Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Muslims shield Christians during attack

BBC

A group of Kenyan Muslims travelling on a bus ambushed by Islamist gunmen protected Christian passengers by refusing to be split into groups, according to eyewitnesses.

They told the militants "to kill them together or leave them alone", a local governor told Kenyan media.

At least two people were killed in the attack, near the north-eastern village of El Wak on the Somali border.

The Somali based al-Shabab group says it carried out the attack.

The group often carries out attacks in Kenya's north-east.

The bus was travelling from the capital Nairobi to the town of Mandera.

When al-Shabab killed 148 people in an attack on Garissa University College in April, the militants reportedly singled out Christians and shot them, while freeing many Muslims.

Last year, a bus was attacked near Mandera by al-Shabab militants, who killed 28 non-Muslims travelling to Nairobi for the Christmas holidays.

"The locals showed a sense of patriotism and belonging to each other," Mandera governor Ali Roba told Kenya's private Daily Nation newspaper.

The militants decided to leave after the passengers' show of unity, he added.

The passengers on the bus showed great bravery, but there was another quality revealed by their surprising decision to stand up to the gunmen: Frustration.

The majority of the local population in the north-east are Kenyan Muslims of Somali descent, and they have been hit hard by the consequences of al-Shabab attacks, even if non-Muslims are supposedly the main target of the Somali militant group.

An attack last year in Mandera, in which Christians were killed after being separated from Muslims, caused the departure of more than 2,000 teachers, as well as many health workers who had come from other parts of the country.

Perhaps the passengers felt that the region could simply not afford another such attack.
It will be interesting to see if their actions embolden local populations to increase their resistance to al-Shabab, which has attacked the area several times.

An employee of the Makkah bus company, who had spoken to the driver involved in the attack, confirmed to the BBC that Muslims had refused to be separated from their fellow Christian passengers.

One of the victims was shot dead after trying to run away from the militants after passengers had been forced off the bus, the same employee told the BBC's Bashkas Jugsodaay in Nairobi.

Al-Shabab has been at war with Kenya ever since Kenyan forces entered Somalia in October 2011 in an effort to crush the militants.

Kenya's north-eastern region has a large population of ethnic Somalis.

Monday, December 7, 2015

Top Muslim Inventions

Many people are unfortunately unaware of the great contributions Muslims have made for our world.


Friday, November 20, 2015

The miracle of the Quran

Great lecture that gives a good insight into the miraculous nature of the Quran:


Friday, October 30, 2015

The genocide against the Rohinga

A brutal suppression is taking place against the Rohinga minority Muslim community in Burma, fueled by extremist Buddhist monks, and also backed by state authorities. Their plight must be made known to the world:


Tuesday, June 23, 2015

The Medical benefits of fasting

 Modern Ghana

"And it is better for you that ye fast, if ye only knew." --- Qur'an chapter 2, verse 184

"Fast and you will be healed (or cured)." --- An authentic hadith of Prophet ( s.aw )

Fasting, [Islamic wise] by way of definition is; Abstinence from food, drink and sexual intercourse with one's spouse from dawn to dusk. It is even stretched to include; 'zipping' one's mouth from backbiting, slandering, gossiping as well as talking in a morally deplorable manner. It is a very significant part of Islam, hence being the forth in line among the five pillars of Islam. Whenever one reflects on the tenets of Islam (especially, fasting), one would clearly see that, this religion is a complete way of life-as it gives guidelines on how mankind can live on this earth safely and securely.

The two quotes above (Qur'an and Hadith) "...And it is better for you that ye fast, if ye only knew." and, "Fast and you will be healed or cured." were coincidentally re-echoed [without seeing it, thought] by Benjamin Franklin who said, "The best of all medicines is resting and fasting.", Plutarch, a Greek biographer and moralist who advocated, "Instead of using medicine, better fast today." and Philippus Paracelsus, one of the three father of western medicine also declared, "Fasting is the greatest remedy-- the physician within."

New Research at the Intermountain Medical Center's Heart Institute in the US is pointing to abstinence from food as a way to derail the potentially debilitating track of diabetes. "Fasting has the potential to become an important diabetes intervention. We found that in three different populations of people, some of whom have been fasting for more than 40 to 50 years on monthly basis, (they) have a lower risk of diabetes and a lower risk of coronary disease."

In an article on scientific American website dubbed, "How Intermittent Fasting Might Help You Live a Longer and Healthier Life", it says,"In recent years, researchers have focused on a strategy known as intermittent fasting as a promising alternative to continuous calorie restriction. Intermittent fasting, which includes everything from periodic multiday fasts to skipping a meal or two on certain days of the week, may promote some of the same health benefits that uninterrupted calorie restriction promises. The idea of intermittent fasting is more palatable to most people because, as Templeton would be happy to hear, one does not have to renounce the pleasures of the feast.."

This is amazing because quite apart from Ramadan fasting, the holy Prophet of Islam Muhammad recommended kind of a "farewell" fasting six days after Ramadan, call "sita shawal", or (fasting) six days of the next month of Ramadan, every Mondays and Thursdays and on the eve of the Eidul Adha, among others.

Fasting as The Greatest Discovery of Our Modern Time?

In a book entitled, "Miracle of Fasting", the co-authors, Patricia Bragg and Paul Bragg, quizzically asked a questioned, "What is the Most Significant Discovery of this Modern Age?" They listed multiple choice answers such as, "The finding of Dinosaur eggs on the plains of Mongolia, which scientists assert were laid some 120,000,000 years ago? The unearthing of ancient tombs and cities, with their confirmations of the Scriptural stories, and their matchless specimens of bygone civilizations? The radioactive time clock by which Professor Lane of Tufts University estimates the age of the earth as 1,250,000,000 years? Jet airplanes? Space travel? Lasers? Television? Radio? Computers? Telephones? Cell phones? Automobiles?

They however declared; "None of the above when compared with fasting!..."The Greatest Discovery of Modern Times!...In our opinion, the greatest discovery by modern man is the method to rejuvenate himself physically, mentally and spiritually by fasting. Man can create a quality of agelessness and with fasting, can prevent premature ageing and a premature death! The dread of "growing old" and becoming a burden to himself and others is one of man's greatest fears.

The fear of becoming sick, senile, helpless and unable to care for one's self is rooted deep in every thinking person's mind. With the complete knowledge of fasting and The Bragg Healthy Lifestyle, as outlined in this book, you can banish all your fears of premature ageing! With a 24 hour complete... fast weekly - setting aside 52 days and for 7 to 10 day fasts a year for body purification -you can keep the toxins removed and flush the rust and crystals from your moveable joints and muscles. You must bear in mind that it is the toxic debris and wastes of metabolism (from the biological process of converting food into living matter and the matter into energy) that bring on many physical ailments and premature ageing."

But these co-authors and all others medical experts who recommended fasting as medicine cannot claim the accolade for it, because it was Allah who first enjoined us to do it when he advocated over 14 centuries ago: "..And it is better for you that ye fast, if ye only knew." , as quoted above and the prophet of Islam Muhammad who advice that, "...fast, you will be healed or cured. "And He(Allah) gave doctors the wisdom to discover in recent time, this health advantages, which were not know in the medieval period of the Qur'anic revelation.

Fasting Conserves Energy Your Vital Force
"Let me explain", say the authors of this book, "We eat food and as it passes through the body, it must be masticated, digested, assimilated and then the waste is eliminated. We have four great organs of elimination: the bowels, the kidneys, the lungs, and the skin. In order for these eliminative organs to work perfectly, the body must build a high Vital Force of body energy reserves. It takes a tremendous amount of Vital Force to pass a large meal through the gastrointestinal tract and also eliminate the waste via the 30 foot tube that runs from the mouth to the rectum. It takes the great power of Vital Force to pass liquids through the 2 million filters of the human kidneys.

It takes Vital Force for the chemical power of the liver and the gallbladder to do their work in preparing food for the billions of body cells. It takes great Vital Force for the lungs to deeply inhale up to 2 quarts of oxygen with each breath, to purify the entire bloodstream in your body and expel the toxins and the carbon dioxide. It takes great Vital Force for the skin (often called your third kidney) with its 96 million pores, to throw off body toxins in the form of skin rashes, pimples, sweat and foul body odors."

There is this story about an Egyptian whose Doctor prescribed to him some medication in order to prepare him before he gets operated on to rid him off certain tumor in his stomach. When he realized that the medication would prevent him from fasting, which it was about to begin, he became so sad and then gave his trust to Allah by fasting, with the hope that Allah will cure him. Lo and behold, a miracle happened! This man went back to his doctor after Ramadan and the doctor examined him and he realized that, the tumor that he supposed to operate him and removed is nowhere to be found, and he told him about it, and man then revealed to the Doctor that, perhaps he was cured because he fasted, and the doctor admitted to him the medical advantages of fasting, confirming what the Qur'an says.

Consider the Basic Eleven Medical Benefits of Fasting

A medical expert, Dr. Cinque summarizes it all very well below:

1. Fasting promotes detoxification. As the body breaks down its fat reserves, it mobilizes and eliminates stored toxins.

2. Fasting gives the digestive system a much-needed rest. After fasting, both digestion and elimination are invigorated.

3. Fasting promotes the resolution of inflammatory processes, such as in rheumatoid arthritis.

4. Fasting quiets allergic reactions, including asthma and hay fever.

5. Fasting promotes the drying up of abnormal fluid accumulations, such as edema in the ankles and legs and swelling in the abdomen.

6. Fasting corrects high blood pressure without drugs. Fasting will normalize blood pressure in the vast majority of cases, the blood pressure will remain low after the fast, if the person follows a health-supporting diet and lifestyle.

7. Fasting makes it easy to overcome bad habits and addictions. Many people have overcome tobacco and alcohol addictions by fasting, and even drug addictions. Fasting rapidly dissipates the craving for nicotine, alcohol, caffeine and other drugs.

Read more at: http://www.modernghana.com/news/624085/1/the-medicinal-advantages-of-fasting-ramadan-fastin.html8. Fasting clears the skin and whitens the eyes. It is common to see skin eruptions clear while fasting, and the whites of the eyes never look so clear and bright as they do after fasting.
9. Fasting restores taste appreciation for wholesome natural foods. People say that their taste buds come alive after fasting and that food never tasted so good.

10. Fasting is the perfect gateway to a healthful diet and lifestyle. Going on a fast gives you the motivation and enthusiasm to make a fresh start.

11. Fasting initiates rapid weight loss with little or no hunger. Most people are surprised at how little desire for food they have while fasting.

And as we know, other religions have prescribed fasting as a means of getting closer to the Al-mighty God, but obviously( just calling a spade a spade, not by virtue of being a Muslim), fasting, the Islamic way would be more medically effective, because it is more frequent-both annually(a whole 30 or 29 days of the month of Ramadan, monthly(some days in some months) and weekly(Mondays and Thursday). And it is only those who can (religiously) observe these prescribed periods of fasting that can effectively benefit from the health advantages of it as mentioned above.

Religious/Eternal Benefits of Fasting
Quite apart from the health benefits of fasting, it has eternal rewards(of Ramadan fast) as well, which Allah and his holy and beloved prophet mentioned in the Qur'an and Hadith respectively. Below are some of them:

Qur'anic Scriptures & Prophetic Narratives About Ramadan Fasting

"Ramadan is the (month) in which the Quran was sent down, as a guide to mankind and a clear guidance and judgment (so that mankind will distinguish from right and wrong)O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may attain taqwaa(piety)(Fasting is) for a fixed number of days; and if any of you is ill, or on a journey, the prescribed number (Should be made up) from days later, and for those (who miss the fast for illness or travel) who are able to do it, is a ransom of feeding one that is indigent. But he that will give more, of his own free will, it is better for himAnd it is better for you that you fast, if you only knew...The month of Ramadan in which was revealed the Qur'an, guidance for mankind, and clear proofs of the guidance, and the Criterion (of right and wrong). And whosoever of you is present, let him fast the month, and whosoever of you is sick or on a journey, (let him fast the same) number of other days. Allah desires ease for you; He does not desire hardship for you; and (He desires) that you should complete the period, and that you should magnify Allah for having guided you, and that peradventure you may be thankful." --- Qur'an chapter 2, verses 183-185.

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, "When the month of Ramadan starts, the gates of the heaven are opened and the gates of Hell are closed and the devils are chained." (Imam Bukhari)

Narrated Abu Huraira(r.a): The Messenger of Allah (saw) said:"... whoever fasts during Ramadhan out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allah's rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven." (Imam Bukhari).

The Messenger of Allah (saw) addressed his companions on the last day of Sha`ban, saying, "Oh people! A great month has come over you; a blessed month; a month in which is a night better than a thousand months; month in which Allah has made it compulsory upon you to fast by day, and voluntary to pray by night. Whoever draws nearer (to Allah) by performing any of the (optional) good deeds in (this month) shall receive the same reward as performing an obligatory deed at any other time, and whoever discharges an obligatory deed in (this month) shall receive the reward of performing seventy obligations at any other time. It is the month of patience, and the reward of patience is Heaven. It is the month of charity, and a month in which a believer's sustenance is increased. Whoever gives food to a fasting person to break his fast, shall have his sins forgiven, and he will be saved from the Fire of Hell, and he shall have the same reward as the fasting person, without his reward being diminished at all." [Narrated by Ibn Khuzaymah]

Abu Said al-Khudri reported that the Messenger of Allah (saw), said: "No servant fasts on a day in the path of Allah except that Allah removes the hellfire seventy years further away from his face." This is related by "the group," except for Imam Abu Dawud. In another hadith,`Abdullah ibn `Amr reported that the Messenger of Allah (saw), said: "The fast and the Qur'an are two intercessors for the servant of Allah on the Day of Resurrection. The fast will say: 'O Lord, I prevented him from his food and desires during the day. Let me intercede for him.' The Qur'an will say: 'I prevented him from sleeping at night. Let me intercede for him.' And their intercession will be accepted." [Imam Ahmad]

Abu Umamah reported: "I came to the Messenger of Allah (saw) and said: 'Order me to do a deed that will allow me to enter Paradise.' He said: 'Stick to fasting, as there is no equivalent to it.' Then I came to him again and he said: 'Stick to fasting."' [Imam Ahmad, Imam Nasa'i, and Imam Hakim]

Sahl ibn Sa'd reported that the Messenger of Allah (saw): "There is a gate to Paradise that is called ar-Rayyan. On the Day of Resurrection it will say: 'Where are those who fasted?' When the last [one] has passed through the gate, it will be locked." [Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim]

He who is amongst those who pray will be called from the gate of the prayer (in Paradise) and he who is from the people of Jihad will be called from the gate of Jihad, and he who is from those' who give in charity (i.e. Zakat) will be called from the gate of charity, and he who is amongst those who observe fast will be called from the gate of fasting, the gate of Raiyan." Abu Bakr said, "He who is called from all those gates will need nothing," He added, "Will anyone be called from all those gates, O Allah's Apostle?" He said, "Yes, and I hope you will be among those, O Abu Bakr." [Imam Bukhari]

Abu Hurairah reported that the Messenger of Allah (saw) said : "The time between the five prayers, two consecutive Friday Prayers, and two consecutive Ramadans are expiations for all that has happened during that period, provided that one has avoided the grave (major) sins." [Imam Muslim]

In another hadith, the Messenger of Allah (saw) says, "Ramadan has come to you. (It is) a month of blessing, in which Allah covers you with blessing, for He sends down Mercy, decreases sins and answers prayers. In it, Allah looks at your competition (in good deeds), and boasts about you to His angels. So show Allah goodness from yourselves, for the unfortunate one is he who is deprived in (this month) of the mercy of Allah, the Mighty, the Exalted." [ImamTabarani]

Abu Umaamah r.a.a. said: I said: 'O Messenger of Allah (saw), tell me of an action by which I may enter Paradise'. He said: 'Take to Fasting, there is nothing like it.' [Imam Nasai', Ibn Hibbaan, Al-Haakim, Saheeh]

Every action of the son of Adam is given manifold reward, each good deed receiving then times its like, up to seven hundred times. Allah the Most High said, 'Except for fasting, for it is for Me and I will give recompense for it, he leaves off his desires and his food for Me.' for the fasting person there are two times of joy; a time when he breaks his fast and a time of joy when he meets his Lord, and the smell coming from the mouth of the fasting person is better with Allah than the smell of musk." [Imam Bukhari]

"Fasting is a shield with which a servant protects himself from the Fire." [Imam Ahmad, Saheeh]

On the Day of Judgment, "Fasting will say: O My Lord I prevented him from food and desires so accept my intercession for him." [Imam Ahmad, Imam Haakim and Abu Nu'aim, Hasan]

There are in the month of Ramadhan in every day and night those to whom Allah grants freedom from the Fire, and there is for every Muslim an supplication which he can make and will be granted." [al-Bazzaar, Ahmad, Saheeh]

The Messenger of Allah (saw) said: He who gives food for a fasting person to break his fast, he will receive the same reward as him, except that nothing will be reduced from the fasting persons reward." [Ahmad, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah, Ibn Hibbaan, Saheeh].

Who Are Exempted from Fasting?
Both the Qur'an and Hadith have prescribed exemptions, taking into consideration the welfare of the people first. The (seriously) sick person, whose ailment would require him/her to be taking prescribed medication during the day, is exempted; the aged or old person, who is already energetically frail and fragile is also exempted, a pregnant woman is also not supposed to fast, because her fasting would mean, letting the fetus(baby in the womb) to 'fast', by denying it nourishments, which it receives when Allah miraculously digests food in her stomach and channels some of it through a special tube, connected to the umbilical cord to facilitate it's continuous feeding. And after delivery, she is not supposed to fast immediately, because she cannot breast feed without eating, since what she eats replenishes the milk the baby suckles from her nipples. Travelers are also exempted from fasting, due to the stress and fatigue on their ways. However, many scholars are with the view that, if one travels in a modern vehicle, a bus, an airline, or ship, that has an air-condition, it reduces the stress on the way, since the traveler would not get dehydrated and weak. But sick and the old have to feed ten poor people the equivalent of the meal that he/she eats daily, only if they are financially capable and the rest have to fast after Ramadan when they are in good shape to expiate for the days they missed.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Jewish Rabbi speaks of how Muslims saved Jews several times

Contrary to what some may think, Muslims are not out to destroy all Jews, nor do Muslims hate all Jews. As this Rabbi says, Muslims throughout history have helped save Jews from oppression.


Friday, May 15, 2015

The Islamic contribution to science

Many people are not aware of the great contribution made to scientific knowledge by Muslim scientists.


Saturday, May 9, 2015

Muslim forgives attacker who blinded him

This Muslim was left blinded by a vicious attack, the intent of the attacker was to kill the Muslim. Instead of looking for revenge, the Muslim victim instead forgives his attacker, and is looking to have the death penalty avoided. An amazing story indeed.


Islamophobia Today

Rais Bhuiyan saw Mark Stroman and his gun in the reflection of the window.

Then came the question a robber wouldn’t ask, Bhuiyan thought. “Where are you from?”

“Excuse me?”

Within seconds, Bhuiyan, a store clerk, fell to the floor of the convenience store on Buckner Boulevard, bleeding profusely from a head wound from the gun blast. It blinded his right eye but miraculously didn’t damage his brain.

Stroman, a white supremacist, would later confess he was out for revenge against those of Middle Eastern descent in Mesquite and Dallas days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Already, Stroman had killed one Pakistani immigrant; two weeks later, he’d kill an Indian immigrant.

Now, Bhuiyan wants to forgive.

He’ll be asking for a stay of the July 20 evening scheduled execution of Stroman, and a stop to the “cycle of violence,” as he calls it.

“Sometimes, we human beings make mistakes out of anger,” said Bhuiyan, 37, in an interview Monday with The Dallas Morning News. Stroman, a former stonecutter, was convicted of the Oct. 4 killing of Vasudev Patel, an Indian of the Hindu faith who owned a gas station and convenience store in Mesquite.

Stroman also confessed to the Sept. 15 Dallas killing of Waqar Hasan, an immigrant from Pakistan and a Muslim, in what is believed to be the first hate crime in the U.S. after the attacks. He was charged in the shooting of Bhuiyan, a Bangledesh immigrant, on Sept. 21.

Bhuiyan said his Islamic faith led him to realize “hate doesn’t bring any good solution to people. At some point we have to break the cycle of violence. It brings more disaster.”

Bhuiyan shows little sign of the shooting. A slim man with thinning hair and large, wide-set brown eyes, he can only see from his left one. He carries about 38 pellet fragments on the right side of his face, he said.

Bhuiyan said the event changed him and he now celebrates Sept. 21 as his new birthday because it was then he got his life back. Bhuiyan has a full-time job in information technology but wants to return to college. Last fall, he contacted Dr. Rick Halperin, the director of the human rights education program at Southern Methodist University.

It was a coincidence that Halperin already knew many details of Bhuiyan’s story. Stroman had been corresponding with the professor, an anti-death-penalty activist, for two years.

Bhuiyan explained how the event had shaped his life, how he grew introspective about his faith and how he found answers to why he lived and others died.

The events, Halperin said, “raise questions about compassion and healing and the nature of justice.”

As for Bhuiyan, Halperin said, “I am amazed at the calm with which some can forgive the unforgivable.”

Hadi Jawad of the Dallas Peace Center said Bhuiyan’s actions serve as a lesson for others at a critical time for the nation and the world.

“With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 coming up, we need a narrative of compassion and healing. The world has gone through so much darkness,” Jawad said.

Halperin said that a stay of execution in favor of a lifetime sentence for Stroman will be difficult, but they are committed to trying. Stroman is scheduled to die by injection at about 6 p.m. in Huntsville, said a public information officer for the Texas Department of Corrections.

Within six months of Sept. 11, there were 1,717 incidents of harassment, violence or discriminatory acts against Muslims, or those perceived to be Muslims, according to the D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Bhuiyan said he still has fears he’ll be attacked again, particularly when he sees men with tattoos. Stroman had many. “I try to ignore them (fears), but I am a human being,” he said.

Bhuiyan is one of eight children, but he has no siblings or relatives in the United States. He and his former fiancée in Bangladesh went separate ways as he coped with his physical and psychological wounds. His parents wanted him to return home, but he “wanted to give it a fight.” And last November, he deepened his roots here by becoming a U.S. citizen.

He has prepared a petition drive for the stay of execution and is about to launch a website.

“You may not like me because of my skin color or because of my accent . . . but don’t hate me. We can educate people.”

Friday, March 20, 2015

The story of an anti-Islam politician

Arnoud Van Doorn was a Dutch politician affiliated with an anti-Islam political party, headed by the well known Islamophobe Geert Wilders, the director and producer of the anti-Islamic film fitna.

What happened as he continued looking into Islam, for the purposes of attacking it, is very interesting indeed.


Sunday, March 8, 2015

What would you do if you saw a Muslim facing discrimination?

Interesting social experiment, especially during these times of heightened Islamophobia:


Saturday, March 7, 2015

Scientist gives testimony on why he converted to Islam

A very interesting testimony from a scientist who was an Atheist, but eventually converted to Islam. The scientist said that not only did the science prove the existence of a creator, but that this creator was one, just as Islam says.

Again we must ask is it a mere coincidence that 1400 years ago, before so many scientific discoveries were made, and a lot of largely down to new discoveries, that the Quran managed to get so many scientific facts right, even enough to convince the scientists themselves of its truth?


10 Muslim inventions

CNN

Think of the origins of that staple of modern life, the cup of coffee, and Italy often springs to mind.
But in fact, Yemen is where the ubiquitous brew has its true origins.

Along with the first university, and even the toothbrush, it is among surprising Muslim inventions that have shaped the world we live in today.

The origins of these fundamental ideas and objects -- the basis of everything from the bicycle to musical scales -- are the focus of "1001 Inventions," a book celebrating "the forgotten" history of 1,000 years of Muslim heritage.

"There's a hole in our knowledge, we leap frog from the Renaissance to the Greeks," professor Salim al-Hassani, Chairman of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, and editor of the book told CNN.

"1001 Inventions" is now an exhibition at London's Science Museum. Hassani hopes the exhibition will highlight the contributions of non-Western cultures -- like the Muslim empire that once covered Spain and Portugal, Southern Italy and stretched as far as parts of China -- to present day civilization.Here Hassani shares his top 10 outstanding Muslim inventions:

1. Surgery

Around the year 1,000, the celebrated doctor Al Zahrawi published a 1,500 page illustrated encyclopedia of surgery that was used in Europe as a medical reference for the next 500 years. Among his many inventions, Zahrawi discovered the use of dissolving cat gut to stitch wounds -- beforehand a second surgery had to be performed to remove sutures. He also reportedly performed the first caesarean operation and created the first pair of forceps.

2. Coffee

Now the Western world's drink du jour, coffee was first brewed in Yemen around the 9th century. In its earliest days, coffee helped Sufis stay up during late nights of devotion. Later brought to Cairo by a group of students, the coffee buzz soon caught on around the empire. By the 13th century it reached Turkey, but not until the 16th century did the beans start boiling in Europe, brought to Italy by a Venetian trader.

3. Flying machine

"Abbas ibn Firnas was the first person to make a real attempt to construct a flying machine and fly," said Hassani. In the 9th century he designed a winged apparatus, roughly resembling a bird costume. In his most famous trial near Cordoba in Spain, Firnas flew upward for a few moments, before falling to the ground and partially breaking his back. His designs would undoubtedly have been an inspiration for famed Italian artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci's hundreds of years later, said Hassani.

4. University

In 859 a young princess named Fatima al-Firhi founded the first degree-granting university in Fez, Morocco. Her sister Miriam founded an adjacent mosque and together the complex became the al-Qarawiyyin Mosque and University. Still operating almost 1,200 years later, Hassani says he hopes the center will remind people that learning is at the core of the Islamic tradition and that the story of the al-Firhi sisters will inspire young Muslim women around the world today.

5. Algebra

The word algebra comes from the title of a Persian mathematician's famous 9th century treatise "Kitab al-Jabr Wa l-Mugabala" which translates roughly as "The Book of Reasoning and Balancing." Built on the roots of Greek and Hindu systems, the new algebraic order was a unifying system for rational numbers, irrational numbers and geometrical magnitudes. The same mathematician, Al-Khwarizmi, was also the first to introduce the concept of raising a number to a power.

6. Optics

"Many of the most important advances in the study of optics come from the Muslim world," says Hassani. Around the year 1000 Ibn al-Haitham proved that humans see objects by light reflecting off of them and entering the eye, dismissing Euclid and Ptolemy's theories that light was emitted from the eye itself. This great Muslim physicist also discovered the camera obscura phenomenon, which explains how the eye sees images upright due to the connection between the optic nerve and the brain.

7. Music

Muslim musicians have had a profound impact on Europe, dating back to Charlemagne tried to compete with the music of Baghdad and Cordoba, according to Hassani. Among many instruments that arrived in Europe through the Middle East are the lute and the rahab, an ancestor of the violin. Modern musical scales are also said to derive from the Arabic alphabet.

8. Toothbrush

According to Hassani, the Prophet Mohammed popularized the use of the first toothbrush in around 600. Using a twig from the Meswak tree, he cleaned his teeth and freshened his breath. Substances similar to Meswak are used in modern toothpaste.

9. The crank

Many of the basics of modern automatics were first put to use in the Muslim world, including the revolutionary crank-connecting rod system. By converting rotary motion to linear motion, the crank enables the lifting of heavy objects with relative ease. This technology, discovered by Al-Jazari in the 12th century, exploded across the globe, leading to everything from the bicycle to the internal combustion engine.

10. Hospitals

"Hospitals as we know them today, with wards and teaching centers, come from 9th century Egypt," explained Hassani. The first such medical center was the Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, founded in 872 in Cairo. Tulun hospital provided free care for anyone who needed it -- a policy based on the Muslim tradition of caring for all who are sick. From Cairo, such hospitals spread around the Muslim world.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Scientists give their opinion on the Quran


These top scientists in their field read the Quran and put the Quran's claims in light of what modern science has discovered. They found that the Quran was accurate and correct. Could this be a mere coincidence that 1400 years ago, before modern scientific discoveries, and modern technology, that the Quran was making accurate statements regarding scientific facts? Or is there a divine nature behind it? The answer is quite obvious.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Quranic miracle: The barrier that seperates the sea

Modern Science has discovered that in the places where two different seas meet, there is a barrier between them.  This barrier divides the two seas so that each sea has its own temperature, salinity, and density.[1]  For example, Mediterranean sea water is warm, saline, and less dense, compared to Atlantic ocean water.  When Mediterranean sea water enters the Atlantic over the Gibraltar sill, it moves several hundred kilometers into the Atlantic at a depth of about 1000 meters with its own warm, saline, and less dense characteristics.  The Mediterranean water stabilizes at this depth[2] (see figure 1).





Figure 1: The Mediterranean sea water as it enters the Atlantic over the Gibraltar sill with its own warm, saline, and less dense characteristics, because of the barrier that distinguishes between them.  Temperatures are in degrees Celsius (C°). (Marine Geology, Kuenen, p. 43, with a slight enhancement.)



Although there are large waves, strong currents, and tides in these seas, they do not mix or transgress this barrier.

The Holy Quran mentioned that there is a barrier between two seas that meet and that they do not transgress.  God has said:

“He has set free the two seas meeting together.  There is a barrier between them.  They do not transgress.” (Quran 55:19-20)

But when the Quran speaks about the divider between fresh and salt water, it mentions the existence of “a forbidding partition” with the barrier.  God has said in the Quran:

“He is the one who has set free the two kinds of water, one sweet and palatable, and the other salty and bitter.  And He has made between them a barrier and a forbidding partition.” (Quran 25:53)

One may ask, why did the Quran mention the partition when speaking about the divider between fresh and salt water, but did not mention it when speaking about the divider between the two seas?

Modern science has discovered that in estuaries, where fresh (sweet) and salt water meet, the situation is somewhat different from what is found in places where two seas meet.  It has been discovered that what distinguishes fresh water from salt water in estuaries is a “pycnocline zone with a marked density discontinuity separating the two layers.”[3]  This partition (zone of separation) has a different salinity from the fresh water and from the salt water[4] (see figure 2).





Figure 2: Longitudinal section showing salinity (parts per thousand ‰) in an estuary.  We can see here the partition (zone of separation) between the fresh and the salt water. (Introductory Oceanography, Thurman, p. 301, with a slight enhancement.)



This information has been discovered only recently, using advanced equipment to measure temperature, salinity, density, oxygen dissolubility, etc.  The human eye cannot see the difference between the two seas that meet, rather the two seas appear to us as one homogeneous sea.  Likewise, the human eye cannot see the division of water in estuaries into the three kinds: fresh water, salt water, and the partition (zone of separation).


Footnotes:
[1] Principles of Oceanography, Davis, pp. 92-93.
[2] Principles of Oceanography, Davis, p. 93.
[3] Oceanography, Gross, p. 242.  Also see Introductory Oceanography, Thurman, pp. 300-301.
[4] Oceanography, Gross, p. 244, and Introductory Oceanography, Thurman, pp. 300-301.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

The Mathematical miracle of the Quran

Islaminfo, by Shabir Ally

Recently a number of studies have been done on the Quran involving counting its words, letters, verses, and chapters. A number of instances of surprising correspondence have been found. For example:

WORD PATTERNS


The word for man (ar-Rajul) and the word for woman (Imra-ah) occur 24 times each.
The word for satan (shaytaan) and the word for angel (malaa-ikah) occur 68 times each.
The word for this life (dunya) and the word for the next life (aakhirah) occur 115 times each.
The word for month (shahr) occurs 12 times.
The word for two months (shahrayn) occurs 30 times.
The word for day (yaum) occurs 365 times.

What explains these instances of correspondence? There are three viable considerations: either it is by chance, by human design, or by divine design. But these are too much to credit to mere chance. Nor did it come about by human design. No one knew about this until recent studies uncovered it.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE QURAN


Anyone familiar with the history of the Quran will know that the Quran is a collection of inspired messages which the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, recited, a piece at a time, over a period of twenty-three years, often in response to new and unexpected events.  It is obvious that the number of times he used certain words in all of his recited pieces could not conceivably be kept in his memory. It is difficult enough to count the words from the printed page to make sure that your count is correct, much less to suggest that someone already did this using his memory. To remember, for example, how many times he mentioned the word ‘day’ over a period of 23 years would be an insurmountable task.

We are therefore left with the third of the three options: that it is by divine design. Hence we now have further evidence that the Quran is the word of Allah. And below are yet some more instances of this phenomenon.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHAPTER AND VERSE NUMBERS IN THE QURAN


The numbering of chapters and verses in the Quran gradually evolved during the first few centuries of Islam in order to facilitate correct reading and easy referencing. Hence we can be sure that the number of chapters in the Quran and the number of verses within each chapter was not invented by man but only discovered by man. The early memorized text was not accompanied by verse numberings. Many Muslims who have memorized large portions of the Quran would be hard pressed to say how many verses a particular memorized chapter contains. But as the text was written and copied over, scribes introduced niceties to make the text more user-friendly. At first, the text was written without any identifiers to mark the end of verses.  And this led to different suggestions as to where one verse ends and another begins. Eventually it was thought wise to leave a space at the end of a verse to aid the uninitiated reader. Later copyists put a circle in each space thus adding a decorative feature to increase the visual clarity of the written page. Later copyists began to number the circles, at first numbering every fifth circle. In the final stage every circle was numbered, and today we can easily see a number marking each verse of the Quran.

Hence, the number of verses was implicit at first in the text as it was recited from memory. Later, the number of verses was gradually made explicit by a natural process of copying and discovering. It is clear, then, that no human decided that a certain chapter should have a certain number of verses. Yet there occurs many instances of surprising correspondence between numbers of chapters, verses, words, and letters in the Quran.

Here are some examples:

EXAMPLES OF CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN CHAPTER NUMBERS AND NUMBER OF VERSES


Chapter 57: al-Hadeed (Iron)


The chapter named al-Hadeed (Iron) is the 57th chapter. It has 29 verses. There is a mathematical relationship between these two numbers, as follows:
57 x 29 = 1653
The sum of the whole numbers from 1 to 57 is the same, represented mathematically as:
1+2+3+. . .+ 57=1653
It appears that the number of verses could have been almost any number, and that 29 was chosen to result in this correspondence.

Chapter 22: al-Hajj (Pilgrimage)


The chapter al-Hajj (The Pilgrimage) has the Quran’s last mention of ‘pilgrimage’ in verse number 27. This verse has 14 words. There is a mathematical relationship between these two numbers:
14 x 27 = 378
1+2+3+. . .+ 27=378
Again, it appears, that the number of words in this verse was chosen to bring about this correspondence.

Chapter 71: Noah


The chapter Nuh (Noah) is numbered 71. It has 28 verses. Now, there are 28 different chapters that mention Noah. And because some chapters mention Noah more than once there are a total of 43 times that Noah is mentioned. Now consider the relationship between these three numbers:
43+28=71
43+71=114 which is the total number of chapters in the Quran.
Since 28 chapters mention Noah, how many chapters do not mention Noah? The answer is 114–28=86, which is 43 times 2.
Now consider that the last mention of Noah is in the chapter of Noah. It turns out that of the 86 chapters that do not mention Noah, 43 chapters come before the chapter of Noah and 43 chapters come after it.
This can be shown mathematically, given the facts above. No chapter after chapter 71 mentions Noah. Therefore there are 114-71=43 chapters after chapter 71 which do not mention Noah. And, of the first 71 chapters in the Quran, there are 28 chapters which mention Noah. Therefore there are 71-28=43 chapters before the chapter of Noah which do not mention Noah. Hence the chapter Nuh (Noah) numbered 71 is strategically placed and its number of verses is apparently chosen to bring about these complex relationships between the numbers involved.

Chapter 13: al-Ra`ad (Thunder)


The chapter ar-Ra`d (Thunder) is numbered 13, and is so named because it mentions the word ‘thunder’. That word occurs in verse number 13. This verse also, coincidentally, occurs in the 13th part of the Quran. Being comprised of 114 chapters of unequal length, the Quran is divided into 30 parts of roughly equal length such that a reading of a part each day will complete the book in a month. The 13th verse of the 13th chapter does not have to occur in the 13th part., but it does. Now, the same verse has 19 words. These words are written with 83 letters. There is one other place in the entire Quran that mentions ‘thunder’. That is chapter 2, verse number 19. This verse also has 19 words written with 83 letters, although the words are mostly different. It appears that these instances of correspondence were planned, though not by any human being.

Chapter 32: as-Sajdah (Prostration)


Chapter 32 is called as-Sajdah (Prostration) because it mentions the key word ‘sujjadan’ (prostrate). As is typical of the Arabic language, this word is derived from the three-letter root SJD to which vowels and other increments are used to produce a variety of words clustered around the root meaning “to prostrate.”
Words based on this root are used in 32 different chapters of the Quran, hence corresponding to the number of this chapter which bears the related name.
The verse in this chapter which mentions prostration is such that a believer naturally wants to prostrate to God after reading it. Now, in the entire Quran there are 15 such verses which have been traditionally noted as ‘verses of prostration’.
The number of verses in this chapter is 30. Half of that number is 15. It turns out that the number 15 is also the number of the verse of prostration in chapter 32.
There are 372 words in this chapter. Half of that is 186. It turns out that the key word in this chapter is the 186th word in the chapter.

Chapter 27: an-Naml (Ants)


Chapter an-Naml (The Ant) is numbered 27 and has 93 verses. It begins with two mysterious letters which correspond roughly to the English letters T and S. These two initials do not spell a word. Commentators of the Quran generally say that although nothing in the Quran is without a reason, they do not know the reason for these and other such initials being placed at the start of some chapters. But consider these observations.
In chapter 27 the letter T is written 27 times.
In this same chapter, consisting of 93 verses, the letter S is written 93 times.
It seems that this correspondence was planned. But not by humans. It is difficult enough to try and count the letters in the written text. It would have been a gigantic task for anyone to have done this from memory. And even if someone had used secret notes, it is difficult to see why he or she did not tell anyone about this remarkable feature.

Connecting Chapter 9 with Chapter 27


One mentally connects chapter 9 and 27 for the following reason. Every chapter of the Quran except chapter 9 begins with the familiar phrase called the ‘Basmala’, usually rendered in English as “In the Name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.” On the other hand, chapter 27 is the only chapter that mentions the phrase in the body of the chapter. Hence, one reading the chapters sequentially is initially surprised to find it absent from the beginning of chapter 9 and again present in the body of chapter 27. Now consider the numerical relationship between these two chapters.
The difference between the chapter numbers is 27-9=18.
The number of chapters from 9 to 27 inclusive is 19.
These two results, 18 and 19, form an interesting relationship with the chapter numbers of these two chapters. Consider:
18 x 19 = 342
9+10+11+ . . . +27 = 342
In chapter 27 we have the only verse in the Quran to mention the word ‘ant.’  The verse number is 18 and it contains 19 words, thus highlighting the interplay between 18 and 19.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHAPTER AND VERSE NUMBERS FOR THE QURAN AS A WHOLE


We now arrive at one of the most surprising demonstrations of mathematical relationships between chapter and verse numbers. Before we turn to the demonstration itself, let us think about the use of an error check bit in computer data transmission. Thomas H. Athey and Robert W. Zmud write in their book Introduction to Computers and Information Systems (Illinois: Scott, Forseman and Company, 1986, pp. 238-39):
To send data in a telecommunications network, start and stop information, origin and destination information, and error check bits must be added to the encoded data to form a data packet. . . . The error check bit is used to make sure the data received were not garbled during transmission. . . . In asynchronous transmission, the commonly used error check method is a parity bit. A parity bit is an extra bit that makes the sum of bits representing a character either even or odd.

Now, is it possible that a system is built into the Quran to assure us that its chapter and verses were transmitted without error, and that the Quran is of divine origin? It will be demonstrated that this is so indeed. First the bare facts:
There are 114 chapters numbered in sequence 1, 2, 3, etc.
The numbers of verses in each chapter do not form a predictable pattern. The longer chapters generally come earlier, and the length of chapters gradually reduce, though not in a straight line. Hence we have the number of verses for the first ten chapters in sequence being 7, 286, 200, 176, 120, 165, 206, 75, 129, and 109. The numbers seem to go up and down with no predictable pattern.

It is a simple observation that the chapter numbers alternate between being odd and being even. Hence 1 is odd, 2 is even, 3 is odd, etc.
It is also obvious that the number of verses in each chapter do not alternate in this predictable way. Instead, for the first ten chapters of the Quran, for example, the number of verses are Odd, Even, Even, Even, Even, Odd, Even, Odd, Odd and Odd. If we add each chapter number to the number of verses in that chapter we get these 114 results:

Surprisingly, 57 of these results are even numbers and 57 are odd numbers.
If we take the sum of all the even numbers, the result is 6236.
Surprisingly this sum is also the total number of verses in the entire Quran.
If we take the sum of all the odd numbers, the result is 6555.
Surprisingly, this sum is also the sum of all the chapter numbers, i.e. 1+2+3+ . . . +114=6555

Hence we see that the total verses in each chapter form a complex relationship with their chapter numbers on a grand scale. It is too much to suppose that this double correspondence is a mere coincidence. These two numbers are so large that the possibility of their chance coincidence is extremely rare. It is easy to see that what we have here is a complex arrangement containing an internal assurance of the system’s faultless preservation.  It is fair to conclude that we have demonstrated here a grand design pointing to the Quran’s divine origin and faithful preservation.

In this age of science and computers, when many have turned away from belief in God, it is reassuring that we still have a message which reaffirms belief in God. But it is not enough to marvel at the mathematical miracle from the maker of mankind in the message of Muhammad (pbuh.)  In the face of this remarkable demonstration that the Quran is the Word of God we ought to begin now a life-transforming relationship with our Maker.

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