Assalamu ‘Alaikum waRahmatullahi waBarakatuh ,

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Laa ilaaha illallahu Wallahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Wa lillahil Hamd.

Wishing you a happy Eid…

كل عام و أنتم بخير

The Real Meaning of Religious Services

Three things are searched for in religious services: cause, important matter, real meaning.

Causes are related to the reasons of services, importantmatters are related to their benefits, and realmeanings are related with their purposes.

There can be no religious service without a real

meaning, because:

1. Allah does not get occupied with futility. The Koran says in this regard: “Or do you think that we created you in devoid of meaning and purpose? 23:115 A remuneration of futile in the Koran is “superstitious”. “They think about the creation of the skies and ground and they say: Our Lord you did not create these without meaning and purpose.” He has created everything with prerogative (righteously). To create something with prerogative is to create on the construction of a meaning and a purpose.

2. Services become services because of intentions. Intention is a state of consciousness. Consequently intention adds purposefulness and meaningfulness to services. No mention of intention can be made in a place of meaninglessness and purposelessness. This is valid for the sacrifice service. Intention designates the “real purpose” of a service.

Real meanings are sometimes confused with nuisances and sometimes they are confused with important matters. However reasons arerelated with purposes. Because reasoning is to “conclude” by way of judgment or it is to “adjudicate”. A reading oriented on the verses which say that books and hidden causes were given to prophets makes us reach the definition of “a reasoning that will put the book to life”. The reason for a service is to “connect” it somewhere. In other words it is to discover its meaning and purpose. It is to determine the part it plays in the realization of man. Maybe it is to determine where a human being is connected or to determine where it connects a human being. The reasons of religious services can be known sometimes with the open and constructive guidance of the dogmas commanding them and by way of circumstance presumption and sometimes by way of reasoning and induction. The hidden reason of the sacrifice service is contained in the verses 36 and 37 of the Pilgrimage section of the Koran which is the only part in the Koran explaining the purpose of Sacrifice.

The Hidden Reason of The Sacrifice service: The secret of exhibition

“And as for the sacrifice of animals; we rendered it a service for you as one of the tokens of Allah which contains many beneficences: therefore, call out the name of Allah when you sacrifice the animals that are made to kneel down in rows (by having one of its forelegs tied); and when finally their side touches the ground; you can now eat of it too, and have all the people who expresses or who does not express their needs eat from it:

That is the way this is; for we have rendered them conquered for you, it is hoped that you express gratitude.

Neither their meat nor their blood reaches Allah; but what reaches him from you is only the deep consciousness of responsibility you express towards him. Thus, he rendered them conquered for you so that you can properly appreciate the greatness of Allah because he has shown you the way; and (oh ye Prophet) herald the good (with his assent).” (Pilgrimage, 36-37)

These verses show that we should search the hidden reason of the sacrifice not in its physical features like it meat and blood but in its spiritual extent.

There are two expressions in these two verses making it easier for us to find the hidden reason for the sacrifice: This sentence which is at the end of the 36th verse: “Kezalike sahharnaha lekum leallekum teşkurun”. And this sentence which is in the middle of the 37th verse: “Kezalike sahharaha lekum”.

Conquest is the secret of man to be on post and demonstrates his miraculous nature among the created. The “lam” in the conquest verses describes “being rendered at the disposal of man” or “being created in accordance with a code with the purpose of serving man”. If we express with a borrowed template: the rendering of something as conquered for man, is the writing of “reserved for serving to human beings” by Allah on it. According to the Koran: he has rendered conquered the rivers, stars, the sun and the moon, the night and the day, the seas, everything found on the ground and in the sky, birds and clouds. The animals that are sacrificed are also among those that are rendered conquered. The hidden reason of the sacrifice lies in the implicit expression with the indication name “kezalike”; “we legislated the slaughtering of sacrificial animals in order to declare that we rendered it conquered”.

Enamoring: Hierarchy of Existence

The Koran has intended to dry one of the fundamental sources of polytheism by reminding of enamoring. For Allah has forbidden polytheism, not because it is harmful for himself but because it is harmful for man. Polytheism is the self exhaustion of man who was created as a subject by embodying himself against commodity. And every polytheism is realized as a result of man forgetting his place in the hierarchy of divinecreation.

All the warnings in the Koran related with enamoring had a common purpose: That existence had a hierarchy and that man had to respect this divine hierarchy. The hierarchy of existence is called “meratibu’l-vücud” in the literature of Islam.

Thinking that there is no hierarchy in existence is nothing other than suggesting the subsistence of an accidental Creator. Other than the fact that such a materialist approach ends up with moral nihilism, it is a fact that it will be concluded with man not knowing his own value-boundary and consequently exhaustion of man and mankind. The fact that the Koran mentions the “ahseniyet” (being the most beautiful) and the “ekremiyet” (more noble) of man, connotes the existence of degrees in the divine creation unquestionably from a dictionary standpoint.

Each time man impairs the hierarchy of existence, he brings trouble on himself. Disrespect for the hierarchy of existence lies in the foundation of all diversions that result with the invention of fake divinities.

The hierarchy of existence is the secret of conquest.

Let us take a look at the elements that are decreed to have been rendered enslaved: Stars, the sun, the moon, oceans, rivers, night, day and animals.

Some of these are entities before which mankind feels helpless, and this helplessness is gradually converted into fear, the fear is converted into glorification, glorification into blessing and blessing is converted into worship. Ancient people who ascribe deity to the sun, the moon, the stars, the sea, the river and who worship them must be mentioned in this context. For instance the “Sun God” of the ancient Egyptians, the Sumerian “moon goddess”, star worshipping Urartians, Egyptians attributing divinity to the river Nile are first hand examples that come to mind.

These invented fake divinities, were transformed into murder most of the time in history.For instance the sacrifice of a virgin girl to the Nile is only one example of that.

Let us consider “the night” which is again rendered enslaved. The people of the ignorance period had begun to envision the night as some kind of “evil deity”. According to them all troubles came in the night time. The Koran repeatedly swears on the night in order to break down the ignorant night envisioning. Swearing on the night is nothing but the enunciation of the fact that the night is also under the command of Allah.

Birds representing wild animals among the elements that are decreed to be rendered enslaved, sacrificial animals representing the domestic ones were being promoted to divinity at the end of the process which began with the feeling of gratitude of man. Let us remember that most of the totems and cults in animistic and pagan communities are symbols of wild or domestic animals.

Your Cow Becomes Your God When The Hierarchy of Existence is Corrupted

We learn from the Kitabu’l-Asnam of Kelbi, that yegus which is one of the five graven images mentioned in the verses 21-23 of the Noah sura, is a “lion” figure, and ye’uk is a “horse” figure and nesr is an “eagle” figure. These were the graven images of Beni Gatif, of Hemedan and Himyerians.

And what about Kureys? What about the camel which is the most indispensable animal of the region? Why can’t we see it as a graven image?

We are going to have to read the 103rd verse of the Maide sura for the answer of this question:

“Neither bahira and saibe, nor vasile and ham are orders of Allah. But those who insist in

denying the truth asperse Allah. For most of them do not use their heads.”

The ignorance people called camels that give birth 5 times in a row as bahira, devotional camels as saibe, sheep that gives birth to both male and female offspring as vasile, male camels out of whose spawn ten generations of offspring is obtained as ham and the set these free after making a mark on them. They did not ride such animals; they did not eat them and drink their milk. This application made with a kind of gratitude feeling was the invention of a fake divinity. This display of fake divinity and religiousness was nothing but the consternation of thanking the bread instead of thanking the owner of the bread. This application was also a torment for the animal too. Because that camel was to become the “camel of Allah” and they did not give it neither feed nor water.

Actually the “camel” which occupies a central position in the destruction tale of the Semud people, demonstrated that there was the breach of the hierarchy of existence lies in the foundation of the process that lead these people to destruction. The expression “the camel of Allah” is used in the Koran for this camel. This is actually the same with the expressions of “the stave of Allah” and “the submission of Allah”. In other words it describes “public property”. They have probably firstly invented a fake divinity which corrupts the hierarchy of existence, and have begrudged the water of Allah to the camel of Allah which they declared to be “sacred”, and this deed lead them to destruction.

The most typical example of corrupting the hierarchy of existence is ancient Egypt.

The Apis cult in the ancient Egypt occupies a central position in the religion of Egypt. The apis ox is sacred because it tills the soil. The cow (Hotor) which is the category under it is a deity which has a subordinate. As a result of corrupting the hierarchy of existence, oxen and cows have started to rule a whole country. Such that: the Apis priests have only one duty: to observe the sacred oxen and cows in the Apis temples and to interpret their tail shakes, ear bending, moo hoots. This way the whole country was going into war with the tail and ear movements of oxen and cows or not going into it with the same and it was determined whether people were guilt or not. The oxen and cows played the number one role in the estimation of whether that year will be a drought year or not.

A similar envisagement appeared in the Israelites. Moses had left the Israelites alone in order

to receive revelations. Samiri took advantage of this and produced a calf statue out of the consignation

gold of the Egyptians. The calf was a subordinate of the God Hotor of the Egyptians.

This is the most typical example of where the process of corrupting the hierarchy of existence

leads. With the striking description of Meric: Playing the part of the stupid girl who falls in love

with the bully who rapes her. That is falling in love with the enemy and worshipping his god.

They were possessed with such a feeling of inferiority that they could not deem themselves

worthy of worshipping the oxen even the cow worshipped by the Egyptians who carried out

genocide on them and had to suffice with the worship of the offspring of the cow, namely

the calf. This demonstrated a social feeling of inferiority. This is a bedazzlement that prefers

onions and garlic to freedom and justice. “Again, you once said that: ‘Oh ye Moses, we are

fed up with one type of food, pray to your Lord so that he gives us of the different products of

the world such as vegetables, gherkin, garlic, lentil, onions. He replied: are you exchanging

the benevolent one with the one that is worthless and inferior? Go back to Egypt all of the

things you want are waiting for you there.”

This is nothing other than becoming “ignominious monkeys” with the description of the Koran.

Sacrifice: So That Your Cow does not Become Your God

The hidden reason of sacrifice can be summarized as the following after all the explanations: The sacrifice service is a symbol service letting man know the importance of the hierarchy of existence. The “ENAMOURING” that is mentioned twice in the verses 36 and 37 of the pilgrimage sura is nothing other than the hierarchy of existence, that is the grading of the subsistence.

The sacrifice represents not only the approaching of the vassal to Allah but also his approach to his own genuine essence in addition to the entities surrounding him.

The sacrifice is the tacit implication of the promise “My Allah, I will not corrupt the hierarch

you have set down for subsistence”.

Sacrificing is to accept the right of the creator to determine the place and rank of his creations

and to observe that right. It is to regard disobedience to this as persecution to the created. The

modern mind which conceives not this, but making sacrifices as persecution and violence evokes

the emotional state of Hitler who cried for the death of his dog as he watched the death of

millions with laughter.

When tenderness is poisoned, it poisons. Poisoned tenderness is not tenderness but it is persecution.

There is no need to go to India in order to see the consequences of corrupting the hierarchy of existence.

Homage to the one who created necessitates homage to the hierarchy he set down.

Quotation.

An e-cart for sharing eid happiness:

http://iloveislam.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/kurban-bayrami-22.jpg

]]> http://iloveislam.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/philosophy-of-sacrifice/feed/ 3 - kurban-bayrami-21 kurban-bayrami-22 http://iloveislam.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/islam-has-not-insulted-the-woman-but-you-have-insulted-motherhood/ http://iloveislam.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/islam-has-not-insulted-the-woman-but-you-have-insulted-motherhood/#comments Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:33:17 +0000 Nur Meryem Seja http://iloveislam.wordpress.com/?p=23 ]]>

Is it a mere coincidence that someone comes and claims that Islâm has insulted the woman? The issue is in some way related to motherhood. How’s that? Once you look into the motives of the ‘modern’ gentlemen or ladies who claim that Islâm has insulted the woman, you will see how badly they have insulted the motherhood. This is their mid-point.

They employ many a technique of insulting the motherhood. Among these first comes treating mothers, who do the most honourable job in the world, as “jobless” women. In their opinion, one has to leave home in order to be working. One has to see the street and let the street see oneself. So that a woman counts as “being working”, it is made a condition for her to show herself to the public. She is required to do work from 8 o’clock in the morning till 9 o’clock in the evening (because the woman is a cheap labour force).

There are also other things that are necessary for these: They are the things which are stipulated by the modern visibility. It is absolutely impossible for one to go to work wearing the same clothes, having the same hair colour, in the same shoes and with the same handbag everyday! It is necessary to become renewed, to adapt one’s colour. It is required to have a dress suited to one’s hair, shoes suited to the dress, a handbag suited to the shoes, a wallet suited to the handbag and a mobile phone suited to it.

As for the items that are out of fashion, they have to be replaced. That’s why one has to follow the fashion. In brief one has to become oil in the production-consumption’s wheels and become flour in the production-consumption’s mill.

One has to work for all of these. How can one gain the resources to meet these expenses unless one works? If this too is not sufficient, one has to gain more and more. If it is not possible to gain more without spending more, one has to spend more. If it is not possible to gain more and more without showing oneself, one has to show oneself more. If it is necessary to attract more attention in order to show oneself more, one has to do so. If it is necessary to spend more than everybody else in order to do it, one has to do so. And, in order to spend more than everybody else, one has to gain more than everybody else.

Which was necessary for which? I got confused about it…

That which is done by a woman without leaving her home and doing regular paid work outside is not “work”. It is regarded as an “inability” and treated with contempt even by a loose woman curling her lip and saying ‘she is just a housewife’. The modern think that being a housewife, i.e. being a woman who looks after her home is a job which should be treated with disdain. Being a businesswoman is liked more. Being a streetwalker is even liked more than the other.

In the eyes of the modern, she plays duck and drakes (!) with her husband’s money. Is it her boss’s money? Or is it her superior’s scolding? Is it the unpleasant smell coming from the mouth of this and that man? Is it the humiliating condition endured in overcrowded buses and minibuses on the way to and from work? Well, they are part of the job, one would say. She is supposed to depend on anything else but not to make use of her husband’s earnings. She is supposed to receive a scolding from anyone whether it is the superior, foreman or boss, but not from her husband. Even a remark made by a street yahoo or a market macho lout is considered less harmful…

When talking about housewives, the first thing they would say is ‘Ugh! She is not free (!).’ In their opinion, they are themselves free even if they get told off for leaving work half an hour earlier. They are free in spite of the strict control applied at work. They are free even though when asked, ‘Are you available tomorrow?’ they say, ‘I’ll be at work and I return home very tired.’ But, they would say, ‘a housewife is almost a captive, my dear…’

But she is a mother, she has children. In other words, she is doing the most worthy, the most noble and the most glorious job in the world. That is to say she is bringing up a human being. Children cannot grow in the street. They grow at home.

Even so, she is still an unemployed woman. Motherhood doesn’t count as work. According to the modern, motherhood counts as unemployment. Motherhood is regarded as drudgery. And what is comic about it: To work at sectors established for looking after other people’s children is considered as “work”, whereby the woman working there is considered as “a working and producing woman”, but to look after one’s own child doesn’t isn’t considered as “work”. The following happens when one of the modern by accident becomes a mother: the father goes to work, the mother goes to work, the child goes to a day nursery, the home is boarding-house, and the family are boarders…

What comes next is the dilemma “a baby or a dog,” as it is common in France, Germany and Holland. Dogs are becoming more adorable than children to a modern woman. First of all, it doesn’t deform the body… Of course: It is necessary to see that these are the facts of the selfish modernity.

But there is a small problem: The dog must necessarily be small; as small as to be taken on one’s lap and to be loved. After all, she is a woman. She is born with the instinct to take a living being in her lap and to love it. It can’t be helped. She will love. Well, couldn’t she love a baby rather than a dog? When we compare the figures of babies and dogs in Europe (I know that they are not quiet comparable with each other, bur try to understand), we receive the following answer: No, not by any manner of means! (The number of registered dogs in Germany nearly equals its population.)

All right, but a dog is as expensive as a baby.

Even so! One should not take notice of such small faults.

Even if she happens to have given birth to a child, she has not loved motherhood and has not been a loving mother to her child (At the same time, there are also those who mother marvellously even though they haven’t had a childbirth). Since she hasn’t been a loving mother she hasn’t developed her feelings, hasn’t broadened her horizons, hasn’t acquired experience and her wisdom is zero. Yet, it doesn’t matter to her; she has a dog and also a job with working hours. She regards herself to be in a position to put on airs before all mothers.

And this is what I am writing here: Islâm, that has spread Paradise under the mothers’ feet, has not insulted the woman. But the modern ones who only believe in the life of this world and who seek Paradise in this world insult the motherhood in a cool-blooded manner. What’s more, they are so despite the fact that each of them was born to a mother.

How shameful! How impudent! How silly!

Quotation.

This is the title of a book I am slowly working on. This work prioritizes a stylistically critical approach to analyzing Siyar [works having as their subject the biography of the Prophet (SAWS)], Maghazi [works about the holy wars conducted for Islâm], Shamail [works depicting the character, good manners and looks of the Holy Prophet (SAWS)], Hilya [works illustrating the outward appearance, virtues and beautiful qualities of the Holy Prophet (SAWS)], Mujizat [works describing the miracles showed by the Prophets (AS)], and Hasais [works informing about the characteristics of the Prophet (SAWS)] which are each evaluated as an independent discipline by classical writers but which are all a part of the literature dealing with the life or an aspect of the life of the Holy Prophet (SAWS).

You may ask “Who are the three Muhammad?” Let me enumerate as follows:

1. Muhammad (SAWS) that is excluded from the life by being treated as a superhuman or an angel.

2. Muhammad (SAWS) that is perceived at the level of a postman between ALLÂH (SWT) and man, as if performing the function of “a connecting cable.”

3. Muhammad (SAWS) that is unlike and opposite to these; that is such as introduced by the Noble Qur’ân as an example of the morals set in it.

Besides this category, some Islamic disciplines also have one-sided ways of understanding the Holy Prophet (SAWS):

1. Understanding the Prophet (SAWS) as somebody indefatigably speaking, whose life consisting of nothing but talking.

2. The Sufis’ perceiving the Prophet (SAWS) as somebody who is a little secluded, a little elitist, a little bit delirious, but always sunk in ‘mystery’ and necessarily ‘extraordinary’.

3. Islâmic jurisprudence scholars’ perceiving the Prophet (SAWS) as somebody constantly setting rules, drawing legal rules even from most humane situations, giving an impression that he (SAWS) has come to life merely to code the life or whose every state ought to be regarded as ‘codification equipment’.

And it is necessary to mention ‘the example-setting mission’, which nearly disappears amid all of these different approaches and perceptions.

And also, how could one copy that example?

“But, doesn’t the Noble Qur’ân show him (SAWS) as an example of moral behaviour,” you will say.

You are definitely right. As a matter of fact, it is only possible to present somebody as example if the object of example ‘can be produced’. The Noble Qur’ân would not show as example a person that isn’t worthy of being copied. If the Noble Qur’ân has shown a person as example, it comes to mean that “the shown example” in particular fields can be produced again by people and carried into any time and any place.

People cannot copy a Prophet whose voice is the most stentorian of all, who is the tallest in stature, whose body smells of musky scent, whose minor ritual ablution is healing and whose major ritual ablution is purification, whose manhood is equal to forty men’s strength. The aim of such a perception of a Prophet is not to “show example”; but only to provoke whistles and to exile the Holy Prophet (SAWS) to a height (!) that is beyond humans’ reach.

Those having such a perception will “admire” but they will not “copy”; Perhaps they say “May I be sacrificed for him (SAWS)!” but they cannot “carry into their lives”. As a matter of fact, such a perception of the Prophet (SAWS) can only be suitable for dying for its sake, but not for living and reviving by carrying it like the water of life into dead ages.

The counter-deviation, which had grown up as a reaction to the above overdoing attitude, lowers his (SAWS) merit and dares to separate him (SAWS) from the Divine Revelation. This deviation suggests that one should pretend not to see the source of religion in life under the name of hanging on to the source of religion in scriptures by ignoring the law that there can be no Divine Revelation without a Prophet. The movement known these days as “Qur’ânism”, that began with those who strayed from Sunnah and reached systematic discourses through the Indian-Islâm Modernism, are the advocates of this very error that have appeared for different reasons and in different environments.

In actual fact, these two imbalanced attitudes converge on the same source in terms of their results: excluding the Holy Prophet (SAWS) from life. To put it vulgarly we can also call this result “throwing the ball to sidelines”. One removes the Prophet (SAWS) from life under the attitude of “exalting” whereas another does it under the attitude of “lowering and reducing.” Eventually, the two attitudes lead to one and the same thing.

However, the Noble Qur’ân has prohibited both of these attitudes in advance by emphasizing “the exemplary humanity” of the Holy Prophet (SAWS). This message is implied in the following deathless warning given by the Holy Prophet (SAWS): “Do not treat me as more than a human as they treated Maryam’s Son (AS) as more than a human. I am only a slave. Say: He is ALLÂH’s slave and messenger.”

This statement is a warning to the Ummah “Do not become Christian, do not become Jewish!”

Because the Christians deified their Prophet in the name of exalting him and turned love into murder: It is after his deification that the slave and beautiful messenger of ALLÂH (SWT), Prophet ‘Îsâ (AS) died. He (AS) was murdered by those very ones who deified him. Because man can no more live inside life as an example once he is idolized. As to the Jews, they showed a completely opposite attitude lowering, stoning and murdering their Prophets. What the former did is tantamount to what the latter did.

How wonderfully poet has said:

Muhammadun basharun la ka’l-bashar

Bal huwa ka’l-yakûti bayna’l-hajar

Muhammad is a human, but not an ordinary human

His position is that of a diamond among stones

Muhammad (SAWS) is an eternal symbol of love. The honour of being his (SAWS) Ummah is many times superior to the honour of belonging to all other human communities. Those who bear this honour are not the ones sanctifying and praising him (SAWS) to the skies or excluding him (SAWS) from life by ignoring and shutting him (SAWS) out underground, but are the ones who follow his (SAWS) light, regard life as journey, the world as way, man as wayfarer, faith as provisions and move in the direction shown by him (SAWS).

(16 June 2000)

Quotation.

Eid is an Arabic term meaning “festivity” or “celebration” while fitr means “to break the fast” and can also mean “nature” from the word “fitra.” Eid falls on the first day of Shawwal, the month which follows Ramadan on the Islamic calendar. It is a time to give in charity to those in need and celebrate with family and friends the completion of a month of blessings and joy.

On the first day of eid, Muslims wake up very early and pray the morning prayer. Afterwards, they eat a small meal, a symbolic act that reminds them that Ramadan is over. They then gather in mosques to perform the eid prayer — congregational prayers held for the occasion of eid. The prayer is made up of two cycles and is followed by a sermon. Worshippers greet and hug one another in a spirit of peace and love after the congregational prayer in celebration of one another’s eid. They later scatter to visit their families and friends, give gifts to one another and make phone calls to distant relatives to convey good wishes for the holiday. The eid lasts for three days and is generally an official holiday in Muslim countries.

Muslims around the world share in the great blessing of the tranquil and spiritual eid morning. It is a joyous occasion
with important religious significance, celebrating the increase in piety with which Allah blesses the world during the month of Ramadan. It is a day of forgiveness and moral victory as well as of brotherhood and unity. Muslims celebrate not only the end of fasting, but also thank Allah for the help and strength that he bestowed upon them throughout the month of fasting, during which they endured their fast with not only a physical but also a spiritual asceticism — that is, they have controlled their stomachs, their tongues and their hearts, so they have successfully passed the test of servanthood. It is a time of giving and sharing.

Common greetings during this holiday are the Arabic greeting “Eid Mubarak,” (May your eid be blessed). Turks and Muslims living in areas where the Ottoman presence heavily influenced local customs say “Bayramın Mübarek Olsun” during eid, also meaning “May your eid be blessed.”

Muslims put on their best clothes, called “bayramlık” in Turkey, often purchased just for the occasion. They visit loved ones and pay their respects to the deceased in cemeteries.

Young ones kiss the right hand of the elderly and press it to their forehead as a gesture of respect. Children go around their neighborhood to wish everyone a happy eid and collect candy and chocolate. Guests are offered eau de cologne and traditional sweets such as baklava and lokum (Turkish delight). Young visitors are generally offered a small amount of money.

Television and radio stations broadcast a variety of special eid programs, which include movie specials, musical programs and celebratory addresses from celebrities and politicians.

Candy store owners and patisseries wait for eid with great expectations as the festivity brings with it an increase in sales and, therefore, rising profits. They begin preparing months before the occasion and try to attract customers with colorful and delicious delicacies.

The exact day on which eid falls depends on the sighting of the new moon — the hilal, which is only visible just after sunset. Muslims look for the hilal to determine the beginning and end of Islamic months.

Many Muslim countries around the world have hilal-sighting committees that declare the beginning and end of the months. Hilal sighting was recommended by the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him). The following are some sayings (hadith) of the Prophet on the subject of sighting the new moon: “Do not fast until you see the new moon and do not break the fast until you see it.” “Whenever you see the new moon [of Ramadan], observe the fast. And when you see the new moon of Shawwal, break it. If [due to clouds] the actual position of the moon is concealed from you, you should then observe the fast for 30 days.”

Sweet competition between candy, chocolate

Though candy used to top the list of delicacies offered to visitors during Eid al-Fitr, chocolate seems to have dethroned it in the last couple of years.

Şebnem Nasi, the general manager of the Ülker Chocolate marketing department, stated that there is stiff competition between candy and chocolate in Turkey during eid. “A person consumes around one-and-a-half to two kilograms of chocolate a year. The consumption of candy is more or less the same. Though chocolate consumption was not very common in Turkey in the past due to its high price, it has seen an increase in recent years and is now able to compete with candy consumption,” she said.

Dentists have, however, warned people not to eat too many sweets during Eid al-Fitr as it may lead to tooth decay.

Duran Tekin, a dentist in Kayseri, said consumption of sweets increases considerably during eid. “Sweets may stick to the surface of teeth and easily be turned into acid by bacteria. Frequent consumption of sweets may lead to decay if one does not brush one’s teeth after eating them,” he said.

He noted that if one cannot brush one’s teeth after eating sweets, he should eat a carrot, an apple or a cucumber to reduce the production of acid in the mouth to a minimum. “Hosts should therefore offer one of these to their guests after candy or chocolate,” he said.

Tekin also added even a glass of water helps prevent tooth decay after consuming sweets. “Acidic beverages also contribute to tooth decay. Choose ayran or fruit juice instead of acidic beverages,” he said.

Officials warn drivers to be extra cautious on the road

Officials have warned drivers to be more careful when driving during the eid vacation, saying roads and highways will be more crowded than usual. They noted that the number of casualties in traffic accidents significantly rises during these vacations, calling for greater attention and full compliance with traffic regulations. Drivers are particularly being cautioned to avoid drinking and driving as well as speeding.

Interior Minister Beşir Atalay on Sunday called on everyone to respect traffic rules and not turn the eid into a day of mourning. “All precautions will be taken not to pave the way for accidents. For a more peaceful eid, traffic rules should be abided by,” he said.

Drivers’ chambers released similar warnings, as well. Representatives of drivers’ chambers from various Turkish cities warned drivers to be extra cautious when driving during the eid.

“Drivers should be calm and refrain from speeding and violating traffic rules. If they intend to drive to more distant cities, they should sleep well before getting behind the wheel and fasten their seatbelts. They should absolutely abstain from alcohol before driving and rest at regular intervals,” they said.

30 September 2008, Tuesday

BETÜL AKKAYA

One does not discuss love, one lives and feels it. To discuss love is to speak where there are no more words left. A human can only talk about love. O my dear reader! Read this piece of writing as the one “about love”.

Love is like light, lovelessness is like darkness. Darkness can’t have a source. Darkness is the state when there is no light. But there must always be a source for light. There can be no love without a source as there can be no light without a source.

Allâh (Swt) Is the Source of love. The river of love falls down from Allâh (Swt). For He (Swt) Is Al-Wadûd. The Name Al-Wadûd is in double voice. This voice is characterized by bearing in itself both active and passive forms. So, the Name Al-Wadûd means both “the Most Loving One” and “the Most Loved One”. To put it in other words, this name denotes both “the Ever Loving One” and “the One Wishing to be loved”. That’s the difference distinguishing this Name from others.

Allâh (Swt) Is Ar-Razzâq, “He Provides sustenance”. Allâh Is Al-Khalaq, “He Creates”. Allâh Is Al-Ghaffâr, “He Forgives”. Allâh Is Ar-Rahmân and “ He Has mercy”. These and the like Names are single-sided. But when it comes to the Name Al-Wadûd everything changes. A double-sided relationship begins: both loving and wishing to be loved. Here lies the difference of love.

“A-L-H” is an isolated form of the name Allâh. Only 7 compositions can be obtained by changing the position of these letters. All of these indicate only one meaning: love. His Most Beautiful Names, Al-Asmâ’u'l-Husnâ, are the reflections of His (Swt) Love in the prism of names. The Names Ar-Rahmân and Ar-Rahîm, which are repeatedly recited by Muslims as part of Basmala, show that He (Swt) Is full of love and He Does whatever He Does with love.

Love attributed to Allâh (Swt) is expressed in words “Hubb” and “Wudd”. As for the word “Ashq”, which could also be rendered love in English, it is never used for the Divine Love in the literature dealing with the Noble Qur’ân and Sunnah. Because “Ashq”, which etymologically denotes “ivy” and “gripping and hanging on to the loved one like an ivy”, expresses the human love.

As for Hubb, it means “seed, pip, kernel”. The word Hububat (i.e. cereals) arises from here. It is obvious why love is called “Muhabbah”: Love is the seed of the tree of creation. And the human, who is the noblest fruit of the tree of creation, is the fruit of the seed of love, which bears its own seed in itself.

A fruit proves its faithfulness to its root by love. Human’s love to Allâh (Swt) is like this, too. That’s why it is stipulated by the Divine Revelation that the biggest share in love should be allotted to Allâh: “Those who believe love Allâh (Swt) more than anything”. And the Holy Prophet (Saws) is commanded to say the following: “Say: If you love Allâh (Swt), follow me so that Allâh (Swt) Loves you, too”.

Wudd expresses a special kind of love. This kind of love can only be bestowed. Since it bears an extract from its Giver (Swt), this love is eternal. Read the following Qur’ânic verse: “Ar-Rahmân will bestow (eternal) love (wudd) onto those who believe and do righteous good deeds.” It must be for this very reason that in the first years the Divine Revelation gave its addressees glad tidings of Paradise and threatened them with Hell while in later period, when they matured, the Divine Revelation gave glad tidings and warned by saying “Allâh (Swt) Loves – Allâh (Swt) Does Not Love”. This is indicative of how high a degree is reached by love in the relation between Allâh (Swt) and slave.

There is also fake love as there is a fake of everything. The true love puts in order, spurious love spoils. If at source it is not from Allâh (Swt), it is false love, and the one marketing it is a forger. The love which does not take its origin from the holy is not love but passion. Since love makes itself abundant it makes the human free, but passion arrests and enslaves. Those who call passion love, do the love itself an injustice by supposing the loneliness of two persons to be love.

The modern age has three false gods: power, money and sex. These make up the trinity of the lifestyle based on the belief that there is only the life of this world. Nowadays, the false god of sex is marketed under the name of “love” as part of the operation of global degradation. The holy thing entrusted to us, which we call life, has never been such a plaything in the hands of adulterers and adulteresses as it is now. Libido has never captured the consciousness to such an extent as it has today. The brokers of lust have never had so many clients all together.

The blowing up of sex under the name of “love” is a natural continuation of the global degradation operation. The aim of this operation is to make life senseless and purposeless, that is to say without Allâh (Swt). This is the real terror on which one should declare war. Because it is the terror of morals. This terror poses a threat to the whole human race. Enterprises engaged in marketing adultery under the name of “St. Valentine’s Day” are part of the terror of morls.

A person who cannot say “No” to adultery cannot say “Yes” to love. For adultrery poisons love. Poisoned love causes the human being, who is the most honourable of the creation, to resemble an insect that, after mating, stings and poisons its female. It makes the human being the most disgraceful of the creation, “like animals, even lower than them”, as worded by the Noble Qur’ân. Chastity starts to decay where there is no more privacy left, respect starts to decay where there is no more chastity left, disposition starts to decay where there is no more respect left. And nature starts to decay where there is no more disposition left.

If the nature has decayed, no one can hold that human. No one can set a limit for lust. No one can draw a mark for somebody saying “Amusement is mine, I can do whatever I want”. In the end, it comes to a seventeen-month-old baby. Laments for a seventeen-month-old baby having been a victim of rape expressed by a person who doesn’t say no committing adultery with a seventeen-year-old are similar to “crocodile tears”.

Let everyone bear the following in mind: There is either a limit or there are no limits at all.

Mustafa Islamoglu

Did you know that the Arabic word for mosque is Jami’ and the Arabic for university is Jami’a? A thousand years ago the first universities emerged within mosques where religion and science sat comfortably side by side.

Building on knowledge from Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Chinese and Indian Civilisations, Muslims developed a learning culture where enquiring minds searched for truths based on scientific rigour and experimentation. In almost every field of knowledge, Muslims made new inventions and discoveries with practical outcomes that helped develop society.

Muslim charitable institutions provided the first scholarships to support students.Courses were difficult and medicine was particularly gruelling, and just like in universities today, examinations were long and difficult.

School Zone Highlights

	Explore the unique link between mosques and universities in Islam more than 1000 years ago. As more and more students attended universities, ijazas, or certificates, were awarded to those who graduated. These ijazas could be the origin of the word ‘baccalareus’. Today the International Baccalaureate is a qualification for international students.
	Learn about advances made by Jabir ibn Hayyan’s research in the field of chemistry. Known in the west as Geber, he is considered to be the founder of chemistry due to his enormous contributions to the field.
	Discover the origins of the term chairperson or ‘chair’. Over a thousand years ago, Muslim schools and universities had study circles with groups of students gathered around a professor who was seated on a chair or kursi. It is this notion that evolved into a professional position, the chairperson.

Other School Zone topics:

• house of wisdom
• schools
• universities
• the professor’s chair
• libraries
• mathematics
• calligraphy
• number system
• trigonometry
• conics
• geometry
• geometric patterns
• chemistry
• chemical apparatus
• distillation
• triangulation
• art and the arabesque
• the scribe
• story corner

All of the above mentioned topics and highlights are discussed in much greater detail in our book, 1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World. For more information on how to order your copy, please see the Book section.

Academic Sources
Our historians have spent countless hours verifying the facts presented here. Click here to see a list of references.
Did you know some of the manuscripts mentioned in the references still exist today? Click here to see where these manuscripts are located.

School Zone blogs:

The impact of Muslim learning on the West

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