Issue 13 (January - March 1996)

The line of struggle followed by the righteous people to whom God promised the future of the world may be summed up in two words: action and thought. In fact, the way to true existence is action and t hought, and likewise the way to renewal, individual and collective. It may even be said that every…

Who sends down rain from the sky in due measure-and We raise to life therewith a dead land; even so will you be raised [from the dead]. (Zukhruf,43.11) A person living fifty years ago would have found nothing extraordinary in this verse. Yet it is, read in the light of what we know now of atmosph…

Ibn Rushd was one of the greatest intellectual geniuses in human history. He was acquainted with all the sciences of his time and an authority in several of them-philosophy, jurisprudence, astronomy, and medicine. He became known in Europe under the name of Averroes, in particular for his brilliant…

Sociology is the study of events, trends and relationships in human societies. Through such study we learn the principles that societies are based upon, how they develop and which factors strengthen or weaken them. The Qur’an, which contains the Divine guidance necessary for humankind, gives the s…

Bringing up children successfully means caring for them so that they grow up to be independent, responsible human beings. That entails training them-as much through example as through precept-in a rounded and balanced way which pays due attention to all aspects of their physical as well as moral we…

Human beings have always lived with troubles and hardships. It is the kind of troubles they face that changes, not the fact that they face them. Therefore, people in every age have looked for relief and deliverance. For all the material comforts that some people enjoy in this age, their need for de…

In all biological systems, the organism of the future is encoded in the macro molecular structure of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid). It is this molecular architecture, present in every cell, that determines all the characteristics of an organism. Genetics is commonly taken to refer to a part of biolo…

‘O Mary! God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name is the Messiah [Christ] Jesus son of Mary, honoured in this world and in the Hereafter, and among those nearest [to God]. (Al ‘Imran, 3.42-45) Mary, the mother of Jesus belonged to the family of ‘Imran, one of the noble lineages ment…

Drops of rain,as if smiles from the worlds beyond, Travel here and there seeking the seas they parted from. They fall with the sound of plucked lute-strings; And hearing it, the earth begins to breathe. Drops of rain float down with the grace of butterflies, As if arranging some meaning in mos…

Alcohol has been used since antiquity for many purposes including real and imagined benefits: ‘As a social lubricant, aperitif and mild “anaesthetic” it holds pride of place; as a drug of addiction, a physical poison and a community evil it has no equal’(Brunt, 1978, pp.124-35). The greatest part o…

All living creatures are formed out of the same elements. You were completely unknown to the whole world nine months before your birth. Like everybody else from the time of Adam and Eve you were an object-fluid semen in the veins of your father and an ovum in the ovary of your mother. Both-the flui…

The dramatic growth in the number of elderly people is one of the most remarkable features of industrial societies in this century. People are living longer and enjoying an increased expectation of life. In Britain since 1900 the percentage of the population over retirement age has gone up from aro…

How can we answer those who attribute the origin of existence to nature or the laws of nature or to matter or to chance or necessity? False arguments about the origin of existence Mediaeval European conceptions about the nature and existence of the universe were strongly underpinned by the author…

Science is still unable to explain what life really is. This world is the arena where God manifests His Will from behind the veil of what we experience and describe as ‘natural causes’, but life is the result of the direct manifestation of His Name, the Ever-Living. So, as long as science insists o…

As he walked through the park to the hospital, he observed with special pleasure how the morning sunlight entered through the trees and down into the little petals of flowers. He was going to the hospital for an operation and walked slowly, aware of his pain. The thought naturally occurred to him…

Any large natural history museum in any Western city that has one must have an exhibit of man’s supposed descent from ape-like ancestors. And every biology schoolroom will have at least a wall-poster teaching the same thing. No other scientific hypothesis is so widely or so consistently designed to…