The 14th Day
THE AYAT AND THE HADITH OF THE DAY |
THE PATIENCE OF BELIEVERS
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HARUN YAHYA
For a believer, the scope of patience is not limited to enduring
difficulties and problems with calmness. In the light of the verse, "You
who believe, be steadfast; be supreme in steadfastness
"
(Surah Al 'Imran, 200), throughout his life, he shows an undeviating commitment
to meticulously fulfilling all the commands of the Qur'an, to avoiding
what is unlawful, to displaying moral perfection in every situation, without
becoming daunted or losing heart. In short, he resolutely shows the patience
and good manners prescribed by the religion. That is because one can develop
these noble character traits only if one makes a steady effort. It is
the people of faith who exhibit patience when making such efforts. As
the Prophet Muhammad (saas) informed Muslims in the following hadith,
they know that patience is a gift for them from Allah:
"No-one can be given a better and more abundant gift
than patience." (Bukhârî and Muslim)
That is why patience permeates the entire life of a man of
faith and manifests itself in all his acts and attitudes. A believer shows
profound patience in compliance with the command of our Lord, "So
be patient with gracious patience." (Surat al-Ma'arij, 5) He
shows patience in humility and becomes the most humble person; he shows
patience in spending for the cause of Allah and becomes the most generous
person; he shows patience in not preferring his own self and becomes the
most self-sacrificing person
The following example in the Qur'an about the patience evinced
in displaying moral perfection will give us a better understanding of
this concept:
A good action and a bad action are not the same.
Requite the bad with something better and, if there is enmity between
you and someone else, he will become like a bosom friend. None will attain
this attribute save those who are truly steadfast. None will attain it
save those who have great good fortune. (Surah Fussilat, 34-35)
As the verse points out, Allah commands man to
respond to an evil act in the best manner possible and stresses that only
those who are patient can be successful in doing so. This example clearly
shows that if moral perfection is to be displayed, it is important to
be patient.
Never feeling frustrated in the face of events that are
seemingly negative is another attribute of a believer. Alternatively,
when he has a blessing bestowed upon him he never becomes spoiled.
An individual can be very generous, self-sacrificing and
very humble at certain times of his life. Or, he may remain strong in
the face of hardships. However, failure to demonstrate these favourable
character traits under certain conditions, and thus having some limits
or weak points, may invalidate one's preceding efforts to conducting oneself
correctly. One must incorporate all these values in one's character. These
qualities must be far from being imitative, fake, shallow or temporary;
they must be components of an established Qur'anic structure. Allah also
states that consistently displayed good values that have become an integral
part of one's character are worthy in Allah's sight: "
But,
in your Lord's sight, right actions which are lasting bring a better reward
and are a better basis for hope of salvation." (Surat al-Kahf,
46)
Patience is one of the most important signs of a believer's
sincerity and efforts to draw near to Allah: one can only show patience
in relation with his sincerity and closeness to Allah. Believers who are
committed to displaying these traits compete with other believers in being
patient. If making a sacrifice is in question, they conduct themselves
most correctly and bring all their material and physical resources into
play. Attention is drawn to this trait in a verse which reads: "
those
who are steadfast in seeking the face of their Lord
" (Surat
ar-Ra'd, 22) Encountering a difficulty, such people turn to Allah without
harbouring any feelings of distress or uncertainty in their hearts. This
was also expressed by our Prophet (saas):
"Wondrous are the believer's affairs. For him there
is good in all his affairs, and this is so only for the believer. When
something pleasing happens to him, he is grateful, and that is good for
him; and when something displeasing happens to him, he is patient, and
that is good for him." (Muslim)
People often misinterpret patience and think of it as "putting
up with something." This is but a distant connotation of patience
experienced and felt by a believer, since "putting up with something"
is an obligatory form of endurance shown in the face of a distressing
and painful situation. The patience shown for the cause of Allah, however,
is not a source of distress, but a great cause of pleasure and happiness.
A man of perfected faith shows patience in order to earn the approval
of Allah, and thus does not become depressed. On the contrary, with the
hope of receiving the blessings and rewards Allah promises in return for
his patience, he derives great pleasure from it. Allah informs us in the
Qur'an that patience is distressing for disbelievers:
Seek help in steadfastness and prayer. But that
is a very hard thing, except for the humble. (Surat al-Baqara, 45)
The patience of a believer is so profound that his patience
and imploration never wavers, even though he cannot eliminate a problem
or attain his wishes until death overtakes him. He knows that Allah keeps
everything under His control and that he will earn great rewards in return
for his patience. For this reason, he is content with Allah no matter
which situations he encounters, he believes in His eternal compassion
and mercy, and puts His trust in Him. If Allah does not answer his call
immediately, he certainly knows a greater goodness and beauty are hidden
in this. He never forgets that Allah answers all prayers and gives an
excellent reward to those who are patient. And His promise is true.
(For further reading see, "The
Perfected Faith " by Harun Yahya.)
WONDERS OF
CREATION FOR THE 14th DAY |
FLIGHT ENGINES: DRAGONFLIES
HARUN YAHYA
The dragonfly has a flawless flying capacity, so much so
that it can stop suddenly and begin to fly in the opposite direction at
whatever speed or in whatever direction it chooses. Moreover, it can hang
in the air in a suitable position to attack its prey. In addition, it
can head towards its prey, making agile turns to do so. These are only
some of the maneuvering skills of the dragonfly that have provided inspiration
for helicopters, the products of today's advanced technology.
The body of the dragonfly has a helical structure wrapped
with a metal covering. The dragonfly, which can have various colors, from
ice blue to maroon, has two pairs of wings on its back, one pair in front
and the other pair to the rear. The wings work in a coordinated way. In
other words, as the two front wings rise, the two wings at the rear descend.
The movement of the wings is accomplished by the movements of two opposite
groups of muscles. One end of the muscles is attached to extensions in
the body in the shape of a lever. While one group of muscles contracts
and causes a pair of wings to rise, the other group of muscles loosens
to the same degree and causes the second pair of wings to fall. In fact,
helicopters that are produced using dragonflies as their model descend
and ascend using the same principle.
The perfect flight of dragonflies is realized by these four
large independent wings carrying its body's weight. This feature enables
the insect to make sudden maneuvers, increase its speed and fly at a speed
that reaches 10 meters (33 feet) per second. 1
The sight capacity of the dragonfly, which can make sudden
maneuvers at very high speeds, is also perfect. The eye of the dragonfly
is considered, in scientific circles, as the finest insect eye in the
world. Each of its eyes contains 30,000 individual lenses. The eyes look
like two hemispheres covering half of its head, and they provide a very
broad field of vision for the insect. With these extraordinary eyes, the
dragonfly can almost see what's happening behind its back. 2
The dragonfly has a perfectly structured individual system.
The slightest deficiency in any one part of these systems will cause the
other systems to become useless. However, all the systems have been created
perfectly and the creature survives by means of this. The unique design
in the dragonfly belongs to Allah. He has the knowledge of all creation.
1) Science et Vie, no.931, p.5
2) http://www.cs.tut.fi/~hirvone2/Dragonfly.html
You can also watch the movie >> Technology
in Nature
You can also read the book >> The
Design in Nature
COLLAPSE OF
THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION DAY BY DAY |
WHY IS THE CLAIM THAT DINOSAURS EVOLVED INTO BIRDS AN UNSCIENTIFIC MYTH?
(2)
HARUN YAHYA
The latest blow to the "birds evolved from dinosaurs"
theory came from a study made on the embryology of ostriches.
Drs. Alan Feduccia and Julie Nowicki of the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill studied a series of live ostrich eggs and,
once again, concluded that, there cannot be an evolutionary link between
birds and dinosaurs. EurekAlert, a scientific portal held by the American
Association for the The Advancement of Science (AAAS), reports the following:
Drs. Alan Feduccia and Julie Nowicki of the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill... opened a series of live ostrich eggs
at various stages of development and found what they believe is proof
that birds could not have descended from dinosaurs...He [Dr. Feduccia]
said. "Beyond what we have just reported, there is the time problem
in that superficially bird-like dinosaurs occurred some 25 million to
80 million years after the earliest known bird, which is 150 million years
old."
"If one views a chicken skeleton and a dinosaur skeleton
through binoculars they appear similar, but close and detailed examination
reveals many differences," Feduccia said. "Theropod dinosaurs,
for example, had curved, serrated teeth, but the earliest birds had straight,
unserrated peg-like teeth. They also had a different method of tooth implantation
and replacement." 1
With the collapse of evolutionists' claims regarding fossils
like Archaeopteryx, they are now at a complete dead-end as regards the
origin of birds. That is why some evolutionists have had to resort to
classical methods-forgery. In the 1990s, the public were several times
given the message that "a half-dinosaur, half-bird fossil has been
found." The evolutionist media carried pictures of these so-called
"dino-birds" and an international campaign was thus set in motion.
However, it soon began to emerge that the campaign was based on contradiction
and forgery.
A Sinosauropteryx fossil. |
The first hero of the campaign was a dinosaur called Sinosauropteryx,
discovered in China in 1996. The fossil was presented to the whole world
as a "feathered dinosaur," and made a number of headlines. However,
detailed analyses in the months that followed revealed that the structures
which evolutionists had excitedly portrayed as "bird feathers"
were actually nothing of the kind.
This was how the matter was presented in an article called
"Plucking the Feathered Dinosaur" in the journal Science:
...The Sinosauropteryx specimen from the Yixian
Formation in China made the front page of The New York Times, and was
viewed by some as confirming the dinosaurian origins of birds. But at
this year's vertebrate paleontology meeting in Chicago late last month,
the verdict was a bit different: The structures are not modern feathers,
say the roughly half-dozen Western paleontologists who have seen the specimens
paleontologist
Larry Martin of Kansas University, Lawrence, thinks the structures are
frayed collagenous fibers beneath the skin--and so have nothing to
do with birds. 2
Another "dino-bird" storm blew up in 1999. Another
fossil discovered in China was presented to the world as "major evidence
for evolution." National Geographic magazine, the source of
the campaign, drew and published imaginary "feathered dinosaur"
pictures inspired by the fossil, and these hit the headlines in a number
of countries. This species, which was said to have lived 125 million years
ago, was immediately given the scientific name Archaeoraptor
liaoningensis.
THE DINOSAUR DECEPTION IN THE EVOLUTIONIST
MEDIA…
National Geographic magazine portrayed "dino-birds"
in this way in 1999, and presented them to the whole world as evidence
of evolution. Two years later, however, the source of inspiration
for these drawings, Archaeoraptor, was shown to be a scientific falsehood.
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However, the fossil was a fake and was skilfully constructed
from five separate specimens. A group of researchers, among whom were
also three paleontologists, proved the forgery one year later with the
help of X-ray computed tomography. The dino-bird was actually the product
of a Chinese evolutionist. Chinese amateurs formed the dino-bird by using
glue and cement from 88 bones and stones. Research suggests that Archaeoraptor
was built from the front part of the skeleton of an ancient bird, and
that its body and tail included bones from four different specimens. An
article in the scientific journal Nature describes the forgery
like this:
The Archaeoraptor fossil was announced
as a 'missing link' and purported to be possibly the best evidence since
Archaeopteryx that birds did, in fact, evolve from certain types of carnivorous
dinosaur. But Archaeoraptor was revealed to be a forgery in which
bones of a primitive bird and a non-flying dromaeosaurid dinosaur had
been combined
The Archaeoraptor specimen, which was reportedly
collected from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, was
smuggled out of China and later sold in the United States on the commercial
market
We conclude that Archaeoraptor represents two or more
species and that it was assembled from at least two, and possibly five,
separate specimens.... 3
In a statement in USA Today, Olson said, "The
problem is, at some point the fossil was known by Geographic to
be a fake, and that information was not revealed."4
In other words, he said that National Geographic maintained the
deception, even though it knew that the fossil it was portraying as proof
of evolution was a forgery. This event went down in history as showing
how deceptive the international propaganda on behalf of the theory of
evolution is, and that evolutionists will resort to all kinds of falsehood
for its sake.
(For further reading, see "The
The collapse of the theory of evolution in 20 questions"
by Harun Yahya)
1) "Scientist say ostrich study confirms bird
'hands' unlike these of dinosaurs," http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-08/uonc-sso081402.php
2) Ann Gibbons, "Plucking the Feathered Dinosaur," Science,
vol. 278, no. 5341, 14 November 1997, pp. 1229 - 1230
3) "Forensic Palaeontology: The Archaeoraptor Forgery," Nature,
March29, 2001
4) Friend, "Dinosaur-bird link smashed in fossil flap," USA
Today, 25 January 2000
Recommended
sites
Evolution
Deceit >>
Darwinism
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THE COLLAPSE OF DARWINISM - THE FACT
OF CREATION >> AN INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY
The documentary film reveals that the theory of evolution is being refuted
by the findings of the modern science.
You will see that the origin of our lives is not evolution, but Divine
creation. And this is a fact which is also supported by overwhelming scientific
evidence.
Visit the site >>
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