RAMADAN 2007 The 8th Day

Race each other to forgiveness from your Lord and to a Garden, whose breadth is like that of heaven and earth combined, made ready for those who believe in Allah and His Messengers. That is Allah's favor, which He gives to those whom He wills. Allah's Favor is indeed immense. (Surat al- Hadid, 21)

	I asked: "O Messenger of Allah! Of what was the creation made?" He replied: "Of water." We asked: "(As for) Paradise, what is its foundation?" He said: "One brick of gold and one brick of silver. Its mortars are of musk of strong scent, its stones are pearls and emeralds, and its soil is of saffron. Whoever enters it will be in bliss and not in want, live in bliss and not die, their clothes will not get old, and their youth will not end." (Ahmad, Tirmidhi)

PARADISE-LIKE ENVIRONMENT IN THE GOLDEN AGE

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HARUN YAHYA

In the Qur'an, Allah informs us that the believers' real abode is Paradise. Consequently, the aesthetic understanding of a person who lives by the Qur'an's morality is also shaped according to Paradise's standards. As their real home is Paradise, the way for the believers to beautify this world is to turn it into a place that reminds them of Paradise.

The believers' longing for Paradise urges them to transform their surroundings into Paradise-like places. Paradise, no doubt, abounds with works of art beyond our imagination. It is a place of images and beauties of such perfection that they are unlikely to be attained in this world. Still, the Qur'an's outlook urges us to use all of Earth's available resources to turn our planet into an image of Paradise.

First of all, the believers manifest the Qur'anic understanding of cleanliness in their immediate surroundings. In the Golden Age, all places (e.g., highways, places of worship, recreational places, workplaces, and houses) will be very clean. In one verse, Allah commands them to "purify your clothes.Shun all filth." (Surat al-Muddathtir: 4-5) In compliance with this verse, their clothes will be perfectly clean and the necessary cleansers will be available to everyone so that cleaning one's clothes will become an easy task.

Keeping the environment clean also will be a very important issue. Environmental and air pollution will no longer be a threat to city dwellers. Public places will provide all forms of comfort to people. For example, both hot and cold water will be available in places of worship and everyone will have easy access to public transportation. People will no longer have unpleasant experiences in crowded, airless public places, for innovative systems and technology will make such places only a distant memory.

People will have vivid social lives. Recreational places will be designed to provide comfort and will be very clean. Places where young people gather will be free of harmful foods and drinks, and human health will be the primary concern.

People will be encouraged to love animals, there will be parks in which people can see all sorts of animals. Furthermore, such wild animals as cheetahs, lions, and leopards will be domesticated. Dangerous animals, such as scorpions or snakes, will no longer pose a threat to humanity, for their poisons will be eliminated through biological methods. In one of his sayings, our Prophet (saas) called attention to this favorable environment:

A person will let his sheep and animals out to pasture. They will go and, being in the midst of crops, will not bite a single ear of corn. Snakes and scorpions will harm no one, and wild animals will be on the doorway, causing no harm. 1

People will long for Paradise and hope for Allah's good pleasure, which will enable them to enter Paradise. Consequently, they will do their best to produce works of art similar to those in Paradise or to imitate the beauty and aesthetics of Paradise. Allah depicts Paradise's environment as follows:

And [He] will reward them for their steadfastness with a garden [in Paradise] and with silk. Reclining in it on couches, they will experience there neither burning sun nor bitter cold. Its shading branches will droop down over them, its ripe fruit hanging ready to be picked. Vessels of silver and goblets of pure crystal will be passed round among them, crystalline silver-they have measured them very exactly. They will be given there a cup to drink mixed with the warmth of ginger. In it there is a flowing spring called Salsabil. Ageless youths will circulate among them, serving them. Seeing them, you would think them scattered pearls. And when you look, it is there that you will see a Bliss and a Realm Magnificent. (Surat al-Insan: 12-20)

Allah will present countless blessings and beauties to the believers in Paradise. In return for their moral excellence and efforts to spread the Qur'an's morality, they will be rewarded with a blissful and glorious life. With the verse, "And when you look, it is that there you will see a Bliss and a Realm Magnificent" (Surat al-Insan: 20), Allah informs Muslims about the magnificence of Paradise.

Allah provides a detailed account of Paradise's blessings, such as mansions built in gardens, food, shade, clothes of striking colors, jewels, and thousands of other things of which the believers are unaware. This world's blessings are only imitations of those in Paradise. However, in this world Allah may well present blessings beyond one's imagination. The Golden Age will be the time when Allah will grant the most glorious beauties and blessings to people.

1) Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rasul Barzanji , Al-Isha'ah li-ashrat al-sa'ah, p. 245.



(For further reading see, "The Golden Age" by Harun Yahya.)

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CHITIN: A PERFECT COATING SUBSTANCE

HARUN YAHYA

Insects are among the most widespread and resilient creatures on Earth. The reason for this is that they have been created so as to be very resistant to many unfavorable conditions. One thing that makes them so strong is the chitin substance which covers their bodies.

Chitin is a very light, thin substance. For this reason, insects have no difficulty in carrying it. Although this substance covers an insect's body on the outside, it is so strong that it could also serve the function of a skeleton and, at the same time, is outstandingly flexible. It can move as the muscles with ends connected to the insect's body from inside contract and relax. This not only improves the rapid movement of the insects but also buffers the impact of external blows. The chitin layer is waterproof because of a special exterior coating. It also prevents body liquids from leaking out. It is not affected by the most difficult conditions, high temperature or even radiation. Another property of this layer is that it has a color, examples of which can be seen in the pictures, that is the most suitable for the insect's environment. In this way, the insect can live and avoid being noticed by its enemies. Sometimes, the colors of this layer are so lively that they even deter predators in the surrounding area.

This chitin, which constitutes the outer shell of most insects, is a perfect material in terms of its strength, elasticity and insulation properties. A substance possessing such remarkable characteristics cannot but make one wonder, if airplanes and spaceships were made from a substance possessing the characteristics of chitin, what would they be like? In fact, the structure of this substance is the stuff of aeronautical engineers' dreams. Yet, mankind has never been able to match such an advanced design, in spite of our technological developments.

Chitin, an equivalent of which is being sought after using twentyfirst century technology, has existed ever since insects came into being. This material, as mentioned above, is the most ideal coating substance an insect can ever possess. It is obviously impossible for this substance possessing the ability to protect the creature against any kind of danger to have come into existence by chance. No insect could have produced such a protective material by using its own will. Allah created this substance, which has a unique design, along with the extraordinary attributes of the insects that it covers. In the Qur'an, Allah draws our attention to His creations in this way:

Among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and earth and all the creatures He has spread about in them. And He has the power to gather them together whenever He wills. (Surat ash-Shura: 29)

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EVOLUTION DECEIT - VIII

HARUN YAHYA

THE ORIGIN OF MAMMALS

The theory of evolution proposes that some imaginary creatures that came out of the sea turned into reptiles, and that birds evolved from reptiles. According to the same scenario, reptiles are the ancestors not only of birds but also of mammals. However, there are great differences between these two classes. Mammals are warm-blooded animals (this means they can generate their own heat and maintain it at a steady level), they give live birth, they suckle their young, and their bodies are covered in fur or hair. Reptiles, on the other hand, are cold-blooded (i.e., they cannot generate heat, and their body temperature changes according to the external temperature), they lay eggs, they do not suckle their young, and their bodies are covered in scales.

One example of the structural barriers between reptiles and mammals is their jaw structure. Mammal jaws consist of only one mandibular bone containing the teeth. In reptiles, there are three little bones on both sides of the mandible. Another basic difference is that all mammals have three bones in their middle ear (hammer, anvil, and stirrup). Reptiles have but a single bone in the middle ear. Evolutionists claim that the reptile jaw and middle ear gradually evolved into the mammal jaw and ear. The question of how an ear with a single bone evolved into one with three bones, and how the sense of hearing kept on functioning in the meantime can never be explained. Not surprisingly, not one single fossil linking reptiles and mammals has been found. This is why evolutionist science writer Roger Lewin was forced to say, "The transition to the first mammal, which probably happened in just one or, at most, two lineages, is still an enigma". 1

George Gaylord Simpson, one of the most popular evolutionary authorities and a founder of the neo-Darwinist theory, makes the following comment regarding this perplexing difficulty for evolutionists:

The most puzzling event in the history of life on earth is the change from the Mesozoic, the Age of Reptiles, to the Age of Mammals. It is as if the curtain were rung down suddenly on the stage where all the leading roles were taken by reptiles, especially dinosaurs, in great numbers and bewildering variety, and rose again immediately to reveal the same setting but an entirely new cast, a cast in which the dinosaurs do not appear at all, other reptiles are supernumeraries, and all the leading parts are played by mammals of sorts barely hinted at in the preceding acts. 2

Furthermore, when mammals suddenly made their appearance, they were already very different from each other. Such dissimilar animals as bats, horses, mice, and whales are all mammals, and they all emerged during the same geological period. Establishing an evolutionary relationship among them is impossible even by the broadest stretch of the imagination.

Contrary to the "ape man" story that is imposed on the masses with intense media propaganda, man also emerged on earth suddenly and fully formed. This propaganda makes use of "reconstructions" made in reference to fossils. Reconstruction can be explained as drawing a picture or constructing a model of a living thing based on a single bone-sometimes only a fragment-that has been unearthed. The "ape-men" we see in newspapers, magazines, or films are all reconstructions.

Since fossils are usually fragmented and incomplete, any conjecture based on them is likely to be completely speculative. As a matter of fact, the reconstructions (drawings or models) made by the evolutionists based on fossil remains are prepared speculatively precisely to validate the evolutionary thesis. David R. Pilbeam, an eminent anthropologist from Harvard, stresses this fact when he says: "At least in paleoanthropology, data are still so sparse that theory heavily influences interpretations. Theories have, in the past, clearly reflected our current ideologies instead of the actual data". 3

At this point, we have to highlight one particular point: Reconstructions based on bone remains can only reveal the most general characteristics of the creature, since the really distinctive morphological features of any animal are soft tissues which quickly vanish after death. Therefore, due to the speculative nature of the interpretation of the soft tissues, the reconstructed drawings or models become totally dependent on the imagination of the person producing them. Earnst A. Hooten from Harvard University explains the situation like this:

To attempt to restore the soft parts is an even more hazardous undertaking. The lips, the eyes, the ears, and the nasal tip leave no clues on the underlying bony parts. You can with equal facility model on a Neanderthaloid skull the features of a chimpanzee or the lineaments of a philosopher. These alleged restorations of ancient types of man have very little if any scientific value and are likely only to mislead the public… So put not your trust in reconstructions. 4

The biased interpretation of fossils and outright fabrication of many imaginary reconstructions are an indication of how frequently evolutionists have recourse to tricks.

(For further reading, see "The Evolution Deceit" by Harun Yahya)

All the works of Harun Yahya, is made up of striking passages highlighting the basic ideas on various topics. In this site, you will witness the sincere style of the author, based on the Qur'an. Anyone who reads these books seriously and carefully will soon gain a deep insight into the true nature of the world he lives in.

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