Civilizations are built on knowledge and a worldview of how it fits together. At some point, a civilization must decide what type of knowledge is going to form its foundation and essence. Chinese-influenced societies opted for scholarly and literary knowledge, while Indian-influenced ones chose religious and spiritual knowledge. Classical Greece concentrated on philosophy, and classical Rome settled on law. Christian societies focused on spiritual knowledge, but then went all out for science during the Renaissance. Later on, some tried to replace God with the individual, money, the state, or ‘the party.’ Indigenous societies in other lands pursued what was important to them. Muslim societies balanced science and religion, but lost this balance as civilizational decline gave way to colonialism, dependency, and poverty.

Regardless of which path is chosen, all societies understand that everything has to be interrelated for life to make sense. Neither science nor religion can dispute this. Look at life. Without photosynthesis, life could not exist. But who or what caused oxygen, sugars, plants, water, carbon dioxide, soil, air, and sunlight to be interrelated? Look at the universe. It works so perfectly that many of us take it for granted. But why is there such symmetry and asymmetry? Why does everything cooperate? Science tells us how; religion tells us why.

Look at our own spiritual and material lives. Our spirit makes us who we are, yet needs our body to achieve its ultimate purpose: knowledge of and submission to God. If we ignore either our spiritual or material aspect, our life becomes unbalanced. We might opt out by suicide, use ‘spirituality’ to mask self-interest through ‘religiously justified’ conflict, pursue extreme spirituality to our own detriment, or become devoted to what is transient’either it will leave us or we will leave it by dying. We might even seek to become a Pharoah instead of a Mejnun, a self-proclaimed deity instead of a lover of God, never asking what happens when life ends.

To restore life’s balance, some turn to fundamentalism, an early twentieth-century Christian attempt to maintain Christianity’s influence through preaching blind faith and Biblical inerrancy, despite contradictions with modern science. The fact that fundamentalism has become synonymous with resisting modernity and science is illuminating. But if God sent Revelation and told us to learn of Him through science and knowledge, how is such a situation possible? The best way to restore this balance is honest dialogue among agnostics, believers, and atheists; followers of different religious and spiritual traditions and of science; followers of Revelation and of philosophy; and among those at the extremes. Success is vital if all inhabitants of this ever-smaller and interrelated world are to live together in peace.

These and other issues are addressed in this issue. We hope that you find them thought-provoking. But more importantly, we hope that they encourage you to make your own corner of the world a better and more pleasant place in which to live.

The winners of our writing contest are: Dr. Najeeb Khan, Serdar Yoldas, Dr. Mohamed Omar Salem, and Amany Fouad Hassanei, respectively. Each will receive $100. Due to the number of entries received, our board of reviewers felt compelled to modify the rules. We apologize for this. The Fountain staff thanks everyone who took the time to research and submit their papers.

We hope that you enjoy this issue and, as always, look forward to your comments.

For example, the cells of a body are supplied with the sustenance they need without willful questing; the young of living creatures are nourished with an extraordinarily wonderful food first in their mothers’ wombs and then after their birth. It is impossible for either to obtain the least of their needs through their own power and faculties. Consider your own case: with respect to your inner and external senses and organs, what innumerable needs you have, none of which you can provide by yourself although they are indispensable to your life.

Who created the sun and hung it above you as a source of light and colour and warmth? Can you give existence to a single flower, which you need to satisfy your sense of smell? Do you have any part in the creation of a single molecule of air, which is so vital for you? Who established the relation between your body and senses and the world around you? You see that human intervention in the natural world can destroy the ecological balance in it so as to make it lethal to you, even though human beings are the most conscious and knowledgeable of creatures.

Have you ever pondered how much a single apple really costs? For an apple to come into being is it not absolutely necessary to have the harmonious and justly proportioned collaboration of the sun (the source of heat and light), of the air, of moisture, of soil, with the seed of the apple tree? Seeing that you-even though you are one of the most powerful and knowledgeable of creatures-are unable to create even a particle of earth, a molecule of air, a beam of light and a tiny seed, do you not also see, and see clearly, that concepts like chance, necessity or ‘natural causes’, to which people import creativity, although these are altogether lacking in consciousness or power or knowledge or free will, cannot really be the originators of those things?

Also, you see that everything is interconnected to everything in the universe; all things are interrelated to a single thing, which is, in turn, interrelated to all things. The whole of the universe needs every single part of it for its existence; the deformation of a single cell in your body can lead to the death of the whole body. So, are all of these factors not enough to explain the existence and Unity of One, Who is absolutely Knowledgeable and absolutely Powerful. Who created the whole of the universe, as well as each tiny particle in it? Who created each single cell of our body, as well as the whole of it?

Thus, the provision of your needs and the needs of all creature indicates a most Compassionate, All-Generous and Sustaining One, Who directs each thing to a final point of perfection particular to itself. How else can you explain all these acts, each and all fully realized, of innumerable purposive consequences within an infinite compassion and miraculous orderliness? Is your need to understand satisfied by appeals to blind and deaf nature, to unconscious forces, aimless chance, lifeless causes?