Issue 42 (April - June 2003)

Despite our best hopes, it seems that the new millennium will bear many resemblances to the one that just ended: injustice, poverty, personal and corporate greed, runaway development and scientific progress for its own sake, and a widely shared unease. Governments pursue their own agendas, scarce f…

We use prayer to turn to the Eternally Merciful God, present ourselves to Him, and ask Him to meet all of our needs. We entreat Him humbly and submissively, fully aware of our status as weak, poor, and needy servants who are not self-subsistent. Thus prayer is a necessity arising from our belief, t…

Introduction In his Models of My Life, social scientist Herbert Simon stated that science's purpose is to find meaningful simplicity in the midst of disorderly complexity. Although the systems in nature and society seem to be very complex, we need simple theories to understand them. The key to fin…

In the early 1930s, when scientists began to penetrate the very small, they thought that they had found matter's elementary unit, for now they knew that all matter consisted of atoms that, in turn, consisted of protons, neutrons, and electrons. These elementary particles were considered to be matte…

American movies dominate the global film industry. Almost everyone is exposed to these Hollywood clips and movies to some degree. Now that the communication systems are so well developed, the film industry has a great influence upon people. Well aware of this power, governments and institutions exp…

Anyone who has ever seen the movie Dead Poets Society will remember the scene on the first day at school. The English teacher, Prof. Keating (Robin Williams), drags his boys out of the classroom into the hallway and shows them the pictures of graduates who were the legends of the school - those who…

Prophets are the spiritual teachers of humanity. As the people selected by God to deliver His message to humanity, they were exemplary educators and role models. Therefore, teachers and parents should consider their educational methods seriously, for each parent is a natural teacher and role model…

The subject of religious pluralism can provoke a great deal of controversy. One could consider all religious knowledge as relative and, therefore, assert that no religion can claim to have the absolute truth. Or, one could claim that his or her religion or understanding is the only truth. Religious…

This Word presents a brief comparison between the Qur'an's sacred wisdom and human philosophy, a concise summary of the Qur'anic instruction and training for humanity's personal and social life.  First fundamental Differences between the Qur'anic wisdom and human philosophy: A religious, skil…

Introduction The debt that Briffault speaks of is often referred to as though it should be taken for granted: The Arabs only transmitted Greek science and made no contribution to the overall history of Western science. Fortunately, many historians of science no longer hold this view. The Arabs “ u…

The Shape of the Earth Ancient people, considering it very important to determine Earth'shape, derived two important clues from the night skies. According to Aristotle (384-322 bce), these were lunar eclipses and the North Star. Lunar eclipses occur when the sun, Earth, and the moon line up in suc…

Interpreting many events into visual information has become the dominant way of perceiving and learning in many fields: from psychology to chemistry, and from medical science to astronomy and computer science. Given this new reality, the conventional written-based learning and thinking is being con…

In elementary school, we learned about various eras: Prehistoric, Antiquity, Medieval, the Renaissance, and Modernity. But we were not told that these designations, in fact, were relevant only in the West. For example, while analyzing the medieval era, a glaring omission appears: the brilliant flou…

The biological structure of living beings is based on chemical compounds formed by carbon elements bounding to other elements or to themselves. These compounds are named as biological molecules, macromolecules or biopolymers. The elements in these compounds and the three dimensional structure in sp…

Q:What are the differences between the Islamic and the modern scientific points of view on knowledge (ilm)? How does the Qur'an regard knowledge? A: Genuine knowledge (ilm) is a source of infinite light covered with truth, which leads enlightened people toward the righteous path. Modern science is…

David R. Smock (Editor). Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding. (United States Institute of Peace Press: 2002) 150 pages, ISBN 1-929223-35-8.  In our increasingly diverse societies, we interact with people of different faiths. At times, this poses a great challenge: something deeply sacred and tru…