influence – Fountain Magazine

Fethullah Gülen Hocaefendi and His Will

The Fountain — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:37 +0000

How would I summarize Hocaefendi’s life in one sentence? A single sentence that could encapsulate his entire life. In the first few days of my endeavor seeking an answer to this question, I found myself weary under the weight and intensity of the thoughts crowding my mind as I tried to form such a sentence. I have spent nearly thirty years immersed in his ideas and thoughts, organizing and analyzing them from religious, social, historical, and contextual perspectives. In recent years, my focus has been on exploring the authentic, legitimate foundations, both material and spiritual, that shaped his ideas and the movement of volunteers he inspired. Throughout my studies, I have constantly searched for a way to distill it all into a single sentence.

The soundness and legitimacy of a cause can be tested on multiple grounds, drawing testimony from religion, humanity, conscience, history and societal common sense. Hizmet is a movement of volunteers which derives legitimacy from all these areas and has won the conscientious approval of millions worldwide. Only a handful religious and social movements in history have received an acceptance and recognition as broad as the one Hizmet has.

As everyone knows, Hocaefendi’s will was opened recently and shared on social media. Personally, I view this historical document as both a testament to his modest life and as a validation of his religious, humanistic, moral, and conscientious legitimacy. As a founding leader, he demonstrated to millions the depth of his ethical consistency in managing the movement’s resources.

Having spent some years in his teaching circle, I’ve been somewhat aware of this will for the past thirty years. He would occasionally reference it in different contexts. Decades ago, we were already aware of his deep regret for small debts incurred fifty years earlier and his relentless efforts to track down and repay those creditors.

We witnessed him rigorously accounting for every aspect of his life. Everyone close to him could attest to his unwavering scrupulousness in religious, moral, and conscientious matters. Yet, even with this awareness, I must admit that reading his will left me unsteady, prompting an unprecedented level of self-reflection. At that moment, it felt as if time stood still. I am at a loss of words to describe the sense of humility and shame I felt in the face of a life spanning more than eighty years lived in simplicity while leading a massive movement whose influence, message, and synergy have reached millions across the globe.

And yet, for years, people have said so many things about him. Some even fabricated outrageous claims: that he controlled billions of dollars, owned vast olive groves stretching from Edremit to Ayvalık (in Turkey), and lived a life of luxury in gilded mansions on private estates—slander so shameful that I blush merely repeating it. Even those who spread this slander knew he had spent his life on a simple mat. In any case, I do not wish to taint your mind with such falsehoods. For me and for millions, his will has now become a historic document that summarizes the life of this towering figure. It stands as the greatest witness to both his spiritual character and to the movement of volunteers he founded—affirming the religious, human, moral, social, and historical legitimacy, as well as the ethical consistency, of the movement. I see it as a historic testament to the integrity of the volunteers who embody this service.

What remains from a spiritual and moral hero is this humble, simple, yet profoundly historic document. He was a religious leader and a guide who carefully kept his closest ones away from the material resources of the movement and settled in the hearts of millions. Yes, of course, there are the schools, myriads of volunteers, lives devoted to humanity, monumental services, and historic bridges of dialogue built among diverse cultures, all bearing witness to this legacy. Yet, the message conveyed by this modest document feels like a universal call to humanity’s conscience and common sense, inviting us to a life of selflessness and prophetic integrity in an increasingly materialistic, worldly, and self-centered world.

When I read his will, the first thought that came to mind was the incident following the Prophet’s passing. His wives sent Uthman ibn Affan to Caliph Abu Bakr to request their share of inheritance from Khaybar and Fadaq. When Aisha heard about this request, she quoted the following words from the Prophet: “We Prophets do not leave wealth as inheritance; what we leave behind is charity.” Upon hearing this, they withdrew their demand. Although there are different narrations, in one version, it is stated that scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets. This inheritance, when taken in its absolute meaning, suggests that true inheritors are not only those who inherit knowledge and wisdom but also those who inherit the pain, suffering, trials, poverty, and deprivation endured by the Prophets. This document stands as a testament to a life marked by hardship and sacrifice.

They once asked Rumi about the “state” of a lover (of God), and he responded, “It is like the sleep of one who rests on a pillow of thorns.” When I first read this in high school, I thought it was merely a poetic metaphor. I was somewhat familiar with the kind of life dervishes like Rumi and Yunus Emre led from Sufi literature. However, until I met Hocaefendi, I always looked to the past, to the ascetic lives of the dervishes of the eighth and ninth centuries, as the embodiment of this statement. I had assumed that such a life could no longer be practiced in modern times. Hocaefendi, I came to realize, was the sole exception.

Without a doubt, any attempt on my part to describe Hocaefendi’s state would be a second- or perhaps third-hand account. However, as a note for history, I can attest to this through my own observations, using Rumi’s metaphor: not only was Hocaefendi’s pillow thorny, but his entire bed and cover seemed laden with thorns. He lived his entire life that way. I believe that his fellow volunteers, close companions throughout different phases of his life, as well as his relatives and others who knew him well, would affirm these words.

In sum, this will stands as the greatest testament to his life of suffering, hardship, and profound concerns for humanity. May his soul rest in peace, may his place be the highest level of Paradise, and may his memory be cherished in our minds. I extend condolences to all who love him throughout the world.

The Will & Testament of M. Fethullah Gülen

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

God is a witness over this.

This is the will of Fethullah Gülen from Erzurum.

Praise be to God, peace and blessings be upon the Beloved of God to the number of atoms of the universe, and upon his Companions to the degree of perfection of that noble Messenger.

From those who know me and happen to be at the place I die, I request the following. As to which items in my home belong to me and which do not have also been identified.

Firstly: Assuming the possibility of inadvertent misuse during my service, donate 300 TL (Turkish Lira) to both the old and the new foundations.

From the money in my wallet, a shroud of the cheapest cloth is to be purchased, and the remaining amount should be given to charity, without any expectation of reward.
When once I was in financial hardship, (such and such person) in Erzurum had given me 3,000 TL (approximately $87) on one occasion and 500 TL (approximately $14.50) on another. Any of my books not already in his library should be given to him to compensate for that amount.
I borrowed 2,000 TL (approx. $57) from (such and such) in 1966. Although he considered it alms and did not seek repayment, I do not have a clear conscience about it. Therefore, books equivalent to the value of that amount should be given to him.
My clothes in the wardrobe and the bedding are to be donated to students. Except for the plain red blanket, everything was provided for my use on the assumption of my service. These items, without exception, should be distributed to the individuals I name below. The tape player, radio, and cassettes should also be given to students (…) and (…) at the foundation. Both wooden bookshelves should likewise be delivered to the friends named below.
As for the books in the drawer of the little cabinet, the names of their owners are written inside. They too are to be delivered to their owners. If any money is found between the pages, it should also be given to the individuals named below.
In 1958, I borrowed 20 TL from a craftsman who was laying the lead for the dome of the Kurşunlu Mosque in Erzurum. Efforts to find him were unsuccessful, but he should be located, and the debt paid according the value of that day. I also borrowed 75 TL from a student whose name I have forgotten. While I believe I may have repaid this debt, I remain uneasy about it.

Any carpets, rugs, and other spreads, as well as the fridge and washing machine, should all, without exception, be delivered to the following individuals: (…), (…), (…), (…), (…) A copy of this will can be found in the pocket of one of the jackets in my room.

M. Fethullah

Note: The names directly mentioned in the original text are kept private. It has been reported by his family and students that Fethullah Gülen already paid all the debt listed in the will at different times since then.

Trying to Understand the Reasons behind Violence

The Fountain — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 17:35:14 +0000

Violence. It surrounds us. It is all over the media. It is so common in our society today that violence has become the norm rather than the exception. Perhaps one out of every ten people in the United States have experienced or witnessed a violent crime. Psychology Today states that homicide is the 5^th most common cause of death in the United States in all age brackets between 1 and 44 years. Violence to one’s self, in the form of suicide, is ranked second only to death by accidental causes. As violence is a behavior, it is common to lay the blame for violence to a psychological abnormality. Unfortunately, that is not the cut and dried case.

The potential for violence exists in all of us. It is part of our biology. Especially in males. Men are far more predisposed to violence than women, and this has been the case since the dawn of time. We were violent to hunt for food, protect ourselves and our families and to maintain order in society. As we can see, violence is still required today to do much the same thing.

Everywhere, we see the potential for violence. In how the police keep the peace, in how the military defends politics and diplomacy across the globe. In how one group seizes property, or food, or people against their will through the use of violence.

While we are predisposed to violence as a species, let us not forget that we haven’t brought ourselves to the point of extinction yet. This is because for all of our violent tendencies, society has developed a moral structure. Whether it’s because of a common belief in a spiritual concept, a religion, or just some inner moral compass, society has evolved with laws. These laws guide us through what is right and what is wrong. Such an evolution has brought some structure to societies, and has maintained some control over humanity’s violent aspects.

While yes, psychology is part of the equation of violence, there are other determining factors that make a person more predisposed to violence. For instance, it has often been discussed that environment, and external influence play a large part in violent behavior. A person who grows up in a violent environment, or around violent people may be more apt to be violent themselves. This can be seen across the United States where people grow up, and live in rough neighborhoods. Young impressionable people tend to go with the flow in order to be accepted by the elder violent natured individuals in their society. Observing aggressive behavior makes children learn new aggressive behaviors, for we tend to imitate the specific behaviors that we see, and start to believe that it is OK to do the same (Bandura 1973).

Influences in that environment could be a constant state of war such as we see in developing countries. It could be gang members who recruit younger people through coercion, or exposure to violence. It could be any number of hate groups who are able to influence people, imparting to them at a young age that one race or another is inferior, or to blame for something. In doing so, such groups are able to convince people that an ethnic group is deserving violence. So it can successfully be debated that environment, and external influence, are definitely keys to violent behavior.

There are others who argue that it is only biology that is the defining factor regarding violent behavior. In an article for Medical News Today, the author writes that the Hypothalamus, the ventrolateral part of the ventromedial hypothalamus, and the Lateral Septum areas of the brain are specifically to blame for violent behavior. Biology can be a factor to understand violent behavior in relation to build-up of electrical impulses that finally get released in a physical expression. But it surely does not help to explain exactly why these impulses get built-up.

In my opinion, I believe it is a combination of factors. I am United States Air Force veteran who has deployed to numerous locations where violence is common, and then spent time as a contractor there. From my exposure to these other cultures, I can say that I believe that environment plays a large part in violent behavior along with external influence. The more people are fed the idea that violence is acceptable, the more they are inclined to exhibit violent behavior.

It is true though that biology is really the tie that binds all of us into a predisposition for violence. Studies have shown that any person placed under enough negative mental stress will react violently to the situation they are in. In effect the Fight or Flight response is triggered. This is because regardless of environment, influence, or predisposition, we are all human and are all hardwired in the same way. Violence is a product of the Fight or Flight response. When presented with a given situation imbued with enough negative mental stress, we will either fight or run. Factors such as environment and influence will either mitigate or exacerbate our response.

To make matters worse, the ingestion of certain drugs such as amphetamines can produce states where the individual is more prone to be violent. The same can be said for alcohol, which is notorious for lowering impulse control. If the condition is chronic, then the individual will become violent over and over again. Again this is a matter of an external influence.

Now having said that, there are certain people who argue that psychology is the only defining factor. According many health professionals, mental illness is widely considered the principal cause for violent behavior.

People with psychotic tendencies who have no real sense of right or wrong are certainly more predisposed to violence. This is especially so in Paranoid Schizophrenics, where people come to believe they are being persecuted. They may then attack the person they believe is persecuting them. The same can be said of people who are sexually deviant. Often they will perform violent acts against other people to satisfy a psychological need. However, there is a standing argument that sexual deviance is a product of both environment, and the individual being a victim of sexual violence themselves. Therefore, potentially, sexual deviance is a result of environment and negative external influence.

The trend of violence in today’s society has reached epidemic proportions. In violent riots, people may act out violently because people around him or her are acting violently. It is perceived as normal to do so in such situations in which peer pressure, an external influence, lowers an individual’s self-control, thus allowing for violent behavior.

A child with a history of parental abuse kills small animals for the sheer enjoyment of doing so. The child has experienced violent behavior and is looking for an outlet to express his or her own violent tendencies. Once the child knows he or she has an outlet, they will continue to find ways to express their violent tendencies. The concern here is that as this person gets older, the need for release will need to be satisfied to a greater degree. Much in the way a drug addict needs larger and larger doses to maintain a high.

A soldier acts out violently on numerous occasions. He has a string of prior violent actions before joining the Army. Because of his violent tendencies, he is more accepted as a soldier. In such a situation, where violence is considered the norm, a person with a predisposition to violence could function for years before anyone caught on that they were actually emotionally disturbed.

A man with an automatic rifle walks in to a church and opens fire, killing dozens of people. Perhaps he has a deep seated hatred for an ethnic group. Or perhaps he has an issue with the religion being preached in the church. What is disturbing is that he has convinced himself over time that his actions are acceptable. He has decided that it is right to render violence to other people.

We see so much violence now that we have become jaded to it. Oversaturation of the topic by the media has made us numb to the violence in our society. We have in fact come to expect it. This is because the media knows that bad news sells better than good news. This is another example of external influence.

It is therefore my opinion that yes psychology does play a part. So does environment and external influence. When these three factors are combined with the fact that we are by nature, and biology violent creatures, the predisposition for violence increases exponentially. A word of caution however in stereotyping people who, based on these factors, are predisposed to violent behavior. We are all capable of violence. It merely depends on the situation we find ourselves in at a given moment in time.

References

Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

· Fields. R. Douglas. 2016. “The Science of Violence,” Psychology Today.

Rise Up

Louima Cunningham — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Rise up, valiant one, stop sleeping!

Rise up, because my heart is lamenting…

During the days having passed without you,

I went back over the yesterdays,

Grieving all the while, and saddened

Since you had deserted your country.

O my valiant one, appear now!

Appear, for we are depressed.

Our hearts come into our mouths;

Our last words are on our lips…

The people need your smile,

And we’re thirsty for your zeal.

No more strength is left to us:

We, a multitude of orphans,

Are pushed to and fro,

And detained along the way…

Wasting time in distractions,

We cannot bear anything extra…

You appear in dreams every night,

You are in words and in hearts…

This is so the whole life long:

Come to make your influence felt,

Have some pity upon us, please:

We go down on our bended knees…

Reading the Media and the Universe

The Fountain — Sun, 01 May 2011 00:00:00 +0000

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed,” quoted Barney Zwartz from Mark Twain on April 2 at the University of Melbourne. This short quote was enough to draw laughter and an entertaining start to his speech at the “Media and Values” panel co-organized by the Australian Intercultural Society and The Fountain magazine.

The media continues to influence our lives with an ever growing capacity, for it is no longer solely in print form and thus commands a much larger potential of accessibility in a much shorter span of time and space. For many, the print edition still offers the best experience of the news but with a much smaller frequency, velocity, and flexibility. Such an influence that comes along with the amount of exposure and yet instant mutability of new media forms brings up concerns about the “values” that set the main guidelines for this power and change in media outlets. This was our main topic of discussion this past March and April in Singapore, Jakarta, Melbourne, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, and Shah Alam. We are thankful to local organizers in these cities for their cooperation. We are especially indebted to Professor Radhi al-Mabuk from the University of Iowa and Professor Jon Pahl from The Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, who generously spent their time with us during this tour and gave presentations in each of these cities on our behalf. You will find in this issue brief notes and photos from the “Media and Values” panels, in addition to two other The Fountain Talks events in Austin, TX and Manhattan, NY. We would like to offer our appreciation to the local organizers of these events. For more information, please visit www.fountainmagazine.com.

“An Ardent Prayer” leads the current issue. It is the prayer of a painful heart filled with sorrow for our weakness in responding to the blessings bestowed on us; a heart that is concerned with the troubles of our society and yet hopeful for the divine mercy as he prays to be treated not according to our distance from Him, rather in light of His proximity to all of His creation.

“My Treasure Jars” comes from a lifetime resident of the Appalachian Mountains. Belinda Sturgill shares with us a very thoughtful piece on what a woman, a mother, and a grandmother can leave behind as a legacy to her family, to her nation, and to humanity. This is an award-winning essay from The Fountain Essay Contest of 2010.

Our interview with Dr. Priya Natarajan from Yale University is another “treasure jar” in this issue. She describes her job as “building a story line for the universe.” Who else other than a cosmologist could dare to offer such a description of her work? Or perhaps we should put the question the other way around: who on the face of this earth does not want to learn the story line of the universe?

A Serendipitous November

The Fountain — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

“Yes, we can,” responded a few hundred thousand people in Chicago to the encouraging and hope-inspiring address of the new president-elect of the United States following the announcement of the election results. The American elections of 2008 showed once again that the popular vote can have a real influence on the fate of a nation and the world when public demands are met by a successfully articulated promise for change. Hope is such a powerful energy that, when released, waves of its influence often overflow the borders of a country and echo in a larger area overseas. Dr. Muhammed Cetin explores in this issue this dynamic force of democracy together with its shortcomings, how it can be improved so as to cover all aspects of human existence, and contributions of Islamic scholarship.

The events of November 2008 will definitely remain in the memory not only because of the American elections, but also for the hopes that arose almost simultaneously from a successful international conference at Georgetown University-Islam in the Age of Global Challenges: Alternative Perspectives of the Gulen Movement. Participants from different parts of the world discussed for two full days how to deal with problems from poverty and education to gender issues, problems that are posing ever greater and more global threats to humanity. With schools and cultural centers over 110 countries as well as relief and charity organizations with a global outreach, the Gulen movement offers an interesting field of research for social scientists. I would like to draw readers’ attention to an essay in this issue by Farid al-Ansari of Morocco, who presents an insightful portrayal of this movement with which the author reveals he has deep resonance himself.

We are also proud to present in this issue an exclusive interview with Professor Ahmed Zewail. Conducted by Dr. Nuh Gedik, this wisdom-filled interview gives analytical insight into the decline of Muslims from the pinnacle of human civilization which they achieved and maintained for long centuries.

For The Fountain, this past November was also exceptional for something that happened for the first time: a women writers workshop. In order to encourage more female writers to activate their potential or blow the dust off their writing skills, a writing workshop exclusive to women was organized jointly by The Fountain and volunteers in Pittsburgh. Eighteen authors from different states participated. They brainstormed on various issues, ranging from how to be an effective writer to the aspects in which The Fountain is different from other periodicals. Former contributors shared their writing experience with beginners, while previous issues were comprehensively evaluated and analyzed. We are very grateful to the organizers, and we hope this volunteer spirit, without which The Fountain would not have become what it is, will continue to generate quality material for our readers across the globe.

Tuberculosis and Pregnancy

Louima Cunningham — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 00:00:00 +0000

THERE IS THE INFLUENCE OF TUBERCULOSIS ON THE COURSE OF PREGNANCY AND CHILD DELIVERY AS WELL AS ON THE HEALTH OF A MOTHER AND HER CHILD.

The problem of pulmonary tuberculosis in pregnancy has attracted the attention of doctors for many years and it is still a current issue. Modern researchers and physicians divide tuberculosis into several independent problems which have difficult solutions. On the one hand, there is the influence of tuberculosis on the course of pregnancy and child delivery as well as on the health of a mother and her child. On the other hand, there is the influence of pregnancy and childbirth, the puerperal period and lactation on the course and progress of tuberculosis.

Research on how pregnancy influences the course of tuberculosis has been carried out for many years. Even in the oldest available documents we can find instructions for “personal precautions” and preventative measures against tuberculosis, as well as thoughts about pregnancy and tuberculosis. In 1400 BC the Law of Manu from ancient India prohibited marriages to girls from families with tuberculosis. In different world religions, including Islam and Christianity, there are special restrictions concerning people who suffer from this illness.

In ancient times Hippocrates and Galen taught that pregnancy has a positive influence on the function of lungs. But the Islamic doctors, Arabian as well as Spanish, of the Cordoba Caliphate considered that the blessed process of pregnancy must not be complicated by pulmonary diseases.

With time European medical science changed its point of view. From the second part of the 17th century until the beginning of the 19th century doctors considered that pregnancy had a bad effect on the course of tuberculosis, but then the situation, for some reason, changed. Doctors began to think that pregnancy had a good influence on lung diseases. They even started to advise girls who were susceptible to tuberculosis to marry. Time passed and doctors began to change their opinion on tuberculosis in pregnancy and the extremes in views became less obvious. This happened due to the introduction of an artificial pneumothorax into the treatment of tuberculosis.

Since then the third period in the understanding of the relationship between pregnancy and tuberculosis has begun. The opinion about the course of tuberculosis in pregnant women has changed due to the successful therapy of tuberculosis with the help of the artificial pneumothorax.

During the gestation period, all the organs and tissues of the entire organism experience an increased load, as they are trying to satisfy both their own needs and that of the developing fetus. These morphological and functional changes do not lead to any pathological state in the mother if she is healthy and her course of pregnancy is normal. If the woman’s organism has been weakened by a chronic immunodeficiency due to poor environmental conditions or if she has a tuberculosis process in her organism, then functional changes and tissue dystrophies can develop in her nervous system which will lead to metabolic disorders. Changes in ergasia caused by pregnancy and connected with changes in higher nervous activity, as well as with endocrine reorganization, can influence the development and the course of the tubercular process.

Before penicillin was discovered, pregnancy usually led to the progression of the disease and in many cases even ended fatally. Nowadays due to the use of effective antituberculous medicines the attitude towards possible pregnancy of women who have active tuberculosis has considerably changed.

Tuberculosis in a pregnant woman usually starts in an acute form; at this stage infiltrative forms of the disease with necrogenic and bacterioexcretion prevail, often combined with exudative pleurisy, trachea, larynx and bronchi lesions.

Frequent consecutive pregnancies have a negative effect on the state of women who suffer from tuberculosis; they weaken the organism and can cause the recrudescence of the tuberculosis process. This is very typical of many families in poor Asian and African countries. More than half of all pregnant women suffering from an active form of tuberculosis experience a progressive iron deficiency anemia during the first three months of pregnancy and in the second trimester of pregnancy this can be observed in almost all patients. Malaria is also widespread in Asian and African countries that are situated to the south of Sahara and are the second reason for iron deficiency anemia.

According to modern views, one of the reasons for the recrudescence of the tubercular process during pregnancy is an irregular or non-systematic treatment of this illness or the absence of any treatment at all. The recrudescence of the process observed in those suffering from destructive pulmonary tuberculosis is caused by the severity of the illness itself when new conditions for the organism occur. In this case, pregnancy begins against the background of an advanced chronic immune deficiency. At the same time, due to the feto-placental complex operation, functional changes in the nervous, respiratory, cardiovascular and urinary systems, as well as hormonal changes, in the organism of a pregnant woman take place.

Moreover, the development of the fetal skeleton requires calcium which is absorbed not only via the blood of the mother, but also from the healed niduses of tuberculosis and as a result, the progression of a specific process can appear.

The reactivation of the tubercular process happens due to a decrease in the responsiveness of the organism and because of an increase in the activity of the reproductive hormones and the loosening of the connective tissues which are physiologically involved in pregnancy. The amount of plasma and extra vascular fluid increases. Due to these changes, a swelling and loosening in the inactive tubercular niduses with the mycobacteria of tuberculosis can appear. And loosening, in its turn, enables a lymphohematogenous spread of mycobacteria.

In addition to these, the delivery of a child leads to a speedy reorganization of all the functions of the organism; lactation and nursing in their turn are combined with an increased loss daily of nutritious matters and a large amount of protein and fats. In case of destructive pulmonary tuberculosis, due to the fact that the diaphragm descends (resulting in the abdominal decompression ceasing to have a therapeutic action of pneumoperitoneum) bronchogenic dissemination appears in the unaffected parts of the lungs.

A specific active process can be observed in women belonging to the high-risk group in connection with tuberculosis. The high-risk group combines women who have recently suffered from tuberculosis (less than one year after treatment), those who have just been operated on for a tuberculosis connected illness (less than one year), women with tuberculosis of different localizations younger than 20 years (for Asia and Africa) and those older than 35 years (for Europe and the USA), those with widespread forms of the tubercular process withstanding its stage, women who have had contact with people discharging bacteria or people suffering from tuberculosis but not discharging bacteria, and also those who have coexisting illnesses (diabetes, chronic nonspecific pulmonary illnesses, problems with kidneys, stomach and duodenum ulcer), and also women who use alcohol, narcotics, those who smoke and lead asocial ways of life. In these cases, the women must be properly examined during the gestation period, including X-rays.

Treatment of tuberculosis during pregnancy

All other conditions being equal, the timely detection of active tuberculosis during pregnancy allows doctors to provide a full course of treatment, allowing the woman to recover and give birth to a healthy child. Untreated active tuberculosis of the mother is much more dangerous for the fetus than anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy.

Special attention must be paid to healthy women who are in contact with bacillary patients. Quite often these women might undergo active tuberculosis for the first time during pregnancy or after the delivery itself.

In the pre-penicillin era the recrudescence of the tubercular process during pregnancy and after the delivery proceeded in an acute form with frank infiltrative changes, a necrogenic process, bloody expectoration and very often a generalization of the process. Nowadays, the clinical outlook for complications and the recrudescence of tuberculosis against the background of pregnancy is less gloomy. It more resembles the toxicosis of pregnancy or respiratory diseases.

While examining a patient, special attention must be paid to chest problems like moist or dry coughs, bloody expectoration, pain in the chest and shortness of breath. If the patient coughs with expectoration for 2 weeks then she must be examined for mycobacteria with the usage of a microscopic technique.

Another syndrome, which is also very important, is a complex of intoxication symptoms (weakness, hidrosis, anorexia, weight loss, long-lasting low grade fever and hyperirritability) which need to be detected to discover the reason for their development. While examining the anamnesis of a pregnant woman it is necessary to learn if she has ever suffered from tuberculosis before, if she has had any possible contacts with infected people, whether there are cases of tuberculosis or concomitant diseases in her family as all of these can be very useful for the verification of tuberculosis.

When active pulmonary tuberculosis is suspected an X-ray examination is necessary. When the chest is in frontal projection, the X-ray exposure of the fetus is 10 times lower than that of its mother (with compulsory use of a protective apron). Examination of the cough expectoration for the presence of tubercular mycobacteria is one of the easiest, most effective and informative diagnostic methods.

Chemotherapy, which destroys the tubercle bacillus that spread in the organism, plays a leading role in the variety of methods for tuberculosis treatment. By reducing the population of bacteria, chemotherapy supports the healing process, the dispersion of inflammatory changes, the closing of caverns, the encapsulation of the remaining loci as well as preventing the development of sclerosis. When the patient suffers from tuberculosis, the healing processes are very slow; the first stage of the recovery process of mycobacteria ceases and only after some months, in the case of a successful treatment of tuberculosis, does the healing process finish.

The necessary treatment of pregnant women who suffer from tuberculosis must start as soon as the diagnosis has been made. Chemotherapy implies taking antibacterial medicines (isoniaside, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, ethambutol, ethionamide and etc.) in different combinations. The choice of this or that combination depends on the stage of the disease as well as on any undesirable reactions to the medicines prescribed.

The treatment of tuberculosis (if there are indications) continues during the entire pregnancy and lactation period. In particular, patients with tuberculosis that has been diagnosed during the pregnancy are in need of treatment. When there is a systematic treatment, up to the moment of delivery and in the puerperal period, positive clinicoradiologic dynamics can be observed regarding the specific inflammation (stoppage of bacterioexcretion, closing of caverns, dispersion of loci, infiltration and exudate). Patients who reject treatment during the process of pregnancy suffer from an advancement of the illness.

Transplacental infection of the fetus with tuberculosis almost never occurs, but the baby can be infected from the mother in the puerperal period. There is also a possibility of contamination during delivery, but this is a rare occurrence.. God truly protects the innocent!

Permission to breast feed must be given by a joint resolution of an obstetrician, a pediatrician, and a specialist of tuberculosis taking into account the state of a woman and the form and the stage of the tubercular process. Overall precautionary measures must be taken (a nonbacterial mask of 5-6 layers covering the nose and the mouth, a kerchief covering the head and thoroughly washed hands).

A bacteriological study of the breast milk of women who suffer from tuberculosis shows that typical mycobacteria rarely vegetates (no more than 0.33%). Human milk has the ability to suppress the development of the mycobacteria of tuberculosis. This must be connected with the rich spectrum of ferments, immunoglobulins, cellular elements, macro-phages, the complement system, interferon and other factors of nonspecific protection which human milk contains.

The contraindications for nursing are as follows: tuberculosis of the lactiferous gland, an acute form of tuberculosis, active pulmonary tuberculosis with bacterioexcretion, active tuberculosis of any organs detected at the end of the pregnancy or after the delivery, and recrudescence of tuberculosis during the pregnancy. Children born to such mothers are immediately isolated after their birth and bottle fed, they are vaccinated and stay in the hospital for 6 weeks if possible (the minimum period for compulsory postvaccinal isolation).

Thus the tubercular process in the lungs, especially an active one, will have a negative influence on pregnancy and delivery. Babies born to such mothers belong to a high-risk group as far as the possibility of neonatal pathology and antenatal death of the fetus are regarded. Women with pulmonary tuberculosis must undergo regular consultations with both an obstetrician-gynecologist and a phthisiologist from the very early stages of their pregnancy. They must also receive special treatment until all the signs of active tuberculosis have been eliminated.

Medication, Pregnancy and God’s Will

Louima Cunningham — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Pregnancy is a unique condition for women, and childbirth has always been considered to be one of the most important events in a woman’s life. Maternity has always been highly respected and esteemed. People have always regarded the birth of a child as a gift from God.

A wanted child brings happiness to a family; it is a gift from God. And, of course, every woman who wants to give birth wants to bring up a healthy and beautiful child. Unfortunately, the health index of the modern generation of women at child-bearing age is not very high (there are many chronic diseases, spiritual poverty, with a high vulnerability to different infections due to a variety of reasons). Due to this reason, medical interference in what is a natural process has become more frequent recently. Statistics show that more than 92% of women use different drugs at different stages of pregnancy. The question is to what extent this medication is safe for the future baby. This is a fundamentally important matter to investigate because a pregnant woman taking any chemicals is in essence applying a kind of experiment on her as well as the baby’s health which can have a variety of different consequences.

The problem of medical effects on the development of a fetus has recently become very acute. This is because there are many different medications that are common and easily available nowadays, and they are very often taken without a doctor’s prescription. Unfortunately, the consequences of this fact are not pleasant. Prenatal development is one of the most important and difficult stages in a person’s life. Just in 9 months an ovicell (an egg cell) and a sperm cell form an extremely complex living organism that consists of millions and billions of cells! Moreover, all these cells are combined into tissues, organs and systems that are always interacting. The fetus has a fascinating rate of growth to become a structure with an ever-increasing complexity. In addition, all these processes do not happen chaotically but in a strict order. This order is supplied by two factors: the first is a sound genetic program. It is obtained by the fetus from its parents and the decoding of the genome vividly denotes the existence of Divine Power. The second factor is the state of a maternal organism which supplies everything necessary for the realization of the genetic program and protects the fetus from the negative influence of the environment. In this way the failure of one of the mentioned factors can lead to different deviations and to the disturbance of the development, including the formation of congenital malformations of the fetus and even prenatal death.

The history of medicine shows that medications can be the most harmful etiological factor in relation to the fetus. Today, there are many examples proving this fact. One of the best-known is the thalidomide tragedy which happened in Europe in the 1950-60s. As a result of taking a poorly studied medicine (a light tranquilizer) the children of hundreds (!) of women were born with serious physical defects. Unfortunately, the list of drugs that causes fetal malformation is not short. Nowadays doctors are aware of syndromes caused by hydantoin, warfarin, aminopterin, and many other medications. Each of these has a specific effect on the fetus (mostly leading to serious abnormalities) when taken by a pregnant woman. In the past, people believed that such children were marked by Satan. But nowadays we say that it is the unpredictable effect of the medicine on the realization of the Creator’s program. Medical interference can lead to a disruption in the rate of development and affect the order of differentiation in the tissues and organs of fetus. Moreover, drugs can interrupt the blood circulation in the placenta, change the metabolic process between the fetus and the mother, causing a retardation of intrauterine growth or premature labor, or they can be the reason for a falloff in the health of the child in the first years of life.

The influence of drugs on the fetus depends on different factors, such as the term of gestation at which the drug is administered, the dosage, and the length of time that the medicine is taken, as well as the ways that the drug is excreted, the health of the mother and her inherited sensitivity to medicine, and, of course, the properties of the medicine itself. There are many drugs whose influence on the fetus have not yet been examined, as such research is very difficult, expensive, or in many cases simply impossible. If we understand this, we can see that the outlook for scientific interference in God’s creation of human beings is not good.

You may wonder why the wide-spread usage of medication by pregnant women throughout the whole world has not lead to a continuous increase in congenital malformations if it is really this dangerous. Thanks to a happy concourse of circumstances, this process has not become too wide-spread, as there are many factors that allow the fetus to “escape” medical danger. For example, there may be an inherited insensitivity on the part of the fetus to the influence of different medications, the placenta has its own inherent protective function, the medication may be taken in a small dosage, the developmental stage of the fetus may be at a “non-critical” period, plus many other factors. Doubtless, although this has not been proven, is the fact that the mother has a sincere faith in God and believes in God’s protection of her and her child, which has a positive influence on the development of the fetus.

The initial clustering of embryonic cells and the formation of all the fetus’ organs and systems occur in the first trimester of pregnancy. It is particularly in this period that the fetus is very sensitive to the influence of different factors, including different drugs.

It is quite common that the results of the use of some teratogens¹ by pregnant women, which can have fatal effects, can simply go unnoticed in some cases, resulting in the death of the fetus during the first two weeks of development. In this case, the woman does not even know that she is pregnant. Such cases are not rare (according to some researchers, up to 70% of all pregnancies finish in the early death of the fetus).

What should a pregnant woman do if she is ill or feeling unwell? How can she effectively help herself and minimize the risk of any medications on her baby at the same time? It is never a good idea to self-medicate if you are pregnant, particularly in the case of little-known or untested medications. In any case, it is better to consult an experienced doctor or pharmacist. If for some reason this is impossible, please read the prospectus which is to be found with the medicine carefully. Which dangers the medicine can cause are probably mentioned on the prospectus, and it may be written that the drug should not be used if pregnant. If a drug has been used while being unaware of pregnancy (for example, during the first 2 weeks) then immediately consult a specialist about any possible negative effects there might be for the fetus as soon as you found out that your are pregnant. Going to see your doctor early will allow you the necessary time to avoid any dangers and allow you to arrive at a decision about this pregnancy. If the medicine has been prescribed by a doctor then be sure to ask about possible unwanted side effects for the fetus. Don’t hesitate to ask such questions. If it seems to you that your doctor’s attitude to this question is not serious enough (unfortunately, this happens quite often) then consult a competent specialist (a geneticist or a clinical pharmacist).

If you are just planning your pregnancy, then try to predict all the negative factors beforehand. If you have some chronic diseases which may become acute during the pregnancy, or if you have an allergic predisposition or high sensitivity to acute respiratory diseases, then you should consult a doctor. Preventive methods which have been worked out especially for you minimize the risk of the illness and the risk of using drugs that are potentially harmful to the fetus.

During early stages of ontogenesis the fetus has almost no adaptation mechanisms or specific reactions in its response to the influence of pathogenic agents. Only with time will the fetus’ main organs and systems become mature and the functions of the placenta fully form the morphological and functional backgrounds of the response characteristics peculiar to a new-born baby. We usually say that everything happens according to God’s Will but He has created us for a full, vivid, and creative life. And He wants us to understand and be attentive to the miracle that happens during pregnancy.

Note

Agents such as drugs, chemicals and infections that can cause birth defects when a mother is exposed to them during pregnancy.

Sharing Responsibility in Communities

Louima Cunningham — Wed, 01 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Does community membership affect its members’ responsibility? Can people be responsible for their attitudes even when those attitudes might not be fully within their control? Groups, whether minimally or highly structured, have a strong influence upon their members’ attitudes and behavior. Part of this influence takes the form of members’ transforming each other’s attitudes and values, at the end of which comes shared attitudes and values. Thus it makes sense to acknowledge that people who belong to groups that harm others bear some of the responsibility for that harm.

Collective responsibility

But just acknowledging this shared responsibility is not enough. Frequently, the real problem is group inaction, for harm can be prevented if enough people form a group to prevent it. Collective responsibility often can be ascribed to those people who have the ability to form such groups but do not do so. To the extent that this is the case, they are collectively responsible for their collective inaction.

Members of the dominant Western culture may consider it overly severe to assert that all of us are collectively responsible for our failure to do something about the world’s many problems. While not saying that people who do not form groups are guilty due to their inaction, I do feel that our inaction should provoke a sense of shame within us.

Goodin describes his approach as putting consequences to the fore, meaning that consequences quickly take up the whole stage, not just its front and center. He preserves a central link between responsibility and causality, and claims to make better sense of our present practices of responsibility. Larry May sets out to expand significantly our sense of responsibility within groups. The keystone of moral responsibility here is that for who one chooses to be. Attitudes and habits, states of mind and character, roles and affiliations, and the professional, institutional, and social climates shaping our interests, perceptions, and values are reviewed even as we continue to shape them.

A welcome but difficult result is that we are responsible for failures of awareness and insensitivity, as well as unexamined habits, traits, allegiances, and identifications that predispose us to moral failure. Another result is that people should see themselves as responsible for certain harmful events occurring within their communities, even if they are not direct participants or cannot prevent them. We are”and should feel”accountable for tolerating our own morally flawed character, contributing to a morally irresponsible attitudinal climate, or failing to reckon adequately with our institutional roles. These enriched bases of responsibility are not intended as new bases for subjecting people to punishment. I suggest that shame and taint, not just guilt, are appropriate individual reactions to expanded responsibility.

My concern is the collectivities, attitudinal climates, and expectation of groups that shape what people think is up to them and what they become used to ignoring. This has implications for all people who function within institutions where the most significant outcomes are the work of many minds and hands. A group’s responsibility is a fundamental moral issue. Therefore, groups are responsible for events and should be held responsible for them.

Shared responsibility

People should see themselves as sharing responsibility for the harm experienced by their communities far more often than they do. There is a distinction between shared responsibility and collective responsibility. Collective responsibility applies to a group as such (not necessarily to individual members), whereas shared responsibility applies to individuals within groups because of their membership relation with the group. We live in a world of groups. Groups affect our daily life, attitudes, and character, and greatly increase our power to act. Individuals receive great benefits from group membership. Those increased benefits and power should come with increased responsibility. Yet, although groups cause more and greater harm than individuals and have a greater capacity to correct large-scale social problems, individuals typically identify less with harm caused by groups and less often assume responsibility for them.

People share responsibility for harm done by groups, including those that result from omission. More harm occurs collectively than individually, and yet people take less responsibility for it for two reasons: Groups break problems into pieces, responsibility gets diffused, and groups allow individuals to assume that someone else will”or at least could”act. An expanded notion of moral negligence, the idea that since individuals within groups and the group’s structure and policies influence one another, and since group membership structures its members’ values and tends to desensitize them, individual members should be aware of this and responsible for reducing the risk of harm perpetrated by their group. Since there is a duty to act, the failure to do so may constitute negligence. This makes group members responsible for group values and, derivatively, for whatever harm the group does.

Shared responsibility is particularly appropriate for the value transformations that occur within groups. Since people affect one another’s conduct more, and attitudes are more closely shared, people should feel a heightened sense of responsibility to offset any risks associated with misconduct, including negligent omission or inaction. Of course, there is always the problem of defining the scope of negligence. This problem can be handled by using a reasonable person standard to ascertain what our roles would commit us to. We are not negatively responsible for all of the world’s failures, but only what a reasonable group of fellow citizens would expect of someone in our circumstances. Recognizing negative responsibility, including responsibility for omis-sions that allow an unreasonable risk of group harm, helps people lead lives that are more integrated with their moral values, because that involves both acts and omissions. To be in harmony with ourselves, we need to integrate principles with behavior that promotes moral integrity.

Conclusion

Shared responsibility, by focusing the issues of responsibility in a different light, provides us with the beginning of an account of how people, as moral agents, are connected to and function within groups and institutions. This analysis also provides a picture of the nature of informal groups and social relations. Most human relations influence the daily life, attitudes, assumptions, aspirations, and acts of individuals everywhere, such as in voluntary associations. We should remember the team’s perception of the Challenger space shuttle disaster: It is time to take your engineer’s cap off and put on your manager’s cap.1 An aggregate approach or something like it is necessary here, making shared and vicarious responsibility particularly appropriate.

Footnote

Amy Gutnam and Dennis Thompson, Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments, 3d ed. (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1997), 189.

References

Goodin, Robert E. Utilitarianism as a Public Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Gutnam, Amy and Dennis Thompson. Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments, 3d ed. Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1997.
May, Larry. Sharing Responsibility. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Thampson, Dennis E. Political Ethics and Public Office. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987.

A New Genre Is Coming To Life

Louima Cunningham — Thu, 01 Jul 1999 00:00:00 +0000

In the music world there is music and then there is “Kitaro’s music.” Thousands of listeners have gathered throughout the United States during the last few months to enjoy the unique sounds of Kitaro’s last live tour of the millennium, “The New Millennium Tour.” After re-scheduling a few times, I was fortunate enough to catch him at the Trump Marina, Atlantic City. As his listeners may or may not know, he prefers not to speak a lot and concentrates deeply on his music, unlike the “Generation Next” musicians who impulsively open their mouth everytime they see a microphone. Here are the “brief’ but insightful answers he gave:

Talha Sarac: Your Zen master used to call you “setu” which means, “bridge” in English. We all noticed that he was not wrong. You have been a bridge between East and West, “new” and “old,” people and nature. But what is your real purpose in doing your music?

Kitaro: People are losing their cultures day by day. The technology and this global village concept is and will be dominating the world. I want everybody to remember their origins and cultural heritage. This is not difficult. We only have to re-invent ourselves. My purpose is to help everybody in this process.

TS: What has changed since Albatross in your life?

Kitaro: A lot of things… right now, I am busy re-inventing my music and myself. This is a really strange situation, but I think it will help me get even better.

TS: How did you establish your own style, which you do not want people to categorize but is usually called “new age”?

Kitaro: The genre “new age” is roughly 20 years old. But, I want to tell you first, I think all this categorization should be reconsidered and organized again. For example, I do not want to put my style under any current category, because I do not believe there is one that suits…

TS: So you say we better have a category named after you…

Kitaro: That would be nice. (Laughs…)

TS: How do you decide to compose a new song and what influence you in that process?

Kitaro: Even a bird’s singing can be the influence for a new song. I love the nature and I am complete with it. Since, I live in the mountains, I have the chance to go out of the house and take a walk by the lake and listen to the nature’s original sounds. I cannot say that people can be helpful to me while composing, but the sunrises and sunsets are invaluable to me and to my music.

TS: What kind of circumstances should there be when you are composing your music, and does closing your eyes help you in any way when you are performing?

Kitaro: I have to be really alone when I am composing. I do not have many guests in my house in Colorado, but this does not mean I am reclusive. I have to be away from stress and be able to hear my heart. And this is only possible in my lakeside…

TS: You do not only use the latest technology in your music but you also use the oldest instruments which we do not know the names of. What are you trying to do?

Kitaro: People tend to forget what they were like, how they used to live and what their interests were. I am trying to bring the old and new together and blend the outcomes. It is not clever to ignore the richness and originality in the old instruments. And nobody can deny the practicality of the newest instruments. So I think I am lucky enough to be able to use all the instruments that could help my music get even better.

TS: There is a conception that the music Far Eastern musicians make is made to be enjoyed by Far Eastern people. But your music is widely accepted and appreciated in almost any part of the world. Is that conception is a misconception?

Kitaro: I believe in international music. Of course, every nation has its own traditional and cultural music perspectives. But, I am trying to make music beyond peoples. I see all the world nations as one big nation. The differences between those nations do not influence my music in a negative way.

TS: So that is the secret to your music then…

Kitaro: Keep your voice down… (laughs again…)

TS: You are also known the “peaceful” musician of the “peaceful” music. What are your thoughts about the ongoing struggles in Kosovo and in the other parts of world?

Kitaro: The world is coming to an end, and unfortunately we can not do anything to stop this. This war in Kosovo is a shameful war which we will regret to talk about in the future to our kids. I, of course, would like to participate in a concert that would be held in the war area, but I do not think those refugees are in a situation that they will enjoy a concert.

TS: Could you tell anything about your mysterious trip to Mt Fuji to perform the ritual drum ceremony?

Kitaro: I go there every year to play wadaikos. This year it will be performed in September fullmoon. This ceremony should be considered as my thanks to the nature which is the main influence on my music. There is no economic or politic reason to this ceremony.

TS: After this “New Millennium Tour” are there any other projects in or outside of the US?

Kitaro: As for the concert projects, no. But we have this new album coming out probably on September. The album is called “Thinking Of You.” I composed this song, which gave its name to the album, on the last Valentine’s Day. I hope everybody will enjoy listening to, as much as I did composing it.

TS: We love to listen to Kitaro, but who does Kitaro listen to?

Kitaro: I like traditional music, and I try to listen to different nations’ traditional music. I want to say that, unfortunately, people tend to listen to their traditional music less and less…

Thinking Straight and the Ways to Achieve It

Louima Cunningham — Thu, 01 Oct 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Some truths are absolute, universal and without exception, some are general and some relative. For example, God’s existence with His essence, attributes, Names and works are absolute and universal truths; so are principles of faith such as Divine justice with its dimensions of forgiveness, munificence, mercy and punishing. Occurrences that can be examined by sciences like physics and chemistry are general truths for which exceptions can be found. On the other hand, truths showing differences in color, tone and character dependent on time, individuals, or conditions as opposed to seriousness, discipline, gentleness and tolerance, are relative truths. The number of relative truths in our lives is much greater than the number of absolute and universal truths.

If we evaluate knowledge as ‘an accumulation of information obtained as a result of a person’s effort, merits, and capabilities’, then man will come to this world without knowing anything and will encounter an endless universe where innumerable creatures come together and countless events unfold. Everything in the .universe outside of man’s influence is in its proper place and complete order, harmony and balance reign. We can say that all the spiritual and scientific principles underlying the unshakable order, harmony and indestructible balance of this vast and complex universe, of which the human body comprises a miniature, are the sum of truth or truths.

On the other hand, sciences like physics, chemistry and biology-regardless of whether or not they are accurate-examine the universe and universal relationships with their own peculiar principles. The data from these sciences are taken up by philosophers and thinkers and data from human relations is used by sociologists and psychologists. In contrast, through their basic tenets of faith, monotheistic religions like Islam see the universe and man as an expression of the same truth in all relationships, principles of life and particulars of existence. In this situation Divine books like the Qur’an are an expression of, in fact, comprise, themselves, the truth that provides universal harmony, balance and order or the totality of truth. Throughout history philosophers, sociologists and psychologists who have determined or discovered truths have differed among themselves, which has lead to the emergence of different schools of thought. In contrast, all Prophets and the Divine books they brought have espoused the same thing. Consequently, we can say that all the principles that bring about the universe in all kinds of events and relationships and provide universal harmony, order and balance and Divine Scripture, which contains the sum of those principles, are the ‘truth itself’. Thinking and drawing conclusions according to these in view of all things and events can be called ‘thinking straight’.

MAIN FACTORS OF THINKING STRAIGHT

Character and Intention

Man is equipped with many capabilities, while being at the same time caught in a web of very mixed emotions and endless needs. He has faculties like intelligence that surround and burden him with sorrows from the past and fear and anxiety for the future, a conscience that reminds him of his human responsibility and the essential purpose of his creation, and a will that continuously brings him to choose between alternatives. Just as man can put his intelligence, conscience and will under the command of truth, he can also surrender them to the power of his desires, needs, interests and ambitions. The characteristics inherited at birth also play an important role in his thought. The sum of these characteristics is called man’s nature or character.

A person under the influence of self-interest, desire, and moral weaknesses, and who has not yet found the right direction, especially one motivated by lower emotions such as jealousy, revenge, hatred and hostility, cannot easily think straight. Thus, one of the most important conditions for thinking straight is spiritual and moral training, of which the most reliable for all times and peoples, is by the guidance of the Qur’an.

The elements making up a person’s character such as desire, inclination, sensibility and need, always influence his intentions. When the intention is not to reach the truth but to realize a personal goal the individual has set for himself, then that individual may not hesitate to distort data or even twist the truth. In order to strive after the truth and think straight, a person must have a sound intention which depends upon a trained and disciplined character.

Sent to this world with a nature that is ready to be trained, in fact, must be trained, man encounters two main resources for filling the transparent and empty mental cup that he is born with. The first is an environment composed of the immediate family circle, the cultural and social milieu (this includes the modern media) and schooling. The second is Divine inspiration. From the moment of birth man naturally falls under the influence of his immediate family and surroundings. In time this influence leads to the development in the individual mind of many notions, modes of thinking, patterns of value and understanding. At school these are changed, reinforced or renewed by what is learned there.

During this process many divinely inspired thoughts come depending on the individual’s effort and mental concentration. These thoughts can come, like many scientific discoveries, in the form of dreams or as inspiration to the heart. Divinely inspired thoughts, even if they are always essentially true, take on colour and form (like water taking the colour and shape of the bowl) according to the person’s mental make-up, spiritual degree, and emotional sensitivity. Thus, the mental framework that has been shaped by the family, the environment, by formal or informal training, and by received modes of perception and patterns of value, can be regarded as the individual’s measures.

At every stage in the process of developing the mental make-up, that is, at the different stages of the life-long educational process, man thinks and evaluates differently. This is normal. We can see changing thoughts and values as the normal consequence of a constantly developing mental make-up. What is abnormal is if a person falls into the trap of thinking that every stage is the final one, then promotes his thoughts at that stage as absolutely true. This is one of the gravest mistakes that people make. The presentation of his thoughts as the absolute truth by one who is constantly in a learning phase, and in whose mind many false thought patterns and measurements have accumulated, is harmful. It can prevent him from learning new ideas, from avoiding repeating his mistakes, from reaching the truth, and from questioning and investigation at a later stage. God forbid, it can even lead him to stray or become a despot ‘for the sake of knowledge’.

In view of this, the path to thinking straight passes through sound criteria and, as a result, a healthy perspective. This can be achieved first by doubt, that is, by doubting every- thing except absolute truths taken from their source. Then, by mental and spiritual purification. The mind must be cleared of mistakes and biases and the heart of sin and lower emotions. Beyond that, signs of enlightenment that will take one to the truth and to thinking straight should be followed. Unless these stages are accomplished, unless sound criteria and consequently a healthy point of view are obtained, it doesn’t matter how much a person knows or works; he can’t reach the truth.

Accurate Knowledge

After a sound character, sincere intention and correct point of view, the most important factor for thinking straight is accurate knowledge. For a person with a healthy intention and perspective, accurate knowledge is the essential sound material with which to think straight, just as, for making bread the right flour in the right amount is essential material. Without this, it’s not possible to think straight. Unless, there is revelation as for the Prophets-but that is no longer possible. Otherwise Divine inspiration can only manifest in a very pure heart. Even with inspiration, the range is very limited; in most aspects of life there is a need for accurate knowledge.

Escaping From the Restrictions of Time and Conditions Or Perceiving Time and Conditions Accurately

Another factor for thinking straight is being able to escape the restrictions brought about by epoch and circumstances. While doing this, current time and conditions must be taken into consideration so that one is not crushed by them.

Another important factor in thinking straight is thinking about subject-matter or seeking truths that are not tied to time and conditions. This will save a person from thinking in fragments and allow for holistic thinking, which is very important.

However important it is to be free from the restrictions of time and conditions in order to reach truths not limited by them, it is also vitally important to take advantage of time and conditions. Just as the number of truths in our lives that are absolute (i.e. true for everyone all the time and under all conditions) is small, the number of relative truths (those that change according to people, time and conditions) is great. Thus, especially in finding truths in this second group, knowing and diagnosing accurately the times, conditions, and people involved, is one of the most important paths to thinking straight. Regarding the subject of Islam, which is a religion that addresses every century, every level, every character and temperament, and every condition, it is vitally important to know well all the different epochs, social levels, characters and temperaments in order not to fall into error. Otherwise, in the name of Islam the door to catastrophe can open and-God forbid-the danger of man falling within the bounds of reference of the following verses can arise:

Say: ‘Shall we tell you of those who lose most in respect of their deeds? Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they think that they are doing well (what they are doing.’ (Kahf: 103-104)