Issue 59 (July - September 2007)

Speech is certainly one of the distinctive qualities of human beings that makes them superior to other animals. We can deduce from the above verse that speech is not only a biological privilege, but a special quality with a preordained role that influences the course of human destiny. Human experie…

The most precious of values inherited from our ancestors, speech does not consist only of clarity of meaning, the sound of words, or the expression of certain intentions. It also gives voice to our thoughts, expresses the music of our feelings, the excitement of our hearts; it is the translator o…

Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that the art and wisdom of small things are easier to make than those which are big in size. Said Nursi reveals how baseless such an assumption is with an example: A book which is written on an atom is more remarkable than a book written using the stars in…

Have you ever wondered why plants are green? K.A. Timiryazev, a prominent Russian scientist, answered this question first in 1888. In his book, The Sun, Life, and Chlorophyll, Timiryazev argued that green is not the color of plants by coincidence, chlorophyll makes plants green. Moreover, Timiryaze…

Rhetoric is traditionally defined in literature as the “verbal art” of speaking and writing effectively. In our daily life people perceive a rhetorician as a skilled person who can convince an audience with their ability to talk eloquently, for example political or religious leaders. The rhetorical…

27, black, living in South Africa, and HIV positive; this is no longer a shocking matter. It has become like getting flu, only deadlier. I never thought I’d make it. But one thing that kept me going was the thought of leaving my 10 year old little girl behind. I just couldn’t bear that thought...”…

Abstract, rational inquiry does not permit a combination between philosophy and religious wisdom1 and rules that such is impossible. Actual reality does not support such a combination either. Said Nursi (d. 1960) lived through a socio-political upheaval that shook history and undermined society wit…

Tafakkur literally means to think on a subject deeply, systematically, and in great detail. In this context, it signifies reflection, which is the heart’s lamp, the soul’s food, the spirit of knowledge, and the essence and light of the Islamic way of life. Reflection is the light in the heart that…

Many of us either heard about or read Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. The hero of the story sets out on a journey that will take him to several planets on which he meets people who are representative of different characters. The purpose of his journey is to make new friends and to fi…

The value of the iron (or any other material) from which a work of art is made differs from the value of the art expressed in it. Sometimes they may have the same value, or the art’s worth may be far more than its material, or vice versa. An antique may fetch a million dollars, while its material i…

How sad, how poor; we are eaten up by the chase. Hurtled all around, we sob and rustle As if we resemble winnowed leaves Since life path tramples our heart castle. Wondering the yonder of the shades “Let bygones be bygones” no longer holds true. Why autumn evermore betrays lovers Dispersing…

Cleanliness is virtue shared by all people and societies. Physical cleanliness and moral purity are highly encouraged by religions, particularly before the commencement of religious ceremonies, suggesting the existence of a possible psychological relationship between physical cleanliness and moral…

One day an optometrist was talking to his profoundly-blind patient about the possibility of an eye implant that would give him 16 (4x4) pixels of visual information. The patient then told the doctor “Sometimes I just need one pixel; I want to see whether the light is on or off.” Human beings are v…

There are not many scholars interested in Islamic philosophy and theology in the West. Despite this fact, there has been an increasing interest in that area among young scholars. One of the factors behind this increase is the efforts of some people who try to introduce Islamic and Eastern thought t…

Question: Materialism, upon which Marxism is based, alleges that the idea of God was derived from the ignorance of ancient men and suggested that the existence of God is not scientifically provable. What would you say? Materialism, first of all, is not an ideology peculiar to Karl Marx alone. It i…