I’m calling you friend, oh friend.

Thousand pieces torn apart

I’m calling you friend, oh friend.

I’m filled with the love of thee

Mistaken my piety,

Lost my mind in ecstasy

I’m calling you friend, oh friend.

On the road and on the lane,

In the sacred or profane

Among pious with the vain

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

In the river, I’m a haze

Through mountains, I will gaze

For all the world, to amaze

I’m calling you friend, oh friend.

A bird in deserted land

Found comfort at roses’ hand.

So my bleeding heart will stand

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

Passing the world of worry

Flapping wings in the empty.

Your love and joy lifted me

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

Timeless feelings unspeakable

A condition incurable

On a canyon unbridgeable.

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

All I see is my friend’s face.

Towards you I have to pace.

Hope has never lost a case,

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

Seas and Oceans become breath.

Lungs shatter calling your path.

Till the day this voice be death,

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

I’m not sick or healthy,

Not heavenly or earthly.

But everywhere, constantly,

I’m calling you friend, oh friend

Walking behind my friend’s ways,

Smelling rosebud through the hays,

Saying what Niyazi’s says,

I’m calling you friend, oh friend.

Translated by Mustafa Tabanli

This beach is one of the starkest reminders of the extent of human impact on oceans.

Kamilo Beach is not the only junk beach in the world. Similar trashed beaches exist in the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean and Baja California. The litter on these shores and in the seas is so excessive that it is even visible to the people on land. Out towards the open seas, huge garbage patches fill the middle of the ocean, like wide loops of rotating currents, also known as gyres (www.marinedebris.noaa.gov).

Gyres

Gyres are major surface currents that circle the oceans. They are driven by persistent winds and the Coriolis Effect which is caused by the Earth’s rotation. The human impact on oceans is displayed by the gyres. They gather trash released into seas from countries around the oceans and through rivers they carry the floating objects and trash spewed from fallen shipping containers.

This was dramatically demonstrated when a cargo of sports shoes were lost in the sea in 1990. The shoes floated and drifted with the currents. Eventually thousands of them washed up on shores from Alaska to California. The manufacturer provided the serial numbers of the lost shoes. Beachcombers responded to calls by researchers regarding the time and location that they found the beached shoes. When all the data points were combined, the gyre’s circulation period over 3 years was obtained. Tracking a spill of bathtub toys provided similar results.

Outsourcing of manufacturing overseas and worldwide supply chains are made possibly by networks of container shipping lines. For reasons of economies of scale, the containers are stacked precariously high on the decks. At rough seas in the open ocean, some of these containers are washed overboard. There are about 10 million 40-foot cargo containers in use in the world. Every year a few thousand of them are washed off the decks of ships in heavy seas. The lost cargo rarely becomes news; it often stays confidential among the ship owner, the importer, the exporter and the insurer. Many of the lost containers sink to the bottom of the ocean. However some of them float and release their contents. This is the source of the flotillas of running shoes, or the toys that get carried away by the currents and winds.

The great garbage patch in North Pacific Ocean covers an area double the size of Texas. Like a conveyor belt, North Pacific Subtropical Gyre rotates clockwise, carrying with it the natural or man-made floating objects. The life span of a gyre is about three years. The floating objects may end washed up at beaches or they may be drifted to the center of the gyre where the currents are weakest. This is where the garbage patch forms—from millions of tons of plastic and other debris covering millions of square miles (www.dels.nas.edu).

Plastics

Plastic nurdles are a significant part of the pollution. These tiny beads are used as raw material in manufacturing. They are carried in container loads across the oceans and are occasionally spilled in large amounts and dispersed at sea.

Compared to organic matter that rots, decays, and gets recycled back into biomass by organisms, plastic is durable. A single plastic water bottle can last for hundreds of years. Suspended in sea water, these plastic particles absorb toxic chemicals. When marine animals consume the floating plastic, disproportionately high levels of these toxic materials are accumulated in their bodies. Some of these animals end up as food on our dinner table. Yes, that plastic tossed into the sea returns back as poisonous seasoning in our diet!

Plastics are contaminating the food chain at different levels. The animals at sea mistake trash for food. The microscopic particles get absorbed by animals filtering sea water for food. Easily mistaken for jellyfish in water, plastic bags suffocate sea animals that ingest them for food. Larger items threaten sea birds and mammals. Seabirds die when their guts get clogged with swallowed plastic items, and other animals starve because their stomachs are full of debris (www.commerce.senate.gov/pdf/marinedebris).

Fishing

A serious source of marine debris is the fishing industry. Numerous fishing nets and floats get lost and are abandoned at sea. These nets, which may extend a distance of many miles, strangle turtles and other sea mammals. Fishing industries should be inspected to keep track of their gear. There are organizations like the Monterey Bay Aquarium (www.montereybayaquarium.org) that distribute information about environmentally friendly fishing. In a free market economy where people vote with their money, consumers should inquire about the sources of seafood and support fishermen that do not leave their nets behind.

Enforcement in open seas requires international cooperation. Vessels should be inspected at their ports of call. Volunteers spotting container ships may record differences in cargo and alert authorities for missing containers. Marine laws, fees, taxes, and insurance premiums can be updated to deter unsafe loading of container ships. In the long run, vessel designs, navigational routes, shipping schedules and weather monitoring should be improved for minimization of cargo loss. An international cooperation is essential to oversee these efforts. The balance sheet of shipping business should include the cost of loss-free transport of containers.

Human negligence

The seas appear to be vast, but we seem to have come to the limits of it by the sheer amounts of garbage dumped into the rivers and by the contamination by marine transportation. These are inescapable reminders that we have reached the limits of this resource. The sea often regurgitates whatever is dumped inside it. This is like a slap on the beach, where the ocean hits back at us with our own trash, not to praise us or show approval, but to bring before our eyes the chaos we have created.

The universe is granted with an internal maintenance system, recycling its own waste products, hence reflecting the absolute purity of the Divine in His creation. The responsibility of humans as “vicegerents” of the earth include using the Earth’s resources without dumping or wasting but safeguarding the environmental balance and acknowledging that every creation has its purpose in being and should be treated accordingly.

The trashed beaches and mid-ocean garbage patches are signs of the deadly and long lasting effects introduced by humans into the seas. This is totally avoidable. We should employ a zero waste approach to our consumption habits. Cost of reusing, recycling and safe disposal of products should be reflected in the price of goods. Laws and regulations should be updated and enforced to minimize the dispersion of long lasting contaminants into the environment. The shipping and fishing industries should be accountable for lost cargo and gear. The seabirds should not starve, and the turtles should not drown due to our negligence.

References

• Auman, H.J., Ludwig, J.P., Giesy, J.P., Colborn, T., (1997) “Plastic ingestion by Laysan Albatross chicks on Sand Island, Midway Atoll, in 1994 and 1995.” in Albatross Biology and Conservation, (ed by G. Robinson and R. Gales). Surrey Beatty & Sons:Chipping Norton. Pp. 239-44
• Spear, L.B., Ainley, D.G. & Ribic, C.A. (1995). “Incidence of plastic in seabirds from the tropical Pacific, 1984–91: relation with distribution of species, sex, age, season, year and body weight.” Marine Environmental Research 40: 123–146
• http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/feb/26/20030226-085636-3495r/
• Ebbesmeyer, Curtis; Eric Scigliano. 2009. Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man’s Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science. London: Collins.

As sleepers floated in their deepest slumbers

In purple and pink, successive dawns were swelling

While in waters swans were elegantly gliding

We felt the shivering breaths of a new spring.

A cerulean serenity had enveloped our dreams

And the sky winked with hope from a distance

In a moment, we were left without defenses

At the point where providence meets resolve

God made our dreams bloom.

The overflowing fountain has come to life again

Breezes high and low promising a bright future

Everywhere embraced by a blessed joy

And the happiest days of life I longed for

Were being lived in the deepest sense, once again.

A pristine spring, with its fresh verdant hues

Like the patterns and colors of the past

The people found the touchstone they had lost

Making up for the great loss they sought

Purple rosebuds on heavenly hills.

With the breeze blowing, now grasses atone

In the lands, once struck lifeless by autumn, are new roses

As if the Trumpet has blown, the dead are resurrected

Along with them in this azure dream

Grieving hearts attain reunion. 

This story has been related in all the major monotheistic faiths, indicating a deeper allegorical meaning of a universal example transcending all times and cultures.

It is well worth analyzing the psychological, social and moral aspects of such stories to shed light on events in our lives and times.

In this story, Joseph represents the human conscience that enables us to be sincere, responsible and accountable, as well as altruistic and generous. The brothers of Joseph represent the carnal self which deafens, blinds, and silences the human soul in the face of spiritual and material oppression. The carnal self suppresses the sensitivity to overcome oppression and injustice as well as appreciating beauty and benefaction.

Joseph’s brothers threw him into a well in their jealousy towards him. This is allegorical to an ineffective human conscience that has been made to fall prey to passing whims and desires. It is like falling down into a pit that has only one way for escape, as opposed to rising up to overcome the challenges of humanity. In a similar perspective, Joseph represents the characteristics of the noblest men in history. These include dedication, devotion, love, responsibility, and generosity.

Joseph is then rescued from the well by people from a passing-by caravan, coming from a long distance, where otherwise there is no one that stops at this well. This brings to mind the thought that, at a certain point in history, human conscience and good-will will be lost and forgotten to such a degree that it will be ignored and left on its own. It will be like a piece of jewel deep in the earth or a small amount of water in the vast dessert, extremely precious yet inaccessible and undiscovered by the masses.

The entrapment of Joseph in the well represents the downturns of human history, where darkness and a kind of hopelessness rule over societies, in a similar vein as it is manifested in our own personal lives. There are points in our lives when we seem lost in the dark and most often in some sort of depression and despair. However, these dark points in our lives are constantly followed by some sort of guidance and enlightenment. The wisdom behind this dark-light principle clarifies to us that we are under constant trial in our lives. They call for us to learn who we are and where we are heading to in life.

The rescue of Joseph from the well represents the bright and enlightened times of human history, as well as in our personal lives. In these times there is a relief from hardship, suffering or depression for some. A sense of expansion, understanding and enlightenment surrounds us and increases our appreciation for the endless numbers of provisions we are given. In our lives and in the lives of societies, this principle points to a time of justice, peace, understanding and great spiritual development.

The crying Jacob, soft-hearted, compassionate yet dominant, and enduring in the face of adversity, represents the great spiritual and material mentors of humanity. For years they persevered patiently and consistently, while sipping the anguish of separation until humanity re-unites with the long-lost Joseph. People who represent Jacob will learn to live under conditions where they will not be understood or appreciated, possibly even by their own children. Hence, the greatest prayer of Jacob is “I only disclose my anguish and sorrow to God” (Qur’an 12:86).

After being rescued by the caravan and taken to Egypt, Joseph was sold as a slave, where he later became a King. Although a ruler with great power in his hands, he does not forget his father Jacob or his brothers. Wealth and power does not change him, nor does it make him oblivious of his responsibilities or degrade his character. In fact his prayer “Take my soul to You as one who submitted unto You, and join me with the righteous” (Qur’an 12:101) shows us very clearly how concerned he was about the state in which he would die, since the one who does not fear the consequences of his/her actions is someone who cannot be trusted.

This story also brings to mind the recurring presence of certain principles in our lives.

Joseph was thrown into a well, then later was given the opportunity (as a King) to call to account the oppression of his brothers towards him, who ultimately asked him to forgive them. This indicates that events revolve in a circular manner; while it is daylight for some it is nighttime for others. Likewise, today many suffer in agony and their identities are smeared and blotched, while others live in oblivion and recklessness. A time will come when those who are oppressed will call to account those who thought they are not accountable to anyone.

It is not known how long Joseph remained in the well and how he survived there; however, from this story we can see that the Creator, closer to all more than they are to themselves, enabled the caravan to be a means to rescue Joseph from a situation in which there was no hope for escape. This is a poignant reminder that we are never alone, or constantly at a loss, and although we are in essence fragile and powerless, the Most Gracious Creator creates a way of exit from the harshest of situations.

As a young man, Joseph was not only physically attractive but, more essentially, he had a strong spiritual magnetism and aura. His immense loyalty, sincerity and faith were the pillars of his character and the reason why his father loved him so dearly. Jacob also knew through his gifted foresight that Joseph was a beloved of the Creator; hence, this would mean that the trials and tribulations he would face would be much stronger than those most others faced.

The modesty and chastity of Joseph was equally as great as his captivating aura. This was manifested when he was working as a servant in Egypt after he was sold as a slave there. The wife of the King was powerful, young and attractive and wanted to abuse the good looks of Joseph and seduce him. At this point, we see the great will-power and chastity of Joseph, where he is protected and saved from committing a great mistake, as he says, “God forbid!” (Qur’an 12:23). Thus, the protection and help of the Creator becomes manifest under the direst conditions. The other reason why Jacob cried and was so worried and concerned for Joseph was maybe that he knew he would face great trials in his life and therefore constantly asked the Lord to protect, guide and help him under these conditions.

A final lesson to be learnt from Joseph’s strong personality and unique character is that he did not punish his brothers when they came to request from him some provisions after he became King. If he had wanted to take revenge, he could have easily done so, but he chose not to. On the contrary, he demonstrated how generous and forgiving he was. After the hypocrisy, the deception and the treachery of his brothers towards him, he finally says to them, “No reproach this day shall be on you. May God forgive you; indeed He is the Most Merciful of the Merciful” (Qur’an 12:92). Hence, Joseph teaches a lesson by forgiving his brothers who wanted him to be forgotten, lost and even dead.

Sebnem Unlu, PhD, is a Research Faculty at University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, USA.

Roaming in our shining civilization.

They breathed life into lost souls,

We called them heroes of compassion.

How we have missed you, waiting,

O heroes of compassion, alight.

Our darkened souls been longing.

In your return we will delight.

Heroes of compassion speak

Without words. They convey

An eternal message of love.

Their destiny became this way.

They did not come to hate,

Nor did they come to fight.

Their work was only for love

To erect the statue of the heart.

They absorb the fragrance of love

As the rain of grace descends.

Heroes of compassion radiate

Without a haze of pretence.

Deep in a fight of spiritual struggle

Until their mind and heart merge,

Their trademark is their anguish

Felt for those lost in cerebral surge.

A hero embellished our dreams

Since the days he roamed our shores.

On the coastline of our spirit

We still hear echoes of his chores.

Accentuate my heart O Lord!

Helping needy souls is my passion.

Elevate my soul up high

Like a hero of compassion.

Haven’t we waited long enough

In infinite yearned expression?

When will you roam our shores?

We need you now, O heroes of compassion!

As a relatively new and exciting science, chaos science grew very slowly during its infancy. Yet in the last decade, due to active research in many areas, it has became one of the hottest topics in academia as well as the popular science press. Many books have been published, and millions of Internet pages have been designed full of fractal pictures.1 Given that chaos is associated with disorder or confusion in a system or condition, why does it continue to attract so many people?

History of chaos

To understand chaos, one first has to understand the Newtonian worldview. Sir Isaac Newton’s (1642-1727) development of the calculus and laws of classical mechanics began a scientific revolution in seventeenth-century Europe that caused all subsequent scientists to view nature from a profoundly different perspective. Now that they finally could determine the dynamics of bodies by simple equations, they believed that they had found the ultimate eternal rules that shape the universe.

French physicist Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827), who based his work upon Newton’s work, is credited with the following famous quotation (often referred to as Laplace’s Demon): ‘We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at any given moment knew all of the forces that animate nature and the mutual positions of the beings that compose it, if this intellect were vast enough to submit the data to analysis, could condense into a single formula the movement of the greatest bodies of the universe and that of the lightest atom; for such an intellect nothing could be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes.’2

Laplace’s Demon states the idea of determinism, that the past completely determines the future. One can clearly see why determinism was so attractive to scientists at that time. However, in Laplace’s word everything was predetermined: no chance, no choice, no uncertainty. A solid, inevitable destiny had frozen the events in every corner of the past and is continuously spreading out to the future to do same there. Determinism apparently invokes the idea that whole universe is like a clock. God set it in motion at the beginning of creation and then removed Himself, for everything had been planed before. The ideas that there was no place for free will and that God could not interfere killed the belief in a soul and, consequently, in spirituality. Philosophers and scientists have discussed this for many years. Determinism affected many philosophies and triggered the major ideological movements of during eighteenth century, especially in Europe.

Toward the end of the 1800s, mathematicians and scientists began encountering some very difficult equations, some of which we know today are unsolvable. The most troublesome are various nonlinear differential equations. Even though it looks like such a simple and totally deterministic system, the problem of three bodies attracting each other with purely gravitational forces (e.g., the sun, Earth, and moon triple) turns out to be missing an exact solution. At first, such problems were cast-off as special cases and largely ignored.

One reason for this also might come from the fascinating world of quantum mechanics, which dazzled even the great physicists, and the lack of fast computers at that time. When these equations finally were studied in detail, a fundamental change that would ultimately overthrow determinism began to occur in mathematics and science. An indication of the science that would be come to be known as ‘chaos’ began to appear.

Why does chaos interest people?

In contrast to its common usage, chaos does not actually mean disorder or confusion. By definition, it should occur in well-defined orderly systems. However, most natural physical systems often can exhibit an unpredictable or intractable behavior in the long run, even though the system is defined by clear-cut orderly mechanisms. In this sense, chaos can be defined as unpredictability rather than disorder.

For example, meteorologists use 12 sets of well-defined equations to forecast the weather. They relate such atmospheric parameters as pressure, temperature, flow speed, and time to each other. One can make a computer program that calculates the parameters’ final values by taking any initial conditions as the run’s starting point. In principle, therefore, if we know the initial temperature, pressure, and time values that describe today’s weather conditions, it is possible to derive tomorrow’s weather conditions by running a computer program, which is nothing more than a chain reaction of numerical iterations.

However, in practice, initial conditions cannot be measured exactly and so contain a degree of uncertainty. But since the system’s governing laws are known, one may estimate the effect of errors on future results. Hence, instead of giving the exact results, one can provide an approximate range of possibilities. This range can still be very useful, provided that the deviations do not stray too far from the actual values. In addition, knowing how the error grows in the system might help us understand and control the systems. But if we apply these error estimates to weather forecast equations, we will encounter a large problem, for errors grow exponentially in such systems. Even a tiny deviation at the beginning can create huge deviations from the actual values. It also can provide unrelated or nonsensical results.

An example of chaotic systems

This numerical behavior was first observed by the meteorologist Edward Lorenz, a pioneer in modern chaos work. Fascinated by the results he obtained, in the early 1960s he gave an interesting metaphor to explain the situation of high sensitivity to initial conditions: A butterfly’s slight wing movement (i.e., a little deviation from the initial conditions) can change the future in a way that causes some chain reaction that ultimately result in a hurricane.

Such systems that exhibit a very high sensitivity to initial conditions are called chaotic systems. Chaos comes from the mathematical properties hidden in the equations defining the system, and such unpredictability cannot be removed. Even if the measurements’ quality could be improved by minimizing errors, chaos never disappears from a chaotic system.

One may suppose that chaos occurs in complicated systems, such as weather forecast systems having 12 sets of equations. But even much simpler systems, such as billiards, can exhibit a very high degree chaos. A usual billiard system consists of many balls and a rectangular shaped table. I challenge master billiard players by requesting them to play the game in a stadium-shaped table. I am sure that they will find it difficult to do so, because such billiard tables would be chaotic systems.

If a system is defined as chaotic, this does not necessarily mean that its behavior is totally undefined all the time. As in stadium billiards, a ball has to be inside the billiards, so it should be somewhere on the table, even though sometimes we cannot foretell its exact position because of chaos. Besides, if you send the ball with a velocity perpendicular to a straight side, it will bounce back and forth between the two sides forever. Therefore, depending on which initial conditions are taken, chaotic systems also can show characteristics of regular motion.

A 3-body problem (in general n-body problems) such as the sun, Earth, and moon system, is a chaotic system. But since we can predict the motions of these celestial objects with great precision for many years in the future, why do we call this system chaotic? This triple system possesses a very special set of conditions: distance between bodies, their masses, and their velocities. These parameters cause it to exhibit near-regular behavior. It is analogous to the example of stadium billiards given above, for this triple system bounces back and forth between the table’s sides.

Conditions for chaos

Chaos also can be caused by other factors than just uncertainties measured in the initial conditions. Scientists generally define hypothetical systems by isolating them from the outside world in order to simplify them as much as possible. However, as even objects in the real world that are far apart interact with each other, no system in the real world can be isolated. Given this, a closed (isolated) system might be defined as a fluctuating approximation to its real counterpart, which is changing in an unpredictable manner all the time. In short, even though we would know the exact initial conditions, the actual system could be chaotic due to changes in the approximate system. In this sense, many physical systems have an inclination toward being chaotic.

Due to its maximum complexity, the universe is the largest chaotic system. Observable regular patterns in special parts of that system repeat themselves in time. While the rest of the flows are unpredictable, they are not totally irregular, abrupt, or disordered. Just like whirls in a flowing river, they are in a kind of free motion searching for convenient conditions in which to give birth to organized structures.

The future of chaos

Chaos gives today’s scientist a new worldview, for Newton’s concrete, cold, and deterministic one has been shaken by the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics. No one ever thought that the Newtonian worldview could be replaced. However, now scientists are more likely to be open to chance and choice than their predecessors. The question is whether chaos theory will cause large revolutions in how we understand the universe. However, the existing excitement, expanding research and growing number of articles, and its numerous applications from economy to biology, seem to indicate that a surprise improvement might not be so far off. ‘

Footnotes

1. Fractal: A geometric pattern that is repeated at ever smaller scales to produce irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical geometry. Fractals are used especially in computer modeling of irregular patterns and structures in nature.
2. ‘Chaos and Fractals: Laplace’s Demon.’ Online at: www.pha.jhu.edu/ ldb/seminar/laplace.html. 

Sound of leaves

Beating in the ear with the force of strong, cold winds

A music of fall

The roses of poetical spring weep everywhere

Colours are plaintive

Nightingales in quiet lands lament

Single melancholy notes

Fountains are lost in thick mists of sorrow

Waters drip tenderly

Swans draw in their slender necks

In the search for spring

Plains groan in tears, hills weep in pangs of separation

Every sound is an elegy

Blue, green, pink and orange colours are in mourning

Each is groaning deeply

Like the last minutes of a life about to terminate

Every wail is a farewall

When looked to carefully, the end of the world is visible

What an alarming scene!

Spring and summer are each an enchanting memory

Lost in romantic fancies

Yet those fancies open to hopes stirring in the conscience

Diverse routes to the realms beyond

Eternity is sensed in each impression of transience,

Until man catches sight of it

Reason and logic are refined to seek out that other world

Reaching the realm of inspiration

Man feels the mysterious silence of death

Problems are resolved finally

Everyone sees the end of the way he treads

Kneels down trembling

Tongue-tied with dread of going into non-existence

Faith opens up a way to new horizons

Sobbing that his inevitable end is at last at hand

Every sends out lights

Thought falls into earth like a seed

To prepare itself for spring

It hastens to where it reaches gardens of Eden

To meet with the beloved

Without feeling pain or anguish

As treasured as a welcome bride,

One overflows with delight to feel eternity

As enrapturing as eternity itself

Fall is the sign that a new birth is on the way

Coming at the break of down

Hope resounds throughout fall without ceasing at all

Spring awaits a few steps away

Muslim peoples, who had for centuries been accustomed to having the upper hand in their relations with the other parts of the world, have felt the bitter taste of defeat in all fields of life. Shocked by successive waves of defeat and humiliation, like a gambler who, having lost the game all the time, continues to try his luck in despair, they have lost all that they had in desperate attempts to catch up with the victors. Continuing to lose, they have continued the game with new, desperate attempts to win, but to no avail.

Those whose eyes were once fixed on what would come from beyond the world, those whose hands were opened up only towards heaven, who believed that they had been created only to beg from the Creator, have all been beggars at the door of others. Mosques, which once served as platforms from which to rise to eternity, have lost their true, spiritual identity and served as places visited by ‘moving corpses’-people dead in spirit-who occasionally call in to observe ceremonies in the name of worshipping God. The institutions of education, which once served as laboratories where existence was profoundly studied like a book, and admiringly observed like an exhibition, have been reduced to places where superstitious dogmas and myths are taught. Nature, no longer able to attract their attention, has therefore been subjected to misinterpretation by others. The ecological balance has been destroyed and the natural world changed into a suffering, potentially uninhabitable, ‘hell’. Getting nothing from the mosque by way of spiritual satisfaction, or from the school by way of intellectual enlightenment, and unable to study nature-in short, with nothing to give them hope-the young have sought consolation in outlandish ventures and hysterical crazes and destructiveness. Deprived of any sublime ideals and aspirations to eternity, they have felt suffocated within the dark confines of the present time, disconnected from the past and with no promise of better in the future.

It was mere wishfulness to expect the young to be otherwise, seeing that they are offered as objectives for their energy only money, fame, show, attachment to life and egoism, in the context of the modern, artificial, dull and spiritless environments which have replaced our intimate old city quarters and traditional old homes. Spiritually and intellectually dissatisfied, the young have viewed life as consisting of only the satisfaction of bodily desires and material values, and dedicated their energies accordingly.

Some of those who, though lacking in idealism, zeal and energy, have offered themselves to the public as representatives of Islamic values, have in fact sought material rewards in return for whatever they appeared to do in the name of religion. Their attitudes have polluted the purity of Islam and led the bewildered masses to find other sources to satisfy their sincere expectations and spiritual needs. Furthermore, those who fantasize about implanting belief in hearts with ‘swords drawn’ and ‘daggers pointed’, have dragged religion down into a worldly-minded politics and distorted the meaning and content of this way leading to God and Paradise.

Despite their claims to be striving to revive the Islamic civilization on the basis of reason and scientific knowledge and Divine Revelation, those politically-oriented ones have not refrained from vengeance, hatred, violence and hostility, even going so far as to present such vicious attitudes as a requirement or condition of religious struggle. It is extremely difficult to regard them as soldiers of religion. They can only be the soldiers of their own caprices and their carnal selves. What is revealed of their intentions through their public speeches and their actions brings to our mind the image of gallows set up on the streets. Nothing else can be expected from such people as those who cherish no love, faithfulness, and respect for others in their hearts. It is vain to expect them to inspire confidence and assurance or to show respect for truth and acknowledge freedom of thought, freedom of action, for others.

Another barrier before the young has been the mass media. Either through voicing the interests of holding companies and cartels which own them, or through brain-washing in the name of certain centres of power, the mass media are largely responsible for the intellectual misguidance and moral per- versions of the young. Almost everyone, whether young or old, male or female, lettered or unlettered, is under the influence of the mass media. The mass media are capable of distorting realities and truths, presenting what is beautiful as ugly and vice-versa, and making immoralities and the satisfaction of bodily desires preferable to moral purity and lofty ideals. They also encourage backbiting, slander and gossip.

Most of the intelligentsia in the Muslim world have long given their minds and spirits over to blind imitation of the West. Putting on airs, as in the past medals were worn by the lords of the old aristocracies and monarchies, they show themselves in the forums where national or public issues are discussed and, unaware of their lack in necessary knowledge and sound judgement, behave like sycophants of foreign values and ideals. Being indifferent or even averse to their old, traditional values and with nothing of their own to offer for the well-being of the people and the future of their countries, and given that their interest in public affairs and the problems of the people is directly related to their own private interests, this class of intellectuals have nothing positive to offer that can solve the problems of the young.

But we are not hopeless, nor have we been so. It would be a disregarding of the truth not to notice and mention the growing portion of the young who, with their hope, belief, resolution, fervour and love of truth, have been doing their utmost to restore to human life its real value and dignity, to inject vigour and spirituality into mere existence, and to hold out to everyone a ‘feather’ from the ‘wings’ of angels. Unlike the masses drowned in despair and unlike those who seek to deceive people in the name of religion or of modern life and values, these noble-minded ones materialize their spirit on earth. With the colour of saints, pure scholars and Prophets on their faces, and a passionate yearning for eternity straining in their spirits, they carry the love, mercy and promise of the Prophets wherever they go and try to found a new world on the eternal values of the past, the enlightenment of true science and pure expectations from the future. Following the Prophetic Message and Divine wisdom, they are trying to tear apart the thick veils of ignorance, heedlessness, indifference to perennial values and obstinacy, striving to open the way at the end of which truth and mercy come together.

I hope that so long as they remain faithful to the One with infinite mercy ardently and with firm belief, Divine help will never leave them to manage on their own, but will open for them the way to realizing their goals. The point where aspirations are unified with lofty feelings and lofty feelings are based on Divine Revelation and sound judgement, is the point where human will is completely oriented by Divine universal Will. When its time is due, everyone will feel this orientation and come to understand that whatever was (or remains yet to be) suffered for such a result was really worth it.