RAMADAN 2007 The 14th Day

You have an excellent model in the Messenger of Allah, for all who put their hope in Allah and the Last Day and remember Allah much. (Surat al-Ahzab: 21)

	"Allah would say to the inmates of Paradise: 'I shall cause My pleasure to alight upon you'" (Muslim)

THE PATIENCE OF BELIEVERS

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HARUN YAHYA

For a believer, the scope of patience is not limited to enduring difficulties and problems with calmness. In the light of the verse, "You who believe, be steadfast; be supreme in steadfastness…" (Surah Al 'Imran, 200), throughout his life, he shows an undeviating commitment to meticulously fulfilling all the commands of the Qur'an, to avoiding what is unlawful, to displaying moral perfection in every situation, without becoming daunted or losing heart. In short, he resolutely shows the patience and good manners prescribed by the religion. That is because one can develop these noble character traits only if one makes a steady effort. It is the people of faith who exhibit patience when making such efforts. As the Prophet Muhammad (saas) informed Muslims in the following hadith, they know that patience is a gift for them from Allah:

"No-one can be given a better and more abundant gift than patience." (Bukhârî and Muslim)

That is why patience permeates the entire life of a man of faith and manifests itself in all his acts and attitudes. A believer shows profound patience in compliance with the command of our Lord, "So be patient with gracious patience." (Surat al-Ma'arij, 5) He shows patience in humility and becomes the most humble person; he shows patience in spending for the cause of Allah and becomes the most generous person; he shows patience in not preferring his own self and becomes the most self-sacrificing person…

The following example in the Qur'an about the patience evinced in displaying moral perfection will give us a better understanding of this concept:

A good action and a bad action are not the same. Requite the bad with something better and, if there is enmity between you and someone else, he will become like a bosom friend. None will attain this attribute save those who are truly steadfast. None will attain it save those who have great good fortune. (Surah Fussilat, 34-35)

As the verse points out, Allah commands man to respond to an evil act in the best manner possible and stresses that only those who are patient can be successful in doing so. This example clearly shows that if moral perfection is to be displayed, it is important to be patient.

Never feeling frustrated in the face of events that are seemingly negative is another attribute of a believer. Alternatively, when he has a blessing bestowed upon him he never becomes spoiled.

An individual can be very generous, self-sacrificing and very humble at certain times of his life. Or, he may remain strong in the face of hardships. However, failure to demonstrate these favourable character traits under certain conditions, and thus having some limits or weak points, may invalidate one's preceding efforts to conducting oneself correctly. One must incorporate all these values in one's character. These qualities must be far from being imitative, fake, shallow or temporary; they must be components of an established Qur'anic structure. Allah also states that consistently displayed good values that have become an integral part of one's character are worthy in Allah's sight: "… But, in your Lord's sight, right actions which are lasting bring a better reward and are a better basis for hope of salvation." (Surat al-Kahf, 46)

Patience is one of the most important signs of a believer's sincerity and efforts to draw near to Allah: one can only show patience in relation with his sincerity and closeness to Allah. Believers who are committed to displaying these traits compete with other believers in being patient. If making a sacrifice is in question, they conduct themselves most correctly and bring all their material and physical resources into play. Attention is drawn to this trait in a verse which reads: "…those who are steadfast in seeking the face of their Lord …" (Surat ar-Ra'd, 22) Encountering a difficulty, such people turn to Allah without harbouring any feelings of distress or uncertainty in their hearts. This was also expressed by our Prophet (saas):

"Wondrous are the believer's affairs. For him there is good in all his affairs, and this is so only for the believer. When something pleasing happens to him, he is grateful, and that is good for him; and when something displeasing happens to him, he is patient, and that is good for him." (Muslim)

People often misinterpret patience and think of it as "putting up with something." This is but a distant connotation of patience experienced and felt by a believer, since "putting up with something" is an obligatory form of endurance shown in the face of a distressing and painful situation. The patience shown for the cause of Allah, however, is not a source of distress, but a great cause of pleasure and happiness. A man of perfected faith shows patience in order to earn the approval of Allah, and thus does not become depressed. On the contrary, with the hope of receiving the blessings and rewards Allah promises in return for his patience, he derives great pleasure from it. Allah informs us in the Qur'an that patience is distressing for disbelievers:

Seek help in steadfastness and prayer. But that is a very hard thing, except for the humble. (Surat al-Baqara, 45)

The patience of a believer is so profound that his patience and imploration never wavers, even though he cannot eliminate a problem or attain his wishes until death overtakes him. He knows that Allah keeps everything under His control and that he will earn great rewards in return for his patience. For this reason, he is content with Allah no matter which situations he encounters, he believes in His eternal compassion and mercy, and puts His trust in Him. If Allah does not answer his call immediately, he certainly knows a greater goodness and beauty are hidden in this. He never forgets that Allah answers all prayers and gives an excellent reward to those who are patient. And His promise is true.

(For further reading see, "The Perfected Faith " by Harun Yahya.)

FLIGHT ENGINES: DRAGONFLIES

HARUN YAHYA

The dragonfly has a flawless flying capacity, so much so that it can stop suddenly and begin to fly in the opposite direction at whatever speed or in whatever direction it chooses. Moreover, it can hang in the air in a suitable position to attack its prey. In addition, it can head towards its prey, making agile turns to do so. These are only some of the maneuvering skills of the dragonfly that have provided inspiration for helicopters, the products of today's advanced technology.

The body of the dragonfly has a helical structure wrapped with a metal covering. The dragonfly, which can have various colors, from ice blue to maroon, has two pairs of wings on its back, one pair in front and the other pair to the rear. The wings work in a coordinated way. In other words, as the two front wings rise, the two wings at the rear descend. The movement of the wings is accomplished by the movements of two opposite groups of muscles. One end of the muscles is attached to extensions in the body in the shape of a lever. While one group of muscles contracts and causes a pair of wings to rise, the other group of muscles loosens to the same degree and causes the second pair of wings to fall. In fact, helicopters that are produced using dragonflies as their model descend and ascend using the same principle.

The perfect flight of dragonflies is realized by these four large independent wings carrying its body's weight. This feature enables the insect to make sudden maneuvers, increase its speed and fly at a speed that reaches 10 meters (33 feet) per second. 1

The sight capacity of the dragonfly, which can make sudden maneuvers at very high speeds, is also perfect. The eye of the dragonfly is considered, in scientific circles, as the finest insect eye in the world. Each of its eyes contains 30,000 individual lenses. The eyes look like two hemispheres covering half of its head, and they provide a very broad field of vision for the insect. With these extraordinary eyes, the dragonfly can almost see what's happening behind its back. 2

The dragonfly has a perfectly structured individual system. The slightest deficiency in any one part of these systems will cause the other systems to become useless. However, all the systems have been created perfectly and the creature survives by means of this. The unique design in the dragonfly belongs to Allah. He has the knowledge of all creation.

1) Science et Vie, no.931, p.5
2) http://www.cs.tut.fi/~hirvone2/Dragonfly.html  

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WHY IS THE CLAIM THAT DINOSAURS EVOLVED INTO BIRDS AN UNSCIENTIFIC MYTH? (2)

HARUN YAHYA

The latest blow to the "birds evolved from dinosaurs" theory came from a study made on the embryology of ostriches.

Drs. Alan Feduccia and Julie Nowicki of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studied a series of live ostrich eggs and, once again, concluded that, there cannot be an evolutionary link between birds and dinosaurs. EurekAlert, a scientific portal held by the American Association for the The Advancement of Science (AAAS), reports the following:

Drs. Alan Feduccia and Julie Nowicki of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill... opened a series of live ostrich eggs at various stages of development and found what they believe is proof that birds could not have descended from dinosaurs...He [Dr. Feduccia] said. "Beyond what we have just reported, there is the time problem in that superficially bird-like dinosaurs occurred some 25 million to 80 million years after the earliest known bird, which is 150 million years old."

"If one views a chicken skeleton and a dinosaur skeleton through binoculars they appear similar, but close and detailed examination reveals many differences," Feduccia said. "Theropod dinosaurs, for example, had curved, serrated teeth, but the earliest birds had straight, unserrated peg-like teeth. They also had a different method of tooth implantation and replacement." 1

With the collapse of evolutionists' claims regarding fossils like Archaeopteryx, they are now at a complete dead-end as regards the origin of birds. That is why some evolutionists have had to resort to classical methods-forgery. In the 1990s, the public were several times given the message that "a half-dinosaur, half-bird fossil has been found." The evolutionist media carried pictures of these so-called "dino-birds" and an international campaign was thus set in motion. However, it soon began to emerge that the campaign was based on contradiction and forgery.

The first hero of the campaign was a dinosaur called Sinosauropteryx, discovered in China in 1996. The fossil was presented to the whole world as a "feathered dinosaur," and made a number of headlines. However, detailed analyses in the months that followed revealed that the structures which evolutionists had excitedly portrayed as "bird feathers" were actually nothing of the kind.

This was how the matter was presented in an article called "Plucking the Feathered Dinosaur" in the journal Science:

...The Sinosauropteryx specimen from the Yixian Formation in China made the front page of The New York Times, and was viewed by some as confirming the dinosaurian origins of birds. But at this year's vertebrate paleontology meeting in Chicago late last month, the verdict was a bit different: The structures are not modern feathers, say the roughly half-dozen Western paleontologists who have seen the specimens…paleontologist Larry Martin of Kansas University, Lawrence, thinks the structures are frayed collagenous fibers beneath the skin--and so have nothing to do with birds. 2

Another "dino-bird" storm blew up in 1999. Another fossil discovered in China was presented to the world as "major evidence for evolution." National Geographic magazine, the source of the campaign, drew and published imaginary "feathered dinosaur" pictures inspired by the fossil, and these hit the headlines in a number of countries. This species, which was said to have lived 125 million years ago, was immediately given the scientific name Archaeoraptor liaoningensis.

However, the fossil was a fake and was skilfully constructed from five separate specimens. A group of researchers, among whom were also three paleontologists, proved the forgery one year later with the help of X-ray computed tomography. The dino-bird was actually the product of a Chinese evolutionist. Chinese amateurs formed the dino-bird by using glue and cement from 88 bones and stones. Research suggests that Archaeoraptor was built from the front part of the skeleton of an ancient bird, and that its body and tail included bones from four different specimens. An article in the scientific journal Nature describes the forgery like this:

The Archaeoraptor fossil was announced as a 'missing link' and purported to be possibly the best evidence since Archaeopteryx that birds did, in fact, evolve from certain types of carnivorous dinosaur. But Archaeoraptor was revealed to be a forgery in which bones of a primitive bird and a non-flying dromaeosaurid dinosaur had been combined… The Archaeoraptor specimen, which was reportedly collected from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, was smuggled out of China and later sold in the United States on the commercial market… We conclude that Archaeoraptor represents two or more species and that it was assembled from at least two, and possibly five, separate specimens.... 3

In a statement in USA Today, Olson said, "The problem is, at some point the fossil was known by Geographic to be a fake, and that information was not revealed."4 In other words, he said that National Geographic maintained the deception, even though it knew that the fossil it was portraying as proof of evolution was a forgery. This event went down in history as showing how deceptive the international propaganda on behalf of the theory of evolution is, and that evolutionists will resort to all kinds of falsehood for its sake.

(For further reading, see "The The collapse of the theory of evolution in 20 questions" by Harun Yahya)

1) "Scientist say ostrich study confirms bird 'hands' unlike these of dinosaurs," http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-08/uonc-sso081402.php
2) Ann Gibbons, "Plucking the Feathered Dinosaur," Science, vol. 278, no. 5341, 14 November 1997, pp. 1229 - 1230
3) "Forensic Palaeontology: The Archaeoraptor Forgery," Nature, March29, 2001
4) Friend, "Dinosaur-bird link smashed in fossil flap," USA Today, 25 January 2000

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