How A Human Genome Scientist Found God

Bismillah walhamdulillah,

I recently visited www.digg.com, a website where people can share content from anywhere on the web, and found this article. Very interesting, check it out. (To go to the original article click here)

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I’ve found God, says man who cracked the genome
By: Steven Swinford

THE scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome is to publish a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God and is convinced that miracles are real.

Francis Collins, the director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute, claims there is a rational basis for a creator and that scientific discoveries bring man “closer to God”.

His book, The Language of God, to be published in September, will reopen the age-old debate about the relationship between science and faith. “One of the great tragedies of our time is this impression that has been created that science and religion have to be at war,” said Collins, 56.

“I don’t see that as necessary at all and I think it is deeply disappointing that the shrill voices that occupy the extremes of this spectrum have dominated the stage for the past 20 years.”

For Collins, unravelling the human genome did not create a conflict in his mind. Instead, it allowed him to “glimpse at the workings of God”.

“When you make a breakthrough it is a moment of scientific exhilaration because you have been on this search and seem to have found it,” he said. “But it is also a moment where I at least feel closeness to the creator in the sense of having now perceived something that no human knew before but God knew all along.

“When you have for the first time in front of you this 3.1 billion-letter instruction book that conveys all kinds of information and all kinds of mystery about humankind, you can’t survey that going through page after page without a sense of awe. I can’t help but look at those pages and have a vague sense that this is giving me a glimpse of God’s mind.”

Collins joins a line of scientists whose research deepened their belief in God. Isaac Newton, whose discovery of the laws of gravity reshaped our understanding of the universe, said: “This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.”

Although Einstein revolutionised our thinking about time, gravity and the conversion of matter to energy, he believed the universe had a creator. “I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details,” he said. However Galileo was famously questioned by the inquisition and put on trial in 1633 for the “heresy” of claiming that the earth moved around the sun.

Among Collins’s most controversial beliefs is that of “theistic evolution”, which claims natural selection is the tool that God chose to create man. In his version of the theory, he argues that man will not evolve further.

“I see God’s hand at work through the mechanism of evolution. If God chose to create human beings in his image and decided that the mechanism of evolution was an elegant way to accomplish that goal, who are we to say that is not the way,” he says.

“Scientifically, the forces of evolution by natural selection have been profoundly affected for humankind by the changes in culture and environment and the expansion of the human species to 6 billion members. So what you see is pretty much what you get.”

Collins was an atheist until the age of 27, when as a young doctor he was impressed by the strength that faith gave to some of his most critical patients.

“They had terrible diseases from which they were probably not going to escape, and yet instead of railing at God they seemed to lean on their faith as a source of great comfort and reassurance,” he said. “That was interesting, puzzling and unsettling.”

He decided to visit a Methodist minister and was given a copy of C S Lewis’s Mere Christianity, which argues that God is a rational possibility. The book transformed his life. “It was an argument I was not prepared to hear,” he said. “I was very happy with the idea that God didn’t exist, and had no interest in me. And yet at the same time, I could not turn away.”

His epiphany came when he went hiking through the Cascade Mountains in Washington state. He said: “It was a beautiful afternoon and suddenly the remarkable beauty of creation around me was so overwhelming, I felt, ‘I cannot resist this another moment’.”

Collins believes that science cannot be used to refute the existence of God because it is confined to the “natural” world. In this light he believes miracles are a real possibility. “If one is willing to accept the existence of God or some supernatural force outside nature then it is not a logical problem to admit that, occasionally, a supernatural force might stage an invasion,” he says.

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Shoulder To Shoulder

Bismillah walhamdulillah,

Growing up in Jakarta, in a Muslim family, it is not unusual for me to see Muslims doing a congregational prayer. At least in every Friday prayers and Ied prayers, especially Ied prayers where there are a lot more people gathering including Muslim women and children. But when you really look into it and think about it, you realize that congregational prayer really is such a wonderful tradition.

Muslims from every walks of life, lawyers, accountants, teachers, janitors, doctors, barbers, policemen, scholars, farmers, all standing shoulder to shoulder, facing the same direction, bowing, prostrating together at the same time. And that is just in the local mosque, and if you look into the Masjidil Haram in Mecca, you’ll find Muslims of all races, from all nations, praying to Allah Subhanahu wa ta’aala under one roof, facing one direction. And when it comes to the verse “wa laddhaaaliinn,” they all say “aaamiiiinnn.” Masha Allah.

In one hadith regarding the congregational prayer, Ibn ‘Umar reported that the Messenger of Allah, salla’Llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said, “Make the rows straight, stand shoulder to shoulder and close up the gaps. Give way to your brothers and do not leave any openings for Shaytan. Allah will connect with anyone who connects up the row and Allah will break off from anyone who makes a break in a row.”

In one of his speeches, Sheikh Ahmed Deedat, said that the Shaytan or the devil mentioned in the above hadith is actually the devil within ourselves. Of course that is the devil of racism, of disrespect, and of prejudice.

When we talk about there is no racism in Islam, we automatically will quote this verse from The Glorious Qur’an,

“O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).” Q 49:13

What a beautiful and meaningful verse, Masha Allah.

Let us take that example from the congregational prayer tradition, and apply it in our everyday lives, respect others, no prejudice, no racism, we are all equal in the face of Allah.

Muslims unite, and spread the truth of Islam, spread the message of peace to all mankind. Barakallah.

Salam alaikum.

 

I Had No Choice But To Become A Muslim

Bismillahirrahmaanirrahiim.

In the name of Allah most gracious, most merciful.

It is very easy, to say “Laa ilaaha illallaah, Muhammadan rrasuulullaah,” which means “there is no God but almighty God, and Muhammad is His messenger.” It is also very easy to do the testimony to Islam or what we call the shahada and that is to say, “Asyhadu anlaa ilaaha illallaah, wa asyhadu ana Muhammadan rrasuulullaah,” translated “I bare witness that there is no God but almighty God, and I bare witness that Muhammad is His messenger.” Anyone can do that, no problem. But what comes with it, now that’s a different story.

Sheikh Yusuf Estes once puts it like this, when other religions say “join us and you will go to heaven, guaranteed” Islam does nothing like that. It is the only religion in the world that guarantees that it’s followers can go to hell. Well, he’s right, but Islam says there is a way, but it won’t be easy.

Muslims pray five times a day, and must do ablution before each prayer, Muslims fast in Ramadhan for the whole month, Muslims must pay zakah to the poor, Muslims don’t drink alcohol, don’t have sex outside of marriage, don’t gamble, don’t eat pork, and must do this and that, yes, it’s not an easy way of life, especially for someone new to Islam.

So in my mind, I wonder…

What if I decided that I want to choose another religion, maybe they have an easier way to worship God. Okay, there are couple of choices that looks promising, but, wait a minute, every time I look closer into that religion, I found no satisfaction. I studied the basics of it, and just through the basics, I knew that there’s something not right in it, either the holy book isn’t in it’s original form, there are contradictions in it, or the system of belief is not personal, you don’t have a direct relationship with God, or you have to pay money, or the concept of multiple Gods, pantheism, etc. I just couldn’t be satisfied, how can I worship the one and only God that way?

I looked and looked and looked, only to find more and more errors and contradictions and I was disappointed.

What happens after that…

Then I got frustrated, started questioning religion, maybe I should just give up religion, stop believing in God, and start to rationalize everything, and think that religion doesn’t make any sense, and think that God is imaginary. Oh it feels good, I feel freedom, for a while.

When life feels empty…

Then I got confused, I got nothing to hold on to. Why am I here? How can the world possibly create itself, by chance? Who created the universe, the sun, the moon, the planets? Who designed our body to work like this, who programmed our brain, who planned our blood flow, can anything in this whole world create itself? ask yourself that question, and honestly, can it possibly?

Those questions are so much stronger and more torturing than asking why God don’t heal amputees? or why prayers sometimes don’t work? or why there are bad things in this world?

I had no choice but to believe in God…

But I still think that Islam is not an easy faith, so I tried to disprove Islam, I looked for mistakes in the Qur’an, yet there are none, I tried looking in the Shari’a, yet everything makes sense, I tried finding bad teachings of Islam and bad teachings of Muhammad (pbuh), yet I just couldn’t find any.

Okay, so I couldn’t fight Islam, I guess I’ll just take a closer look…

I dug deeper into Islam, only to find beauty, and peace. I found beauty in it’s sincere ways of worship, in it’s traditions, in it’s way of life. Suddenly, it becomes easy to do what Muslims do, because you want to do them.

I had no choice, but to become a Muslim. Not an easy way, but a fair and balanced way. Alhamdulillah.

 

Knowledge Is Power

Bismillaah,

I used to be very cautious when it comes to discussions (or debate) about religion, because I was afraid that it might give my iman (faith) a negative impact. I was afraid that I might find and realize the negative side of religion, and as a result, I might leave Islam behind. And yes, the discussions did bring up questions, in my mind, some of them are very difficult to answer at the time. And yes, the questions damaged my iman, a little.

Now, I realize why those questions damaged my iman. It’s simply because of ignorance and I didn’t care enough to find real answers. When somebody told me that hijab is an oppression to women, or when somebody told me that Islam gave no positive contribution to the world, or when somebody told me that Muhammad (pbuh) was a liar, or even when somebody misquoted the Qur’an, I took that information, tried to process it, but there were missing ingredients and one of them was knowledge. When the processing is done, the result was iman damage, for certain.

My iman, weakened, by my own ignorance…

When you replace ignorance with curiosity, you will find knowledge, and when you have knowledge, you will look at things differently. You will look at the world through the glasses of knowledge, and things will be so much clearer. Now with that knowledge in possession, discussions regarding religion becomes a media to strengthen the iman rather than to weaken it. You now know how to separate blasphemy from the truth.

There are some bits and pieces of information about Islam that, without proper knowledge, perspective, and idea of the whole picture of the religion, are easy to manipulate and they can be used against Islam itself.

Some of them are bits and pieces of the history of Islam, some are from the shari’a (law of Islam), and some from Muhammad’s (pbuh) life story and sayings.

There are some issues in Islam that some people call controversial, but when you look deeper into it, it makes perfect sense. If you need some examples, you can start with this book (or free ebook available) called “Answers To Non-Muslims’ Common Questions About Islam” by Dr. Zakir Naik. In that book, Dr. Zakir Naik gives very logical explanations to some of the common questions like polygamy, the veil, and sects in Islam.

Da’wah is a duty

Da’wah, or to invite others to Islam, is our duty as Muslims. In the Qur’an it says:

“Invite (all) to the Way of thy Lord with wisdom and beautiful preaching; and argue with them in ways that are best and most gracious.” 16:125.

Now, how in the world can we do that without enough knowledge. How can we invite people to Islam when we ourselves have doubts?

Defending our faith

Today it’s so easy to post something anonymous on the internet. Muslim-haters from all over the world write and publish hate posts and spreading lies about Islam. We as Muslims need our knowledge to defend our faith, or at least to guard our own iman.

Acquiring knowledge

There are so many resources you can pick, some are even for free. You can spend more time with your ustadz or Islamic teacher, ask questions in your local Muslim community, read more books, download free lectures available on the net (so many!,) or you can use one of my favorite resource, and that is www.youtube.com, believe me, alhamdulillah, our brothers and sisters has made ready for us videos worth watching.

The Qur’an encourages Muslims to learn and acquire knowledge. “He has taught you that which [heretofore] you knew not.” (2:239)

Shadaqallaahul aziim. Wallaahu alam.

 

Art in Islam

Bismillah,

Let me start with this quote:

“God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty”

– so said the Prophet of Islam some 1400 years ago. He also said, “God likes that when you do anything, you do it excellently.”

continue quote:

Such prophetic sayings (hadiths) have provided the impetus for Muslims’ embellishment and beautification of their places of worship, homes, and even of articles in common use in everyday life. The emphasis in Islamic art is on ornamentation rather than on art for art’s sake; while the names of the producers of the finest works of Islamic art may not have survived, their works have become prototypes and models on which other artists and craftsmen patterned their works, or from which they derived the impetus for related work.

another quote:

Because of the strict injunctions against such depictions of humans or animals which might result in idol-worship, Islamic art developed a unique character, utilizing a number of primary forms: geometric, arabesque, floral, and calligraphic, which are often interwoven. From early times, Muslim art has reflected this balanced, harmonious world-view.

end-quote, taken from here

Here are some examples of Islamic calligraphy. Most text taken from the holy Quraan.

Beautiful pieces right?

 

Islam: Peace

Islam means peace, Islam also means submitting to God. So in other words Islam is peace acquired by submitting oneself to God. The term “Islam” I took for granted, now it mean the world to me, it is my way life.

In the Islamic school that I teach, there is a framed picture of words hanging inside the office wall. It says something like this “Believe that everything belong to God, and we will not be afraid of losing” Masha Allah, how wonderful is that.

My mother (Almarhumah) passed away just a couple of years ago, I love her so dearly she was my number one person in life. She died from cancer, it was probably the hardest episode in our life. Alhamdulillah, my mom died in peace, she submitted herself to God completely. As one of the closest to her, I felt a very deep sadness I couldn’t even talk about it until probably a year after. She belonged to Allah, and this world we live in is only temporary, it is a test of faith for the real life, the eternity. Innalillaahi wa inna ilaihi raaji’uun, everything that comes from God, will return to God.