Predicting major earthquakes months ago

Girona et al. Abnormal low-magnitude seismicity preceding large-magnitude earthquakes. Nature Communications, August 2024.

Recent study suggests that significant earthquakes could be predicted days or months in advance by detecting low-level tectonic activity using machine learning. The researchers closely investigated two major earthquakes: the 2018 Anchorage earthquake and the 2019 Ridgecrest earthquake sequence in California. Their method involved analyzing seismic data for abnormal low-magnitude activity, particularly in the months leading up to these events. They discovered that in both earthquakes, there were about 3 months of unusual seismicity, predominantly of magnitudes below 1.5, over 15% to 25% of the affected regions. Specifically, their machine learning algorithm revealed an 80% probability of a major earthquake occurring within 30 days, increasing to 85% just days before the Anchorage quake. Similar patterns were also observed before the Ridgecrest sequence.

The researchers propose that this precursor activity is caused by increased pore fluid pressure within faults, altering their mechanical properties and leading to uneven stress distribution. This study highlights the transformative role of machine learning in analyzing large seismic datasets, allowing researchers to identify patterns that might signal impending earthquakes. However, while their method shows promise, it requires further testing in real-time scenarios and should be adapted to the specific seismic history of different regions. The ethical challenges of earthquake forecasting are significant, as false alarms could lead to widespread panic and economic disruption, while missed predictions could result in catastrophic outcomes. Nonetheless, accurate forecasting holds the potential to save lives and reduce economic losses by enabling timely warnings and preparations.

Environmental and social factors impact brain aging

Moguilner et al. Brain clocks capture diversity and disparities in aging and dementia across geographically diverse populations. Nature Medicine, August 2024.

A new study reveals that brain aging varies significantly depending on social and environmental factors, particularly in older adults and those with dementia. Countries with higher inequalities, whether economic, environmental, or related to disease, tend to have populations with older brain ages. Researchers used advanced brain clocks based on deep learning to measure brain aging across a diverse sample of 5,306 participants from 15 countries. The study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) data to quantify the brain age gaps, which is the difference between the estimated biological brain age and the chronological age. The study found that individuals with dementia, especially Alzheimer’s disease, exhibited the most significant brain age gaps. Women in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries showed larger brain age gaps, particularly those with Alzheimer’s, due to a combination of biological sex and gender disparities in health and social conditions. These findings emphasize the role of environmental and social factors in brain health disparities. The research underscores the importance of considering the interaction between large-scale environmental factors (exposome) and brain aging mechanisms. This new framework for brain health research could be critical for personalized medicine, helping to identify individuals at risk for neurodegenerative diseases and develop targeted interventions. Additionally, the study highlights the need for public health policies to address socioeconomic inequalities and environmental pollution to promote healthier brain aging across populations.

Meat consumption linked to higher type 2 diabetes risk

Chunxiao Li et al. Meat consumption and incident type 2 diabetes: an individual-participant federated meta-analysis of 1.97 million adults with 100,000 incident cases from 31 cohorts in 20 countries. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, September 2024.

Global meat consumption has surged in recent decades, often exceeding dietary guidelines, leading to concerns about its impact on health, particularly the risk of type 2 diabetes. Previous research has suggested a link between higher intakes of processed and unprocessed red meat and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, but results have been inconsistent. To clarify this relationship, researchers utilized data from the global InterConnect project, analyzing 31 study cohorts across 20 countries. They considered various factors, including age, gender, lifestyle behaviors, energy intake, and body mass index. The study found that consuming 50 grams of processed meat daily, equivalent to two slices of ham, is associated with a 15% higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes within the next decade. Similarly, consuming 100 grams of unprocessed red meat, such as a small steak, was linked to a 10% increased risk. While habitual consumption of 100 grams of poultry daily was associated with an 8% higher risk, this association weakened under further analysis, whereas the links with processed and unprocessed red meat remained strong. This is the most comprehensive evidence to date supporting the recommendation to limit processed and unprocessed red meat consumption to reduce type 2 diabetes risk. Although the study also examined poultry consumption, the link to type 2 diabetes remains uncertain and requires further investigation. The study’s innovative use of harmonized data across diverse populations enabled a more accurate assessment of the relationship between meat consumption and diabetes, reducing potential biases. This research highlights the need for further investment in studies across under-represented regions.

And surely in the cattle (feeding on the pastures of the revived earth) there is a lesson for you: We give you from that which is within their bodies, (marvelously distinguished from) between the waste and blood, milk that is pure and palatable to those who drink. (Nahl 16:66)

Ruminants, probably the most abundant of the herbivores such as cattle, sheep and goats, are foregut fermenters with a four-chambered stomach (rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum) and are an essential component of utilizing marginal land in the world in a sustainable way.

In the verse above from the Qur’an, the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe draws our attention to many of the benefits we get from domestic animals. While the main message of the verse is easily understandable to the general reader, it also contains some concise hints, even descriptions about the physiological details of milk production in ruminants that would be fully understood and explained by science only centuries after the Qur’an was revealed. The purpose of this article is to explain this process in a general sense and milk production in some detail.

Mammals are generally categorized according to the dietary habits into three classes-flesh-eating (carnivore), plant-eating (herbivore) and both flesh and plant-eating (omnivore). In a sense, humans (omnivores) and carnivores depend on herbivores for their nutrition. Generally speaking, all humans and animals in the world have directly or indirectly benefited from the plants. The ability of herbivores to utilize plants as their main energy source is dependent on symbiotic microorganisms which live at various sites within their gastrointestinal tract. The animal provides the microorganisms with food and habitat for growth and the microorganisms provide the animal with fermentation acids and microbial protein.

Herbivores are divided into two types, those with post-gastric (hindgut) fermentation and those with pre-gastric (foregut) fermentation. Fermentation is a chemical process during which microorganisms obtain energy from organic products. Ruminants, probably the most abundant of the herbivores such as cattle, sheep and goats, are foregut fermenters with a four-chambered stomach (rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum) and are an essential component of utilizing marginal land in the world in a sustainable way. Rumen and reticulum contain millions of microorganisms, which form about 3 to 10 percent of rumen fluid.

A major reason why human beings keep ruminants is their ability to convert food which humans find inedible-or at least unpalatable-to food (meat, milk) which humans can eat. They play an important role in the livelihood of farmers throughout the world, providing sustenance such as milk and meat, manure for crop production, cash income from sales of their products and a safety net of capital assets to face risks and misfortune in harsh environments. Currently, humans obtain about fifty percent of the meat and most of the milk they consume from ruminants. Scientists who have conducted studied on ruminants have developed cow breeds, which have higher milk and meat production than traditional cow breeds, and thus supplied an important development to meet the nutritional requirements of humans.

Pre-gastric fermentation provides three important nutritional advantages to the host animal.

First, cellulose and other plant polysaccharides are brought into solution and become available as energy sources. Cellulose is the most abundant natural carbohydrate polymer in nature, but mammals do not produce enzymes that can degrade it. Ruminant animals utilize cellulose via a symbiotic relationship with ruminal cellulolytic microorganisms. During ruminal fermentation, microorganisms ferment the carbohydrates to produce energy, gases (methane and carbon dioxide), heat, and volatile fatty acids (VFA) in the rumen. Effective digestion of plants requires a means of dealing with cellulose, the most important structural material of plants, which is extremely insoluble and remarkably resistant to a chemical attack. Cellulose digesting enzymes that are called cellulases and produced by microorganisms are also present in the intestinal tract of several invertebrates that feed on wood and similar plant products. Rumen harbors the different functional groups of the microbial population, which is responsible for about seventy percent of total digestion in ruminants, and the ability to digest cellulose has been ascribed to a large number of bacterial, fungal and protozoal species isolated from the rumen.

The energy content of plants is low, and the herbivore must consume a large quantity in order to satisfy its energy requirements. Therefore, herbivores spend a lot of time eating; eight or more hours per day may be spent eating.

Secondly, the rumen microorganisms can utilize non-protein nitrogen for growth, converting it into microbial protein which becomes available to the host. Proteins provide the amino acids needed for maintenance of vital functions, reproduction, growth and lactation. Non-ruminant animals need pre-formed amino acids in their diets, but ruminants can utilize many other nitrogen sources because of their rare ability to synthesize amino acids and protein from non-protein nitrogen sources via a symbiotic relationship with ruminal microflora.

Ruminants possess a rumeno-hepatic nitrogen circulation mechanism, which does not exist in non-ruminant animals, in order to save nitrogen. By this mechanism, ruminants can be fed non-protein nitrogen sources such as urea and nitrate when nutrients are in short supply to obtain high quality milk protein. Feed proteins are degraded by microorganisms in the rumen via amino acids into ammonia. Ammonia is used by bacteria to build their proteins and any excess of it is absorbed through the rumen wall into the blood and then converted to urea in the liver. When a diet is low in nitrogen, large amounts of urea (which is normally excreted in the urine) return to the rumen where it can be used by the microbes. In non-ruminants, urea is always entirely lost in the urine. If ammonia levels in the rumen are too low there will be a nitrogen shortage for bacteria and feed digestibility will be reduced. Too much ammonia in the rumen leads to wastage, ammonia toxicity, and in extreme cases, death of the animal.

Thirdly, vitamin synthesis by the microbial population makes the ruminant animal virtually independent of dietary sources of all vitamins, except for vitamins A and D.

However, rumen fermentation also brings some disadvantages. First of all, rumen metabolism causes environmental pollution. Methane is produced as a natural consequence of the anaerobic fermentation; it is a potent greenhouse gas. Dairy farming is the largest agricultural source of methane, one of the greenhouse gases. Furthermore, the major environmental concern associated with the animal industry is ammonia volatilization, which increases atmospheric acid deposition because of the impact of nitrogen-rich excreta on the environment. Therefore, worldwide, scientific research projects have been carried out to find sustainable strategies for reducing emissions of the greenhouse gas methane and ammonia volatilization from domestic ruminants to the environment.

In conclusion, the symbiotic relationship between ruminants and ruminal microorganisms plays an important role in the recycling of nutrients between humans and plants. This relationship also contributes to human life by converting low quality nutrients (grass and hay) to high quality food (meat and milk). Humans will benefit more from ruminants as scientific knowledge about relationships between ruminants and rumen microorganisms advances.

Zubeyir Altuntas has a PhD in Molecular Medicine. He is a research associate in Immunology Department of The Cleveland Clinic.

Modern medical practice has come back to the conclusion that diet is the key to good health and investment in good dietary advice will lead to a reduction in treatment costs, Emphasis on diet is a principle universal to almost all forms of traditional medicine. You can find sound advice on diet everywhere from Europe to China. The Prophet of Islam, upon whom he peace, set out the dietary principles that led to great advances in Arab and Islamic medicine. He said:

The stomach is the well of the body and the veins drink from it. If it is healthy, the veins pass on good health, if it is sick the veins pass on poison.

The term himya is used to mean both diet and precaution. Harith, ‘the doctor of the Arabs’, said: himya is the source of every cure and the stomach is the home of every illness’. To understand what is meant by himya we should recall the incident when the Prophet and his cousin, Ali, were invited to eat at the house of Umm al Mandari. Muhammad, upon whom be peace, began to eat and then stopped and said to Ali: ‘You are recovering.’ He gave him some barley and chard saying, ‘This is better for you’.

Himya has three functions: 1) it is used as a cute; 2) it is used to maintain good health; 3) it is used alongside cures to aid recovery

Diet and balance

In our previous article, we described the concept of mizaj, balance. Cures are prescribed according to the type of imbalance. Certain foods are classified as ‘moist’, others as ‘dry’. They match their opposites. The simplest example can he found in the Prophet’s advice: ‘Fever is from the fire, put it out with water.’ Another example would he rubbing olive oil on dry skin. One may say that these ideas are common sense and not really medical principles.. However, developing from these ‘simple’ examples came the system of medicine which went on to set the foundations for modern medical practice. Al-tibb al-Nabawi influenced surgeons and physicians like Ibn Sina and al-Hazen. It appears that in the rapid advancement of science many forgot these basic simple ‘common sense’ truths. Now we find ourselves again returning to the idea of a balanced diet.

Diet is normally described in terms of the three macronutrients, namely proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The structural parts of all body cells are made of proteins. It is these which stop them from collapsing. They are also vital in the functioning of the cells. Every protein consists of a string of building blocks called amino acids. The human body needs about 22 amino acids to make its necessary proteins. Fourteen of these can be manufactured by the body. The remainder have to be obtained through our food.The US National Academy of Sciences recommends 0.8 gms of protein per kilogram of body weight. The concept of balance is very important. It has until recently been commonly accepted that red meat is an ideal source of high-quality protein. A recent British report has been interpreted as suggesting that a vegetarian diet actually optimizes health. The reason for this is that taking in large amounts of ‘first grade’ protein from meat inevitably leads to an increased intake of harmful animal fat. This was clearly understood by the Companions of the Prophet. He told them; ‘The lord of all foods for the people of this world and the next is meat’ (related by Ibn Majah). ‘Umar also warned them: ‘Be careful of meat for it has harm like the harm found in wine.’ Another Companion of the Prophet said: ‘Do not make your insides a graveyard for animals.’ Balance is vital. ‘Second grade’ proteins found in grains and legumes are just as effective when combined with ‘first grade’ meat proteins. The different types of meat and their contribution to mizaj, can he found in Ibn al Qayum’s al – Tibb al-Nabawi. It corresponds to the now widely accepted view that red meat is vital but must be balanced with fowl and vegetables.

The second of the macronutrients are fats. They are composed of fatty acids, long molecules of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. They produce more than twice the amount of energy of proteins or carbohydrates and also carry vitamins A, D, E and K. They are vital for growth and repair, as well as for insulating the body and maintaining a regular temperature. They cushion vital organs. There are several kinds of fat. They differ according to their degree of saturation. Saturated fats produce high levels of blood cholesterol. Cholesterol is a complex waxy substance that is essential to the walls of body cells, the production of vitamin D, hormones, bile acids and nerve tissues. The liver produces cholesterol naturally and does not need any from the diet. Therefore, any added will be excess and lead to imbalance. High cholesterol levels have been associated with high risk of heart attack. A simple way to reduce cholesterol levels would be to moderate the use of eggs and organ meats such as liver.

Carbohydrates are the third of the macronutrients. They provide the body with energy help control the breakdown of protein, and protect the body against toxins. Carbohydrates are of two types. Monosaccharides are simple single molecule sugars. An example is glucose. Polysaccharides are more complex molecules and are broken down into two or more sugars.An example is starch. They arc found in fruits, vegetables and grains. They have a high nutritive value and provide vitamins, minerals, proteins and fibre. Polysaccharides take longer to digest and are therefore more effective in keeping away hunger. Barley has been a vital ingredient in Arab medicine dating back to the Messenger as well as an important part of his own and his followers’ diet.

Digestion

A pillar in al-Tibia al-Nabawi is that illness can be related to diet and digestion. The Messenger laid special importance on position while eating as well as going to toilet. He emphasized the importance of oral hygiene and exercise. The ‘stomach’ mentioned in the saying of the Prophet quoted earlier is generally understood to refer to the whole digestive system. We are being told to keep our whole body in order. Looking carefully after our diet and digestion means looking after our whole body and ultimately our minds and inner selves. Optimum digestion means optimum health.

Digestion begins with the mouth and the teeth. Food is broken down by chewing and is moistened with saliva which stimulates the rest of the digestive process.It is then swallowed as holus. This should take a few minutes. Problems associated with this process include the interaction of bacteria and sugar or other carbohydrates. This breaks down the protective enamel and causes tooth decay. We are told to use siwak, a simple tooth stick, when we make ritual ablution. It is said to he purifying for the mouth, pleasing to the Lord and it makes the devil angry. In al-Tibia al-Nabawi, oral hygiene is not only for good health, it is a part of worship. The Messenger, upon whom he peace said, ‘Prayer with siwak is better than 70 prayers without it.’

The bolus passes to tile stomach via the muscular oesophagus. Reflux of stomach acid during this process leads to heartburn. This, according to al-Tibb al-Nabawi, can he avoided by sitting in a relaxed position while eating. The Messenger said: ‘I do not eat while leaning,’ and ‘I sit as a slave sits and I eat as a slave eats’. He used to sit and eat on the floor with his thigh resting on his foot, with due respect to his Lord and also to those he was eating with,

After the bolus has passed from tile oesophagus it enters the gallbladder. The gallbladder stores bile made by the liver and releases it into the duodenum. Gallstones are the main prob1em associated with the gallbladder. This can he avoided by himya, correct balanced diet. A diet low in animal fats reduces the risk of gallstones.

The bolus passes into the stomach which is a muscular sac that mixes acid fluid with food which then passes into the intestines. The stomach was described by the Messenger as ‘the well of the body’. It is very important that the well is kept clean. Dieticians are now beginning to fully realize the damage that is done to the stomach through smoking, alcohol and irritant foods. Fasting to ‘give the stomach a rest’ is now a common treatment. The role of fasting in Islam is well known. The obligation to fast-for one month a year benefits the Muslim’s body, mind and soul. The commended regular fasting throughout the year is either three days in the middle of the month, or on Mondays and Thursdays.

There are two intestines in the digestive system. The first, called the duodenum or small intestine, is a tube that receives strong alkaline juices from the pancreas and gallbladder which break down fats and neutralize stomach acid . The most common illness related to the small intestine is duodenal ulcers. These are commonly caused by alcohol, smoking and stress.

The passage of food takes four hours in the stomach, about four and a half in the small intestine and finally about twelve hours in the large intestine. The large intestine is a tube in which food and fluid are absorbed. Food residue is formed into faeces.

The final stage of digestion, i.e. the removal of waste, is just as important as the first. The Prophet recommended we sit or squat to avoid constipation. He was very particular about keeping the private areas clean and therefore free of infection, the use of water and performing ablution afterwards. This is not detached from worship. The prayer that he, upon him he peace, said when he completed this final act of digestion sums up the approach of al-Tibb al-Nabawi. Al-Tibb is looking after one’s health, physical and spiritual and, at the same time, remembering the source of all food and all health. He used to say:

All praise belongs to God who took out from me that which harms me and left in me that which benefits me’.

It is an aspect of the Divine Mercy that everyone of those actions which a practising Muslim is required to do in a particular way and with a particular intention combines a moral-spiritual value with a utilitarian value. For example, it has been objectively demonstrated that, if done properly and regularly, wudu contributes to having clean, healthy skin (see Fountain, 1, pp.33-6). Of course, that is not the point of doing wudu. The point of doing wudu is to get oneself in a state of readiness for worship–for the explicit occasions such as doing the prayer or reading the Qur’an, or, more generally, for initiating any action which the Muslim hopes may be acceptable as worship. The practical benefit of doing the prescribed acts in the prescribed manner is not what makes them acceptable or worthy as acts of worship. If a non-Muslim does the same actions, copying every detail with exact care, or if a Muslim does them but without the proper intention, only the practical benefits are to be hoped for: it is the intention that earns the moral reward. The practical benefit can then be understood as the additional (and not the essential) merit of the prescribed actions–a part of the rationality, the universality, the sheer ease of Islam.

It is in this general perspective that we can best grasp the benefits of slaughtering animals according to the manner prescribed to Muslims. The four conditions of it, after the condition that the animal be one lawful for Muslims to eat, are: 1) that the person doing the slaughtering is a Muslim of sound mind (not mad, not drunk, not legally a minor); 2) that the name of Allah is pronounced before any incision is made; 3) that the instrument used is extremely sharp; 4) that the incision is made in the neck just below the glottis, cutting the throat and oesophagus, the jugular vein and the carotid artery, but (and this is most important) without cutting the spinal cord or severing the head from the body. We should add that it is improper to interfere with the carcass (for example, to begin skinning or dismembering the animal) before convulsions have ceased and its life fully departed.

Plainly, the first and second conditions have to do with the intention, the state of mind, of the person doing the slaughtering. The subsequent conditions have to do with the practical details of carrying out the intention. Studied objectively (that is, without the prejudice of anti-Muslim sentiment), the practical details are found to be the most reliable way of producing wholesome meat without causing undue distress or pain to the animal.

The sharpness of the instrument guarantees the speed of the incision. The speed ensures that, just as when a man cuts himself shaving with a razor, the incision itself is painless (even if, much later, the wound may not be). The particular incision, the cutting of the major blood vessels in the neck, produces an immediate stunning effect: it causes the most massive possible haemorrhaging of blood which, by straightaway cutting the supply of blood to the brain, renders the animal unconscious. However, because the spinal cord is not (must not) be cut, the brain continues to send its electrical impulses to the heart, urgent messages demanding the supply of blood: that is why the animal convulses violently, pumping blood ever more vigorously and so speeding up the haemorrhaging process, until life leaves the body. Certainly, these violent convulsions (the result of rapid muscle contraction) look distressing, but in fact they are painless to the animal which, as we have noted, is unconscious during this process. The body’s own mechanism is thus used to rapidly drain the carcass of blood. Not until the draining of blood is finished is it permissible to proceed with skinning or dismembering the carcass. Why?Blood carries nutrients round the body to feed its tissue cells and carries away the waste product left after the nutrients have been extracted; after processing in the kidneys the blood is purified of these wastes and again circulated. The same blood also carries organisms which are responsible for disease but which in a healthy living body do not present as clinical symptoms. Separated from the body, these disease-carrying organisms are indeed harmful and it is for that reason (among others) that the consumption of blood is forbidden. Moreover, blood in a carcass is the principal breeding- ground for all kinds of bacteria. The failure to drain a carcass adequately renders it liable to rapid putrefaction, making the meat unfit for consumption. The convulsions of the slaughtered animal are the most efficient and (despite appearances) the most painless method of pumping the carcass free of blood.

It is obvious that the methods used for animal slaughter in the industrialized countries are designed for maximum ‘productivity’. That is why various mechanical techniques are used to ‘stun’ the animals in order to speed up the mechanical handling of them. The argument that these techniques are more humane is, frankly, dishonest propaganda put about by the meat trade. There is a great difference between paralysis and unconsciousness: the stunning techniques used, unless very precisely calculated and very accurately administered to each individual animal, may cause paralysis rather than unconsciousness. This means that the animal is motionless (paralysed) and so easy to harness and hoist up, and it looks as if it is not suffering; in fact, it may be quite conscious and in terrible pain. Further, because it is paralysed, the animal’s nervous system is largely disabled so that drainage of blood has to be achieved by rapid, total dismemberment of the carcass by machines–blood is lost by gravity, not by the natural pumping action described above. However, drainage is not as thorough by this method which severely affects the wholesomeness, colour and taste of the meat. Readers of the Qur’an (5.4) will know that (as well as blood and carrion) the meat of animals harassed or strangled or clubbed to death is haram the reason (among others) is that, in a condition of terror, hormones and chemicals are released into the body and bloodstream which distress the tissues and render them unfit for consumption. The Western techniques of stunning before slaughter, because they do not guarantee unconsciousness and do not minimize the terror suffered by the animal, are not acceptable under Islamic rules of slaughter. (Details of the legislation in a number of Western countries–following controlled experiments and government surveys of stunning and slaughtering techniques with different animals–may be consulted in Karodia, 1988.)Let us turn to the two first conditions for lawful slaughtering–namely, that the person be a Muslim of sound mind, that the name of Allah be pronounced. The person must be conscious of what he or she is doing and do it, as it were, in the full awareness that Allah has permitted it and witnessed it. It does not take much imagination to work out that the act of slaughtering an animal is, by this means, individualized: the mechanized, assembly-line taking of life is not acceptable. It may well be that the further preparation of the meat for sale and consumption can (perhaps should) be mechanized so as to increase efficiency and reduce waste. But the act of taking of sentient life, allowed for the purposes of food, must be done mindfully, and may not be handed over to a machine. The moral purpose of these conditions is that human beings do not become arrogant in the dominion they are granted over the animals they farm or hunt for food. That purpose becomes clearer when we recall that there are further stipulations in the Sunna the knife must not be sharpened in front of the animal; one animal should not be slaughtered in sight of another; the animal should be (as a vet does when examining an animal) lain on its side, soothed, and held still before the knife is applied.

All these conditions taken together mean an individual and collective mindfulness, a taking of responsibility. Because the laws of Islam are moral laws, they are not required to be applied where they cannot be applied: something that is impossible to do cannot be commanded to be done–except by mad tyrants. Thus it is that, under the direst necessity, without desiring the unlawful, the unlawful is also permitted. How then is it that Muslims will not understand the mercy, the ease, of that which is prescribed for them to do, but will instead –alas too often–fall under the sway of alien persuasions and do what they must only half-heartedly, sometimes even becoming so impudent as to complain of what benefits them? How should such ingratitude be rewarded except by the reward of all moral stupidity–that, in practice, Muslims come to accept that what is good is bad, and what is bad good? The occasion of ‘Id al-Adha, the ‘Id of sacrifice, is an occasion of mercy remembered and celebrated with thanksgiving and repentance. Let it be, also, an occasion to remember our indebtedness to Islam, for the wisdom, the sanity and spirituality, of what by Allah (through the example and teaching of His Messenger, upon him be peace) is prescribed to us to do.

REFERENCE

KARODI,. A.M. (1988) ‘The Muslim methods of animal slaughter and its scientific and social relevance in non-Muslim societies’, Journal of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, 9 (l),pp.173-85.