As science develops further, the “veils” of the universe are lifted and humanity can explore realms beyond which our senses would normally allow.

We are conscious beings and we seek answers to our existence. People search for answers to questions like, “Who am I and why do we exist?” The sciences reveal that existence is full of meaning and purpose. However, judgmental values and beliefs enter the process; restrictive and ideological approaches lead to confusion during man’s voyage to truth.

Take the question of how we exist. Different perceptions have their own point of view and reach different conclusions. While a materialist person accepts the matter to be eternal, for some the theory of evolution has all the answers; yet on the other hand, a person of faith explains existence with creation. Therefore a materialist, an evolutionist, and a believer struggle to reach a common conclusion.

Human vision is somewhat veiled; the things that are not witnessed are considered unknown. The events of both the micro and macro cosmos are veiled to us. Yet the more our science advances, the more of these worlds we begin to see. We understand how complex existence is, while also appreciating how majestically it has come into being.

Can senses and observations guide humanity to the truth? Our strongest senses are seeing and hearing; however, these senses can only perceive a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum. The human eye can see the wavelengths in between 4,000-7,000 angstroms; the ear can hear frequencies in between 16-20,000 Hz. When we rely only on our senses to understand and comprehend existence, the things that are outside our ability to see or hear become absent.

Dimension and distance are very important for vision. The dimension that humans can see with the naked eye starts at the millimeter scale; in perfect conditions, we can barely see beyond 18-25 miles. Things at dimensions much smaller than a millimeter and at considerably longer distances remain out of our visual range. A microscope brings the small dimensions into our visual spectrum and the telescope does the same for long distances. Before the invention of these devices, humankind was not aware of things such as the atom, molecule, galaxy, nebula, or black hole. Today, because of scientific advances, as we get closer to seeing things on the nanometer dimension, we are newly discovering structures at this scale and the laws that are effective here. The inner makeup of the atom has not yet been elucidated; our knowledge is based on certain theories and experiences. Our information regarding the universe is also limited. It is considered that in an expanding universe, according to the expansion velocity of galaxies and gravitational force calculations, the amount of visible matter only corresponds to 4% of the total mass of the universe, the rest estimated to consist of 26% dark matter and 70% dark energy.

When the true nature of things (objects, existence) that are unknown or seem to be simple are explained through science, the truth is found to be very different. From space, the earth looks like a small and pale blue dot. After getting closer, at first the oceans, continents, and major mountain ranges start to appear. There is not any indication of people or other organisms on earth yet. However, after looking closely enough, it is observed that earth is filled with numerous life forms.

We witness the twinkle of countless stars when we gaze at the sky on a dark night. These stars, each shining as a small spot, may seem insignificant. When we turn our telescope towards one of these spots, we face a giant star or a galaxy that houses billions of stars; we become astonished. And when we take a better look at these stars, some of which are colossal, we witness interesting events. In these thermonuclear cauldrons that are utilized like millions of atomic reactors, enormous amounts of energy are released into space after being produced each second under immense pressure at temperatures reaching millions of degrees. Humans should think for a while and be amazed by these things. The power required is immense and they last millions of years.

People can also observe the wonder of the universe by delving into much smaller dimensions (the micro world). Here, we witness the creation of wonderful beings and the employment of tiny creatures in vital tasks, even though this micro world is hidden secret from the naked eye. For instance, in the thousands of small chemical factories fitted in a seemingly plain leaf, sugars are produced from carbon dioxide and water via sunlight; nutrients are synthesized from various minerals in the soil and stored in the fruits, seeds, and roots of plants to serve as nourishment for the living.

The biological structure of a human body is built by the proliferation of a fertilized single cell, called a zygote, through division. More than 200 different cells executing very unique functions in tissues such as the brain, liver, kidneys, muscles, and bones are created from a single cell. Cells have specific structures and tasks according to their types, each housing various work benches and laboratories. For example, the make-up and function of a brain, liver, or muscle cell is very diverse, each shaped for their assigned task. The organelles inside the cells are also specialized; the job of one cell type cannot be completed by another. The molecules, secreted enzymes, and hormones synthesized in cells are different. While a pancreatic cell secretes insulin and glucagon, a thyroid cell releases thyroxine. Various dimensions and models of protein, hormone, enzyme, and antibody molecules are formed with structures called ribosome to be employed in unique processes. The energy that cells need is generated in organelles of mitochondria. In addition, various transmission lines, communication networks, and defense mechanisms are established inside cells.

Organs are not just packs of meat. Billions of cells in each organ are completing their works around a common goal. In each organ and cell, micro factories and laboratories of microscopic dimensions are set up, micro-machines and robots are being utilized, and atoms and molecules are employed like conscious workers.

The entire body is formed by the specialization of this zygote into very diverse cell types during the formation of these organs. The set of tasks in different organs is programmed to sustain the life of a single organism and to serve a common goal. How could one not be amazed by the combination of trillions of cells in a way to serve one purpose, form a body, and distribute tasks to different organs?

It is also important to analyze the composition of atoms and their relations with each other for a better understanding of the facts of creation. Different atoms form with varying numbers of protons, neutrons, and electrons in their atomic structures. A different element is generated when the proton number is changed; an isotope of the same element is generated with the replacement of the neutron number. Millions of types of molecules with unique features can be made via different combinations of atoms. Molecules are the smallest units that determine the chemical properties of matter. While the simplest compound is the hydrogen molecule, formed by two atoms, there are also molecules composed of millions of atoms.

There are molecules of diverse types and sizes present in the universe. Each molecule type is constructed in a three dimensional and unique way. The number, order, and shape of the bonds present among atoms in a molecule, even the angle between atoms, is very important. Because of these differences, despite the fact that they both contain a carbon atom, a diamond and graphite (coal) are distinct substances. The carbon atom can miraculously form 1,700,000 types of compounds on its own. Just as in hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂,) and water (H₂O) molecules, a change of an atom in a molecule can alter the entire property of that particular molecule. A small change taking place on a single base sequence of the DNA chain may disrupt its condition leading it to be ineffective or cause a disease.

As humans, we only observe the tangible side of such materials. Yet the universe contains multitudes that we cannot detect or know. Just like a software composed of commands is required for computers and electronic devices made up of physical elements, the presence of an intangible world that is dominated by souls and commands undetectable by senses is necessary within the matter where the program of fate is operated.

As mankind accumulates knowledge about the universe and existence, we notice that not only do we have a greater understanding of the nature of things, but also that each dimension in existence is a veil and this veil is lifted with science.

Just as in the case of this volcanic eruption, Harold Olcese, one of the finalists in The Fountain essay contest 2009, opens a window in this issue enabling us to see the brighter side of events. His essay is an empowering one and will inspire many to survive even the seemingly most tragic of all misfortunes.

However, chaos is more catastrophic not when a volcano erupts, but when individuals and societies “breathe resentment, swallow hatred, curse all that is deemed to be an enemy with a fixed and determined passion, as if programmed for fury.” The lead article portrays the chaotic drama of persistent denial vis A vis the mystical world of faith.

We learn in this issue that mountains-despite occasional explosions of lava from volcanic ones-are indeed the “water towers of the world.” Quoting from the article, 70% of the human population depends on the water originating from the mountains.

The Matter & Beyond interview with Dr. Katherine Marshall from Berkeley Center for Religion establishes the fact that millions of people still live in misery and at extremely low standards of living. According to Marshall, this imbalance can be solved “with a revival of some of the best traditions of spirituality.”

Another mountain involved in this issue of The Fountain is the famous K2, the world’s second highest peak. Bulut reviews Three Cups of Tea, a book which sold millions of copies, written by Greg Mortenson who tried to climb this peak. However, he ended up in a village where he was inspired to write this book telling of his fantastic adventure to build schools.

Please check out the essay contest 2010 announcement at the back of this issue. “What would you do if you were told you had only 72 hours to live?” is the theme of this year’s contest organized in cooperation with Ebru TV.

We have described elsewhere the chain of divine wonders in the structure of the earth. The 23.5 degrees inclination of its axis is a matter for such delicate computation that it is possible for neither physics nor philosophy to pre-calculate it. For example, if the earth was inclined 25 degrees, the polar caps would melt in a few hundred years, and the oceans would be flooded with ice. If the slant was 22 degrees, on the other hand, Arctic ice would invade the whole of Europe, and life would be possible only in the equatorial regions of the earth. The All-Mighty emphasizes this important insight at the beginning of the verse in the description of spreading out and ordering.

Again, this spreading out and ordering of the earth is closely related to its rotation on its axis every 24 hours. If the earth had completed one revolution every 30 hours, such tremendous winds would have ensued that the earth would have become a hurricane-ridden desert for living things. If, on the contrary, the earth had rotated every 20 hours, most plants would have been unable to complete their biological activity and fallen victim to droughts.

The spreading out and ordering mentioned in the first part of the sacred verse, then, is obtained for the rotation of the earth by the harmonious inclination of the earth’s axis. This result, if ever, if left to chance could be achieved, if ever only after millions of trials.

God’s presentation, in various parts of the Qur’an of His marvels of order and measure, aims at closing all doors to unbelief with the mathematical and physical order of the earth and the universe.

The most significant message of the verse is the proper balance of things produced from the earth. What are these things, and what are these harmonious measures?

Scientific research to date links the chain of life to the balanced interactions between plants, animals and bacteria. The bacteria are charged with transferring nitrogen from animals to plants. Plants produce the oxygen needed by animals and other organisms, and animals supply both carbon dioxide and–through bacteria–nitrogen to plants.

While the chain of life proceeds in this manner, it is imperative that the proportion of oxygen in the air remains close to 20%. This is where the most delicate of subtleties begins. All smoke and exhalations are converted by plants into oxygen. One would need a computer to calculate the ratio of plant species needed to maintain the oxygen in the air at 20%.

There has to be a divine computer that can regulate the amount of plants needed for the smoke from chimneys and the oxygen consumption of humans and provide the necessary oxygen to the air. This incredible calculation can only be considered as a divine miracle. The Qur’an declares: ‘The things produced in the earth are subject to proper balance’ and its wisdom reaches us across a gulf of fourteen centuries, from a time when none of the above facts were known.

Millions of years ago, a vast blanket of flora covered the earth. The purpose of this was to increase the oxygen balance of the atmosphere. Dinosaurs, the animals benefitting from these plants, roamed on earth. Finally, the oxygen ratio began to exceed 20%. The consumption of the plants by dinosaurs and their exhalation of carbon dioxide was no longer able to balance the gigantic production of oxygen by the plants.

At this point, a vast geological upheaval occurred, and both the flora and the dinosaurs vanished from the face of the earth. Then, God produced all fish, birds and mammals at the same time. (That is the latest valid hypothesis, the views of the diehard evolutionists having been superseded some time ago.)

As the verse tells us, the volume of plants is in such harmonious balance that a tree has been assigned to purify the fumes of every smoking chimney. Man–including those who think they believe–is in such heedlessness that he can never fathom these delicate calculations of Divine Omniscience, and for this reason cannot intuit the secret of ‘Provider of the worlds.’ The respect, accorded in Islam to trees and the importance assigned to planting new trees stand in recognition of the above facts.

Let me now provide some further incredible calculations.

For nearly every illness, the Great Creator has fashioned a plant or microbe as a cure. How can the ignorant, altogether lacking evidence, call this system a coincidence! To create the earth, to settle human beings there, and then to keep ready all the botanical and bacterial remedies for all their ailments in the laboratories of nature!

There are enough foxglove plants in the world to provide digitalis to cure all heart patients. There are also enough hashish plants to ease the sufferings of all the painfully ill, yet the medicine of that plant has become black market stuff under the pressure of heedless selfishness and is used to provide pleasure for the lunatic fringe.

Another example of the things produced in harmonious balance in the earth: until about a hundred years ago, firewood met the heating and energy requirements of men. If coal and oil had not been discovered, the forests would all have been the last of their kind on earth. But just at the right moment, the divine computer delivered the coal and later, the oil, that it had prepared millions of years ago, and in such measure as to provide enough for all human beings. Unfortunately man, the prisoner of egotism, is now preparing for the greatest war in history with oil as the centre of the controversy. And what of the House of Islam? Because it has not truly embraced the Qur’an, because it has been unable to understand it and to realize new scientific advances, it now stands dazed, looking in bewilderment at even the wealth gushing from its own backyard.

Let us now look at the proper balance of the earth’s constitution in terms of its metals.

We do not know the proportions of metals in the central core of the earth and the liquid mantle surrounding it. But in the crust on which we live, the elements are distributed in such proportion that it is as if a scientific committee had provided a shopping list and the orders had been met by an infinitely powerful factory. Each substance is present in the earth’s crust to the exact proportion that the level of civilization ordained by God demands. Compounds of silicon, iron and potassium are the basic substances for residential construction. If even one of these had been missing, we could not have cities.

Until recently we didn’t know what blessing water is. Today we know that the calcium bicarbonate in water is the best organizer of digestion. Vital substances such as salt are distributed over the earth in such proportion that man has almost arrived in a fully equipped biological laboratory.

Have you ever considered that sea water has been evaporating, and then returning to the seas by rivers, for millions of years? During this process, new substances are transported to the seas from land, and yet the composition of sea water never changes. Observe the magnificence of this miracle of the divine computer: millions of events take place, yet the harmonious balance imposed by God on the earth’s produce does not change. For the Guarded Tablet is also, in a sense, a law of the Qur’an.

Returning to metals, there are some whose names have been heard of only in the last 150 years, such as beryllium, uranium, cadmium, tungsten, tantalum and gallium. When these were first discovered, everyone regarded them merely as laboratory curiosities. Only later was it realized that these are the indispensable building blocks of advanced technology. From the utilization of atomic energy to high temperature technological activities, each one of these metals represents some essential property, and their presence on earth is adjusted according to the part they were predestined to play.

One of the greatest wonders of the planet earth, which the All-Mighty furnished before lowering man upon it, are the radioactive substances of the world. These are present in the earth’s crust in such perfect proportion that its measure could not be ordered by any scientific committee. On the one hand, there is uranium-235 to provide nuclear power, safe in its natural setting yet dangerous when purified; on the other hand, carbon-14 to enable biological activity. And how wonderful are mineral springs whose waters, which bear moderate amounts of radioactive substances, dispense health to millions of people all over the world.

Consider what we have said about the radioactivity of the earth from the reverse point of view. If uranium had been present in the earth in the form of its uranium-235 isotope exclusively, the world would have become a witch’s cauldron a short time after it was formed. On the other hand, if uranium-235 had not been present in uranium-238 in the proportion of 0.7%, we could not have obtained atomic energy. God has invested uranium-235 with such a characteristic that it can be converted to nuclear power only when it is separated, and does not pose a danger in its natural matrix in uranium-238.

Many biological events could not take place, but for the presence of carbon-14 in the atmosphere. If this substance, which has a proportion of one ppm (parts per million), had been slightly more common, it would have constituted a lethal hazard. And if the sodium-24 isotope were present in mineral springs, taking a bath would be like being present at Hiroshima when they dropped the bomb. Although the main substance in mineral springs is sodium, its isotopes other than sodium-24 are predominant.

Indeed, we could never exhaust commentary on this verse if we were to fill volumes. I have therefore been content to offer only a short summary. Let us read and re-read it with due reverence and wonder:

‘We have given the produce of the earth in harmonious balance and proper proportion.’