religions, to notice where God is at work in the spiritual lives and ethical traditions of our friends of other faiths.”

All of us want to be perfect. But how healthy is it to be a perfectionist? Reviewing Thomas Curran’s The Perfection Trap, Adam Sahin says we need a more balanced approach when we set goals for our lives. The pressure to appear flawless, Sahin reports from Flett and Hewitt, “especially when it comes from society at large – often goes hand in hand with anxiety and depression.” Social media comparisons make the situation more challenging with the constant flow of endless, amplified humbling options that inadvertently appear before our eyes. Sahin explains how widespread this vulnerability is, giving examples from some celebrities who had to pay a high price for their perfectionism. Also found in Sahin’s piece is important recommendations from Prophetic wisdom that emphasize humility, moderation, embracing fallibility, and compassion.

As a follow-up to the perfectionist trap mentioned above, when we look at certain events in the cosmos, we tend to think the universe is not so perfect at all. In the words of Fehmi Akbaba in this issue, “in everyday life, we observe this principle in the tendency of things to break down or decay: metal rusts, organisms age…” “machines wear out, and living things eventually die.” According to physicist and theologian Sir John Polkinghorne, “There are just so many more ways to be disordered than ordered.” Reflecting on the “eventual death of the solar system” and the extinction of the cosmos into “a dark, cold, and lifeless expanse,” one hardly finds any consolation. Akbaba offers in his “Traces of Divine Order in Cosmic Disorder” many convincing points to reason that “the cosmos has not been left to itself” and that the creation is “intentional and meaningful.”

Now a matter of political polarization, “diversity” is a phenomenon ingrained in nature and human life. Humans share about 99% of the same DNA, writes Kerem Yalcin, but “the remaining 1% accounts for a remarkable diversity in our traits and characteristics” and “how susceptible people are to different diseases.” Of course, lifestyle, nutrition, geographical location, and environmental influences are also important factors. In this issue, Yalcin explains the “All of Us” research program initiated to reduce a longstanding challenge in medicine: “the inequities in health outcomes and disease risk among different racial and social groups – commonly referred to as health disparities.” Yalcin hopes that the outcomes of this program “have the potential to improve healthcare accessibility and quality for individuals from all walks of life, reduce healthcare costs, and prevent disease before their onset.”

Reinforcing the idea of “All of Us,” Suleyman Tek writes on how teamwork can help us rise together. “When we work together with a shared purpose – whether in families, workplaces, or communities – not only do we achieve more, but we help lift one another up along the way.”

Seeing the order in the universe, rising together collectively, or being on the path of perfection without being a perfectionist – all of it rests firmly on the foundation of listening to one another, a topic extensively covered in the Lead Article.

“Knowledge was a dot.” As mysterious as it sounds, this ancient statement says a lot in a few words, which Hikmet Adem is attempting to unpack in this issue. The learned men of the past were not experts in one field only – you would find them to be as knowledgeable in medicine as in astronomy, math, or religion; they knew and what they knew was a whole in their own capacity. But over time, knowledge seems to have multiplied, and this is seen as a progress in the modern mindset. While physicists are seeking an “ultimate theory,” Adem argues, “the universe becomes more meaningful” when we can explain it not only with what is visible, but also with what is not.

In the Emerald Hills of the Heart section, we study the concept of the “Special Knowledge from God’s Presence.” In contrast to the ultimate theory physicists search, it is noted in this piece, seekers of divine knowledge “search for the Ultimate Truth” and they “pay no attention to the knowledge of what people say.”

Searching the Ultimate Truth is something that can be pursued by people of belief, whose “most important characteristic” is their faith. Gülen explains in the lead article how faith transforms a person: “When faith enters hearts within its own frame of reference, the person’s thoughts concerning the universe, natural phenomena, and God all suddenly change, deepening and reaching a vastness which allows them to evaluate all existence as if it were the pages of an open book.”

Do you have any phobias? We fear many things – some of us fear flying, others fear dogs, while others fear death. Strangely, fear of spiders (arachnophobia) tops the list of major phobias among people. Dr. Oztunc explains how fear is a part of human life in his “When Fear Steers the Soul,” however unreasonable many of them are. While laying out how fear is a gift for our protection, he also gives a mathematical solution for bringing our fears under control.

This year’s Essay Contest poses a crucial question, one which will likely occupy our minds for years to come: “Real or Fake?” The contest is inviting writers to contemplate on the age of artificial intelligence that is rapidly seeping into our lives with many promising capabilities and of course questions. As we feel empowered by this cutting-edge technology in our hands, we are wondering how real our life experiences feel in the world that is now emerging before our very eyes. Perhaps in a near future, we will not know the difference, or become so immersed in it that we will replace the real with the fake.

Who enjoys living with pain? If we exclude people with masochistic tendencies, nobody. But there seems to be more to pain than what meets the eye. Brian Turk explains how pain is actually a blessing in disguise. “Pain is the body’s alarm system that we cannot ignore and should be thankful for,” writes Turk. “Whenever an organ is in distress, it alerts the brain. In turn, the brain prioritizes that organ by sending back a specialized signal—one that we perceive as pain.” Turk further explores different types of pains and what they are telling us about the condition of our body.

“Multitasking” has been one of the most popular qualities that needed to be checked for job applications. Many applicants aspired to be like acrobats joggling multiple balls while jumping over their head while walking a tight rope. This “virtue” is not as popular as it used to be. Let alone being popular, it is probably not possible, in the first place. Matt Alley writes, “The human brain is not wired to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.” According to Alley, multitasking, or rather attempting it, is a cause of stress in our lives and it chips away at our relationships.

It is not rare that we have to throw away bananas, berries, and other types of food which rot so quickly on our kitchen countertops. And there are other more crucial things in our lives, that also rot over time. Zeynep Orhan in this issue explains “brain rot,” a term selected by Oxford University Press as “Word of the Year” in 2024. According to Orhan, “brain rot” is “the gradual deterioration of our ability to focus, think deeply, and engage meaningfully with the world around us” and it “has moved from marginal concern to mainstream discussion.” Orhan suggests a major path to a healthy state of being is through a “digital detox.” Her piece offers a useful perspective on leading a more balanced life where we maintain a healthy mindset.

Where to go, then, in this age of mental pollution, pain, and overloaded lifestyles? Bob Rich reflects on his shopping experience at the monthly community market in his town. As he walks through the stalls with his trolley, he observes people and their interactions. What starts as a routine errand transforms into a meditation, making us all envy his state of joy, as we walk alongside him.

Also in this issue are reflection pieces on the solar eclipse and the green color that is so dominant in nature. In the Lead Article, we read about “patience,” and why holding onto it is essential for true success in this life.

As AI is moving up in the ladder of prominence in our lives, we inevitably receive more contemplative pieces that explore this new phenomenon submitted to The Fountain for publication. Here comes one such contribution by Dr. Mehmet Orhan who explains the origins of AI research that dates back to the 1940s, and how it has evolved to what it is today. Major corporations invest hundreds of billions of dollars in AI research and development, hiring thousands of experts. Orhan also goes into the ultimate topic of curiosity: human intelligence vs. artificial intelligence. Amidst many overwhelming debates about potential scenarios that pit machines at war against humanity, Orhan’s comments provide a nourishing perspective, positioning the human brain and AI technologies in their respective roles, offering a foundation for healthy conversations about our future.

When talking about the human brain, one popular phenomenon to consider is “multitasking.” Many believe we should have multitasking skills to land a job or finish up our duties on time. Matt Alley challenges readers in this matter and is asking whether multitasking is really possible or not. Many tasks we assume we are doing simultaneously are actually muscle memory, not actions performed with conscious thought. Similarly, tasks completed in their own time are not a product of multitasking. Alley’s article offers an introductory perspective on multitasking in this issue of The Fountain. In the next issue, he will explain further in a follow-up article.

The AI revolution is huge, but human history is filled with countless turning points where opportunities met risks and expansions were followed by destruction, or the other way around. For humankind to rise back on its feet, we have always needed to disperse the sense of despair that paralyzed our society. The lead article in this issue is depicting how pessimistic perspectives do not help at all, and that any speech or effort to weaken people’s determination to rise from they fell is “betrayal.” Gülen speaks of youth who “have been confined to a three-dimensional space and a dull, colorless, single dimension of time, disconnected from both the past and the future.” Although this article was originally written decades ago, Gülen writes as if he had foreseen the youth of today, spending their days sitting across their computer screens, like captives to the artificial world within. His article “Overcoming Despair” is mapping out a reliable guideline for our society to remain alive.

The adage goes that the humankind can go up, even higher than angels, and they can go low, even lower than beasts. This is an extremely broad range, and we are created with the potential to “excel” in both directions. One can see the height of excellence the humankind can reach in beauty, art, and spirituality in, for instance, Taj Mahal, and ugliness, distaste, and moral decay in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. Looking at the first, one is enchanted with the harmony in every detail of the monument, while encouraged to contemplate on an eternal life hoping to meet with the loved ones. Looking at the second, one is horrified to see the loneliness of Gregor Samsa as he transformed from being the sole breadwinner of his family to a giant insect which is isolated and hated by the same family. In this issue of The Fountain, we are invited to cherish beauty in its best by M A Mufazzal, and contemplate Samsa’s metamorphosis by Vaidehi Bhardwaj in the context of our modern age where we are all going through something not much different.

Journeying between these poles, as we read in the Emerald Hills of the Heart section (safar), we hope to be “freed from living a restricted life with carnal or bodily concerns and bounds, and turning to God on the horizon of the heart.” Imagine how much Gregor Samsa would have wished to be freed from his room and the physical boundaries of his deformed body. One way of suffering from this metamorphosis is to assume luxuries to be essential needs. The lead article titled “Fantasies and Necessities” explains that even societies can collectively collapse and become deprived of their freedoms when our minds become slaves to our whims and desires; our reason bound by tradition; our willpower weakened; and our judgment impaired by the narrowness of imitating others – thus, we live “in misery as victims of the age, chasing one luxury after another.”

Samsa’s isolation was a forced one – it did not happen out of his free will to renounce the world, but perhaps from fear of harm and miserliness. The Q&A section explores a balanced asceticism, which “involves renouncing worldly pleasures and completely removing the desires for the material world from one’s heart” and defines “relationship with the world based on necessity and need,” tying perfectly with the Lead Article.

“Silent Messages” explains the language of our organs and how important it is to be able to decipher their communication using medicine. “The Concept of Time” presents a broad spectrum of this mysterious, intangible phenomenon we cannot do without. “Talk Like Ted” gives a brief summary of the eponymous bestseller, revealing the secrets of top public speakers today and in the past.

We are enjoying the most advanced technology the world history has ever seen – at least in the history as we know it. With the help of this technology, we can surf – online and offline – throughout the globe as we can easily make plans for a trip thousands of miles away. Technology is good, but only when it works. As marvelous as it is to have access to everything at our fingertips, many incidents have shown how vulnerable our globally integrated systems can be and the significant consequences that vulnerability can cause. One faulty software can lead to thousands of flight cancellations, freeze banking transactions, etc. One cannot help but ask if there is a way to protect the world from such threats. Perhaps, we will still have to figure out how to do that in terms of cyber security, but we know our planet is protected from other threats like solar winds, thanks to its magnetic jacket. Dr. Cakir writes in this issue that by now we know for sure that outer space is “not entirely empty or inactive.” The strong winds of particles fly out from the Sun in the form of “solar winds” of high-energy charged particles that travels at 500,000 km per second, and “can be highly harmful.” Dr. Cakir explains how our earth is saved from these winds with a defensive tool as a result of its magnetic field. One can only hope we had a similar “jacket” to defend our world from cyber storms, too!

Moving forward with outer space, Dr. Oztunc writes on how we can obtain information about planets many light years away from us. As a veteran math scholar, Dr. Oztunc praises mathematical logic for its role in helping us see what lies beyond our perceptions.

Another vulnerability we cover in this issue is anomie and alienation. Based on his personal search to discover the illustrious origins of timeless, universal search for self-knowledge, Fred McIlmoyle writes how people feel a loss of their place in society especially since the industrial revolution. This “loss” has reached a new level with social media, which “is anything but social,” says McIlmoyle, “often judging individuals by its own superficial cult-driven stereotypes, verbally attacking those deemed to have fallen short of its distorted standards.” The result is a “homeless mind,” the title of he gave to his piece, perhaps to draw our attention to the rather difficult human condition today.

As vulnerable and alienated we may be, one major path to stay afloat is the sense of hope. “The essence of hope plays a vital role in the journey of healing, offering individuals a clear path toward recovery by reshaping their thinking and bolstering their emotional strength,” writes Dr. Lyndsey Eksili in this issue.

You will also find interesting to read in the following pages how alcohol consumption by the father affects birth defects. Finally, Rashi Pant writes that idling is not always a bad thing: the reactivation of neural patterns while idling has been shown to be crucial to learning.