Monday, April 5, 2010

The preservation of Pharaoh's Body

As we shall see later on, Pharaoh regards himself as a diety and responded with slanders and threats to Prophet Musa's (as) calls for him to believe in Allah. This arrogant attitude lasted until he was faced with the threat of death through drowning. The Qur'an relates that Pharaoh immediately turned to belief when faced with Allah's punishment:
We brought the tribe of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh and his troops pursued them out of tyranny and enmity. Then, when he was on the point of drowning, he (Pharaoh) said: "I believe that there is no deity but Him in whom the tribe of Israel believes. I am one of the Muslims."

However, this last-minute conversion was not accepted, for it was not sincere. According to the Qur'an Allah exclaimed:

'What now! When previously you rebelled and were one of the corrupters? Today we will preserve your body so you can be a sign for people who come after you. Surely many people are heedless of Our signs." (Qur'an, 10:91-92)

The information that Pharaoh's corpse would serve as a sign for later generations may be regarded as an indication that his body would not decay. On display in Royal Mummies Chamber of 'The Egyptian Museum' in Cairo is a mummified body believed to be that of this tyrant. In all likelihood, Pharaoh's body floated to shore after being drowned, was found and mummified by the Egyptians, and then carried to a previously prepared burial chamber.

The ears are active during sleep.

So we sealed their ears (with sleep) in the cave for a number of years.
(Qur'an, 18:11)

The original Arabic of the phrase "We sealed their ears" in the Qur'an is the verb daraba. This bears the metaphorical meaning of "We have made them sleep. Used in reference to the ears, daraba means "preventing the ears from hearing." The fact that only the sense of hearing is mentioned here is very significant.

According to recent scientific discoveries, the ear is the only sensory organ active while a person is sleeping. This is why we need an alarm clock to wake up. The wisdom of the pharse "We sealed their ears" is,in all probability, that Allah closed the hearing of the young people in question, for which reason they remain asleep for many years.

Friday, April 2, 2010

The Truth of Destiny

But you will not unless Allah wills. Allah is All-Knowning, All-Wise. (Qur'an, 76:30)

As a result of experiments he performed in 1973, Professor Benjamin Libet, a neurophysiologist at the university of California, revealed that all our decisions and choices are set out beforehand, and the consciousness only comes into play half a second after everything has been determined. This is interpreted by other neurophysiologists as meaning that we actually live in the past and that our consciousness is like a monitor which shows us everything half a second later.

Therefore, none of the experiences we perceive are in real time, but are delayed by up to half a second from the real events themselves. Libet carried out his research by making use of the fact that brain surgery can be performed without the use of narcosis, in other words while the subject is fully conscious. Libet stimulated the brains of his subjects with small electrical currents, and when they experienced a perception that their hads had been touched the subjects said that they felt that "touch" almost half a second before. As a result of this measurements, Libet arrived at the following conclusion:

All perceptions are normally transmitted to the brain. As these are subconsciously evaluated and interpreted, the ego is unaware of anything.The information that appear before our mind, in other words that we can be aware of, is transmitted to the cortex, the seat of consciousness, after a certain delay.

The conclusion from this may be summarised as follows: The decision to move a muscle takes place before that decision reaches the consciousness. There is always a delay between a neurological or perceptual process and our becoming aware of the thought, feeling, perception or movement it represents. To put it another way, we can only be aware of a decision after that decision has been taken.

In Professor Libet's experiments, this delay varies between 350 & 500 milliseconds, although the conclusion that emerges is in no way dependent upon those figures. Because according to Libet, whatever the lenght of that delay- it makes no difference whether it is great or small, whether it lasts an hour or a microsecond- ous physical life is always in the past. This demonstrates that every thought, emotion, perception or movement happens before reaching our consciousness, and that proves that the future is entirely outside our control.

In other experiments, Professor Libet left the choice of when the subjects would move their fingers up to them. The brains of the subjects were monitored at the momenttheir fingers moved, and it was observed that the relevant brain cells went into action before the subject actually took the decision. To put it another way, the command "do!" reaches the individual, and the brain is readied to perform the action; the individual only becomes aware of this half a second later. He or she does not take a decision to act and then performs that action, but rather performs an action predetermined for him or her. Yet, the brain makes an adjustment, removing any recognition that the individual is actually living in the past. For that reason, at the movement we refer to as "now", we are actually living something determined in the past. As already discussed, these studies manifest that fact that everything happens by the will of Allah, as revealed in Surat Al Insan 30.
(See Harun Yahya, Timelessness and the reality of Fate, Goodword Books, New Dehli, 2001)

There is also a Hadith based on it.

Narrated 'Ali رضى الله عنه: We were in the company of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and he said, "There is none among you but has his place written for him either in Paradise or in Hell-fire." We said, "O Allah's Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم! Shall we depend (on this fact and give up work)?" He صلى الله عليه وسلم replied, "No! Carry on doing good deeds, for everybody will find easy (to do) such deeds as will lead him to his destined place." Then the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم recited: "As for him who gives (in charity) and keeps his duty to Allah and fear Him, and believes in Al-Husna. We will make smooth for him the path of ease..."

Source: Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol 6, Hadith No.472).

Al-Husna means the Best (i.e either La ilaha illallah: none has the right to be worshipped but Allah) or a reward from Allah (i.e Allah will compensate him for what he will spend in Allah's way or bless him with Paradise).

Sunday, March 28, 2010

The Miracles in our body

'A Half-Developed eye cannot see'

What comes to your mind first when you hear tha word 'eye'? Are you aware that one of the most crucial things in life for you is your ability to see? Even if you are, have you ever thought what other signs you r eye bears?

The eye is one of the most manifest pieces of evidence that living creatures are created. All sight organs, including animals eyes and the human eye, are extremely striking examples of a perfect design. This exceptional organ is so overwhelmingly complex that it surpasses even the most sophisticated devices in the world.

In order for an eye to see, all of its parts have to co-exist and work in harmony. For instance, if an eye happened to have lost it eyelid, but still had all the other parts such as corena, conjunctive, iris, pupil, eyelenses, retina, choroid, eye muscles, and tear glands, it would still be greatly damaged and soon lose its seeing function. In the same manner, even if all its organelles were present, if the tear production were stopped, the eye would soon dry out and become blind.

'The chain of coincidences' posited by evolutionists loses all its meaning against the complex structure of the eye. It is not possible to explain the existance of the eye other than as a matter of special creation. The eye has a multi-sectioned complex system and as discussed above, all of these individual sections had to come into existence at the same time. It is impossible for a half-developed eye to function at 'half capacity'.



The eye, which has an extremely complex structure, is not able to see in the absence of even a single one of its components, for instance the tear glands, when the act of seeing takes place.

In such circumstances, the act of seeing can by no means take place. An evolutionist scientist admits to this truth:

The common trait of the eyes and the wings is that they can only function if they are fully developed. In other words, a halfway-developed eye cannot see; a bird with half-formed wings cannot fly.

In this case, we again face that very important question: who created all of the components of the eye all at once?

The owner of the eyes is obviously not the one who makes the decision about their formation. For it is impossible for a being devoid of the knowledge of what seeing is like, to desire to have a seeing organ and have it attached to his body. So we have to accept the existence of a Possessor of superior Wisdom Who has created living beings with senses such as seeing, hearing and so on. Another claim is that unconscious cells gained consciousness-requiring function such as seeing and hearing by their own desire and effort. It is very clear that this is impossible. In the Qur'an it is stated that seeing has been bestowed upon living being by Allah:

Say: He is Who brought you into being and made for you the ears and the eyes and the heart: little is it that you give thanks. (Surat al-Mulk, 23)

Friday, March 26, 2010

The Formation of the Universe

Until the mid-20th century, the prevalent view across the world was that the unniverse was infinate, had existed forever and that it will continue to do so for all time. According to this view, known as the "static universe model," the universe has no end or beginning.

I n maintaining that the universe is a collection of fixed, static and unchanging substances, this view has constituted the basis of materialist philosophy and has constituted the basis of materialist philsophy and has consequently rejected the existence of a creator. However, as science and technology progressed during the 20th century, the static universe model has been completely uprooted.

We have now entered the 21st century and a new dawn is upon us. Through numerous experiments, observations and calculation conducted by some of the world's most prominent thinkers, modern physics has proven that the universe did indeed have a beginning, that it came into being from nothing in a single moment in a huge explosion. Furthermore, it has been established that the universe is not fixed and static, as materialists still stubbornly maintain. On the contrary, it is undergoing a constant process of movement, change and expansion.

These recently established facts all act as nails in the coffin of the static universe theory. Today, all these facts are universally accepted by the scientific community.

The origin of the universe is described in the Qura'n in the following verse:

"He created the heavens and the earth from nothing." (Qur'an, 6:101)

This information is in full agreement witht the finding of contemporary scientists. As we stated earlier, the conclusion that astrophysics has reached today is that the entire universe, together with the dimensions of matter and time, came into existencee as a result of a great explosion that occured a long time ago. This event, known as "The big bang", is the catalyst for the ceation of the universe from nothingness.This explosion, all parties in the scientific community agree, emanated from a single point some 15 billion tears ago. (See Harun Yahya, The creation of the universe, Al-Attique Publishers Inc., Canada, 2000)

Before the Big Bang, there was no such thing as matter. From a condition of non-existence in which neither matter, nor energy, nor even time existed and which can only be described metaphysically matter, energy and time where all the created in an instant. This fact only recently discovered by modern physics, was announced to us in the Qur'an 1300 years ago.