Allah has prepared a terrible punishment for them.So have taqwa of Allah, people of intelligence – those who have iman –Allah has sent down a reminder to you... (Surat at-Talaq, 10)
Abdullah ibn Umar narrated, “Allah’s Messenger (saas) said, ‘Some hearts become rusty just as iron does when water affects it.’ On being asked what could clear them he replied, ‘A great amount of remembrance of death and recitation of the Qur’an.’” (Tirmidhi)
How is mercy defined in the Qur'an?
Then to be one of those who believe and urge each other to patience and urge each other to mercifulness. Those are the Companions of the Right. (Surat al-Balad: 17-18)
As expressed in the above verse, Allah commands His servants to "urge each other to compassion" in order to attain His mercy, to enter the Garden and to prosper on the Last Day. Believers, who devote their lives to gaining Allah's approval, try to fulfil this order of Allah impeccably. Their sincere faith in Allah underlies this very understanding of mercy. They are aware that nothing occurs unless by the Will of Allah and realise their need to have all His blessings bestowed upon them. Accordingly, believers are humble, which is a consequence of such awareness. These very attributes constitute the basis of their mercy.
One who is not humble in the real sense, cannot show real mercy. That is because he thinks about himself alone, loves himself and gives importance solely to his own wishes and interests. That is why he never considers the needs of others. He deems other people worthless and unimportant. Consequently, he fails to have feelings of compassion and affection.
Another reason why believers are committed to showing compassion is their earnest desire to embody the morality deemed good by Allah. As explained in numerous verses, Allah is "the Most Merciful of the merciful". For that reason, believers strive to experience compassion to the best of their ability.
As Allah revealed in the Qur'an, "If it had not been for the favour of Allah upon you and His mercy, (you would have suffered many difficult situations)." (Surat an-Nur: 20) The above verse shows the extent to which believers are in need of the compassion and mercy of Allah. Since they themselves seek to obtain Allah's Mercy, they try to be as compassionate as possible towards other believers.
As is true of all other issues, the unique guide that sheds light on the kind of mercy they have to show is the Qur'an. Thus, believers only show mercy and compassion in situations deemed to be proper by Allah and towards people specified by Allah.
Mercy as described in the Qur'an emerges as being quite distinct from other kinds of mercy. But the majority of those who are distant from religion possess a rather flawed understanding of the subject. Faced with untoward happenings, they are seized by an ill-defined feeling of mercy and act accordingly. This indeed shows a crude understanding of how they should respond, because they act without knowing who is right or wrong, without making a just and rational assessment and, more importantly, without considering the commands of the Qur'an. Often, they tend to behave in a manner likely to do harm both to themselves and to other people; their attempts to remedy matters are abortive because they take ill-considered decisions. Their understanding of compassion thus presents a structure uninspired by the values of the Qur'an.
In relation to this subject, we need to dwell on another important point. People sometimes harbour an understanding of mercy which may be wrong according to the Qur'an. Since this kind of mercy does harm to people rather than good, it may be considered as "evil compassion". In societies which are indifferent to religion, people allow others to engage in any act without considering its baneful result in the hereafter. For instance, they allow them to behave immorally and turn a blind eye when they engage in an act forbidden by Allah, or even encourage them.
The criteria believers adopt for themselves in this matter is that the mercy shown to others must definitely make a positive impact in terms of others' eternal life in the hereafter. In some cases, the love and mercy they feel for believers may entail their interfering or criticising them on some issues which may be hard on their lower selves (an-nafs). Upon witnessing a wicked deed, they may criticise the perpetrator and make strong pleas to deter him from such a deed. This is indeed true compassion. That is because, at the risk of causing offence to the other party, they put a stop to a conduct at variance with Qur'anic teaching and thus prevent that person from engaging in an act that would incur eternal torment in hell—a point of no return. For that reason, believers encourage others to display the morality with which Allah will be pleased most, and which will prepare them for a life in paradise. In so doing, they display the most elevated form of mercy. One needs to keep in mind that the real cruelty is not to consider the eternal life and to deliberately ignore mistakes that would incur punishment.
In this respect, believers follow the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, as their role model, who, in the words of the Qur'an, was "truly vast in character". (Surat al-Qalam: 4)
In another verse, Allah reveals the elevated morality of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: "A Messenger has come to you from among yourselves. Your suffering is distressing to him; he is deeply concerned for you; he is gentle and merciful to the believers." (Surat at-Tawba: 128) Thus, in compliance with Allah's command, believers who adopt this morality behave compassionately and mercifully towards believers by considering their rewards in the hereafter.
The Explicitly Designed Composition Of The Atmosphere
Breathing might mean to you nothing more than inhaling air and then letting it back out. However, for this process to work properly, a system which is perfect from all aspects has been established. We need not make the slightest effort whatsoever in order to breathe. In fact, perhaps most people have never consciously thought about the process at all. Everybody needs to breathe continuously, from the moment we come into this world until we die. All the necessary conditions, in both our body and our environment, have been created by Allah and, therefore, we are able to breathe easily in this way.
First of all, for a person to breathe, it is necessary that the balance of gasses in the atmosphere be arranged just right. Even a slight change in this balance could prove fatal but such failures do not occur at all, because the Earth's atmosphere is a unique mixture that was designed as a combination of very specific conditions all mixed together in a way that functions flawlessly.
The Earth's atmosphere is made up of nitrogen (77%), oxygen (21%), carbon dioxide (1%), argon and other gasses. Let's begin with the most important of these gasses, that is, oxygen.
Oxygen is very important because living things need this gas in order to live. To get oxygen, we breathe. The oxygen ratio in the air is maintained at an extremely delicate balance.
The atmosphere's preservation of the balance of its oxygen ratio is realized by means of a perfect "recycling" system. Human beings and animals continuously consume oxygen while they produce and expel carbon dioxide gas, which is poisonous for them. Plants, on the other hand, carry out just the opposite process and maintain survival by transforming carbon dioxide into oxygen. Every day, billions of tons of oxygen are released into the atmosphere by plants in this way.
Now, if human beings and animals carried out the same chemical reactions as do plants, the Earth, in a very short time, would become an unlivable planet. If both animals and plants produced oxygen, the atmosphere would become extremely combustible and the smallest spark would cause huge fires. Ultimately, in such a scenario, the Earth would be reduced to a cinder. If, on the other hand, both plants and animals produced carbon dioxide, then the oxygen in the atmosphere would quickly run out and, in short order, all living things would begin to die of suffocation.
All this shows that Allah created the Earth's atmosphere especially for human life. The universe is not an uncontrolled, chaotic place. It has been planned in every detail and Allah, the possessor of eternal power, brought it into being.
Hazrat Khidr (as) is charged with neutralizing people or objects he thinks may harm Islam in the future
DHU AL-JALAL WA AL-IKRAM Master of Majesty and Generosity
Blessed be the name of your Lord, Master of Majesty and Generosity. ( Surat ar-Rahman, 55:78)
People enjoy countless blessings, for Allah has adorned this world with many details that are pleasing to His servants. However, Allah will show His infinite generosity in Paradise . One of the most telling attributes of the Paradise is that believers will have all that their hearts desire, without any limit. There will be gardens with rivers flowing underneath and cool, refreshing shade. By the grace of Allah, devout believers will be amid shaded gardens with spreading branched, flowing springs, and whatever kind of fruit and meat they desire. In addition, they will have high-ceilinged halls with rivers flowing underneath, where they will recline on couches ranged in rows and take pleasure from the surrounding beauty. Circulating among them will be youths like hidden pearls, passing among them vessels of silver and goblets of pure crystal. Meanwhile, “... they will be adorned with gold bracelets and pearls, and where their clothing will be of silk.” ( Surat al-Hajj, 22:23)
No doubt, the Qur'an's descriptions of Paradise are far more elaborate than what we could convey above. The verses below give a detailed description of Allah's infinite generosity in Paradise :
… they will have there all that their hearts desire and their eyes find delight in. You will remain in it timelessly, forever. ( Surat az-Zukhruf, 43:71)
Seeing them, you see delight and a great kingdom. ( Surat al-Insan, 76:20)
Astonishing details regarding Hazrat Mahdi’s (as) Physical appearance and how to recognize Him
In the hadiths, our Prophet (saas) provides for no other person or event that will appear after him such detailed and comprehensive information as he does about Hazrat Mahdi (as). We are told in the hadiths that the Prophet Jesus (as) will also return to earth and the antichrist will appear in the End Times, together with Hazrat Mahdi (as). However, neither the Prophet Jesus (as) nor the antichrist are the subject of so much amazing and detailed information as Hazrat Mahdi (as).
The hadiths contain very detailed descriptions of the physical features of Hazrat Mahdi (as), as well as of his moral virtues, life and activities. Putting all this together, it is clear that these features being seen together in one person cannot be unintended.
This also reveals how important it is for Muslims to be able to accurately recognize Hazrat Mahdi (as). When Hazrat Mahdi (as), whose coming is close at hand, is encountered, by Allah’s leave, all Muslims will personally see the accuracy of these astonishingly detailed descriptions of Hazrat Mahdi’s (as) physical characteristics.
In the hadiths, our Prophet (saas) reveals separate places for each of the detailed signs on Hazrat Mahdi’s (as) body, using separate descriptive terms for each. He sometimes refers to a MOLE, or a MARK, a SIGN or a SEAL and likens these to a LEAF, PEARL or STAR.
In addition to all these, Hazrat Mahdi’s (as) complexion, hair and beard color, stature, build, the general outline of his face, the shape of his head and forehead and features such as his eyebrows, nose and teeth are all described in the most astounding detail.
For example, in one hadith the Prophet (saas) says “Hazrat Mahdi (as) will have a BLACK MARK on his RIGHT leg.” He does not just speak of a mark, but provides specific and distinctive detail, saying it will be BLACK and on his RIGHT LEG. Examination of the hadiths below will show that our Prophet (saas) has provided a detailed physical description of Hazrat Mahdi (as).
Haeckel's Embryo Drawings Are Fraudulent
With his faked embryo drawings, Ernst Haeckel deceived the world of science for a century
In his 1868 book Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte (The History of Natural Creation) Ernst Haeckel suggested that he had made various comparisons using human, monkey and dog embryos. The drawings he produced consisted of nearly identical embryos. Haeckel then suggested that the life forms involved had common origins. But the true state of affairs was very different. Haeckel had produced a drawing of just a single embryo, and then produced human, monkey and dog embryos from this by making very small changes. In other words, it was a hoax.
That was the supposed “scientific work” (!) that Darwin citied as a reference in his book The Descent of Man. In fact, some people realized that Haeckel’s illustrations were a distortion even before Darwin wrote his book. Following the exposure of the fraud, Haeckel himself admitted the huge scientific fraud he had perpetrated:
After this compromising confession of 'forgery' I should be obliged to consider myself condemned and annihilated if I had not the consolation of seeing side by side with me in the prisoner's dock hundreds of fellow - culprits, among them many of the most trusted observers and most esteemed biologists. The great majority of all the diagrams in the best biological textbooks, treatises and journals would incur in the same degree the charge of 'forgery,' for all of them are inexact, and are more or less doctored, schematised and constructed.[i]
But in order to keep the dogma of Darwinism propped up, there was a need to declare that one of the false pieces of evidence in their possession was actually “proof of evolution.” The fraud perpetrated or Darwinists being aware of it was unimportant; what mattered in Darwinists’ eyes was for it to be heralded as evidence of evolution, even if it was fraudulent.
Despite the exposure of the fraud, Darwin and the biologists who supported him continued to regard Haeckel’s drawings as a reference source. And that further encouraged Haeckel. In the years that followed he produced further series of comparative embryo illustrations. He prepared diagrams showing fish, salamander, turtle, chicken, rabbit and human embryos side by side. The noteworthy aspect of these was how the embryos of these different life forms initially resembled one another very closely and gradually diverged over the course of their development. The similarity between the human and fish embryos in particular was very striking indeed. So much so that fictitious “gills” could be seen in the human embryo drawings, just as in those of the fish. Under the scientific guise he gave these illustrations, Haeckel launched his “theory of recapitulation:” Ontology Repeats Phylogeny. The meaning of the slogan was this; according to Haeckel, during the developmental process it undergoes in the egg or the mother’s womb, every living thing repeats the “evolutionary history” of its species, right from the very beginning. For example, the human embryo in the mother’s womb first resembles a fish and then, in subsequent weeks, a salamander, a reptile and a mammal, finally “evolving” into a human being.
But this was a huge fraud.
In the 1990s the British embryologist Michael Richardson examined vertebrate embryos under the microscope and determined no resemblance to Haeckel’s drawings. Following their study, Richardson and his team published genuine photographs of embryos in the August 1997 issue of the journal Anatomy and Embryology. It appeared that Haeckel had taken various template designs and distorted them in various ways so that the embryos would resemble one another. He added imaginary organs to embryos, removed organs from others and depicted embryos of very different sizes as being the same in scale. The clefts that Haeckel depicted as “gills” in the human embryo had in fact nothing to do with gills at all. They were actually the middle ear canal and the beginnings of the parathyroid and thymus glands. The embryos did not in fact resemble one another at all. Haeckel had made all kinds of distortions in his illustrations.
An article about Haeckel’s drawings, for long maintained on the agenda as false evidence of evolution, appeared in the September 5, 1997, issue of Science magazine titled “Haeckel’s Embryos: Fraud Rediscovered,” following which the whole scientific world agreed that there had been a fraud. The article contained the following lines:
Not only did Haeckel add or omit features, Richardson and his colleagues report, but he also fudged the scale to exaggerate similarities among species, even when there were 10-fold differences in size. Haeckel further blurred differences by neglecting to name the species in most cases, as if one representative was accurate for an entire group of animals. In reality, Richardson and his colleagues note, even closely related embryos such as those of fish vary quite a bit in their appearance and developmental pathway. "It (Haeckel's drawings) looks like it's turning out to be one of the most famous fakes in biology,"[ii]
In March 2000 the Harvard University evolutionist and paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould said that he had long been aware of this fraud. But he had preferred to remain silent, as required by the system of the Dajjal.[iii] Once the public had learned that the drawings were fraudulent, Gould stated that it was academic murder for them still to be used and said: "We do, I think, have the right, to be both astonished and ashamed by the century of mindless recycling that has led to the persistence of these drawings in a large number, if not a majority, of modern textbooks."[iv]
Haeckel’s fraud was so blatant and so great that he was accused of fraud by five different professors and found guilty by the Jena University court.[v]
Sir Gavin de Beer, from Great Britain’s Natural History Museum, described this terrible disgrace as follows:
Seldom has an assertion like that of Haeckel’s ‘theory of recapitulation,’ facile, tidy, and plausible, widely accepted without critical examination, done so much harm to science.”[vi]
These false illustrations of Haeckel’s in fact achieved their intended aim on behalf of evolution. Although Darwinists were delighted in the short term that a lie planned by the dajjal was put forward as false evidence for a heretical theory and had such an impact, it in fact heralded terrible disappointment for them. Through Haeckel's drawings, people saw the scale of the deception to which a senior scientist would go in the name of Darwinism. It was thus once again proved how Darwinism was in constant need of a “lie.” People clearly saw how evolutionists could turn a blind eye to fraud. Haeckel's fraud was another significant piece of evidence of the destruction of the theory of evolution and the system of the dajjal. This fraud may have been met with silence in the 20th century, but the 21st century has seen this and similar frauds exposed and the genuine scientific evidence put on display. The more frauds have been exposed and the more genuine scientific evidence produced, the more the collapse of Darwinism has become ever more apparent.
[i] Francis Hitching, The Neck of the Giraffe: Where Darwin Went Wrong, New York: Ticknor and Fields 1982, p. 204 [ii] Science, 5 September 1997, Elizabeth Pennisi [iii] Ann Coulter, Godless The Church of Liberalism, Crown Forum Publishing, 2006, p. 240 [iv] http://www.arn.org/docs/richards/jr_sciedreport.htm [v] Hank Hanegraaff, Fatal Flaws "What Evolutionists Don't Want You To Know", W Publishing Group, 2003, p. 70 [vi] Hank Hanegraaff, Fatal Flaws "What Evolutionists Don't Want You To Know", W Publishing Group, 2003, p. 70
RAINS WHICH BRING A DEAD LAND BACK TO LIFE
The rain's function of "bringing a dead land back to life" is indicated in several verses of the Qur'an:
We send down from heaven pure water so that by it We can bring a dead land to life and give drink to many of the animals and people We created. (Qur'an, 25:48-49)
As well as bringing water, an essential requirement for living things, to the earth, the rain also has a fertilising property. Drops of rain which evaporate from the sea and reach the clouds contain certain substances which "revitalise" dead soil. These raindrops with such "revitalising" properties are called "surface tension droplets." These form from the top layer of the surface of the sea, called the micro-layer by biologists; in this surface layer, less than one-tenth of a millimetre thick, are found large quantities of organic waste formed from the decomposition of microscopic algae and zooplanktons. Some of these wastes collect and absorb elements such as phosphorus, magnesium and potassium, which are rarely found in sea water, as well as heavy metals such as copper, zinc, cobalt and lead. Seeds and plants on the surface of the earth receive large quantities of the mineral salts and elements they need to grow from these raindrops. The Qur'an refers to this in these terms:
And We sent down blessed water from the sky and made gardens grow by it and grain for harvesting. (Qur'an, 50:9)
These salts which descend with the rain are examples in miniature of fertilisers traditionally used to enhance productivity (calcium, magnesium, potassium etc.). Heavy metals of the kind found in aerosols create elements which increase productivity during growth and production of plants. In short, rain is an important fertiliser. With the fertiliser which provided by rain alone, within a hundred years, a soil of poor quality can obtain all the elements necessary for plants. Forests also grow and are nourished with help from these chemicals which originate from the sea.
In this way, every year some 150 million tons of particles of fertiliser fall to earth. Were it not for this fertilising function, there would have been far fewer plants on the Earth and the balance of life would have been disturbed. The information about the revitalisation of plants in the verse is just one of the countless miraculous properties of the Qur'an.
SHRIMP
Age: 150 million years Period: Jurassic Location: Solnhofen Limestone, Eichstatt, Germany
Another scientific discovery showing that there was no process of evolution, as the Darwinists claim, is the fossilized shrimp illustrated here. Since shrimp first came into existence, they have always displayed all the same organs and characteristics as they have today and have undergone no changes in all that time. This shrimp fossil shows plainly that evolution is an imaginary scenario.
Long live Turkey - Azerbaijan brotherhood!
What He Said
Kackar TV – March 12, 2009
Adnan Oktar: To tell you the truth, I have a deeper love towards Azerbaijani people. I don’t know the reason.I really love them so much, I mean I love all Turkish countries, I love all my brothers but Azerbaijani people more differently. It is as if they are more long-suffering, they possess a nicer state of attitude mashaAllah. By Allah’s will, I promise you, the first thing we’ll do will be laying a table by the Caspian Sea when the borders are removed. We’ll bring the barbecue and we’ll chat over there. They will chat with us in their nice Azerbaijani accent. They say “gelmishem”, for instance . We’ll chat in that accent, in their nice accent with my dear brothers. What are they doing there all alone? Of course, we’ll open the gates of the border by Allah’s will. We will also open the gates of Armenian border. Azerbaijani people will come to their own village, own town, to Nagorno-Karabakh. We will chat nicely in Nagorno-Karabakh. We’ll have meal there, we’ll have conversations and we will cheer there up. All kinds of difficulties and trouble, they will all end inshaAllah.
Azerbaycan Azadlık Newspaper, September 14, 2008
Adnan Oktar: When it is constituted on the basis of love, friendship and dialog, no one in the world will say a thing. But first, we – the two of us- should ally with one another. We should ally with one another, as Turkey and Azerbaijan. If there are any people with the mindset of “Let’s destroy the Armenians, let’s destroy this and let’s destroy that”, no one in the world would tolerate those. We won’t tolerate them, either. This is oppression. This is remorselessness. But, we should unite and we should save the Armenians, as well. We should save our other brothers, too. We should ally with Russia. We should be friends with America. We must love the whole world. We have to show affection towards all servants of Allah. No matter whether he is a budhist, a freemason, a communist or an atheist; we should all treat them as first class citizens. Because, they are all servants of Allah. They all are. It is their destiny. We were entrusted by Allah to protect them; if Allah wills, He will make them believe, He will make them be in the way He wills. That’s why, the whole world would say “yes” to a unity based on love and friendship. It is very important to see the sincerity beyond it. Like I said, “Let’s unite and become the only ruler of the world”… that notion is wrong, like I said.This is wrong.
What Happened
Sabah - May 18, 2010
Regarding the relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that “No one should give credit to gossips. Gossips do not determine the unity and brotherhood between us.” Following the private and inter-committee meetings, President Erdoğan and Azerbaijan President Aliyev inaugurated the Atatürk monument which was built near the Turkish Embassy.
In his speech there, Erdoğan; “ As the Veteran Mustafa Kemal Atatürk once put forward, “Azerbaijan’s sorrow is our sorrow, and its joy is our joy.”; this fact is still valid and it will remain so. No matter which political power rules us, our relationship will be the same; because the relationship between us is not the relationship of the institutions. The relationship between us is the relationship between the nations, because we are one nation, and two diffent countries. Every day; this relationship increases in political, martial, economic, culturel, commercial and in all the realms. From now on there is an Azerbaijan getting stronger, and a Turkey getting stronger. The position and the status of these two countries in the eyes of the world opinion will be different, for sure”.
During the last 20 years, the number of Muslims in the world has been increasing steadily. Statistics for the year 1973 indicate that the world population of Muslims was 500 million; now, it has reached 1.5 billion. Today, every fourth person is a Muslim. It is probable that the Muslim population will continue to increase and that Islam will become the world's largest religion.
The reason for this steady rise is not only the increasing population in Muslim countries, but also the growing numbers of people who are turning to Islam, a phenomenon that has gained momentum, especially after the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 (hereinafter referred to as 9/11). This attack, deplored by everyone, especially Muslims, has suddenly turned people's attention (especially Americans) to Islam. People in the West are talking a lot about what kind of a religion Islam is, what the Qur'an says, what obligations come with being a Muslim, and how Muslims are required to conduct their affairs. This interest has naturally brought about a rise in the number of people worldwide turning to Islam. So, the commonly heard prediction after 9/11 that "this attack will change the course of world history" has, in a sense, started to come true. The process of returning to religious and spiritual values, which the world has been experiencing for a long time, has become a turning to Islam.
In the End Times, when disorder and strife reach their fiercest level, when people are as far removed from Allah and religious moral values as they can possible be, when degeneration is at a peak, our Lord will send Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh)–“he who gives the way to salvation.” With his powerful love and fear of Allah Who has sent him to fulfil this important task, Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will be a means of salvation for the whole world. By Allah’s will, Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will be successful in this duty, as is written in his destiny, and will cause sincere faith in Allah and religious moral values to reign supreme.
For that reason, the appearance of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will be the greatest event in history, and it is mentioned in all the sacred scriptures. As is mentioned in the Qur’an, the Torah, the Gospel, the Psalms and the pages of Prophet Abraham (pbuh) are scriptures sent down to Prophets who lived in past centuries. When we look at those passages in these Books that are in agreement with the verses of the Qur’an and the hadiths of our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), we see that the coming of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) has been known and spoken of for thousands of years.
Many events that are taking place in our own time show that this sacred age that has been awaited for centuries has finally begun. All sincere believers have a major responsibility to make everyone aware of this crucial subject and to provide spiritual support for this holy individual, Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh).
As expressed in the above verse, Allah commands His servants to "urge each other to compassion" in order to attain His mercy, to enter the Garden and to prosper on the Last Day. Believers, who devote their lives to gaining Allah's approval, try to fulfil this order of Allah impeccably. Their sincere faith in Allah underlies this very understanding of mercy. They are aware that nothing occurs unless by the Will of Allah and realise their need to have all His blessings bestowed upon them. Accordingly, believers are humble, which is a consequence of such awareness. These very attributes constitute the basis of their mercy.
Mercy as described in the Qur'an emerges as being quite distinct from other kinds of mercy. But the majority of those who are distant from religion possess a rather flawed understanding of the subject. Faced with untoward happenings, they are seized by an ill-defined feeling of mercy and act accordingly. This indeed shows a crude understanding of how they should respond, because they act without knowing who is right or wrong, without making a just and rational assessment and, more importantly, without considering the commands of the Qur'an. Often, they tend to behave in a manner likely to do harm both to themselves and to other people; their attempts to remedy matters are abortive because they take ill-considered decisions. Their understanding of compassion thus presents a structure uninspired by the values of the Qur'an.
The criteria believers adopt for themselves in this matter is that the mercy shown to others must definitely make a positive impact in terms of others' eternal life in the hereafter. In some cases, the love and mercy they feel for believers may entail their interfering or criticising them on some issues which may be hard on their lower selves (an-nafs). Upon witnessing a wicked deed, they may criticise the perpetrator and make strong pleas to deter him from such a deed. This is indeed true compassion. That is because, at the risk of causing offence to the other party, they put a stop to a conduct at variance with Qur'anic teaching and thus prevent that person from engaging in an act that would incur eternal torment in hell—a point of no return. For that reason, believers encourage others to display the morality with which Allah will be pleased most, and which will prepare them for a life in paradise. In so doing, they display the most elevated form of mercy. One needs to keep in mind that the real cruelty is not to consider the eternal life and to deliberately ignore mistakes that would incur punishment.
Breathing might mean to you nothing more than inhaling air and then letting it back out. However, for this process to work properly, a system which is perfect from all aspects has been established. We need not make the slightest effort whatsoever in order to breathe. In fact, perhaps most people have never consciously thought about the process at all. Everybody needs to breathe continuously, from the moment we come into this world until we die. All the necessary conditions, in both our body and our environment, have been created by Allah and, therefore, we are able to breathe easily in this way.
The rain's function of "bringing a dead land back to life" is indicated in several verses of the Qur'an:
