tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81057633306409452282024-03-05T11:40:34.557+05:00things that matterthoughts born out of curiosity and contemplationFaiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-19872427072268526542022-02-01T18:00:00.013+05:002022-02-01T18:00:00.157+05:00Are We Too Small To Have Any Purpose?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggPo6DKoLvH_1VU6ADi_B8ZjUKNP6xnOwn328-uHAaLPGZ-wxbpc01x05beutzrlogpMxGT6Sqya6sgz_yeuGMIvI-cmKaA9BOjus3Un3NX644VQICL1bxVtea61HDmNPRYsEPoZgS82ozV71WpcdZANvZy2YGAv1rUbqsQq_-H5cK2c57Gm34LA=s1022" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="1022" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEggPo6DKoLvH_1VU6ADi_B8ZjUKNP6xnOwn328-uHAaLPGZ-wxbpc01x05beutzrlogpMxGT6Sqya6sgz_yeuGMIvI-cmKaA9BOjus3Un3NX644VQICL1bxVtea61HDmNPRYsEPoZgS82ozV71WpcdZANvZy2YGAv1rUbqsQq_-H5cK2c57Gm34LA=w640-h302" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">If you’ve ever talked to an atheist about the purpose of life, at some point the direction of discussion takes a turn towards the vastness of the universe and the largeness of objects inside it. There are objects in the Universe that are a billion times larger than our Sun, and the size of the entire universe is infinitely large as well. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">In this scheme of sizes, our own size as a human being, or even the size of our little Earth seems very utterly insignificant.</strong> And so the atheist wonders, how can we have any <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">significant </em>purpose or meaning if our being is so unbelievably tiny in an unimaginably gigantic universe?</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">This is the very obvious and sensible reaction of anyone who can seriously grasp the true grandness of the universe we live in. However, the hugeness of the universe is just one side of the story.<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"> The other side of the story</strong> is the <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">minuteness:</strong></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">We do not just live alongside objects that are terrifyingly large but we live alongside objects that are terrifyingly <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">small, </em><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">too</span>! </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">Objects to which we, humans, <b>are larger than the universe is large to us!</b> (Meaning that the universe is not nearly as large to us as we are large to some objects in the universe, in comparison.) To understand this, we must grasp how small things can be.</p><h2 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Roboto Slab", sans-serif; font-size: 1.25em; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1; margin: 50px 0px 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">THE PLANCK LENGTH:</strong></h2><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">The Planck length is the smallest measurement of length with any meaning. It is defined as the scale at which classical ideas about gravity and space-time cease to be valid, and quantum effects dominate. It is roughly equal to 1.6 x 10<sup style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">-35</sup> m or about 10<sup style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">-20</sup> times the size of a proton.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">This length is the scale at which the smallest particles, like electrons or photons, operate.* This length is unimaginably small, it is impossible for our minds to grasp or visualize this smallness. Even though we can grasp the <i>grandness</i> of large objects in the universe we face extreme difficulty assimilating the <i>smallness</i> of things around us. This is because the human mind can not visualize smallness beyond a certain point, as we can’t see objects much smaller than the smallest we can see. Yet, we can <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">understand</em> this smallness by examples of similitude:</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">If a particle or dot about 0.005 mm in size (which is the same size as a small grain of silt) were magnified in size to be as large as the <i>observable universe</i>, then inside that universe-sized “dot”, the Planck length would be roughly the size of an actual 0.005 mm dot.</strong> In other words, a 0.005 mm dot is <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">halfway</em> between the Planck length and the size of the observable universe on a logarithmic scale.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><img alt="robbert-dijkgraaf-24-728" class="size-medium wp-image-119 alignright" data-attachment-id="119" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-caption="" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="robbert-dijkgraaf-24-728" data-large-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/robbert-dijkgraaf-24-728.jpg?w=728" data-medium-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/robbert-dijkgraaf-24-728.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/robbert-dijkgraaf-24-728.jpg" data-orig-size="728,448" data-permalink="https://mishalerah.wordpress.com/2017/12/16/are-we-too-small-to-have-any-purpose/robbert-dijkgraaf-24-728/" height="393" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/robbert-dijkgraaf-24-728.jpg?w=300&h=185" srcset="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/robbert-dijkgraaf-24-728.jpg?w=300&h=185 300w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/robbert-dijkgraaf-24-728.jpg?w=600&h=370 600w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/robbert-dijkgraaf-24-728.jpg?w=150&h=92 150w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-sizing: border-box; float: right; font-family: inherit; height: auto; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1.2em 1em; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px;" width="640" /></p><p></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">What this means is that if you have a Planck-lengthed object on one hand of the scale and the observable universe on the other hand of the scale, (and if we range objects according to their size), then on this scale a grain of silt will be located in the midst. That is, <b>it will have an <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">average </em>size</b> – which is quite contrary to how we actually visualize a grain of silt: <i>really small</i>, we classify it among the smallest things we can think of but the reality tells us differently: It has an average size when measured against all the things in the universe!</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">So what about us? Obviously, we are larger than a grain of silt. That makes us <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 0px;">larger than average </span></em>in size compared to all the things in the universe! This really changes how we see the universe and ourselves. Only by understanding and realizing how small things around us <i>are</i> can we realize how truly big we are. For an electron, a human being is as large as the universe is large to us. Not only this, but we ourselves are a universe for billions of atoms and molecules.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><img alt="size_scale" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120" data-attachment-id="120" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-caption="" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="size_scale" data-large-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/size_scale.gif?w=736" data-medium-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/size_scale.gif?w=300" data-orig-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/size_scale.gif" data-orig-size="1013,389" data-permalink="https://mishalerah.wordpress.com/2017/12/16/are-we-too-small-to-have-any-purpose/size_scale/" height="282" scale="1.5" src-orig="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/size_scale.gif?w=736" src="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/size_scale.gif?w=734" srcset="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/size_scale.gif?w=734&zoom=2 1.5x" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; height: auto; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="734" /></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">However, all of this talk about sizes and proving our size to be larger than we realize do not really make an argument for our <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">significance</em>. Since, even if we were as large as the Betelgeuse or the Milky Way or some cluster of galaxies, this largeness would not grant any special significance to us. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">The size of my laptop is larger than the processing chips installed in it, so should I consider the processing chips as less important because their size is smaller? That would be very naive of me, won't it? So what’s more important than size is the arrangement of matter, variety, compactness, structure and design.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">The universe is 99.99 per cent space, so what does that tell you? <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Let’s not be impressed by the magnitude of size but by the magnitude of meaning, and to date, we know of nothing more meaningful in the vast universe other than our own selves.</strong></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><img alt="father-son-love-happy-fathers-day" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121" data-attachment-id="121" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-caption="" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="father-son-love-happy-fathers-day" data-large-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/father-son-love-happy-fathers-day.jpg?w=736" data-medium-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/father-son-love-happy-fathers-day.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/father-son-love-happy-fathers-day.jpg" data-orig-size="948,340" data-permalink="https://mishalerah.wordpress.com/2017/12/16/are-we-too-small-to-have-any-purpose/father-son-love-happy-fathers-day/" sizes="(max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px" src="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/father-son-love-happy-fathers-day.jpg?w=736" srcset="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/father-son-love-happy-fathers-day.jpg?w=736 736w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/father-son-love-happy-fathers-day.jpg?w=150 150w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/father-son-love-happy-fathers-day.jpg?w=300 300w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/father-son-love-happy-fathers-day.jpg?w=768 768w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/father-son-love-happy-fathers-day.jpg 948w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; height: auto; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></p><hr style="background: rgb(238, 238, 238); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; height: 5px; margin: 2em auto; width: 369.163px;" /><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><i>*Note that this is not the actual size of any particle since the size of a subatomic particle is defined by its wavelength, a particle can exist in this space.</i></p></div><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div>Start a discussion in the comment section below.Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-5726219028218027322022-01-29T08:00:00.017+05:002022-01-29T08:00:00.179+05:00Answering The Epicurean Paradox<div><span id="docs-internal-guid-3ea37c6f-7fff-e011-6ee9-f18e6b96d7ca"><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhF39-Qg6PFQOrfIxfurRNX8W2-Vi__AszqtjPfACWSMljOjiC6P8jPpEVcNd02uiZFBp2RSa-IJN1QqfdTQ1KEBvHtc8liAWeubc1FElGXTlBar4bmaUoq_-ZSnCG5_TPWsOMENT4dekVKefDD22Z3eaVLmKfvjxV6Dr617GE0UQd4zo3ATeYz5Q=s799" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="799" height="389" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhF39-Qg6PFQOrfIxfurRNX8W2-Vi__AszqtjPfACWSMljOjiC6P8jPpEVcNd02uiZFBp2RSa-IJN1QqfdTQ1KEBvHtc8liAWeubc1FElGXTlBar4bmaUoq_-ZSnCG5_TPWsOMENT4dekVKefDD22Z3eaVLmKfvjxV6Dr617GE0UQd4zo3ATeYz5Q=w640-h389" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">Evil exists. And by that, we mean that bad things happen. Cruelty happens, painful diseases happen, and death happens. The </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Epicurean Paradox</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus, extends the age-old Problem of Evil. </span></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He says that God either:</span></span></p><ol style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Wishes to take away evils, and is unable, </span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He is able, and is unwilling, </span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He is neither willing nor able, </span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: upper-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He is both willing and able.</span></span></p></li></ol><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, there are four outcomes of the above possibilities:</span></span></p><ol style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If He is willing and is unable, He is feeble, which is not in accordance with the character of God; </span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If He is able and unwillin</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">g, He is envious,</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">which is equally</span><span style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at variance with God; </span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If He is neither willing nor able, He is both envious and feeble, and therefore not God; </span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If He is both willing and able, which alone is suitable to God, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from what source then are evils?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Or why does He not remove them?</span></span></p></li></ol><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="color: #202122; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhgTS1GuSEXARt_JqNKCTQ9XQEdZ01lnu3oCS4Ur9eudSvRI276z5csvMOl2UGsZIREO_ZDLtdTz38yMMz1SvSLoKxPieRqmyk1RcCzwlJxXEk6AksA_rk6Ae4JFso720i0MZ2VpcZATfW8UL8xUybNJHwB2Cni5gLA3_ZY3QZvN0AscsQyr2P7iQ=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1622" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhgTS1GuSEXARt_JqNKCTQ9XQEdZ01lnu3oCS4Ur9eudSvRI276z5csvMOl2UGsZIREO_ZDLtdTz38yMMz1SvSLoKxPieRqmyk1RcCzwlJxXEk6AksA_rk6Ae4JFso720i0MZ2VpcZATfW8UL8xUybNJHwB2Cni5gLA3_ZY3QZvN0AscsQyr2P7iQ=w506-h640" width="506" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #202122; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">To understand all the conditions and their outcomes better,
carefully study the flowchart in the image.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt;">As we can see, the first three outcomes are there just to get us to the fourth outcome, as no deity or religion claims that their god is either powerless or unwilling to remove evil from the world. At least, all popular gods claim to be omnipotent and just; entities that are against evil. </span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We find that the fourth condition that God is both willing and able to eliminate evil from the world is the only logical outcome for an Omnipotent, Omniscient and Loving God. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But then comes a huge “But”. </span></span></p><h2 style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then Why Is There Evil?</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, apparently evil exists and an All-Powerful God does nothing about it. Now, several explanations are given for the presence of evil. The most common explanation is the presence of a satanic entity that causes and promotes evil. But then the question arises why a good and loving god who is also “willing and able to eliminate evil” will sit around and watch satan do its job when it can and it </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">should</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> destroy satan right away?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The most common response to that question is the temporal need for evil or satan in order to test human beings. It is said that the presence of evil is necessary if we are to be tested, this is because we need a range of choices to choose from. For example, if there are only good choices in the world and no evil ones, then this will be like an MCQ exam where no incorrect answers exist, thus there will be no purpose for such an exam. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In other words, for us to have free will and exercise it, the universe must have a variety of choices ranging from worse to excellent. Only in such a world can we realize our true human potential and nature.</span></span></p><h1 style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why God Tests Us?</span></span></h1><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, Epicurus argues that God</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is also All-Knowing</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, so why does He have to test us anyway? Since He must already know which ones of us are good and which ones among us are bad. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then why test us? </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These are a few main questions and they interlink each other in various ways as shown in the image. Without expanding further on the questions, let’s move directly towards an answer that is both simple and short:</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Basically, according to the Epicurean Paradox, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">an ideal world will be where people have free will and yet there is no presence of evil</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. And Epicurus asks whether God can create such a world or not. If He can’t, He’s not Omnipotent, and if He can — then why doesn’t He? (and from here we can go circling in loops). So what are we missing? Is there a solution to this?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For the sake of argument, let’s say God creates a world where:</span></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No evil exists</span></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Everyone has free will</span></span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But wait a minute, doesn’t that world already exists? In the realm of the angels, the angels exercise free will while they do not have to interact with any kind of evils. They do not have to suffer pain or cruelty, nobody robs them of all their belongings. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, the angels have free will and there is no evil in their world.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> But you might be wondering if they really have free will. You may ask, “Don’t they just follow orders from God?” That brings us to the actual problem:</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the total absence of evil, there won't be any “choices” other than the best choice. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The best choice will be the choice indicative of the highest good (which in our case is the perfect obedience of God.) In such a world, you can’t even have “slightly good choices” because a slightly good choice means that it has been slightly touched by some slight evil — and you don’t want that. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a world that is free of evil must essentially be free of choices as well</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Unless by choices you mean what color dress to wear at a party. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’ve thus reached a partial conclusion: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An evil-free world with free will is an oxymoron.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But the question remains that does not God know the choices we will eventually make with our free will? So why doesn’t He judge us based on that knowledge and do away with creating a complicated universe that burdens us with making the actual choices?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The answer is that although God knows how you’ll perform in the test, the crux of the matter is that: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You don’t! </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This whole world and your brief stay in it is for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">you</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to know </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">who you are</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">God already knows, but won't those who are being thrown in hell question why they’re being thrown in hell? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because of a God’s prior knowledge?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Is that a good enough answer?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Absolutely not. For punishment to be meaningful and for the trial to be fair, one must know what he has done wrong and that justice was served.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But why create hell and people worthy of it in the first place?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> In simple words, why create human beings? And so asked the angels too. Were not the obedience of angels enough? Thus, we come back again to the importance of free will and obedience by choice: </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Humans were created to demonstrate the beauty and power of free will, and sometimes, the ugliness of it. Regardless, their creation was one step ahead of angels, signifying the merit of conscious decision-making. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s suppose all good souls were kept and evil souls were discarded. Again, God may know that these souls are actually good but they themselves are unaware of their potential. They themselves are oblivious to who they are. What will be the point of free will when there is no history or identity attached?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If the dwellers of heaven have no knowledge of, say, what it means to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">stand up against injustice</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or what it means to</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> be patient in the face of adversity</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or what it means to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">give and sacrifice in the way of God?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> – What’s the point of it all if the souls haven’t gone through any of these experiences?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, some people might say, “Can’t God somehow instil their identity or history inside them, without making them actually live in a world full of evil?”</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And I might say, “Well, who’s to say that’s not what’s really happening?”</span></span></p><h1 style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Illusory Nature of This World:</span></b></span></h1><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ample religious literature and many modern scientific theories express the possibility of the universe being an illusion. Whether religious gurus call the life of this world a dream or fringe scientists call it a simulation, at the end of the day, they’re hinting towards a mysterious reality that is extremely likely to be true.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All the tests and moral dilemmas we face in our lives could be part of a simulation, meant to give us a history and identity we can relate to. But this is just a thought. In any case, our participation in it is real and representative of us and is being recorded for the purpose of evidence and fair trial.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At this point it is important to understand </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that evil does not really exist, what exists is pain.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The difference is that, unlike evil, pain exists</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> internally </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">subjectively</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Without the perception of mental and physical pain, the concept of evil existing falls flat. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Creating only good souls and providing them with heaven is creating the potential alone. We are capable of experiencing pain in this world for the very reason of finding our own selves and realizing our potential. We need to see what wrong or right we are capable of in order to relate to our own self and to the privileges or punishments we’ll be met with, in the hereafter.</span></span></p><h2 style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What’s The Worth of Free Will That Doesn’t Come Face to Face With Evil?</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is definitely something to cherish about goodness when it is seen in contrast to evil. There is something about challenging evil, something about denying carnal pleasures, that is not found in a world void of evil. And humans have it in them. They have the potential. Won’t it be a shame to put them in a world where none of it can be realized?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why do the angels serve pious human beings? Because they see a realization of potential previously unknown to them. Otherwise, angels were all good and had free will so what made the human piety greater? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What makes human obedience greater?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also, given the possibility, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">should God not create a world that’s meant to bring about this greater and far more sublime form of obedience?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;">*****</p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><i style="background-color: transparent; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;">For the purpose of reference: Quranic verses 3:185, 57:20 and others talk about the life of this world as the "enjoyment of delusion". There is a hadith quoted by Ahlesunnah and Shia alike, from Prophet peace be upon him and Imam Ali peace be upon him:</span></i></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;">“الناس نیام فإذا ماتوا انتبهوا”</span></i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>“People are asleep, they wake up when they die.” </i></span><i style="background-color: transparent; white-space: pre-wrap;">(Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 50, p. 134.)</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;">There are verses that say the life of this world is a sport or a game and that true life is that of the hereafter. (example: Surah Ankabut, verse 64)</span></i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 2.16; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;">In science, we see a growing concern regarding this world being an illusion and having properties more matching to those of a simulation or video-game-like sensory world. For reference study theories and hypotheses such as the Holographic Principle, the Simulation Hypothesis, the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, Multiverse theory, etc.</span></i></span></p><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">*****</span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Start a discussion in the comment section below.</span>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-71882829482824445602021-10-15T02:32:00.003+05:002021-10-15T02:32:56.820+05:00Is Kaaba An Idol?<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFppJMRqPszQD_qRdsfIIGUMnBvYM-BNDZVPskO5SBn_lOaCT3lvSxd9R7x9m7c0xRgTGLGOMX9nNwzTBHtTVnQ4oLg0DAmEMQFTwH91LR_BV6ToGe1vluEim3Kg8xBx9Puew8Qv_mqA/s1200/ckaaba.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFppJMRqPszQD_qRdsfIIGUMnBvYM-BNDZVPskO5SBn_lOaCT3lvSxd9R7x9m7c0xRgTGLGOMX9nNwzTBHtTVnQ4oLg0DAmEMQFTwH91LR_BV6ToGe1vluEim3Kg8xBx9Puew8Qv_mqA/w640-h336/ckaaba.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">Abolishing polytheism and idol worship is an ideology that makes up the backbone of Islam. Idols are objects highly criticized in Islam and assuming any form or shape for the Almighty is strictly forbidden. But an objection is often raised concerning the most central object of sacredness in Islam: <i>The Holy Kaaba</i>. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">Muslims circumambulate the Kaaba, and all five daily prayers are performed facing the Kaaba wherever in the world you reside, thus Kaaba is the <i>Qibla</i> of all Muslims (direction of worship). </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">It is often asked if this is yet another form of idol worship? Because on the face of it, it does seem like idol worship. Except that the idol in this case happens to be a <i>black cube</i>.</p><h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><b>The Problem:</b></h3><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">We imagine the Kaaba to be an <b>object</b> and this is where the misunderstanding lies. If you can answer these few questions then you will get the point I’m trying to make.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">1. If the current Kaaba is somehow lifted and placed in a different spot, would that spot become the new <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">qibla</em>?</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">2. If the structure of Kaaba is entirely destroyed, will the <i>qibla</i> cease to exist? And will the <i>qibla</i> be halted till the rebuilding of Kaaba?</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">3. If God forbid, Kaaba is demolished and a new structure is built in the place of Kaaba, or if hills or forests replace it… Will the <i>qibla</i> cease to exist?</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">4. If we make a replica of Kaaba in a different place, will the replica become the new <i>qibla</i>?</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">The answers to all the above questions are negative, whereas if the same questions are asked regarding idols the answers would be positive. </p><h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Therefore:</h3><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">It can be understood that the Kaaba is not an object but it is a spatial position towards which Muslims face. <b>It is a point of a certain latitude and longitude, not an object in front of which we bow and worship. </b>Thus, as far as worship is concerned Kaaba provides a spatial direction to all Muslims which creates a centrality and unity, that is why Kaaba’s similitude is that of a focal point… A point that marks and identifies the centre. This cannot be called idol worship.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">On the other hand, Kaaba is one of the <i>signs</i> or <i>shi`aar</i> of Allah in Islam and that is why it is considered sacred and demands respect. The Kaaba has a long history attached to it. It is a memoir of many prophets and has been a place of worship since ancient times, in this regard it is sacred in Islam. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">Although, one can question the worship based on this sacredness, yet all those forms of worship do not regard the Kaaba itself as a <i>deity</i> or even as a <i>means of closeness</i> to God. What is considered as the means of closeness to God is the <i>act of worship itself </i>which is for the sake of Allah alone.</p></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div>Start a discussion in the comment section below.Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-16140733598433968412021-10-02T02:40:00.006+05:002021-10-02T03:54:46.453+05:00The Mystery of The Abdullah Shah Ghazi Shrine <div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-U6In_WWAvp1EZJGH2T5hBLbW285wPux4df6a1zX5TkFzQtpWw35qT5kvlpiic8vGk4zg4BiL5X6V9xU07OMRAjzCjj9AbCLVKZhNkXkr-ONL2C1jkUWMvLKBHIYwyV2-uS3VAZkHqQ/s1308/547180313b369.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="780" data-original-width="1308" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-U6In_WWAvp1EZJGH2T5hBLbW285wPux4df6a1zX5TkFzQtpWw35qT5kvlpiic8vGk4zg4BiL5X6V9xU07OMRAjzCjj9AbCLVKZhNkXkr-ONL2C1jkUWMvLKBHIYwyV2-uS3VAZkHqQ/w640-h382/547180313b369.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Who Was He?</span></h3><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Born forty years after the event of Karbala, Abdullah al-Ashter Ghazi was the great-grandson of al-Hasan al-Muthanna Ibn Imam Hasan and Lady Fatima Sughra Binte Imam Hussain. <b>He is the closest and most honourable of the Ahlulbayt in the entire Indian subcontinent</b>. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">He is also reported to be the representative of Imam Jafar as-Sadiq. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't Mohammed Bin Qasim who brought the flag of Islam to Sindh, but it was this braveheart Shah Ghazi who did the honours. He migrated to Sindh at a time when Ahlulbayt and their lovers were suffering at the hands of tyrant rulers. He spent several years propagating Islam in the land of Sindh and died a martyr at the hands of the oppressive rulers.</span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A Shrine Built 10 Centuries Ago</span></h3><p><span style="font-size: medium;">His shrine is the largest shrine in Karachi today but this wasn't always the case. For years, his grave lied in obscurity upon a hill surrounded by the sea. Over the years, the seawater receded, bringing the tomb of Shah Ghazi under the spotlight. It soon became famous for granting wishes to desperate people. Not much later, another mysterious belief started taking root in the hearts of the locals...</span></p><p><span style="clear: right; float: right; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp7jdyKppqYjfa5eep4UEafHywKcn7m7joIpSiSOYmvTCvRbj3eodjphH8QhVpEzDni90Yo0jbhwKjCDvkXboxKNs7FanYIAl52meGN-HtoGUrOxtPRu0mIQBEPencBwr9dvxE93Ll_g/w400-h225/9ffa20d6d742b1c040f1dad3362794d8.jpg" width="400" /></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Control Over The Weather?</span></h3><span style="font-size: medium;">Yesterday, Karachi was brimming with excitement: The government of Sindh announced a holiday for schools and offices due to a very high likelihood of a cyclone hitting the coast of Karachi. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The people waited and waited, only to meet disappointment. In case you're wondering why would people wait with excitement to get hit by a cyclone, then here's a little background: The idea of a cyclone denotes thrill and adventure to the people of Karachi, as they've never seen one. There's very little rain throughout the year, thunderstorms or heavy rains are a rarity. But a full-blown cyclone of the dangerous kind is totally unheard of. Every time a warning is issued by the weather department, something happens and the cyclone system either subsides or changes route. </span><span style="font-size: medium;">The twin cyclones (Gulab and Shaheen) that were meant to hit Karachi yesterday, they too turned around for another destination at the eleventh hour.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Why is this becoming a pattern? <b>Is Karachi one of those strange coastal areas that have a mysterious weather pattern? </b>Yet, unlike most unfortunate areas (like the Bermuda Triangle) that are prone to weather mishaps, Karachi, on the other hand, is eerily lucky to be a safe spot in this regard.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">However, anytime there's a buildup of strange coincidences, strange beliefs start surfacing too. It is said that a dangerous cyclone system hasn't hit Karachi in the last thousand years. I do not know if that is true, but guess what else has been around for a thousand years? The grave of Abdullah Shah Ghazi.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A vast number of locals believe that it is the mystical power of the shrine that sends heavy thunderstorms and cyclones away. According to them, as long as the shrine of Shah Ghazi is stationed like a saviour at the coast of Karachi, no cyclone can get past.</span></p><p></p><blockquote><span><blockquote><span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;"><b>"Of course, many Karachiites also laugh off such beliefs, but even to this day there are a number of people in this city who are convinced that Shah Ghazi’s spirit remains Karachi’s best deterrent against raging cyclones emerging in the Arabian Sea."</b> -Nadeem F. Paracha</span></blockquote></span></blockquote><p></p><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Likewise, many people swear by the mystical power of the shrine to grant wishes to its visitors. Undoubtedly, all miracles happen by the Will of God, when they do. However, it is said that people who are closer to God and those who spend their life supporting His Cause, their spirits continue to be a source of guidance even after their death. And who knows? their graves may cast away dangerous cyclones too, occasionally. </span></span></h3><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p></div><span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a name='more'></a></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">References: <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1145799">Abdullah Shah Ghazi: The saviour saint - Pakistan - DAWN.COM</a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;">Start a discussion in the comment section below.</span>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-87925479745465139812021-09-17T18:12:00.004+05:002023-01-11T11:44:29.708+05:00Does Hijab Mean Hiding Oneself?<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 40px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h1 class="post-title entry-title" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 48.6px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-style: initial; height: auto; line-height: 1; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" class="attachment-baskerville-2-post-image size-baskerville-2-post-image wp-post-image" data-attachment-id="36" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-caption="" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="wanita-muslimah-menangis-750×350" data-large-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/wanita-muslimah-menangis-750x350.jpg?w=736" data-medium-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/wanita-muslimah-menangis-750x350.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/wanita-muslimah-menangis-750x350.jpg" data-orig-size="750,350" data-permalink="https://mishalerah.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/hijab/wanita-muslimah-menangis-750x350/" height="350" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px" src="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/wanita-muslimah-menangis-750x350.jpg?w=750" srcset="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/wanita-muslimah-menangis-750x350.jpg 750w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/wanita-muslimah-menangis-750x350.jpg?w=150 150w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/wanita-muslimah-menangis-750x350.jpg?w=300 300w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-weight: 400; height: auto; line-height: 1; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="750" /></span></span></h1></blockquote><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></span></p><blockquote style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">Hijab hides the body alone; it is not meant to and was never meant to hide the personality of a woman.</span></blockquote><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">"Shhh… quiet! Cover yourself up, do not go outside, do not show up in front of guests, do not speak loudly, keep your voices low, keep your eyes low…". These are the bits of advice many girls hear growing up. As they step into youth, they are constantly reminded of that piece of cloth required to cover them, whether it's a </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">dupatta</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> for Indo-Pak girls or </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">chador</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> or </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">shehla</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> for Middle Eastern or Arab girls.</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">This ideal modest or </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">ba-haya</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> girl can be imagined as a pretty thing robed in clothes of different kinds, having her eyes fixed on the ground or elsewhere, a beautiful but low and accepting voice, a bowed head and almost stooping shoulders. She seems to want to curl in on herself and hide whatever part of her being is still visible. This girl is an image of submission. She is someone no one expects rebellion from. Someone no one expects to speak her mind boldly. </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">But is this girl a representative of the hijab?</em></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></em></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Does hijab mean hiding one's</span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> "being", </em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">as some women have assumed? Why do we think we need to hide our daughters </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">in</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> a hijab? Why do we equate </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">haya</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> with submission and invisibility? When the truth is the opposite: </span><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Hijab is done not to become invisible but to be seen. To be seen for </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">who we are</span></em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">.</span></strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> It does not mean hiding oneself but rather exposing one's</span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> true self and being</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">. The hijab covers the body alone; it is not meant to and was never meant to cover the personality of a woman. It wasn't a chain meant to restrain the ideas, speech, expression and courage of a woman. On the contrary, it was the weapon to showcase these things in a woman, to make these qualities </span><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">stand out</strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">.</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">People are often distracted by glitter, and intellect is often deceived by looks. The most common example of this is seen in advertisements and commercials. A staggering amount of ads use women to promote their products. My question is simple: Are these women exposing themselves or hiding? They are indeed exposing their bodies, but </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">they are actually hiding their very selves</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> in doing so. It is like they have pushed their true selves under their skin. Let not our hijab be like the skin of these women whereby we push our true selves under it, simply because the point of hijab is exactly the opposite – </span><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">hijab hides the body so that all other aspects and qualities of the self can become visible</strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">.</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><img alt="timthumb" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-37" data-attachment-id="37" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-caption="" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="timthumb" data-large-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/timthumb.jpg?w=736" data-medium-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/timthumb.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/timthumb.jpg" data-orig-size="1200,675" data-permalink="https://mishalerah.wordpress.com/2016/10/31/hijab/timthumb/" sizes="(max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px" src="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/timthumb.jpg?w=736" srcset="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/timthumb.jpg?w=736 736w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/timthumb.jpg?w=150 150w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/timthumb.jpg?w=300 300w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/timthumb.jpg?w=768 768w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/timthumb.jpg?w=1024 1024w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/timthumb.jpg 1200w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; height: auto; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" /></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="color: #990000; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-large;">She's being asked to make herself known by her actions and words. Therefore her actions and words must speak loud.<span style="text-align: center;"> </span></span></blockquote><span style="color: #990000; font-family: georgia; font-size: xx-large; text-align: center;"></span><p></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">I urge all women of my culture and society to stop equating modesty with cowardliness, unreasonable shyness, or voicelessness. This kind of portrayal of </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">haya</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> has hurt women's identity, ceasing their personalities from developing and having any meaningful impact on society. I speak with utmost confidence that this imagery of a '</span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">ba-haya</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> woman' is flawed practically and Islamically. Islam does not ask us to lose our existences and make our</span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">selves</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> disappear in the name of hijab. Instead, it emphasizes hiding our physical attractiveness alone.</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">If you have any basic know-how of marketing tactics, you would know that a product's packaging is one very powerful marketing ploy. Oftentimes businesses work on the product's packaging more than they work on the stuff that's in it. Attractive packaging boosts sales, but it is often deceptive, and consumers later regret and complain. Today, most people rely on review sites to find out the actual pros and cons of a product because that is their real concern. So even though firms spend millions on packaging and publishing, the customer would prefer</span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> not to see the packaging and be</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> deceived by it, but instead, find out the product's true worth by other means. </span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes, a product of very cheap quality sells great only because the packaging is expensive and attractive. Thus one can say this is the easiest, albeit dishonest, way to sell a product in large quantities. If a regulatory body ever bans unnecessarily expensive or decorative packaging and strictly emphasizes the quality of the product, then that would be consumers' heaven.</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">By imposing hijab, Islam makes a similar demand. By asking us not to display our decor and feminine attractiveness, it bans the </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">easiest</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> way to attract, thus indirectly asking us to focus on our true qualities – which is harder but supreme. </span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">Islam says, "Go ahead, show us who you really are! And become someone more than a symbol of physical charm."</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">This is why the image of hijab should never be weak and voiceless—portraying submission to the norms of society. </span><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The image of hijab, as I want to present to my daughter, is empowering.</strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> Tell your daughter when she starts hijab to raise her head high and walk with sublime courage, for she is being given a tough challenge – she's being asked not to rely on glitter but to focus on becoming gold. She's being asked to make herself known by her actions and words. Therefore her actions and words must speak loud. </span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">She's covering her head so that she can be known for the ideas she holds, not for the silkiness of her hair. Let people talk about her good deeds and acts of kindness, not the smoothness of her skin.</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The fact that she is </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">ba-haya</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> does not mean she is cowardly. She will speak for her rights and the rights of others, too. She is </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">ba-haya</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> when she submits to God; submitting to society is not part of </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">haya</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">. </span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">She must take pride in being a contributing and active member of society, a strong pillar of the household. She does not have to be passive to be </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">ba-haya</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">. She does not have to be voiceless or opinionless. She does not have to avoid audience or public presence. </span><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">When she is in hijab, she has the freedom to excel in every field and shine not on the basis of outer appearance but on the basis of inner excellence</strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">, and this is exactly how hijab empowers her and credits her with true merits and self-worth.</span></span></p>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-70028357347949897332021-06-21T06:48:00.005+05:002021-09-17T18:14:41.028+05:00Who Snatched My Scarf And Shredded It Into Pieces?<p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbuKgUl9cxoKSL73-ZQSl7nYvYAnm9bhWOg9-FxVyHUVdRCWQBxutzC0dVlQoOWfS0t74Ih_dDNb-iEXBdujhvqQdksUIPr-Xj1rdFr0VbhHsed4GFpxl_6BLgcLaLoPudmjHnBMSIeA/" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1200" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbuKgUl9cxoKSL73-ZQSl7nYvYAnm9bhWOg9-FxVyHUVdRCWQBxutzC0dVlQoOWfS0t74Ih_dDNb-iEXBdujhvqQdksUIPr-Xj1rdFr0VbhHsed4GFpxl_6BLgcLaLoPudmjHnBMSIeA/w640-h384/image.png" width="640" /></span></a></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">When I go out of my house, I see women on the streets covered in quite enough clothes for the hot sunny days we have here in Karachi. Laden in chaadars, burqas, dupattas and scarves, women are waiting at the bus stand or shopping at the local market or simply walking around. It is true that some women can also be seen bare headed or wearing some modern attire like jeans with kurti. Still, generally one would say that all women on the streets here are modestly dressed; even the most modern ones are pretty modest, and one can't really object to their choice of clothing unless one happens to be an extremist.</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">We see that as far as the hijab of women goes, the majority of women are doing a great job of maintaining good standards of modesty in society. By wearing full sleeves and dupattas on their heads despite the hot and humid weather we have here, they are making a sacrifice the whole community should be grateful for.</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Now let's see how much are the men contributing in this regard. The hijab of men lies in their gaze. Yet, no matter how a woman is dressed, if she is young or looks pretty, she will be stared at. But wait, this article is not about women getting stared at in the streets. However, the reasons that are often given for staring or street harassment go like this: Because she was less modestly dressed, i.e. because she was wearing jeans or tight clothing or was wearing so much make-up or those </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">eyeglasses</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> or those </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">high heels!</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> Or maybe just because despite all her attempts to cover her entire self - her femininity still could be made out from her clothes if you looked hard enough!</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">But what about the biggest reason? The skeleton in the closet; the reason that is ignored and nobody is willing to talk about? It seems that the women on the streets are doing their duty well. But have the men forgotten that they too have an obligation in maintaining modesty in society? </span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">When we genuinely ponder upon the root cause of this evil, we realize that men are to be held accountable at large - not for staring at dressed up girls on the street but for staring at completely uncovered women on their TVs, laptops, and phone screens in the quiet of their homes.</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">It is no hidden truth that all men, old & young alike, have access to pornographic content today and internet statistics can show how many of them are actively and routinely watching it. Many of them are serious addicts, yet others watch it for entertainment now and then. Not to deny that some angelic souls may be refraining from it (may God bless them and increase the likes of them), but an overwhelming majority of men have fallen into the lure of the porn industry. They spend so much time looking at vulgar women that their eyes inevitably visualize the same whenever they look at a woman. How can these men order women to observe hijab when all that they have done on their part in bringing modesty to society is nothing but the rape of their own modesty. </span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Yes! what happened to the hijab of men? Why have they kept no check on their gaze? </span><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Can any woman by any amount of garments hide the filthiness of a society where men have no leash on their eyes?</strong><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> These eyes which have virtually seen the most vulgar of what vulgarity could offer; never in the history of mankind did man had such fast access to witness sins unknown and sins unimagined. Can anything be done to un-see what has been seen by them?</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">If you look through tainted glasses, you can only see the tainted view. That is why if your eyes are stained with lust, you will see everything stained with lust. If your mind has forgone </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">haya </em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">then outfits depicting outward haya will not prevent you from evil desires. </span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Men of my society, men of every Muslim society! I am speaking to you. A woman goes all the way to cover herself from head to toe in the hope that she is giving your eyes no reason to lean towards sin. But her heart is broken, and her hope is shattered when she sees your eyes have already succumbed to sin. That the damage is done, she realizes who truly has snatched her scarf and has shredded apart the very idea of </span><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">hijab</em><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"> in doing so. By playing the opposite side, you have rendered futile all the efforts of women in building a better society.</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">If you have any shame left - if you have any ounce of sense of responsibility left in you, ask yourself and your friends to first abandon this abhorring indecent act before asking your women to cover themselves. Know that this is not just about street stares or harassment; it is much more than that. It is about the dignity of the whole society and every individual in it. When lust conquers the mind, relationships are scarred, rules are breached, evils breed and perversions are born. If not for anyone, then for the innocent souls that await their arrival in this world. Please help create a righteous society. The women are doing their part – it's about time you do yours!</span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0e101a; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span data-preserver-spaces="true" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;">And always remember, Allah is Oft-Forgiving & Most Merciful to those of His servants who repent sincerely.</span></span></p>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-89673601402164453582021-03-11T06:51:00.005+05:002021-09-22T18:17:40.937+05:00Opinion: Why Women's March Attract Outrageous Criticism in Pakistan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtqVyBufh49S40TRBARM1Mmp7BvnSPa7ZhOSp5Lkcs1Uoe3CcsmiWTDUcNR00cY1y_M0sAb6rxSzH9_nsWAy1Rf0lM1-KXBpjyx6zHb-dMlu97er1MJuCc3irXLQQBeu0UXcrvDGfItQ/s1000/aurat-march-lead-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="1000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtqVyBufh49S40TRBARM1Mmp7BvnSPa7ZhOSp5Lkcs1Uoe3CcsmiWTDUcNR00cY1y_M0sAb6rxSzH9_nsWAy1Rf0lM1-KXBpjyx6zHb-dMlu97er1MJuCc3irXLQQBeu0UXcrvDGfItQ/w640-h426/aurat-march-lead-3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Since past few years, Women's Day is celebrated in Pakistan with a controversial and much talked about rally called the <i>Aurat March. </i>Women, apparently from all sections of the society (in reality, primarily from the elite section), take part in this march by walking with bold and expressive placards on the streets of Karachi, Islamabad and other cities. The reason for the march being controversial is due to the outrage it sparks in the country over social media and other platforms. On one hand, it has moved religious parties to organize their own counter-march in support of women; their sole stance being that 'everything is good and we do not need any march to obtain rights for women', which obviously is a flawed perspective. However, on the other hand, we have some very sane and moderate voices that object to the way these marches are actually doing more harm to women than they're helping them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Before we mention the objections, we should first acknowledge the actual stated reason for these marches; to empower women and fight the injustices done against women in this country. There is no question that many women in Pakistan have to suffer throughout their life mainly because of their gender. From the moment they are born they're considered a burden in many households. They're fed less, educated less, given less rights simply because they were born girl, not boy. Even in this era of science and technology, and even among many educated households people still feel a deep-rooted shame in having girls. Women are taunted for giving birth to daughters, friends and neighbors remind the couple how their family is incomplete without a son. This leads to second marriages, divorces, separation and even female infanticide. Many women are forced to have children till they finally give birth to a son. In many villages, forced marriages of young girls are a norm. Many women are denied their legal inheritance on the account that a huge amount is spent on their dowries. Public places, public transport and offices are usually not safe or comfortable for women because of harassment. Women are victims of very particular crimes too; such as honor killings, and acid-throwing. All of these are very serious and important issues that need the attention of society, and it is the society that can come forward to mend them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Despite having very genuine and burning issues at hand, every year Aurat March chooses to focus on issues that are relevant to only a particular class of the society. Their causes and their placards are almost a mockery to the serious issues faced by the women of the weaker classes. Most women are seen holding placards with messages that use a foul language, showing contempt towards men and traditional values, as well as expressing disregard for cultural and religious values. It is necessary to mention here that Pakistan is no heaven for men either, and that men have their own share of injustices to bear in this society. It is also necessary to mention that Islam does not allow any of the injustices or crimes that are done against women (Islam instructs men to respect women and keep their gaze low, instructs to give women their due share of inheritance, forbids discrimination of sons and daughters, gives women the right to work and earn without the added responsibility of having to share the expenses). When it comes to real and serious issues, the religious institutions and the male population of the country officially stand in support of women. So the question is why women at the Aurat March choose to push this support away instead of channeling it to enhance their cause ?</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgedWY1UZahzR5sTyVpZd1-rW1B-Bbm2Tu7_DACRmMurRLAPkn6pGOEU22IgSeqcOB7RMB4G9eBSvUqB5WO7Ne-t-QP5tOSiBtFOdTKmbsMpm-Re7nPRAL2nb1chwz9JDBganSTt_6xfg/s640/aurat-march-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="640" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgedWY1UZahzR5sTyVpZd1-rW1B-Bbm2Tu7_DACRmMurRLAPkn6pGOEU22IgSeqcOB7RMB4G9eBSvUqB5WO7Ne-t-QP5tOSiBtFOdTKmbsMpm-Re7nPRAL2nb1chwz9JDBganSTt_6xfg/w400-h250/aurat-march-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Why were the Aurat March slogans not chosen carefully to bring out support from every section of the society ? The most popular and official slogan, 'Mera Jism Meri Marzi' (my body, my choice), despite all the justifications that are given for what it means and what it doesn't, was chosen without care or was meant to stir outrage in a society where women take pride in being modest and in covering their bodies. The slogan combined with other placards that showed disregard for covering the body, or placards that made fun of the standards of modesty were like a betrayal to the rest of the Pakistani women who hold those standards high.</div><div> </div><div>There were placards that talked about menstruation - not to create any kind of awareness but just saying random things about it, about taking pride in women's biology (with diagrams of uteruses, somehow), lessons about consent (in a society which prohibits premarital relationships anyway and is unfamiliar with any concept of marital rape), witty insults for cat-callers and body-shamers, enlightening one-liners for husbands who don't do household chores. . . there were placards supporting <i>queers</i> a<i>nd homosexuals</i>. . . all of these are pretty impressive ways of narrowing down the list of people who will take this march seriously and a sure-fire way of igniting concern and confusion regarding who these women represent? Many of these slogans are actually alien to the masses; it's as if the organizers googled feminist slogans and copied them without thinking how or why in the world they would apply to Pakistani women. Most other slogans, which were in Urdu, although relatable they represent minor domestic problems rather than pointing out crucial injustices done to women. </div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiAwXHj9I2CcKwla3Yj7cp8H_IZafzyPc5dgZOMDmrBTD0wT0UnCr_oUvBYVRhaxBMkG7zEl4CtfuL-SYwtFdpVVoqtGPHei-7HBadkyjzf3P7lz13P8YXdhw89pjQ-5_NMfLQuoDrwA/s1200/115450-bhdiicpklt-1552831500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiAwXHj9I2CcKwla3Yj7cp8H_IZafzyPc5dgZOMDmrBTD0wT0UnCr_oUvBYVRhaxBMkG7zEl4CtfuL-SYwtFdpVVoqtGPHei-7HBadkyjzf3P7lz13P8YXdhw89pjQ-5_NMfLQuoDrwA/w400-h210/115450-bhdiicpklt-1552831500.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div><div>If we assume that the purpose of Aurat March is to provide further independence, rights and freedom of expression to an already privileged class of women then the march can be deemed successful. The truth, however, is that a march that gets enough media coverage and enjoys the limelight on Women's day fails badly at highlighting the real injustices & issues of our women. The collective voice of the third-wave-inspired-feminists only ends up inviting ridicule not just from men but from most women too. This is not because women wish to stay confined or that they love their own chains & shackles as some protagonists of the march would suggest but because they see an obvious lack of dignity and social connection in the march: Immodest dresses, provocative dance performances, open disregard for moral and Islamic values, soft voices calling for legalizing homosexuality, not to mention the unpatriotic remarks and vile language of some of the leading women who run NGOs (which arrange the march) that are openly funded by countries that do not hold the best interests of Pakistan at heart. </div><div><br /></div><div>In December 2020, the American congress cleared USD 10 million for 'gender programs' in Pakistan.(1) Some members of the congress were upset about it as it meant less relief funds for their own country during the COVID-19 pandemic. </div><div></div><blockquote><div>"I predict the day our country's finances collapse, we will still be funding gender programs in Pakistan," Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz. (1)</div></blockquote><blockquote><div>"When your country's COVID-19 relief bill includes USD 10 million in 'gender programs' for Pakistan, you know Congress is broken," Congresswoman Lauren Boebert. (1)</div></blockquote><div></div><div>Pakistan as a nation owes significant debt to the US, we may thus question why it matters if our social-welfare programs are also funded by the US ? The truth is that funding NGOs is not the same as funding government projects. NGOs are essentially 'non-governmental' and can even have anti government agendas. The US has always had long-term goals of controlling the Middle East region and keeping these countries in a state of strife because of its own vested interests. Funding NGOs is one clever way of gathering likeminded, active, and 'potentially rebellious' individuals to work for you as and when required in the future. If our gender programs and NGOs are funded by the US it explains why our Aurat March is poor at connecting with <i>our</i> masses. Why it doesn't gather sympathy but ridicule; and most importantly, why it is blatantly secular.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">References:</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;">(1) <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/us-congress-clears-25-million-for-democracy-gender-programmes-in-pakistan-120122201575_1.html?fbclid=IwAR0zz9TCSxUHTK3NEhpIVO1NNoiPEwOBJC_-zhPe6hcFbmCxt5nIJo1ffNs">US Congress clears $25 million for democracy, gender programmes in Pakistan | Business Standard News (business-standard.com)</a></span></div>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-52608743074571514822017-12-22T12:50:00.006+05:002021-09-22T18:18:59.703+05:00Lies That Normalize Homosexuality & Why They Must Be Exposed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxjDpJy985JPKhTAm5O8el5O3J2dze9YSgqgF80BXlOAbzdz4rZl8PR85jrsGtm88G8XYb3xWKY0EsQvUuZl83KeG0zWeEBa6y7Z3JNloWCrmS684tffZcoUMcfod8Yb9BWz1mP7NlyQ/s1600/Rainbow-flag-transgender-schools-1-1600x845.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="845" data-original-width="1600" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxjDpJy985JPKhTAm5O8el5O3J2dze9YSgqgF80BXlOAbzdz4rZl8PR85jrsGtm88G8XYb3xWKY0EsQvUuZl83KeG0zWeEBa6y7Z3JNloWCrmS684tffZcoUMcfod8Yb9BWz1mP7NlyQ/s640/Rainbow-flag-transgender-schools-1-1600x845.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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A colorful flag and loud voices demanding freedom to be different. They are no longer taboo; they're all over popular media, be it Hollywood or Bollywood, you can even find them in cartoon animations and kids' movies. Popular science is in their favor. They get acceptance and endorsement from ruling elites and famous celebrities. Speaking against them is against human rights, against human values, advancement, modernism, biology, history, nature, fashion, you name it. Still, I feel obliged to speak.<br />
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Is it natural?</span></h2>
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Proponents of homosexuality cite studies that show that some 1500 animal species exhibit homosexual behavior, some of them having a 20% of gay couples within their communities¹, they argue that since there is obvious evidence of same-sex intimacy found in animals, thus it is something natural and innate.<br />
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Though the word 'natural' widely covers every natural phenomenon. However, when it is said that same-sex union is unnatural, it is not implied that it doesn't occur in nature but simply that it is non-productive or destructive to nature.<br />
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So, surely some animals do resort to it but homosexual behavior is not the only perversion in animals' life, when it comes to fulfilling their basic instincts, animals don't see if it is their sibling or parent, or son or daughter, or that they don't always seek the consent of their partner, or that they sometimes kill their offspring to take the mother to bed, or that they are simply animals - to them their needs are first and their needs are last. Is that the case with humans too?<br />
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Proponents of LGBT say that since it happens in the animal kingdom therefore it is not a disease but a natural tendency, this line of reasoning is flawed because what's natural for the animals is the tendency to fulfil their needs the way they can. They do not and they can not consider the consequences of their actions or the rationality of their actions. So something that is natural to animals isn't natural for humans as we can't help but assess our actions and make informed choices. Somewhere in some humans, there may be the desire to rip someone's insides apart and fulfil their appetite, like animals do, but how many of us would consider it natural for humans?<br />
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Is it a natural sexual orientation?</span></h2>
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Secondly, the biggest misconception in this regard is about the nature of animal homosexuality. Certain species of animals <b>resort to</b> 'homosexual behavior', they are <b>not</b> 'homosexual'. That is, they do not have it as a sexual orientation, i.e. a strict preference for same-sex partners. Animals resort to homosexual behavior either for pleasure or due to a shortage of opposite-sex partners, or because of unnatural or artificial living conditions.</span></div>
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A 2006 study studying female macaques proposed that the females were simply seeking sexual pleasure, and were using different movements to maximise it. "She can do so in a homosexual context just as easily as in a heterosexual context, so the behaviour spills over," says Paul Vasey.²<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d;">...the female albatrosses are not inherently homosexual. The Oahu population has a surplus of females as a result of immigration, so some females cannot find males to pair with. Studies of other birds suggest that </span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1474-919X.1999.tb07553.x" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">same-sex coupling is a response to a shortage of males</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d;">, and is much rarer if the sex ratio is equal. In other words, the female Laysan albatrosses probably wouldn't choose to pair with other females if there were enough males to go round.</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">The most notable examples which are often presented in support of homosexuality are Laysan Albatrosses, Bonobos and domestic sheep. It is said that 8% of domestic male sheep have a preference for males even in the presence of females, but the reason for their homosexual nature is because this breed of sheep is <i>domesticated.</i><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">Domestic sheep have been carefully bred by farmers to produce females that reproduce as often as possible, which might have given rise to the homosexual males.³ (LeVay and Vasey)</span></blockquote>
<span face=""notonashkarabic" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: large;">The studies done on the subject of homosexuality are vastly misleading and biased, we see that even though research hasn't provided any meaningful or sufficient evidence for homosexuality being genetic or normal or healthy, yet the general notion in the scientific circles is that it is the case. There seems to be a social and political ambience influencing and promoting a bias. Out of thousands of animal species, only eight percent of just one animal breed are strictly homosexual and that too because of human intervention! How can such an occurrence be cited as evidence for anything?</span><br />
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<a href="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/ireland-is-the-first-country-in-the-world-to-approve-gay-marriage-by-popular-vote-body-image-1432393951.jpg?w=300" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ireland-is-the-first-country-in-the-world-to-approve-gay-marriage-by-popular-vote-body-image-1432393951" border="0" class="size-medium wp-image-143 alignleft" height="212" src="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/ireland-is-the-first-country-in-the-world-to-approve-gay-marriage-by-popular-vote-body-image-1432393951.jpg?w=300" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif">Humans are the only documented case of "true" homosexuality in wild animals.</span>³ (LeVay and Vasey)</blockquote>
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<span face=""helmet" , "freesans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #404040; font-size: large;">There are other researches, for example, one research has found that if an identical twin is gay, there is about a 20% chance that the sibling will have the same sexual orientation. While that's a greater likelihood than random, it's <em>lower</em> than you might expect for two people with the <em>same genetic code</em>. (Twins may have the same DNA but their genomes may be different due to gene copy number variations and also due to epigenetic differences. Although, copy number variations may cause one twin to have a different sexual orientation, epigenetic markers are mostly the cause of environment and lifestyle choices over time). Thus, <b>for two very genetically identical people, a twenty percent chance is dramatically low and can easily be associated with environment or imitation.</b></span></div>
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<span face=""helmet" , "freesans" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="color: #404040; font-size: large;">Dr William Byne, editor-in-chief of the journal LGBT Health, believes sexuality may well be inborn, but thinks it could be more complicated than some scientists believe. He notes that the<b> heritability of homosexuality is similar to that for <i>divorce</i></b>, but "social science researchers have not… searched for 'divorce genes'. Instead they have focused on heritable personality and temperamental traits that might influence the likelihood of divorce."</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">
Last I checked, personality and temperamental traits can be changed or controlled for the better.<br /></span>
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Researches on homosexuality and its role in evolution:</span></h2>
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Could it be that homosexuality is detrimental to human evolution? The famous<i> survival of the fittest</i> is basically how evolution selects successful species for passing down their genes, and homosexuality is neither about survival and nor about being fit. Homosexual animals, pertaining to natural law, are incapable of passing on their genes to their offspring, thus rendering themselves unfit and halting the survival of their genes (that is, without Assisted Reproductive Techniques). As such, any species that resorts to strict homosexuality paves its way towards extinction. Say 50% of a certain species choose homosexuality, then it raises its chances of extinction by half, and over the next generations, if homosexuality prevails, the species would go extinct over time. Therefore, it is not an ideal choice or mode of living. It is similar to being an unfit and unhealthy participant in the evolutionary cycle.<br />
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Various theories have been offered trying to explain the evolutionary benefits of homosexual behavior—from the notion that <a href="http://www.psychologicalscience.org/media/releases/2010/vasey.cfm">homosexual men make more diligent uncles than their heterosexual counterparts </a>(and thus are better at ensuring the survival of their relatives) to the notion that the <a href="http://www.medicaldaily.com/gay-gene-survived-evolution-it-carried-mothers-who-have-more-children-study-240813">same gene that codes for homosexuality in men makes women more fertile</a>.<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d;">Now researchers from the University of Portsmouth in England have put forth a controversial new theory. They say homosexuality evolved in humans and other primates because it helps us form bonds with one another.</span></span></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text"><span style="font-size: large;">
All these theories and researches are just as bogus as they sound, and in the absence of any true homosexuality found in animals, the theories about its supposed benefits are pointless. If these scientists are really trying to tell us that resorting to homosexual behavior due to scarcity of opposite-sex partners or exploring new arenas of pleasure can be helpful in successful evolution then they can just as well find some evolutionary plus points for eating our offspring alive. And in fact, according to scientists, there are more known evolutionary benefits of eating your offspring alive than there are benefits for homosexual behavior:<br />
</span><blockquote>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;"><span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: #5b5b5b;">Previous studies have focused on the idea that parents might be </span><a href="https://www.livescience.com/7208-study-cannibals-dine.html">eating their own</a><span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: #5b5b5b;"> eggs because they get an energy benefit from it and might be using it as a source of food when other sources were scarce.¹¹</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Klug and Michael Bonsall at the University of Oxford<span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d;"> </span><span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: #5b5b5b;"> </span><span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: #5b5b5b;">found that several factors contributed to parents developing a taste for their own offspring. In some cases, cannibalizing their own young puts the same evolutionary pressure on the eggs that a predator would: the faster the eggs develop, the greater their chances of survival.¹¹</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Filial <span face=""open sans" , sans-serif" style="color: #5b5b5b;">Cannibalism was also found to increase the parent's reproductive rate by apparently increasing mate attractiveness, though Klug says they're unsure as to why this might be.¹¹</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">And there are a few more benefits...</span></li>
</ol>
</blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">
The point is that all the studies and theories and attempts to normalize homosexuality are just as good, and just as bad, as trying to normalize filial cannibalism in humans sometime in future by telling people the benefits it has.<br />
<br />
Another big question is why we are constantly being told only about the plus points of homosexuality from popular media sites and credible scientific institutions? Why do no reliable studies show the adverse effects of this behavior? Is it the same reason why science doesn't talk about the adverse effects of filial cannibalism because obviously there are no adverse effects for the 'animals' as they don't care for any adverse effects, they're not emotional beings with any regard for ethics! The notion of adverse or unwanted effects only makes sense when it becomes a human concern. This is something worth pondering.<br /></span>
<br />
<h2><span style="font-size: large;">
An unfit mode of living?</span></h2>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">
The only adverse effects acknowledged openly by the scientific institutions are the obvious health risks. These increased risks account for how, in evolutionary terms, homosexuality makes one an unfit candidate in the selection process. Homosexual men are at increased risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, as well as other sexually transmitted infections, including hepatitis, human papillomavirus, herpes simplex, gonorrhoea, chlamydia and syphilis. (Mayo Clinic)<br />
Similarly, homosexual women are also prone to some health problems, including both medical and psychological (though not as much as gay men are). When these couples wish to have children, the unnatural and artificial modes of conception also pose health risks.<br />
<br /></span></div>
<h2><span style="font-size: large;">
Destructive to family structure:</span></h2>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: large;">
The parental instinct makes us want to have children of our own. So just like everyone, homosexual couples also have the desire to have their own children. Animals may have resorted to homosexuality in nature, but it was not in nature to ever make such union fruitful. So this is where humans summoned medical science. With medical advancement and technology, it is possible for homosexual couples to have offspring that is at least the biological child of one partner.<br />
<br />
They have two options in this regard (to get biological offspring); temporary heterosexual relationship and assisted reproduction. In both these methods, the child is deprived of his or her biological father or mother, while one of the partners in a homosexual relationship is not at all related to the child by blood. There is hardly any need to press on the fact that blood relations are irreplaceable, especially the natural bond between parents and children is superior to all relations we know of. Such love that is shared between biologically related family members usually does not develop between foster parents and siblings. In assisted reproductive techniques the donor or surrogate is not the same person each time, so all children of such couples are unrelated or half-siblings, therefore they also lack that blood relation that usual siblings share.<br />
<br />
There is the option of adoption, which entails a similar lack of blood relation but it is the better option in contrast as one ends up giving care to someone who may <i>not have it otherwise</i>. However, it means making a sacrifice of not having biological children and accepting the demanding challenge of caring for an <i>adopted</i> child which can be difficult at times. And if the couple chooses to remain childless then they end up missing an important and beautiful part of life which is perhaps the reason why homosexual relationships usually do not last as long as heterosexual relationships, and the rate of separation and insincerity among such couples is dramatically higher. That is why despite the natural desire to have children, most homosexual couples choose not to have children, as there is an underlying lack of commitment in most of these relationships.<br />
</span><blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In Male and Female Homosexuality, Saghir and Robins found that the average male homosexual live-in relationship lasts between two and three years.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> [M. Saghir and E. Robins, Male and Female Homosexuality]. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d;">The evidence is overwhelming that homosexual and lesbian "committed" relationships are not the equivalent of marriage. In addition, there is little evidence that homosexuals and lesbians truly desire to commit themselves to the kind of monogamous relationships as signified by marriage. What remains, then, is the disturbing possibility that behind the demands for "gay marriage" lurks an agenda of undermining the very nature of the institution of marriage. - Timothy J. Dailey, Ph. D. Senior Fellow, Center for Marriage and Family Studies </span><span><a href="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS04C02">Click here to read full article</a></span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">
Assisted Reproductive Techniques have helped many infertile couples to conceive who could not have had children otherwise... but for any infertile couple, ART is not the first choice of treatment, simply because of the risks attached (though uneconomic and high cost of the procedure is also a factor). Even though medical science has advanced greatly and such procedures are being performed now with more and more success, yet no medical practitioner would prefer it over natural ways of conception. It's because all such procedures come with a slightly higher chance of miscarriage and birth defects. The rise in homosexual marriages and their desire to have children, therefore, comes with an increased percentage of pregnancy complications and health-compromised children.</span><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/gayno1.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="gayno1" border="0" class="size-full wp-image-145 alignright" height="400" src="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/gayno1.jpg" width="188" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From the Marriage Equality Referendum<br />
(Ireland), a flyer urging to vote No.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">
Those who make it into the world fit and healthy may suffer from a lack of maternal or paternal love, or go through the pangs of never having seen their real parents as they grow up. It can be argued that many kids of heterosexual parents are also born or go through similar circumstances in life, however, we must understand that <i>it is one thing to be unfortunate</i> and another <i>to choose misfortune</i>. For here, we are choosing a life for these children. There is no doubt there can be some lucky ones who will receive all the love in the world but who can say how fair it is for the child to get either two fathers or two mothers instead of the usual pair which most other kids get? There's bound to be some sort of incompleteness in their life... The father and mother, as a male and female couple form a parental pair which is ideal in a way that one compliments the other. The womanly qualities of nurturing kids, their maternal heart, emotional responsiveness and higher tolerance are just as important for children as are the manly qualities of strength and stamina, practicality, emotional stability and higher endurance during stressful times. Having both a father and a mother associates with better emotional and psychological health throughout life.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Growing up without a father can permanently alter the brain: </span><br />
</span><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dr Gabriella Gobbi, who carried out the research with colleagues at the medical faculty at McGill University in Canada, says: ‘This is the first time research findings have shown that paternal deprivation during development affects the neurobiology of the offspring'. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d;">(Children deprived of a father figure) have been shown to have an increased risk for deviant behaviour and in particular, girls have been shown to be at risk for substance abuse. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d;">Our results emphasise the importance of the father during critical neurodevelopmental periods, and that father absence induces impairments in social behaviour that persist to adulthood.’ Dr Gobbi said the results suggested both parents are vital for children’s mental health development and hoped the findings would spur researchers to look more deeply into the role of fathers. **</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d;">It can be argued that gender 'role-playing' can suffice the children's need for both parents such that one partner plays the role of mother on account of being more feminine while the other plays the role of a father on account of being more masculine but this setup is a make-believe notion that is not grounded in reality, and only causes more confusion for the child regarding gender roles.</span><br />
</span><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">
It is common for a child raised by a single mom to look for a dad in a male relative, and same goes for a kid being raised by a single dad, to seek 'mom' in a female relative. A child's personality is balanced by the presence of both. <b>We also learn our sexual roles from our parents. As is observed, a daughter with two female parents is more likely to be attracted to females as an adult</b> - (Biblarz and Stacey, 2001)<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #3d596d;">Both environmental and genetic mechanisms might result in an increased likelihood for children who have a lesbian or gay parent to develop a homosexual orientation. Among the postulated environmental influences on gender role and sexual orientation are imitation, socialization, and promotion of tolerance. (Bailey, 1995)</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">
It can be argued that a lot of kids are just born in unfavorable circumstances and thus develop imbalanced personalities but the difference here is that this is what was chosen for them, and this is becoming a trend, this is being promoted and this is being accepted. We are going to have more homosexual adults, and we are going to have more homosexual kids and teens and future generations.<br />
With the rise of homosexual relationships, we will see a collapse in family structure, this is because the male-male setup or the female-female setup as parents in a family is not ideal and results in children with imbalanced personalities, who lack blood relations, who lack extended blood relations as well, who are inclined since childhood towards a certain sexual orientation thus causing the rate of homosexuality to increase further.<br />
<br />
So, <b>what we see in the long run are families where the partners aren't related by natural sex, furthermore, they do not naturally conceive, their kids are not related to them biologically, the siblings are often not biologically related, due to lack of immediate blood relations there is an obvious lack of extended blood relations such as grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins. All of this means nothing but total collapse of the definition of being a family! Strangers connected to form a family through artificial bonds...</b> This is a huge cause for concern and there is no need to say that families held by such weak links are more prone to break up and fall apart later in life.<br />
<br />
</span><h2><span style="font-size: large;">
Destructive to society:</span></h2>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: large;">
Couples who choose to have no children (and this is the majority), most are not truly committed and do not want to restrict themselves in a union that comes with responsibilities. Statistical data on registered same-sex unions also shows that the number of same-sex couples is dramatically higher than the number of registered same-sex unions in places where gay marriage is legal.</span></div>
<div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS04C02">Statistics</a> show us that rates of fidelity are generally very low when it comes to LGBT relationships. Promiscuity and the desire to experience more is also common among LGBT partners.<br />
</span><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">
In their study of the sexual profiles of 2,583 older homosexuals published in the Journal of Sex Research, Paul Van de Ven et al. found that "the modal range for number of sexual partners ever [of homosexuals] was 101-500." In addition, 10.2 percent to 15.7 percent had between 501 and 1,000 partners. A further 10.2 percent to 15.7 percent reported having had more than one thousand lifetime sexual partners.<span> [Paul Van de Ven et al., Journal of Sex Research 34 (1997): 354]</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>As homosexuality gets more common, along with it the idea of sexual freedom gets common. Promiscuity becomes common, traditional marriage loses value too. By making sex the primary focus of relationships while ignoring its consequences upon family life, we are promoting the idea that individual pleasure comes first. <strong>The lines that were once drawn for the good of all, are being crossed for the good of few; this sends the idea that the lines meant nothing.</strong> That when it comes to sexual desires, there should be no limits imposed. This is exactly the reason why along <em><strong>with the legalization of homosexuality a subsequent rise is being observed among other sexual orientations and perversions</strong></em> and the talk about legalizing them is striking the public ears.<br />
If the consent is there, it should be allowed - ignore all the complications and the outcome, right? So just recently there was news of the German Ethics Council calling for the government to legalize <em>Incest</em>. I quote from the news article:<br />
</span><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">
"In the case of consensual incest among adult siblings, neither the fear of negative consequences for the family, nor the possibility of the birth of children from such incestuous relationships can justify a criminal prohibition. The fundamental right of adult siblings to sexual self-determination has more weight in such cases than the abstract protection of the family." - Ethics Council, Germany.</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">
The above lines indicate how our thoughts have been molded, how our way of thinking has been changed entirely. How it is possible now to use the same line of reasoning which is used to justify homosexuality to use in justifying an indecent, immoral and to-this-date-abhorred act (as to whether it will be abhorred in the future is a valid question). It is as if we are absolutely oblivious of how these things will affect social and family life. And this is no exaggeration, by any means, especially when on articles like these you see some people speaking in support of, or showing indifference to such issues. When someone comments, '<em>So, what's the big deal about incest?'</em> and you're at loss for words... then by the contrast of this silence what is being said now is not exaggeration but underestimation.<br />
<br />
Though the concern for gay marriages paving way for incest, in particular, is not just due to change in thinking but <em><strong>the concern is real because the sperm donor culture and increased adoptions may truly raise the chances of incest</strong></em>. And this is just simple mathematics, as I will explain. Suppose that there are 1000 homosexual couples in a town who get babies through sperm donation or surrogacy. These donors and surrogates obviously play no part in raising the child, however, they are people who whether already have children or will have children of their own sometime soon. What are the chances of those 1000 kids coming across the kids of their biological parents? With more babies born through artificial techniques and children spending life away from biological parents and siblings, we will significantly raise the chances of incestuous relationships.<br />
<br />
It's very likely for many of them to be in the same college or university, to meet somewhere else and be attracted to each other... (in fact some studies establish that they are more likely to be attracted to each other due to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_sexual_attraction">Genetic Sexual Attraction</a> and the absence of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westermarck_effect">Westermarck Effect</a>). In short and simple words, Genetic Sexual Attraction is an overwhelming sexual attraction that is felt by genetically related adults who meet each other for the first time in their lives after having been separated. And Westermarck Effect is a phenomenon that makes us immune from having any sexual attraction towards our parents and siblings and all those persons with whom we spent the early years of our life in a home-like environment.<br />
<br />
Here is an excerpt from an article in The Guardian that cites Genetic Sexual Attraction to justify incest:<br />
</span><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;">
You're 40, happily married - and then you meet your long-lost brother and fall passionately in love. This isn't fiction; in the age of the sperm donor, it's a growing reality: 50% of reunions between siblings, or parents and offspring, separated at birth result in obsessive emotions. Last month, a former police officer was convicted of incest with his half-sister - but should we criminalize a bond hardwired into our psychology? <i>Alix Kirsta</i> talks to those who have suffered the torment of 'genetic sexual attraction' - <span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2003/may/17/weekend7.weekend2">The Guardian, May 2003</a></span></span></blockquote>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/mileycyrus2.jpg?w=300" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="mileycyrus2" border="0" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-146" height="300" src="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/mileycyrus2.jpg?w=300" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Miley Cyrus, the popular child star of the <br />
Disney show 'Hannah Montana', an icon <br />
followed by children and teens around the world,<br />
is a controversially vulgar pop star today.<br />
Inspiring millions of fans and followers.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">
Another perversion that is being promoted in subtle ways over the media is <em>Pedophilia</em>. It's common to see child-like young women in magazines, seeing children in sensual dressing, singing or dancing on TV programs, or the popular children's dolls with luscious lips and heavy mascara. The idea is to portray children as sexual objects, but maybe Freud already gave that idea. Today, we are working to turn children into sexual objects; turning Hannah Montanas into vulgar pop stars inspiring millions of kids worldwide. In 2010, two psychologists in Canada made national news when they declared that pedophilia is a sexual orientation just like homosexuality. In the same year, <span style="font-family: inherit;">Harvard Health Publications reported: </span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“Pedophilia is a <b>sexual orientation</b> and unlikely to change. Treatment aims to enable someone to resist acting on his sexual urges.”</span></blockquote><span style="font-size: large;">
Over the internet, one can find such attempts to legalize these sexual disorders. Often, psychologists may show a soft corner for pedophiles, painting them in a picture where they're the victims of nature and helpless at the hands of their mental disposition. All of this is just the beginning of an era paving grounds for society to stoop lower and lower in pursuit of pleasure.<br />
<br />
Several years ago, homosexuality was a mental disorder; today pedophilia or incest is. It won't take long till it becomes a legalized sexual interest. Since there is nothing inside the body that labels genes as sick or healthy, we judge associated behavior the way we like. With roughly about 30 known perversions that people associate with, the world will be able to boast a variety in the coming future, all safe and legal.<br />
<br />
Coming back to the prospect of being natural, whether genetics is at play or not, the question that lies at the heart of it all is simple.<i> Should you do something if you're naturally drawn to it?</i> Should a person attracted to his sibling try to overcome and fight such a desire or act upon it? A man attracted to a young child needs to control his desires or go about fulfilling them? If they act on their desires, what are its implications upon the social and family life? <i>Should there be any lines that can't be crossed... or is everything fair in lust and war?</i><br /></span>
<i><br /></i>
<br />
<hr />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">Wikipedia.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">Male–Female and Female–Female Mounting in Japanese Macaques: A Comparative Study of Posture and Movement. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10508-005-9007-1</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: x-small;">Are there any homosexual animals? http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150206-are-there-any-homosexual-animal</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">** (Even though this study is about children raised by single mothers but it is indicative of something. As for the studies done on lesbian or gay parents, first of all, such couples are few in number, plus they form a part of the study, so they know they are being observed and studied upon - therefore, such studies are hardly reliable or practical). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2518247/Growing-father-permanently-alter-BRAIN-Fatherless-children-likely-grow-angry-turn-drugs.html#ixzz3Tr4bbjih</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">11. Why some animals eat their offspring https://www.livescience.com/2053-animals-eat-offspring.html</span></div>
Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-87974923746357987292017-06-02T00:34:00.035+05:002022-01-29T05:05:45.680+05:00What Would Happen If Red Sherbets Didn't Have The Red?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>The Answer: You'll be healthier & Ramazan will be safer!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVxiVILLajyIr8sTex0lMTXaJsITO2epq7uqd9pSI-YSmMCkkYZ7EeBPnFMdi-UqZn3Mpdv3RmxIsmhJ6lsAYuiICgL2VMenoyyCyhirM52WX9Hm1VtakPSdrNDz0CbBMxP9can7L9Nw/s1600/rooh-afza-lemonade-1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="500" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVxiVILLajyIr8sTex0lMTXaJsITO2epq7uqd9pSI-YSmMCkkYZ7EeBPnFMdi-UqZn3Mpdv3RmxIsmhJ6lsAYuiICgL2VMenoyyCyhirM52WX9Hm1VtakPSdrNDz0CbBMxP9can7L9Nw/s320/rooh-afza-lemonade-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">W</span>ith the onset of Ramazan we begin to see a rise in the consumption of Mashriqi(Eastern) drinks, though these charming red and radiant sherbets are apparently a wiser choice than soft drinks or energy drinks, so far as health is concerned they are quite unsafe in their own way - and most people do not know. <b>Almost all brands of these bright red sherbets claim that they only contain natural and herbal ingredients but one only needs to take a look at the list of ingredients on the label to know the truth;</b> all of these sherbets are loaded with artificial colors. In fact, that is where they get their attractiveness, part of the problem is with the consumers' psyche - how we just love colored food and wouldn't really enjoy these sherbets if they were colorless or pale.</div><div><br /></div><div>
So what is wrong with artificial colors ? After all, the label says they're 'permitted' food colors, right ? That's right, sadly, they are permitted by the food regulation agencies but that doesn't mean they are safe to consume. Research has 'proven' with evidence that artificial food colors are harmful to health and can be the cause of various problems, especially among children. These colors are carcinogenic (which means they can cause cancer) and can cause ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in young children, which means that they can affect mental well-being.</div>
<div>
These are the colors commonly added to these drinks:</div>
<div>
<b>E102</b>,<b> E124</b>, <b>E110</b> (All three of them are graded dangerous, especially for kids, pregnant women and people with lung problems)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Apart from these colors most of these drinks contain Sodium Benzoate or <b>E211</b> (as preservative) which is a known carcinogen and can cause ADHD when combined with Tartrazine (<b>E102</b>).<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
But of course, it is not just the red drinks, the green and orange ones have exactly the same stuff in them. And all food products which contain these colors should be avoided (which is a grand list) but I am particularly talking about these Ramazan drinks because they have <b>a lot </b>of color in them, and one or two glasses of sherbet can put lots of color in your body.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
I know that a lot of people like myself enjoy these sherbets and won't be giving them up easily, even I haven't given them up completely but knowing is better than not knowing and perhaps after reading this article and doing a 5 minute google search people may be willing to reduce the consumption of colors.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
In the end, I am leaving a request for all those famous brands which put unnecessary and harmful colors in their food products to attract customers, I think it is time to realize that more and more consumers are looking for healthier and natural options so it would be wise to cater to these growing numbers rather than continue old practices.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
Have a blessed Ramzan!</div>
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Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-14908752413973321412016-11-29T16:23:00.000+05:002017-01-06T00:47:27.733+05:00Broiler Chicken: Myths and Facts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Broiler is a type of chicken bred and raised specifically for meat. There are various health concerns both for these chickens themselves and for the humans consuming them. Some of them are misleading or untrue, yet some of them are based on factual information and the concerns are real.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">STEROIDS OR GROWTH HORMONES:</span></b><br />
The most common notion about broilers is that they are fed steroids or growth hormones resulting in their excessive and rapid growth. It is true that the growth rate of Broilers has dramatically increased since 1930s to now. In the 1930s, the weight gain rate for a Broiler was 120 days to reach slaughter weight, today it is around 35 days or so. What it means is that today's broiler chick gains enough weight in 35-40 days to be considered sufficient for slaughter (2 kg). However, contrary to popular belief this weight gain is not the result of injecting growth hormones or steroids (i.e. there is no documented evidence of it) but a result of artificial selection and genetic modification, which means selecting rapidly growing chickens to mate with rapidly growing chickens and similarly choosing other desirable traits to be passed on to the offspring of these chickens.<br />
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<b>The broilers of today are the result of decades of artificial selection, genetic modification and other various techniques to support rapid growth </b>(we'll discuss later how some of them are hazardous). In layman terms, broilers are a breed of chicken that eat a lot and gain a lot of weight quickly and sit around all day - kind of like the human generation of today (You are what you eat, right?). These traits make the broiler very ideal for commercial use and in fact these acquired traits became possible because of the toil and work of the commercial poultry industry to increase meat production.<br />
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We should understand that chicken of today is not injected with growth hormones, but that does not eliminate the likelihood that it was injected with growth hormones in the past. It is possible that early chickens were injected with growth hormones and with the passage of time and breeding techniques the offspring of those chickens formed particular traits of rapid growth which we witness today. However there is little to no documented evidence that can be found online of such practices. Yet, some researchers and doctors have their suspicions. See reference (1).<br />
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Question is why are we suspicious ? Firstly because it is hard to believe that such rapid and uncontrollable growth that is so dangerous for the chicken itself can be achieved simply by artificial selection in such a short span of time (1930s to now). Secondly, some of the big names involved in the early trials and experiments are generally the topic of conspiracy theories and have earned a bad name in the public because of their questionable commercial practices.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Arbor Acres of Connecticut was another big winner (In the Chicken of Tomorrow contest). Originally a family-operated fruit and vegetable farm, later a <i>Rockefeller</i> subsidiary, now one of the largest broiler breeding companies in the world, Arbor Acres developed the Arbor Acres White Rock from Plymouth White Rock genetic lines</span><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> </span>(2).</blockquote>
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Since Capitalism revolves around capital - there is little concern for actual welfare and ethics, therefore something that was going to be disastrous for the chickens was advertised and promoted as beneficial:<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">The broiler industry’s measure of success is aptly characterized in a brochure published by the National Broiler Council, a U.S. trade group, in association with Merck, aimed at college students: “Dramatic changes have taken place within the industry. Instead of ‘scratching for their food,’ today’s <i>pampered</i> chickens are the products of advanced science and technology </span>(2).</blockquote>
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We all know and can see with our own eyes that broiler chickens are nothing even close to 'pampered', what a clear deception and deceitful use of words. In case you don't know, keep reading to learn about the awful plight of broiler chickens. Keep reading to learn what 'advanced science and technology' has done to these poor chickens. And there is no end in sight.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><span style="color: #0b5394;">Geneticists have been searching for a poultry gene to reduce abdominal fat, which could then be inserted into the germ plasm of commercial broiler chicken stock. Merck filed for a European patent on a “Macro Chicken,” described on the patent application as a “transgenic fowl expressing bovine growth hormone.” The bird includes growth hormones from cattle</span> (2).</blockquote>
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Sometimes hormone disruptors are used legally in animal feed. Zeralenone, for example, is a mycotoxin that causes hormonal imbalance resulting in sexual problems. The human and livestock exposure to it poses health concern due to the onset of several sexual disorders. Zeralenone is found worldwide on cereal crops and it's toxicity is of considerable concern to livestock and poultry producers. But despite this we see that its related compound <span style="color: #0b5394;">'Zeranol', which is 3 to 4 times more potent as an estrogen than the related compound zearalenone is approved for use as a growth promoter in livestock under the brand name Ralgro in the United States</span> (9). Obviously if something like this is legal in the US then we can imagine it being used in developing countries as a norm. A study done in Pakistan found significant levels of mycotoxins in chicken meat and eggs (10).<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>The presence and metabolism of endogenous steroid hormones in meat-producing animals has been the subject of much research over the past 40 years. While significant data are available, no comprehensive review has yet been performed. Efforts are already underway to produce more definitive data and promote communication among the scientific community on this issue, the convening of a formal European Union working party is recommended</b></span> (13).</blockquote>
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However, since the health and poultry industry maintains that broiler chickens are not directly injected with growth hormones, so let's accept it and stop being suspicious. Does that end the problem in any way ? Not at all. Even if we ignore the issue of growth hormones truth remains that due to artificial methods and techniques (ones which the industry officially accepts) these chickens have become susceptible to various diseases and health problems, and their welfare has been severely compromised.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">SICK AND UNHEALTHY:</span></b><br />
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The health and welfare of chicken is a topic on which so many animal rights workers, environmentalists, health-workers, researchers and journalists have spoken. It is also one of the biggest challenges for the poultry industry itself. There is absolutely no doubt that broiler chickens are very health-compromised and sick. Most common problems being skeletal malformation and dysfunction, skin and eye lesions, and congestive heart conditions. Most broilers have such weak and malformed bones that they are unable to walk, they spend most of their time sitting. Decreased activity and fast growth of body mass causes them cardiovascular diseases, while poor environmental conditions cause them to develop various skin conditions such as dermatitis, sores, skin blisters, etc. and artificial lighting settings cause them certain eye abnormalities. Stressful living environment and questionable diet causes them other problems such as infertility and poor egg quality.<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Disease and suffering are inherent features of the battery system in which the individual hen is obscured by gloom and by thousands of other hens in an environment deliberately designed to discourage perception, labor, and care. Forcing a physically active bird to assume a cramped and stationary position for life on wire mesh produces diseases that are complicated by abnormal reproductive demands: muscle degeneration, poor blood circulation, accumulation of flaccid fat, oviducts clogged with masses and bits of eggs that can’t be expelled, osteoporosis, and foot and leg deformities. The very filth of the de-beaking machines, vaccination equipment, and overall living conditions has generated an incurable disease in laying hens known as Swollen Head Syndrome</b></span> (2).</blockquote>
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Selection and husbandry for very fast growth means there is a genetically induced mismatch between the energy-supplying organs of the broiler and its energy-consuming organs (5). Rapid growth can lead to metabolic disorders such as sudden death syndrome (SDS) and ascites (6).<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">In attempts to improve or maintain fast growth, broilers are kept under a range of lighting conditions. These include continuous light (fluorescent and incandescent), continuous darkness, or under dim light; chickens kept under these light conditions develop eye abnormalities such as macrophthalmos, avian glaucoma, ocular enlargement and shallow anterior chambers</span><span style="color: #444444;"> (3).</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">In recent decades, hens’ oviducts have become infested with Salmonellae bacteria that enter the forming egg, causing food poisoning in consumers. While in the past, Salmonella infections were usually traced to dirty or cracked eggs contaminated from the outside by chicken droppings, Salmonella can now be found inside the intact egg shells</span> (2).</blockquote>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Manure is everywhere in the caged layer complex. Toxic ammonia rises from the decomposing uric acid in the manure pits beneath the cages to produce a painful corneal ulcer condition in chickens known as “ammonia burn,” a keratoconjunctivitis that can lead to blindness. It facilitates chronic respiratory diseases such as infectious bronchitis, caused by an airborne virus. Studies of the effect of ammonia on eggs suggest that even at low concentrations significant quantities of ammonia can be absorbed into the egg</span> (2).</blockquote>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Cannibalism:</b> The caging and crowding of chickens produces a pecking disorder that the industry refers to as “cannibalism.” This distorted behavior is caused by the abnormal restriction of the normal span of activities in ranging species of birds in situations in which they are squeezed together and prevented from exercising their natural exploratory, food-gathering, and social impulses. It includes vent picking, feather pulling, toe picking, and head picking</span> (2).</blockquote>
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<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">POOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH:</span></b><br />
If you let these chickens live beyond their slaughter age, which poultry farmers have to do if they want more broilers and their eggs, (and when they're done laying eggs they too end up on your plate), then there is very high likelihood of the broilers getting overweight and unfit. So much so that often they are unable to reproduce, or because of being overweight they develop reproductive disorders. <br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Unfortunately, efficient growth in the broiler and reproductive fitness in the breeder are negatively related production traits (Siegel and Dunnington, 1985). Body weight gain must be limited throughout the life of breeder birds by controlling feed intake to minimize reproductive problems in the adult bird (Richards et al., 2010).</span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Pullets that enter the breeder house overweight tend to have excessive follicular development that can lead to oviductal prolapse, increased number of double-yolk eggs, egg yolk peritonitis (presence of egg yolk in the abdominal cavity), erratic oviposition (laying outside the normal laying time), and laying more than one egg per day (often with poor quality shells). Overweight hens may have poor fertility due to sperm transport problems in the oviduct. They also may become too large to mate successfully (Stanley, 2003).</span></blockquote>
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Broilers, in general, have very poor health and all sorts of health problems surround them. This is despite the heavy vaccination shots and antibiotic doses given to them regularly:<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>USE OF ANTIBIOTICS and GROWING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE:</b></span><br />
As I said earlier, some techniques which promote rapid growth are hazardous, one such technique is the use of antibiotics. Yes, in case you're wondering antibiotics can cause weight-gain:<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Ranchers and farmers have been feeding antibiotics to the animals we eat since they discovered decades ago that small doses of antibiotics administered daily would make most animals gain as much as 3 percent more weight than they otherwise would. In an industry where profits are measured in pennies per animal, such weight gain was revolutionary</b> </span>(4).</blockquote>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Although it is still unclear exactly why feeding small "sub-therapeutic" doses of antibiotics, like tetracycline, to animals makes them gain weight, there is some evidence to indicate that the antibiotics kill the flora that would normally thrive in the animals' intestines, thereby allowing the animals to utilize their food more effectively </span>(4).</blockquote>
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What it means is that the broiler has been fed with antibiotics in its feed since decades and is one of the factors contributing to the rapid weight-gaining breed of broiler today. And they are still being fed antibiotics regularly in their feed. Not just any antibiotics, but some of the most powerful antibiotics:<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /><b>Cipro and Baytril belong to a class of drugs known as fluoroquinolone, among the most powerful antibiotics currently available.</b> The Food and Drug Administration, doctors, and consumer groups have all urged that Baytril be removed from the market on the grounds that its use in animals may eventually compromise the power of Cipro and similar antibiotics to fight disease in humans </span>(4).</blockquote>
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Researcher and author Karen Davis writes:<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Antibiotics increase the problem by disrupting the hen’s intestinal microflora and immune system. Antibiotics are given to battery hens to control the bacterial diseases that thrive in crowded confinement, and to manipulate egg production. For example, virginiamycin is said to increase feed conversion per egg laid, bacitracin to stimulate egg production, and oxytetracycline to improve eggshell quality and extend the period of high egg production and improve feed efficiency in the presence of stress and disease. <b>The overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture has caused the evolution of “super” Salmonellae and other toxic bacteria that resist antibiotic treatment in chickens, humans, and other animals. </b></span></blockquote>
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According to an article in Newsweek:<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">For sheer overprescription, no doctor can touch the American farmer. Farm animals receive 30 times more antibiotics (mostly penicillins and tetracyclines) than people do. The drugs treat and prevent infections. But the main reason farmers like them is that they also make cows, hogs and chickens grow faster from each pound of feed. Resistant strains emerge just as they do in humans taking antibiotics—and remain in the animal’s flesh even after it winds up in the meat case. And in the eggshell, as well.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394;">The World Health Organization is concerned enough about antibiotic resistance to suggest significantly curbing the use of antibiotics in the animals we eat. In a recent report, the WHO declared its intention to "reduce the overuse and misuse of antimicrobials in food animals for the protection of human health." Specifically, the WHO recommended that prescriptions be required for all antibiotics used to treat sick food animals, and urged efforts to "terminate or rapidly phase out antimicrobials for growth promotion if they are used for human treatment</span> (4).</blockquote>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Calls to curb the use of antibiotics in agriculture are growing louder the world over, with many experts concerned that we're careening toward a global public health crisis brought on by bacteria that do not respond to antibiotics. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, has said that<b> if we don't change course, we could soon live in a world where "things as common as strep throat or a child's scratched knee could once again kill</b></span> (7).</blockquote>
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Every year, 2 million people in the United States get infections that are resistant to antibiotics, and at least 23,000 people die as a result. Dozens of new, virulent bacteria have emerged over the years, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which causes more than 11,000 deaths in the United States each year, and resistant strains of E. coli that can turn a run-of-the-mill urinary tract infection into a trip to the emergency room. Last month, Consumer Reports found that 97% of the 316 chicken breasts it tested were tainted with potentially harmful bacteria, and about half harbored at least one multidrug-resistant bacteria.<br />
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<b>By overusing the drugs, we're now fast running out of low-side-effect antibiotics that actually work. </b>Antibiotic resistance is a global problem, but are there any antibiotics inside the meat you eat ? People who support such commercial practices will say that antibiotics stay in the animal's intestines and do not get into the bloodstream but that is obviously not true and there is evidence; controlled studies showing animal plasma, liver and muscle testing positive for antibiotics (8). Since the antibiotics remain in the meat of animals for a few days after withdrawal, animals that have reached the desired weight for slaughter need to be withdrawn from antibiotic containing feed. This is called the withdrawal time, which is 5 days for chicken, which means that in order for chicken meat to be free from antibiotics the chicken must not be fed antibiotics for 5 days before it is slaughtered. This is a standard rule, but whether it is acted upon or not depends on the country where you live and how strict its food regulation authority is. We, who live in Pakistan know how our 'authorities' work. Sadly, our poultry farmers do import all sorts of chemicalized and antiobiotic containing feed for the livestock but do not take the necessary precautions in using them.<br />
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Another greater problem of using antibiotics in animal feed is that all of it leaves the animal's system in the form of excrement which then contaminates the soil, the crops, the water supply, the oceans and the fish. It is just like spilling huge amounts of antibiotics on the ground and everywhere else.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">STRESS HORMONES:</span></b><br />
This is most important and the least research has been done on this subject. Broiler chickens have high amount of stress hormones in them and this should come as no surprise since the conditions in which the chickens live and considering how sick and ill-treated they are it is very natural for them to have chronic stress. Over the internet it is hard to find the health effects of consuming broiler chicken upon human health, but you can easily find articles relating to broiler chicken's own welfare; how sick and health-compromised and disease ridden broilers are, the pain they are in, the agony they face each day, there is no happiness in their life, no place to jump and play and neither any energy to do so. They're actually young chicks that have grown so rapidly they appear to be adults but they are not adults. They are young but they live the life of old and bed ridden. It is then very natural to ask ourselves the question that <b>an animal which is so unhealthy and unhappy, how can eating it make us healthy and happy ?</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjthcu5BkdnKDZm8eOlVfOt71wsHhhHqKVFqbdqtz5rKcCssnejMQlO1TseKN-gihAz88cwkDP1YClRoen1suJKK6i0vUj2EmeGAW0cZEykrikMhyphenhypheng9wIxItaqHhRdoPBuzt-krDNFViA/s1600/1000-broiler-facts_fullshed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjthcu5BkdnKDZm8eOlVfOt71wsHhhHqKVFqbdqtz5rKcCssnejMQlO1TseKN-gihAz88cwkDP1YClRoen1suJKK6i0vUj2EmeGAW0cZEykrikMhyphenhypheng9wIxItaqHhRdoPBuzt-krDNFViA/s320/1000-broiler-facts_fullshed.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #0b5394;">Domesticated chickens in extremely crowded conditions show typical evidence of<b> nonspecific stress</b>, such as increases in adrenal gland weight, regression of lymphatic glands, and depletion of adrenal cholesterol (Siegel 1960)</span> (11).</blockquote>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Birds are very sensitive to threatening stimuli such that if the bird gives up trying to find an alternative and suitable coping strategy, or if it learns that none is available, it could enter the dangerous state of hopelessness, learned helplessness and behavioral depression.</b> Such failure to cope could eventually produce psychosomatic symptoms and eventually death through the breakdown of internal homeostatic mechanisms</span> (12).</blockquote>
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It is hard to cite studies showing the relation between stress levels of animals and stress hormones being present in the carcass as there is little research in this area. However, there are studies which show how stress affects the meat quality; <span style="color: #0b5394;">Broiler chickens at marketing age may be challenged by many acute stressors, such as heat stress, feed withdrawal, catching, crating, transport, and stunning (Ali et al., 1999; Sams, 1999). Preslaughter stress may cause undesirable changes in meat quality via altered pre- or postslaughter muscle metabolism, or both</span> (14).<br />
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Stress hormones cause significantly lower protein and carbohydrate digestibility (15). It also makes the chicken vulnerable to diseases and infections.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #0b5394;">It is known that during stress blood is deviated from organs such as the G.I.T (by activation of a adrenoceptors) though catecholamines in the blood and so decreases the absorbance of metabolites from the intestines. Catecholamines also decrease peristaltic contraction of the avian intestines by relaxing the smooth muscle (through activation of a2 and b adrenoceptors) and contracting the sphincters (through the activation of a adrenoceptors) (14). Gastrointestinal ulceration is one of the consequence of long term exposure to high levels of corticosteroids during stress (chronic stress) and definitely harms the efficiency of the GIT </span>(16).</blockquote>
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It remains to be investigated whether the effects of stress and presence of stress hormones in the chicken has an impact on us or not. What we know is that hormones are present in the bloodstream and can work orally and there can be many complex ways in which they may affect us. For example, the primary stress hormone present in birds is Corticosterone, in humans it is associated with brain function and memory.<br />
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Even the fear of being slaughtered causes the chicken to release stress hormones and affects meat quality. Therefore, nature would rather like you to slaughter chicken in the best possible manner causing it the least fear, doing so while it's calm and unaware, lying on the ground... it is not only for the chicken's good but for our own benefit. Ah, nature made this chicken to grow up under it's mother's arms, sleep in the warmth of her wings, explore the lands for its sustenance, play with its siblings and friends, utilize its energies; build and burn calories, see the light of the sun and darkness of the night, breath fresh air, have humans as its caretakers so that it could love them back, and after having lived a full life be slaughtered to return the favor in the form of good and pure food. This is what nature wanted, This is how nature would have it. Alas, look at what we did instead.<br />
<b><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></b>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTtG0yaubQ_H7XF3_NHPHotr3yDr-G5zhKFJSYU3XhBclkceS6i7843rw9aMJynKL93MOCczrgw03c8KbDM_5lkqye7YtQujxeg9mAfJc7JrsXlsJ93hyboLTgiOPGwjTCOtvZC59GKg/s1600/126523696.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTtG0yaubQ_H7XF3_NHPHotr3yDr-G5zhKFJSYU3XhBclkceS6i7843rw9aMJynKL93MOCczrgw03c8KbDM_5lkqye7YtQujxeg9mAfJc7JrsXlsJ93hyboLTgiOPGwjTCOtvZC59GKg/s320/126523696.jpg" width="320" /></a><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">WHAT TO DO ?</span></b><br />
It is important to know that the presence of antibiotics and hormones in meat is not a problem specific to broiler chicken but it is also a problem with other industrial meats be it mutton or beef. This is the outcome of preferring profits over health and well-being and as such we can see it in many other areas. However, in Pakistan the beef and mutton market is less industrialized compared to poultry. Chicken is cheap and it constitutes a major portion of our food. Chicken is not bad, but the industrialized chicken meat is. So if we can then we should try to eat real chicken, i.e. the local or <i>desi</i> chicken, as it is more nutritious and tastier compared to broiler chicken. Lots of people raise <i>desi</i> chickens in their houses and enjoy <i>desi</i> eggs, which again are much better than broiler eggs. This practice should be appreciated and people should raise their level of awareness so that the demand for <i>desi</i> chicken and eggs rises thus making them easily available for all.<br />
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<span style="color: #38761d;">References:</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">1. Natural sex steroids and their xenobiotic analogs in animal production http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408399709527771</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">2. "Prisoned Chicken Poisoned Eggs" by Karen Davis</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broiler</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">4. PBS, Antibiotic Debate Overview http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/safe/overview.html</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">5. Turner, J.; Garcés L. and Smith, W. (2005). "The Welfare of Broiler Chickens in the European Union" (PDF). Compassion in World Farming Trust. Retrieved November 16, 2014.u</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">6. Bessei, W. (2006). "Welfare of broilers: A review". World's Poultry Science Journal. 62: 455–466. doi:10.1079/WPS2005108</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">7. http://www.prevention.com/health/healthy-living/truth-about-antibiotics-your-meat</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">8. http://www-staro.vef.unizg.hr/vetarhiv/papers/70-4/alhendi.pdf</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeranol</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">10. http://ssu.ac.ir/cms/fileadmin/user_upload/Mtahghighat/tfood/asil-article/g-p/Natural-incidence-of-aflatoxins-ochratoxin-A-and-zearalenone-in-chicken-meat-and-eggs_2014_Food-Control.pdf</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">11. http://www.charlieandpeggy.com/stresssiegel.pdf</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">12. http://www.isrvma.org/ImageToArticle/Files/Vol%2055%203%20HANDLING%20AND%20TRANSPORTATION%20OF%20BROILERS.doc</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">13. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02652030802627160</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">14. http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/87/8/1609.full#xref-ref-17-1</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">15. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.418.7655&rep=rep1&type=pdf</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">Physiological stress in broilers: Ramifications on nutrient digestibility and responses http://japr.oxfordjournals.org/content/18/2/338.full</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/23665/PDF</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">16. Elrom, K.: Stress in Broilers due to pre-slaughter handling and transportation. D.V.M. thesis. University of Veterinary Medicine in Kosice, The Slovak Republic. 1999</span><br />
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Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-42635073836105742182016-09-29T13:16:00.000+05:002016-09-29T14:27:04.883+05:00Why You Should Not Take Antibiotics For Common Cold & Flu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So the winter is around and soon we'll be coughing and sneezing. We all get flu and cold in the winter, but that's not bad, right? After all, its a hallmark sign of winter and as long as it is just a little bit of a runny nose and just the right amount of lightheadedness it's probably okay. A way to welcome winter, if you will. However, for a lot of us this flu and cold cycle stretches way more than it should, and keeps turning on and off throughout winter.<br />
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Now this is obviously due to low immunity or vulnerable immune system of our body, and until we do something to improve our immune systems this problem will likely persist. Yet, I'm not writing today to talk about ways to improve our immune system but I'm writing about a common practice or a common mistake we make when we get flu or cold: Taking Antibiotics.<br />
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First thing we need to understand is that cold and flu are not the same. Cold is milder, while Flu is like a more severe version of cold. The major difference is that Flu will give you severe headache and a sore throat, and chances are high that when you come down with flu you will likely seek medical attention to get rid of the pain and end up taking Antibiotics (If you live in Pakistan, then that is always the case).<br />
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So, why should you not take antibiotics to get rid of the pain ? After all, they are high power pills that ease pain and illness quickly and effectively? That is not true. Contrary to the belief in the general population, antibiotics aren't meant to deal with all kinds of illnesses and diseases. They are effective and efficient only in case of bacterial infections. They do a great job of fighting <i>bacteria</i>, but that is it. <b>Anything other than a bacterial infection is outside the scope of antibiotics</b>. Now, the big question: Are Cold and Flu some kind of bacterial infections ? Absolutely not. They are not bacterial infections. Cold is a virus, and Flu is also a virus and no amount of antibiotics can cure a virus.<br />
See <a href="http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/antibiotics-colds">http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/antibiotics-colds</a><br />
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So you must be thinking that if cold/flu are viral and they cannot be treated with antibiotics then why the heck does my doctor prescribe me (and my kids) antibiotics when I catch it ? Whether it's a 3 day course or a 5 day, why am I always prescribed antibiotics when I catch cold or flu in winters. . . ? That is indeed a good question, and the funny thing is that the first thing you might hear from the doctor is that 'Oh, its just viral fever. . .' and then he goes on to write the prescription.<br />
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You may also be wondering then why do you get better after taking the pills ? Well, the length of a common cold or flu virus is about a week or so, by the time you go to the doctor its like the second or third day, the doctor asks you how many days it has been... and writes you a 3 or 5 day course accordingly. Truth is, after 3 or 5 days you'd be feeling much better any way.<br />
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So why do doctors prescribe you unnecessary drugs ? I don't know, but if they had to defend themselves they may say that they thought you had a 'bacterial throat infection' accompanying the cold or flu or caused by it, such as a 'strep throat'. But the truth is that most of the times the doctors aren't sure whether your strep throat is a symptom of common cold or caused by a bacteria unless he performs a test. And even though it is true that sometimes viruses make the body vulnerable to bacteria and sometimes a doctor may honestly suspect a bacterial infection as well, but for the most part I think it is common knowledge that <i>seasonal cold and flu</i> seen in the season are most likely just cold and flu and must be treated primarily as such.<br />
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But there's another angle to this too; our own ignorance. A lot of times doctors are just trying to fulfill the expectations of the patients... those who wont leave the office until the doctor writes them antibiotics because we think that only antibiotics will help. So our own attitude needs to change too. We should take drugs only when they're really needed. Because of our insistence on more drugs and the financial favors of the drug-selling companies attracting the doctors to prescribe more drugs, as well as an understandable chance of common cold and bacterial infection co-existing - doctors find it convenient to just write a prescription which makes both the doctor and patient happy.<br />
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I have two young kids and whenever they would catch cold or flu their doctor would prescribe paracetamol for fever and at least one antibiotic for throat ache. The problem was that as soon as one episode of cold would subside, another one would emerge soon, and I became concerned about giving antibiotics again and again. So I did some research, first I was interested in natural foods or solutions to combat colds but then I questioned the use of so much antibiotics on young kids. And I just shared with you what I have so far discovered, but there is more; not only do antibiotics have no role in combating cold or flu, but they will even harm you when you take them unnecessarily.<br />
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Taking Antibiotics often and unnecessarily makes the body more resistant to antibiotics. What it means is that the effect of antibiotics on our body will be reduced when we'll actually need them. It means we will need higher doses of antibiotic the next time, and an even higher dose the next time. Apart from that there is research that antibiotics are harmful during growth years in a number of ways. They temporarily slow down growth and development and each antibiotic course is followed by a small period of slow development in toddlers and younger kids. So if you are a parent, it is even more important to prevent unnecessary antibiotics from going in your child's system. Though, it doesn't mean we say no to antibiotics altogether when we're sick with a cold or flu, but to be informed and act carefully in taking them. That we ask our doctor not to prescribe them if they are not actually needed, or ask if you can wait a while and see if they are needed.<br />
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If the viral symptoms lasts more than two weeks, if your strep throat lasts more than 2-3 days, if your doctor insists on antibiotic course, if you yourself feel its not just common cold or flu, if a test shows positive for bacteria then you should absolutely take antibiotics because antibiotics have their benefits and they are life-saving when needed.<br />
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Further Reading:<br />
<a href="http://www.medicaldaily.com/prescribing-antibiotics-flu-virus-useless-and-harmful-doctors-keep-doing-it-293564">http://www.medicaldaily.com/prescribing-antibiotics-flu-virus-useless-and-harmful-doctors-keep-doing-it-293564</a><br />
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Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-27951856742033167592015-03-25T05:33:00.006+05:002021-10-15T03:21:02.552+05:00Book: Superbrain of Islam - Authentic or Not ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizx0wzdpTEpdv90Hy9i8sgV37RpFG4WoDeOSPCbPSeXcwlSsJKRnCJYlrKDc02NQFCbrnXS9SeosAmMKnnrilNQDT-4DKd-w7LFmv-fK91M0c2PWrG5Y5VJxg-IMPE3JB_d5IWp-ZwHQ/s803/ai.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="803" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizx0wzdpTEpdv90Hy9i8sgV37RpFG4WoDeOSPCbPSeXcwlSsJKRnCJYlrKDc02NQFCbrnXS9SeosAmMKnnrilNQDT-4DKd-w7LFmv-fK91M0c2PWrG5Y5VJxg-IMPE3JB_d5IWp-ZwHQ/w640-h304/ai.png" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>This post is about a book on the life and educational contributions of the sixth Imam of Shia Islam, Imam Jafar Al-Sadiq. The book is famous by the names 'Super Brain of Islam' and 'Superman in Islam' and is claimed to be a work of several Western professors and scholars teaching in various universities of the world.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4oOijf8-e0xT3Ec6HYKEfF0vEZFgPNlMYK38c4ta9nt1Pa1A2ievdFjoyK7HiGsOfGw5v9gHzWliV51GVg9g3rgo_N3X3TQ-3Sp-YbFEzD-8HuIJHYbsTU-6yng72UY5dde8zvrEcQ/s1600/imam-sadegh-mansouri.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ4oOijf8-e0xT3Ec6HYKEfF0vEZFgPNlMYK38c4ta9nt1Pa1A2ievdFjoyK7HiGsOfGw5v9gHzWliV51GVg9g3rgo_N3X3TQ-3Sp-YbFEzD-8HuIJHYbsTU-6yng72UY5dde8zvrEcQ/s1600/imam-sadegh-mansouri.jpg" /></a>Since the book gained a lot of praise and fame throughout Shia circles, a lot of people got curious about the actual origins and authors of the book. But sadly, when people try to search the names of scholars given in the book, one can not find a single person which can be traced. This is global age where even unpopular writers and scholars can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social media platforms. Thus it comes as a big surprise that one won't be able to find scholars associated with big universities such as the University of Paris or Chicago.<br />
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Desperate to find out about the authenticity of the book, I searched the names of the authors one by one, all twenty-two of them. Most names were so strange that according to search no human had them. Not even random people on Facebook or directories. So, thinking that obviously the names are spelt wrongly, I tried other spellings but much to my disappointment I couldn't find the relevant persons. I tried several spellings for each name without much luck.<br />
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Here are the names as mentioned in the book:<br />
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Mr. Arman Bull, University of Brussels.<br />
Mr. John Oben, University of Brussels.<br />
Mr. Robert Brunswick, University of Paris.<br />
Mr. Claude Cohen, University of Paris.<br />
Mr. Henri Corbone, University of Strasbourg.<br />
Mr. Tofiq Fahal, University of Strasbourg.<br />
Mr. Fanciso Gabreili, University of Rome.<br />
Mr. Richard Graham Lynch, University of Germany.<br />
Miss Ann Lipton, University of London.<br />
Mr. Evan Lenan, University of Chicago.<br />
Mr. Henri Matisse, University of Paris.<br />
Mr. Husain Nasr, University of Tehran.<br />
Mr. Charles Pila, University of Paris.<br />
Mr. Musa Sadr, Great Scholar, Sur, Lebanon.<br />
Mr. George Wazda, University of Lyons, France.<br />
Mr. Arna Ludz, University of Lyons, France.<br />
Mr. Elyas, University of Los Angeles.<br />
Mrs. Duran Hynch Cliff, University of London.<br />
Mr. Joseph Manuz, University of Freebourg Germany.<br />
Mr. Hans Muller, University of Freebourg Germany.<br />
Mr. Hans Romer, University of Germany.<br />
Zabih Ullah Mansuri, Tehran-Iran.<br />
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Strange names, aren't they? but wait till you find out the real names of these people.<br />
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During the search for these strange names, I came across one name which seemed somehow related to the topic of the book, which led me to search further. This person was Professor Henry Corbin, wrongly spelt as Henri Corbone. Who, according to Wikipedia, was a philosopher, theologian and professor of Islamic Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.<br />
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The article stated: "<i>Corbin's work has been criticized by a number of writers. His scholarly objectivity has been questioned on the basis of both a Shi'ite bias, and his theological agenda; he has been accused of being both ahistorically naive and dangerously politically reactionary; and he has been charged with being both an Iranian nationalist and an elitist in both his politics and his spirituality.</i>" - there I knew he had to be the Henri Corbone of the 'Superbrain of Islam'.<br />
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Luckily, I found a site that was about his philosophy and work. I contacted the people at amiscorbin.com to inquire if he wrote anything for this book, and here's the reply I got:<br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;">Dear Sir,</span></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;"></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;">all I know is that H. Corbin actively participated to the pioneering conference on shi'ism in Strasburg in 1968, published in French (Le shî'isme imâmite, Paris, P.U.F., 1970), where several papers delt with Ja'far al-Sâdiq.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;">Sincerely yours,</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;">P. Lory</span></div>
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This really encouraged me to find out more. I knew now that there really was a conference held at the University of Strasbourg and that several papers were about Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (a.s). I also had a book reference, so all I had to do now was to read the published book.<br />
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However, the book is available only in French and is not easily available online. After going roughly through the contents of the book I could not find many references to the sixth Imam's contributions. I could only find a scholarly overview of the research work I found on Strasbourg research archives, which I translated from French:<br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: #351c75;">"This book contains the papers presented at a symposium organized in Strasbourg from 6 to May 9, 1968 by <b>Mr. Robert Brunschvig</b>, then director of the Institute of Islamic Studies from the University of Paris and <b>Mr. Toufic Fahd</b>, director of the Institute of Islamic Studies of the Faculty of Letters of Strasbourg. Eighteen communications had been presented, Seventeen could be collected only lack that of <b>Mr. Sadr</b>, director of the Institute of Islamic Studies of Course (Lebanon) on "the imâmites communities in Lebanon and Syria of our days".</span><span style="text-align: left;"> </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: #351c75;"></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: #351c75;">The first, due to<b> Mr. Madelung</b>, University of Chicago, de'Timâmisme trafficking and Mu'tazilite theology. The author shows that the two sects have not always been opposed and that Mu'tazilite and Imamite doctrine amalgamated in the doctrinal theology school, the Banu Nawbakht Baghdad. This school continues to next century with al-MuÔd b. al-Nu'man and al Murtada sharif to Naslr al-dln al Tûsl. This partial amalgam does not, however, eliminate the fundamental difference which is the concept among imamites that the Imamate "is the true foundation of faith."</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: #351c75;"><b>Mr. Vajda</b>, of Paris, has devoted his communication to "problem of the vision of God according to some Twelver authors, especially al-Kalayni and Ibn Babuya.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: #351c75;"><b>Mr. Abel</b>, Brussels, presented an analysis of the "chapter on the imâmatdans Tamhld al-Bâqillânl", where the author does not present anywhich differs from the commonly accepted tradition.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: #351c75;"><b>Mr. Pellat</b>, of Paris, studied Mas'ûdi's position with respect to Imamism and concludes that Mas'ûdi may be "a mu'tazilite shi'ite ".</span></div>
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<b>Mr. Lecomte</b>, of Paris also presented some "aspects of hadith literature in Imamis" and various imams who fed this literature, especially Ja'far al Sadiq.</div>
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<b>Mr. Gabrieli</b>, Rome talked about: "Imamism and literature under the Buyids. "He stressed that the tenth century Buyid was a climate of freedom and tolerance very favorable to the literary expression. Al-Mutanabbi seems to him the best expression of this climate.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>M. Cahen</b>, of Paris, addressed "the problem of shl'isme in Asia Turkish minor pre-Ottaman. "It shows that in Asia Minor has shi'isme most likely benefited from the Mongol occupation, since the Mongols resented mainly Sunni Islam, and believes he can think of "a kind Indoor shi'itisation Sunnism" but on a much popular plan more than doctrinal.</div>
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<b>Mr. Fahd</b>, Strasbourg, addressed Ja'far al Sadiq and tradition with many Arab scientific scholarship. </div>
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<b>Mr. Corbin</b>, of Paris, has not been less scholarly dealing of "Imamology and philosophy" after stating that the shi'ite metaphysical system was in place by the Fourteenth century.</div>
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Ignorance of the German language, I can not say anything about the former RP Tramlich on "Shaykh in shi'ites brotherhoods."</div>
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<b>Mr. Linant</b>, of Paris, studying the principles and some practical aspects of "Imamite law" and it's close relationship with Sunni law, despite a number of differences which the author gives specific examples.</div>
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<b>Mr. Brunschvig</b>, of Paris, speaks about "usûl al-fiqh imâmites in their former stage and stressed that the hadith assigned to imâms naturally take place as considerable in this doctrinal statement and that it is in Baghdad, under the Bûyides that has flourished the literature which relates to it.</div>
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<b>Mr. Nasr</b>, in Tehran, has studied "the relations of the Shi'ism and Sufism".</div>
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<b>Mr. Aubin</b>, of Paris, showed that the dissemination of Shi'isme in Persia is made first in the popular classes.</div>
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<b>Miss Lambton</b>, of London, has analyzed the role of "'Persian ulama in the constitutional reform" of the beginning of the 20th century. The 'ulama, characters semi-official, could weigh on the government and put in custody, and on the other hand, they depended on, on the spiritual plan, of religious authorities in Najaf and Kerbelâ, outside of the Persia ; finally they exercised influence on the working classes.</div>
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<b>Mr. Henri Masse</b>, of Paris, has analyzed a few "poems devoted to Imâms" in translating fragments large enough of poets Mohtasham (XVI century) and Yaghmâ (Xixth century).</div>
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<b>Mr. Cerulli</b>, of Rome, has given valuable guidance on "the Persian theaters" using a collection of manuscripts of religious theater which he visited. This interesting text is shown some photographs.</div>
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These texts obviously do not constitute a structure built and coherent, but their very diversity is valuable and informed manner of very interesting one aspect of Islam that had been implanted finally and so very strong in the empire of Iran and in some neighboring regions. That is the first stone, a stone of waiting, which, it is hoped that she will give birth to systematic studies and even more developed on a significant problem and hitherto little examined."</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The distortion</span> those names went through was unbelievable yet understandable. However, it is perhaps incorrect to say that these people collectively authored the book 'Superbrain of Islam' because anyone who has read the book knows that that book does not cover these topics. All one finds is that there was a research-based conference about Twelver Shias and their belief in Imamate, and somehow a number of the topics did cover the life and contribution of Imam Jafar al-Sadiq (a.s) as well. Though from the looks of it, the book '<i>Le Shi'isme Imamite</i>' does not seem to have covered Imam Jafar as-Sadiq (a.s) in the same way, at all, as the book 'Superbrain of Islam' does. It can't even be considered a rough translation of the original text it claims to be from.<br />
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Despite the fact that the book 'Le Shi'isme Imamite' was based on an important conference and the conference itself was a great initiative towards academic research on <i>Shia Islam</i> in the west, yet its content has very little or nothing to do with the scientific contributions of the sixth Shiite Imam. In contrast, the book '<a href="http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503531144-1" target="_blank">Le shi'isme imamite quarante ans après: hommage à Etan Kohlberg</a>' was published in 2009, which was a tribute by Etan Kohlberg and colleagues upon the 40th anniversary of the conference 'Le Shi'isme Imamite' - dealt with the topic of Imam Jafar as Sadiq (a.s) in more detail than the 1968 conference did. This text is taken from the publisher's site:<br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: #351c75;">In the spring of 1968 when France and many places in the world were shaken by significant social and political protest movements, some great scholars gathered in the old and prestigious University of Strasbourg and would trigger a turning point in islamologiques studies West.</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: #351c75;">Indeed, for the first time, global researchers met in a symposium devoted exclusively to Imami Shi'ism. The lectures and discussions led to the publication of an excellent collection of articles: The Imamite Shi'ism. Strasbourg Conference (6-9 May 1968), Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1970</span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: #351c75;">Thus, this volume of homage is intended as a testament to the growing rise of Shia Imami studies and undeniable debt to these scholars gathered, their forty years, Strasbourg, as well as the immense work of 'Etan Kohlberg.</span></blockquote>
However, both of these books didn't discuss Imam Jafar as-Sadiq's scientific contributions but discussed his life, history and Imamate. As for the book 'Superbrain of Islam', it was first published in Iran, as 'Maghze Mutafakkir Jehan e Shia' by Zabihullah Mansuri, the Persian author. It was also translated in Arabic, as '<a href="http://ia802706.us.archive.org/21/items/89432438279432/alamam-jafr-alsadq.pdf" target="_blank">Al-Imam Al-Sadiq Kama Arfahu Ulma-e-gharb</a>' or <span color="rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.8)" style="background-color: white; font-family: "roboto slab" , "times new roman" , serif; line-height: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;">مجموعة من العلماء والمفكرين الإمام الصادق في نظر علماء الغرب ترجمة: الدكتور نور الدين آل علي </span>' which means Imam Jafar as-Sadiq from the perspective of Western scholars.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMMJvtm3yYVVRv-VZynvWeodQO9WZStthoeYNsC3aRF-S6Xsrd_dlGYaBYJHAP54PBEZ8X0-ZxIsFeD1SZB5W2tl31ztF82Y9C1fA-k5YRIFNR0am1WKsJD44UEDwha1ucoCKpHbJnQ/s1600/41b9-5-tbzL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmMMJvtm3yYVVRv-VZynvWeodQO9WZStthoeYNsC3aRF-S6Xsrd_dlGYaBYJHAP54PBEZ8X0-ZxIsFeD1SZB5W2tl31ztF82Y9C1fA-k5YRIFNR0am1WKsJD44UEDwha1ucoCKpHbJnQ/s1600/41b9-5-tbzL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="133" /></a>The Persian author and scholar Zabihullah Mansuri who first published the book 'Superbrain of Islam' or 'Maghze Mutafakkir' has also authored other books which are claimed to be <i>translations </i>but are not. His credibility is doubted by Iranian scholars as he is known to add his own words and ideas to the works he translates. This is perhaps the reason why Iranian critics and scholars have also expressed their suspicion about the book <i>Maghze Mutafakkir</i> and have cautioned against quoting the book:<br />
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http://khabaronline.ir/detail/243033/culture/religion<br />
http://khabaronline.ir/detail/242605/culture/religion<br />
http://khabaronline.ir/detail/243040/culture/religion<br />
http://www.niksalehi.com/din-andishe/archives/183998.php<br />
http://khabaronline.ir/detail/242701/<br />
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Secretary of '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hossein_Nasr" target="_blank">Seyyed Hossein Nasr</a>' (who is also cited as one of the authors in the book) also hints towards the same, he writes in response to an inquiry about the book:<br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span style="color: purple;">"Maghze mutafakkir" is a very free and diluted work based on a conference in the University of Strassbourg in France. Dr. Nasr participated in that conference. The authentic text of the lecture was published in France including Dr. Nasr's essay.</span> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: purple;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Sincerely,</span></span></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple; text-align: justify;">Setara Habib, </span><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple; text-align: justify;">Secretary to Seyyed Hossein Nasr</span></blockquote>
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So, even though the book claims to be based on the conference which was held in Strasbourg, it is primarily and majorly the work of Zabihullah Mansuri's mind than it is of the original research committee.<br />
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Here's the list of the names of scholars as they are rightly spelt, the ones in blue are the scholars who were part of the conference while the ones in green are additional scholars who have written about Shia Islam, but of course none of them had any role in the book 'Superbrain of Islam':<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Armand Abel of Brussels</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Jean Aubin of Paris</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Robert Brunschvig of Paris</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Claude Cahen of Paris</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Henry Corbin of Strasbourg</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Toufic Fahd of Strasbourg</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Francesco Gabrieli of Rome</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Richard Gramlich of Strasbourg</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Anne Lambton of London</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Yvon Linant de Bellefonds</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Henri Massé of Paris</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Seyyed Hossein Nasr of Tehran</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Charles Pellat of Paris</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Musa Sadr of Lebanon</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">George Vajda of Paris</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Prof. Elyash of California</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Doreen Hinchcliffe of London</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Joseph Matuz of Freiburg, Germany</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Hans Muller of Freiburg Germany</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Hans Romer of Freiburg, Germany</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Enrico Cerulli of Rome</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Gerard Lecomte of Paris</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b5394;">Wilfred Madelung of Chicago</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Roger Arnaldez of Lyon</span><br />
<span style="color: #38761d;">Fritz Meier of Bale</span><br />
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At the end of it, there is one important question that needs to be answered, which is about the sayings of Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a.s) as we find in the book. The issue is whether these <i>ahadith</i> are found in other books of ahadith or not. Though a great number of ahadith are found in <i>Bihar-al-Anwar, Al-Kafi, Wasael-ush-Shia</i> and<i> Manaqib</i> that may relate to the topics covered in the book, they aren't the same as what we read in the book. A few ahadith which I tried to match against the given <a href="http://www.aqaed.com/ahlulbait/books/askeugh/2.htm" target="_blank">references</a>, I could locate some yet failed to locate others.<br />
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The minor possibility of coming across vaguely similar or relevant ahadith among the huge hadith literature remains open, but based on current facts and knowledge it appears that the author has indeed fabricated traditions and sayings into the book, which is something that truly discredits all the information in the book.<br />
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Sadly, one concludes that <b>'Superbrain of Islam', long cherished by its readers... is unauthentic if you cite it, and rather a <i>work of fiction</i> if you read it. </b>Well-known Islamic researcher and historian, Dr. Ghulam Husain Ibrahimi say:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #073763;"><b>"Even the title of the book '<i>Superbrain</i> of Shia Islam' is criticizable and an incorrect and inappropriate term. We should not use the phrase <i>super brain or mastermind</i> for the status of Imamate which is ordained by God. In my opinion, even calling Imam mastermind is a false phrase and it is the result of (our) ignorance of the status of Imamate. Is Imam as-Sadiq Bertrand Russell or Einstein?"</b></span></span></blockquote>
(<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #073763; line-height: 19px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is as if we are talking about Bertrand Russell or Einstein, not Imam Sadiq, may peace be upon him).</span><br />
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Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-42377216247256159992014-02-05T00:56:00.002+05:002021-09-22T18:20:08.777+05:00How Can Your Hijab Save Other Women From Being Harassed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">#WorldHijabDay</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVgB_mD5ge40bd_wJUPuop8q3ncJWWUGxonKo5-KUc9w7cA57y9glCg5vYVDosuG1p9LzZVOy2sKvCLx4Yn1oIXe-wCSCsmnwKjzJJdGBWwEMJww-_X_5fF5lGiCt7mAIarQGnDcQUJQ/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="620" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVgB_mD5ge40bd_wJUPuop8q3ncJWWUGxonKo5-KUc9w7cA57y9glCg5vYVDosuG1p9LzZVOy2sKvCLx4Yn1oIXe-wCSCsmnwKjzJJdGBWwEMJww-_X_5fF5lGiCt7mAIarQGnDcQUJQ/w640-h397/image.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />A lot has been said about hijab and its importance, how it is a necessary part of Islam and what's the definition of proper hijab, how women must be modest and how men must also observe the hijab of sight. There are a number of points readily stated in support of hijab such as it keeps a woman safe from lustful sights, it acts as an armour, it stops men from harassing them and so on. All of them are true, no doubt. But there are women who despite observing hijab are harassed. There are women who despite hijab are victims of lustful men. There are girls, so young that they are not even obliged to do hijab but they as well become victims of mild harassment to more severe forms. There are elderly women, so old that they hardly have any feminine attraction left in them, they too become victims. So how do we explain these things that go on.. despite hijab ?<br />
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All of these examples exist in our societies and people who are anti-hijab actually cite such things when questioning the purpose of hijab and whether or not is it of any good to us. According to them, whether you observe hijab or not, the chances for you or any other girl to fall victim of any type of sexual assault are the same. Given cases of modest Muslim women who become rape victims, what are we to conclude ?</div>
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Is there something missing in our understanding of the philosophy of Hijab ? </div>
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How is hijab supposed to act as an armour ?<br />
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Perhaps the problem is that even though we understand the importance of hijab for an individual, yet we do not realize its overall importance for a society. We limit doing hijab and not doing hijab to an individual, its consequences and effects are all concerned with that individual; we tell a woman to cover herself because it will protect her, so consequentially if she doesn't cover herself she wont be protected. This is pretty much it and so a woman who doesn't care about such a protection wouldn't go for it. So we have in a way limited the scope of hijab by portraying it as a matter of a woman's security. Now, it <b>is</b> a matter of a woman's security but it is so much more than <i>just</i> that. We fully understand that hijab protects the woman observing it but what we don't understand is that one woman's hijab also protects other women who are not observing it. And in the same way, one woman's hijablessness or immodesty jeopardizes other women's security too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicOFRAMf9PN9BQRd-MXyE1CkPUpgDSLgsx31jE9ffIvRu-cvuF5eyIt6k8inZ0MuqzA4gb6a00HqHZUV3BVnrPmopMysVn_s4OBoILwxxib7B0lcwszx9F1v7DEUmwTXOVa7mgUgWWuA/s1600/Mary-1600x900+copy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicOFRAMf9PN9BQRd-MXyE1CkPUpgDSLgsx31jE9ffIvRu-cvuF5eyIt6k8inZ0MuqzA4gb6a00HqHZUV3BVnrPmopMysVn_s4OBoILwxxib7B0lcwszx9F1v7DEUmwTXOVa7mgUgWWuA/s640/Mary-1600x900+copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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On small-scale, hijab has its' benefits for the individual, but its true potential can only be seen on the large scale. In fact, individual benefits are to an extent dependent upon the large scale observance of hijab. You can think of hijab like one of those global causes which require the participation of all individuals to attain the required outcome, like Polio eradication, like Global warming, like saving wildlife and forests... Dressing modestly is such a global cause. As long as there is a single case of Polio virus living on Earth, the whole population is in danger, every person must resort to recycling and use ozone-friendly products in order to prevent global warming, similarly if you don't cut trees but I constantly do then its not going to help the forests survive. This is how global causes work. This is why Islam requires all women in an Islamic society to cover themselves, and it is made an obligation, and a strict one, only because the answer lies in <b>all of them</b> adhering to hijab. Because even if a small minority remains hijabless and exposes themselves to men, the chances of other hijab-observing women for getting sexually harassed remain open. This is what brings us to the real philosophy of hijab that you do it because it is a social good; you do hijab not because you yourself won't be sexually harassed but also because due to your immodesty someone else may fall victim to sexual harassment.<br />
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Now, I do understand that when we talk of the whole society, it is not just women, but men as well who have their part to play. Hijab is for both men and women, but somehow the responsibility at the women's end is by far larger.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8tv9cIVyUtIa2RNb29dUUmfDG5rYJUwMj3EEKk38xbawPUa4slEOjwpF1IWTf6uAS30Lgm_wkiRdLh6xh9ZgTnEKlEwhSTadOQOme-zEYlsRjb5Vbvby0Et-TUi1LLpZcf7O859pm9A/s1600/download.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8tv9cIVyUtIa2RNb29dUUmfDG5rYJUwMj3EEKk38xbawPUa4slEOjwpF1IWTf6uAS30Lgm_wkiRdLh6xh9ZgTnEKlEwhSTadOQOme-zEYlsRjb5Vbvby0Et-TUi1LLpZcf7O859pm9A/s1600/download.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
But why does this responsibility lies on women's shoulder? Why aren't men required to cover themselves? To understand this, we'll have to consider these basic facts:<br />
<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; color: #e06666;">#1</span> Women have more physical appeal and<br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: #134f5c;">#2</span> Men have more physical desire.<br />
Women hardly loose their senses at the sight of a half clothed man, in fact they feel ridiculed by such sights most of the time. One reason why women have little to no addiction with pornography is that women don't fancy men the way men fancy women. If we could only be in a man's brain for a moment, we'll see how powerfully attractive is the image of a woman's body in there.<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Even scientifically speaking, male and female brains work differently, think differently. Where a male brain seeks to mate and reproduce, the female brain is more about emotions and romance. According to a study published by Hannah Hoag in New Scientist,<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 20px;"> the parietal cortex, which is involved in space perception, and the amygdala, which regulates sexual and social behavior, is larger in men. </span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">Anne Moir and David Jessel, in their book Brain Sex: The Real Difference Between Men and Women, write:</span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79;"><b><span style="line-height: 20px;">Men want sex, and women want relationships. Men want flesh and women want love. Just as boys wanted balloons, toys, and carburetors, the girls have always wanted contact, and communion, and company.</span> </b></span></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix00Un4J3RQ4MM7yGpfD9TdTOpSfeE-uOs5lRcj6K3K0w9XbePTjj5prnFt6MpWCVUprTXBU6qx-CUcYnhy7y9akl3IuKG17eXOUDdmNA9pVfrnIUBS4QNuemPsii5asPn2_57Q59TAQ/s1600/338086_Brain+wiring-difference-Men+and+Women.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix00Un4J3RQ4MM7yGpfD9TdTOpSfeE-uOs5lRcj6K3K0w9XbePTjj5prnFt6MpWCVUprTXBU6qx-CUcYnhy7y9akl3IuKG17eXOUDdmNA9pVfrnIUBS4QNuemPsii5asPn2_57Q59TAQ/s1600/338086_Brain+wiring-difference-Men+and+Women.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79; line-height: 20px;"><b>The female mind is organized to place priority on relationship, the male on achievement. Men keep a tally of their sexual conquests. The female brain is not organized to keep sex in a separate compartment. This is a male model - as if his brain has a specific filing cabinet for sex, completely unrelated to emotion.</b></span></blockquote>
Women are generally more interested in making relationships, maintaining them, they are the home-makers, they are mothers, to them sex is part of a good relationship which they look forward to, or at least this is how it is supposed to be naturally (since the growing influence of nudity and internet pornography is radically affecting our brains and bodies hence shifting our natural tendencies). On the other hand, a man is naturally more focused on sex. Men have as much as 20 times more testosterone in their systems than do women. This makes men typically more aggressive, dominant and more narrowly focused on the physical aspects of sex. Thus, these differences of our minds and bodies speaks for the differences in our attitudes and actions and as such come along with different responsibilities; men should control their desires and women should conceal their beauty. But since that doesn't happen, we are facing consequences.<br />
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Globally, more than 250,000 rape cases are recorded by the police. Out of these an estimated 75 to 95 percent cases are never reported. I am presenting statistics just to highlight the fact that rape is not a rare crime but a pretty common one. And rape being an extreme crime is reported and has some statistical data, whereas other minor assaults and harassments go unnoticed but we're pretty sure they're ten times more common. Apart from this, there are more severe crimes such as human trafficking for the purpose of sexual slavery, commercial sexual exploitation and forced prostitution - which are also much more common than we know of and most often do not get reported.</div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #a64d79;"><b>In her book, Sex, Art and American Culture, Camille Paglia calls these 'somber truths' women must accept. "Feminism keeps saying the sexes are the same," she writes. "It keeps telling women they can do anything, go anywhere, say anything, wear anything. No, they can't. Women will always be in sexual danger"</b></span></blockquote>
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Some people like to think that sexual desires are natural and suppressing them means loss of freedom. I do agree that these desires are natural, however, freedom lies in not becoming slaves to these desires. You don't want to suppress these desires, fine, but then do not even go about enhancing them. When a woman wears clothes that reveal her feminine attraction or resort to such ways and adornments that are bound to catch men's attention - then it enhances the natural desires in all men who see her. Now, depending on how vulnerable she is, she may or may not become a target of sexual assault herself but she unconsciously becomes an indirect source of promoting lust in the society, which may result in a sexual assault on a weak and vulnerable person somewhere else.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8zS-6ZL-epilepdim68x9QipwPTnxUuBTcxrbaCd_f89u1nexJAM5GR9MaFlQtCawEcX6eHy3a7DtA-dekQpfYTnKpd3kWOuvfytV85cqinJywGr1vHgK3kuIvMOyNowi1rL5OxcbqA/s1600/images.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8zS-6ZL-epilepdim68x9QipwPTnxUuBTcxrbaCd_f89u1nexJAM5GR9MaFlQtCawEcX6eHy3a7DtA-dekQpfYTnKpd3kWOuvfytV85cqinJywGr1vHgK3kuIvMOyNowi1rL5OxcbqA/s1600/images.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
A society whose women are dressed as sex objects promotes vulgarity - this in turn promotes abnormally high sexual desires in men. What was before a natural desire, becomes superimposed with constant arousal. Think about how you get hungrier at the sight of delicious food ? Hunger is also natural and you can resist it easily until its time to eat - but when you're presented with delicious looking food it gets all the more harder to resist, and some not all would try to get it this way or that. Same is with lust, when you see sexually attractive woman, you want to have them, if you can't have them you would have what you <b>can</b> have, legally or otherwise.<br />
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Most men who commit sex crimes are often found justifying themselves because they thought women with their acts and ways invite them, tempt them. However there is no justification for crimes as horrid as these, but still, even though the direct victims of these criminals are most of the times free of fault but I do believe that the invitation was sent out, though not by the victim, but by the other women; who dress to kill, who dress to tempt - Yes, its indeed an invitation and one that is often paid for by a totally innocent woman somewhere out there. The fact is that most victims of such crimes are plain looking and plain dressed, they aren't daringly attractive or unbelievably beautiful to become a walking invitation, the only reason they become victims is because they are easy-targets, someone who's weak, who wont fight back, who wont tell anyone. These easy-targets pay the price of all those tempting invitations sent by women on billboards, in casinos, in movies and elsewhere.<br />
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In a society where vulgarity and nudity is promoted in the name of freedom, its members then 'feel free' to follow it despite consequences. This false freedom reflects its hues in adultery, relationship disasters, divorces, separations, single parenting, teenage pregnancies, elective abortions, STDs, and of course, sex crimes.<br />
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However, most feminists surprisingly do not like to attach sex crimes with sex. Yes, you read right. According to them and other modern psychologists, rape and other sexual crimes are a way of violent and criminal minded men to display and exert their power, to take and maintain the control of power to which they have been entitled to traditionally and throughout history. This view though true to some extent happens to cast a shadow on the real motive of such a crime. And when you ignore the real motive, you are less prepared.<br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #a64d79;"><b> "That whole power and control thing as an end in itself is a myth. Power and control is used as an instrument to accomplish a sexual event with an unwilling victim. And to leave out that sexual event is to completely forget what the crime was.. To take the motive out of the actual definition is crazy. It essentially places women in a place where they no longer understand the motive. It's an immense disservice to women." - Michael Ghiglieri</b></span></blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a little temptation</td></tr>
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Michael Kimmel is a sociologist at the State University of New York who has received international recognition for his work on men and masculinity. He says violent men often view their actions as revenge or retaliation.<b> <span style="color: #a64d79;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">"They say, women have power over me because they're beautiful and sexual and I want them and they elicit that and I feel powerless,"</span> </span></b><span style="color: #444444;">he says.</span><span style="color: #a64d79;"> <span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>"Just listen for a minute to the way in which we describe women's beauty and sexuality. We describe it as a violence against us. She is a knock-out, a bomb-shell, dressed to kill, a femme fatale, stunning, ravishing. I mean all of these are words of violence against us. It's like, wow, she knocked me out. So the violence then, or the aggression or the sexual violence is often a way to retaliate."</b></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0IMrDEscunmVf4hxhrl5TmaLGznsy3HiSTxcpIsxR73UMXLslvOqyROlUkG4nYTBouLrM7QsUPrBpUpKWiejzLuDh_b3nPyRFBBSbSVYP5O-ZI8vBrU82kfNnWSjXGbSdk8tmv0k6Dg/s1600/screen-capture-12.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0IMrDEscunmVf4hxhrl5TmaLGznsy3HiSTxcpIsxR73UMXLslvOqyROlUkG4nYTBouLrM7QsUPrBpUpKWiejzLuDh_b3nPyRFBBSbSVYP5O-ZI8vBrU82kfNnWSjXGbSdk8tmv0k6Dg/s1600/screen-capture-12.jpg" width="200" /></a>Though such retaliation is a criminal's way of doing things but we must ponder on the factors that help crimes look justified in their eyes - or the factors that become their excuse to crime. We began with immodest clothes and moved on further, with each decade stripping more piece of clothing.. and finally from bikini and mini-skirts culture a greater monster was evolved, namely porn. Pornography is nothing but the end result of total lack of modesty. Not that its recently made, it has been around since centuries in the form of nude drawings and sculptures but never was it as extreme, as popular and as common. So common that when researchers decided to study the effects of porn on teenagers they were stuck because they couldn't find any one for the control group since almost every teenager was a fan of porn! Porn industry is the highest growing industry in this era. It's gifts are a host of sexual perversions, several 'philias' and certain 'isms' that I surely do not want to name and neither do I know all of them as the list is practically endless. Early onset of puberty is also a gift of it. So in all likelihood by the will of Satan we will soon have kindergarteners fantasizing about 'the act' and as we have managed to legalize prostitution, gay and lesbian marriages, nudity and are actually on our way to put ban on veils and scarves - Hell, I ask you if this is the world we want to live in? Where scarves are a threat and naked females aren't. Where people are just dying to get the bullets out of their shells, destroying everything in the process. Destroying values, destroying morality. (However, you need to take a pause here and ponder what porn really is: A decision by certain women to banish all veils... It is akin to how a suicide bomber can singlehandedly sabotage a noble cause.)<br />
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Women are beautiful, they have always been. They never needed petty adornments and stripping in order to feel wanted. They ARE wanted... there's no denying that, but the question more important is 'for what' are they wanted - you want to feel wanted because you're a bombshell or because you're are a pearl in a shell? It is all about what we value and what we want others to place value on... If your face and your voice, your ideas and opinions, your skills and demeanor are not enough to make a beauty statement then I suppose you're justified in exposing your body. Its a race, right? Some are going to win, yet others will set standards.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRYaXJJNlWSDh77tKQXY1xChEHAcwCk9q-YpW2d-qeL1mjy6dzLGnzj_xssq9rCxSzwZ1wyyu6wuPYvoFEklic-LARZReslqIPIZKo5QWxR7ULQYCL3fSmevSpIye9eM6PEucjjwg28A/s1600/dresscode.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRYaXJJNlWSDh77tKQXY1xChEHAcwCk9q-YpW2d-qeL1mjy6dzLGnzj_xssq9rCxSzwZ1wyyu6wuPYvoFEklic-LARZReslqIPIZKo5QWxR7ULQYCL3fSmevSpIye9eM6PEucjjwg28A/s1600/dresscode.jpg" /></a>Modesty is our standard. In a world that has been deteriorated and eroded by corrupt models and practices. Modesty is what our world desperately needs, so that tomorrow's kids can have a world free of sexual evils. Like all global causes, this is achievable too... with right practices and sufficient awareness. And even if nobody else does it, there's an immense contentment in knowing that we did our part. As one sage has said, "<b>Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my Apple tree.</b>" <br />
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Make your contribution, be fair to hijab. Hijab is modesty, hijab is sublime beauty. Hijab... is being humble, hijab is both a right and a duty, it is your contribution to society, the part you have to play in building a better world. Hijab is not just in scarf, it is a whole lifestyle which values simplicity and morality expressed through your acts and appearance. Having said that, it may exist outside of scarf too.. I have seen people without scarves who wear loose shirts, who avoid deep necks, their clothes don't shout for attention and their attire is simple. It concerns them where the world is going... it concerns them that kids have such easy access to the forbidden. A lot of things concern them just the way they concern me. Once in this agreement of thoughts, it is not such a big leap.. to come forward and open your hearts and minds towards "Hijab".<br />
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Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-73995878957018380772014-01-07T16:54:00.001+05:002021-09-17T17:25:34.081+05:00You see them on our streets<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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These refugee kids residing in Pakistan... with no shelter and no food... you see them on the streets of Pakistan - they sleep there, they work there.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKib0Q119Nm7NQTwnOPkit3zUBY-izaYglpYf09dKUSmm9_oZ3pzKQJIHRjNjXrIKoiRWMe-WsH-t1Wouvbc4JPL9OdD6ySa3Kl93S1gZwX0Jch3anhbGFQvspqYLVEpaE5V99vaykw/s1600/afghan.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKib0Q119Nm7NQTwnOPkit3zUBY-izaYglpYf09dKUSmm9_oZ3pzKQJIHRjNjXrIKoiRWMe-WsH-t1Wouvbc4JPL9OdD6ySa3Kl93S1gZwX0Jch3anhbGFQvspqYLVEpaE5V99vaykw/s1600/afghan.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
These Afghan boys gather litter from the streets and dumps, carry heavy loads on their backs for a mere 10 or 20 rupees per day while a beggar earns ten times of this amount. Yet they choose this life of labor instead of beggary.<br />
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At other times you see them around major bazaars, offering to carry your shopping bags. Sometimes they don't even ask for money in return of their service because they can't speak our language. We see people giving their money to professional beggars on a routine basis... yet sadly, we don't see many people reaching out to these little boys who somehow still have their self-respect intact enough to not resort to beggary. It is better to pay them generously for their services rather than giving money to beggars</div>
Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-55063599084378055522011-12-10T03:56:00.003+05:002021-09-22T18:20:40.201+05:00Did God put a Free-Will Clause Inside a Predestined Algorithm?Whether a man is dependent of his actions or not is a debate that has been going on in the circles of religious philosophy and theistic arguments for centuries. Numerous people including laymen and well-known scholars alike have argued regarding how free is man in making his choices and how much influence God has upon these decisions.<br />
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All philosophic systems that consider God as the Supreme in charge of all affairs believe in Destiny. We have traditions and verses which maintain that everything is pre-ordained. Whatever is going to happen and whatever we will do is all known to the Lord and is recorded in Loh-e-Mahfooz. So if destiny is a truth then why is man responsible for his good and bad deeds ? If man's deeds are pre-ordained then why is he answerable for them ? Since a person can only be held responsible for what he does when he has independence of making his choices.<br />
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Today's debate will decide whether man is dependent or independent. If we say man is dependent then God will be a party in man's sins. If we say man is independent then destiny is nullified and hence the knowledge of God regarding future.<br />
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Various traditions from Masumeen alaihesalam and teachings of well-known scholars hold that man is neither granted full control of his actions and neither is he granted complete freedom regarding affairs of life. Thus most people, in the light of these teachings think that man is partly dependent and partly independent in making choices. But such a concept is also mislead since it implies that God is partly involved in the sins of man and thus subject to punishment - and since God is the stronger companion in the act of sin therefore He must deserve severer punishment. Where this conclusion is against the Justice and Grace of God, this is wrong and illogical at the same time. As we will illustrate, the actual situation is quite different than this.<br />
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The fact is that all animate and inanimate creatures present in the universe are all bound by laws of nature and act according to the will of God except human. Humans are an exception; they have been given the freedom of choice as far as their actions are concerned. A man is fully responsible in making choices regarding his actions and is thus fully responsible for all his deeds. The question is that if this is true than how to explain and justify the concept of destiny and Knowledge of God regarding future ?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzNn5TEfMti4GAFqr69enTQYoo-zVmozLjsWiarWDg6Mq_TmM4Kiiy-AebA50Acj0odEVw-G45uZW7x-z-OsI5CJBEBgvpaxvQ2nFea0p_XtidiC53HikOAPiakxpiCYPE1E73Qk_FZg/s1600/images.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNzNn5TEfMti4GAFqr69enTQYoo-zVmozLjsWiarWDg6Mq_TmM4Kiiy-AebA50Acj0odEVw-G45uZW7x-z-OsI5CJBEBgvpaxvQ2nFea0p_XtidiC53HikOAPiakxpiCYPE1E73Qk_FZg/s320/images.jpg" /></a>To understand this we take the example of a computer program. Those who have some basic knowledge about computer languages(such as Gwbasic, Java, C++) and programs written in these languages can understand the case of 'choice and dependence' very clearly through this example. Using a computer language a specific program can be made where users of the program can input their information or choose from given choices or options. Lets say there's a program that upon running prompts the user to select from certain given options say A, B, C and D. The program has been instructed in such a way that the result of choosing A is 1, B is 2, C is 3 and D is 4. Now, when the program is executed a user has full freedom of choice in choosing either alphabet - this explains their independence. But the users are bound in a way that they cannot choose anything apart from the given four alphabets - this explains their dependence. Now if the user chooses an alphabet say C, he will get 3 as a result on the screen just as it was saved and instructed in the program - this explains the pre-destined and pre-ordained nature of things. The programmer being the writer of the program can predict the results of the program. (Though he cannot predict what the user will choose, this will be discussed in later paragraphs).<br />
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So in this way a user has freedom of choice in:<br />
- choosing an option<br />
- exiting the program<br />
Therefore a person has freedom in his life to choose the ways of his life and do as he please or to end his life altogether.<br />
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Yet the user is bound due to:<br />
- limited options<br />
- obligation of participating in the program<br />
This means that even though man has freedom to choose, yet there are a number of things that are beyond his reach and he is unable to do a number of things due to his inability.. since he is not the one who designed the program of this world, he is bound in some ways to live according to the laws of this world as designed by the Grand Architect.<br />
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From above example, destiny can be defined as:<br />
- The grand program of the universe which contains all the information regarding its execution, users, available options and their possible outcomes. The example of computer program given here is obviously a very simple one, when it comes to the level of Universe and its laws, the program that God has designed is unbelievably complex and complicated with billions of options, clauses, conditions, factors, profiles and outcomes, all perfectly synchronized and laced with intricate details.<br />
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The point that we failed to illustrate through this example is regarding the Knowledge of God concerning the choice of man; which option out of the four will the man choose? Because even though the programmer can predict possible outcomes yet he cannot predict exactly what option will a user choose.<br />
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This Divine Knowledge of God can be proved in two ways, one way is through simple human observation and the other through the unique attribute of God being Non-temporal.<br />
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<b>Simple human observation</b>:<br />
Considering the observational and instinctual talent of man, it does not appear to be a big deal that God can know the choice of man before he makes it, because a lot of times even humans can predict what another human will choose - even though they can be wrong, yet this isn't something so hard to know. Most psychologists and people that study human behaviour can easily predict how a certain person will react in a given situation. A teacher can predict how his students will perform in an exam and a mother can tell what his kids will prefer or adopt in life. But all of them being humans are prone to erroneous judgements. Yet if a human with very tiny intelligence can predict behaviours then it is a piece of cake for God whose Knowledge and Intelligence is thousand times greater than our's. Whose Sight and Hearing reaches far beyond our's, Who is capable to witness all kinds of rays, waves, radiations, energies, mental frequencies and neural synapses.. so what big deal it is for Him?<br />
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However, even though the above explanation is sufficient to have an idea of God's Knowledge of the Unseen, yet it is not what most traditions talk about, and this is not the way how God finds out what we'll do next. Because as is obvious this is a very superficial way of knowing things that suits humans more than it suits the Lord. Also since most traditions maintain that God knew a man's destiny from the beginning of time, that is even before he was brought into existence God knew what kind of a person will he be and what kind of life will he pass and what will be his ultimate end, therefore in order to understand the Knowledge of God in the light of this Eternal Knowledge we will have to ponder over God's Eternal Nature.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">God's Timelessness</span></b>:<br />
God is the sole Creator of everything - including Time. His Being is Eternal because He is not subjected to Time; He has no beginning or end. He created matter and expanded it, thus He brought space and time into existence.<br />
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Due to this attribute of God, He Himself is not subjected to time and is therefore not subjected to any wait, means that he doesn't have to travel in time to see what happens next. He can see the past, present and future simultaneously. The notion of past, present and future are concepts that relate to temporal entities like us. When we watch a movie, we watch it from beginning to end, frame by frame in chronological order to know the story and to see what happens next. But imagine a Being that can watch all of the frames simultaneously, without having to wait for climax to know the end of the story. God is such a timeless entity. Similarly, a computer program when it is run, it moves through time but to the programmer it is predictable even before it begins since all possible and impossible moves have already been determined by the algorithm - and this is precisely the reason his frame of time does not need to match your frame of time, in fact, he can thought to be present at every instance from the program's beginning to its end because his knowledge and creation encompasses the program. It may be complex to understand at first, since no parable can be set for explaining God, yet if we try to comprehend the fact that our example is talking about a mere human who used many external factors to write a program and that God does not do this - He is the sole source of power for the system while simultaneously the source of all Knowledge and that His Will <b>is</b> the Algorithm and it is His Grandeur & Beauty, His Very Existence which makes everything possible and intertwined in a way that all things start from Him and connect back to Him... than we may get a little bit close to understanding the whole conundrum here. Hopefully.<br />
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<a href="http://images.colourbox.com/thumb_COLOURBOX2465801.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://images.colourbox.com/thumb_COLOURBOX2465801.jpg" width="200" /></a>Moving towards a lighter conclusion and coming back to the original point: The movie of this universe which started from the Big Bang (as far as we know) which caused a chain reaction that is still continual and will someday come to an end and collapse - is viewable to Allah all at once. To Him all the events that have occurred and will occur in time are visible on one screen. This movie is like a computer program that was executed by Allah billions of years ago, we are the users of this program and have been given the freedom of choice with certain limitations, whatever choices we make and their relevant results have always been known to Allah due to His Omnipresent and Omniscient nature, yet this knowledge does not imply His involvement in our decisions; the nature of this movie is not the one that is written and directed but it is more like a video obtained from a surveillance camera: people that appear in it are not bound to speak or act in a pre-destined way but are <b>free</b> people being watched and judged.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-small;">All praise is due to Allah, the Unique and Incomparable, the one Who is Ahad and Samad.</span>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-53965016916928062992011-03-04T18:59:00.007+05:002021-09-22T18:36:18.026+05:00What are Dreams ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyUA-UAybL5alfySw5M5me02AdcsbyNr5zDuDasha6O-0KVe0oDYR4DVI4jM1O2Vw5OnjluPpwyP-bg9c2nlN0tBKsjTc453L8uWP1m4_zCfe5K20s2RL7Q9Z0RQL8Htm-HPkIaA-o4g/s1024/dream+with+lab+coat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1024" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyUA-UAybL5alfySw5M5me02AdcsbyNr5zDuDasha6O-0KVe0oDYR4DVI4jM1O2Vw5OnjluPpwyP-bg9c2nlN0tBKsjTc453L8uWP1m4_zCfe5K20s2RL7Q9Z0RQL8Htm-HPkIaA-o4g/w640-h376/dream+with+lab+coat.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><b>"Dreams are what your mind does when you do not control it"</b><br />
So who has this control if not us ?<br />
This is a mystery.<br />
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We all know that dreams are the mental constructs exhibited by our Unconscious mind and they provide information on a lot of stuff held by our unconscious; like fears, aims, insecurities, fantasies, longings, belongings, and what not, but basically what is the Unconscious and how does it provide the sensation of dreaming, that is whats more important to know - since dreams are a big mystery only because the Unconscious is an even bigger mystery.<br />
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We divide the mind in two ways, Conscious and Unconscious. The Conscious mind makes use of the five worldly senses in order to experience anything while the Unconscious relies on the reminiscence left by them. The Conscious mind also accounts for critical thinking and decision making. Since in dreams we neither make use of the five senses nor do we think logically therefore it can easily be said that while dreaming we are out of tune with our Conscious mind.<br />
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What rules the dreams is the Unconscious mind that becomes 'conscious' during the dream experience. Since the Unconscious relies on the memories attained by the five senses, therefore, people think that the Unconscious is very much the memory itself - the memories that are deep rooted or hidden to us, including the various perceptions attached with these memories, thus leading to the concept that memory randomly plays bits and pieces of it during dreams - but the fact is that the Unconscious is not merely a collection of hidden memories, but rather, Unconscious is that part of us, of which we ourselves are unaware of.<br />
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All of the activities that our brains and bodies perform of which we are <b>unaware </b>are part of the Unconscious. For example, when our body cells fight with infections are we aware ? Do we know how to fight viruses that effect our body ? Do we dictate a strategy to win the battle against infections to our body cells ? No, we do not, yet our bodies have this knowledge ? How ? If you think of it you'll see that almost all of the body processes are performed in such a way that we remain largely unaware of them... What happens during dreams is all neurological, do we know how to extract information from the neurotransmitters that are given off by the neurons during neural synapse ? Do we translate them knowingly ? No, even though these processes take place <b>within us</b> and we are also utilizing them for our <i>own</i> benefits yet we are unaware of the details whatsoever and we have no hand in dealing with them. So what could probably be the cause for not being <i>aware</i> ? The answer lies in the limitations of our senses. We humans can only experience things with the five senses we have been provided, anything that exists out of <i>perceivable bounds</i> of these senses cannot be known to us. For example, the faintest hint we can get from the battle of white blood cells and infections is slight pain in the region, because pain is something that can be <b><i>felt </i></b>by the <i>sense of touch</i> therefore we can know about it, otherwise if something cannot be felt, smelt, tasted, seen or heard than we remain unaware of such things unless logic tells us to believe in their existence based on proofs that are again subjected to experimentation by the senses.<br />
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Now, coming back to our original topic as to what are dreams, in the light of the above we can say that <b>dreams are the faint hints we can get about the processes going on in the Unconscious during sleep</b>, and the faintness is due to the limitations of our senses. It has been observed that people who strengthen their senses - both mentally and physically, through meditation and spiritual awareness - can overcome this faintness to an extent as they are more in tune with their unconscious and therefore they have dreams that are far more revealing and beneficial.<br />
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Thus dreaming is an important platform for the Unconscious to express itself, because during wakefulness our senses are occupied by our conscious selves, thus the Unconscious cannot express itself fully. However, in dreams this barrier is broken and the Unconscious makes effort to communicate with us by the help of a language and a form that is <i>comprehendible</i> to <i>our</i> senses. Stronger the mind, stronger will be the message portrayed in dream. One can't really say that the Unconscious is part of the memory, but rather the memory is one tool among others that the Unconscious uses to communicate with us.</span><br />
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</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Our dreams relate to us, the message in them concerns us, and the Unconscious also belongs to us albeit in a strange way, as we remain unaware of what it is and how it is, and even though the Unconscious is obviously more powerful and intelligent than we are but it is we who utilize it. We do utilize it while awake and we should utilize it while asleep. However, since we are disconnected from our Conscious mind during sleep, therefore any communication that is made by the Unconscious mind is received and realized only on waking up. A dream in this sense is like a message left on the answering machine, its only that this message needs a little decoding before it can be answered. </span></div>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-32757523296009721552010-12-07T02:46:00.022+05:002021-09-22T18:21:27.331+05:00Why Religion Should Go Easy on the Theory of Evolution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5fbCzkeyCK1npWwhUlQvz1DzOE8RBjmXaTRffDh1ajlPgc-A199Y5nmP6UzUF7gTYt800nNnYGpvCCpWRcHslU2dSSnoIwso6RCarUdNjCdJfHuG4D84nkwkV_Xl9Z_krd5JhOmBC3A/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="1400" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5fbCzkeyCK1npWwhUlQvz1DzOE8RBjmXaTRffDh1ajlPgc-A199Y5nmP6UzUF7gTYt800nNnYGpvCCpWRcHslU2dSSnoIwso6RCarUdNjCdJfHuG4D84nkwkV_Xl9Z_krd5JhOmBC3A/w640-h266/image.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Theory of Evolution is the most controversial theory uptil now in the history of science. Most religions refuse to accept it and mock it because they think that this theory denies God (when in fact it doesn’t). The thing that religions deny the theory even before studying it is sad, because once you study it with an open mind you will see that it does not go against religion. Since it’s a scientific theory, everyone has a right whether to accept or reject it but to reject it i<span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">n</span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> the name of religion</i> is a stance based on false assumptions and misconceptions. The question whether evolution is true or not is unimportant, what’s important is that religious institutions and affiliates should not have an ignorant attitude towards modern science and knowledge. We should be open to all ideas and study them with an open mind while keeping a firm belief in what we believe. We should study and research the theory first and then pass a verdict on it.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">As a Muslim, if something goes against Quranic teachings then we may be biased in studying it but as far as the theory of evolution is concerned, I personally do not think it goes against Quran.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Quran says Adam descended from heaven, pretty much we’ve all descended from heaven in a way. Adam spent his initial life in paradise, but a lot many <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">tafasir</em> (Quranic commentaries) maintain that this paradise was not <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the paradise</em> which is promised to believers in the hereafter, but it was <b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">a Garden in this world</b>, and Adam was expelled from it and sent to Mecca which was a desert and a barren land.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box;">There is no phenomenon on Earth which happens ‘magically’, there is always a scientific explanation behind it, although it may <i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">appear</i> as magic. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Can we really think that Adam <b style="box-sizing: border-box;">literally</b> came down <b style="box-sizing: border-box;">from sky</b> as a fully formed person ? Can such a thing happen ? Even though God has all powers to do such a thing, but if we take a good look at how He<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </b>does things, i.e. <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">sunnat of Allah,</em> we’ll know that that’s not God’s way of doing things. Allah has made this universe conquerable for man, and therefore, every phenomenon of this universe has a scientific explanation. <b style="box-sizing: border-box;">There is not one single phenomenon on earth which happens magically</b>. For example <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">rain</em>, it comes down from sky, and Quran also states that but we all know that sky is not its origin – there is a whole process for formation of rain and no religion denies it.</span></div><blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 40px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h2 style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Roboto Slab", sans-serif; font-size: 1.75em; line-height: 1; margin: 50px 0px 30px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;">فَلَنْ تَجِدَ لِسُنَّتِ اللَّهِ تَبْدِيلًا ۖ وَلَنْ تَجِدَ لِسُنَّتِ اللَّهِ تَحْوِيلًا</h2><p style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 34.56px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">For you shall not find any alteration in the course(sunnah) of Allah; and you shall not find any change in the course(sunnah) of Allah. [35:43]</p></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Islam accepts that<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </b>this world is the world of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">cause and effect</em> and therefore every worldly effect has a series of worldly causes behind it’s presence.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box;">So what caused the first human to come into existence ? A descent from sky ? That doesn’t seem right. Moreover it means that we should believe that the firsts of <i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">all</i> creatures came into existence that way! If that was how God wanted it to be then He could have sent all humans down this way. Why did He create the whole process of reproduction, pregnancy and child-birth ? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">It is thus reasonable to think that such magical descents from sky are not Allah’s way of doing things, at least not in this world, because in this world, every worldly effect has a worldly cause.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box;">When atheists cite the theory of evolution, they mean to present an idea that everything came into being by itself and there is no authoritan over this process. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box;">We Muslims think that if we accept this theory it would be akin to denying existence of a Creator, which is not true. Because even if we all share a common ancestor and if the earliest living organism came about due to temperature and environmental conditions prevalent on the early earth, question remains that who made this possible in the first place ? Who is it that gave such </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">properties</i> to the atoms of different elements that they react to form something of value ? Who told the chemicals to mingle in a certain way ? <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 0px;">Who</span></em> <b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">prepared ground for all this to happen </i></b><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">?</strong> Everything in this world APPARENTLY happens all by itself in accordance with the pre-defined laws but who defined these laws ? No one but the Creator. <b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Therefore, if evolution is a law, then Allah is the Creator of this law. If evolution is a process, then it is Allah who has <i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">designed</i> it.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">In Nahjul Balagha’s first sermon, while explaining the process of creation of the universe, it is stated:</span></div><blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 40px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box;">Allah the Almighty destined things</b>(i.e. matter and energy<b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">) to be dissolved into time. He so arranged and consolidated these factors that the intensity of their diverse and opposing properties was reduced. </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">As soon as things came into existence they were <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">alotted properties</i> and <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">place in nature</i>. And soon after creation of things, order for expansion and extension was given and just as things were obeying this order each one of them was given a<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> form</i> and a <i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">body.</i></b></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">So the properties of matter, energy, time and space, their forms and structures are the foremost objects which are the <i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">cause</i> of all the processes which occur in the universe and these properties have been assigned by God. Atoms and sub-atomic particles did not design themselves. They did not and could not create their own selves, thus subtracting the creator from the equation is foolish.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Nothing in this universe happens without apparent worldly causes and effects. If a child comes into this world then worldly mediums cause him to be born. If rain falls then worldly phenomena is responsible for it. If lightning occurs, there are worldly causes behind it. In actual we do not <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">see</em> the hand of God anywhere but we know that it is He who creates.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Similarly, the first single and multi-cellular organisms also had worldly precursors which were responsible for their creation. Then these further evolved, with an even complicated DNA structure each time… so from bacteria to other microscopic creatures things further evolved into visible creatures and so on… just the way limited elements can interact to form so many distinguished compounds and minerals.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Carbon, from dead plants and animals forms coal under certain conditions and the same carbon may also form diamonds if it is pure and becomes subject to immense heat and pressure.<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"> So if you say carbon becomes diamond after billions of years because of a number of forces acting upon it, people accept it</b>. Although it is as surprising as it is to say that a simple DNA structure of bacteria might evolve into a proto-fish DNA after thousands of centuries… but people accept the former and reject the latter. <img alt="sn-originH" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-130" data-attachment-id="130" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="sn-originH" data-large-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/sn-originh.jpg?w=736" data-medium-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/sn-originh.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/sn-originh.jpg" data-orig-size="1280,720" data-permalink="https://mishalerah.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/what-should-be-religions-response-to-the-theory-of-evolution/sn-originh/" height="169" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/sn-originh.jpg?w=300&h=169" srcset="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/sn-originh.jpg?w=300&h=169 300w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/sn-originh.jpg?w=600&h=338 600w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/sn-originh.jpg?w=150&h=84 150w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-sizing: border-box; float: left; font-family: inherit; height: auto; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 1em 1.2em 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px;" width="300" />Maybe it is the case but the first organism had to come from somewhere. It may have literally descended from the sky, in a meteor, like many theories now propose. This way it would be correct to say that human life and all life ‘descended from sky’. However, once here, the simplest and earliest organism had to multiply and divide, and <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">evolve</em>, in order for life to blossom.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Just as the arrangement and number of particles in an atom distinguish <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">one</i> element from<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> another</i>, and with the addition and subtraction of one proton the whole substance is altered along with it’s properties. Living cells behave similarly. As long as the basic constituent of all animals remain similar, the possibility is there that they all are related to each other<i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">.</i></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">As far as the human evolution is concerned, the actual truth is known to Allah alone.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">However, it is proposed in the theory that humans evolved from primates; we are aware that humans are classified as Primates because of our shared traits and among other primates our DNA structure is closest to the chimpanzee; it is a known fact that the difference between a human and chimp DNA is roughly 4-5%. This difference sounds statistically small but genetically it is a huge difference. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">This</strong><b style="box-sizing: border-box;"> small difference causes great differences, just like in atoms</b>. But despite this difference, it technically means that when God created Adam <i style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">He only had to make 4% additional changes</b></i> in the DNA format of the chimpanzee (who was His earlier creation). Therefore, even if in the process of creating the human being He started from scratch, <b style="box-sizing: border-box;">He ultimately was molding a clay which resembled the ingredients and structural code</b> of the chimpanzee <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">a lot!</em> (which is a weird thing when you think of it).</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">But does this all go against what we have been taught ? We’re taught that Prophet Adam was a perfect human being. <b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">If we say that we cannot call carbon a diamond unless it becomes one, then we cannot call chimp a human unless it becomes one</i></b>, and when it becomes human it is <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">perfect</em> and thus Adam is the first and perfect human being.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">We’re also told that he was kept in Paradise after birth but many tafasir of Quran tell us that this paradise was not the ‘jannah’ which is for the hereafter but it was a garden on Earth only.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Thirdly, we’re taught that God made him Himself from clay… but we must ponder that it is entirely possible that clay may be an analogy for the DNA; <i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">the basic chemicals which form the chemical bases in the DNA are all found <b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">abundantly </b>in clay</i>.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">There are many other traditions and sayings which are based on idiomatic phrases and metaphors, so as such they have ambiguous meanings, and can be understood <i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">either</i> way.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">The basic thing is that Allah has made a worldly procedure for the creation of every living and non-living thing, this procedure can be found out and studied upon. Those who don’t agree with this point must present an example of any procedure which does not have a worldly explanation and happens divinely. The truth is that even miracles have scientific explanations but the wonder is only that when they occur people are unaware of that scientific technology and thus the miracle is a miracle.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box;">In a lot of verses the Quran uses metaphoric terms, so unless we’re already enlightened with the facts we can’t know for sure. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">This is because Quran is a book of Signs rather than a book of Science… you can’t really learn science from Quran but if you have learnt science then you will definitely find signs in Quran approving and endorsing those scientific facts, and this is what proves the worth of Quran as a scientifically authentic and logical book.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">For this reason there’s greater need that Muslims excel in science and all other advance subjects so they can acknowledge the true worth of the Quran and achieve the highest level of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Yaqeen</em> (Belief).</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Atheists are wrong when on the basis of the theory of evolution they deny God, and Muslims are wrong when on the basis of religion they deny the theory of evolution. I’m not saying that this theory is the whole truth but all I’m saying is that we should take this theory just as all other theories out there because, honestly, I don’t see any difference between this theory and other numerous scientific theories and laws. When you sow a seed in the ground God turns it into a tree but science will tell you that it is the water, climate, quality of sand and properties of the seed which turn it into a tree. Now, shall we Muslims deny that this is the case ? That sand or water or climate have nothing to do with growth of a seed ? No, they are undoubtedly responsible and we all accept this fact. <b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Just because Science highlights the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">cause</em> behind an <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">effect</em>, it does not mean that there is <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">no one</i> who <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">causes</i> the cause to <i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">exist</i></b>.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><img alt="seedling" class=" size-medium wp-image-131 alignright" data-attachment-id="131" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1508242788","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="seedling" data-large-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/seedling.jpg?w=736" data-medium-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/seedling.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/seedling.jpg" data-orig-size="1200,630" data-permalink="https://mishalerah.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/what-should-be-religions-response-to-the-theory-of-evolution/seedling/" height="158" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/seedling.jpg?w=300&h=158" srcset="https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/seedling.jpg?w=300&h=158 300w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/seedling.jpg?w=600&h=316 600w, https://mishalerah.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/seedling.jpg?w=150&h=79 150w" style="border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-sizing: border-box; float: right; font-family: inherit; height: auto; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1.2em 1em; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px;" width="300" />It is Allah Who has given a seed the property to grow, Who has given soil and water the property to nourish, Who has endowed sunlight with energy. It is Allah Who has designed the atoms of all these things and the One Who has written the algorithm of how they interact; it is Allah Who granted all of them their respective properties on account of which they behave the way they do as Allah planned for them to be. <b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">Anything that happens in the universe happens the way Allah has planned it to be and evolution is just one of those things </b>(if it is true).</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">It’s like I design a watch and provide it with a battery that will keep it working for a year. Scientists can come investigate the watch and tell you the cause of moving needles and the mechanics behind it; they’ll tell you its the battery that provides energy for the mechanics to work – so what ? Just because they can prove that the system <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">apparently</em> works on its own does not mean that no one meant it to be so.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> </span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">The systems in the universe are apparently working on their own, they are, but this <b style="box-sizing: border-box;">in <i style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">no way</i></b> eludes the possibility that somebody <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">designed</em> it. In fact it is a proof that someone <b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">did</b> design it.</span></div></div>
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Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-40958289313744040272010-12-06T10:35:00.003+05:002021-09-22T18:44:30.177+05:00Dreams and the relation between Soul and Spirit<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9tv4V9C1W8OCNz4y48dBlCPNG_r5Pc68yvF_DVY1RA4nCcaEZvDhm4JwAFvpCqeMR-lJPsx5fhfpZnd95wdgDlNGCeS53i-6CE6obbEEGN9P1ibmGB9IeIy_I2-JPw_AG9boZLz832w/s1160/ZPDreamsArticles-3-1160x665.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="1160" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9tv4V9C1W8OCNz4y48dBlCPNG_r5Pc68yvF_DVY1RA4nCcaEZvDhm4JwAFvpCqeMR-lJPsx5fhfpZnd95wdgDlNGCeS53i-6CE6obbEEGN9P1ibmGB9IeIy_I2-JPw_AG9boZLz832w/w640-h366/ZPDreamsArticles-3-1160x665.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>During our sleep we are plugged into our unconscious mind i.e. the Spirit. However, our conscious mind, which experiences the world by the sensory organs, is taken away at the time of sleep.</div><div>
</div><div>As the Holy Quran states:</div><div>"<b><span class="Apple-style-span">Allah takes the 'Soul(Nafs)' when death comes, and also at the time of sleep...</span></b>" (39:42) </div><div>The Soul or Nafs is your 'self', it is responsible for making decisions. Therefore soul represents the 'conscious mind'. On the other hand we have 'Spirit' which is said to belong to Allah as is stated in the Holy Quran and represents the 'unconscious mind' (Note that unconscious mind also includes the various systems and processes going on within the body since the brain performs them unknowingly and unconsciously)</div><div>
</div><div>So it can be said that during sleep, we have our unconscious mind i.e. spirit with us, but our conscious mind(soul) is taken away by Allah.</div><div>
</div><div>There are different theories and concepts about where the conscious mind is at time of sleep IF it is not within the body. Some say that it remains in our body but is switched off, yet it could also be possible that our conscious mind roams somewhere in the heavens, and thus, experiences felt by it are transmitted to us - resulting in dreams. Or it could just be that once our unconscious mind is ON, it starts playing random bits and pieces from our memory on our inner visual screen.</div><div>
</div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span">DREAMS DURING REM</span></b>:</div><div>Dreams are of different kinds, but the most mysterious dreams are those that we see in the state of deep sleep or REM sleep. Most scientific research is done on the initial state of sleep which is also known as hypnagogia. This is the state in which you're not deep in sleep but neither are you fully awake. You usually experience the effects of recent and present memories in this state, like falling off from a cliff or floating in water after spending a day at sea. </div><div>
</div><div>But the dreams of deep sleep and REM sleep cannot be described under this category because of their distinguished nature... Most prophetic dreams, and dreams that later turn into reality come in this state of sleep and thus are more mysterious in their nature.</div><div>
</div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span">PROPHETIC DREAMS</span></b>:</div><div>In my opinion, our body has a connection with our conscious and unconscious state of mind, or in other words the body is connected with both the soul and the spirit during wakefulness... but <b>during deep sleep your body loses the connection with your conscious mind(soul) and thus you only experience what your unconscious(spirit) feels</b>.</div><div>
</div><div>So, in vague terms we can say that when our unconscious or spirit is <b><i>really strong</i></b>.. it can sense much more than <i>what is usually understandable</i> to our conscious mind ..which explains the bashara or prophetic dreams somewhat.</div><div>
</div><div>Its like the sixth sense, its not just that sixth sense exist in some beings, but <b><i>its existence</i></b> points toward the fact <b>that somewhere in the world this information about future and these signals about upcoming harm <i>are being transmitted</i></b>. . . which we(with our limited consciousness) cannot feel, but if our spirit is really strong it can interpret those signals while dreaming.</div><div>
</div><div>Now here, I would like to point to the fact how Islam has emphasized on strengthening our spirit through Namaz.. specially namaz-e-shab(Night prayer) which is the best form of meditation besides being a great form of worship, and is guaranteed to strengthen your spirit and bless you with <i>special knowledge</i> and <i>sight</i>.</div><div>
</div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Praise be to Allah</span></b></div><div>
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</div>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-76503019334430750052010-12-06T08:34:00.003+05:002016-09-29T18:08:22.229+05:00Purposefulness of Creation in the Human Eye<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikeR24POywWE7r3XJTd6KRQ-tfUy4SdeF7bmUuOOq4TwUBFuRDUH9tBECUFHAYgRUCp_kQYrMDs0XKplPU6YfSNQZuCKAbPldVWWjPxrYKGyDgPEVJhmLPDLRTrI6awElGfre3OM6azA/s1600/7a394ef20c04ad87f1ce4ea86606116a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikeR24POywWE7r3XJTd6KRQ-tfUy4SdeF7bmUuOOq4TwUBFuRDUH9tBECUFHAYgRUCp_kQYrMDs0XKplPU6YfSNQZuCKAbPldVWWjPxrYKGyDgPEVJhmLPDLRTrI6awElGfre3OM6azA/s640/7a394ef20c04ad87f1ce4ea86606116a.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: small;">How can our eye, with all its complications, exist... IF there is no one who wanted us to SEE ?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Why is our eye located in a place where it is protected... <b>IF there is no one who wanted it to be safe</b> ?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Does not the eyelashes and eyebrows right above your eyes, tell you that somebody intended for the eye to be protected ? Do not the lacrimal glands serve the purpose of keeping the eye clean and moist ? A nose right between the eyes serves to divide light equally! The eyelids too are necessary for protection of the eye.. all these parts of the eye are made to 'serve a purpose', they're like the parts of a machinery whose structure and arrangement is a sheer proof of the purpose behind it and is the evidence of the act of creation by someone.. so when you see that all pieces of a jigsaw are made to fit each other, how can you assume that the pieces were created without a plan and a purpose?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"><b><i>How</i></b> can nature, <b>which itself cannot <i>see</i></b>, <b>creates a being who can <i>see</i></b>?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Nature can create an eye, but it can never make you 'see'.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">And this is why clever people believe in a Creator, who has created everything, because NOTHING and absolutely nothing in this universe has the power to create the '<b>SENSE'</b> OF SIGHT !</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Science has not created any such thing which can 'see', by this I mean a thing which '<b>knows that it is seeing</b>'. For example a camera captures pictures and videos, but it is us humans, who SEE these images, not the camera! <b>A camera never knows that it is seeing an image, which means it cannot SEE! </b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">And similarly, blind people see for their selves, science only repairs their optical system or sight or transplant them with devices through which they can see. But the ability to see a thing for itself is inside the human by birth, and it is not science that creates this ability.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">So, science did not make anyone see, and neither are there any chances of such invention in near and distant future.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">In short, it only means that science can never create the '<b>consciousness of self'</b> inside any of its inventions. And this consciousness is above all other things in the universe. Nobody can create it, except one. Except One Who Himself is Aware of its Own Being and therefore He can grant it to His creatures as well!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">Science only deals with what can be experienced with our five senses. But I assume you know the limitations of all these senses. The world is obviously not as it appears to us. And have you ever thought, but there could have been a sixth or seventh sense as important and useful as the five senses ? since the human may not be the ideal creature to experience this world ?... So, maybe we developed eyes and ears by chance, but there are still ten other senses to experience this world more closely ? Maybe those senses would have been helpful in realizing the existence of God... but you're still in evolution process and need a billion years to develop those ?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">So considering the limits and threshold of our senses, the point is only that....HOW can we rely on SCIENCE(which itself relies on the 5 senses so much) so much that we ACCEPT only those things which are verified by science ??? The world is full of things science have no idea about! So it has no rights to reject divine knowledge or the religious beliefs of a believer.</span></div>
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Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-60044889902706315782010-12-05T05:24:00.000+05:002021-09-22T18:54:07.346+05:00Why ONE God only ?<span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana" style="font-size: medium;"><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSHZ97-ynVhCyr5tdgRC9OwB5RHYU01xxjL2yZZfJfCpz59u9xQ5zOSd3EGTOUP-clsMYKR3uFH1WCzuX_nedmihWE8JN216Cu87KXBG4tzt2qAqER4eJL_CyX6Dsuy5Ant7aFpByX5Q/s1920/oldest-galaxy-in-the-Universe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSHZ97-ynVhCyr5tdgRC9OwB5RHYU01xxjL2yZZfJfCpz59u9xQ5zOSd3EGTOUP-clsMYKR3uFH1WCzuX_nedmihWE8JN216Cu87KXBG4tzt2qAqER4eJL_CyX6Dsuy5Ant7aFpByX5Q/w640-h360/oldest-galaxy-in-the-Universe.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana">Can any of you give a satisfying and convincing answer as to why there can only be one God, not two or several ?
To say that if there will be more than one God, they will fight, is a useless argument because Gods are not like human that they'll fight, if they can do 'everything' then they can also be nice to each other.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana">
</span></div>Islam says there is one God, but still, some people believe in monotheism and some don't. If there would have been several gods, still, some would believe that there is only one and some would believe there are more, because people may never know the reality that how many gods exist.
It is only the <b style="font-weight: bold;">definition of a God</b> which either decides or rejects the concept of monotheism. The definition of God in Islam, or as given by Hazrat Ali, clearly highlights a logical reason as to why there cannot be several gods.</span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana" style="font-size: medium;">
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000084; font-size: medium;">"To believe in His oneness is to realize that He is so absolutely pure and above nature, that nothing can be added to or substracted from Him; because one should realize that there is no difference between His Person and His attributes. Whoever accepts His attributes to be an addition to His Being abandons the concept of monotheism and beleives in duality (He and His attributes). Such a person, in fact, believes Him to exist in parts. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000084; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000084; font-size: medium;">One who holds such a belief, cannot form a true concept of Allah. He is ignorant and will always try to believe in some creation of his imagination as his god. And whoever holds such a belief accepts limitations in His Being and confines Him to a place or to particular attributes and brings Him on a level with His creatures. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000084; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000084; font-size: medium;"> To believe that He is invested with the characterstic of residing in a particular place(Heaven or earth) and to point towards Him accordingly, or to believe that He is restricted to a special position or occasion, or <b style="font-weight: bold;">to consider that certain place or time can exist without Him, and can be void of His Omniscience and omnipresence is a conception which results in assigning Godhead to a numerical unity</b>. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000084; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000084; font-size: medium;"> To assign a place to Him by considering Him within or over a place means to subject Him to the limitations of space and allot Him an importance secondary to space; it also means to believe that some place can exist outside the sphere of His Omnipresence.
His existence is eternal; He neither came into being at some period of time, nor was He created. His being did not come into existence from nonentity. <b style="font-weight: bold;">He is with everything but not physically and bodily; He is away from everything but not by way of bodily distance or of being unconcerned and indifferent to it</b>".</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000084; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000084; font-size: medium;">
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana" style="font-size: medium;">In short, Allah is everywhere, He is with everything, He exercises power over everything, He controls everything.
Let us <b><span class="Apple-style-span">suppose there are two Gods(A and B), then both of them cannot reside 'everywhere' as they are two separate existences since A cannot be within B, and B is not in A so these Gods are not everywhere</span></b>. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana" style="font-size: medium;">Similarly, God A exercises absolute power over the universe, but if it doesn't exercises power over God B then A is not a perfect God as it does not have power over EVERYTHING. (And in case A can be within B and they both exercise equal power over each other and have control on each other then, first of all its not possible, and secondly, it would mean that A=B which would mean that God is in fact, only One). </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana" style="font-size: medium;"> So, it is not said that Allah is 'everywhere in the universe only' or that he controls everything 'just within this universe'. Everything MEANS <b style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">everything</b> and Every where means EVERY WHERE (<b style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">outside universe as well</b>). While this universe is limited and Allah has confined its limits and He Alone is the God of each and everything.</span></div></div>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-14674994411840935762010-12-05T05:10:00.000+05:002021-09-22T19:00:00.846+05:00Avicenna & The Floating Man<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcTJMMhY54p5r52X1bVu9FIUSpl0n3o5rocExWMikAGSccshgVxnQdT2LTV8ko63WFR-a2Q2eGTUcxlri67IIzXDI50_5uAkQHwrzOaim-PSQ3Q3JVI8dBcDSeofzcWt5VBA-zzqhIjA/s600/D1047_8_029_0004_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcTJMMhY54p5r52X1bVu9FIUSpl0n3o5rocExWMikAGSccshgVxnQdT2LTV8ko63WFR-a2Q2eGTUcxlri67IIzXDI50_5uAkQHwrzOaim-PSQ3Q3JVI8dBcDSeofzcWt5VBA-zzqhIjA/w640-h360/D1047_8_029_0004_600.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana" style="font-size: large;">There is a famous hadith : <span class="Apple-style-span"><b>The one who knows himself well, knows his Lord as well to</b></span>o.
There is a similar saying of Imam Ali a.s also that in order to understand God one must consider the characteristics of his spirit instead of his bodily characteristics.
Keeping therse sayings in mind, this topic is meant to bring people one step closer to understanding themselves. This is a thought provoking question, and everyone is welcome to express his or her views.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>Imagine, a man floating in a room with zero sensory input, no sound, no sight, no gravity, no sensation of any kind, floating in complete darkness, no sensation even of his own body because no part of his body touches any other part — say the man was created this way, would he be capable of thought?</b></span>
Can the human mind have thoughts without any external sensory input?
If so, what would this man be thinking? Would the floating man have awareness of anything?</span><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b>
</b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Its actually a thought process Avicenna came up with in order to realize the reality of our own existence and true realization of the inner self.
And if we think carefully this concept is not so much alien to us, because we experience it every time when we are sound asleep. </span></b></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></b></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Although we can hear, feel, taste and smell during our sleep as the electronic signals are continuously transmitted by our sense organs to our brain, as during deep sleep the brain is unconscious and no longer converts the data into information... therefore in that state we are indifferent to any sensory input.
<b style="font-weight: bold;">In that state, we see without eyes, hear without ears, taste without tongue, feel without body and enjoy fragrances without a nose...</b> </span></b></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></b></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> Imam Ali a.s has said, If you want to understand the attributes of Allah, then you should ponder over the attributes of soul and overlook the attributes of the body.
<b style="font-weight: bold;">Allah is He Who Sees everything without eyes, Hears everything without any organ, He is everywhere but His Presence is not physical!</b></span>
</b></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, sans-serif, Verdana"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><div class="listitem" style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif, Verdana; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px; padding: 5px 5px 1px; zoom: 1;"><div style="font-weight: normal;"><b style="font-weight: bold;">
</b></div></div><div class="listdivi" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; clear: both; color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif, Verdana; font-size: 1px; font-weight: normal; height: 0px; line-height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 1px; margin: 1px 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div></span></b></span></span></div></div></div></div>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-61268419909528007512010-05-14T15:37:00.003+05:002021-09-22T18:27:26.714+05:00So You Tell Me There's No God?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b>"The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000;"><b>no watch-maker". </b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUxg9ycV04NovSEaZnnZ6rd4mj4cTvsGcvVDxl-1cxkFRI98Phg5o4ryUJCMioi2YgfKEDLKXjfbh9nz7u5NS8RxtDQ78xfuXr3Et0XaaE1BcnqxvzqKxS2-cOP-O8eboOGJKr3k5qdw/s1600/hqdefault.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUxg9ycV04NovSEaZnnZ6rd4mj4cTvsGcvVDxl-1cxkFRI98Phg5o4ryUJCMioi2YgfKEDLKXjfbh9nz7u5NS8RxtDQ78xfuXr3Et0XaaE1BcnqxvzqKxS2-cOP-O8eboOGJKr3k5qdw/s320/hqdefault.jpg" width="320" /></a><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">The above quotation, is not a mere phrase by the famous French writer and philosopher, Voltaire, but it is an evergreen logic, beautiful and sensible, that’s brought to the table every so often – whenever the waves of skepticism rise. Since the advent of intelligent life on earth, the world has witnessed many intellectual wars proving and disproving the existence of the watch-maker, someone who created the intellect with which we question this someone’s existence in the first place, if there is a watch, there has to be a watch-maker, and if there is intellect, there is someone behind it – but whoever is behind our intellect, is most surely also <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">beyond</strong> our intellect – and that’s where all the nuisance starts. Everyone has an opinion about god, and everyone is busy publicizing it. Monotheism, polytheism, deism, agnosticism, atheism, creationism, darwinism and all kinds of isms are under constant battle with each other. Then there are the religions, each of them having a different name for their god, each of them declaring their path as the righteous one, followers of all kinds of deities fighting to get their deity its rightful throne among all. What’s more unfortunate is that there does not seem to be an end to it. However, the question of choosing the right god comes later, what matters beforehand, is that whether there <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">is</strong> a god or not <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">?</strong></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />If the world around us would have been full of amorphous structures and unnecessary blobs of matter, useless pieces of chunk and inexplorable tiny blocks, if the laws of nature lacked rationality, and mathematics had no implications in the universe either, if art meant only the abstract one, and an atom under microscope would reveal only blurred surface of a globule that has nothing essential inside.. Even in such a horrid world it won’t be utterly justified to proclaim that no one caused it to exist, then how can we fancy that this world, in which everything is serving a purpose, from the rotating electrons to the stars shining in the heavens. All objects in nature work like the parts of a great machinery; all interconnected and compulsory for the fine working of the machine. Everything in nature serves its purpose through <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Correlation</em> and <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Linkage</em>; everything is <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">linked</em> and this interlinked compliance of the universal components serves as a crucial logical proof which negates the notion that none happens to have built this machine. This linkage is like the combination of key and lock, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The perfection with which the keys in universe fit in their locks and the precision with which parts of the universe fit each other is enough evidence to defy all possibilities of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">random creation</em>.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />One simple example of interlinked mechanism is ‘eating’. Our mouth is made to gulp down food; for this reason we have teeth and tongue inside the mouth, an alimentary canal situated below to transport food to the stomach, intestines to process and store the food, valves to close the lid of stomach while food is being processed, gastric juices to digest the food, cells in the body that turn food into energy, etc. The question is, if nobody had wanted this food to make it through our mouth, why is it that in the journey from mouth to the body, every organ assisted the process of food intake as if it was made to do this and only this. The perfect manner in which every piece completes this picture is a sheer demonstration of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">purposeful creation</em> by someone highly Intelligent and Magnificent. All one needs is to think in terms of pure logic, because logic is a universal standard system of formulae and equations which remains same for all the humans belonging to any era, nationality, race, religion, ethnicity or bearing any other individual differences; as long as they’re human – they can always understand the language of logic. Philosophers can come forward with different philosophies, but logic is same for any logician. In science, new theories are always being introduced, and the old ones are being turned aside, but in the science of logic there is no inventing a new one or rejecting the known ones. Logic is absolute, self-evident and it is everywhere, just like the Creator Himself, and therefore, it is a great tool to unravel the futility of arguments against the existence of a supreme authority.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The logic behind the idea of an all powerful creator is so blatant and incredibly apparent that one wonders why is it even being questioned, why are there sane people ignoring this very bright and clear logic? but there are people who in pursuit of thinking outside the box wish to challenge all that is intangible; they discard the idea of a god since it cannot be felt by the senses. In 2000 BC men used to oppose the idea of a creator arguing that they cannot see, hear or feel him – and here we are today, in the 2nd millennium, refuting the idea of god because we can’t see, hear or feel him. Apparently, even after exploring the insides of living cells science didn’t bring us closer to a creator but took us further away. Studying an immaterial powerful being who caused the universe to exist out of nowhere is way beyond the mental grasp of science and a subject totally out of the scope and sphere of science. Yet, scientists feel confident enough to declare the non-existence of any Supreme Being. Science-lovers have always hoped for a god that can be observed and experimented upon in the most sophisticated of laboratories, or maybe they look for some kind of a <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">tag</em> bearing god’s name when they delve into the depths of a living cell, exploring every nanometer of it. The mere existence of these cells and their excellent design is not sufficient for them to accept that someone purposefully made it. Even the discovery of the genetic code at the core of the human cell; seeing a chemical language holding instructions for the human body did not affect scientists to see the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">hand of God</em> or <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">intelligent design/programming</em>, when a sane mind wonders: What else is a <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">tag</em> if not this ? Alas, but alas. Methods of science do not allow it to accept the existence of something that does not have a physical presence, which is fair and may be necessary for the flourishment of science itself – but does that mean humans should also stop believing in anything that is non-physical <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">?</strong></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />If the creator had given only the five known sense organs to humans, they could be justified in not believing anything that exists beyond their sensory approach but humans were also given a rational mind, a mind that can discover and invent with the help of logic, reasoning and remembering. How was the force of gravity discovered ? Was it discovered because Newton’s eyes merely saw an apple falling down the tree or was it because Newton simply <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; margin-bottom: 0px;">applied</span></em><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </strong>logic to what he saw and thought that there must be a force which compels the apple to fall down. Some phenomena are so familiar to us that we forget that there must be a logic behind them and that’s exactly the case with nature. When flowers blossom and trees grow high, when rain pours down and clouds thunder, few of us stop and ponder as to who designed this beautiful stage with such purposeful artistry. We are more contented and absorbed in picking up the apple and eating it then to go worrying about the force which made it fall down. Yet, what surprises me more are the well-educated people for whom the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">water cycle of earth</em> is the only explanation for rainfall- they triumph at proving that some god does not send water down from sky! and with that they also prove that they are actually expecting the hand of god to be literally involved in squeezing clouds to shower rain. It is similar to expecting the watch-maker’s hand literally pushing down the needles of the watch in order to make it work. We fail to comprehend that <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">one can never find the watch-maker inside the watch, yet every part of the watch bears testimony to him</strong>. We have evolutionists who believe that since it was the early climatic conditions of the earth which brought together several chemical bases that constituted the DNA of the earliest species(<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">by chance</em>), therefore, they conclude, that there is no god behind the creation of life.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />With ever new theories, gods of science are busy refuting the possibility of a creator but all their efforts are vain attempts of finding the watch-maker inside the watch, and when they fail to do so, they declare there was no one who made the watch. Once they denied that, they consequently had to come up with various theories of how the watch came into being, like how about ‘<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">it existed out of itself’</strong> or<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"> ‘was a child of coincidence’</strong>, even though both of these theories are lame to the core but are so articulately and cunningly expressed that a vast majority of people today are embracing the sensibility of the idea that there is no watch-maker of the watch we live in. Having faith in God in today’s world means to be uneducated and unaware of the modern discoveries, having belief in a purpose-oriented universe means that you belong to the third world.. but just because people embarrass us, shall we embrace the nightmare that there is no Creator? What should embarrass us more, is this huge spectacular monument of a universe in our face – which leaves absolutely no space for us to be skeptical.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Man of today has explored the depths of oceans and heights of skies, man has reached moon, man is trying to conquer mars, man has discovered so much about God’s beautiful artwork than he had ever known, yet, he does not want to accredit this work to some <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">supernatural being</em>. He does not want to admit how <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">small</em> he is in front of the vast universe. He is the discoverer of stars, planets and quasars, he is the one who discovered gravitation, space-time fabrication, cure to fatal diseases, vaccines for deadly viruses – man is saving hundreds of lives, man is controlling natural catastrophes, man is preserving wildlife, man is on a mission to save <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">the planet</strong> from global warming and radiation hazards, man thinks that there’s no one else but man himself who looks after the small universe of his own. So, to him, his reaction is almost justified towards faithful folks who worship an imaginary being and thank their imaginary lords for the favors <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">man</strong> bestowed upon them. He wonders why can’t they act more wise like the tribesmen of stone-age who would worship the man who discovered fire, and not some ‘<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">unknown being</em>‘ who <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">created</em></strong> fire in the first place.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Popular books and magazines, most watched TV channels, respected institutions, top-most universities of the world and trusted science journals, all recommend their audience to stop believing in things that do not exist, things like <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ghosts</em>, <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">UFOs</em> and <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">gods</em></strong>. Like the magnates of fashion industry, they have created a fashion trend which people will end up following no matter how unpleasant or uncomfortable it might be. The idea, is that, no one likes to go to a party wearing out-of-fashion clothes. Adorning oneself with the jewel of faith in the modern world, is close to wearing pyjamas or nightgown to a wedding party. Here is the choice we have to make; wear what would please others, or wear what we feel <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">right</strong>. People lovingly acknowledge the name of the designer who they’re wearing, and that is the right thing to do. Just like wearing original Levi’s is a reason to show-off, living in the world designed by the Greatest Designer of all – should be a cause of pride, not of shame.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />We all have been given brains of our own, therefore, no one should tell us what to think. But first and foremost, we should <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">think</strong> at all because nothing can be more destructive to the mind than blind beliefs. Having blind faith means that the doors which might lead to the truth have now been closed. Blindness is injurious to the body and soul, be it in love, life or faith.<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"> Why choose to be blind when you have got the eyes</strong> <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;">?</strong> Shouldn’t we question every concept before making it a belief ? Everyone, and practically everyone has pondered on the possibility of the existence of a creator once in his lifetime.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">There are three kinds of people in the world: Those who understand the importance of these issues and try to solve them through their knowledge and reasoning and after thorough contemplation decide whether they should accept or reject the idea of a god.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;">On the other hand we have those people who know deep down what reality is, they understand that it’s not possible for anything to sprang out of utter non-existence into something that’s astonishingly intelligent and awe-inspiring but due to their pampered <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ego</em> and for the love of submitting to their futile whims they choose not to surrender and rebel against their conscience.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Then there are those who opt for being indifferent to these thoughts and enjoy life as it is; without the burden of such mysteries to solve which they think wouldn’t hurt if they remain unsolved. A vast majority belongs to this group, these are the people who don’t bother their intellects to go near anything that involves ‘<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">thinking</em>‘ and does not have a material significance, these are the people who are always willing to follow whoever and whatever seems powerful or attractive to them, like iron-fillings they are attracted to any magnet that’s within their reach, they try to keep their minds away from haunting thoughts like those of God, death, judgement and punishment, even though in the general populace their names are attached with the label of some respected religion. They, are precisely the people who follow religion blindly, who choose not to reason, and therefore abandon ‘reason’ if it goes out of fashion.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">The one thing we all must know is that necessities never go out of fashion, and reasoning is a necessity</strong>. We may enter the third millennium and find ourselves among the same godlessness, proclaiming that we can’t see, hear or feel god. The truth is that <strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">we never will</strong> – the only way to know that there is a God up there is through the ultimate power of reasoning bestowed upon man, otherwise our eyes have been watching apples fall since the day we stepped on earth. How much more is it going to take before we unanimously agree to the logic that <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">there must be a Force which brought forth this apple orchard</em></strong>! That there must be, a God.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />And thus I’d like to conclude with the words of William Drummond, hoping that one day we will all be able to free our intellects from the chains of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">desire</em>,<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> fear</em> and <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">norms</em>.</p></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">"He who will not reason, is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who </span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">dares not, is a slave"</span></b>.*<span></span><span><br /><br /></span> </div><div style="text-align: center;"><span><a name='more'></a></span><span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span></div></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">*The above article was a university level essay assignment which had to begin and end with the given quotes.</span></div></div>
Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-10519234949680020182010-05-11T10:14:00.000+05:002021-09-22T19:09:30.073+05:00My Mother is My Prophet<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvRNw0oPqT-9wqn3gsS58g563vDxzCzW7N9d9wf9OPDv5-yQS7FTzk3K6cjbD5YZWDOSG_Qr2n-EPhjaEBDEndGhUAt8xMZOf5IQFUNeN-CIZ2KREO3_fw8fSqrV8R4c00rpCeJyvWHw/s500/choices.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="500" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvRNw0oPqT-9wqn3gsS58g563vDxzCzW7N9d9wf9OPDv5-yQS7FTzk3K6cjbD5YZWDOSG_Qr2n-EPhjaEBDEndGhUAt8xMZOf5IQFUNeN-CIZ2KREO3_fw8fSqrV8R4c00rpCeJyvWHw/w640-h374/choices.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">I believe in a theory that sins are a result of circumstancial compulsions and so are good deeds! One is motivated towards good deeds because of his brought up, environmental circumstances, education and overall life experiences. Similarly, someone indulges in sin because of the way he was brought up, his life experiences and environment.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-size: large;">However, no one is absolutely powerless when making the decision of right or wrong, but ignorance portrays '<i>wrong</i>' as '<i>right</i>' and as such the ignorant person is pulled into the world of sins. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>This misguiding portrait should never have been formed, had the mother of every sinless infant drawn the lines between good and evil for the child</b>.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-size: large;">When I'm falling prey to evils and being compelled to commit sin, I'm reminded of religion by <i>my heart</i> - and I withdraw.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">However, it is not the religion that is important here, whats important is that my heart <b>reminds</b> me of it! and although the religion was brought by Prophets, the <b><i>reminiscence</i></b> was was due to <i>the way</i> my <span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><b>mother</b></span></span> brought me up!</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div>
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><b><i>I salute you, mom. Happy Mother's Day! :)</i></b></span></span></div>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-16513896953486708602010-04-29T11:05:00.000+05:002021-09-22T19:12:50.390+05:00Need of a God<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijWd2dVyJyiFkvAvRevWRkKxyetRi9l6xNseU2Nre1zHVqFPzTJngmPvQT2n8nOhtr64SCYQB6XTrHcpcKUi42-XdRNGaJ5JNnl4Hhcft227wqS34m0nATlSnL-Hn84Gg4ciiNT6yClA/s1920/getty_479780005_174901.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijWd2dVyJyiFkvAvRevWRkKxyetRi9l6xNseU2Nre1zHVqFPzTJngmPvQT2n8nOhtr64SCYQB6XTrHcpcKUi42-XdRNGaJ5JNnl4Hhcft227wqS34m0nATlSnL-Hn84Gg4ciiNT6yClA/w640-h360/getty_479780005_174901.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><span style="font-size: medium;">To believe in the existence of a God is not only necessary because it is a fact, but also because it is a necessity!</span><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Why ?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Because if humans stop believing in a God, nothing can stop them from sinning in their solitude.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">It is the concept of God which keeps you from sinning when nobody's watching, otherwise, sure so many people appear 'good' to the world, as part of the culture, due to their ego and super-ego, no one wants to be labelled a 'bad' or 'wrong' person - but when it comes to the deeds which are unknown to the rest of the world, what can stop you from sinning if not GOD ???</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Today, many people curse religion for all the corruption they find among people... but if there have been no religion, the level of corruption had been far greater than today.. because once you stop believing that there is no one to punish you or to do justice with you, then you would never bother to stop yourself from sinning while no one's watching. Many people argue to it that do we not have our conscience with us? which stops us from wrong deeds and distinguishes right from wrong by itself? But I do not agree... Even though on a primary level our conscience does tell us to do good and refrain from evil, but unless there are strong motivational factors, a human would not want to listen to his conscience.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">A very clear example of this fact is that rate of crimes are high in countries where law and order forces are weak. If people know that they can easily get away after committing crimes, they would resort to crimes more often. People stop themselves from crimes because they know they might end up in jail... me or you, if we come to know that no one will punish us or label us bad if we rob a bank, then surely we would go ahead and rob a bank sometime in our life if we're in bad financial crisis or maybe just for fun or to be richer. . . If there had been no religion and no belief in an all-Powerful God, then everyone would think this way and will resort to sins.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">And it is only this reason that so many sins and crimes are taking place in the world today. So many people who label themselves with the name of their religion, have atheistic believes deep down because in reality they don't have a true belief in God or religion. Their belief is only confined to their tongues, something they have been taught and fed all their childhood, but they do not actually believe them the way they should. It is just like the belief in death. Every human on earth knows that death is a reality, but how many of us strongly believe in the fact that it is nearing us ? How many of us keep death in mind while making important decisions ? All our lives we are forgetful of death despite of the fact that its such a huge reality... Why is it so ? It is because even though we believe in death, we never give proper time to understanding it, and when you do not know and understand a thing, you can not have a strong belief in it. When you never ponder over it, when you never care about it, when you prefer to know about other things and neglect to ponder upon death because you think theres a lot of time for that... then how can you accept it and have firm belief in it?</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Same is with religion and God, just a so-called belief is not enough, we will have to give proper time to understanding these issues, investigating them, questioning them and once we're sure they're the Truth, only then can we really believe in them. A <b>true and informed belief</b> in God is one that can transform man from animal to angel, nothing else can do that.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">If there was no faith in God, the world's 99% population will be corrupt and 1% will be non-corrupt but still those one percent also wont be angelic, unless only in comparison.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">People say that there are a hundred religions out there which means that the existence of God is just a man made theory. If thre are a 100 theories regarding a phenomenon, even in science, only ONE can actually be TRUE. Therefore, the number of religions and their various beliefs does not mean that the TRUTH does not exist in any of them.</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">And the method of choosing the right religion is same as finding the right scientific theory: through investigation, going through the toil of research and experiment!</span></div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">No one can be born on a certain religion, you have to impose it on you after investigation only! because only then can it become YOUR BELIEF. Otherwise believing blindly staying on what you're parents were on is against human intellectual standards and religiously useless.</span></div>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8105763330640945228.post-57249971663255186672009-07-19T20:04:00.000+06:002021-09-22T19:22:04.037+05:00Limits of The Human Mind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_bq_Hj80mjY_NlRtjuQxciAEd9Vq7bsRAt5L96g6tUPGrPvKiL2RoA2rmE333xbOhjCzdD3HK1706gA06sQR73d907uQirT2ZeMijIAci8v2I2UL1NvTA7BWQee2c5By9buw__r_jg/s800/d41586-019-00026-y_16374948.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_bq_Hj80mjY_NlRtjuQxciAEd9Vq7bsRAt5L96g6tUPGrPvKiL2RoA2rmE333xbOhjCzdD3HK1706gA06sQR73d907uQirT2ZeMijIAci8v2I2UL1NvTA7BWQee2c5By9buw__r_jg/w640-h360/d41586-019-00026-y_16374948.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;">God is the creator of energy... </span><div><span style="font-size: large;">So He cant be energy Himself. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"> If you want to know the physical constituents of God, then you must understand that every form of matter and energy is created by God. Even space and time are God's creation. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">The basic reason why it cannot be said that since when God exists is because He existed before the creation of time. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">The very reason why it cannot be said where he resides is because He existed before the creation of space.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Similarly the main reason why it cant be described what He is made of is because He existed before the creation of matter and energy and thus, due to our limited knowledge, and not just OUR limited knowledge but due to the limitation of all the knowledge contained in this universe, we just cannot tell or even imagine what a supreme Being would be like if He doesn't relate to anything in this universe in appearance or in essence.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Its just like if I ask you to imagine a being that is not confined to either time or space, nor is made up of matter or energy, what will you come up with? These are the limits of human mind. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Can you think of a primary color other than the 3 we know of? Although a 4th primary color may very well exist, but we cannot imagine it at all... These are the limits of human mind.</span><input id="gwProxy" type="hidden" /><!--Session data--><input id="jsProxy" onclick="jsCall();" type="hidden" /><div id="refHTML"></div></div>Faiza JZhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17924481713211945651noreply@blogger.com1