RAMADAN 2005 The 27th Day
Harun Yahya|
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| Miracles of the Qur’an: | ||||||||||||
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Prophet Lut (as) lived at the same time as Prophet Ibrahim (as) and was sent as a messenger to a neighboring tribe to Prophet Ibrahim (as). That tribe, according to the Qur'an, practiced a perversion never before seen in the world: homosexuality. When Prophet Lut (as) told the people to abandon one of the greatest sins and delivered to them the message of Allah, they rejected him. They denied that he was a prophet and continued with their horrid lifestyle. As a result of this, the tribe was destroyed in a terrible disaster by Allah.
This city, in which Prophet Lut (as) lived and which was later destroyed, is called "Sodom" in the Old Testament. It appears that this people, who lived to the north of the Red Sea, was destroyed in a manner compatible with the description in the Qur'an. Archaeological excavations have revealed that the city lay close to the Dead Sea on the present-day Israeli-Jordanian border. According to scientists, the area is covered in large deposits of sulphur. For this reason, no life in the form of animals or plants is to be found there and the region stands as a symbol of destruction. Sulphur is an element which appears as a result of volcanic eruptions. Indeed, there is clear evidence in the Qur'an that the method of destruction was earthquake and volcanic eruptions. The German archaeologist Werner Keller says this about the region:
The technical aspect of the disaster suffered by the people of Lut has been revealed in studies carried out by geologists. These have shown that the earthquake which wiped out the people of Lut came about as the result of a very long fault line. The Jordan River drops a total of 180 meters (590 feet) during its 190 km (118 miles) course. This, and the fact that the Dead Sea is 400 meters below sea level, combined to prove that that there once took place a major geological event in and around this area. This interesting structure of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea comprise only part of the crack or fissure which passes through this region. It begins at the slopes of the Taurus Mountains and runs southward past the southern shores of the Dead Sea, through the Arabian Desert, reaching the Gulf of Aqaba, from where it crosses the Red Sea before coming to an end in Africa. There is major volcanic activity in those areas through which the line passes. In fact, this occurs to such an extent that black basalt and lava can be found in the Mountains of Galilee in Israel, in part of the high plateaus in Jordan, the Gulf of Aqaba and other areas. All these remains and geographical features show that there was a major geological event at the Dead Sea. The December 1957 edition of National Geographic contained these statements on the subject: The mount of Sodom, a barren wasteland, rises sharply above the dead sea. No one has ever found the destroyed cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but scholars believe that they stood in the Vale of Siddim across from these cliffs. Possibly flood waters of the Dead Sea engulfed them following an earthquake. One of the pieces of information regarding this destroyed city is-as revealed in Surat al-Hijr 76-that these cities are still on the main line. Geographers have identified this region as being on a line to the south-east of the Dead Sea, extending from the Arabian Peninsula to Syria and Egypt. (See Harun Yahya, Perished Nations, Ta-Ha Publishers, UK, 2001; Global Publishing, Istanbul, 2002)
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The result of the confrontation was completely unexpected for Pharaoh, the magicians and the spectators alike. The magicians, who had been so self-assured and arrogant of their superiority, were defeated. Furthermore, this total defeat took place right before the eyes of the people of Egypt. The impact of the defeat was even greater for the magicians. Their spectacle, which was merely an illusion, they knew very well not to have been real. They had devised tricks to deceive people into believing that their system—and consequently Pharaoh's system—was divinely powerful. However, Musa's (as) miracles presented something different. They grasped that his feat was neither illusion, nor a magician's tricks. The staff of Musa (as) had actually devoured their trickery. The magicians, therefore, grasped that this was a real miracle, and a sign of the existence of Allah, and an evidence of Allah's support to Musa (as). Thereupon, they embraced faith:
At that moment, the whole system was turned on its head. Pharaoh, who openly challenged Musa (as), being so overly confident that he would win, was in fact defeated, with his magicians finally believing in Musa (as). Pharaoh could not accept the decision of the magicians. According to his perverted rationale, he was the sole owner of the land—even of the people—, and thought himself entitled to authorize whether or not people be allowed to convert to another belief:
Deluded by his own distorted mind, Pharaoh tried to rationalize the situation. An obvious miracle had just occurred, and followed by an ignominious defeat, the magicians came to have faith in the Lord of Musa (as). What should have been expected of Pharaoh then was to openly admit the occurrence of a miracle and to accept to be rightly guided. On the contrary, however, he offered himself false interpretations, fabricating scenarios which he himself knew were imaginary. Thus, he convinced himself that Musa (as) and the magicians were conspiring to seize power over Egypt. Furthermore, he assumed that it was Musa (as) who had taught them magic:
That is how Pharaoh witnessed the irrefutable signs and miracles of Allah but resisted and denied the truth. In fact, his behavior was typical of all those who deny the truth. Those people, resolved to remain in disbelief, adhere to it no matter how incontrovertible are the signs put forth to them. They resort to any form of delusion in order to legitimize their denial. In every society and in every age, we will find countless unbelievers infected with the resolute obstinacy of Pharaoh, who have denied the existence, oneness and the righteousness of Allah's religion. Nevertheless, Pharaoh knew that his obstinacy would not save him. The defeat of his magicians and their acceptance of faith in the Lord of Musa (as) greatly destabilized his authority. In one way or another, he would have to defuse the situation and re-establish his power. For this purpose, he resorted to violence, threatening the believing magicians with torture and death. However, already cognizant of the truth of the message of Allah, the magicians turned to Allah in submission. In several verses of the Qur'an, we find the magicians expressing their resolve in their belief:
As is explained in the above verses, these people of faith did not yield to the threats of Pharaoh, or submit to him, because they grasped that if they were to be killed, they would return to Allah, Who is the Creator of everything. All the while, they dearly hoped that Allah would forgive their indulging in denial prior to accepting belief, and their adversarial attitude they had adopted against the religion. Because Allah is the forgiver and the merciful. From then on, Pharaoh's rule over the people became increasingly malicious. He sought to steer the people through his power. Due to the oppression he meted out, no one, except for a small group of young people from the people of Musa (as), followed Musa (as). Only these few young people showed the courage and sincerity to follow in the magicians' footsteps. The majority, on the other hand, did not appreciate the power of the Almighty Allah, and, having no fear of Him, rejected faith. This is conveyed in the Qur'an as follows:
One of those to have put her faith in Musa (as) was the wife of Pharaoh. This noble woman, who previously shared so many worldly favors with Pharaoh, not only dared to leave all such riches behind, but also to make herself the object of Pharaoh's violence. Her choice is clearly the sign of a very profound and sincere faith. Indeed, along with Maryam (Mary), the Qur'an refers to the wife of Pharaoh as a faithful woman whose conduct was exemplary:
The sincere devotion of Pharaoh's wife to Allah is a great example for all Muslims. This true believer abandoned the riches of this world, and acknowledged that the real life would be in the Hereafter. She preferred the blessings of the Hereafter over the benefits of this short, though deceptively dazzling life. She prayed to Allah only for a house in Paradise. Without a doubt, such a sincere prayer, filled with a spiritual devotion towards the Hereafter, is a fine example for all those who believe.
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Last year, an excavation team under the leadership of Australian and Indonesian scientists unearthed the remains of eight human beings of rather short stature and small brain volume in the Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores. The fossils were ascribed the name Homo floresiensis (Flores Man) after the island on which they were discovered. Evolutionists have perpetrated distortions in order to fit these findings to the evolution myth, and a discovery that actually deals a severe blow to Darwinism has been turned into a propaganda tool by the Darwinist media. However, the evolutionist claim that H. floresiensis represents a separate species to modern-day man continues to retreat in the face of increasing objections. The Times Online, the Internet edition of The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers, summarized the developments on the subject in these terms:
The development that fuelled the flames was the way that other experts have supported the views of Indonesian scientists who object to H. floresiensis being depicted as a separate species from Homo sapiens. Heading the list of these are the Australian scientists Dr. Maciej Henneberg and Dr. Alan Thorne, and researchers from Chicago's Field Museum in America. The new objections, like those of the Indonesian scientists, stress that Flores Man may have suffered from the neurological disease known as microcephaly. One important piece of support for this view came from Professor Maciej Henneberg, an anatomist and expert paleopathologist of 32 years' standing. Henneberg, head of the Department of Anatomical Sciences, the University of Adelaide, Australia, first examined the Flores Man skull measurements published on the Nature magazine website. At that point another skull with a similar structure came to the scientist's mind. The skull in question was a 4,000-year-old Homo sapiens specimen unearthed on the island of Crete. This skull, belonging to a H. sapiens individual, possessed rather small dimensions, and scientists examining it had already described it in terms of microcephaly. As a result of statistical comparisons he performed on 15 skull measurements, the Australian scientist revealed that there was "no significant difference" between the two. Henneberg, whose objections were reported in the well-known US journal Science (1), concluded that the Flores Man skull measurements stemmed from microcephaly. The researcher also noted that Flores Man's facial anatomy was within H. sapiens limits. Another study by Henneberg that revealed striking results regarding Flores Man was his calculations regarding a forearm (radius) bone found in a cave. From the length of the bone, determined as 210 mm (8.3 inches), Henneberg calculated that its owner would have been between 151 and 162 cm (4.9 - 5.3ft) tall. These figures were rather greater than the 1 meter (3ft) attributed to Flores Man, and were within bounds considered normal for present-day human beings. Henneberg announced the conclusion he had reached as a result of these analyses:
Robert Martin, a primatologist from Chicago's Field Museum, and the archaeologist James Phillips made the following statement in support of the microcephaly theory with regard to Flores Man's small brain volume: "The lone skull came from a woman who had microcephaly, a rare disorder that causes a tiny head and brain. Microcephaly causes the face to grow at a normal rate, but not the head. People wind up with a sloping forehead and no chin – just like Hobbit." (4) (Hobbit: The nickname given to Flores Man taken from the film The Lord of the Rings.) In the face of these objections, the groundlessness of the description of Flores Man as a separate species from H. sapiens was once again revealed. Henneberg's analyses were certainly largely responsible for this: given that the 4,000-year-old H. sapiens individual was announced to have suffered from microcephaly, why should Flores Man, with identical skull measurements, be described as a different species?
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| Quick Grasp of Faith: | ||||||||||||
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On the Day of Judgment, each person will meet every action that they performed and every thought that crossed their minds when they were in the world. As "... Allah is witness of all things" (Surat al-Hajj: 17) informs us, Allah witnesses everything that each person does in the world. The Qur’an mentions those who will serve as witnesses on that Day and provides some details about them, as follows:
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| Many people today are looking for a way to establish a way of life that will bring them contentment, inner certainty and peace. Some of these seekers believe they will find the happiness and peace of mind they are looking for in religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism. Many people have been influenced by these eastern religions because of their aura of mystery and mysticism, and because they make use of techniques such as meditation, and because of the unusual attitudes, dress, manner of speech and religious practices of those who follow them. However, these religions espouse many beliefs and practices that conflict with reason and logic. This site deals both with those aspects of the belief in karma that concern good ethical practices that accord with the teachings of the Qur’an, and with those erroneous aspects that accord neither with the Qu’ran, nor with human reason and nor with human conscience. | ||||||||||||
Dolphin snouts also served as a model for the designers of the Concorde. In a study conducted by engineers to reduce air friction on the outer surface of the Concorde, the spindle-shaped snout of the dolphin inspired them. The tail fin of the fish works as an engine in the water. Similarly, Concorde's motors were placed at the rear as is the driving motor-like fin of the dolphin and a very good result was obtained.
