RAMADAN 2005 The 4th Day
Harun Yahya|
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| Ayat of the Day | ||||||||||||
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| Hadith of the Day: | ||||||||||||
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| Miracles of the Qur’an: | ||||||||||||
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THE FORMATION OF HAIL, THUNDER AND LIGHTNING
In the following verse, however, attention is drawn to the link between rain clouds and lightning, and to the order of formation, information that parallels that discovered by science:
Rain clouds are tremendous masses covering 20 to 260 square meters (10 to 100 square miles) and reaching great vertical heights of 9,000 to 12,000 meters (30,000 to 40,000 ft.). Due to these extraordinary dimensions, the lower part of these clouds are dark. It is impossible for the Sun's rays to pass through them, because of the large quantities of water and ice particles they contain. Very little solar energy therefore reaches the Earth through the clouds, which is why the clouds appear dark to someone looking up at them. The stages of the formation of thunder and lightning after that darkness, mentioned in the verse, are as follows: An electrical charge forms inside the rain cloud. This comes about as a result of such processes as freezing, the division of raindrops and charge formation during contact. The accumulation of such electrical charges, when the air between becomes unable to insulate them, leads to a great spark, a discharge between the positive and negative fields. The voltage between two oppositely charged areas can reach 1 billion volts. The spark can also form within the cloud, can cross between two clouds, from a positively charged area to a negative one, or be discharged from the cloud to the ground. These sparks form dazzling lightning strikes. This sudden increase in the electrical charge along the line of lightning causes intense heat (10,000 degrees Celsius [18,030 degrees Fahrenheit]). As a result, there is a sudden expansion of the air, which in turn causes the loud noise associated with thunder. As has been discussed, dark layers, followed by the electrically charged sparks known as lightning, and then the loud noise called thunder, form within a rain cloud. Everything modern science has established about clouds, and has to say about the causes of thunder and lightning, is in complete accord with the descriptions in the Qur'an.
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| Wonders of Creation: | ||||||||||||
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THE CAMEL
In the 17th verse of Surat al-Ghashiyya, Allah refers to an animal, which we are to examine carefully and think about: the "camel". What makes the camel "a special living being" is its body structure, which is not affected even by the most severe conditions. Its body has such features that allow it to survive for days without water or food, and it can travel with a load of hundreds of kilograms on its back for days. The characteristics of the camel prove that this animal is brought into being particularly for dry climatic conditions, and that it is given to the service of mankind. This is an evident sign of creation for men of understanding.
Extraordinary Resistance to Thirst and Hunger The camel can survive without food and water for eight days at a temperature of 50oC. In this period, it loses 22% of its total body weight. While a man will be near death if he loses body water equivalent to about 12% of his body weight, a lean camel can survive losing body water equivalent to 40% of its body weight. Improved Water Utilization Unit Camels can consume up to 130 liters of water, which is around one third of their body weight, in almost 10 minutes. Besides, camels have a mucus structure in their nose that is 100 times larger than that of humans. With its huge and curved nose mucus, camels can hold 66% of the moisture in the air. Maximum Benefit from Food and Water Most animals die by poisoning when accumulated urea in the kidneys diffuses into the blood. However, camels make maximum use of water and food by passing this urea numerous times through the liver. Both the blood and the cell structures of the camel are specialized in order to enable this animal to survive for long periods without water in desert conditions. The hump is the other support of the camel. One fifth of the camel's total body weight is stored as fat in its hump. The storage of the body fat in only one part of the camel's body prevents the excretion of water from all over its body - which is related to fat. This allows the camel to use the minimum of water. Precaution against Tornadoes and Storms The eyes of camels have two eyelash layers. The eyelashes interlock like a trap and protect the eyes of the animal from harsh sandstorms. In addition, camels can close their nostrils so that no sand enters. Protection against Burning and Freezing Weather Conditions The thick and impenetrable hairs on the camel's body prevent the scorching Sun of the desert from reaching the skin of the animal. These also keep the animal warm in freezing weather. Desert camels are not affected by high temperatures up to 50oC, and double-humped Bactrian camels can survive in very low temperatures down to -50oC. Camels of this kind can survive even in high valleys, 4,000 meters above sea level. Protection against Burning Sand The camels’ feet, which are large in proportion to its legs, are specially "designed" and enlarged to help the animal walk in the sand without becoming stuck. These feet possess a wide spread form and puffy qualities. In addition, the special thick skin under the soles is a protection against the burning desert sand. Let us think in the light of these pieces of information: has the camel on its own adapted its own body to desert conditions? Has it by itself formed the mucus in its nose or the hump on its back? Has it by itself designed its own nose and eye structures in order to protect itself against tornadoes and storms? Has it by itself based its own blood and cell structures on the principle of conservation of water? Has it itself chosen the type of hair covering its body? Has it on its own converted itself to a "ship of the desert"? Just as any other living being, the camel surely could not perform any of the above and make itself beneficial to mankind. The verse in the Qur’an stating, "Have they not looked at the camel - how it was created?" draws our attention to the creation of this excellent animal in the best way. Like all other creatures, the camel too is endowed with many special qualities and then placed on Earth as a sign of the excellence of the Creator in creation. Created with such superior physical features, the camel is decreed to serve mankind. As for humans, they are ordered to see like miracles of creation throughout the universe and revere the Creator of all beings: Allah. | ||||||||||||
| Lives of the Prophets: | ||||||||||||
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Every prophet was charged with informing his tribe of Allah’s commands and prohibitions. Prophet Noah (as), Prophet Salih (as) (of Thamud), Prophet Lot (as), Prophet Shuayb (as) (of Madyan), Prophet Moses (as) (of the Children of Israel), Prophet Jesus (as), and all other prophets informed their tribes of Allah’s existence and called on them to live by the true religion’s moral values. However, these prophets often found that the majority of their tribes denied Allah and rejected them and even initiated multifaceted struggles against them consisting of vile slanders, threats, and aggression. In some cases, they resorted to forced expulsion, arrest, or murder to prevent the prophets from performing their God-given tasks. Allah reveals how the traps set for Prophet Muhammad (saas) will end in failure:
Prophet Abraham’s (as) tribe worshipped statues that their ancestors had made from stone and wood. Prophet Abraham (as), who had the determination and the powerful faith to single-handedly tell them of Allah’s existence and oneness, was sent to guide them from their blind devotion to their ancestors’ paganism into the light of His religion. Throughout history, the majority has often decided which ideas and beliefs are to be accepted as true. Given that it is difficult to stand up against the majority in societies that are far from religion, many people eventually agree, either willingly or unwillingly, to submit to ideas and beliefs that they know to be wrong. The prophets and the believers who followed them, however, always opposed the unbelieving majority and displayed enormous courage in the face of the ensuing pressure, threats, or attacks. They remained loyal to Allah’s religion by scrupulously performing their religious observations and abiding by our Lord’s commands out of their fear and awe of Him, as well as their complete trust in Him. Prophet Abraham (as), whom Allah praised as being “a community in himself” (Surat an-Nahl: 120), stood alone against his father and his entire pagan tribe. He patiently explained why their idols could never attain any divine quality and that the only true deity was Allah. His opposition to his tribe’s paganism, as well as his method of challenging their superstitions and working to guide them to the true path despite their hostility, clearly revealed his powerful faith, submission, sincerity, and superior character. All of these characteristics made him a courageous and determined individual. The Qur’an relates some of his words, as follows:
Such conversations with his tribe reveal many pleasing examples of his deep and strong faith. Thanks to the superior wisdom and understanding imparted to him by our Lord, Prophet Abraham (as) gave enormously effective addresses and the wisest of examples. Looked at with the eye of wisdom, present-day Muslims can use his means and methods to invite their own people to believe in Allah. | ||||||||||||
| Evolution Deceit: | ||||||||||||
| The Myth of Horse Evolution One important subject in the origin of mammals is the myth of the "evolution of the horse," also a topic to which evolutionist publications have devoted a considerable amount of space for a long time. This is a myth, because it is based on imagination rather than scientific findings.Until recently, an imaginary sequence supposedly showing the evolution of the horse was advanced as the principal fossil evidence for the theory of evolution. Today, however, many evolutionists themselves frankly admit that the scenario of horse evolution is bankrupt. In 1980, a four-day symposium was held at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, with 150 evolutionists in attendance, to discuss the problems with the gradualistic evolutionary theory. In addressing this meeting, evolutionist Boyce Rensberger noted that the scenario of the evolution of the horse has no foundation in the fossil record, and that no evolutionary process has been observed that would account for the gradual evolution of horses: The popularly told example of horse evolution, suggesting a gradual sequence of changes from four-toed fox-sized creatures living nearly 50 million years ago to today's much larger one-toed horse, has long been known to be wrong. Instead of gradual change, fossils of each intermediate species appear fully distinct, persist unchanged, and then become extinct. Transitional forms are unknown.1 While discussing this important dilemma in the scenario of the evolution of the horse in a particularly honest way, Rensberger brought the transitional form difficulty onto the agenda as the greatest difficulty of all. The well-known paleontologist Colin Patterson, a director of the Natural History Museum in London, where "evolution of the horse" diagrams were on public display at that time on the ground floor of the museum, said the following about the exhibition: There have been an awful lot of stories, some more imaginative than others, about what the nature of that history [of life] really is. The most famous example, still on exhibit downstairs, is the exhibit on horse evolution prepared perhaps fifty years ago. That has been presented as the literal truth in textbook after textbook. Now I think that is lamentable, particularly when the people who propose those kinds of stories may themselves be aware of the speculative nature of some of that stuff.2 Then what is the basis for the scenario of the evolution of the horse? This scenario was formulated by means of the deceitful charts devised by the sequential arrangement of fossils of distinct species that lived at vastly different periods in India, South Africa, North America, and Europe, solely in accordance with the rich power of evolutionists' imaginations. More than 20 charts of the evolution of the horse, which by the way are totally different from each other, have been proposed by various researchers. Thus, it is obvious that evolutionists have reached no common agreement on these family trees. The only common feature in these arrangements is the belief that a dog-sized creature called Eohippus (Hyracotherium), which lived in the Eocene period 55 million years ago, was the ancestor of the horse. However, the fact is that Eohippus, which became extinct millions of years ago, is nearly identical to the hyrax, a small rabbit-like animal which still lives in Africa and has nothing whatsoever to do with the horse.3 The inconsistency of the theory of the evolution of the horse becomes increasingly apparent as more fossil findings are gathered. Fossils of modern horse species (Equus nevadensis and Equus occidentalis) have been discovered in the same layer as Eohippus.4 This is an indication that the modern horse and its so-called ancestor lived at the same time.
The evolutionist science writer Gordon R. Taylor explains this little-acknowledged truth in his book The Great Evolution Mystery: But perhaps the most serious weakness of Darwinism is the failure of paleontologists to find convincing phylogenies or sequences of organisms demonstrating major evolutionary change... The horse is often cited as the only fully worked-out example. But the fact is that the line from Eohippus to Equus is very erratic. It is alleged to show a continual increase in size, but the truth is that some variants were smaller than Eohippus, not larger. Specimens from different sources can be brought together in a convincing-looking sequence, but there is no evidence that they were actually ranged in this order in time.5 All these facts are strong evidence that the charts of horse evolution, which are presented as one of the most solid pieces of evidence for Darwinism, are nothing but fantastic and implausible fairy tales. Like other species, horses, too, came into existence without ancestors in the evolutionary sense. 1. Boyce Rensberger, Houston Chronicle, November 5, 1980, p. 15. (emphasis added) | ||||||||||||
| Quick Grasp of Faith: | ||||||||||||
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Envy is condemned in the Qur'an. Allah has revealed that He created the soul of mankind prone to selfishness, but that believers should be wary of it:
Some people answer “yes” or “a bit” when they are asked if they are jealous. Yet they do not think much about the meaning hidden behind this answer. Jealousy comes as a result of not accepting that somebody else is superior to oneself in a particular aspect. This, indeed, is an attitude which may lead a person even to haughtiness against Allah, because it is Allah Who grants people everything they possess; He gives as He wills and no one can ever prevent this. The Prophet (saas) also warns believers against envy: Beware of envy because envy consumes [destroys] the virtues just as the fire consumes the firewood. (Abu Dawud) Apart from this, it is also related in the Qur'an that Satan rebelled against Allah by not prostrating himself before Adam. We are informed that he regards himself superior to Adam. So we face an important fact at this point: jealousy is, in fact, an attribute of Satan, and anyone who fears Allah should strictly avoid it. In the Qur'an, Allah tells believers to take refuge in Him to protect themselves from the evil of the envious:
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| Book Review: | ||||||||||||
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Only love can defeat terrorism This book maintains that only love, tolerance and peace can eradicate terrorism and reveals, with quotations from the Qur'an, the New Testament and the Torah, that terrorism is a form of savagery condemned by all divine religions. With examples from history, the book demonstrates that the only way to fight terrorism is to embrace the sentiments fostered by the values of religion, such as love, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance and justice... >> | ||||||||||||
| Site of the Day: | ||||||||||||
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You will read all the details about the creation of the universe in this site. Today, science shows that the universe was created with a Big Bang from nothing in a single moment. You will read everything you would like to know about the perfect creation of the universe in this site. Besides, you can also find in this site the stages that took place from the Big Bang until our day, illustrated by striking photographs.
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The above verse refers to hail and lightning. When the formation of hail and lightning are examined, it can be seen that an important meteorological truth is being indicated in this verse. About the formation of lightning and hail, the book Meteorology Today says that a cloud becomes electrified as hail falls through a region in the cloud of supercooled droplets and ice crystals. Liquid droplets freeze and release latent heat as they collide with a hailstone. This keeps the surface of the hailstone warmer than that of the surrounding ice crystals. An important phenomenon occurs when the hailstone comes in contact with an ice crystal: Electrons flow from the colder object toward the warmer one. In this way, the hailstone becomes negatively charged. This effect also occurs when supercooled droplets come in contact with a hailstone and small pieces of positively charged ice break off. These particles, which are lighter and positively charged, are carried to the upper part of the cloud by currents of air. The hail has a negative charge now, and falls towards the bottom of the cloud, thus the lower part of the cloud becomes negatively charged. These negative charges are then discharged as lightning. It may be concluded from this that hail is the main factor in the formation of lightning.
It is beyond doubt that all beings, with the features they possess, reflect the unbounded power and knowledge of their Creator. Allah expresses this in numerous verses in the Qur’an, where He points out that everything He creates is actually a sign, that is, a symbol and warning.
