Faith in difficult times

When we look at today'sheadlines in the newspapers and magazines, or
perhaps hear a brief news report on the radio or television, or read
the latest news updates on the internet, it is quite easy for a person
who does not have the Qur'anic perspective andthus fails to consider
that there is good in everything that Allah creates to be overwhelmed
with a feeling of the darkest foreboding.
Unemployment is on the increase in many of the world's largest
economies; financial markets are unable to shake off their doldrumsfor
very long; the twin scourges of homelessness and hunger are on the
rise. Itseems to many that the days of limitless economic growth and
the boundless wealth associated with it are coming perilously close to
a shattering end. People are now feeling great anxiety about not only
their own but their children's futures; recently, in London, England
rampaging mobs of looters took to the streets to express themselves
through wanton theft and lawlessness. All around us, it seems that the
machinery of civilizationis coming to a halt. We see signs of
increasing immorality, of a hardening of attitudes in the hearts of
men throughout the world, of the abandonment of the most helpless
amongst us by not only their respective governments, but seemingly by
their fellow men as well.
At difficult times like this, it is of the most vitalimportance for
the believers to never forgetthat all these manifestations are not
cause for us to resign ourselves to feelings of nihilism. We must
alwaysremember that it is our Lord, Almighty Allah, Who is in supreme
control of all affairs, and all things happen through His All-powerful
Will. Indeed, the life of this world is but a place of testing for the
true life to come, the Hereafter.
One of the reasons so many people feel despair and hopelessness in
their lives is that they have fallen prey to one of satan's greatest
traps; they have put their faith,not in Allah, but in the transitory
treasures of this world. They have replaced faith in our Lord with
faith in the New York Stock Exchange. They long not to read the Word
of Almighty Allah, the Qur'an, but instead their quarterly dividend
statement. They wish to hear only the honeyed words of their financial
advisor, and pay no heed to the call to prayer. They turn for help to
economists, financial pundits and investment bankers, oblivious to
the only One Who can grant themassistance, Allah, the Creator and
Owner of all things. As a result, their lives are an unending quest
for ever-greater riches in the life of this world, all the while
forgetting the eternal life to come. When events no longer proceed in
the manner in which they foolishly assumed would continuefor the rest
of their lives,their hearts are seized with disillusionment,
despondence, fear, and anger.
All too many people today have fallen into this snare set for them by
satan; they have succumbed to his infernal whisperings. They live
their lives in anegocentric manner, obsessed with the accumulation of
riches and the acquisition of "the finer things in life." They care
not for their fellow men; they turn away when they see a homeless man
or womanbegging in the streets. They avert their gaze and walk by as
though these needy people did not exist, and do not even give them a
kind word if perhaps they haven't the money to spare them. In the
worst cases, they privately (or even publicly) castigate these
indigent people and wish them ill. These people have truly fallen into
the lowest levels of moral degeneracy.
However, it is incumbentupon us as believers to profess our great
devotion and deep faith in Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, He upon Whom
all things depend, and for us to give our constant praise and thanks
to our Lord for allthe innumerable blessings which He has chosen to
bestow upon us through His endless munificence. In times of
difficulty, it is of course natural for us to turn to Allah for help
in removing our afflictions;but we must also never forget to turn to
Allah in heartfelt thanks in times of plenitude and show Him our
deeply felt gratitude for the boundless blessings He has granted us.
In these volatile times, we must also humbly implore Almighty Allah to
give us the strength we need so that we may remain steadfast and
continue on His path, and to seek refuge in Allah from the
".......whisperer who withdraws, who whispers into the hearts of men
among jinn and men." (Surat an-Nas, 4-6).
Let us briefly reflect on what faith means to us as Muslims. The vast
majority of Islamic scholars teach that faith is far more than simply
amental agreement with certain facts or mechanical adherence to a
particular set of rules, but rather it is a believer's dedication to
the Will of Allah and the recognition of His Sovereignty; this has
profound implications for the believers' behavior in their families,
in society at large, and in the State aswell. Certainly, Islam is more
than just a mere external membership in a particular creed, or a
simple theoretical agreement with certain sets of principles. For
thebelievers, faith is something that is felt with every fiber of our
being; it is what guides our actions, our speech, our behavior towards
others and how we interact, not only with other believers, but also
how we interact with everyone else in the world. As believers in our
Lord, and as His servants and the followers of His eternal
commandments, it is ourfaith that guides us at every moment of our
lives until the very last breath we draw in the life of this world.
Therefore, we must always strive to deepen and strengthen our faith,
as doing so not only stands us in good stead in the Hereafter through
earning the good pleasure of Allah, but also serves us well inthis
world for the very same reason. It is faith that not only sustains us
in times of hardship, but it is faith that allows us to appreciate the
times of plenty all the more, aswe give thanks to our Lord for His
provision which He, in His infinite benevolence, has bestowed upon us
so that we may use it in His way. Likewise, in times of hardship, it
is our faith which informs us that our current difficulties are but
the means by which Almighty Allah tests us in the life of this world,
and we should use such opportunities as a means of broadening our
religious convictionsand fortifying ourselves spiritually. In this
way, we are able to draw ourselves closer to Him.
Additionally, it is also important for us as believers to remind
ourselves in times of difficulty the lessons we may learn from the
glorious examples of theProphets of Allah, all of whom faced enormous
difficulties on His way. We need only think of the example of our
Prophet (saas), who faced slanders, lies, threats of physical harm
against him, and expulsion from his home. Yet through all these
tribulations, our beloved Prophet (saas) remained wholly steadfast in
his faith in our Lord, and his profound faith was rewarded by Almighty
Allah, not only in this world but in the Hereafter as well. We may
reflect upon the Prophet Moses (pbuh) who faced difficulties in
Allah's path chiefly through the machinations of that most arrogant of
men, Pharoah, a disbeliever whose arrogance led him so far as to
consider himself a living god, andto compel his subjects to worship
him (surely Allah is beyond that). Weshould ponder upon Prophet
Abraham (pbuh), who faced the threat of death not only from his own
people butfrom his own father, when he reproached them for their
persistent worship of false gods. Let us contemplate Prophet Noah
(pbuh) who was mocked by his people although he persistently appealed
to them to repent of their mistaken ways and to worship Almighty Allah
alone. And let us not forget the example of the Prophet Lot (pbuh)
arighteous man and devoted servant of Allah who stood against the
perverse and defiant wickedness of the people of his city. All these
Prophets were despised by their respective peoples whenthe Prophets
made everyeffort to turn their respective peoples away from the Wrath
of Allah, and to set them on the path to the True Religion. Indeed, no
matter the difficulties we may face in our everyday lives, they surely
pale in comparison to the enormities encountered by the Prophets in
their heartfelt attempts to turn their fellow men onto the path of our
Lord.
As we observe the lives of those who disbelieve, we can see how far
they have fallen away. Quite recently, on the website of the
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela ,there appeared an article
describing how young women in the United States are resorting to a
form of prostitution in order to pay for their higher education. The
details ofthis sstory suffice to illustrate the depths to which
someone will sinkwhen one has no sense of morality and concernss him
or herself chiefly with financial matters.
Even an excerpt from thestory shows that all too many students are
all too willing to sell their bodies for the sake of simply paying
their debts. It goes without saying, of course, that this immoral and
squalidbehavior is in flagrant contradiction to the lawsof Allah, who
commands as follows in the Qur'an; "And go not nigh to fornication;
surely it is an indecency and an evilway." (Surat al-Isra', 32)
The lives of the disbelievers are further made insufferable through
drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and violence; however there is no need to
dwell further upon these ills prevalent in societies farremoved from
the principles of the True Religion . When we examine in detail the
root underlying cause for these nightmarish social ills, we find one
common denominator; the materialist philosophy.
In brief, materialism, thephilosophy of the dajjal, has been with us
for a very long time. It has been noted in surviving historic texts
dating back to the Axial Age (cca. 800-200 BC). It emerged to the fore
during the time of the European Enlightenment(the 18 th Century), and
achieved its highest theoretical exposition under the founder of
Communism, Karl Marx. This godless philosophy states that the only
thingthat truly exists is matter; simply put, matter is the only
substance with any reality (surely Allah, the Creator of not only
matter but all things, is beyond that). Materialism went on to spawn
Darwinism (the theory of evolution), Communism, Fascism, National
Socialism and has led to an unending series of wars of conquest,
economic and physical exploitation, the wholesale slaughter of
innocent men, women and children who committed no offense against
their heartless executioners and every manner of human misery.
Materialism, and Darwinism in particular, hold that man is nothingmore
than a common animal, engaged in a never-ending struggle tosurvive
even at the expense of his own kind,and this core philosophyhas
provided the underlying rationale for every nightmare the world has
beheld since itwas unleashed upon the minds of men by the eternal
enemy, Iblis (satan) the loathsome jinn expelled from Paradise due to
his willful disobedience andarrogance.
When we take a momentto see the lives of those without faith, it is
materialism that forms the basis of their erroneous thinking, and has
distorted their hearts and souls and turned them from the love of
Almighty Allah. Not only are these wretched people doomed to an
eternity of punishment in the fires of Hell (unless they turn in
sincere repentance towards our Lord and implore Him for His
forgiveness), but are equally doomed to an abominable existencein this
life as well. It is easily observable that the lives of disbelievers
are filled with loneliness,emptiness, hopelessness,despair, and
feelings of abasement and self-loathing. They seek escape through
narcotics, strong drink, violence, and by the pursuit of the most
debased forms of depraved sensuality and mindless hedonism. These
rotten fruits of thematerialist philosophy are the harvest of horrors
we see every day in the mass media; stories of murder, rape, and
brigandage; parents, children and siblings ruthlessly turning against
one another and throwing aside the bonds of familial love in
unthinkable acts of betrayal; civilized lands such as Norway and
England in shock and mourning because of individuals who think nothing
of perpetrating the mass-murder of innocents, or in looting and
maliciously destroying the property of their fellow men. When a person
regards another person as a mere animal to be used for achieving one's
ends,these kinds of dreadful events are the natural and inevitable
consequence.
O brother and sisters in Islam! We must not let usourselves become
disheartened or discouraged by the deplorable conditions we see around
us in this world; we must always remember that the true life is the
life to come in the Hereafter. However, we must not neglect our duties
to our Lord in the life of this world, either.
As believers, we know that we will stand before our Almighty Lord on
the Day of Judgment, and will be given a full accounting of what we
did, and did not do, as His humble and faithful servants. Therefore,
who amongstus wishes to stand before Almighty Allah knowing in the
depths of his heart that he did not do enough?
In this blessed season of Ramadan, we fast as we were commanded to by
our Lord. We are thus reminded of what it is tonot have enough to eat
or drink, of what it is to be amongst the poorest and most vulnerable.
And though we break our fast at the setting of the sun, we must
remember that for far too many in this world, destitution never ends
except with their deaths.
We must always remember that it is also our duty to help our fellow
men. Part of this responsibility is to not only help our fellow
Muslims stay on the true path of Allah, but to reach out to others,
especially in these tryingtimes when so many have gone astray. We
cannot allow ourselves to look upon others, particularly disbelievers,
with hatred and contempt; when we feel hatred and contempt, we
invariably dehumanize our fellow man and thereby fall into the
materialist trap laid for us by satan, who forever seeks to turn
peoples against one another.
We must also bear in mind that regardless of our theological
differences, it is the People of the Book with whom we share a common
history and lineage; though they arein error, they are nonetheless our
natural allies in the struggle against the pernicious philosophy of
the dajjal, and we must not allow ourselves to be ensnaredby the
retreating whisperer who seeks to inflame the dark passions of man and
cloud his reason in orderto cause enmity and hatred; it is through
causing such malefic emotions to emerge in the hearts of men that the
eternal enemy advances his evil agenda. Let us, as Muslims, live by
the command of Allah when He says in the Qur'an, "Say; O People of the
Book! Come to common terms as between us andyou; that we worship none
but Allah; that we associate no partners with Him; that we establish
not from amongst ourselves lords and patrons other than Allah." (Surah
Al 'Imram, 64). Let us look at the Christians and the Jews as our
cousins, not our adversaries; we have butone adversary, satan, and on
that particular matter of theology, there is absolutely no point of
dispute whatsoever.
In regard to the disbelievers, we must reach out to them with
compassion and love. Not all the disbelievers will necessarily heed
the call of Allah, but there are those amongst them who are
desperately andgenuinely searching for a way out of their unspeakable
condition. It is incumbent upon us, as devoted servants of Allah, to
extend to them not a clenched fist and threatening shouts, but rather,
a hand opened to them in a gesture of love and kind words. While we as
Muslims must, at all times, enjoin the good and forbid thatwhich is
evil, we must also endeavor to serve as examples of the love that
Allah commands us to show, and which was so magnificently illustrated
by our Prophet (saas) and his companions (may Allah be pleased with
them) who never once ceased inviting the disbelievers to the path of
Allah; theydid so not for the sake oftheir own prestige or to satisfy
their own egos, but because their hearts were overflowing with the
all-consuming love which their faith in our Lord gave them. And while
we may invite, we must never compel; as itsays clearly in the Qur'an,
"Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth has been made clear
from error. Whoever rejects false worship and believes in Allah has
grasped the most trustworthy handhold that never breaks." (Surat
al-Baqara, 256)
The difficulties we face and overcome (by His leave) in order to earn
the good pleasure of Allah and our deep faith and endless devotion to
Him and His commandments will allow us (insha'Allah) to be amongst
those of whom it is revealed in the Qur'an; "Some faces, that Day,
will be radiant (in brightness and beauty), looking towards their
Lord..." (Surat al-Qiyamat, 22-23). Therefore, in these turbulent
times, letus not yield to melancholy, but rather let us discover the
happiness in our love and abiding trust in Almighty Allah, and His
love for us, and let these times serve to deepen our faith in our
Lord, The Ever Merciful and Endlessly Compassionate. - - ▓███▓
Translator:-> http://translate.google.com/m/ ▓███▓ - -

Winglets, a technology “stolen” from the birds

The bird's flight has always fascinated the man since ancient times.
Their grace and elegance in spreading their wings and fly-off, has
been a reason of deep thinking for the man who seeks answers.Since the
Ancient Greece time, the great philosophers of that era reflected on
the fact thathow it was possible for some creatures to rise up in the
sky and cover amazing distances with such a great harmony. A famous
greek mythologylegend states that Icarus was the first man to fly.
The attempts for man to fly has been unsuccesful until December 17th,
1903 when Wright Brothers managed to accomplish the fateful task so
much desired by the men of all the times. This first flight lasted 61
meters at a speed of about 43 km/h using a rudimentary airplane built
by the same two brothers. From that day, the technological advance has
allowed theimprovement in an exceptional way of that first rudimentary
attempt to imitate the bird's flight. Today, we can see airplanes of
different sizes and shapes fly in the skies of the Earth like birds.
As probably everyone of us know, the airplanes' wing perfectly imitate
those of the birds. Like the bird's wings, those of the airplanes do
have the upper part curved and not just flat. In this way, when
engines generate a thrust, that particular shape makes possible for
the air that flows in the upper part of the wing travel faster than
that in the lower part. As a consequence, avertical thrust is
generated which allows to overcome the gravity force and in this way
theplane can lift up and fly like a bird.
That description presented above is a semplified one, since a lot of
complex mathematics and physicsis need to acurately describe the
dynamic of flight, but that allows to grasp the simple principle that
is behind the technology that everyone or almost of ushave personally
experimented. But man didn't stop here. He wanted again to draw
inspiration from the masters of flight which are the birds. Big birds
like eagles, hawks, vultures etc. do have wings with a particular
structure with respect tothe many other varieties of birds. At their
wing's extremities, they have some "winglets" of different sizes which
allows to eliminate the vertical vortex created around the wing and
this fact can reduce the drag experimented by the wing (fig. 2, 3).
Indeed, during the flightthese winglets curve-up almost vertically
making the wing non-planar and so greatly reduce the drag. With such a
particular wing structure, these big birdscan fly with the minimum
effort and without consuming a lot of energy. Only recently man has
realized this fact and could "copy" and implement this astonishing
detail for hisown purposes. Now, a great number of air companies equip
their airplanes with this apparently simple device(fig. 1,4). Just
like those of the birds, these man-made winglets make possible to
eliminate vortexes (fig. 1) that are created around the plane's wings
and with the consequence that:
 -the airplane's fuel consumption is reduced so it also pollutes less
- using these winglets, the airplane needs smaller wings to generate
the same vertical lift compared with that which doesn't have them. In
this way, one can build smaller airplanes that consume less fuel and
need smaller airports
As we have seen till now,the birds are perfect flying machines,
designed in the most efficient and perfect possible way. From
thesemarvelous creatures, man has been able to draw his inspiration
andbuild his own flying machines and realize his biggest dream: to fly
likea bird. With the discoveries about these winglets, Allah has
showed us again His infinite power and wisdom.
"Do they not see the birds controlled in the atmosphere of the sky?
None holds them up except Allah . Indeed in that are signs for a
people who believe. " (Surat An-Nahl, 79)
"Haven't they looked at the birds above them, with wings outspread and
folded back? Nothing holds them up but the All-Merciful. He sees all
things." (Qur'an, 67: 19) - - ▓███▓ Translator:->
http://translate.google.com/m/ ▓███▓ - -

On the 2012 Phenomenon or: Relax. The World Is NOT Going To End In A Fiery Ball Of Doom

As 2012 winds to a close, and we bid farewell to this year with it's
ups and downs, let us take a few minutes to focus on a pop-culture
phenomenon which has become the subject of discussion and debate over
the past several years, and which has certainly become a subject of
great interest, this year in particular: The 2012 phenomenon.
The 2012 phenomenon is both an erroneous New-Age idea as well as an
apocalyptic concept, and now that the month of December is upon us, we
would do well to examine this false belief in greater detail, so that
we may have a greater understanding of what is sure to be a theme that
we will encounter in the mass media with greater frequency as we get
closer to December 21 st of this year.
Therefore, let us begin with the actual facts, starting with the
vanished civilization of the Mayans.
The pre-Columbian Mayans were a fascinating people well-known by
modern archeologists for their fully-developed writing system, their
art, architecture and their highly developed mathematical and
astronomical observations. Though the Mayan civilization itself is no
more, the Mayan people still exist to this day and can be found in
Guatemala, southern Mexico and theYucatan Peninsula, Belize, El
Salvador, and western Honduras; indeed, there are some seven million
people of Mayan descent found throughout the Central American region.
Their civilization reached its zenith between the years 250 to 900
A.D. andgradually declined over the following centuries.
Aside from the impressive ruins of greatMayan cities such as Palenque
and Chichen Itza, the Mayans also bequeathed to those civilizations
who followed them a legacy which has survived well into the 21 st
Century; theMesoamerican Long Count Calendar.
The Mayans themselves did not invent the Long Count Calendar; it is
believed by most archeologists that it was actually invented by the
Olmecs, an earlier vanished civilization. However, the Mayans adapted
this calendar to suit their own particular mythological beliefs, andit
is from the Mayan adaptation that the 2012phenomenon begins. Thus, it
behooves us to examine what the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar is,
and how it functions.
The Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar is a linear calendar operating on
a base 20 function. Thus, 20 days form a uinal ; 18 uinals form a tun
composed of 360 days (close to one solar year); 20 tuns make a k'atun
, and 20 k'atuns form a b'ak'tun or a period of 144,000 days or about
394 solar years.Therefore, a Mayan calendar date of 6.5.2.10.12
represents 6 b'ak'tuns , 5 k'atuns , 2 tuns , 10 uinals and 12 days.
So what does this have to do with December 21 st , 2012 in the Western
calendar and some apocalyptic or transformative event? In short, very
little. The Mayan calendar goes forward far beyond the completion of
the 13 th b'ak'tun , the cycle whichcomes to its end this year, as can
be seen in the west panel of the Temple of Inscriptions inthe ruins of
Palenque; it calculates the date commemorating the coronation of the
Maya ruler K'ininch Janaab' Pakal (which occurred on July 27 th , 615
A.D) all the way forward to October 21 st , 4772 A.D, which is over
four thousand years forward from the time of that long-deceased king.
Indeed, another truly fascinating, and genuinely mind-boggling example
can be found on Stele 1, in the ruins of the city ofCoba (present-day
Mexico) which projects forward to a calendar date inscribed as
13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0,
or twenty units above the b'ak'tun placing it at 41 octillion years in
the future, which would be three quintillion times the known age of
the universe according to astrophysicists. This represents a
prodigious feat of mathematical computation, to put it mildly, and all
the more so for a society which lacked metal tools, pulleys or for
that matter, the wheel.
Then where does this belief in some apocalyptic event arise?
The Mayans left us with not only a written language, but a literary
tradition as well. In Mayan literature and myth, there is a strong
tradition of "world ages"; much of what we know about this stems from
the Popol Vuh , a compilation of the creation myths of K'iche' Maya.
In their creation accounts, the imaginary Mayan gods created three
previous worlds, with our world being the fourth. The third world
ended after thirteen b'ak'tun , or roughly 5,125 years. The Mayans
Long Count "Day Zero" corresponds to August 11 th , 3114 B.C.; this
means the fourth world (our world) will reach the end of its
thirteenth b'ak'tun on Mayan date 13.0.0.0.0 orDecember 21 st 2012 in
the Western Calendar.
And it is at this point that a good deal of speculation comes into
play. How would the Mayans have considered the end of the cycle? As
the end of time itself? Or perhaps as a reason to celebrate? Sadly,
the available Mayan literature is largely silenton the matter, as it
was more concerned with recording actual historic or past mythical
events than it was with making prophecies. Students of Mayan culture
and history, anthropologists, and other experts have almost no
consensus as to what, if any, significance this turning of the 13 th
b'ak'tun would have had for Mayan civilization, as that civilization
is no more. Indeed, the modern Mayans have openly and publicly
ridiculed the notion thatthe world is coming to end on December 21 st
2012, considering such ideas to be a grotesque misinterpretation of
their culture, mythology and folklore. And in fact, there is only one
reference in all of classical Mayan literatureto the 13 th b'ak'tun ,
which is to be found at the Tortuguero site in the southern part of
the Mexican state of Tabascoon a monument known as Monument 6; sadly,
the inscription itself has been partially defaced. Its translation is
as follows:
It will be completed in the 13 th b'ak'tun
It is 4 Ajaw 3 K'an'kin
and it will happen a [possibly the word "seeing"]
It is the display of B'olon-Yokte' [an imaginary Mayan deity]
In a great investiture.
There is debate among scholars as to what exactly this means.
Somescholars have concluded that a person would be dressed up as this
imaginary Mayan deity B'olon-Yokte' and paraded around; other scholars
dispute this interpretation. Thus, we have no way of knowingwith any
certainty what the closing of the 13 th b'ak'tun meant to the Mayans.
So, if the Mayans themselves left no distinct record of the
significance of this date, or even its meaning within the context of
Mayan civilization, then how did this mistaken belief in some
cataclysmic event occurring on December 21 st 2012 come into being?
For that, we mustlook not to the Mayans, nor other Mesoamerican
civilizations, but rather alittle closer to home.
European identification with the Mayans and theend of the world goes
back all the way to the time of Christopher Columbus. During his
voyage of 1502, he was at work writing a book called the Libro de las
profecias when he first heard about the Mayans.Columbus believed that
his discoveries of distantlands and peoples were prophesied, and that
they were somehow signs of the Christian apocalypse. Indeed, during
the time of the Spanish Conquest of the New World, eschatological
fears were running riot throughout Europe, in particular a false
astrological prediction for a second Great Flood which was forecast to
occur in 1524. Of course, this didn't happen, nor did any other such
world-shattering catastrophe. It goes without saying that in every age
there have been predictions of doom, disaster, mass destruction and
whatnot, and all of themthus far have maintained an enviably
consistent record of being spectacularly wrong. Then in the
early1900s, German scholar Ernst Förstemann represented the end of the
world coming about through a global delugebased on his interpretation
of the lastpage of the Dresden Codex, a Mayan document found in the
ruins of Chichen Itza. It isHerr Förstemann and theDresden Codex which
arguably forms the basis of the current obsession with the year 2012.
In fairness to both Christopher Columbus and Ernst Förstemann,
neither of them mentioned the year 2012 or the 13 th b'ak'tun
whatsoever. Herr Förstemann also pointedout it was quite unclear as to
whether the Dresden Codex itself is referring to a future event, or
something thatmight have happened inthe distant past or an event in
Mayan mythology. However, Herr Förstemann's ideas were repeated (and
considerably embellished upon) by the archeologist Sylvanus Morley in
his book, The Ancient Maya , first published in 1946. These notions
floated about in a rather nebulous form until the early 1970s, which
saw the rise of the so-called "New Age" movement, that false and
perniciouspseudo-religious movement in the service of the dajjal. It
was the New Age movement, a crazy catch-all of false Eastern
religions, superstitions, and crank ideas which seized uponthe Mayan
concepts and transformed them out ofall recognition to the culture on
which these ideas were based.
By 1975, the idea of the 13 th b'ak'tun and its possible meaning was
being explored by several New Age authors, who were generally of the
opinion that a "global transformation of consciousness" would emerge
at the end of the13 th cycle. Of course, thiswas combined with the
"Age of Aquarius" notionthat had become so widespread throughout
American popular counterculture in the mid to late 1960s.
Interestingly, the "Age ofAquarius" has no basis inscience; it is
purely astrological in origin, not astronomical. There are many
interpretationsof what this "global transformation of consciousness"
will entail, from the occasionally sublime to the downright
preposterous such as theEarth passing through a "galactic
synchronization beam" which would result in "galactic entrainment" of
people "plugged into the Earth's electromagnetic battery". Others have
spoken of the Earth's alignment with the center of our galaxy, or a
planetary alignment; neither of these ideas are supported by
astronomy. Astrophysicists will tell you that it's virtually
impossible to calculate when the Earth will alignwith center of our
galaxy, and they will alsotell you there is no planetary alignment
scheduled for December 21 st , 2012.
Now certainly these ideas, though utterly false and unsupported by
science, are far less dire than the recent slewof doomsday scenarios
which have come to dominate the discussion as of late. In examining
this aspect of the 2012 phenomenon, we have to look at a curious
overlapping of disparateconcepts, namely:
1) New Age superstitions
2) Secret knowledge
3) American Evangelical Christian eschatology
As noted earlier, the end of the 13 th b'ak'tun in the Long Count
Calendar will arrive on December 21 st , 2012. However, as to what
significance the original Mayan civilization would have assigned to
this is purelya matter of speculation. For that which is unknown,
there is always something to fill the breach, and the falseNew Age
movement has certainly done that manytimes over. Rather than rely on
scholarly interpretations from anthropologists, archeologists,
linguists, and experts in the field, the New Age movement has created
their own interpretations and impressions of Mayan civilization, and
instead of being able to have a serious and intelligent discussion
about Mayan culture with a non-academic, what we get instead is people
whose heads have been filled with fatuous notions and pseudo-science;
instead of a discussion of how genuinely remarkable the Mayans were at
astronomic calculations, we are treated to discussions on how the
Mayans were allegedly able to calculate not onlythe exact center of
our galaxy, but that they alsoknew of the supermassive
singularitywhich (it is believed) liesat its epicenter, something
modern astrophysics has only quite recently come to hypothesize about.
Instead of giving due credit and a sense of respect to the Mayans for
erecting their pyramids, palaces and cities with little more than
stone and wood tools and raw manpower, we are told that these pyramids
and other impressive structures were erected not by the Mayans, but by
telekinetic little greenmen. In this fashion, theNew Age movement has
distorted not only Mayanculture, but the historic record and
achievements of Mayan civilization, and reducedthe remarkable people
of this ancient civilization to little more than colorful extras in a
B-grade science fiction film.
The New Age movement also relies quite heavily on the concept of
secret knowledge, which is essentially the idea of hidden or
previously unknown knowledge from distant times and places. No doubt
we have all heard of some charlatan who claims to have experienced
their "past lives" in such fanciful locales as Lemuria or even
perhapson distant planets in other galaxies, or seen on television a
spiritual snake-oil salesman who will disclose the secret ofeternal
happiness to you, which he gleaned by discussing the matter with some
extraterrestrial being while zipping around Alpha Centauri in a UFO,
for the mere sum of$2,500. Quite aside from the obvious fact that the
entire New Age movement is nothing but the dajjal's way of leading
mankind astray from our Almighty Lord, Allah (and the fact that italso
serves to enrich it's peddlers beyond the dreams of avarice), the idea
of secret knowledge holds a distinct appeal to those lost souls who
are deeply suspicious of mainstream Western thought, and ultimately
feel a good deal of antipathy toward the culture in which they live.
As an example, a certain British author and public speaker has
recently been selling outseminars in the United States where he
disseminates his "secret knowledge" that our planet is nothing but a
hollow sphere, that reptilian extraterrestrialsare manipulating world
events from their undersea bases, that the Moon is some manner of
spaceship, and that the Queen of England, the U.S. President and other
world leaders are, in fact, reptile/human hybrid monstrosities
determined to enslave us all. That any rational human being would
believe such lunacy (not to mention actually paying money to attend
such a seminar in order to hear what are essentially the ravings ofa
paranoid madman) serves as a clear warningsign that something has gone
terribly wrong in the sociocultural milieu. It is indicative of a
deeply underlying cultural paranoia.
The third ingredient in this heady, if toxic, brewis American
Evangelical Christian eschatology, and in particular the emergence of
dispensational premillennialism as a dominant End Times scenario among
certain sects of fundamentalist Christians in the United States and
its accompanying cultural impact.
Briefly, dispensational premillennialism is the doctrine that the
Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will return to take up Christians into heaven
inan event known as the Rapture (it should be noted here there is
nothing in the Gospel to support this point of view; those who believe
in it generally cite First Thessalonians, Chapter 4,verse 17. However,
mainstream Christians such as Orthodox Christians, the Roman Catholic
Church, and mainstream Protestant churches maintain this particular
verse is simplya general reference to the Day of Judgment), which
will be followed by a seven-year period of war, death, pestilence,
destruction, famine and general unpleasantness known as the
Tribulation, after which the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will return with the
saints to reign for a thousand years.
Until the last quarter or so of the 20 th Century, dispensational
premillennialism was adhered to largely by Calvinists and assorted
Christian fundamentalist denominations. However, starting in the
1970s, this peculiar (and erroneous) doctrine burst onto the public
scene through the publication of The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal
Lindsey, though it had been propagated earlierthrough the Scofield
Reference Bible and Lewis Chafer's eight-volume tome Systematic
Theology . After the 1970publication of The Late Great Planet Earth ,
which was a bestseller (28 million copies), the doctrine entered
mainstream American religious discussion and is still with us to this
day;for example, the continuing popularity and cultural influence of
the Left Behind series by Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins. It has also
been spread through the work of influential American evangelists such
as the late Jerry Falwell, Ray Comfort, Dwight Pentecost, and a good
many others.
This particular variant ofChristian eschatology is exceptionally
violent, and involves a good dealof suffering, destruction,and the
shedding of oceans of blood (may Allah forbid). As
Christianfundamentalists became a stronger force on the American
sociopolitical and cultural scene towards the end of the 20 th
Century, it was perhaps quite natural that their particular
interpretation of the EndTimes would come to have a cultural impact.
And it has, indeed.
One particular example can stand out. Prior to the changeover from
1999 to the year 2000, there was much hysteria,particularly in the
U.S., about the so-called "Y2K bug", an alleged software defect that
would supposedly cause trains to derail, airplanesto fall from the
sky, the world's arsenal of nuclear-tipped ICBM's to spontaneously
launch, and in short, cause us to all die horribly. Needless to say,
this didn't happen. But there was certainly a distinctly apocalyptic
scent in the air, for those readers oldenough to recall that time. And
there were quite a few fundamentalist Christians who maintained that
"Y2K" was indeed the dread fulfillment of Biblical prophecy; many
well-known Christian personalities took to the airwaves in the run-up
to the changeover from 1999 to 2000 and spreada good many rumors,
stories, false statistics and outright misrepresentations, which of
course did nothing to allay fears. As it turned out, the only problems
encountered were wholly insignificant and easily fixed.
Thus, through a trifecta of New Age nonsense, anincreasingly paranoid
society that is profoundly distrustful of its own institutions, and
the cultural impact of a belief in a violent eschatological event,
many find themselves looking ahead to a particular date toward the end
of this year witha sense of the strongest foreboding. Though it may
manifest itself in different hypothetical scenarios, from the arrival
of the next solar maximum (actually not due until 2013), to our planet
colliding with another celestial object (the so-called Planet X/Nibiru
theory, easily debunked as an object the size of a small planet would
already be clearly visible in the skies, even in daytime), to a host
of other ideas including, but not limited to, an extraterrestrial
invasion much like the film "Independence Day", people are genuinely
preparing for some kind of apocalyptic scenario to play out. This can
be observed by the simple fact that recent statistics out of the
United States show Americans are stocking up on:
1) Non-perishable foodstuffs
2) Firearms and ammunition
Indeed as to the latter, there has been a recorded 32% increase in the
sale of firearms in the last quarter of 2011 according to the American
F.B.I. Until quite recently, there wasa major shortage of ammunition
available onthe American market, this shortage being created by
overwhelming consumerdemand. Similar sales increases corresponding to
those of firearms havealso been noted for non-perishable foodstuffs,
including U.S.military surplus MRE's (Meals Ready-to-Eat) to
civilians. This begs a legitimate question; what are people afraid of?
Are Americans genuinely afraid that their civilization is somehow
going to collapse in the next 12 months? Are they truly anticipating
some kind of cataclysmic event? Is itmerely widespread cultural angst
reflecting a degree of political paranoia?
Or have they been deceived by the New Age movement?
If we take a brief look back at some recent trends in American
pop-culture, we can see that a spate of television shows, films, and
books have surfacedin the last few years, all of them dealing with
the2012 phenomenon. The History Channel, an American cable
network,aired the following programs; Decoding the Past , 2012: End of
Days , Last Days on Earth , SevenSigns of the Apocalypse , and
Nostradamus 2012 . A trip to any reasonably well-stocked bookstore
will reveal scores of titlesdealing with the subject,and of course, we
must mention Roland Emmerich's hugely entertaining blockbusterdisaster
film, "2012" , which went on to gross over 750 million dollars
worldwide. All of this amounts to a sort of conditioning; people begin
to believe that some sort of unprecedented catastrophe is going to
take place imminently which will lead to the either the destruction of
the world, or at the very least the end of human civilization. If the
sociocultural consensus comes to anticipate something so strongly,
itcreates an extraordinarily tense and doom-laden culturalatmosphere;
the society which has allowed itself to become fixated on the
certainty of a violent apocalyptic event basically becomes a
powder-keg in search ofa spark. This is the way of the dajjal. By
poisoning the minds of men and turning them away from Almighty Allah,
he inevitably guides them down the path which ends in their ruin.
Fortunately, some of our Christian brothers have recognized this
danger, and have themselves launched a counter-offensive to tell
people they have nothing to fear on December 21 st 2012. They quote
from the Gospel (correctly) that no man knows the hour of the Day of
Judgment, as that knowledge lies with Allah alone. They point out that
much of the fear associated with the Mayan Long Count Calendar is the
result of deliberate New Age deceitfulness at worst, or a blatant
misinterpretation of Mayan culture at best.
We, as Muslims, naturallylook forward to the coming of Hazrat Mahdi
(pbuh), and the Golden Age in which all mankind, be they Muslim,
Christian or Jew will live together in harmony, peace, and prosperity.
We look forward to the arrival of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) andthe coming of
the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) notas events filled with terror, bloodshed,
and violence, but as events as foretold by our beloved Prophet
Muhammad (saas) who said that Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) would not even
"awaken a sleeper" or "cause so much as a noseto bleed". Hazrat Mahdi
(pbuh) and Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will come soon, insha'Allah, and they
will bring love, gentleness, and peace tothe world. And surely that is
something worth praying for, and we continue to do so five times a
day.
One last note on the 2012 phenomenon. The government of Mexico is
planning on using the year 2012, without its apocalyptic connotations,
to hopefully revive Mexico'sailing tourism industry, which has been
lately beset by difficulties caused by narco-gang wars and increasing
crime. Their tourism initiative hopes to draw on the popularity of the
ruins of the long-vanished Mayan civilization and their appeal. As
tourism forms a good-sized part of Mexico's annual revenues, let us
wish them well; many people, particularly in small towns and villages
near the Mayan ruins, dependon the tourist trade for their
livelihoods. And let us also hope that the tourists, in turn, will
discover a far more honest and historically accurate representation of
Mayan culture and gain a better appreciation of this fascinating
people, who accomplished so much with so little.
Men ask you concerning the Hour. Say, "The knowledge of it is with
Allah alone. And what may make you perceive?Perhaps the Hour is near."
(Surah Ahzab, 63) - - ▓███▓ Translator:->
http://translate.google.com/m/ ▓███▓ - -

Fathwa, - • Marriage and Engagement • - The Acceptance of the First Wife is Not a Condition For One Who Wishes to Marry Another

Question:
There is no doubt that Islaam has permitted plurality of wives, but is
it required for the husband to seek the acceptance of his first wife
before marrying the second one?
Answer:
It is not obligatory for the husband, when he wishes to marry
another,to get his first wife's acceptance, but it is a noble trait of
character and good relations for him to appease her by whatever
decreases the pain which women naturally feel in such situations. This
may be achieved by smiling, greeting her warmly andspeaking kindly to
her, and by whatever money you can afford, if her acceptance requires
it. - - ▓███▓ Translator:-> http://translate.google.com/m/ ▓███▓
- -