Issue 124 (July - Aug 2018)

Thus far in time, and across different parts of the world, we have witnessed desires to realize a great many disparate notions of freedom, fraternity, and equality represented through differing philosophies, movements and currents. We have heard various proclamations in relation to these ideas, and…

Happy start Your blood type is one of the least important matters in your life unless you are in a medical situation where blood transfusion is needed. It also matters when you decide to have a baby. This is when your doctor says, “Let’s see what your blood tells us about your pregnancy and child…

Trauma and memory being the strange things they are, a part of me will always be there. A part of me will always be frozen in time, still a young twentysomething with her heart in her throat on a Beirut summer night, that day in 2005, when the world – my world – ended.

80 miles. 80 long, traffic-filled miles ahead of me. Breathe. Yes. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. This isn't working. The call that I have been dreading for over ten years has come. “Andrew is dying. We don't know how much longer he has. Get here as quickly as you can.” Was it my mother or my si…

After watching my father battle a severe mental illness, threaten my family members, and assault a family friend, I called the police on him. It was 11 p.m., the night before Easter. Though most of the members of my family had restraining orders against my father, they all went to bed afraid he mi…

Hay and Su had been hungry for almost a week. Spring was in full bloom, and birds were chirping. Living in a cave was safer and warmer than outside, especially during the long winters. However, the food stock they had was almost finished. As the sun rose higher, the hunter-gatherer couple left thei…

Discovery In 1963, a team of American and Turkish archeologists surveyed Southeast Turkey, looking for sites of archeological importance. Eight miles from the city of Sanliurfa, they climbed a hill called Göbekli Tepe. They found tools from the Stone Age in the nearby area, and they found carved s…

Many western readers are unfamiliar with Bediüzzaman Said Nursi, an Islamic scholar who wrote mostly in the first half of the twentieth century. Those few who are familiar with Nursi – who know that he was routinely persecuted by the nascent government of the Turkish republic or that he inspired h…

Meaning coloring, taking on a color, painting, and presenting different views, talwin (coloring) in the Sufi language is an important degree belonging to those who continuously seek to change their states for higher ones and to gain stability in the ranks they reach during their journey through act…

For hundreds of years, people believed that the sun rotated around the Earth. Similarly, people have misbelieved that the reason for photosynthesis was to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen for humans to use. This is a common misinterpretation. So, have your teachers been wrongly teaching that photo…

A group of friends are out in the city, shopping. While they are walking down a crowded sidewalk, they hear a siren. That siren is a warning of an attack. People begin to run and scream when the friends hear a loud sound and see a bright flash. They can hear multiple explosions far away. Everyone s…

Many atheists suggest that if God exists, there should not be evil, since God, by definition, is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent. Therefore, atheists conclude that the existence of evil actually refutes the theists’ argument for the existence of a benevolent God. But is it a legitimate poin…

Magnetic wire could allow early cancer detection Vermesh O. et al. An intravascular magnetic wire for the high-throughput retrieval of circulating tumor cells in vivo. Nature Biomedical Engineering July 2018 A new study showed that a magnetic wire can be used to detect hard-to-capture tumor c…

One morning, an office friend gets my attention and asks, “Have I (ever) given you this book?” The face on the well-designed cover is familiar. It is that of a thoughtful Fethullah Gülen. My mind flies to Turkey, Gülen’s home country, and then to the state of Pennsylvania, where Gülen has been liv…

Question: Why are forgiveness, generosity, chastity, and speaking up for truth said to be the four virtues very difficult to accomplish? The following is related in Al-Munabbihat (The Counsel) with reference to Ali ibn Abi Talib, may God be pleased with him: “The following four virtues are the mos…