Smart prosthetic hand combines both human and robot control

Zhuang et al. Shared human–robot proportional control of a dexterous myoelectric prosthesis. Nature Machine Intelligence, September 2019.

Holding an object in your hand might seem easy, but it’s actually a very complicated and challenging task; if, for instance, an object starts to slip, you typically have a couple of milliseconds to react. Scientists have been trying new approaches for improved control of robotic hands, particularly for use by amputees. A recent technology was able to combine individual finger control and automation for improved grasping and manipulation by successfully merging the fields of neuroengineering and robotics. This interdisciplinary approach was tested on three amputees and seven non-amputee subjects. The neuroengineers achieved the intended finger movement from muscular activity on the amputee’s stump, allowing for individual finger control of a prosthetic hand, which had never been done before. The robotics team enabled the robotic hand to take hold of objects and maintain contact with them for robust grasping. The amputee first performed a series of hand movements in order to train the algorithm through a machine learning paradigm. This taught the algorithm to decode user intention and translate it into finger movements of the prosthetic hand. Concurrently, sensors placed on the amputee’s stump detected muscular activity, which trained the algorithm to learn which hand movements corresponded to which patterns of muscular activity. Once the user’s intended finger movements were acquired, this information could then be used to control individual fingers on the prosthetic hand. When the user tried to grasp an object, the robotic automation initiated. The algorithm told the prosthetic hand to close its fingers when an object was in contact with sensors on the hand’s surface. This automatic grasping was designed to infer the shape of objects and grasp them based on tactile information alone, without any help of visual signals. The robotic hand has the ability to react within 400 milliseconds, and it is equipped with pressure sensors all along the fingers: it can react and stabilize the object before the brain can actually perceive that the object is slipping. While this promising technology can be used in in several neuro-prosthetic applications such as bionic hand prostheses and brain-to-machine interfaces, there are still many challenges remaining to implement this technology in a commercially available prosthetic hand for amputees. It is currently being tested and improved.

Cats securely bond with people, too

Vitale et al. Attachment bonds between domestic cats and humans. Current Biology, September 2019.

Dogs have long been regarded as man’s best friend. They’re sociable, faithful, and obedient. Cats, on the other hand, are often described as more aloof, mysterious, and independent. But a new study suggests that cats actually bond with their owners in similar ways to how humans and dogs bond with companions. The most established way to study human attachment behavior is to observe an infant’s response to a reunion with their caregiver following a brief absence in a novel environment. When a caregiver returns, secure infants quickly return to relaxed exploration while insecure individuals engage in excessive clinging or avoidance behavior. These tests had been previously run with humans, primates, and dogs; researchers decided to run the same test with cats. 79 kittens and 38 adult cats and their caregivers were recruited. During the test, an adult cat or kitten spent two minutes in a novel room with their caregiver followed by two minutes alone. Then, they had a two-minute reunion. The cats’ responses to seeing their owners again were classified into attachment styles. The results show that cats bond in a way that’s surprisingly similar to infants. In humans, 65% of infants are securely attached to their caregiver and domestic cats and kittens mirrored this, as about 65% of them securely bonded to their people. After the first round of tests, the researchers enrolled half the kittens used in the study in a training and socialization course. The other half served as a control group. Researchers then found the same results, suggesting the training did not have an effect on kittens’ attachment behavior toward their owners. This indicates that once a cat forms a bond, it seems to remain stable over time. This social flexibility may have helped facilitate the success of the species in human homes. It is still not clear what the factors are that shape the caretaker relationship, but it’s likely a miraculous complex mix of genetics, personality, and experience.

An efficient and green way to convert heat into electricity

Zheng et al. Paramagnon drag in high thermoelectric figure of merit Li-doped MnTe. Science Advances, September 2019.

A recent discovery could help scientists to develop more efficient ways to generate electricity from heat that would have been otherwise wasted, such as heat coming from car exhaust, industrial processes, and interplanetary space probes. In principle, magnetic fields can be used to generate electricity. If we move a magnet through a coil or wire, the magnet pushes and pulls electrons that create an electrical current. Magnets themselves don’t have energy, but they can control energy currents through the created magnetic field. The main problem with magnets is that when a magnet is heated up, it loses most of its magnetic properties and becomes a so-called paramagnet. Until this discovery, scientists believed that paramagnets couldn’t be used for generating electricity. In the new study, researchers found a way of designing thermoelectric semiconductors that can convert heat to electricity. The tiny particles in paramagnets, so called paramagnons, ended up producing enough spin to push an electron, for only a billionth of a millionth of a second – apparently long enough to make paramagnets viable energy-harvesters. This breakthrough in the conventional understanding of magnetic properties could lead to more research into how magnets and energy interact to potentially facilitate electricity production from heat that is otherwise wasted and oftentimes harmful to the environment.

Hizmet Movement (aka Gülen Movement) has always been given different names, which rely on and point to divergent underlying ontologies and understandings. Cemaat (Community), Hizmet (Service), Gonulluler Hareketi, (A movement of volunteers), and Gülenciler (Gülenists) are just a selection of terms often used to refer to the movement. Nowadays, people have come to view the movement in diametrically opposing ways, due to the recent political history of Turkey. On one hand, some praise it for its virtues, claiming that it is a movement promoting and prioritizing democratic values and standards and standing against a corrupt government, at a very high cost. On the other hand, those who criticize it accuse the movement of interfering in politics and even plotting coups against democratically elected governments, and they try to label it as a cult – especially when they cannot prove their accusations. Therefore, a great discrepancy is very likely to emerge between how a sympathizer of the movement sees and defines it and how an outsider sees and defines it, as current developments in Turkey have pushed the public to the edges and have led to increased polarization. Thus, in order to see whether the Hizmet Movement is a cult or not, one has to remove himself or herself from political polemics and try to be critical and strike a balance between how the movement perceives itself and how it is perceived by the outside world. In order to do so, let us first consider how “cult” is defined in the literature and then see whether these definitions match with the Hizmet Movement.

Even though the meaning of cult has changed, the term acquiring differing meanings over time, it is generally and publicly used in a derogatory way to refer to movements that are regarded as socially deviant due to their unorthodox beliefs and practices. During the 1930s, anti-cult movements usually viewed cults as a disparate form of heresy. Similarly, Christian scholar Walter Martin defined a cult as a movement that applies, and relies solely on, personal interpretations of the Bible, in denial of mainstream beliefs such as the Trinity, the Second Coming of Christ, the ministry and personality of Jesus, and the like. Accordingly, new religious movements that were not a part of, or splintered from, pre-existing sects—these include movements such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and Christian Scientists—have been considered cults. From a sociological point of view, Max Weber ascribed the emergence of a cult to the routinization of the charisma of a self-proclaimed religious leader. A great variety of cults exist today—doomsday cults, political cults, destructive cults, racist cults, polygamist cults, and terrorist cults. Cults have also long been accused of applying unorthodox measures, such as mind control and abusive sex, to govern their members and of having secretive organizational structures to accomplish their objectives.

Any attempt to draw a distinction between a cult and a mainstream religious movement is an utterly value-laden endeavor, as it requires one to assume a position of authority and judge what is an orthodox or unorthodox practice or interpretation of a religion. Also, it is analytically impossible to determine how much deviation or what sorts of differences render a movement deviant and get it labeled as a cult, because even sects of the very same religion sometimes are predicated upon utterly distinct theological positions. For example, consider the God conceptualizations of two Christian traditions, Unitarians and Catholics. Whereas the former believe in the physical and spiritual unity of God and reject the idea of the incarnation of God in human form, the latter hold to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which states that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are divine manifestations of God. Or, in a similar vein, consider the example of the Alawites and Sunni Muslims; some groups of the former consider Ali, the cousin of Muhammad, to be the incarnation of God, while the latter view him only as the third rightly guided Caliph and as totally human in nature.

Despite this opaque and slippery conceptual ground, we can still systematically consider whether the Hizmet Movement is a cult and possesses any of the general characteristics and features attributed to cults. Let me rise above the dichotomies by considering the criteria for a cult, embodied in the definitions given below, in relation to the Hizmet Movement—namely, deviancy (unorthodox religious rituals), unorthodox means of control (mind control, abusive sex), and the presence of a charismatic leader—to determine whether it is a cult or not.

We’ll begin with deviancy. Even though the movement has often laid great emphasis on the spiritual resurrection of Muslims and humanity, it has not attempted to reject or change the pillars of Islamic faith and the essentials of the religion. It has not proposed theologically novel conceptions of divinity or prophecy. Quite the opposite—the movement intellectually and theologically associates itself with the earlier mainstream of Muslim scholars, thinkers, and movements and derives its legitimacy from its embeddedness in classical Islam. The criticisms leveled at the movement have mostly involved matters relating to the interpretation of religious texts. Accordingly, the movement has been criticized for its strong promotion of intimate relations with the members of other Abrahamic religions, for its willingness to engage in open dialogue, and for its support of democratization, which is often labeled as pro-Westernism by other religious movements in Turkey. Hence, the movement’s existing practices and theological dispositions do not suffice to qualify it as a cult, as they do not exhibit patterns of divergence and differentiation from mainstream Islamic rituals and practices.

Second, with respect to the employment of unorthodox means to achieve desired political objectives—even though the movement has been accused of interfering in politics and having a secret agenda, no proof has been presented thus far indicating the use of unorthodox means to control its members or accomplish its secret agenda. Even the recent purge in Turkey, which resulted in the removal of hundreds of thousands of people from their positions and the imprisonment of a large percentage of them, has not led to the disclosure of evidence verifying the use of unorthodox methods by the movement.

Finally, in regard to charismatic leadership, it is an actuality that Gülen’s charismatic and strong leadership has been very appealing to the masses. However, his leadership has not been grounded in any divine status claims, such as those of a prophetic or messianic character. His charisma has rather been derived from his expertise and erudition in respect to the religious sciences and his intuitive leadership skills. His leadership and charisma cannot be said to be premised upon any sort of divine claim, as has been the case with most cults. Ahmadiyya and Bahaism can be seen as cult-like Islamic movements; their leaders have made actual divine claims. For example, the leader of the former openly claimed messiahship and introduced unorthodox beliefs and organizational structures in the nineteenth century, and the leader of the latter identified himself as the last Prophet, which openly contradicted the mainstream belief of Muslims that the Prophet Muhammad was the last Prophet and Messenger of God. Gülen is neither seen as a supernatural human being by his followers nor does he claim prophecy or messiahship. His charisma is derived more from his spiritual personality deriving from the fact that he has acquired an immense amount of knowledge in the religious sciences and has combined that knowledge with successful practice.

By offering insight in relation to three aspects of cults, this article offers a framework within which the Hizmet Movement cannot be treated as a cult or cult-like organization. Unless there is concrete evidence and universal acceptance of deviant behavior, unorthodox means of control, and leader’s use of charisma to assert any supernatural or divine powers, no social movement can be categorized as a cult movement.

Flies have two wings that are capable of moving independently from each other; these wings go back and forth on a single axis during flight. Technically, the unequal angles of the wings to the abdominal region could have prevented flight. Yet in the case of flies, this abnormal situation is not a hindrance and results in a harmonious wing stroke.

Let’s bring our palms together over our head and then lower them near our legs. How many times can we make this movement in a second? Let’s say two, three, or maybe four times if we are really quick. Flies have the ability to stroke their wings hundreds of times in just a second. There are benefits associated with this series of movements. The surface of the wings and the rear section of the head are equipped with sensitive hairs that are in charge of registering air currents and mechanical pressures and conducting relevant flight data to the brain. The unwanted effects of air currents towards the body surface and wings during the flight are detected via these hairs that house receptors. Thus, the wings are controlled according to the signals arriving from the brain. Therefore, a fly can feel an air curtain (like an insect screen) against it instantly and often times flies away. Sometimes, they also stroke their wings hundreds of times per second to avoid the negative effects of air resistance on the wings. Without these receptors and serial wing movements, the air current would stick to the wing’s surface and would not let the fly, well, fly.

Is it a fly or a plane?

We sometimes witness comparisons between the flight specifications of planes and flies. However, it is a great injustice to the fly to be put in the same basket as a plane. The products of modern technology, such as a plane, are invented after drawing inspiration from the meaningful skills of animals like a fly. It is not possible to build planes with a wing width smaller than 15 centimeters; there are disadvantages to wings smaller than that in terms of generating lift. On the other hand, flies have much smaller and more fragile wing structures (relative to their bodies) and can maintain their flight in a perfect fashion. When a fly extends its rear legs, covered with hairs designed especially for cleaning the wings, and sweeps them over its wings, doesn’t this suggest a fly is more impressive than a plane?

It challenges mountaineers!

A fly challenges mountain climbers by easily moving on the four walls and ceiling of a room – and even on slippery surfaces like glass. What is its secret?

Its ability to stand or walk on the ceiling without being defeated by gravity is possible via some of its organs. The final sections of fly’s legs are like hooks and the tip of this hook is equipped with suction pads. When flies touch a surface, a sticky fluid is secreted from the suction pads. Flies can remain suspended on the ceiling with the help of this fluid. When it approaches the ceiling, extends its legs to the front and flips towards the opposite direction of its approach, it sticks to the ceiling on its abdomen.

The grand architecture in the eye of the fly

Can you complete a jigsaw puzzle of 8000 pieces in a second without any missing pieces? It seems impossible, but let’s accept that you have. Can you fit this puzzle into an area that’s just a couple of square millimeters? It’s not possible for a man of intelligence to pass this test. However, the fly completes this miraculous task every time it uses its eyes in our rooms. We are unaware of the fact that the fly, which draws patterns of colors under the sun light, has such amazing eyes. Its eye is created to contain nearly 8000 ommatidium, which function almost as small eyes. Different areas can be seen via each ommatidium and once images are put together in the brain, the whole picture forms. Through these tiny eyes, shaped as hexagons that resemble honey combs, a fly can see as close as 2 mm – and can even see behind its body! Because of the wise hexagonal design, the ommatidia are placed in the most economical way possible; there are no missing spaces which could cause a lack of clarity. The optical speed of a fly’s eye is nearly 4-10 times faster than the human eye. Flies can see the ultraviolet section of the light spectrum and this allows them to evade predators easily in dim environments. Every time a fly uses its eyes, it’s as if it gives the message, “Look at how miraculously I’ve been created. Do you think that my creation could have been in vain?” Such complexity is an inspiration to scientists as they try to develop new technologies.

One of the features of flies that surprises scientists most is the way they use a neural network of a very limited number of neurons to perform so many complex movements. Biologist Michael Dickinson expresses his astonishment as to how a neural system of such small scale can accomplish all of these features.

Do not ever kill a fly!

Flies consume plenty of energy during flight. A regular supply of oxygen is needed to compensate for the energy they use. Air is inhaled via a constriction of the abdominal muscles when the fly lands on a surface. However, during the flight, air enters via the serial movements of the wings. Air that enters through the openings of the chitin layer surrounding the fly is transported to cells via small channels.

Flies locate their food via their smell receptors. Thus, a fly in the air easily lands on the food source that it detects. The taste organ detects whether the food is an ideal source or not. Usually, their choices of food are human foods, waste remains, and dirt. There are two tubes located in the mouth of the house fly. It sucks liquid food with one of the tubes; saliva containing enzymes is secreted on the food source with the other hose so that digestion is facilitated. A fly secretes plenty of saliva in order to liquefy the solid foods it prefers.

Flies that use dirt and waste as a nutritional source are considered as disease contracting pests. However, this is a major fallacy. Flies are actually the health officers of the ecosystem. They turn microorganisms ineffective as they take in their food; the digestive enzymes that they carry play role in completing this important task. Due to this important task, it should be remembered that killing a fly is very unfortunate. Great scholar, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, notes that flies are assigned to terminate unhealthy microorganisms and materials.

Scientists led by Prof. Andy Beattie have noticed that flies are resistant to all kinds of dirt, including from meat and manure. He said that these organisms should be super resistant to infections, otherwise they could not survive and that our work to gain antibiotics from them has been partially successful. In fact, studies focused on obtaining antibiotics from flies started in the past century. English and Swedish scientists isolated certain antibiotics from flies in 1930 and 1947. Efforts to isolate antibiotics from flies continue today.

Reproduction in black flies!

Black flies reproduce quickly. In suitable humidity and temperature, eggs start to hatch in just 10 hours. Larvae feed on liquid materials, though they need bacteria living on solid food to convert it into liquid form. Therefore, an acid is secreted inside the digestive track of the fly that can terminate most of the bacteria. Thus, the insect becomes free of bacteria, ready to fly. One fly can lay more than 100 eggs at one time and between 600 and 1000 in their lifetime. They can lay eggs again after just three days.

When looking at the information we have, it’s clear that flies are acrobatic flight masters with mind blowing features. We should abandon the negativity towards flies and contemplate the perfection of creation by considering their many remarkable skills – and working to discover even more secrets about them.

Dr. Colin Turner’s contribution in this issue relates to the above-mentioned peacebuilding concept and he gives us an example to follow. Turner is critical of most of the twentieth century Islamic movements for their “resurgent identity” which has “little affiliation to the faith beneath Islam.” He criticizes them for advancing “their own political and ideological agendas,” and for having no other goal but overcoming the “perceived backwardness of the Muslim peoples.” However, there is an exception: Bediuzzaman Said Nursi. In “Renewal in Belief: A Model for Modern Times” Dr. Turner shares with us a brilliant description of his understanding of this unique person, aka “wonder of the age,” one who transcended all other contemporaries owing to his primary and overriding concern: the “renewal of belief and the reform of the individual.” Human beings must be truly human and seek vicegerency, which engenders worship, “namely the nurturing of each individual soul into its true state.” In other words, Turner teaches us that peacebuilding starts with the individual.

The numerous movements of the past 150 years, characterized almost without exception as ‘Islamic movements’, have had little if anything to do with the resurgence of religious faith as such. Most of these have actually been political movements, with leaders whose underlying goal has been to solve a specific problem: the problem of the perceived backwardness of the Muslim peoples and their subservience, politically and culturally, to the West.

While none of the groups that operate within the definitional matrix of ‘Islamic movements’ can claim to be identifiable primarily as a faith movement, various individuals have appeared sporadically with the avowed aim of fostering renewal of belief – often to the extent of dedicating their whole life’s work to that aim – and around some of these individuals, movements of considerable size and import have accreted. The Turkish Muslim scholar Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (1877/8–1960) is one such individual.

Progenitor of the ‘service of belief and the Qur’an’ movement, Nursi is arguably the most influential, if woefully under-researched, Muslim thinker of the twentieth century. While the ‘service of belief and the Qur’an’ movement, a faith-based movement consisting of millions of followers worldwide, does not – strictly speaking – fulfill the definitional criteria of a New Religious Movement, it stands out from other contemporary Muslim religious and ideological groupings not only for its uncompromising focus on the renewal of individual rather than collective faith, but also for its eschewal of any kind of religiously-legitimized violence or militancy for the sake of politico-ideological ends.

Although often stereotyped as the pioneer of reform of an Islam declining under the pressures inflicted on it by the Kemalist secularization policy of the Turkish state, almost half a century after his death, Nursi continues to defy any attempts to locate him precisely within the generally accepted milieu of ‘Muslim scholars’. While his magnum opus, the Risale-i Nur, is for all intents and purposes a commentary on the Qur’an, it is not a work of exegesis in the technical sense of the word, although he was clearly an accomplished exegete. And while Nursi was well-versed in the principles of scholastic theology (kalām), devoting the lion’s share of the Risale to what he claims are rational proofs for the unity (tawhīd) of God, it is not a work of traditional theology either.

In fact, on one level, the Risale is as resistant to compartmentalization as the Qur’an itself, which it claims to mirror and to elucidate. And if, as Nursi often asserts, the aim of the Qur’an is to guide man to belief, then the teachings of the Risale should be seen as consonant with that aim.

The three supreme matters in the worlds of humanity and Islam are belief, the Shari’a, and life. Since the truths of belief are the greatest of these, the Risale-i Nur’s select and loyal students avoid politics with abhorrence so that they should not be made the tool to other currents and subject to other forces, and those diamond-like Qur’anic truths not reduced to fragments of glass in the view of those who sell or exploit religion for the world, and so that they can carry out to the letter the duty of saving belief, the greatest duty.

Part of Nursi’s appeal lay in his uncompromising belief that it is belief (īmān) which must be renewed and protected, and that all other endeavors must be approached with the primacy of belief in mind: the fact that, unlike many of the popular Muslim thinkers of his own epoch, he repudiated the dubious art of politics – and, more importantly, the dubious art of politicking that is buttressed by religion – earned him respect and conferred on him a sense of authenticity that would perhaps be found wanting in so many other Muslim thinkers. Another part of his appeal lay in his shrewd interpretation of the forces ranged against him. For Nursi, unlike many of the Muslim scholars, leaders and ideologues who came later, realized that if there is a conflict between Islam – or belief – and modernity, it is not a conflict fought over issues of government or technology, over science or democracy. As Nursi’s own evaluation of the problems facing the Muslim world shows, the conflict is ultimately over transcendence, with the post-Enlightenment experiment claiming a centrality in the universe’s affairs for man that Islam, with its emphasis on the dependence of man on God, cannot countenance. Man is faced with a choice: belief in the sovereignty of God or belief in the sovereignty of man, with all that such a choice entails. For Nursi, the way to salvation consists solely in choosing the Other over the self, and it is in the dynamics of this choice that the key to an understanding of Nursi’s take on spirituality and man’s place in the cosmos may be found.

Renewal and reform, then, do play a central role in the Nursian Weltanschauung, but, unlike so many of his coevals, it is the renewal of belief and the reform of the individual that constitute his primary and overriding concern. In this respect, he is one of few Muslim thinkers in the twentieth century who has little if anything to say about the socio-economic or political externalia of Muslim life. Over the past century and a half in general, and the last twenty-five years in particular, ‘Islam is a complete way of life’ has been the mantra of choice for the vast majority of Muslim movements. As a corollary, emphasis has been largely on the ‘implementation’ of Islam at the socio-political level, with debate and discussion focusing mainly on issues such as Islamic law, Islamic education and the concept of the Islamic state. As such, the lion’s share of Muslim movements can be said to adopt an ‘externalist’ approach to the Islamic revelation, seeing in the strict adherence of Muslims to the shari‘a – and, where necessary, the imposition of such adherence through legislative means – the key to the formation of the ideal Muslim society. For the ‘externalists,’ reform has come to mean chiefly the reform of society, the underlying aspiration of which must be to return to the ‘golden age’ of Islam typified – for the externalists at least – by the community-state of Medina during the lifetime of the Prophet. These ‘dreams of Medina’, and the concomitant desire to share – or, even, impose – those dreams on others, are responsible in part for the current Western perception of Islam as more political ideology than divinely-revealed religion. The relative merits and demerits of ‘Islamism’ or ‘political Islam’ as terms by which to describe this over-politicized approach to Islam need not occupy us here. Suffice to say that in the last analysis, this approach rests on the fulcrum that is the return of ‘Islamic rule’, the transformation of the Muslim world into an umma analogous to the community-state of Medina and, wittingly or otherwise, the reduction of the Islamic revelation to the single issue of governance. While Islam made political and transformed into ideology is a relatively recent phenomenon, the ‘externalist’ approach to Islam which informs it is almost as old as Islam itself. However, whereas for the likes of ‘non-externalists’ such as Ghazali in the twelfth century and Mulla Sadra in the seventeenth it was the nomocentrism of the externalist scholars and the over-emphasis on fiqh (jurisprudence) which constituted the greatest obstacles to the health of the Muslim community, for the Ghazalis and Sadras of today – of whom Nursi is undoubtedly one – it is the over-politicization of religion which is the danger.

Arguably the most important common denominator among Islamic/Islamist groups and leaders of the past fifty to one hundred years has been the tendency to favour the use of force to change ‘religiously suspect’ regimes in the Muslim world and bring about Islamic revolutions. And it is precisely on this point where one sees a fundamental difference between Nursi and his contemporaries. For not only is Nursi distinguished by his staunch opposition to any kind of uprising or revolution in the name of Islam, but also he stands on account of his aversion to politics in general, and the politicization of Islam in particular. Nowhere is Nursi’s ideological departure from the majority of his contemporaries delineated more sharply than on the highly contentious issue of jihād. As emphasized above, for Nursi, the way to salvation consists solely in choosing the Other over the self, and it is in the dynamics of this choice that the key to an understanding of Nursi’s take on spirituality and jihād may be found.

There are many for whom it is clear that humanity is in a precarious position. We are told on a daily basis that we live under the threat of pollution, global warming, terrorism, famine and a thousand and one different ills. Our time is, we are told, a time of global crisis. Yet few are able to fathom the real cause of this crisis. It is not that we do not understand the problems around us. Our crisis – the crisis of modernity – is that we do not understand ourselves. Indeed, postmodern thought – if such a thing exists and is not really just another name for the confused ideas of late modernity – nurtures a scepticism in which the very possibility of understanding anything is called into question.

Most people, Nursi claims, have been reduced to hardship and misery by the demands and dictates of modern times. Man’s innate nobility has also been marred, he says, as the gradual divorce from religious values has opened the floodgates of ‘dissipation’, encouraging dissolute living and the ‘appetites of the flesh.’

Socio-economic inequalities are also the hallmark of this modern civilization, Nursi adds, with the Western attitude being “So long as I am full, what is it to me that others die of hunger?” and “You work so that I can live in ease and comfort’. By allowing the rift between the classes to widen, the West has engendered so much strife and sedition that it is on the brink of bringing humanity to its knees, giving rise to the struggle between capital and labor – itself the precursor of two World Wars and bloodshed and disorder on a hitherto unknown scale.

One could go on, but surely the point has been made: it was impossible for Said Nursi to approve of a civilization in which the negative aspects outweighed the positive so decisively. For Nursi, the only way forward for man is to embrace a civilizational form which brings true happiness and prosperity – and if not for all, then at least for the majority.

Human beings are faced with a choice: belief in the sovereignty of God or belief in the sovereignty of man, with all that such a choice entails. For Nursi, the way to salvation consists solely in choosing the Other over the self, and it is in the dynamics of this choice that the key to an understanding of Nursi’s take on the ‘true civilization’ may be found.

For Said Nursi, for man to be truly human, he must establish for himself not an Islamic state, but an Islamic state of mind. If, in secular shorthand, ‘civilization’ is the highest thing towards which man as a social being can aspire, let us see how Said Nursi redefines the term to make it truly meaningful for limited, impotent man, giving it the ability to ‘confront the awesome silence of the grave’ in a way that no other civilization is able. Comparing Western civilization with the ideational entity known as Islamic civilization, he locates the source of the former in human artfulness (daha) and that of the latter in Divine guidance (huda). These sources, he holds, impact in very different ways on society in general and the individual in particular.

Artfulness, writes Nursi, functions in the mind and confuses the heart. It looks to the material and to the corporeal, considering the body and the evil-commanding soul, which it seeks to nurture. It develops the potentialities of the nafs while making of the ruh a servant or slave. In its love of this world, which is the only world it recognizes, it turns man into a satan, worshipping deaf nature and, in its blindness, drawing a veil of ingratitude over the face of the earth. It sees the bounties before it as ownerless booty, which it usurps like a common thief.

Guidance, on the other hand, works in the heart and lights up the spirit. It develops man’s potentialities and spiritual capacities and, in so doing, illuminates nature. It makes of the soul and the body and in so doing produces happiness in this world and the next. It sees Divine art everywhere, and the wisdom and power of God in all things. It worships Allah, the possessor of art and power. It is both seeing and hearing, and as it benefits from Divine bounties, it scatters the light of thankfulness all around it.

In Nursian terms, then, to be truly civilized, man must be truly human, and to be truly human, his goal is not the kind of khilafa that engenders power but the kind of khilafa which engenders worship – namely the nurturing of each individual soul into its true state as khalifat Allah fi al-ard, vicegerent on Earth. This, for Nursi, marks the true civilization to which man should aspire.

Dr. Colin Turner from Durham University, UK, is the co-author of Said Nursi, 2009, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies and IB Tauris, London, New York.

Dear Peter! I, your muscular system, would like to talk to you today; I allow you to walk and do all kinds of movements very easily. In the most recent essay of this department, the skeletal system, which works together with me, discussed how it protected your body and enabled you to stand straight and firm. Sure, this is true. However, as you know, huge rocks and trees can stand straight, too; but they do not have what you do-the ability to move. They are rigid and inflexible because they do not have a system that allows them to move.

You on the other hand, as the most splendid creation in the entire universe, have mobility. All animals have mobility at different levels, thanks to the muscular tissues, which work dynamically behind all the moving organs. However, you, human beings are like neither the animals nor the plants. You have not been created to live like a tree that is pegged down in earth or like an animal that unconsciously tries to meet only its biological needs. Our Designer, God, has made you and your descendants the most important of all creation. He has given you qualities that help you to discover the world, learn, invent and establish new civilizations. To realize such potential and to carry out such duties, you need to first have the freedom to make changes in your small immediate world, which can only be done through motion. In order to enable you with this ability to move, my Creator has put me at your service. I am a system that comprises hundreds of muscles and millions of packed cells.

My most important feature is the cells that move by burning sugar, like a motor consuming fuel in order to work. My cells can shorten and lengthen thanks to the intracellular fibrils (myofilaments) that contract and expand. As a result of each contraction, I pull the bone or the organ that I am attached to and cause it to move or change shape. With the exception of your heart, your bones and organs cannot move on their own. Their ability to move depends on the nature of the muscle they are attached to.

Indeed, I can be called both an organ and a form of tissue. I can use my contraction ability not only as muscle tissue, but also as an organ and a system which runs throughout your body. That is the reason why I appear in so many different types and shapes of muscle bundles. Let me give you an example to help you better understand what a muscle consists of: Let us imagine that a thin thread is like a basic muscular cell. Let us now bring together a great number of threads and make string out of them. Then, let us bring together those strings and make a clothes line. Next, let us bring together a great number of clothes lines and make a very thick rope. Now, imagine this thick rope as a muscle and an organ. Yet, this example is too basic compared to the sophisticated muscle.

Very thin cotton fibrils make up the thin threads. In the muscle fiber, like those cotton fibrils, there are two filaments formed by the two types of protein molecules called actin and myosin, which help in the contraction function. Those little filaments are placed facing one another and they slide past each other during the contraction, which causes the muscle fibers to shorten. That is how the contraction and relaxation of a muscle occurs.

Peter, do you think that coincidence plays a role in this complex and wonderful mechanism and the incredible structure which I have attempted to simplify with an example? Not even a simple thread can be produced without a thread-maker or a machine. Each of your muscles comprises billions of fibers, wrapped all around your bones and giving shape to your body. Can such a complex and delicately intricate structure exist on its own and be positioned in the best place it could possibly be?

My muscles consist of bundles that are made of thousands of muscle fibrils; the size and shape of each muscle depends on which bone it is attached to and what function it does. For example, the muscles that move the bones in your arms and legs are long and spindle-shaped; whereas the ones that are attached to your body can be circular, or triangular, or spread over a broad area. Whatever shape they have, the red skeletal muscles, which are attached to your bones, are very strong and they are voluntary muscles, which mean you can control their movement. When you walk, run, do something with your hands, lie down or stand up, you always use my red striated muscles. The strias (stripes) can only be seen under a microscope because of the histological structure of these skeletal muscles that make up a great part of your body.

My smooth muscles are involuntary muscles that work without your control. Their movements are slow and their contractions last longer, which is the reason why they do not tire easily. The smooth muscles lie in the walls of digestive system, blood vessels, and urinary tract, but I will not talk much about them since each system has referred to the smooth muscles within itself and in detail in previous talks. Because they are not attached to your skeleton to work, the smooth muscles do not play a role in your movements, such as walking around; they only work for the movements of your inner organs.

The third type of muscle belongs to your heart (cardiac muscle) and although the heart has a little striated muscle tissue, it, too works involuntarily. Therefore, you should be aware of the fact that it is the striated muscles which work for the movement of the skeleton and do the major job, and that it is this that we refer to when we say “muscle.”

A great number of bones have been created in order to support your body, and joints have been placed between those bones for them to take the proper shape according to every movement. However, none of those joints have the ability to move by itself. A door or a window, no matter how good it is, cannot be opened or closed without an outside force to pull or push it. In the same way, a joint needs a force to move it and that force is produced by your muscular system. There are around 340 muscles included in your muscular system. It has been estimated that all the muscles in your body perform 510 different functions! While some of those functions are bone movements in your joints, other muscles can perform movements without moving a bone at all. Muscles that are placed in your forehead, face, eye lids and abdomen are those kinds of muscles. They can help you look worried by wrinkling your forehead or grimacing when you are disgusted by something.

Keeping with tradition, the muscles that are included in my system have been named based on the function they perform. For example, the muscle which moves an organ part towards another part is called an abductor, while the muscle that straightens a joint is an extensor, and the muscle that bends a joint is a flexor; the muscle that raises a part of the skeleton is a levator, that which the muscle makes a part of an organ prone is a pronator, the muscle that rotates a part of an organ is a rotator and that which brings an organ into a supine position is called a supinator.

In order for you to make all the movements that your body needs, my muscle components have to be both very strong and flexible. The most important feature of my muscle components is that they can be trained and strengthened with a systematic workout. The main goal of all sportsmen who compete is to increase the strength and the endurance of their muscles. As a result of intense exercises with weight and speed, the number, the diameter and the length of my muscle fibers will increase. Thus, I can gain more power to be able to do more work and also gain the ability to contract faster.

However, in addition to all this training and exercise, genetic factors also play a role in my health. For this reason, not everybody who works out can become a good sportsman; but if the person has innate muscular and skeletal capacity, with good exercise this capacity can certainly be enhanced and developed. However, if a person does not have the proper muscular structure for a particular sport, it would be unfair to expect them to be a champion! Although my muscles always seem to be of the same type at first sight, I might show different behavior depending on the distribution of the special fibers inside them. Some of my fibers twitch fast and tire easily, some of them twitch slowly and tire later. Depending on the distribution of these different fibers, the movements and sport that every person can do differ from person to person. In this case, an athlete who can run only 100m and an athlete who can run 10,000m do not have the same development of muscles; they have different amounts and distributions of special muscle fibers.

The contraction of any of my muscles can occur in two different ways: If the pressure put on my muscle is stronger than the resistance of the tissue, the tension remains constant and the muscle shortens. This is called an isotonic contraction. If the pressure put on my muscle is equal to the resistance, the tension of my muscle increases and its length does not change. That is called an isometric contraction. The amount of force that occurs during the contraction of my muscle depends on its length and the amount of the stimulus.

In order to produce muscle contraction, an electrical signal is sent through a motor neuron to the synaptic gap, which is positioned between the muscle cell membrane and the nerve cell. As a result, a chemical reaction occurs, which, in a very short time, causes the actin and myosin proteins in the muscle fibril to slide past each other and thus shorten the fibril, contracting the muscular cells. During this reaction, the temperature also rises a little and the total heat generated by all the muscles determines your body temperature. For this reason, in cold weather, my muscles vibrate, increasing your body temperature and trying to maintain it. You may now understand why moving the parts of the body in cold weather helps people avoid from getting sick or freezing. As you can see, every act of my Creator is quite purposeful. He can create two or even more functions within one task: Through your muscles, He not only provides you with the ability to move freely, but heat is also produced and you are protected from getting cold.

When a muscle fiber contracts frequently as a result of successive electrical impulses from a nerve fiber, it becomes tired after a while and needs rest. In this case, other muscle fibers which have not contracted for a while will take over and continue the job. However, if the electrical impulses from the nerve come too frequently and my muscle fibers do not have an opportunity to rest, a condition of constant contraction, which is known as physiologic tetanus, occurs.

The tension receptors that are placed on my muscles help maintain the harmony and coordination of all your movements including walking and running, bouncing and sitting down. They do this by constantly signaling the nerve system and providing feedback about the condition of my muscles, and about the speed and the intensity of contraction. Thus, through these receptors which control and coordinate my muscle activities, the well-being of my system is ensured. It is this that prevents you from wobbling when you walk, or helps you to take a spoonful of soup to your mouth without spilling it.

Like any other tissue or system, I, too, have some special disorders. The most common disorders are: weakness, malformation, muscles that develop and move involuntarily and habitually, especially in your face (tic), infected muscles (myosite), muscle dystrophy, muscle rigidity (the Stiffman Syndrome), benign or malignant muscle tumors (leiomyom, rhabdomyoma, or Rhabdomyosarcoma). These disorders differ in their degree of severity and risk.

Dear Peter! You have now seen that each muscle helps your organs to move, holding your bones and giving shape and function to your body, making you a beautiful model and an inspiration for sculptors. You may have understood that this is a work of knowledge and might; there is no way that the myofibril in my one cell could form by itself as a result of a coincidence.

Irfan Yilmaz is a professor of biology at Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey.

The Jewish residents have always felt at home in Istanbul, never ceasing to express their thanks to Turkey for their salvation by the Ottoman fleet from massacre in Spain in 1492, and their subsequent welcome in Istanbul. Christians, likewise, never felt as if they were in a foreign land; they had their own churches, schools, and enjoyed civil rights, things that were not granted in other cities of the world. Istanbul has always been an exceptional place, a model city of peace, portraying exemplary behavior throughout the past for the generations which would help to build the world in the future.

So much evil in the past year has forced us to concentrate more on the fundamentals in this issue…. to examine the fundamental reasons for evil thoughts and actions, for theories and movements which lead people off the track. We cast a quick overall look at Islam, which the mass media, now more than at any other time, has wrongfully and intentionally juxtaposed with ‘terror’. This is going on, despite the fundamental truth that ‘a Muslim is a person from whom other people are secure and by whom they will not be disturbed or harmed by his or her actions and words.’ In the same vein, we can in no way blame God for creating evil. He gave us free will to discern right from wrong. If there is no evil, then there are no morally right choices; in order for humans to have free will, there must be a ‘wrong choice’, there must be evil for there to be good.

This brings us round to the discussion of Satanism…

June 22, 1998 was an ordinary day … but not for all. Asli and Alp, two high school friends met up in a prosperous district of the city where they lived. The note they left behind before jumping off the 14th floor and hitting the ground said ‘this world makes no sense for us.’

Asli and Alp were members of a Satanist group. Satanism is the name for the so-called worship of Satan and it presents a grim example of movements that have emerged as a result of the weakened moral codes of society. No conscientious person can remain indifferent to the fact that young people are being misled by such movements. Unfortunately, Satanism is a warning that compels us to think about the mistakes we have made in bringing up the younger generation. If we fail to take early precautions, it may be too late for many young people. The article, ‘Satanism and Our Youth’s Quest for Identity’ seeks to thoroughly analyze the matter, offering definitions and a background, and concludes by offering some useful solutions.

Unfortunately, 2003 has been a year that has seen much sadness, but also a little hope for the future. Our wishes for the coming year is that our hearts will replenish faith for the world, leading to a world of balance, one that is filled with empathy, and one where remembrance of God is the guide.

A: There are many worlds, among them those of plants, animals, people, and jinn. Our visible, material world addresses itself to our senses, and is the realm where God Almighty gives life, fashions, renews, changes, and causes things to die. Science concerns itself with its phenomena.

Above this world is the immaterial World of Divine Laws or Commands, the spirit’s home. To learn about this world, consider the following: A book cannot exist without meaning, the main part of its existence, regardless of our excellent printing press or paper. The essence of life and the law of germination and growth stimulate a tree’s seed to germinate underground and grow into a tree. In their absence, there would be no trees.

Menstruation prepares a womb every month for insemination through a (biological) law. Millions of sperm head for the womb, but only one fertilizes the ovum. Another (biological) law causes menstruation to stop until birth. An embryo develops into a person through other (biological or embryological) laws. The Qur’an says: We created man from a quintessence of clay. We then placed him as a drop in a place of rest firmly fixed. Then We made the drop into a leech-like structure suspended on the wall of the womb, and then of that leech-like structure We made a chewed-like substance. Then We made out of that chewed-like substance bones (skeletal system). Then We clothed the bones with flesh (muscles). Then We developed out of it another creation. So blessed be God the best to create (23:12-15).

This process occurs within three veils of darkness: He created you in the wombs of your mothers, in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness (39:6). These are the belly, womb, and caul or membrane; the fetal membranes’ constituents; or the decidua’s three regions: the decidua basalis, decidua capsularis, and decidua parietalis. The verse includes all of these meanings.

We derive such laws from these processes’ almost never-changing repetition. Observing surrounding (natural) phenomena reveals other laws, among them gravitation and repulsion, and water’s freezing and vaporization.

The spirit also is a unique living and conscious law issuing from the World of Divine Laws or Commands: Say: The spirit is of my Lord’s Command (17:85) If the spirit had no life and consciousness, it would be a regular law; if a regular law had life and consciousness, it would become a spirit.

Science Cannot Define or Perceive the Spirit

All matter is composed of atoms, and atoms are made up of more minute particles. But the spirit is a simple, noncompound entity, invisible but knowable through its manifestations in this world. We accept its existence and see its manifestations, but cannot know its nature. Such ignorance, however, does not negate its existence.

We see with our eyes. Although the main center of sight is located in the brain, the brain does not see. You do not say: My brain sees, but rather: I see. But what is this I? Does it have a brain, a heart, and other organs and limbs? Why are we unable to move when we die, although all our organs and limbs are there? Does a factory operate by itself, or does something else (i.e., electricity) cause it to work?

Any disconnect between the factory and its electrical source can reduce the factory to a heap of junk. Is this comparable to the spirit“body relationship? When death severs this connection, the body must be disposed of quickly, before it begins to rot and decompose.

The spirit is not an electrical power, but rather a conscious, powerful thing that learns and thinks, senses and reasons. It develops continually, usually in parallel with the body’s physical development, as well as mentally and spiritually through learning and reflection, belief and worship. As the spirit determines a person’s character, nature, or identity, each person is unique, although all of us are created from the same elements.

The Spirit Needs Our Body

The spirit must use material means to be manifested and function here. As the body cannot contact the World of Symbols or Immaterial Forms, the spirit cannot contact this world if there is no human heart, brain, or other bodily organs and limbs to mediate. The spirit functions through the body’s nerves, cells, and other elements. Therefore, if bodily systems or organs go awry, the spirit becomes disconnected and unable to command the body. Death occurs if this failure or illness severs the spirit“body relationship. Some meaningless hand or finger movements can be produced by stimulating certain areas of the brain, but these are only automatic bodily responses. The body needs the spirit, which is conscious and has free will, to produce meaningful movements.

Although psychoanalysts have offered explanations for dreams, dreams cannot be said to consist of the subconscious mind’s jumbled activities. Almost everyone has had true dreams. Many scientific or technological discoveries were seen first in dreams. Therefore, dreams point to something”the spirit”within us that can see in a different way while we sleep. Although the spirit sees with our eyes, smells with our nose, hears with our ears and so on, some people can see with their fingers or the tips of their noses, and smell with their heels.

The Spirit and Our Face

Our face opens on our inner world, for it discloses our character. Psychologists assert that almost all movements reveal character. Such observations resulted in physiognomy, the art of judging character from facial features. The spirit determines these features.

Our body’s cells are renewed continuously. Every day, millions of cells die and are replaced. Biologists say that all bodily cells are renewed every 6 months, and yet the face’s main features do not change. We recognize individuals through their unchanging facial features and fingerprints. A finger’s cells change, but its print never does. Each individual’s unique spirit stabilizes these distinguishing features.

Our Spirit Makes Us Unique

Our body experiences uninterrupted change via physical growth and development until a certain period, gradually becoming stronger and more perfect. Decay begins when this growth stops. Unlike our body, we grow in learning and development, decay spiritually and intellectually, or stop and change direction while developing or decaying. Our moral, spiritual, and intellectual education does not depend on our bodily changes.

Furthermore, our physical structure does not affect our moral, spiritual, and intellectual differences. Although composed of the same elements, we are morally and intellectually unique. Which part receives this moral and intellectual education? Which part is trained physically? Is physical training related to learning or moral and intellectual education? Are physically well-developed people smarter and more moral than others? If not, and if physical training or development do not affect our scientific, moral, and intellectual level, why should we not accept the spirit’s existence? How can we attribute learning and moral and intellectual education to the brain’s biochemical processes?

Our physical changes engender no parallel changes in our character, morality, or thinking. How can we explain this, other than by recognizing the spirit and its function as the center of thinking and feeling, choosing and deciding, learning and forming opinions and preferences, and causing character differences?

Our Spirit Feels and Believes or Denies

Each person has innumerable complex feelings: love and hate, happiness and sadness, hope and despair, and so on. We like and dislike, appreciate and disregard, experience fear and timidity as well as encouragement and enthusiasm. We repent, become excited, and long for various things. We have hundreds of words that express human feelings. Moreover, we do not all feel the same way.

We may reflect on our surroundings, the beauty of creation, develop ourselves through learning, compare and reason, and thus believe in the Creator. Worshipping and following His Commandments develops us morally and spiritually until we are perfected. How can we explain this if we do not have a conscious spirit? Can we attribute them to the brain’s biochemical processes?

If we are no more than a physical entity and attribute all our movements to the brain’s biochemical processes, why should we obey any laws? As our body is renewed every 6 months, the following conversation would be entirely logical:

– Judge: When did you murder the deceased?

– Defendant: One year ago.

– Judge: The murder was committed a year ago. The defendant’s cells, including those of his trigger finger, have been replaced. As the actual murderer cannot be punished, the jury should vote for acquittal.

How can anyone be no more than a physical entity, made up of movements, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and decisions due to the brain’s biochemical processes? Such assertions are untenable. The main part of our being is our living and conscious spirit, which feels, thinks, believes, wills, decides, and uses the body to enact its decisions.

The Spirit Is the Basis of Human Life

God acts in this world through causes. However, in many other worlds (e.g., those of ideas, symbols or immaterial forms, the inner dimensions of things, and spirits), He acts directly, and matter and causes do not exist. The spirit is breathed into the embryo directly, making it a direct manifestation of the Divine Name the All-Living and therefore the basis of human life. Like natural laws, which issue from the same realm as the spirit, the spirit is invisible and known through its manifestations.

In this world, matter is refined in favor of life. A lifeless body is lonely, passive, and static. But life enables a bee to interact with almost the entire world so that it can say: This world is my garden, and flowers are my business partners. The smaller a living body is, the more active, astonishing, and powerful life is. Compare a bee, a fly, or even a micro-organism with an elephant. The more refined matter is, the more active and powerful the body is. For example, burning wood produces flame and carbon, and heated water vaporizes. We cannot see the electrical energy in the atomic and subatomic worlds, but we know of its presence and power though its manifestations.

And so existence is not limited to this world. Rather, this world is only the apparent, mutable, and unstable dimension of existence, behind which lies the pure, invisible dimension that uses matter to be seen and known. As the spirit belongs to that dimension, it is pure and invisible.

The following arguments for the spirit’s existence also point to the Creator’s existence:

– Just as our body needs the spirit to command and govern it, the universe needs God to bring it into existence and to command and govern it.

– Each body has one spirit that makes it alive and governs it. So there must be a single Lord, without partner, to create and govern the universe. Otherwise, disaster and confusion are inevitable.

– The spirit is not located in a specific bodily place or part. It may even leave the body and, as while dreaming, maintain its connection via an attached cord. Likewise, God Almighty is not contained by time or space. He is always present everywhere and nowhere, whereas the spirit is in the body and contained by time and space.

– There is only one sun, and the world is far from it. However, the sun is omnipresent through its heat and light, and through its reflection can even be in every transparent thing. Therefore we say it is nearer to things than things are to themselves. The spirit has the same relation with the body and each cell. This analogy may help us understand God’s relation with existence. He controls and directs all things at once like one thing, and although we are infinitely far from Him, He is nearer to us than we are to ourselves.

– The spirit is invisible and its nature is unknown. In the same way, we cannot think of or imagine God as He really is, for His Essence cannot be known. Like the spirit, God Almighty is known through the manifestations of His Names, Attributes, and Essence.

Harold stayed at a good hotel near the beach. He woke up very early on the first morning and decided to go out for a walk along the beach before breakfast. Out on the beach, he watched the beautiful sunrise out to sea. As he walked on, he noticed many starfish on the beach – they must have been carried there by the tide the previous night and had got stranded. He felt sorry for them because they could not survive long out of the water. Thinking that there was nothing he could do about the plight of the starfish, he went on with his walk.

Then, the professor saw a young man in the distance. He too was walking along the beach but, every now and then, the young man seemed to stop walking and go through a series of odd movements. Perhaps he is doing some sort of morning exercise, Harold thought. Curious, he walked towards the young man and noted that his movements consisted of bending down, straightening up and flinging his arm out toward the sea. Now, the professor was of the opinion that the young man was engaged in a ritual that entailed picking up something from the beach and throwing it into the sea. From his clothes the young man seemed to be from the rural areas, he definitely was not a city dweller.

Harold approached the young man and asked him what he was doing.

‘I am throwing starfish into the sea,’ was the simple reply. ‘As you know, they can’t survive for very long out of the sea.’

‘But there are hundreds of them all along the shore,’ said the professor. ‘And throwing them one by one doesn’t really achieve anything. Do you think it makes any difference?’

The young man bent down and picked up another starfish. He threw it into the sea, looked at the professor and said: ‘It made a difference to that starfish.’

Harold was touched and impressed. He felt rather ashamed that, for all his learning and academic achievement, he was not as conscious of responsibility to the environment – as this simple young man was.

So he too bent down, picked up a starfish and tossed it back into the sea. Every morning for the rest of his holiday, the professor joined the young man on the beach. And together they threw starfish into the sea, trying to make as much difference as they could.

1. Although sciences are not yet ready to accept it, there are, besides the subdivisions in a world – like the worlds of planets, animals and human beings (vegetable kingdom, animal kingdom and human kingdom) and the world of jinn, many worlds in the universe one within the other or above or enveloping the other. Of these worlds, the visible, material world is that in which we live, addressing itself to our senses. From tiniest particles to galaxies, this world is the realm where God Almighty gives life, fashions, renews, changes and makes to die. Sciences concern themselves with the phenomena of this world.

Above this visible, material world is the immaterial world of Divine Laws or Commands. In order to have some knowledge of this world, we can consider, for example, how a book or a tree or a human being comes into existence. The main part of a book’s existence is it’s meaning. Without meaning, it is impossible for a book to come into existence, no matter how excellent a printing machine or how many sheets we have. As a second example, what stimulates a seed to germinate under earth and grow into a tree is the essence of life and the law of germination and growth with which it is endowed. We can observe even with the naked eye the germination of the seed and the development of a tree from it. But for the essence of life and the laws of germination and growth which, although invisible or unobservable, govern the birth and growth of a new living thing, there would have been no plants in the world.

Similarly, through menstruation, the womb of a female is prepared every month for insemination. This is a process dictated by a (biological) law. Out of millions of mate sperms heading for the womb, one reaches the ovum to fertilize it. After this, menstruation stops until birth. This is another process governed by another (biological) law. The development of the embryo into a new individual through many stages is a third process governed by other (biological or embryological) laws. We conclude the existence of all those laws from almost never-changing repetition of all those processes. Likewise, by observing the (natural) phenomena around us, we also conclude the existence of many other laws like gravitation and repulsion and the freezing or vaporization of water.

Thus, like the laws we have just mentioned and many others like them the spirit too is a law issuing from the world of Divine Laws or Commands. Nevertheless, unlike the others, the human spirit is also a living, conscious law. If the spirit were to be stripped of life and consciousness, it would become a law: if on the other hand, the laws were to be given life and consciousness, they would become each a spirit.

2. While matter or anything in the material world is composed of atoms and atoms are made up of more minute particles, the spirit is a simple entity. Since it is simple, it does not disintegrate. We cannot see it as we see a material thing; we know it through its manifestations in the material world. Although we accept its existence and observe its manifestations, we cannot know its nature. Our ignorance of something’s nature must not mean that it does not exist.

We see with our eyes. In other words, our eyes are simply instruments with which to see. The main centre of sight is in the brain. However, it is not the brain itself which sees. You do not say ‘my brain sees’, but you say ‘I see’. It is we who see or hear or sense. But who is it that we call ‘I’? Is it something that is composed of a brain, a heart and other organs and limbs? Why can we not move when we die although all our organs and limbs are there? How does a factory work? Does it work by itself or does some other thing such as what we call electrical energy move it to work? Any defect or something wrong with the factory which causes a disconnection between the factory and the electrical energy is enough to reduce a whole, once highly productive, valuable factory into a heap of junk. Should this relation between the factory and the electrical energy be, in one way, comparable to that between the spirit and the body?

When the connection of the body with the spirit is cut-the event which we call death-the body is reduced to something which we do not like to keep even a few hours more because it will rot and decompose.

Of course, the spirit is not an electrical power. It is a conscious, powerful thing, which is apt to learn and which thinks, senses and reasons, and continually develops, usually in parallel with the physical development of the body, mentally and spiritually, through learning, meditation, belief and worship. It is also the spirit which determines the character or nature or identity of an individual which makes one different or distinguishable from others. Although all human beings, from the first to the last, are substantially made up of the same elements, they are all different from one another in character, nature and features, down to fingerprints. Thus, what determines this difference is the spirit.

3. The spirit is a simple entity which issues from the World of Divine Commands. In order to be manifested and function in the material, visible world, it needs material means. As the body is unable to get in touch with the world of symbols or immaterial forms, the spirit can not establish any contact with this world without the mediation of the heart, the brain and other organs and limbs of the body.

The spirit functions, as we have just said, through all the nerves, cells and other elements of the body. Therefore, if something wrong happens to a system or organ of the body the relation of the spirit with that system or organ is disconnected and the spirit can no longer command it. If the failure or ‘illness’ causing the disconnection is big enough to cut the relation of the spirit with the whole of the body, the event which we call death happens.

Although some coarse, meaningless movements are observed in hands or fingers as the result of stimulating certain areas of the brain, those movements are like some confused, meaningless sounds produced by pressing the keys of a piano at random. Or rather, those movements are some automatic responses of the body to any stimulation, coming about as the result of the automatic working of the body. Therefore, in order that the body can produce meaningful movements, it needs the spirit, which is conscious and has free will.

Although pyscho-analysists like Freud have tried to make different explanations, dreams cannot be said to consist only in jumbled activities of the subconscious self. Almost everyone has had several dreams which have brought news of the future and have come true. Also, many scientific or technological discoveries have taken place as the result of ‘true’ dreams. So as will be discussed later, dreams point to the existence of a part of man which can see in a different way while man himself is sleeping. This part is the spirit.

Although the spirit sees with eyes, smells with noses, hears with ears and so on, there is a considerable number of examples of people who have demonstrated an ability to see with their fingers or the tips of their noses and smell with their heels.

4. The spirit manifests itself mostly on the face. Truly, one’s face is a window opened on ones inner world. Through all its features, one’s face discloses one’s character.

Psychologists assert that almost all one’s movements down to coughing reveal one’s character. However, one’s face is so clear a sign to discover one’s character, abilities and personality that it caused the birth of an art called physiognomy, which is the art of judging one’s character from the features of one’s face. It is one’s spirit which determines the features of one’s face.

As is known, the cells of the body are continuously renewed. Everyday millions of cells die and are replaced by new ones. Biologists say that the whole of the cells forming the body are renewed every six months. Despite this continuous renewal the face remains unchanging with it’s main features. We recognize individuals through those unchanging features of their faces. Likewise, one’s fingerprints also remain unchanging. Neither the renewal of the cells of the fingers nor the injuries or bruises the singers suffer can cause the fingerprints to change. It is again one’s spirit, different from all other spirits, which secures the stability of ones basic distinguishing features.

5. The body undergoes an uninterrupted change during its whole lifetime. This change is toward physical growth and development until a certain period, becoming stronger and more perfect. However, this growth stops at a certain point and decay begins. Unlike these changes, first toward growth and development and then toward decay and death, a man can continuously grow in learning and he can also continuously develop or may decay spiritually and intellectually or while developing or decaying he may stop at any point and then change his direction.That means his moral, spiritual and intellectual education does not depend at all on his bodily changes. Also, the moral, spiritual and intellectual differences among human beings have nothing to do with their physical structure. Although every human being is composed of the same substantial physical or material elements, what is it that causes the moral and intellectual differences among them? What part of man receives moral and intellectual education and what part of him is trained physically? Does physical training bear any relation to learning and moral and intellectual education? Can we say that the more a man is trained physically, the more he becomes developed in learning and morality? If we cannot say so, and if physical training has nothing to do with one’s scientific, moral and intellectual level, why should we not accept the existence of the spirit and how could we attribute learning and moral and intellectual education to some bio-chemical processes in the brain?

Also, we have mentioned that man undergoes a continuous physical change, first toward growth and then toward decay, and the cells of his body are renewed every six month. But he does change, in parallel to those changes, in character and morality and thinking. Again how can we explain, other than by admitting the existence of the spirit as the centre of thinking, feeling, making choices and decisions, and learning, the differences of opinion and preference among human beings and the differences in their characters.

Furthermore, man is a being who has innumerable complex feelings. He loves or hates, rejoices or becomes grieved, feels happy or sad, hopes or becomes desperate, cherishes ambitions and imagines, and feels relieved or bored, and so on. Also, he likes or dislikes, appreciates or disregards, and he fears and becomes or he becomes timid or he becomes encouraged and feels enthusiastic, and he repents, becomes excited and longs. If we look through a dictionary, we can come across hundreds of words used to express man’s feelings. Besides, he may reflect on events happening around him or on beauties in creation and develops in learning. He also makes comparisons and reasons, and then comes to believe in the Creator of all things. Then through worship and by following His Commandments, he develops morally and spiritually and becomes a perfect man. So how can we explain all these phenomena other than by admitting the conscious part of man, which is his spirit. Can we attribute them to chemical processes in the brain?

6. If we regard man as a physical entity only, made up of blood, bones, flesh and tissues, and attribute all his movements to biochemical processes in the brain, we should not recognize any set of laws to obey. For as we have said earlier, a man’s body is renewed every six months. Suppose a man is being tried in a court for a murder he committed a year before. The following exchange ensues between him and the judge:

– When did you commit that crime?

– A year ago.

The judge announces the verdict:

‘Since the murder was committed a year ago and the cells of this man who is accused of committing it, including those of his fingers which pulled the trigger, were completely replaced with new ones, and therefore since it is impossible to punish the one who committed the murder, the jury has decided on his acquittal.

So, man is not solely a physical entity and his movements, feelings, thoughts, beliefs and decisions are not the result of biochemical processes in his brain. The main part of man’s being is his spirit, which is alive and conscious, and which feels, thinks, believes, wills, decides and which commands the body. The body is the instrument of the spirit, which the spirit uses to put its decisions into action.

7. As was pointed out earlier, God acts in the material, visible world behind the veil of causes. However, besides this one, there are many other worlds or realms like the world of ideas, the world of symbols or immaterial forms, the world of the inner dimensions of things and the world of spirits, where God acts directly and which have nothing to do with matter and causes. The spirit is breathed into the embryo directly without the mediation of causes. It is a direct manifestation of the Divine Name, the All-living, and therefore the basis of human life. Like ‘natural’ laws, which issue from the same realm from which the spirit is sent, the spirit is invisible and known through its manifestations.

In this world, matter is refined in favour of life. A lifeless body, no matter how big it is, like a mountain, is lonely, passive and static. But, life enables a body the size of a bee, for example, to enter into transactions or business with almost the whole world and causes it to go as far as saying: ‘This world is my garden and flowers are my business partners? The smaller a living body is the more active, astonishing and powerful life is. You can compare a bee, a fly or even micro-organisms with an elephant. Also the more refined matter is the more active and powerful a body is. For example, when wood burns, it produces flames and carbon. When heated, water vaporizes. We come across electrical energy in the atomic or subatomic world. We cannot see electrical energy but we can come to know how powerful it is though its manifestations. That means existence does not consist in the visible, material world. Rather, this world is only the apparent, mutable and unstable dimension of existence. Behind it lies the pure invisible dimension, which uses matter to be seen and known. Thus, the spirit belongs to that dimension and is therefore pure and invisible.

8. The arguments for the existence of the spirit also point to the existence of the Creator. They are as follows:

a. Just as the body, which God creates from elements, needs the spirit to command and govern it, the universe, with everything in it, needs God to bring it into existence and to command and govern it.

b. There is a single spirit for a single body to make it alive and govern it. So, there must be a single Lord, with no partners to create and govern the universe. Otherwise, disorder and confusion would be inevitable.

c. We cannot say that the spirit is in any place or part of the body. It is not contained in a specific place in the body. It may even leave the body but, as is the case with dreams, continues its relation with the body by means of a cord special to it. Likewise, God Almighty is not contained by time or space; although He is always present everywhere. He is nowhere. However, the spirit is in the body and therefore contained by space.

d. The sun is one and the world is very distant from it. But the sun is present everywhere in the world through its heat and light and its image may even be in every transparent thing in the world. Therefore, it may be said that the sun is nearer to things than things themselves. Similarly, the spirit has the same relation with the whole of the body as well as with all of the cells separately at the same time. This may be an analogy to understand God’s relation with the existence. He controls and directs all things at the same time like a single thing and although we are infinitely distant from Him, He is nearer to us than ourselves.

e. The spirit is invisible and its nature is unknown to us. Likewise, however we think of or imagine God, He is different from it. His Essence cannot be known at all. Like the spirit, God Almighty is known through the manifestations of His Names, Attributes and Essence.

9. The body is not the cover of the spirit. Rather, the spirit has a cover or envelope of itself and when it leaves the body at death, it is not left naked, without a cover. This cover is like the ‘negative’ of the material body and called by various names such as the envelope of light, ethereal figure of man, energetic form, second body of man, astral body, the double (of man) and phantom. The picture of this body can be taken through Kirlian photography. In the pictures taken through this kind of photography, even amputated limbs can be seen.