The Real Men of The Renaissance

The Real Men Of The
Renaissance
Most western authors contend that the Renaissance emerged when
Europeans studied Greek and Roman civilizations then developed
new arts and sciences. These racist views hide or deny the massive
effort to translate Arabic books to Latin, study them, and copy the
Muslim civilization without giving appropriate credit to the "real"
authors. Most Europeans had discovered the magnificent Muslim
civilization during their crusades against the Muslims in Iberia and the
Middle East.
The Qur'an, as the final word of God, anticipated many of the modern
scientific discoveries which were beyond human imagination 14
centuries ago. The Muslim scientific revolution, which produced the
renaissance that put Muslims at the top of the civilized world for 8
centuries, was a result of contemplating the clues in the Qur'an about
the physical world.
The Muslim contributions are still evident today, 7 centuries after the
destruction of the Muslim cultural centers in Asia by Genghis Khan
and Hulagu, and 5 centuries after the destruction of the great Muslim
cultural centers in Iberia by the Spaniards.
Arabic numerals, algebra, logarithms, and algorithms prove the

West learned mathematics from the Muslims. al-Khawarizmi who died
in 850 AD, introduced Algebra, the zero, negative numbers,
algorithms (programs or software), and the decimal system to
the West. One cannot imagine computers using Roman numerals.
One cannot imagine the digital age without zeros.
Alchemy, amalgam, sugar, soap, alkali, and alcohol indicate the

West learned chemistry from the Muslims. Many stars have Arabic
names including Algol, Markeb, Deneb Algedi, Menkar, Ras Al Asad,
Alphard, etc... Muslin (named after the city of Mosul, Iraq), Damask
and Damascene (named after the city of Damascus, Syria, the oldest
city in the world) indicate the West learned about fine clothing and
fine art from the Muslims. More than 1700 words in the Dictionary are
derived from Arabic words like admiral, cipher, tariff, check, lute,
guitar, Marsala (Marsa ( harbor ) of Allah), and alcove indicate the
Muslim influence on the West is extensive.
The first medical book ever printed in Europe in 1486 AD was the
medical encyclopedia by Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhazes) (The Worlds
Greatest Physician In The Middle Ages who died in 932 AD). It
was translated into Latin by Faraj Ibn Salem.
Pupil, cornea, abdomen, saphenous, nucha, ass, blind, basilic,

cephalic, drug, natron, sherbet, syrup, talc, elixir, and camphor are
derived from Arabic words.
During the dark age of Europe, monasteries ran hospitals where

exorcism and prayers to patron saints were the main cures. Surgery
was banned by the church to protect the monks from evil spirits.
The first real hospital and apothecary were opened in Baghdad in 805
AD by the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. In 931 AD, 869 physicians applied
for licensing examination in Baghdad. Muslims had separate hospitals
for men and women; and separate hospitals for mental, contagious
and non-contagious diseases.
Muslim hospitals were teaching hospitals where physicians taught in

the morning and treated patients in the afternoon. Music was played
in the hospitals to soothe the patients and speed their recovery.
Medications were added to syrups, juleps, and rose and orange
blossom water. Anesthetics made from hemp were used to ease
the pain.
Pharmacists were licensed after passing examinations by the State.

Hospitals were supported by the State or by charitable endowments.
Patients received treatment for free.
Muslims invented the ambulant clinic which was carried on

camelback to provide medical services to prisoners, people in remote
towns and villages without hospitals, and people afflicted with
epidemics or natural disasters.
A census taken In 950 AD in the Muslim city of Qurtubah (now

Cordoba or Cordova, Spain), which was one of the centers of the
Muslim civilization in Europe, counted a population of 600,000,
90,000 businesses, a university for 20,000 students, 600 mosques,
300 public baths, 80 schools, 70 public libraries, and 50 hospitals.
Muslims had precise weights and measures. Gold coins made 10

centuries ago had a weight variance if 1/3000th of a gram. Muslims
determined that the earth was spherical and invented spherical
geometry, the clock pendulum, the magnetic compass, the art of
navigation and the astrolabe. Al-Battani calculated the duration of
the solar year within 2 minutes of the current estimate.
Muslims introduced Europeans to postal service, gold coins,

sophisticated cuisine, tulips, perfumes, fruits, vegetables,
hospitals, public (Turkish) baths, windmills, waterwheels,
troubadours, musical instruments, cavalry, artillery, heraldry,
and chivalry. There is an effort underway to restore one of the
Muslim public baths in Granada to its former glory.
During the 8 centuries when Muslims ruled the civilized world, Muslim
scientists compiled accomplishments that are still impressive by
today's standards. The list of scientists includes: Jabir Ibn Hayyan
(Geber) who died in 808 AD, was the father of modern chemistry;
Ibn Firnas, who died in 888 AD, constructed the first man-powered
flying machine; Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhazes) who died in 932 AD, was
the world's greatest physician in the middle ages; al-Idrisi who
died in 932 AD, prepared the world's first globe; Al-Buzajani who
died in 998 AD, discovered the wobble in the moon's orbit; Abu al-
Qasim al-Zahrawi ( Albucasis ) who died in 1013 AD, was the author
of the first surgery book ; al-Maqdisi who died in 1101 AD,
produced the first map in colors; Omar al-Khayyam, who died in
1131 AD, was a Sufi poet and a mathematician who reformed the
Indian calendar with higher accuracy than the 1582 AD Gregorian
calendar; Ibn Sina (Avicenna), who died in 1037 AD wrote the
world's medical authority until the 19th Century; Ibn al-Haitham,
who died in 1039 AD, was the Father Of Modern Optics, a great
scientist and Engineer who formulated the laws of reflection and
refraction and explained the rainbow phenomenon; Ibn Rushd
(Averroes) who died in 1198 AD, was a philosopher, physician, Chief
Justice, Minister, and discovered the sunspots; Fakhruddin Al-Razi
who died in 1209 AD, determined that the stars were moving and
varied in distance from the earth; Ibn al-Nafis, who died in 1288
AD, discovered the blood circulation; al-Jaldaki who died in 1360
AD, produced pure gold ; Ibn Khaldun who died in 1406 AD, was the
real father of sociology.
Muslim Law (Shari'ah) was the world's most sophisticated legal

system through the 15th century. Napoleon returned to France from
Egypt with a copy of Shari'ah which influenced Napoleonic Law.
The collapse of the Muslim civilization toward the end of the 15th
century, after endless Crusades ended 8 centuries of Muslim
scholarship when Muslims ruled the civilized world. This put the
Muslims under colonial imperialism determined to keep them divided,
poor, and uneducated so they may supply their conquerors with
cheap raw materials, labor, and open unregulated markets.
Muslim Law
(Shari'ah)
Islam has a balanced approach to law. The Qur'an indicates that
Punishment must fit the crime, however, forgiveness is preferred
[Qur'an 16:126]. Islam is not a vengeful tribal religion trapped in
commandments and punishment which lead humans to despair.
Islam does not waive punishment for all crimes and all criminals
which could easily wreck the society. Punishment or forgiveness must
be decided on a case by case basis.
Muslim Law is based on several principles derived from the Qur'an

and the Prophet Muhammad's tradition. One of the basic principles is
God's desire to ease our lives [Qur'an 2:185].
The details of Muslim legal principles are beyond the scope of this
effort. Some of the basic principles are discussed here.
The Covenant of Medina (The World's First Written Constitution)

sanctified life and individual property and prohibited crime.
According to Muslim Law the right to privacy is protected. Spying

and entering someone's home without permission are
prohibited.
The state covered court cost which allowed poor people to seek
justice from the rich without fear of financial ruin. Nobody,
including the Sultan, was above the law.
False accusations and false witness were punished. Character

witnesses had to be of good character themselves and had to
establish intimate knowledge of the person in question. This
intimate knowledge was based on business dealings, or joint long
distance travel, or being a neighbor with familiarity of the comings and
goings of the person in question.
The Prophet Muhammad considered Islam the Golden Mean.
Whatever benefited the majority of Muslims was considered legal.
Long term imprisonment was considered inhumane punishment by

the freedom loving Arabs. Short term imprisonment was sparingly
used for repeat offenders. The most common punishment was
lashing the offender in public.
One of the basic legal principles
Even animal rights were not left out. Inhumane treatment of animals
or branding them in the face were prohibited. Animals cannot be used
for target practice. Those who slaughtered animals for food were
required to sharpen their blades and not to slaughter an animal in
view of another animal.
Napoleonic Law was influenced by Muslim Law. Napoleon returned

to France from his Egyptian campaign with the books of Malik, who
founded the traditional school of Muslim Law, and the books of his
successors.
Three additional principal schools of Muslim Law were founded by

Abu Hanifah, Al Shaf'i, and Ibn Hanbal. All four schools thrived during
the Renaissance of Arabic civilization when Muslims ruled the
civilized world from the 8th through the 15th centuries. Many Muslim
legal scholars were also Sufis, scientists and philosophers. This
resulted in the world's most sophisticated legal system through the
15th century.
century ended 8 centuries of legal scholarship. This trapped Muslim
Law in an alien 15th century world when Muslims ruled the civilized
world.
Today Muslim countries are using a mixture of 15th century Muslim

Law and contemporary Western Laws with mixed results. The need to
bring Muslim Law to the 21st century is urgent. It is true that the
foundations of Muslim Law, namely the Qur'an and the tradition
of the Prophet Muhammad, have not changed since the 15th
century. It is the legal structure built on the foundations that
needs updating following centuries of neglect.
The Qur'an is not a book of words, stories or commandments. The

Qur'an is the eternal word of God in the form of Arabic clues, signs,
and guidelines to help the Muslim succeed in this world and in the
hereafter. The massage of Islam cannot be frozen in time and has no
single or official interpretation.
Holy War
(Jihad)
Non - Muslim authors accuse Muslims of spreading Islam by the
sword, by waging holy wars. They ignore the fact that Islam is the
fastest growing religion in the world today. They cannot find a trace of
evidence showing that swords or force of any kind are responsible for
the current high rate of conversion to Islam.
The concepts of "holy war" and "just war" were developed by the Holy
(Christian) Roman Empire to force the pacifist Middle Eastern
Christians into the Roman army. These Christians believed in turning
the other cheek and renounced violence for 3 centuries before the
Romans converted to Christianity under the rule of Constantine.
It is not surprising that the Christian Roman Empire was militant, It's
first emperor believed he conquered Rome after a vision in which he
saw a cross over the sun and heard a voice telling him that he would
win under the religion of the cross.
Those who claim that Jesus preached only love and peace ignore
Jesus' words: "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to
the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." [Matthew
10:34]. " Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the
city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to
it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May
you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.
[Matthew 21:18,19].
Jesus died in his thirties leaving behind few followers. He was not
responsible for a new nation under siege by the hostile Persian and
Holy Roman Empires as Muhammad was.
Western authors erroneously translate the Arabic term jihad to mean

holy war. Jihad means struggle or resistance. Muhammad defined
the struggle with the self to be a better person or to resist temptation
as the major jihad. He also defined the struggle with others to defend
the Muslim Nation and to resist their threat as the minor jihad.
Islam is spreading today for the same reasons it spread rapidly
in the past. Islam presents the seeker with a natural, sound,
logical, believable, practical, simple, balanced and achievable
belief and practice system. Islam does not contradict human
nature or modern science.
The Qur'an anticipated many of the modern scientific

discoveries which were beyond human imagination 14 centuries
ago. This separates the Qur'an from other religious texts.
The Qur'an advises against using force to change people's religion

[Qur'an 2:256] or being the aggressor [Qur'an 2:190]. Muslims are
asked to refrain from vengeance against prisoners of war or civilians
in defeated regions [Qur'an 16:126,127; 8:67]. Muslims were bound
by the guidelines of the Qur'an since they fought and did everything,
in the name of God.
Muslims fought against the rulers who opposed them and their
armies not against the people or their institutions. Non - Muslims
were admitted to Muslim Universities. Those who excelled became
top advisers to Muslim leaders regardless of race, religion, color, or
ethnic background. This was another factor which accelerated the
spread of Islam.
A search for the word "kill" found it 442 times in the Revised Standard
Version, and 271 times in the King James Version of the Bible
compared to 40 times in the Pickthall Version and 22 times in the
Yusuf-Ali Version of the Qur'an!
The facts show that Islam tolerates non - Muslim minorities within the
Muslim Nation and treats them as independent nations free to
worship and live according to their own religious laws. This was
outlined in the Covenant of Medina which became the world's first
written constitution in 622 AD.
In contrast, the Christian Romans used force to convert all the

countries under their dominion to Christianity. When Roman
Catholicism became the state religion, the Romans persecuted the
Orthodox Christians who did not convert. The number of Orthodox
Christians killed by Rome reached 200,000 which is huge considering
the small population of Egypt at the time (elshaab.com, 1/4/99,
page2).
The spread of Islam in the 7th century threatened the Romans and
Persians who shared dominion over Arabia and collected heavy taxes
from the Arabs. This led to a series of wars between the Romans and
Persians on one side and the Muslims on the other.
The Muslims won the war with Persia and restricted the Romans to
Asia minor until the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in the
16th century. This spread the Muslim influence over the civilized
world from the seventh to the fourteenth centuries. The way Muslims
conducted the affairs of state and their personal lives led many
Christians, Jews and others to embrace Islam.
Muslims in Europe:
When the Muslims ruled European countries including Spain,

Portugal, southern France, southern Italy, and Sicily; Christians and
Jews thrived and were allowed in Muslim Universities. This gave
Europeans the scientific and artistic tools which helped them start the
Renaissance several centuries later when the hold of the Catholic
Church over Europe was weakened.
Muslim taxes were a fraction of the Roman taxes. Muslims considered

their sphere of influence as one nation. They did not transfer wealth
from the countries they occupied to Arabia or practice genocide
against the native population.
When the tables were turned and the Catholic Spaniards defeated the
Muslims in Spain and Portugal, they instituted the Spanish Inquisition
which killed or expelled millions of Muslims who refused to convert to
Christianity. The Jews suffered a similar fate at the hands of the
Spaniards.
While millions of Christians and Jews continue to thrive in the Muslim

countries after 14 centuries of Muslim domination, there is no trace of
the millions of Muslims who lived for centuries in Spain and Portugal.
Evidence of their past existence can only be found in beautiful
palaces like Alhambra in Granada, flamenco music and dancing,
Portuguese fado singing, and the abundance of Arabic words in the
Spanish and Portuguese languages.
The Crusades:
The "real" holy wars were waged by the Crusaders against the
Muslims in the Middle East. The Crusaders were brutal in their
treatment of Muslim prisoners of war and civilians. When the
Crusaders conquered Jerusalem, they killed 70,000 Muslims.
When the Muslims re-conquered the city they did not kill
anybody.
Orthodox Christians were considered heretics and therefore did not

escape the Crusaders' brutality. The Orthodox Churches, which were
safe during centuries of Muslim rule, were looted by the Crusaders.
The Holy Grail was not the only thing the Crusaders took from the
Orthodox churches.
When Muslims ended the Crusades by re-conquering Acre from the

Crusaders, Pope Nicolas IV barred Christians from selling timber to
Muslims. This embargo did not result in persecution of the Christians
in the Muslim countries.
Napoleonic Crusade:
The Crusades were not an unfortunate episode during the dark age in
Europe that ended a long time ago. When Napoleon invaded Egypt,
he ordered his troops to destroy the face of the sphinx and the tip of
the great pyramid to leave his mark on them.
His cavalry desecrated al-Azhar mosque, the Muslim World's

equivalent of the Vatican and the first university in the world, with their
horses. The French soldiers burned the rare manuscripts in its library
to keep warm.
Napoleon was proud that he had ordered beheading 5-6 people daily
and parading their heads in the streets to scare the population!
After defeating the Turks in Jaffa, Napoleon ordered his troops to kill
about 2500 Turkish soldiers from the city garrison who surrendered.
The soldiers were led to the shore and the French kept firing at them
until they ran out of ammunition then finished them off with bayonets.
The water turned red from the blood of the slain Turks. In the city, the
killing, raping, looting and burning lasted for 2 days and did not stop
until the French troops were too exhausted to continue.
When a survivor of the Jaffa massacre killed a French general, his

hands were cut, his wrists were burned then he was impaled. After
his slow death, his head was severed and was given to a French
surgeon who showed the skull to his students in Paris as an example
of a terrorist and a criminal.
It seems that the principles of the French revolution: Freedom,

equality and brotherhood did not apply to Muslims! This was later
confirmed when the French occupied Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia
and declared them French territories. The French citizenship was
given to Jews and Christians but not to Muslims!
Modern Crusades:
When general Allenby, the commander of the British forces in the

Middle East during World War I, entered Jerusalem and Damascus
he proclaimed the end of the Crusades.
Nazi Crusade:
Abdel Wahab El-Messeri (Al-Ahram Weekly, 23 - 29 December 1999,

Issue No. 461)
reported:
"In the course of my research for the Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism

and Zionism, I was surprised to find how frequently the word
"Muselmann" (Muslim) appeared in the Auschwitz concentration camp
lists. According to one source, the victims who were led off to the gas
chambers were called "aliens" ((??)) and according to other sources,
"Muselmanner". In the Encyclopedia Judaica, I came across the
following entry:
"Muselmann (Muslim in German) was a commonly used terms in the

concentration camps, used to refer to the prisoners who were on the
brink of death, that is to say those who began to show the final
symptoms of starvation, disease, mental apathy and physical
weakness. The term was primarily used in Auschwitz, but was also
used in other camps."
We see here an epitome of one central dimension of the Western

mentality. Whenever it destroys its victims it perceives them as
"other," and the other, since the time of the Crusades, has always
been the Muslim. In the Middle Ages, moreover, Muslims and Jews
were closely linked in the Western mind. One can find, for instance,
many paintings which portray the Prophet Muhammad (born 570 AD)
flogging Christ.
The Nazi experience is an authentic product of this Western mindset.

The Nazis were the standard bearers of this vision. They epitomised
the Western confrontation with the oriental civilisation closest to
Europe: the Islamic civilisation. They never forgot this burden, even
when annihilating millions of inhabitants of Europe. The connotation
of the term "Muselmann" was simply extended to include the "other"
in general, whether Slavs, Jews or Gypsies (as has occurred in a
similar manner with the word "Arab" in Zionist discourse). The writer
of the preceding entry in the Encyclopedia Judaica attempted to
explain how this term came into currency in the camps. The Nazis'
victims, he said, would crouch cross-legged in the "oriental" manner
and the expression on their faces would be wooden, as lifeless as a
mask. One notes that the writer, in his definition, made no attempt to
avoid the customary Western stereotype of Muslims. He simply
substituted the word "oriental" for "Muselmann"."
Terrorist and fundamentalist have frequently replaced the word

"oriental".
Muslims revere Moses, Jesus and all the prophets and consider
Judaism and Christianity earlier phases of the primordial religion of
God: Islam. The Muslims in Bulgaria, for example, were very active in
protecting Jewish groups from persecution, and King Hussein V of
Morocco refused to hand over his Jewish subjects to the Vichy
government in France.
Unfortunately, Jews and Christians do not recognize Islam or the

Prophet Muhammad's mission. Most Christians and Jews consider
Muslims sinners who are not chosen by God or saved and are,
therefore, not entitled to equal or humane treatment.
Jewish Crusade:
The United Nations records document countless atrocities against

Muslim civilians by the Jews in Palestine. Infamous examples are the
massacres in Kafr Qasim, Dir Yasin by the Jewish terrorist gangs
before the UN divided Palestine into a Palestinian and Jewish states.
An Israeli historian uncovered credible evidence that troops

massacred 200 Palestinians in a single village on the day Israel came
into being in 1948.
Teddy Katz, who researched events in the village of Tantura for a

masters degree, said he had spoken to witnesses including soldiers
who were present to support his findings.
`Ìt started at night and was over in a few hours,'' Katz said 14 Israeli
soldiers were killed in the ambush on the village. Tantura, near Haifa
in northern Israel, had 1,500 residents at the time. It was later
demolished to make way for a parking lot for a nearby beach and the
Nahsholim kibbutz, or cooperative farm.
Katz said the killing spree in Tantura was more tragic and bigger than
in the village of Deir Yassin just west of Jerusalem, where scores of
Palestinians were killed on April 9, 1948, in an assault by Jewish
armed groups.
Reports just after the Deir Yassin killings spoke of some 240 deaths.
Up to 700,000 Palestinians fled from their towns and villages or were
driven out by Jewish troops in the conflict between Arab and Jew that
surrounded Israel's creation.
Fawzi Tanji, now 73 and a refugee at a camp in the West Bank, is

from Tantura and worked until May 1948 as a guard for the army in
British Mandate Palestine.
He told Reuters he had watched as Israeli troops took over the

village, lined men up against a cemetery wall and shot them. Katz
said 95 men were killed at the cemetery.
`Ì was 21 years old then. They took a group of 10 men, lined them up
against the cemetery wall and killed them. Then they brought another
group, killed them, threw away the bodies and so on,'' Tanji said.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv, which reported Katz's findings

Wednesday, quoted the commander of the Tantura attack as saying
his troops had no grounds to ask questions or spare lives.
`Ìt was war...When you see the enemy opposite you, he doesn't have
a note saying he doesn't mean to shoot you. When you see him, you
shoot him,'' retired colonel Bentz Pridan said. (New York Times,
January 19, 2000)
Other infamous massacres include the massacres in Palestinian

refugee camps in Sabra and Shatila, and the recent massacre in
Qana (where Jesus once attended a wedding and changed water into
wine!) More than 200 women, children and old men who were
seeking shelter near a UN camp were killed by deliberate Israeli
bombing.
Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 20 years. In 1978, UN Security

Council Resolution 425 called " upon Israel immediately to cease its
military action against Lebanese territorial integrity and withdraw
forthwith its forces from all Lebanese territory.
Instead of complying with the UN Security Council Resolution, Israel

invaded additional Lebanese territory in 1982, 1993, and 1996 killing
tens of thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese
civilians.
Israel has been holding scores of innocent Lebanese hostages, some

for more than a decade, in prisons in Israel and Israeli-occupied south
Lebanon. Recent news reports also suggest that Israel has been
systematically stealing fertile topsoil from Israeli-occupied southern
Lebanon and trucking it to Israel.
The value of property, seized by Israel from 700,000 Palestinians who

fled Palestine when the Jewish terrorists announced the formation of
Israel in 1948, is estimated at more than 6 billion dollars excluding
interest.
Violation of the civil, religious and human rights of the Muslim and
Christian minorities in Israel, which are 18% of the population, had no
effect on the flow of unlimited aid to Israel. Israel has destroyed
about 400 mosques and 400 churches since the UN divided
Palestine into Palestinian and Jewish States in 1948.
It seems that the US policy of linking foreign aid to human rights and
religious persecution records of foreign countries does not apply to
Israel.
Serbian Crusade:
The Serb Christians waged war on the Muslim civilians in Bosnia and
Kosovo. In Bosnia, more than 200,000 Muslims have been killed and
more than 1400 mosques have been destroyed or damaged. About
200 villages have been destroyed in Kosovo and about 250,000
refugees have fled for their lives.
When the Serb Christians invaded Kosovo, they destroyed all

mosques despite the fact that the Christian monasteries were safe for
centuries in the predominantly Muslim Kosovo.
Double Standards:
The mentality of the Crusades still exists today under the guise of
fighting terrorists or Muslim fundamentalists, or fighting the spread of
weapons of mass destruction (meaning leaving the Muslim countries
vulnerable to the threat of mass destruction by Israel or others), or
stemming the tide of immigration by North Africans to Europe."
The economic sanctions, advocated by Pope Nicolas IV, continue

today against Muslim countries labelled by the State Department as
"rogue nations" or "nations that sponsor terrorism" or "nations that
violate civil rights of minorities" or "nations that oppose peace with
Israel"
Despite the media's attempts to demonize the Muslims, the facts

show that about 80% of the 23 million refugees in the world today are
Muslims!
The facts contradict all the rhetoric by the media and government
officials linking Muslims to terrorism. The State Department's
"Patterns of Global Terrorism" 1997 report, there were 123 anti-U.S.
attacks in that year; 97 occurred in Latin America, seven took place in
Europe and six in Asia. The Middle East ranked fourth as a location of
anti-American attacks.
The previous State Department report showed a similar pattern. In

1996, there were 73 anti-American attacks world-wide; 58 were in
Latin America, eight in Europe and three in the Middle East.
When the Afghani Mujahideen ( those who conduct Jihad ), aided by

fighters from Saudi Arabia trained and armed by the US, fought the
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, they were hailed as freedom
fighters. Jihad was good in those days. The US was calling for a
worldwide Islamic Jihad against the Soviets.
When the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, the Mujahideen were

quickly denounced as terrorists because of their opposition to the
Israeli occupation of Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese territories.
Christian fundamentalists are waging a Crusade to end the separation

between church and state in the US and put the first nail in the coffin
of the American system of government. They have replaced modern
science with the Bible in their schools. They advocate a pre-
renaissance philosophy. This proves the Muslims provided the
knowledge that launched the Renaissance in Europe. It is ironic
that the West opposes Muslim fundamentalists who teach evolution in
their schools.
Some Christian fundamentalists even turned to violence when they

could not impose their views legally and killed law enforcement
officers in Waco and bombed abortion clinics in several cities. The
government and the media never refer to the threat of Christian
fundamentalists.
Jewish fundamentalists murdered Rabin, their own prime minister,

when he finally saw the light. Rabin realized that Israel has to make
peace with the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab World to secure
its long term prospects in the region.
Jewish fundamentalists oppose peace and conduct demonstrations

with banners calling for killing the Arabs. Many of these
fundamentalists have killed Palestinian civilians and desecrated the
Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and were either never arrested or quickly
released from police custody because there were judged mentally
unstable.
These activities are never reported by the media in the US the way
they cover suicide bombings by desperate militants who have lost
everything to illegal destruction of their homes and killing of their
family members by the Israeli government or by Jewish settlers who
are illegally taking over Palestinian territories and barring Palestinians
from access to their farms and places of worship to pressure them
into submission to the illegal status quo.
The West ignores the threat of Christian and Jewish fundamentalists

while actively opposing Muslim fundamentalists, even when they are
democratically elected.
The military takeovers of the elected governments in Algeria, Sierra

Leone, Tajikistan and Turkey were encouraged by the West.
However, the military takeover of the elected government in Haiti was
not tolerated. The UN authorized a US invasion to return the elected
government to power.
The Crusade against Iraq:
The US vetoed many UN decisions condemning Israeli actions. The

Muslim countries were told peace can be achieved only by direct
negotiations with Israel. Military action or sanctions against Israel
were never options for attaining peace in the Middle East.
This policy did not apply to Iraq - the former US ally during the
Iran/Iraq war. The US obtained a UN decision against Iraq the day
following the invasion of Kuwait. Kuwait had been a province of Iraq
until the British decided to make it a separate protectorate after
World War I. Iraq was not allowed (like Israel) 32 years of
procrastination and frivolous negotiations with the Sheik of Kuwait.
In short, there was no peace process.
Iraq was bombed into the stone age and unprecedented sanctions
were imposed which led to the death of more than one million Iraqis
to-date. A whole generation of Iraqis was murdered by the sanctions
against Iraq since 1991. Swift military action is ready to kill more
Iraqis if they protest the frivolous inspections that have been going on
all these years.
More than 270 teams of inspectors have conducted 9340

inspections. Since 1991, the inspectors verified the destruction of 30
warheads, 18 ballistic missiles, 700,000 tons of chemicals they
claimed could produce weapons, and 40,000 tons of chemicals that
could be used in weapons.
The inspectors claim they still need to do their work. The US

maintains the sanctions will continue until the inspectors "finish" their
work.
Americans who oppose the U.S. government's policy on Iraq ended a

Christmas visit Tuesday meant to focus attention on the suffering of
Iraqi children (December 28, 1999 9:32 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com).
During their weeklong visit, the group spent Christmas among the
Iraqi Christian community in Basra, a city some 335 miles south of
Baghdad.
"We spent Christmas morning in one of the hospitals where we saw

for ourselves infants dying because there is never enough medicine,"
said Chuck Quilty of Rock Island, Ill., one of eight American Catholics
in the Voices in the Wilderness delegation.
UN officials keep resigning in protest of the sanctions against the Iraqi

people. The latest resignations came February 14, 2000 from Hans
von Sponeck the top UN official in Iraq and Jutta Burghardt the head
of the World Food Program.
Current Crusade:
Unfortunately, the holy war against Islam will continue to claim more
Muslim victims in the foreseeable future. In an effort to keep the
military industrial complex going after the end of the cold war, Islam
has been targeted as the new enemy and new threats have been
invented. This keeps tax payers' subsidies flowing to the cold war
industry and protects it from competition from the productive
economy.
The US spends more on the military than the rest of the world
combined. The government needs terrorists and Islamophobia to
justify this level of military expenditures. It is ironic that the current
most dangerous enemies, according to the US government, were
trained and armed by the US!
The US accounts for half of the weapons exports around the world.
These exports need wars and conflicts to sustain them. This is a
major disappointment to all the people who hoped that the collapse of
the Berlin Wall would bring world peace and prosperity for all.
The oil producing countries in the Middle East purchase a significant

portion of the US arms sales. US taxpayers subsidize massive military
aid to Israel. A just peace in the Middle East would eliminate most of
the US arms sales.
Muslim militants in the Middle East are resisting Israeli occupation of

the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria. This occupation violates
international law and numerous UN resolutions. Targeting the
militants will not bring peace to the Middle East but will bring the
downfall of the moderate leaders. Ending the occupation will bring
peace and help the moderates on both sides build a better future for
all the people in the Middle East.
The racial conflicts in the US in the 1960s offer a useful analogy.

The assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and militant
black leaders did not end the riots and the strife. The conflicts were
not obviously caused by the militants. The militants and the conflicts
emerged from the anger and frustration of the black masses who
were helpless in the face of persistent discrimination.
Respecting and supporting equal rights for Blacks ended all the
conflicts and allowed blacks to play a productive role that benefited
the whole society.
The Muslim militants are the product - not the cause of the anger and
frustration in the Muslim countries which are helpless to defend
themselves in the face of Israeli arrogance backed by unlimited US
support.
In the mean time The US provides Israel with military and financial aid
so they can continue their occupation of Arab lands by force for more
than 32 years and disregard UN resolutions.
Respecting the rights of the Muslim countries and implementing the

UN resolutions protecting the rights of the Palestinians, Syrians, and
Lebanese would bring just peace to the Middle East. This would also
restore the friendly and beneficial relations the US had with all the
Muslim countries after World War II.
American national interest would significantly benefit from good
relations with Arab and Muslim countries. Unfortunately, that has
been totally ignored and replaced with a policy of supporting
outrageous Israeli actions and policies at any price.
The Jewish influence on American foreign policy which started during

the Lyndon Johnson administration and reached an unprecedented
level in the Clinton administration is responsible for this shift.
The Muslim world occupies about one fourth of the world area.
Muslims represent about one sixth of the World population. American
Muslims outnumber American Jews in the US. Yet the media consider
the Muslims invisible and portray them in the worst possible image.
American interests in the vast Muslim world are being sacrificed for
the benefit of 5 million Israelis and their US supporters!
Comprehensive campaign finance reform is sorely needed to free US
policy from lobbies and pressure groups and focus it on real "national"
interest.
Christians and Jews are better off studying their Bible which
anticipated Islam, the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad. Instead of
trying to beat the Muslims, Christians and Jews should join them so
they can all turn to God and fulfill the promise of His creation.
Most Christians in the Middle East were converted to Christianity

by Jesus and his disciples. After considering the message of the
Qur'an, most of those Christians embraced Islam during the last
14 centuries because Islam delivered what the Bible promised.
Muslims are not the enemy terrorizing the West. They are the
victims of the nonstop Crusades. Islam is not a threat to the
West. It is the only religion that can solve the social and moral
problems of the West.
Islam
(Turning To God)
Islam is popularly known as the religion started by the Prophet
Muhammad at the beginning of the revelation of the Qur'an in 610
AD. In fact the Mohammedan message is the final comprehensive
phase that completed the primordial religion of God which is within
our soul. This universal religion is called Islam in the Qur'an and
includes the Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan traditions.
The word Islam means Turning To God. The Arabic verb aslama is
used in the Qur'an in sentences meaning turned his face to God or
simply turned to God [Qur'an 2:112, 3:20, 4:125]. Muslims turn to God
at least 5 times daily during the ritual prayers (Salat).
Turning to God implies trusting God with your life and going with
the flow. This frees the Muslim from the suffering and limitations of
life on earth [Qur'an 90:4].
The Qur'an refers to Adam and the prophets from Noah to Jesus as
Muslims [Qur'an 2:132] who practiced the universal monotheistic
religion of God. Different phases of the religion emerged to return
people, who changed the word of God or worshipped idols or
intermediaries, to the original religion.
Muslims are advised to practice only with conviction after considering

all the evidence [Qur'an 2:171]. They should balance the needs of the
Body And Soul, the material versus the spiritual, the here versus the
hereafter. Islam is the Golden Mean.
God does not change people's condition until they change themselves
[Qur'an 13:11]. People will see only what they seek. Life and death
were created by God to show who acted more properly [Qur'an 67:2].
Good and evil are challenges to test our faith [Qur'an 21:35].
Our freedom of choice was challenged by trusting us with the earth,

putting us at different levels, and giving us different blessings [Qur'an
6:165]. However, we are challenged only according to our ability to
handle the challenge [Qur'an 2:286]. With every difficulty comes
relief [Qur'an 94:5,6]
The Qur'an indicates that humans are created in the spiritual form and
then lowered in the material form [Qur'an 95:4] to experience the
temptation of the flesh and exercise their freedom of choice. God
desires to ease our lives not to make them hard [Qur'an 2:185].
God breathed into us of His spirit. We are not created in jest and we
will return to God [Qur'an 23:115]. We are blessed with countless
blessings [Qur'an14:34]. We are not the product of Original Sin and
do not need an intermediary in the form of a savior, prophet, saint, or
clergy to reach God [Qur'an 2:255]. Nobody is responsible for
someone else's sin [Qur'an 31:33]. God is fair to everyone[Qur'an
18:49].
We are not sinners or angels by nature and we are capable of

redeeming ourselves by making amends for our mistakes. Nobody is
punished while atoning for past sins. Punishment is also waived if
Muslims are forced to perform acts that are contrary to their beliefs
because they have no other choice [Qur'an 2:173].
Some Muslim scholars consider financial dealings that include

interest acceptable if no other choice is available to Muslims.
God's punishment does not always: follow the offense but comes at a
predetermined time; sometimes when the offenders least expect it
[Qur'an 29:53]. This frees people to act according to their true beliefs
and not out of fear of immediate and certain punishment.
The Qur'an affirmed that God is most gracious and most merciful
[Qur'an 1:1], is singular [Qur'an 112:1], is alive, never sleeps,
always watching over His servants [Qur'an 2:255], and that He is
near, answering the prayers of those who pray. There is nothing
like God [Qur'an 42:11] who transcends human attempts to
describe Him in terms of human or animal qualities.
Muslims are required to be kind, polite, and merciful toward their

parents especially when they grow old. Muslims are also required to
pray for God's mercy on their parents who raised them when they
were little [Qur'an 17:23-24].
Muslims are not to go near adultery [Qur'an 19:32], gambling, or

alcohol. Both murder and suicide are forbidden [Qur'an 19:33].
[Qur'an 16:126]. This affirms Islam's balanced approach to law.
Orphans' property must be handled with the best intentions and

promises must be fulfilled [Qur'an 19:34, 2:177]. Promises are not
considered to be by an individual to others but by the individual
to God who witnesses all transactions.
Pride and conceit are not Muslim traits. Muslims should consider their
insignificance compared to the universe [Qur'an 19:37-38]. The great
achievements are merely blessings from God requiring gratitude
toward God and charity toward the needy.
One must return others' greetings with equal or better greetings

[Qur'an 4:86] and practice patience and endurance during good and
bad times [Qur'an 2:177].
Seeking ephemeral achievements, such as wealth and children,

makes this life glitter. Doing what is right, earns better rewards from
God and is a better goal.
Islam has more than 1 billion followers including 8 million in the US

and is the fastest growing religion in the world today. Sixty percent of
all Africans are Muslims and the dominant language in Africa is
Arabic.

in the past. Islam presents the seeker with a universal, natural,
sound, logical, believable, practical, simple, and balanced belief
and practice system. Islam does not contradict modern science.
ago.
century, after endless Crusades, ended the Renaissance that lasted
from the 8th through the 15th centuries when Muslims ruled the
civilized world. The collapse led to the spread of fundamentalism
throughout the Muslim countries.
Fundamentalists are trying to freeze Islam into 15th century

concepts. They believe this will preserve the traditions of Islam.
They miss the fact that Islam had changed significantly from the 7th
through the 15th centuries due to changes in the Muslim Nation or in
the outside world.
The collapse of the Muslim civilization should not be construed as a

failure of Islam as a spiritual path. The collapse was caused by a
failure of the state and its institutions to adapt to a changing world.
Muslims can still turn to God and use the Qur'an to advance along the
spiritual path based on their best interpretation of the divine clues
regardless of what the fundamentalists say or do. This interpretation
will change as Muslims advance along the spiritual path. The
interpretation will also change as the world the Muslims live in
changes.
Currently, the spirit of Islam can be found in the teachings and

practices of the Sufis.
The Prophet Muhammad's

The Life Of The Prophet
Muhammad
The Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 AD in Mecca in the house
of his grandfather Abdul Muttalib. His father, Abdullah, had died
during one of his trading missions to Palestine shortly before
Muhammad's birth . His grandfather named him Muhammad to be
praised in the heavens and the earth.
Following the death of his grandfather, Muhammad was raised by his

uncle Abu Talib. Muhammad accompanied his uncle on a trading
mission to Syria when he was only 12 years old. Muhammad was
unlettered, because of his uncle's limited means, but he was known
for his good character and was nicknamed "The Honest".
His uncle's advancing age made it difficult to undertake long distance

trading missions to Syria, Palestine, or Yemen so he confined himself
to nearby markets. This led Muhammad to undertake trading missions
to Syria for one of the richest women in Mecca - Khadidjah.
This business relationship led to mutual respect and admiration which

in turn led to marriage between the then 25 years old Muhammad and
the 40 years old Khadidjah. This marriage produced two sons, who
died in early childhood, and four daughters who survived Muhammad.
In 610 AD he received the first revelation of the Qur'an. He continued

to receive the revelations until his death.
Muhammad's call to Islam met with stiff resistance from most of the
people of Mecca. They were afraid to lose Mecca's advantage, as a
trading and religious center for Arabia, if Arabs abandon the idols in
Mecca and embrace Islam. The Arabs had abandoned the religion of
Abraham and Ishmael and used idols as intermediaries between them
and God the way many Christians used saints and angels.
Muhammad persisted in his call to Islam refusing offers of wealth and

power in return for abandoning his mission. Consequently, the
Muslims began to experience persecution which ranged from boycott
to physical torture. In spite of all the persecution, the number of
Muslims grew steadily. Converts to Islam included Jews and Christian
as well as idol-worshipping Arabs.
Muslims began to emigrate from Mecca to Ethiopia to escape
persecution. The ruler of Ethiopia protected them from their enemies
after he and his church patriarchs heard the chapter of the Qur'an
about the Virgin Mary.
The death of his uncle, followed by the death of his wife, affected
Muhammad deeply and exposed him to more aggressive persecution.
Following the end of the mourning period, Muhammad married
Sawdah the widow of one of the early converts to Islam. She was the
first of several wives that he married following the death of his first
wife.
In 621 AD, Muhammad achieved full spiritual enlightenment. He left

Mecca for Medina in 622 AD to join the increasing number of Muslims
who immigrated to Medina to escape persecution in Mecca. In
Medina, he established a nation of equals based on the brotherhood
between the Muslims in Medina and those from Mecca regardless of
wealth or social status.
Muhammad invited the Jews to join the new society as an

independent nation, governed by Rabbinical court, within the Muslim
Nation. The Jews accepted and an agreement known as The
Covenant of Medina was signed. This gave birth to the world's first
written constitution.
The spread of Islam in Arabia and the growing strength of the

Muslims threatened the leadership position of Mecca and its trading
missions. The leaders of Mecca and their allies resorted to force in an
attempt to eliminate Islam before the Muslims become too strong.
Several battles followed but Mecca's hopes were shattered.
The Muslims won or held their own against superior forces in all the
battles. This led to the spread of Islam at a more rapid pace. The
conflicts with Mecca ended when Muhammad entered the city at the
head of 4 armies. The city offered practically no resistance after
Muhammad gave his word that everyone who remained at home or in
the mosque would be safe.
The idols in Mecca were destroyed and Arabia was united under the
banner of Islam before the Prophet's death in 632 A
The Full Spiritual Enlightenment
Of The Prophet Muhammad
In 621 AD, the Prophet Muhammad achieved full spiritual
enlightenment. He described the experience to his followers in
symbolic detail in the form of an actual trip. Briefly, he was awakened
by the archangel Gabriel who accompanied him from Mecca to
Jerusalem and then to the first heaven (spiritual station, veil or rank in
Sufi terms, chackras in oriental terms) where he met Adam.
In the second through the seventh heavens, Muhammad met the

prophets from Noah to Jesus. Muhammad then proceeded without
Gabriel to God's throne piercing through the veils that separate the
human soul from the Creator. The differences between heaven and
earth vanished in the presence of God and Muhammad vanished as a
separate entity. Only God, the Creator, the One remained.
Muhammad was commanded to order all Muslims to pray at least five

times daily. He then returned to Mecca with Gabriel.
Sufis consider Muhammad's mystical experience as the ultimate

human spiritual achievement. This is referred to as the "Fully Human"
Station or Rank. The Sufi spiritual path guides the seeker through the
heavens to his spiritual potential using meditations from the Qur'an.
The Personality Of The Prophet

Muhammad
The Prophet Muhammad was known for good character throughout
his life. He was known as: "The Honest" long before he received the
message of Islam .
He was handsome, of medium height, very active, walked rapidly

which forced his companions to race to keep up with him. People
reported seeing light around his body and in his face, which they
compared to the sun or the full moon. His skin was white and turned
rosy from exposure to the sun. He had black eyes and a thick beard.
People he touched, reported feeling healed, safe and secure.
He was humble and did not allow his companions to stand up when
he met them or kiss his hand. He sat with his companions where he
happened to be. A stranger walking into the room could not tell who
the Prophet was by his position in the group.
He joked with his companions, played with their kids and put them in
his lap. He loved his grandchildren, played with them, and even
carried them on his shoulder while conducting the ritual prayers.
He smiled most of the time and disliked to say no. When asked a
question he didn't want to answer, he remained silent. When given a
choice, he always chose the easiest option. He emphasized that
Islam is the Golden Mean and discouraged extremes of behavior.
He accepted all invitations, all apologies, all presents. He returned

favors with equal or higher value presents. He visited the sick, was
the first to greet people he met, was the last to pull away when
shaking hands with someone or embracing him. He always listened to
others until they finished what they had to say.
In the mosque, he cut the group prayer short if he heard a child crying
outside to allow the child's mother to leave the mosque and take care
of her child. He stopped his personal prayers if he noticed someone
approaching to ask him something then resumed the prayers after the
person's departure.
At home, he cleaned and mended his clothing repaired his shoes,

milked his sheep and saddled his camel and horse. His servant
reported that the Prophet never insulted, beaten, frowned to, or
reprimanded him even when he didn't complete an assignment.
He was kind to animals and opened his door to a stray cat seeking
shelter. One of his travelling companions once took 2 baby robins
from a nest. When the Prophet saw the mother flapping her wings
over the nest, he responded, "Who shocked this in her babies?
Return her babies to her". He ordered his followers not to use animals
for target practice. He also ordered those who slaughtered animals for
food to sharpen their blades and not to slaughter an animal in view of
another animal.
He lived a very simple life and donated anything he earned or

received beyond his minimum requirements to the needy on a daily
basis. He placed his faith in God to provide for his future needs.
He prayed frequently which meant his body and clothing were always
clean since Muslims must complete a cleansing ritual before praying.
He ate only when hungry and never reached his fill. He brushed his
teeth after every meal. He advised his companions to keep one third
of their stomach for food, one third for beverages, and one third for
themselves.
The Prophet Muhammad once summarized his code to be:

"mindfulness of God privately and publicly, fairness in anger or
satisfaction, moderation in poverty or wealth, connecting with
those who avoided him, giving to those who deprived him,
forgiving those who wronged him, speaking out for what is good,
and making his silence a meditation, his speech a recital of the
name of God, and what he saw a lesson." This statement
rhymes nicely in Arabic.
The Prophet Muhammad always guarded against becoming a divine

intermediary or son of God like Jesus, Ezra, and the Pharaohs of
ancient Egypt. He emphasized being the servant of God at all times.
Because of his full spiritual enlightenment, which surpassed those

achieved by any prophet from Noah to Jesus, Muhammad was
capable of performing miracles that defied the physical laws of the
universe. He preferred to veil his miracles by preceding them with
sincere prayers to God and following them by thanking and praising
God. This attributed the miracle to God and left Muhammad as His
humble servant.
Muslims always considered the Qur'an a miracle. The Qur'an is a

living miracle that can be verified today by anyone and does not
depend on accepting ancient accounts of miracles without question
Wives Of The Prophet

Muhammad
When he was 25 years old, the Prophet Muhammad married the 40
years old Khadidjah, who was one of the richest women in Mecca. He
had undertaken trading missions on her behalf before the marriage.
This marriage produced two sons, who died in early childhood, and
four daughters who survived Muhammad.
Following Khadidjah's death, Muhammad married Sawdah the widow

of one of the early converts to Islam. He married 'A'ishah, the
daughter of his closest companion Abu Bakr, when she was 10 - 11
years old without divorcing his wife Sawdah. This was difficult for non-
Muslim authors to accept - particularly those from a religious
background that considers sex sinful and contrary to spirituality.
Polygamy had been practiced in Arabia for centuries to solve the

problem of what to do when tribal wars reduce the number of
available men and produce more widows with children who need
support. Polygamy saved widows and their children from the need to
earn a living as a servant, beggar or prostitute. Islam limited
polygamy to 4 wives and required equal treatment in everything.
Muhammad set precedents to guide Muslims along this difficult path.

He was married to one woman during the prime of his life from age 25
until her death when he was 53 years old. This counters the argument
that he was a womanizer.
When Islam started spreading throughout Arabia, Marriage to the

Prophet became an honor most women would have been delighted to
accept. However, Muhammad didn't marry for pleasure as shown by
his selections from available women.
His marriage to the very young 'A'ishah was not a frivolous act. She
was the only wife alive when the need to record the details of the
Prophet's personal life and practices for posterity became urgent.
Muhammad also married Hafsah, the daughter of his close

companion Omar. She was a 40 years old widow who didn't find a
suitable husband. He married Zeinab, the widow of a Muslim who
died in battle defending the young Muslim Nation. She was kind and
charitable which earned her the nickname: "mother of the weak". She
was not young and died within 2 years of her marriage to the Prophet.
Muhammad married Umm Salamah, the old widow of a Muslim who

died in battle leaving many children to support. He also married a
Christian, Maria and a Jew, Safiah. He married Ramlah the daughter
of Abu Sufian, who led the Arabs against Muhammad and Islam.
Ramlah and her husband had converted to Islam and immigrated to
Ethiopia to escape persecution in Mecca. Her husband converted to
Christianity and left her.
He married his cousin Zeinab following her divorce from his adopted
son Zaid who used to be his servant. Muhammad had asked for her
hand for Zaid and persisted until she accepted. She mistreated Zaid
because of her high social status until he divorced her. This made her
unfit to marry a status conscious Arab. Her subsequent marriage to
the Prophet shattered the Arabs' concepts of status and marriage.
Muhammad's wives played an important role in advising Muslim

women on religious issues. Women have special requirements during
periods of menstruation, late stages of pregnancy and child birth. This
affected how women purified their bodies and clothing before prayer
and how they coped with fasting from dawn to sunset during the
month of Ramadan.
The Revelation Of The Qur'an

The Prophet Muhammad used to retreat annually to a cave at the top
of a mountain near Mecca during the Month of Ramadan where he
meditated in seclusion.
In 610 AD he was visited in the cave during his sleep by the

archangel Gabriel with a paper in his hand. Gabriel demanded,
"read". Muhammad responded, "I don't read". Gabriel choked
Muhammad for an instant then repeated his demand and Muhammad
repeated his response. Gabriel choked Muhammad again for an
instant and repeated his demand. Fearing to be choked for a third
time, Muhammad asked, "Read what?" Gabriel responded, "Read in
the name of your Lord who created... [Qur'an 96 :1]"
Muhammad woke up frightened wondering about the nature of his

vision. He returned home and told his wife, Khadidjah, about his
experience and his fears. She calmed him down and assured him that
his good character and devotion to God make this vision a good
omen.
Khadidjah told her cousin Waraqa about Muhammad's experience.

Waraqa had converted to Christianity, translated some of the New
Testament to Arabic, and had been actively calling Arabs to
Christianity.
Waraqa assured Khadidjah that Muhammad was the Prophet that

people in the Middle East had been anticipating and asked her to tell
Muhammad to persevere. Waraqa died shortly after this prediction
and missed the resumption of the revelations and the beginning of
Muhammad's mission.
The revelations continued until Muhammad's death in 632 AD. To

preserve the Qur'an, Muhammad's successor to lead the Muslim
Nation, Abu Bakr, initiated an effort to carefully evaluate all reliable
oral and written accounts of the revelations and record them in one
book. This effort was repeated by 'Othman, the third successor to
Muhammad, who ruled the Muslim Nation from 644 to 656 AD. The
two copies were identical. Several copies were made and sent to the
various Muslim provinces for use as standards to compare with future
editions. The copies in Saudi Arabia and Egypt are still in use as
standards today.
The Qur'an has 114 chapters. The first chapter is the Opener which
has 8 paragraphs called in Arabic Ayat which means signs,
guidelines, or clues to guide Muslims along the spiritual path. They
are not commandments or sentences to be taken literally although
some refer to specific historical events or simple issues.
The remaining 113 chapters are not arranged chronologically which

emphasizes the fact that they are not about commandments or
stories. Generally speaking, the earlier chapters are longer than later
chapters. Segments of stories of earlier prophets are found
throughout the text but they presume knowledge of the whole story
from other sources.
The Arabs, who had the most developed language and poetry in the
world at the time of the revelation of the Qur'an, were stunned to hear
the Qur'an from an unlettered man. One poet declared, after hearing
few Ayat, these words are not from this world and embraced Islam on
the spot.
Studies of the Clues in the Qur'an led Muslim scholars to develop The
Scientific Method and carefully study the physical world. This
resulted in impressive advances in the sciences and arts which put
the Muslims at the top of the civilized world for 8 centuries. Latin
translations of their books started the Renaissance several centuries
later when the grip of the Catholic Church on Europe weakened.

ago. This separates the Qur'an from other religious texts which
were limited to the knowledge of the people at the time the text
was completed. The Qur'an is the only book of revelations that
exists today in its original language and form. Therefore it is the
only text available today that is restricted to the word of God .
The knowledge in the Qur'an was beyond Muhammad's knowledge

and beyond the knowledge contained in the Bible. Therefore, the
Qur'an could not have been written by Muhammad.
The Qur'an criticized Muhammad when he demanded that prisoners

of war teach illiterate Muslims how to read and write as a condition of
their release. He was reminded that a prophet should not go to
extremes and desire this world while God desires the afterlife [8:67].
He was criticized again when he turned away from a blind man to call
one of Mecca's distinguished men to Islam. He was also asked not to
dislike people who did not believe.
Muhammad wept after receiving these verses. This is another proof

that Muhammad did not write the Qur'an to impress people and claim
Prophecy. He honestly delivered the Word of God.
The Qur'an presents the divine principles as signs, clues or guides

(Ayat) to help the Muslim succeed in this world and in the hereafter.
Islam has no clergy or religious hierarchy charged with the "official" or
"exclusive" interpretation of the divine principles. This leaves the
detailed interpretation and application of these principles to individual
Muslims who are free to choose and, therefore, must accept the
responsibility for their choices.
The stories and personalities in the Qur'an are not limited to specific
events in the past. They refer to events and personalities that are
relevant to the reader's life. The only specific personal references in
the Qur'an are those of Jesus who was referred to as Jesus, son of
Mary; and Mary who was referred to as Mary, daughter of 'Imran. The
miracle of the virgin birth was limited to the historic Jesus and Mary.
The Prophet Muhammad did not give a complete and detailed

interpretation of the Qur'an. When queried about certain passages
related to the universe we live in or the unseen world, he often gave a
brief interpretation or declined to answer. This discouraged casting
the words in stone and limiting the Qur'an to the concepts of the
period.
The Qur'an has infinite meanings and will continue to dazzle future
generations. If all the trees on earth were pens and more than the
oceans were ink, that would not be enough to record the Word of God
[31:27,18:109].
Readers of the English translation of the Qur'an are at a

disadvantage. Available English translations attempt to represent
each Arabic word with one English word. This distorts the meaning
since the two languages come from different worlds. The distortion is
similar to that of exchanging one dollar for one peso.
The translations frequently use archaic English and do not convey the
meaning derived from the elegant and beautiful Arabic verse.
Instead, the translations frequently convey ridiculous and offensive
meanings.
Sincere readers of these translations should not despair since the

relevant Clues will penetrate the distortions and deliver the promise of
the Qur'an. The readers should focus on the general meaning and
not on the individual words and sentences.
Readers, who expect a certain structure similar to that of books

written by people about the word of God such as the Old and New
Testaments, will be frustrated by the absence of complete stories, the
unexpected changes in topic and voice within the same paragraph,
and the apparent repetition or contradiction.
These issues have been critically analyzed by Muslim and non-

Muslim Arabian linguistic scholars since the revelations began. These
scholars had centuries of impressive poetic and literary heritage
under their belt. The analysis overwhelmed all of them and they
ended up declaring the Qur'an a miraculous new form of Arabic. The
non-Muslim scholars often embraced Islam at the end of such
analysis. All attempts to duplicate the linguistic style of the Qur'an
from 610 AD to the present have failed.
However, the Qur'an did not come to the world to intimidate the
scholars. The Qur'an came with knowledge, guidance, sermon,
vision, healing, good tidings, and mercy for the world [7:203,
7:52, 10:57, 12:111, 16:64, 16:89, 27:77, 28:43, 31:3, 45:20].
The Qur'an came to detail and explain everything and to settle

differences of opinions [12:111, 16:64, 16:89]
The proper way to approach the Qur'an is to keep the above aspects
in mind and read it as a book of divine clues, signs or guidelines to
guide the reader along the spiritual path.
The reader should not attempt to understand all the divine Clues.
Many of the Clues, thought by readers 14 centuries ago to be elegant
literary structures, turned out to be references to actual scientific
description of aspects of our universe. Some of the Clues puzzling the
reader today will have a specific meaning to a Sufi master or a future
scientist.
By contemplating relevant Clues, the sincere reader will receive

knowledge, guidance, healing, and mercy.
The Qur'an should be read many times. As sincere readers turn to

God and apply the relevant Clues from the Qur'an to their lives, more
Clues will open up to them to guide them along the spiritual path. This
process continues until the words lose their common meaning and
point only to relevant spiritual issues leading closer and closer to God.
Al-Ghazali, the famous Sufi and Sunni scholar, compared this

process to handling oysters. Their outside surface is uninteresting
but if you open one, you are immediately rewarded by the beautiful
mother of pearl and the edible morsel for spiritual and physical
gratification. If you continue to open oysters, you are more likely to
find a pearl. If you continue collecting pearls, you are more likely to
find a black pearl.

depend on accepting ancient accounts of miracles without question.
Sufis maintain that those who read the Qur'an without weeping
do not understand what they are reading!
The Qur'an And Modern Science

The Qur'an, as the final word of God, anticipated many of the modern
scientific discoveries which were beyond human imagination 14
centuries ago. The Muslim scientific revolution, which produced the
renaissance that put Muslims at the top of the civilized world for 8
centuries, was a result of contemplating the clues in the Qur'an about
the physical world.
This separates the Qur'an from other religious texts which were
limited to the knowledge of the people at the time the text was
completed.

depend on accepting ancient accounts of miracles without question.
The following examples show modern discoveries that are consistent

with the Qur'an:
• The heavens and the earth were one before they were ripped
apart. Life started in the water and living things are mostly
water [21:30]. Today when scientists look for traces of life on
Mars or Jupiter moons, they look for water!
• Reptiles came out of the water and were followed by two
legged then 4 legged creatures [24:45].
• The heavens are expanding [51:47]. Modern science tells us
that the universe was started from a singularity. The
pictures taken by Edwin Hubbell in Mount Wilson observatory
in 1929 showed that the universe was expanding which led
to the Big Bang theory. The Qur'an anticipated this
"discovery" by 14 centuries.
• The heaven used to be smoke [41:11]. We know that smoke is
a mixture of hot gases and suspended particles.
• The atom is not the smallest unit of matter in the universe
which indicates the presence of subatomic particles! [34:3]
• The Universe was created over a very long period. For God,
some days last 1000 lunar years [22:47, 32:5]. This was used
by Professor Mansour Hassab-Elnaby, an Egyptian physicist,
to calculate the speed of light C=299792.5 km/s !!!
• The Qur'an predicts that the speed of light is not the fastest
speed in the universe. Spirits and angels proceed to God at
50 times the speed of light [70:4]
• The earth rotates around its axis [27:88], rotates around the
sun [7:54], is not flat but is like a ball [39:5] or an egg [79:30].
• The lowest point on earth is near the dead sea [30:3].
• Iron was sent to earth by God [57:25]. Scientists now believe
that iron was introduced to earth by meteors.
• The oceans have layers of waves and layers of darkness in
which some creatures have light [24:40]. Scientists discovered
recently different currents at different depths.
• When different seas ( i.e. different in salinity, temperature,
oxygen content, etc. ) meet, there is a barrier between them
that they do not violate [55:19-20]. This is not apparent by
visual observation but temperature sensitive satellite pictures
confirm this.
• Mountains are pegs that have roots extending below the
surface of the earth [78:7], mountains stabilize the earth's crust
by minimizing earthquakes [16:15].
• Earthquakes precede volcanic eruptions [99:1].
• The earth's core is heavier than its crust [99:2].
• Our sun is not the only sun in the universe [25:61]. Modern
astronomy tells us that the sun is actually a star and therefore
the universe is full of suns. Astronomers are looking for other
planets like ours. The Qur'an predicts they will find other
planets [65:12]
• The Bible differentiates the sun and the moon by size only:
"God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day
and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the
stars" [Genesis 1:16]. The Qur'an tells us that: the sun is a
shining glory while the moon is a light [10:5]; the sun is a lamp
and the moon is a light [25:61,71:16]; the sun is a blazing lamp
[78:13] .
• The solar system is travelling through the universe to a final
destination [36:38].
• At the end of time, the sun will stop radiating energy and will be
folded into a ball [ 81:1] (quasar? Black hole?)
• Morning is associated with breathing [81:18]. Now we know
that plants produce oxygen in presence of light and consume
carbon dioxide.
• Sperm attaches itself to the egg to form an attachment or a
leach then a chewed-like lump which develops bones which
are covered with flesh and then changed into a different form [
23:14]. This refers to facts discovered only recently when
scientists, using special scopes, followed the development of
the fetus from a fertilized egg to a form resembling lower
vertebrae before turning into the human form.
• After contemplating the descriptions of embryonic stages as a
leach then a chewed-like lump [23:14], Professor Keith Moore,
a Canadian embryologist, compared pictures of different
embryonic stages to pictures of leaches and chewed clay and
confirmed the amazing accuracy of the Qur'anic verses.
• Human pregnancy passes through 3 trimesters [39:6]
• Different clouds (positively and negatively charged?) are
harmonized to produce droplets of water and lightning [24:43].
This is not surprising since The Qur'an came to detail and explain
everything and to settle differences of opinions [12:111, 16:64,
16:89].
Islam, The Qur'an, and The

Prophet Muhammad In The
Bible
Many Jewish and Christian authors in the US emphasize the term
"Judeo-Christian religion" and ignore The Prophet Muhammad 's
mission, the final phase which completed the universal and original
religion of God that spanned the period from the creation of Adam
and Eve to the present. This religion is referred to in the Qur'an as
Islam (Turning To God).
These authors missed the fact that the Bible anticipated the mission
of the Prophet Muhammad and the Qur'an:
In Deuteronomy 18, Moses addressed the Jewish tribes in Sinai:

"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from
among your own brothers. You must listen to him [15]".
"I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their
brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them
everything I command him [18]. If anyone does not listen to my
words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him
to account [19]. But a prophet who presumes to speak in my
name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet
who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death
[20]."
Since all the Jews were present in Sinai, the reference to their
brothers means the Arabs, descendants of Ishmael who was
Abraham's first born son and heir according to ancient customs.
This is a reference to Muhammad and the Qur'an, the eternal Word of

God. Muhammad meticulously separated the Word of God from his
own thoughts and prohibited his companions from writing his sayings
during his life time to keep them separate from the Qur'an.
Like Moses, Muhammad saw and spoke to God. Moses was the only
Jewish Prophet to face God: "Since then, (the death of Moses) no
prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face
to face", Deuteronomy [34:10]. We also know that Muhammad was
not put to death for claiming what God did not reveal to him.
Like Moses, Muhammad married, fathered children and led his nation.
Moses took shelter at Midian, which was later named Yathrib after his
father-in-law, Jethro. Muhammad went to Yathrib, which was
renamed Medina.
When the companions of Moses saw Pharaoh's army, they cried out:
Surely we are being overtaken!" - but Moses replied: By no means,
my Lord is with me. He will show me a way out." While hiding from
pursuing enemies in the cave of Hira, Muhammad's reply to his
companion Abu Bakr was "Do not worry, God is with us."
Unfortunately, most of the Jews in Arabia aligned themselves with the

Arabs who fought against the early Muslims to stop the spread of
Islam. Few Jews responded to Moses' urging to listen to the Prophet (
Muhammad ).
John [16] indicates Jesus predicted a counselor to follow him and

bring the massage of God to Christians: "But I tell you the truth: It
is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the
Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you
[7]. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to
sin and righteousness and judgment [8] in regard to sin, because
men do not believe in me [9]; in regard to righteousness,
because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no
longer [10]; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this
world now stands condemned [11]. I have much more to say to
you, more than you can now bear[12]. But when he, the Spirit of
truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on
his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you
what is yet to come[13]. He will bring glory to me by taking from
what is mine and making it known to you [14]. All that belongs to
the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from
what is mine and make it known to you [15]."
Muhammad revealed all the divine truth to all people including

Christians. He meticulously separated the Word of God, the Qur'an,
from the Word of Muhammad.
The Bible referred to a third major phase of God's religion

superceding the earlier phases and coming from the mountains near
Mecca:
He said: "The Lord came from Sinai and dawned over them from
Seir; he shone forth from Mount Paran. He came with myriads of
holy ones from the south, from his mountain slopes",
Deuteronomy [33:2]
Coming from Sinai refers to the mission of Moses, which was

superceded by the dawning of the mission of Jesus which was
superceded by the shining of the mission of Muhammad. Paran refers
to a mountain near Mecca.
The Bible refers to the Arabs, the children of Ishmael, as a great

nation and tells us that God was with Ishmael as he grew up in the
desert of Paran. In Genesis [ 21] God comforted Hagar, Abraham's
Egyptian wife, in a dream and told her that her son, Ishmael, will not
die of thirst:
"Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into
a great nation." [18] Then God opened her eyes and she saw a
well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave
the boy a drink [19]. God was with the boy as he grew up. He
lived in the desert and became an archer [20]. While he was
living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from
Egypt [21]".
Isaiah [42] predicted a new religion starting in Arabia by descendants

of Kedar the son of Ishmael. One of the rituals of that religion would
be singing the praise of God from the mountaintops. "Sing to the
Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who
go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who
live in them [10]. Let the desert and its towns raise their voices;
let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of
Sela sing for joy; let them shout from the mountaintops.[11]"
During the Muslim pilgrimage, myriads of Muslims gather on a
mountain south of Sinai to atone for their sins and celebrate the glory
of God.
Revelation [19] describes a final leader of religion and state who will
defeat the forces of evil and make the Word of God supreme: "I saw
heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse,
whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges
and makes war [11]. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his
head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no
one knows but he himself [12]. He is dressed in a robe dipped in
blood, and his name is the Word of God [13]. The armies of
heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed
in fine linen, white and clean [14]. Out of his mouth comes a
sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule
them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of
the wrath of God Almighty." [15]
The Prophet Muhammad was the last Prophet. He rode horses and
waged war on the enemies of Islam. He was known as "the Honest"
long before he started receiving the Qur'an. His face was compared to
the sun. His tent and favorite coat were red. The red coat was passed
on to those who followed him in leading the Muslim Nation and
became an article of succession,
His main message was the Word of God, the Qur'an. The Qur'an is
also referred to as the Furqan, the separator, which separates right
from wrong. Muhammad's followers rode horses, dressed in white
and were clean since Muslims are required to clean themselves and
their clothing before each of the 5 daily ritual prayers. The Holy
Roman and the Persian empires were struck down by the early
Muslims.
Islam prohibited drinking wine. Muslims brought the wrath of God on

the infidels. The Muslim battle cry was: " Allahu Akbar " which could
be translated as: "God is most great" or " Only God is great".

by Jesus and his disciples. After considering the massage of the
Body And Soul
(The Material Versus The Spiritual)
Islam balances the needs of the body and soul or those of the
material and spiritual worlds [Qur'an 28:77, 2:143]. Islam does not
promote monasticism or escapism from the world. This acknowledges
that our world would collapse if the path to God required meditation in
seclusion in monasteries, caves, forests, or on mountain tops.
Muslim retreats, which follow the example set by the Prophet

Muhammad after the revelation of the Qur'an, are usually conducted
in the mosque during the last 10 days of the month of Ramadan when
Muslims are required to fast from dawn to sunset.
Muslims are expected to earn a living, marry, raise children, support

their extended family, their neighbors and fellow Muslims. Making an
honest living is a form of worship that fulfills God's plan for life on
earth.
The Prophet Muhammad once noticed a man in the mosque praying

day and night. He enquired: "Who supports this man?"His
companions told him that the man's brothers support him. The
Prophet said: "His brothers are praying more than he is".
The Muslim approach of turning to God, while fully engaging life, is

more challenging than meditating in seclusion away from the
challenges of life and human relationships.
Muslims are encouraged to enjoy God's blessings[Qur'an 2:57]. While

seeking the hereafter, they should not forget their share of this life
[Qur'an 28:77]. The Prophet Muhammad advised Muslims to work
for this life as if they would live forever and work for the
hereafter as if they would die tomorrow.
Muslims should not be too hard on themselves; and should not

despair of God's mercy. God forgives all sins; and God is the most
Forgiving, the most Merciful [Qur'an 39:53].
Islam encourages moderate spending. Muslims are told not to be

cheap or wasteful [Qur'an 17:26, 27 & 29].
Those who prefer to work for the hereafter will be greatly rewarded by
God. Those who prefer to work for this life will get worldly rewards but
will lose their share in the hereafter [Qur'an 42:20]. The hereafter is
the "real" life [Qur'an 29:64].
Islam offers the seeker the Golden Mean.
Sufism
(Changing Lead Into Gold)
Sufism defines a spiritual path derived from the Prophet Muhammad's
spiritual practices leading to his full spiritual enlightenment and
beyond. The practices were outlined by Muhammad's companions,
particularly his cousin, and fourth successor, Aly who wrote the first
manual on the subject.
Aly reported how the Prophet dispatched him to be Chief Justice in

Yemen. When Aly complained he didn't know how to judge cases, the
Prophet touched Aly's chest and opened his heart center.
Subsequently Aly had no difficulty judging any case.
Opening the heart is an important Sufi goal. The heart helps the
seeker sense the spiritual world. al-Ghazali once said: "If God took
over the heart, it is flooded with Grace, enlightened, opened, and the
secret of the Kingdom is revealed."
The famous Sufi woman, Rabi'a al-Adawiyyah said: "My God, If I

worshipped you out of fear of the fire, then burn me with the fire of
hell; and if I worshipped you out of desire for paradise, then deprive
me of it; but if I worshipped you for your love; then don't deprive me,
my God, of your eternal beauty". She also said: "I did not worship Him
fearing His fire and desiring His paradise, then I would be like a bad
hired hand; but I worshipped Him out of love and yearning for Him".
The Sufi transcends: obedience for nearness, blessings for the

Source, creatures for the Creator; himself for his Lord.
The Qur'an outlines the path in many places: The Heart is a faculty
like hearing and sight. Those who struggle for God's sake will be
guided to his paths. Believers who are mindful of God will be given a
light to differentiate the Truth from the rest. The path leads ultimately
to God. The most honored by God are the most mindful. God draws
to Him whoever He wants; and guides to Him whoever he delegates
to others. God devotes His Grace to whoever He wants. Be mindful of
God and seek the means to Him. Every seeker knows what quenches
his thirst.
Ibn Khaldun summarized the path: "Perseverance, retreat, and

meditation usually lead to the lifting of the veil of the senses and the
revelation of the divine domains that ordinary senses cannot perceive.
The soul is one of those domains."
Sufis weep when they listen to the Qur'an or to Sufi poetry. They long
for being in the presence of the Beloved and achieve ecstasy
whenever they are rewarded by a glimpse.
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) concluded that the Sufi path can be traveled by
determination and practice and not by reading and research. He
declared that the Sufi is brave because he is shielded from the fear of
death; is very good because he is shielded from the love of what is
not right; is forgiving because his ego is above being hurt by a human
mistake; is forgetting hatred because his memory is busy with the
Truth.
Abu Muhammad al-Gargiri defined the Sufi path as entering every

high character trait and exiting every low. Abu Bakr al-Kattani defined
the path as character: Improving character, improves spiritual purity.
Abul Hasan al-Nuri declared that the path is not a plan or science;
otherwise it would be traveled with effort and study. The path can be
traveled by acquiring divine character traits.
Many of the early Sufi masters were also chemists who used
chemical terms; such as filtration, distillation, crystallization, and
dissolution; to describe the nature of each spiritual step. One
prominent example of those masters is Jabir Ibn Hayyan the father of
modern chemistry.
The process of converting an average person to an enlightened

one was compared to making gold from a base metal like lead.
The spiritual aspect was beyond westerners who erroneously define
alchemy as the art of making gold from lead. Alchemy is derived from
the Arabic word for chemistry, al-Chimya.
Sufis vary in their treatment of material wealth. Some follow the

example of the Prophet Muhammad who gave up his wealth and lived
an austere life after his Muslim mission began. Others live affluent
lives, pursue their business interests and require their followers to
pursue a business or trade to support themselves and their
dependents. They emphasize non-attachment to the material and use
their wealth to help the needy.
When the Prophet started his mission, the Arabs lived somewhere
between the extremes of the very wealthy Meccans who lived in
luxury and the ascetic Bedouins who believed the hardships of life as
desert migrants were character building and good for the soul.
Even the wealthy Meccans gave their children to Bedouin wet nurses
who nursed the children for two years and kept them for several years
in a desert setting to teach them pure Arabic, character and strength
away from the luxuries of Mecca. The Prophet had such a nurse,
Halima, for 5 years. He showed his respect for her in public by
offering her his coat to sit on.
This gave all Arabs respect for asceticism and for those who survive
hardships. Unfortunately, this also gave many Arabs an ascetic,
inflexible and harsh point of view.
Abu al-Abbas al-Murcie differentiated between the ascetic and the

Sufi: "The ascetic came from the world to the hereafter; and the Sufi
came from the hereafter to the world." This follows the example of the
Prophet Muhammad who returned to Mecca to continue his mission
after his full spiritual enlightenment.
Sufi masters have performed miracles defying the physical laws of

the universe. In a meditation manual, al-Shadhily (1185 -1278), who
founded the Shadhily order, cautioned beginners against the trap of
performing miracles, such as walking on water, flying, healing, being
in different places at the same time, etc..., to impress people. He
emphasized that such a trap would prevent the seeker from
advancing to higher spiritual levels.
This follows the example of the Prophet Muhammad who veiled his
miracles by preceding them with sincere prayers to God and following
them by thanking and praising God.
Sufism is usually practiced within fraternal Orders
Since the seventh century AD, Sufis traveled to non-Muslim towns

and villages singing love songs, telling stories, and informing people
about Islam. They were the original minstrels or troubadours. Many
converted to Islam after contacting Sufis. European minstrels or
troubadours in the middle ages copied their practice from the Sufis
after changing the Beloved from God to women. Sufis consider
romantic love to be a weak facsimile of spiritual love.
Sufi music and dancing disturb many fundamentalist or ascetic

Muslims. Sufi music is usually accompanied by Sufi chanting or Zikr
Allah which is not frivolous. The Mawlawis are the only Sufis who
whirl during their religious ceremonies or Sam'a. Whirling is not
dancing; it produces a transcendental state. Dancing and music are
not prohibited by Islam. According to al-Ghazali, the Prophet
accompanied 'Aisha, his wife, to be entertained by dancing and music
performed by Ethiopians in the mosque in Medina.
Many Sufis excelled in philosophy, mathematics, medicine, chemistry,

geography, physics, and astronomy during the 8 centuries when
Muslims ruled the civilized world. Latin translations of their books
started Europe on the path leading to the Renaissance.
The Sufi motto is "My Lord, increase my Knowledge."
Sufi Orders
Sufism is mostly practiced within fraternal orders. Each order is
headed by a Sufi master who teaches his version or "method" to his
followers. To join an order, beginners must show serious interest in
pursuing the spiritual path, and take a vow to straighten their lives and
to obey their teachers.
The initiation ceremony follows the example of the Prophet

Muhammad when he asked each of his followers to take a vow of
loyalty before he embarked on controversial negotiations with his
enemies at Hudaybiah.
The seekers advance toward their spiritual potential using meditations

from the Qur'an and exercises designed by the teachers to meet the
seekers' needs. The advance takes place in a stepwise fashion to
raise the seekers spiritual presence from one condition or rank to the
next.
The early steps in a Sufi retreat provided the inspiration for all
12-step programs.
Seekers who reach enlightenment, are given a future life prediction by

their master and are ordered to leave and start a new branch at a
distant location. This follows the practice of the Prophet Muhammad
who used to send his top companions to distant locations to call
people to Islam and to advise new converts and administer Muslim
Law. The Prophet used to give those companions a future life
prediction before their departure.
Sufis hold a ceremony, which is usually open to the public, every

Thursday evening to recite poetry, listen to music or dance. The best
known Sufi poets are Rabi'a Al-'Adawiyyah ( the best known Sufi
woman), Ibn Al-Farid (the best Sufi poetry), Sa'di, Hafiz, and Rumi.
Original Sin And Salvation

Islam does not recognize the concepts of: original sin, women's
responsibility for the fall from Grace, or the need for a savior to
redeem humans who are sinners by nature. The Qur'an indicates that
humans are created in the spiritual form and then lowered in the
material form [Qur'an 95:4]
We are not the product of Original Sin and do not need an

intermediary in the form of a savior, prophet, saint, or clergy to reach
God [Qur'an 2:255]. Nobody is responsible for someone else's sin
[Qur'an 31:33]. We are not sinners or angels by nature and we are
capable of redeeming ourselves by making amends for our
mistakes.
We were honored when God ordered the angels, who are created
from light, to bow to Adam, who was created from clay. Satan refused
and vowed to stand in the straight path to God [Qur'an 7:16] and offer
us temptation or choice.
Satan vowed to approach us from our front, our back, our right, and
our left [Qur'an 7:17]. He would not place himself below us and he
knew that only God is above us. This indicates that all movements
identified as the right, the left, the progressive or forward, the
regressive or backward are influenced by temptation from Satan.
Muslims are safe from Satan when they aim upward and receive their
guidelines from the heaven above.
Both Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan in Paradise to try the
forbidden tree and achieve eternal life [Qur'an 7:20]. They both
shared the blame, felt shame and disgrace. God lowered them to
earth to earn their living and experience conflict , life, and death
[Qur'an 7:24,25]
They were not returned to heaven because they were originally

created to be God's trustees on earth [Qur'an 2:30].
Their experience in the Garden of Eden shows how we can return to

the Garden by balancing the needs of the Body And Soul . It is ironic
that the desire for a long life and material possessions we do not
have, which terminated Adam and Eve's life in paradise, is still very
strong today.
We knew God in the spiritual form before our birth. We were veiled
from God after birth. This is probably why babies cry when they are
born. Babies are innocent and angelic. Small children run instinctively
from adults to other children regardless of their shape or color.
As the material world tightens its grip on individuals, they turn away
from God and stop trusting their instincts. The divine purpose of life
on earth is to turn to God and to serve and worship Him. Those who
transcend the veils and ultimately know Him will be His trustees on
earth.
To return to God, we have to be mindful of Him, avoid pride and the

devil's temptation, be moderate and faithful in our prayers [Qur'an
7:26,27,29]
THE COVENANT OF MEDINA

(The World's First Written Constitution)
After immigrating from Mecca to Medina, the Prophet Muhammad
established a nation of equals based on the brotherhood between the
Muslims in Medina and those from Mecca regardless of wealth or
social status. The Muslims of Medina shared their wealth and homes
with the immigrants from Mecca, who left their homes and
possessions behind to escape from religious persecution.
Muhammad invited the Jews to join the new society as an

independent nation, governed by rabbinical court, within the Muslim
Nation. The Jews accepted and an agreement known as The
Covenant of Medina was signed in 622 AD.
The covenant guaranteed all the parties equality and freedom of

religion; emphasized the sanctity of Medina, life, and individual
possessions; and prohibited crime.
The Covenant of Medina was a giant leap for mankind and

established the basis for treating non-Muslim minorities within the
Muslim Nation which ruled the civilized world for more than 8
centuries.
Minorities were not merely tolerated but treated as independent

nations free to practice their religion, wear their traditional clothing,
maintain their own language and customs, and follow their religious
law.
The treatment of minorities within the Muslim Nation was superior to

that within any country in the world today. This treatment was also
one of the reasons Islam spread very rapidly throughout the civilized
world in the 7th century.
Muslim Law
(Shari'ah)
Islam has a balanced approach to law. The Qur'an indicates that
[Qur'an 16:126]. Islam is not a vengeful tribal religion trapped in
commandments and punishment which lead humans to despair.
Islam does not waive punishment for all crimes and all criminals
which could easily wreck the society. Punishment or forgiveness must
be decided on a case by case basis.
Muslim Law is based on several principles derived from the Qur'an

and the Prophet Muhammad's tradition. One of the basic principles is
God's desire to ease our lives [Qur'an 2:185].
The details of Muslim legal principles are beyond the scope of this
effort. Some of the basic principles are discussed here.
The Covenant of Medina (The World's First Written Constitution)

sanctified life and individual property and prohibited crime.
According to Muslim Law the right to privacy is protected. Spying

and entering someone's home without permission are
prohibited.
The state covered court cost which allowed poor people to seek
justice from the rich without fear of financial ruin. Nobody,
including the Sultan, was above the law.
False accusations and false witness were punished. Character

witnesses had to be of good character themselves and had to
establish intimate knowledge of the person in question. This
intimate knowledge was based on business dealings, or joint long
distance travel, or being a neighbor with familiarity of the comings and
goings of the person in question.
The Prophet Muhammad considered Islam the Golden Mean.

Whatever benefited the majority of Muslims was considered legal.
Long term imprisonment was considered inhumane punishment by

the freedom loving Arabs. Short term imprisonment was sparingly
used for repeat offenders. The most common punishment was
lashing the offender in public.
One of the basic legal principles
Even animal rights were not left out. Inhumane treatment of animals
or branding them in the face were prohibited. Animals cannot be used
for target practice. Those who slaughtered animals for food were
required to sharpen their blades and not to slaughter an animal in
view of another animal.
Napoleonic Law was influenced by Muslim Law. Napoleon returned

to France from his Egyptian campaign with the books of Malik, who
founded the traditional school of Muslim Law, and the books of his
successors.
Three additional principal schools of Muslim Law were founded by

Abu Hanifah, Al Shaf'i, and Ibn Hanbal. All four schools thrived during
the Renaissance of Arabic civilization when Muslims ruled the
civilized world from the 8th through the 15th centuries. Many Muslim
legal scholars were also Sufis, scientists and philosophers. This
resulted in the world's most sophisticated legal system through the
15th century.
century ended 8 centuries of legal scholarship. This trapped Muslim
Law in an alien 15th century world when Muslims ruled the civilized
world.
Today Muslim countries are using a mixture of 15th century Muslim

Law and contemporary Western Laws with mixed results. The need to
bring Muslim Law to the 21st century is urgent. It is true that the
foundations of Muslim Law, namely the Qur'an and the tradition
of the Prophet Muhammad, have not changed since the 15th
century. It is the legal structure built on the foundations that
needs updating following centuries of neglect.

Qur'an is the eternal word of God in the form of Arabic clues, signs,
and guidelines to help the Muslim succeed in this world and in the
hereafter. The massage of Islam cannot be frozen in time and has no
single or official interpretation.
The Collapse Of The Muslim

Civilization And The Rise Of
Fundamentalism
century, after centuries of Crusades, ended the Renaissance that
lasted from the 8th through the 15th centuries when Muslims ruled the
civilized world. This put the Muslims under colonial imperialism
determined to keep them divided, poor, and uneducated to supply the
colonial powers with cheap raw materials, labor, and open
unregulated markets.
Colonialists encouraged the rise of Muslim fundamentalism which is

bent on freezing Islam into 15th century words and concepts using
labels such as sunnah, Shari'ah, and the preservation of the
traditions of Islam. This prevents Muslims from continuously
developing to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world and to
adapt useful non Muslim concepts and institutions to the needs of the
Muslims.
Fundamentalists oppose any effort to keep the eternal and universal
message of the Qur'an effective in today's environment. They miss
the fact that Muslim law (Shari'ah) and the interpretation of the Qur'an
at the end of the 15th century reflected the best efforts of Muslim
scholars over a period of 8 centuries.

Qur'an is the eternal and universal word of God in the form of Arabic
clues, signs, and guidelines (Ayat) to help the Muslim succeed in this
world and in the hereafter.
The message of Islam cannot be frozen in time and has no single or

official interpretation. Islam has no religious hierarchy which means
that the efforts of all Muslim scholars are no more than their personal
interpretation of the message of the Qur'an. Muslims can accept or
reject such an interpretation because individuals are responsible for
their own actions and spirituality. Individuals cannot transfer that
responsibility to others regardless of how many books or official titles
others may have.
The 15th century scholars, who formulated what is called today:

Islamic Shari'ah, are not prophets and their best efforts must be
subject to radical revisions to help the Muslims close the gap between
their societies and the West.
The collapse of the Muslim civilization should not be construed as a

failure of Islam as a spiritual path. The collapse was caused by a
failure of the state and its institutions to adapt to a changing world.
Muslims can still turn to God and use the Qur'an to advance along the
spiritual path based on their best interpretation of the divine clues
regardless of what the fundamentalists say or do. This interpretation
will change as they advance along the spiritual path. The
interpretation will also change as the world the Muslims live in
changes.
The true spirit of Islam can be found today in the teachings and
practices of the Sufis.
Holy War
(Jihad)
Non - Muslim authors accuse Muslims of spreading Islam by the
sword, by waging holy wars. They ignore the fact that Islam is the
fastest growing religion in the world today. They cannot find a trace of
evidence showing that swords or force of any kind are responsible for
the current high rate of conversion to Islam.
The concepts of "holy war" and "just war" were developed by the Holy
(Christian) Roman Empire to force the pacifist Middle Eastern
Christians into the Roman army. These Christians believed in turning
the other cheek and renounced violence for 3 centuries before the
Romans converted to Christianity under the rule of Constantine.
It is not surprising that the Christian Roman Empire was militant, It's
first emperor believed he conquered Rome after a vision in which he
saw a cross over the sun and heard a voice telling him that he would
win under the religion of the cross.
Those who claim that Jesus preached only love and peace ignore
Jesus' words: "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to
the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." [Matthew
10:34]. " Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the
city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to
it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May
you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.
[Matthew 21:18,19].
Jesus died in his thirties leaving behind few followers. He was not
responsible for a new nation under siege by the hostile Persian and
Holy Roman Empires as Muhammad was.
Western authors erroneously translate the Arabic term jihad to mean

holy war. Jihad means struggle or resistance. Muhammad defined
the struggle with the self to be a better person or to resist temptation
as the major jihad. He also defined the struggle with others to defend
the Muslim Nation and to resist their threat as the minor jihad.

in the past. Islam presents the seeker with a natural, sound,
logical, believable, practical, simple, balanced and achievable
belief and practice system. Islam does not contradict human
nature or modern science.

ago. This separates the Qur'an from other religious texts.
The Qur'an advises against using force to change people's religion

[Qur'an 2:256] or being the aggressor [Qur'an 2:190]. Muslims are
asked to refrain from vengeance against prisoners of war or civilians
in defeated regions [Qur'an 16:126,127; 8:67]. Muslims were bound
by the guidelines of the Qur'an since they fought and did everything,
in the name of God.
Muslims fought against the rulers who opposed them and their
armies not against the people or their institutions. Non - Muslims
were admitted to Muslim Universities. Those who excelled became
top advisers to Muslim leaders regardless of race, religion, color, or
ethnic background. This was another factor which accelerated the
spread of Islam.
A search for the word "kill" found it 442 times in the Revised Standard
Version, and 271 times in the King James Version of the Bible
compared to 40 times in the Pickthall Version and 22 times in the
Yusuf-Ali Version of the Qur'an!
The facts show that Islam tolerates non - Muslim minorities within the
Muslim Nation and treats them as independent nations free to
worship and live according to their own religious laws. This was
outlined in the Covenant of Medina which became the world's first
written constitution in 622 AD.
In contrast, the Christian Romans used force to convert all the

countries under their dominion to Christianity. When Roman
Catholicism became the state religion, the Romans persecuted the
Orthodox Christians who did not convert. The number of Orthodox
Christians killed by Rome reached 200,000 which is huge considering
the small population of Egypt at the time (elshaab.com, 1/4/99,
page2).
The spread of Islam in the 7th century threatened the Romans and
Persians who shared dominion over Arabia and collected heavy taxes
from the Arabs. This led to a series of wars between the Romans and
Persians on one side and the Muslims on the other.
The Muslims won the war with Persia and restricted the Romans to
Asia minor until the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople in the
16th century. This spread the Muslim influence over the civilized
world from the seventh to the fourteenth centuries. The way Muslims
conducted the affairs of state and their personal lives led many
Christians, Jews and others to embrace Islam.
Muslims in Europe:
When the Muslims ruled European countries including Spain,

Portugal, southern France, southern Italy, and Sicily; Christians and
Jews thrived and were allowed in Muslim Universities. This gave
Europeans the scientific and artistic tools which helped them start the
Renaissance several centuries later when the hold of the Catholic
Church over Europe was weakened.
Muslim taxes were a fraction of the Roman taxes. Muslims considered

their sphere of influence as one nation. They did not transfer wealth
from the countries they occupied to Arabia or practice genocide
against the native population.
When the tables were turned and the Catholic Spaniards defeated the
Muslims in Spain and Portugal, they instituted the Spanish Inquisition
which killed or expelled millions of Muslims who refused to convert to
Christianity. The Jews suffered a similar fate at the hands of the
Spaniards.
While millions of Christians and Jews continue to thrive in the Muslim

countries after 14 centuries of Muslim domination, there is no trace of
the millions of Muslims who lived for centuries in Spain and Portugal.
Evidence of their past existence can only be found in beautiful
palaces like Alhambra in Granada, flamenco music and dancing,
Portuguese fado singing, and the abundance of Arabic words in the
Spanish and Portuguese languages.
The Crusades:
The "real" holy wars were waged by the Crusaders against the
Muslims in the Middle East. The Crusaders were brutal in their
treatment of Muslim prisoners of war and civilians. When the
Crusaders conquered Jerusalem, they killed 70,000 Muslims.
When the Muslims re-conquered the city they did not kill
anybody.
Orthodox Christians were considered heretics and therefore did not

escape the Crusaders' brutality. The Orthodox Churches, which were
safe during centuries of Muslim rule, were looted by the Crusaders.
The Holy Grail was not the only thing the Crusaders took from the
Orthodox churches.
When Muslims ended the Crusades by re-conquering Acre from the

Crusaders, Pope Nicolas IV barred Christians from selling timber to
Muslims. This embargo did not result in persecution of the Christians
in the Muslim countries.
Napoleonic Crusade:
The Crusades were not an unfortunate episode during the dark age in
Europe that ended a long time ago. When Napoleon invaded Egypt,
he ordered his troops to destroy the face of the sphinx and the tip of
the great pyramid to leave his mark on them.
His cavalry desecrated al-Azhar mosque, the Muslim World's

equivalent of the Vatican and the first university in the world, with their
horses. The French soldiers burned the rare manuscripts in its library
to keep warm.
Napoleon was proud that he had ordered beheading 5-6 people daily
and parading their heads in the streets to scare the population!
After defeating the Turks in Jaffa, Napoleon ordered his troops to kill
about 2500 Turkish soldiers from the city garrison who surrendered.
The soldiers were led to the shore and the French kept firing at them
until they ran out of ammunition then finished them off with bayonets.
The water turned red from the blood of the slain Turks. In the city, the
killing, raping, looting and burning lasted for 2 days and did not stop
until the French troops were too exhausted to continue.
When a survivor of the Jaffa massacre killed a French general, his

hands were cut, his wrists were burned then he was impaled. After
his slow death, his head was severed and was given to a French
surgeon who showed the skull to his students in Paris as an example
of a terrorist and a criminal.
It seems that the principles of the French revolution: Freedom,

equality and brotherhood did not apply to Muslims! This was later
confirmed when the French occupied Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia
and declared them French territories. The French citizenship was
given to Jews and Christians but not to Muslims!
Modern Crusades:
When general Allenby, the commander of the British forces in the

Middle East during World War I, entered Jerusalem and Damascus
he proclaimed the end of the Crusades.
Nazi Crusade:
Abdel Wahab El-Messeri (Al-Ahram Weekly, 23 - 29 December 1999,

Issue No. 461)
reported:
"In the course of my research for the Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism

and Zionism, I was surprised to find how frequently the word
"Muselmann" (Muslim) appeared in the Auschwitz concentration camp
lists. According to one source, the victims who were led off to the gas
chambers were called "aliens" ((??)) and according to other sources,
"Muselmanner". In the Encyclopedia Judaica, I came across the
following entry:
"Muselmann (Muslim in German) was a commonly used terms in the

concentration camps, used to refer to the prisoners who were on the
brink of death, that is to say those who began to show the final
symptoms of starvation, disease, mental apathy and physical
weakness. The term was primarily used in Auschwitz, but was also
used in other camps."
We see here an epitome of one central dimension of the Western

mentality. Whenever it destroys its victims it perceives them as
"other," and the other, since the time of the Crusades, has always
been the Muslim. In the Middle Ages, moreover, Muslims and Jews
were closely linked in the Western mind. One can find, for instance,
many paintings which portray the Prophet Muhammad (born 570 AD)
flogging Christ.
The Nazi experience is an authentic product of this Western mindset.

The Nazis were the standard bearers of this vision. They epitomised
the Western confrontation with the oriental civilisation closest to
Europe: the Islamic civilisation. They never forgot this burden, even
when annihilating millions of inhabitants of Europe. The connotation
of the term "Muselmann" was simply extended to include the "other"
in general, whether Slavs, Jews or Gypsies (as has occurred in a
similar manner with the word "Arab" in Zionist discourse). The writer
of the preceding entry in the Encyclopedia Judaica attempted to
explain how this term came into currency in the camps. The Nazis'
victims, he said, would crouch cross-legged in the "oriental" manner
and the expression on their faces would be wooden, as lifeless as a
mask. One notes that the writer, in his definition, made no attempt to
avoid the customary Western stereotype of Muslims. He simply
substituted the word "oriental" for "Muselmann"."
Terrorist and fundamentalist have frequently replaced the word

"oriental".
Muslims revere Moses, Jesus and all the prophets and consider
Judaism and Christianity earlier phases of the primordial religion of
God: Islam. The Muslims in Bulgaria, for example, were very active in
protecting Jewish groups from persecution, and King Hussein V of
Morocco refused to hand over his Jewish subjects to the Vichy
government in France.
Unfortunately, Jews and Christians do not recognize Islam or the

Prophet Muhammad's mission. Most Christians and Jews consider
Muslims sinners who are not chosen by God or saved and are,
therefore, not entitled to equal or humane treatment.
Jewish Crusade:
The United Nations records document countless atrocities against

Muslim civilians by the Jews in Palestine. Infamous examples are the
massacres in Kafr Qasim, Dir Yasin by the Jewish terrorist gangs
before the UN divided Palestine into a Palestinian and Jewish states.
An Israeli historian uncovered credible evidence that troops

massacred 200 Palestinians in a single village on the day Israel came
into being in 1948.
Teddy Katz, who researched events in the village of Tantura for a

masters degree, said he had spoken to witnesses including soldiers
who were present to support his findings.
`Ìt started at night and was over in a few hours,'' Katz said 14 Israeli
soldiers were killed in the ambush on the village. Tantura, near Haifa
in northern Israel, had 1,500 residents at the time. It was later
demolished to make way for a parking lot for a nearby beach and the
Nahsholim kibbutz, or cooperative farm.
Katz said the killing spree in Tantura was more tragic and bigger than
in the village of Deir Yassin just west of Jerusalem, where scores of
Palestinians were killed on April 9, 1948, in an assault by Jewish
armed groups.
Reports just after the Deir Yassin killings spoke of some 240 deaths.
Up to 700,000 Palestinians fled from their towns and villages or were
driven out by Jewish troops in the conflict between Arab and Jew that
surrounded Israel's creation.
Fawzi Tanji, now 73 and a refugee at a camp in the West Bank, is

from Tantura and worked until May 1948 as a guard for the army in
British Mandate Palestine.
He told Reuters he had watched as Israeli troops took over the

village, lined men up against a cemetery wall and shot them. Katz
said 95 men were killed at the cemetery.
`Ì was 21 years old then. They took a group of 10 men, lined them up
against the cemetery wall and killed them. Then they brought another
group, killed them, threw away the bodies and so on,'' Tanji said.
The Israeli newspaper Maariv, which reported Katz's findings

Wednesday, quoted the commander of the Tantura attack as saying
his troops had no grounds to ask questions or spare lives.
`Ìt was war...When you see the enemy opposite you, he doesn't have
a note saying he doesn't mean to shoot you. When you see him, you
shoot him,'' retired colonel Bentz Pridan said. (New York Times,
January 19, 2000)
Other infamous massacres include the massacres in Palestinian

refugee camps in Sabra and Shatila, and the recent massacre in
Qana (where Jesus once attended a wedding and changed water into
wine!) More than 200 women, children and old men who were
seeking shelter near a UN camp were killed by deliberate Israeli
bombing.
Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 20 years. In 1978, UN Security

Council Resolution 425 called " upon Israel immediately to cease its
military action against Lebanese territorial integrity and withdraw
forthwith its forces from all Lebanese territory.
Instead of complying with the UN Security Council Resolution, Israel

invaded additional Lebanese territory in 1982, 1993, and 1996 killing
tens of thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands of Lebanese
civilians.
Israel has been holding scores of innocent Lebanese hostages, some

for more than a decade, in prisons in Israel and Israeli-occupied south
Lebanon. Recent news reports also suggest that Israel has been
systematically stealing fertile topsoil from Israeli-occupied southern
Lebanon and trucking it to Israel.
The value of property, seized by Israel from 700,000 Palestinians who

fled Palestine when the Jewish terrorists announced the formation of
Israel in 1948, is estimated at more than 6 billion dollars excluding
interest.
Violation of the civil, religious and human rights of the Muslim and
Christian minorities in Israel, which are 18% of the population, had no
effect on the flow of unlimited aid to Israel. Israel has destroyed
about 400 mosques and 400 churches since the UN divided
Palestine into Palestinian and Jewish States in 1948.
It seems that the US policy of linking foreign aid to human rights and
religious persecution records of foreign countries does not apply to
Israel.
Serbian Crusade:
The Serb Christians waged war on the Muslim civilians in Bosnia and
Kosovo. In Bosnia, more than 200,000 Muslims have been killed and
more than 1400 mosques have been destroyed or damaged. About
200 villages have been destroyed in Kosovo and about 250,000
refugees have fled for their lives.
When the Serb Christians invaded Kosovo, they destroyed all

mosques despite the fact that the Christian monasteries were safe for
centuries in the predominantly Muslim Kosovo.
Double Standards:
The mentality of the Crusades still exists today under the guise of
fighting terrorists or Muslim fundamentalists, or fighting the spread of
weapons of mass destruction (meaning leaving the Muslim countries
vulnerable to the threat of mass destruction by Israel or others), or
stemming the tide of immigration by North Africans to Europe."
The economic sanctions, advocated by Pope Nicolas IV, continue

today against Muslim countries labelled by the State Department as
"rogue nations" or "nations that sponsor terrorism" or "nations that
violate civil rights of minorities" or "nations that oppose peace with
Israel"
Despite the media's attempts to demonize the Muslims, the facts

show that about 80% of the 23 million refugees in the world today are
Muslims!
The facts contradict all the rhetoric by the media and government
officials linking Muslims to terrorism. The State Department's
"Patterns of Global Terrorism" 1997 report, there were 123 anti-U.S.
attacks in that year; 97 occurred in Latin America, seven took place in
Europe and six in Asia. The Middle East ranked fourth as a location of
anti-American attacks.
The previous State Department report showed a similar pattern. In

1996, there were 73 anti-American attacks world-wide; 58 were in
Latin America, eight in Europe and three in the Middle East.
When the Afghani Mujahideen ( those who conduct Jihad ), aided by

fighters from Saudi Arabia trained and armed by the US, fought the
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, they were hailed as freedom
fighters. Jihad was good in those days. The US was calling for a
worldwide Islamic Jihad against the Soviets.
When the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, the Mujahideen were

quickly denounced as terrorists because of their opposition to the
Israeli occupation of Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese territories.
Christian fundamentalists are waging a Crusade to end the separation

between church and state in the US and put the first nail in the coffin
of the American system of government. They have replaced modern
science with the Bible in their schools. They advocate a pre-
renaissance philosophy. This proves the Muslims provided the
knowledge that launched the Renaissance in Europe. It is ironic
that the West opposes Muslim fundamentalists who teach evolution in
their schools.
Some Christian fundamentalists even turned to violence when they

could not impose their views legally and killed law enforcement
officers in Waco and bombed abortion clinics in several cities. The
government and the media never refer to the threat of Christian
fundamentalists.
Jewish fundamentalists murdered Rabin, their own prime minister,

when he finally saw the light. Rabin realized that Israel has to make
peace with the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab World to secure
its long term prospects in the region.
Jewish fundamentalists oppose peace and conduct demonstrations

with banners calling for killing the Arabs. Many of these
fundamentalists have killed Palestinian civilians and desecrated the
Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and were either never arrested or quickly
released from police custody because there were judged mentally
unstable.
These activities are never reported by the media in the US the way
they cover suicide bombings by desperate militants who have lost
everything to illegal destruction of their homes and killing of their
family members by the Israeli government or by Jewish settlers who
are illegally taking over Palestinian territories and barring Palestinians
from access to their farms and places of worship to pressure them
into submission to the illegal status quo.
The West ignores the threat of Christian and Jewish fundamentalists

while actively opposing Muslim fundamentalists, even when they are
democratically elected.
The military takeovers of the elected governments in Algeria, Sierra

Leone, Tajikistan and Turkey were encouraged by the West.
However, the military takeover of the elected government in Haiti was
not tolerated. The UN authorized a US invasion to return the elected
government to power.
The Crusade against Iraq:
The US vetoed many UN decisions condemning Israeli actions. The

Muslim countries were told peace can be achieved only by direct
negotiations with Israel. Military action or sanctions against Israel
were never options for attaining peace in the Middle East.
This policy did not apply to Iraq - the former US ally during the
Iran/Iraq war. The US obtained a UN decision against Iraq the day
following the invasion of Kuwait. Kuwait had been a province of Iraq
until the British decided to make it a separate protectorate after
World War I. Iraq was not allowed (like Israel) 32 years of
procrastination and frivolous negotiations with the Sheik of Kuwait.
In short, there was no peace process.
Iraq was bombed into the stone age and unprecedented sanctions
were imposed which led to the death of more than one million Iraqis
to-date. A whole generation of Iraqis was murdered by the sanctions
against Iraq since 1991. Swift military action is ready to kill more
Iraqis if they protest the frivolous inspections that have been going on
all these years.
More than 270 teams of inspectors have conducted 9340

inspections. Since 1991, the inspectors verified the destruction of 30
warheads, 18 ballistic missiles, 700,000 tons of chemicals they
claimed could produce weapons, and 40,000 tons of chemicals that
could be used in weapons.
The inspectors claim they still need to do their work. The US

maintains the sanctions will continue until the inspectors "finish" their
work.
Americans who oppose the U.S. government's policy on Iraq ended a

Christmas visit Tuesday meant to focus attention on the suffering of
Iraqi children (December 28, 1999 9:32 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com).
During their weeklong visit, the group spent Christmas among the
Iraqi Christian community in Basra, a city some 335 miles south of
Baghdad.
"We spent Christmas morning in one of the hospitals where we saw

for ourselves infants dying because there is never enough medicine,"
said Chuck Quilty of Rock Island, Ill., one of eight American Catholics
in the Voices in the Wilderness delegation.
UN officials keep resigning in protest of the sanctions against the Iraqi

people. The latest resignations came February 14, 2000 from Hans
von Sponeck the top UN official in Iraq and Jutta Burghardt the head
of the World Food Program.
Current Crusade:
Unfortunately, the holy war against Islam will continue to claim more
Muslim victims in the foreseeable future. In an effort to keep the
military industrial complex going after the end of the cold war, Islam
has been targeted as the new enemy and new threats have been
invented. This keeps tax payers' subsidies flowing to the cold war
industry and protects it from competition from the productive
economy.
The US spends more on the military than the rest of the world
combined. The government needs terrorists and Islamophobia to
justify this level of military expenditures. It is ironic that the current
most dangerous enemies, according to the US government, were
trained and armed by the US!
The US accounts for half of the weapons exports around the world.
These exports need wars and conflicts to sustain them. This is a
major disappointment to all the people who hoped that the collapse of
the Berlin Wall would bring world peace and prosperity for all.
The oil producing countries in the Middle East purchase a significant

portion of the US arms sales. US taxpayers subsidize massive military
aid to Israel. A just peace in the Middle East would eliminate most of
the US arms sales.
Muslim militants in the Middle East are resisting Israeli occupation of

the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria. This occupation violates
international law and numerous UN resolutions. Targeting the
militants will not bring peace to the Middle East but will bring the
downfall of the moderate leaders. Ending the occupation will bring
peace and help the moderates on both sides build a better future for
all the people in the Middle East.
The racial conflicts in the US in the 1960s offer a useful analogy.

The assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and militant
black leaders did not end the riots and the strife. The conflicts were
not obviously caused by the militants. The militants and the conflicts
emerged from the anger and frustration of the black masses who
were helpless in the face of persistent discrimination.
Respecting and supporting equal rights for Blacks ended all the
conflicts and allowed blacks to play a productive role that benefited
the whole society.
The Muslim militants are the product - not the cause of the anger and
frustration in the Muslim countries which are helpless to defend
themselves in the face of Israeli arrogance backed by unlimited US
support.
In the mean time The US provides Israel with military and financial aid
so they can continue their occupation of Arab lands by force for more
than 32 years and disregard UN resolutions.
Respecting the rights of the Muslim countries and implementing the

UN resolutions protecting the rights of the Palestinians, Syrians, and
Lebanese would bring just peace to the Middle East. This would also
restore the friendly and beneficial relations the US had with all the
Muslim countries after World War II.
American national interest would significantly benefit from good

relations with Arab and Muslim countries. Unfortunately, that has
been totally ignored and replaced with a policy of supporting
outrageous Israeli actions and policies at any price.
The Jewish influence on American foreign policy which started during

the Lyndon Johnson administration and reached an unprecedented
level in the Clinton administration is responsible for this shift.
The Muslim world occupies about one fourth of the world area.
Muslims represent about one sixth of the World population. American
Muslims outnumber American Jews in the US. Yet the media consider
the Muslims invisible and portray them in the worst possible image.
American interests in the vast Muslim world are being sacrificed for
the benefit of 5 million Israelis and their US supporters!
Comprehensive campaign finance reform is sorely needed to free US
policy from lobbies and pressure groups and focus it on real "national"
interest.
Christians and Jews are better off studying their Bible which
anticipated Islam, the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad. Instead of
trying to beat the Muslims, Christians and Jews should join them so
they can all turn to God and fulfill the promise of His creation.

by Jesus and his disciples. After considering the message of the
Muslims are not the enemy terrorizing the West. They are the
victims of the nonstop Crusades. Islam is not a threat to the
West. It is the only religion that can solve the social and moral
problems of the West.
THE MUSLIM CONCEPT OF

CHARITY
(Zakat)
Charity sometimes precedes prayer in the Qur'an as an article of faith.
The recipients are specified as the needy relatives, orphans, the poor,
the weak, the homeless, and those who ask [Qur'an 2:177, 9:60].
Charity usually closely follows prayer as an article of faith [Qur'an
2:43& 23:4].
Muslims are required to give of what God blessed them with. This
expands the concept of charity beyond money [Qur'an 22:35] to
include knowledge, talent, time, and labor. This also expands the
eligibility to give beyond the rich to include most people.
Giving is encouraged whether openly or confidentially [Qur'an 2:271,

2:274]. Giving openly encourages others to give while giving
confidentially helps the recipient save face. This is why confidential
giving is preferred [Qur'an 2.271]. Those who give shall be rewarded
by God and shall not be afraid or sad [Qur'an 2:274].
The benefits of giving can be lost if the donor hurts the feelings of the
recipient [Qur'an 2:263-264] or if the donor is giving to impress others.
Giving is sharing the blessings of God with the needy [Qur'an

28:77] and should not be considered a nuisance tax on one's
possessions. The Arabic term for charity is Zakat which means
sweetening. Giving sweetens the donor's remaining funds.
The amount to give should be at least 2.5% of the funds accumulated

at the end of the year. These are funds that exceed the donor's need
regardless of income and expenditure.
The charitable rate rises to 20 % of secondary income such as a

bonus, an inheritance, an award etc. [Qur'an 8:41]
Giving in this fashion narrows the gap between the rich and the poor,
reduces social conflicts, and promotes a productive economy.
Diverting 2.5% of the donor's accumulated funds to basic
consumption by the needy and away from bidding up the price of
paper assets or luxury goods, benefits the whole economy including
the wealthy donors.
Giving to the needy is not a generous gesture by the donors it is

their duty and responsibility as recipients of a favorable share of
God's blessings.
The Prophet Muhammad used to give to the needy all the money and
gifts that exceeded his needs on a daily basis. He placed his faith in
God to provide for his future needs.
The Prophet Muhammad defined personal wealth as what a person

consumes and gives to the needy. Charity is considered the
everlasting personal wealth. Our estate is the wealth we accumulated
for others.
Pride And Conceit
Pride and conceit turn people away from God toward their ego which
cares only about possessions, individual accomplishments etc.
without giving credit to others' contributions or help from God in the
form of opportunity or luck.
The Qur'an advises against saying: "I'll do that tomorrow

[18:23]". We should always say: "God willing, I'll do that
tomorrow"[18:24]. Pride and conceit are not Muslim traits. Muslims
should consider their insignificance compared to the universe [Qur'an
19:37-38].
Pride and conceit make people feel superior to others and give them
a false sense of entitlement to God's bounty without responsibility to
share the bounty with others. God gives individuals different abilities
to enable them as a group to handle all the challenges presented by
life on earth.
Those with more ability in one area are entitled to enjoy the rewards
of that ability but are required to use it to benefit others. Using one's
ability to do God's work by helping other people, other creatures, and
the environment; is serving God, is worship. We were created to
serve and worship God.
Muslims start everything in the name of God ( Bismillah) and end

everything by thanking God (Alhamdu lillah). By identifying
accomplishments as God's bounty or gifts, the tendency of the ego
toward pride and conceit is controlled.
The challenge to the haves, the more gifted, is to be grateful to God

and to share the gifts with all creation. The challenge to the have
nots, the less gifted, is to be grateful to God while enduring the
challenges of life.
The concept of more or less gifted protects the individual from pride
and conceit which are more closely associated with accomplishment.
We are more gifted in some areas and less gifted in others. Gifts
should be extended beyond wealth, power, status, intelligence,
health, and physical appearance to include love, friendship,
compassion, kindness, etc.
The Qur'an advises the less gifted not to be sorry for what they
missed; and the more gifted not to be glad for what they got [57:23].
When all the gifts are considered, we are created equally.
The most honored by God are the most mindful of Him. The mindful
of God are defined as: those who believe in the unseen, do their
prayers, give from God's bounty, believe in what was brought down to
Muhammad and what was brought down before his time, are certain
of the hereafter. Those are guided by their Lord and those are the
prosperous [Qur'an 2:5].
The Prophet Muhammad once told his companions that he saw

crowds at every gate of paradise, trying to get in, except at the gate of
humility.
Real Men Of The Renaissance
Jabir Ibn Hayyan

( Geber)
(The Father Of Modern Chemistry)
Jabir Ibn Hayyan, who died in 808 AD, was a renaissance man, a Sufi
, a pharmacist and a great chemist who spent most of his life at home
in his laboratory in Damascus. He is known in the west as: Geber. He
wrote more than 200 books including 80 books on chemistry.
He was the father of molecular chemistry who correctly identified

the union of elements at a molecular level to form new compounds
without losing their own structure. This was more than 10 centuries
before John Dalton "discovered" the same thing.
Jabir was respected as a great scientist during his life while Dalton
was considered a sorcerer by his neighbors. When Dalton died, his
neighbors sealed his house then asked the parson to burn his books
to rid the town of evil!
Jabir constructed a scale capable of weighing objects as low as

1/6,480th of a pound in weight. He identified combustion as the
release of the latent energy of the combustible material when
combined with oxygen at the proper temperature.
He developed noncombustible paper, florescent ink, anti rust

coatings, and water repellant coatings for fabrics. He
recommended building chemical laboratories away from population
centers to protect people from chemical pollution.
Abu Bakr Al-Razi

(Rhazes)
(The Father of Pediatrics, Author of the First Medical Book Printed in
Europe)
Al-Razi who died in 932 AD, was a renaissance man, a musician who
studied philosophy, mathematics, and chemistry. He started studying
medicine in Baghdad when he was 40. He wrote 237 books on
chemistry, medicine and psychiatry. He also invented sulfuric acid.
He was the first to require medical students to undertake graduate
studies.
His medical encyclopedia in 25 volumes, Al Hawi Fi Al-Tibb was

translated into Latin by Faraj Ibn Salem and was printed in 1486 AD.
It was the first medical book ever printed in Europe.
He was the first to use music as a healing aid. He arranged his

students in concentric circles with the most advanced in the "inner
circle". He was the first to distinguish between smallpox and
measles. He was the first to treat pediatrics as a separate discipline
and wrote the first book on the subject. He was the first to identify hay
fever. His work on kidney stones is still impressive. He was the
world's greatest physician in the middle ages. His portraits can
be found in the great hall of the school of medicine, University of
Paris and in a stained glass window at Princeton University.
When asked to pick the place for a new hospital in Baghdad, he

ordered pieces of meat hung in potential sites and ordered the
hospital built on the one where the meat showed minimum decay!
Al-Khawarizmi
Al Khawarizmi, who died in 850 AD, was a renaissance man, a great
mathematician, geographer and astronomer. He introduced the zero,
negative numbers, algebra, and the decimal system to the West. This
opened the door to higher mathematics. He also invented
mathematical programming using a set of instructions to perform
complex calculations. The term algorithm (computer program,
software) is named after a variation of his name, Algorithmi.
He also produced the first global geography and an extensive index of

the positions of heavenly bodies.
Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi

( Albucasis )
( The World's First Book On Surgery )
Al-Zahrawi, who died in 1013 AD, was born, raised, educated, and
practiced in Muslim Spain. He was the world's greatest surgeon of
the 10th-11th centuries AD. He invented procedures to break up
and extract kidney and bladder stones. Only one of his books
survived the Spanish Inquisition. It contained more than 200
drawings of surgical instruments and procedures and was the
world's first book on surgery.
IBN SINA
(Avicenna)
Ibn Sina, who died in 1037 AD, is known in the West as Avicenna. He
was a renaissance man, a Sufi who excelled in mathematics, which
he studied under Al Khawarizmi. He also excelled in medicine,
science, astronomy, law, music, poetry and philosophy.
His medical reference al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (the canon in Medicine)

was the largest ever written with more than one million words
and remained the world's authority on the subject until the
nineteenth century. His portrait can be found in the great hall of
the school of medicine, University of Paris.
His books include: A'hwal al-Nafs ( Conditions of the Psyche ) in

psychology and the novel Hayy Ibn Yaqzan. This novel was the
story of a child stranded on a deserted island who grew up and
recognized God by contemplating nature. This novel became the
inspiration for Robinson Crusoe after discarding the spiritual aspects
in Hayy.
Ibn Sina diagnosed cancer and used surgical operations to remove

it. He also attributed stomach ulcers to psychological factors, such as
tension and depression, and physical factors affecting the stomach.
He attributed infections to traces left in the air by the sick. This led to
the use of quarantines to control the spread of infectious diseases.
Ibn al-Haitham
(The Father Of Modern Optics)
Ibn al-Haitham, who died in 1039 AD, was a renaissance man, a
great scientist and engineer. On a trip to Egypt to study the Nile river,
he recommended building a dam at Aswan to store the summer flood
water upstream and use it throughout the year. This project was
finally executed in the 20th century!
He studied the process of vision and formulated the laws of

reflection and refraction which explained the rainbow phenomenon.
He was the father of modern optics.
Al-Idrisi
( The World's First Globe)
Al Idrisi, who died in 932 AD, was a renaissance man, a world class
geographer. He prepared the world's first globe out of 400 pounds of
silver for the king of Sicily Roger II. The globe showed the trade
routes and detailed measurements. He also prepared a detailed
companion book. Centuries later, Europeans continued to believe that
the earth was flat.
Ibn Rushd
(Averroes)
Ibn Rushd, who died in 1198 AD, is known in the west as Averroes.
He was a real renaissance man. He was born in Muslim Spain and
studied medicine, philosophy and law. He was Chief Justice in
Cordoba, Spain and a minister in Morocco. In his spare time, he
discovered sunspots. He wrote a medical encyclopedia and several
books on law, religion and philosophy. He wrote 3 books on Aristotle
and his philosophy.
He was the first to discover the impact of physical exercise on

health.
Al-Jaldaki
(Pure Gold)
Al Jaldaki, who died in 1360 AD, was a renaissance man, a great
chemist who wrote many books on the subject. He was the first to
use masks to protect against chemical fumes. He developed
improved soap formulations. He purified gold by dissolving silver
impurities in nitric acid. He purified contaminated water by
distillation.
Ibn Khaldun
(The Real Father Of Sociology)
Ibn Khaldun, a Sufi who died in 1406 AD, was a renaissance man, the
real father of sociology. He defined the foundations of sociology
more than 4 centuries before Auguste Comte "discovered" them.
Ibn Khaldun lived in an era when the Muslim Nation in North Africa
And the Iberian peninsula disintegrated into a multitude of city states
fighting against each other. At the same time the Spaniards were
uniting their kingdoms and steadily taking over the Muslim city states
in Iberia.
He was directly involved in the political intrigue and served several

Muslim rulers in different capacities ranging from diplomatic envoy to
minister. His first hand observations led him to believe that societies
are not controlled by resources or policies.
He concluded that societies are living organisms that experience

cyclic birth, growth, maturity, decline, and ultimately death due
to universal causes. Each phase of the cycle lasts for several
generations. He also described the process through which peaceful or
violent migrants blend with the native population to form a
homogeneous society subject to the universal cycles.
He correctly associated the the maturity stage of any social

system with affluence, luxury and reluctance to perform menial
tasks or defend the society against external threats. This leads to
the employment of foreigners and mercenaries which initiates the
conflicts that lead to the decline phase.
He identified the impact of climate and available resources on

migrations and social changes. He also identified the impact of
governmental policy and taxation on social change.
Return To Index Page
If you have comments or suggestions, e-mail me at
a.aly@worldnet.att.net
Revised on 10/3/99
Copyright © 1997-1999, A. Aly. All Rights Reserved.

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Arabic numerals, algebra, logarithms, and algorithms prove the

Alchemy, amalgam, sugar, soap, alkali, and alcohol indicate the

Pupil, cornea, abdomen, saphenous, nucha, ass, blind, basilic,

During the dark age of Europe, monasteries ran hospitals where

Muslim hospitals were teaching hospitals where physicians taught in

Pharmacists were licensed after passing examinations by the State.

Muslims invented the ambulant clinic which was carried on

A census taken In 950 AD in the Muslim city of Qurtubah (now

Muslims had precise weights and measures. Gold coins made 10

Muslims introduced Europeans to postal service, gold coins,

Muslim Law (Shari'ah) was the world's most sophisticated legal

Muslim Law is based on several principles derived from the Qur'an

The Covenant of Medina (The World's First Written Constitution)

According to Muslim Law the right to privacy is protected. Spying

False accusations and false witness were punished. Character

Long term imprisonment was considered inhumane punishment by

One of the basic legal principles

Napoleonic Law was influenced by Muslim Law. Napoleon returned

Three additional principal schools of Muslim Law were founded by

Today Muslim countries are using a mixture of 15th century Muslim

The Qur'an is not a book of words, stories or commandments. The

Western authors erroneously translate the Arabic term jihad to mean

The Qur'an anticipated many of the modern scientific

The Qur'an advises against using force to change people's religion

In contrast, the Christian Romans used force to convert all the

When the Muslims ruled European countries including Spain,

Muslim taxes were a fraction of the Roman taxes. Muslims considered

While millions of Christians and Jews continue to thrive in the Muslim

Orthodox Christians were considered heretics and therefore did not

When Muslims ended the Crusades by re-conquering Acre from the

His cavalry desecrated al-Azhar mosque, the Muslim World's

When a survivor of the Jaffa massacre killed a French general, his

It seems that the principles of the French revolution: Freedom,

When general Allenby, the commander of the British forces in the

Abdel Wahab El-Messeri (Al-Ahram Weekly, 23 - 29 December 1999,

"In the course of my research for the Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism

"Muselmann (Muslim in German) was a commonly used terms in the

We see here an epitome of one central dimension of the Western

The Nazi experience is an authentic product of this Western mindset.

Terrorist and fundamentalist have frequently replaced the word

Unfortunately, Jews and Christians do not recognize Islam or the

The United Nations records document countless atrocities against

An Israeli historian uncovered credible evidence that troops

Teddy Katz, who researched events in the village of Tantura for a

Fawzi Tanji, now 73 and a refugee at a camp in the West Bank, is

He told Reuters he had watched as Israeli troops took over the

The Israeli newspaper Maariv, which reported Katz's findings

Other infamous massacres include the massacres in Palestinian

Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 20 years. In 1978, UN Security

Instead of complying with the UN Security Council Resolution, Israel

Israel has been holding scores of innocent Lebanese hostages, some

The value of property, seized by Israel from 700,000 Palestinians who

When the Serb Christians invaded Kosovo, they destroyed all

The economic sanctions, advocated by Pope Nicolas IV, continue

Despite the media's attempts to demonize the Muslims, the facts

The previous State Department report showed a similar pattern. In

When the Afghani Mujahideen ( those who conduct Jihad ), aided by

When the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, the Mujahideen were

Christian fundamentalists are waging a Crusade to end the separation

Some Christian fundamentalists even turned to violence when they

Jewish fundamentalists murdered Rabin, their own prime minister,

Jewish fundamentalists oppose peace and conduct demonstrations