RAMADAN 2006 The 11th Day
Harun Yahya
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| ADVICE FROM OUR PROPHET (SAAS) REGARDING FASTING, BROTHERHOOD AND PROPER MORAL VALUES DURING RAMADAN | ||||
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Religion according to Allah, not to People Allah has revealed in detail the kind of moral values people should have and the kind of lives they should lead. True moral values dictate that one lives scrupulously by Allah's commandments. Some people, however, avoid living by these moral values. They are strongly unwilling to submit fully to His stipulations. But seek to establish a model that will satisfy their own desires. To that end, they come up with various rules and principles of their own, and imagine that religion should also be compatible with these principles. They are willing to live by religious moral values only as far as these are compatible with their own standards and logic. Yet this is a grave error and deception, because true religious moral values are those revealed by Allah, not as interpreted and lived by human beings. In the Qur'an, Allah tells us of the errors committed by those who act in accordance with their own twisted logic and who fail to live according to the manner revealed by Him:
The False Conjecture of Those Who Act in Accord with What Others Decide
As this verse reveals, these misconceptions actually rebounded on the heads of those concerned, and by Allah's leave, our Prophet (saas) and his companions always emerged victorious. The verse "Do they then seek the judgment of the Time of Ignorance? . . ." (Surat al-Ma'ida: 50) tells us that one factor that leads the people in question to such a fate was that they did not want to act in the way that Allah instructed them but rather, according to the distorted logic they acquired during the Time of Ignorance. The fact is, however, that Allah has told us: "Who could be better at giving judgment than Allah for people with certainty?" (Surat al-Ma'ida: 50) Those Who Take Their Own Whims and Desires as Their deities One of the main barriers that keeps people from living by the moral values revealed by Allah is that they think selfishly, rather than with their intelligence and conscience. To put that another way, they act according to their whims and desires. This causes them to follow falsehood rather than the truth, as well as to inflict serious spiritual damage on themselves and those around them. In the Qur'an Allah has revealed that selves inevitably leads people to evil:
Another verse tells us that following one's own bent will lead to the most terrible troubles:
The religion sent down by Allah is ideally suited to human beings' creation. Interpretations resulting from people's own mindsets, cultures or experience, however, have led to a wide range of problems. Because those who does not live by the moral values of the Qur'an will want everything to suit their own desires. What matters to such people is their own satisfaction, and they never stop to think what the consequences of this may be. Even if they do so, their self-will gives their whims and desires the upper hand. When people act in the light of their selves, they give the greatest importance to their own comfort and their pastimes. The endless desires of those who fail to live by moral values are revealed in these terms in the Qur'an:
When a situation arises that is not as their selves had planned, these individuals may react in a most impulsive manner. They may engage in behaviors such as with anger, peevishness or emotionality that are incompatible with Qur'anic moral values. This causes them to act selfish, unloving, proud or inhuman. Such people love themselves more than anything else. Even when they claim to care for their friends, families, and those around them, their conception of love must still be compatible with their own selves. In other words, their love is founded on various worldly expectations, rather than on the approval, mercy and Paradise of Allah. First and foremost, obviously, all this will harm the individual concerned. People who constantly seek to satisfy their own selves will suffer the troubles caused by living with desires that wear them down. Instead of living in security, peace and moderation, they live in a state of restless worry. Since they are not submissive and do not act in the knowledge that everything they possess is a blessing from Allah, and they fear losing what they have or that events will not transpire the way they want, which anxiety does them grave psychological damage. One of the main features that distinguishes people who follow their own selves is that their love is always very superficial. Their affections are based on various superficial measures. Any reduction or decrease in these values causes their love to disappear in a moment. They are never steadfast in their affections. Nor do they properly appreciate the affection and interest that others bestow on them. Familiar examples are the way that children do not show their parents the proper interest and understanding, or how friendships come to a sudden end due to problems that could be easily resolved. This is doubtless one of the worst spiritual difficulties experienced by disbelievers, because love is a great blessing that Allah has bestowed on human beings. As part of their created nature, human beings are in a constant search for love, compassion and understanding. Whatever their circumstances may be, they want to be close to friends and relatives they can trust and love throughout the course of their lives. But people who act in the light of their own selfishness and fail to think and behave in accordance with Qur'anic moral values waste their whole lives bereft of this blessing. For the sake of this false love, they create an environment without compassion, sympathy, affection, patience or tolerance. | ||||
| EXAMPLES TO LIVING FOSSILS: | ||||
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HORSE CHESTNUT LEAF
Size: 12.7 centimeters (5 in) Location: North Dakota, USA Period: Paleocene
The horse chestnut leaf that lived 65-54 million years ago is no different from the horse chestnut leaves of today. This is only one of the many pieces of evidence showing that plants have not evolved.
FERN
Size: Largest: 10.2 centimeters (4 in); matrix: 33 centimeters (13 in) by 15.2 centimeters (6 in) Location: St. Clair, Pennsylvania, USA Period: Carboniferous
All the characteristics of ferns today were also shared by ferns that lived millions of years ago. Fossil records clearly reveal this. The 360 – 286 million-year-old fern pictured is the same as today's ferns.
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| THE NAMES OF ALLAH: | ||||
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Everything in the heavens and everything in the earth glorifies Allah, the King, the Holy, the Almighty, the All-Wise. (Qur'an, 62: 1)
Man, the servant of Allah, is totally helpless. He makes mistakes, forgets, is deceived and distracted. People are both physically and spiritually weak. All through their lives, they have to take care of their bodies and constantly pay great attention to them. If they make their bodies work a little too hard, go without sleep for a few days or go one day without water, they become very weak. All these things are created for man to think about and learn from. Allah, the Creator of all and "the possessor of the most beautiful names," is exalted over all these imperfections. | ||||
| THE EVOLUTION DECEIT: | ||||
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It Is Utterly Impossible for Proteins to Form by Chance It is mathematically impossible for proteins, the building blocks of life, to have formed by chance. For example, the odds of an average-sized protein molecule, which consists of 288 amino acids, emerging by chance is 1 in 10300. (This is an astronomical figure of 1 followed by 300 zeros.) In practical terms, it is impossible for this to happen. (In mathematics, chances smaller than 1 in 1050 are regarded as having zero probability.) The theory of evolution, which is unable to account for the formation of even a single protein in terms of chance, can never explain how the cell and even more complex structures came into being. Chance Combinations of Inanimate Molecules Cannot Account for Life Even if we assume that protein molecules did come into existence by chance, still it is impossible for life to emerge spontaneously. Thousands of further stages are needed in order to progress from a protein to a cell. Above all, any protein that happens to form by chance will have to wait patiently for other proteins to form alongside, while not itself suffering any impairment due to ultraviolet rays or mechanical effects in its immediate environment. Then these other proteins must form in sufficient numbers and at the same point and combine in a meaningful manner in such a way as to constitute the organelles of the cell. No foreign substance, harmful molecule or useless protein must enter the sequence. Then, these organelles have to combine in an exceptionally planned and organized manner, attract the requisite enzymes and be covered with a membrane. And then finally, the interior of that membrane must be filled with a special fluid that provides an ideal environment for these organelles. Yet by itself, every one of these stages is impossible.
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| THE SIGNS LEADING TO FAITH : | ||||
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The Marvellous Cooperation Of The Ant And The Bird There are microbes everywhere that threaten our health and cause diseases. These microbes are a danger to other living creatures as well as human beings. Therefore these creatures, too, need to protect themselves just as we do. When living creatures are observed, we see that they use some methods to protect themselves against microbes. For instance, ants produce a kind of acidic substance that incapacitates microbes. They apply this acidic substance to their bodies and to the walls of their nest. In other words, they know that not only they themselves but also the nest they live in should be purified of microbes.
This knowledge is taught to the ant by a superior Being: Allah, the Lord of all the worlds and the Creator of everything, reveals to the ant how to protect itself from microbes. Now let's take birds as another example of living creatures that should be protected against microbes. Microbes disturb birds too, but birds do not have a system in their bodies to produce protective substances as ants do. Consequently birds have found a different but equally practical solution to this problem. They go to and lie upon an ant's nest, and wait for the ants to wander through their feathers. Ants that search for food stroll among the bird's feathers and the substance that kills the microbes is smeared on the bird's feathers as they do so. Thus, the bird is purified of microbes. How do birds know that ants produce such a substance and that this substance will remove microbes from their bodies? The fact that birds can know about a substance produced in an ant's body and can know how to make use of it leads us to a single fact: Allah teaches this information to both creatures. Allah has revealed that every being is under His command :
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| BOOK OF THE DAY: | ||||
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Everything you do is immediately recorded, even as you are reading this book. You are fast approaching the day when you will be called by Allah to account for your actions. So we hope to be amongst those who have earned Allah's pleasure through fearful awareness of Him.
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| SITE OF THE DAY: | ||||
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ISLAM AND KARMA . COM 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. However, these religions espouse many beliefs and practices that conflict with reason and logic. |
Living by what other people's opinions instead of by what Allah has revealed causes such people to draw exceedingly distorted and twisted conclusions. For example, the hypocrites living in the time of our Prophet (saas) sought to create a climate of strife with their inferences, and aimed to turn believers away from the true path. Allah has described the ugly characteristics of hypocrites and idolaters: 
Age: 65 to 54 million years old
Age: 360 to 286 million years old
Allah is the sole Creator of everything on the earth, in the sky, in the depths of space and under the ground. The order, law and harmony that we can see just by looking around us all belong to Him. The worlds that we cannot see or perceive have also yielded to Allah. As revealed in the Qur'an, "Allah keeps a firm hold on the heavens and earth, preventing them from vanishing away. And if they vanished no one could then keep hold of them. Certainly He is Most Forbearing, Ever-Forgiving." (Qur'an, 35: 41) it is Our Lord who creates and maintains all things.
How is it that a little ant can know to act so intelligently? No doubt the ant's intellectual power is not enough for that. An ant can know neither what a microbe is nor that it should protect itself from it. The ant should have first analysed the microbe and then found the substance to render it harmless. But how could it have determined this substance? 
The Day of Judgment is a fearsome reality to be reflected upon with awe so that it becomes impossible to remain unaffected by it. However, this fear is only applicable to people of faith and is a particular type of fear because Allah has described what will happen on the Day of Judgment in numerous Qur'anic verses; the scribes, witnesses and the enormous congregation of people. This is an absolute certainty, which is unconditionally accepted by true believers who are fearful of facing such a terrifying ordeal.
