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Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

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Articles

Greed

31 October 2008 | The Fountain | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

It missed the seventh anniversary of 9/11 by a hair’s breadth, but many will remember 9/15 of 2008 as being as traumatic as the former, if not as tragic, when Lehman Brothers, a gigantic investment bank in the US, filed for bankruptcy. Shockwaves in the aftermath soon hit shores across the ocean wi…

A Dream Worth The Entire World

31 October 2008 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

Others may think differently; but for me our world is so charming with its exquisite climate, landscape, mountains and rivers, orchards, prairies, and prosperous settlements. It is so welcoming and tender that those who can once perceive its essence fall in love with it and never consider leaving i…

On Hibernation and Bedsores

31 October 2008 | Bagasra Omar- Pace D.gene | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

You would have thought them awake though they were asleep. We caused them to turn over to the right and the left, and their dog lay outstretching its two forelegs on the threshold. Had you come upon them unprepared, you would certainly have turned away from them in flight, and would certainly hav…

The Death of the Aral Sea

31 October 2008 | Timur Ceylan | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

The Aral crisis is the best example of an ecological problem with serious social and economic consequences, directly or indirectly connected with all the states of Central Asia. The critical situation caused by the Aral Sea drying off was the result of agrarian economy tendency on the basis of ir…

Women and the Qur'anic Prescriptions

31 October 2008 | Fulya Celik | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

One of the most sensitive and oft-debated issues with regard to Islam concerns the status and role of women in society. Arguably one of the aspects of social life which the emergence of Islam affected most was the status of women, with “the Qur’an hav[ing] more to say about the position of women th…

Reevaluating Cholesterol

31 October 2008 | Bulent Aydogan | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

The message to lower cholesterol to reduce the risk of heart disease has been widely circulated. However, recent findings beg the reevaluation of common knowledge about cholesterol. Among many, the following are some examples of questions that we might have: Is cholesterol level a good indicator of…

Is Redundancy Always Redundant?

31 October 2008 | Nuh Aydin | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

Normally, we associate the idea of redundancy with such concepts as wastefulness, uselessness repetition, and superfluity. However, there are many instances where redundancy can actually be very useful. One of the prime examples is language. In fact, in linguistics redundancy is considered to be a…

Can Genes Alone Explain Everything?

31 October 2008 | Seyyidhan Mirza | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

Genetics is probably one of the fastest developing contemporary sciences with an incredibly large accumulation of knowledge. This knowledge of genetics has been extensively utilized in a broad spectrum of areas including unveiling the genetic secrets of different traits. This has paved ways to impr…

Time Management in the Life of the Prophet Muhammad

31 October 2008 | Yuksel A. Aslandogan | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

In the preface to his book The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, Michael Hart noted the supreme success of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, on both the religious and secular level [Hart 1978]. The Muslim community, which started as four individuals, hi…

Khawf and Khashya (Fear and Reverence)

31 October 2008 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

In Sufism, khawf (fear) denotes abstaining not only from all that is forbidden, but also from deeds from which it is advisable to refrain. It also signifies, as the opposite of hope or expectation, that a traveler on the path to Truth does not feel secure against deviation and thereby fears incurri…

From Soap Bubbles to Technology

31 October 2008 | Dr. Sami Polatoz | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

Children love playing with soap bubbles; they like to blow a circle after dipping a bubble wand into soapy water and watch the bubbles flying out of it. However, it is not only children who play with soap bubbles and soap film. Scientists have, for hundreds of years, been doing experiments with soa…

The Eighty-Twenty Rule in the Risale-i Nur

31 October 2008 | Ilhan Hasgur | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

The famous Islamic scholar Bediüzzaman Said Nursi (1877-1960) referred to mathematics in various forms in various places in his work the Risale-i Nur. In the different parts of the Risale-i Nur Collection, numerous examples, from simple arithmetic to jifr and abjad (the studies of deriving numerica…

Ruminants and Their Contribution to Our Life

31 October 2008 | Zubeyir Altuntas | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

And surely in the cattle (feeding on the pastures of the revived earth) there is a lesson for you: We give you from that which is within their bodies, (marvelously distinguished from) between the waste and blood, milk that is pure and palatable to those who drink. (Nahl 16:66) Ruminants, proba…

Knocking on Your Door

31 October 2008 | M. Fethullah Gulen | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

Open your door as a compliment, make your slave happy, Serve my spirit chants from the tongues of beyond. Do so and quench the storms that besiege my heart, Just like You lend your hand to the hopeless. You are that compassionate one; to me Allow a gift and join my way to your land. In every…

Modest Dress in Abrahamic Traditions

31 October 2008 | Eren Tatari | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

One of the questions I am most commonly posed in the United States is about the way I dress. Why do Muslim women cover themselves from head to toe? Usually I respond to this question with another question: Why does a Christian nun or an orthodox Jewish woman cover herself? Or I simply say, I have n…

Soil-Cleaning Plants

31 October 2008 | H. Arif Ustaoglu | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

Soil has significant functions for securing the maintenance of life on earth. The food and water that plants need are provided via soil. A wide variety of living species which find shelter in the bosom of the soil performs vital functions for securing life in the continental ecosystem. Bacteria, mu…

It's me, Peter, your intestine!

31 October 2008 | Irfan Yilmaz | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

Peter, maybe now you will snap at me saying, “What are you trying to do? You are nothing but a set of long pipes, you are the last one to talk about itself!” But take care and do not be so quick to dismiss me; do not make a face at me for the waste material I carry. You need to know first that your…

A Journey of Discovery

31 October 2008 | Asli Sancar | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

I first became interested in Ottoman women in the early 1990s when I read a newly published book on the Ottoman harem. Although the book was beautifully illustrated, the text just basically repeated the time-worn sensationalist approach of the Orientalists: women in the harem were exotic, indolent…

Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time

31 October 2008 | Korkut Altay | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

When Karen Armstrong was asked to make a wish as one of the 2008 TED prize winners, she wished for a Charter for Compassion to be crafted by a group of thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions, based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect. She has authored a long list of…

"You alone do we worship..." (Fatiha 1:5)

31 October 2008 | Hikmet Isik | Issue 66 (November - December 2008)

O Lord! I am determined that I will not sacrifice my freedom to anyone but You and I will not fall in humiliation before anyone or anything. I turn to You fully intent on servanthood and worship; my eyes are fixed upon You and no other. I am filled with a desire for submission and prayer. Resolute…

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