30.1.07
28.1.07
27.1.07
photo by: Radiann Porter, "Miss Opie's Agave"
Ode To Miss Opie
After he died you didn't want to change a thing
so you didn't and stayed the slow hours
waiting to go yourself and we'd pay you a visit.
One eye snapped shut and sultry
wise minks so long in the closets,
an exact replica of the twenties and the same
thing that you were when you died at 98,
the oldest old-woman in town.
How to be a widow? How to be?
Not Kate Chopin but more like
the Cat in the Hat, all those weird things
on your credenzas, all the crystal lamps,
the bobby pins on your dresser
where we practiced counting.
A hundred salt and pepper shakers,
the collections of a young woman, depression glass.
Lorna called you Miss Dopie just to be mean
or funny, hard to tell,
all your orifices in moth balls anyway.
We laughed until we found you in your kitchen one day,
propped in a chair near the yellow clapboards
looking really poor like us, real hungry
and too blind to cook.
That last year me and Lorna baked you a birthday cake
and it was real pretty for a couple of kids.
25.1.07
View From 16th
"Nothing in Clouds Hill is to be a care upon the world. While I have it there shall be nothing exquiste or unique in it. Nothing to anchor me." T.E. Lawrence
There is a sense of not wanting to be here on 16th and Center, address 319 North, some awful transposition of 19 squared there, in the Masonic house. Two small, concrete obelisks are on either side of the driveway and it ought to be pleasant to look out onto the hills from the large, clean windows of this house, the natural hills and those which are man-made and called slag; the way the sun and the iron play off of each other to create lavender vistas all around is very lovely. There isn't though any solace in the view or on the roofs of so many quaint houses staggered around the smallish valley nor any charm in the massive structure sitting directly across from here just under a natural incline where the cliffs contain whole dynasties of evolution in fossils. It is right at the base of dump number seven. That would be the old hospital which is now a boarding house for the indigent and elderly. It is a handsome building, particularly in the afternoon when the light sculpts the art deco facades into crisp shapes. The place is charming the way things like that are, irresistable to people overly accustomed to the less than Byzantine. It is mostly brick and wood laid against timber, all quite flammable and impermanent. The only solid structures in sight are the several frames of shaft elevators that dot the hills in seemingly arbitrary places that mark areas where minerals are easy to find and extract by those who, in the past descended to mine the rock walls for a variety of things like copper and silver and sometimes, a bit of gold. It ought to be pleasant, but it isn't.
The best part of being in a catastrophe is actually being in one. There is nothing anyone can really say about that sort of thing, there is no choice within the boundaries of it, no conclusions and nothing which resembles remorse. It just is. It is a case that one does what one is compelled to do and that would be, to move along with it as if in a river, just glide along and look at things as they pass by or remain motionless at various points along the way.
Waking up in a large hall prepared in advance for the arrival of so many souls (on the run) after one has slept what seemed like several lifetimes contained in a few seconds, is the material of which epiphanies are made, the kind of thing a person only gets to do once, like everything else in the scheme of things. Ship load after ship load, ours was the fourteenth wave. When a person arrives in such a hall, the rest have already disappeared to wherever it is they ship people like us, refugees. There are lines and lines of open cots with one blanket each and a brand new pillow depending on the invasion and the invader. In this particular case, it could be said of it, "it was well appointed". There are boxes full of food and the essentials, foot powder and sanitary napkins and one bathroom with three stalls and three sinks for the women and probably, about the same for the men. It is an exhibition hall on the Turkish side of the island. It is prearranged for cataclysm.
I lay down after spending several hours settling in to the camp by organizing and reorganizing my few possessions but could not sleep because I was still bleeding and felt unclean. I didn't want to shower out in the open with the other women. The children were sleeping on and off and our traveling companions with whom we had left the city two days before were actively moving about and making phone calls to Kabul and Boston. They seemed very busy. Jessica, the mother, was worried about her diet, she could not be around people who had eaten carbohydrates within the previous 24 hours, it was very important to her that we respect this. We had no phone though and there wasn't really anything any of us wanted to say, my children and I, to anyone we knew. We felt very far away, so far that no phone could ever span the distance we felt.
Night began to fall and the hall was still empty. The few stragglers from the boat before ours had departed at one, just after we arrived. We were absolutely alone with thousands of empty cots and all sorts of personal expectations that we knew could never be fufilled. We did not know how we felt yet, not really and somehow, I knew we wouldn't really know how we would feel for a very long time to come. Perhaps forever. We might never recover, I knew that much but also knew that recovery isn't always the best thing if it means there isn't a lesson learned or a price paid. We were paying dearly for something but didn't quite understand what or when the debt we had incurred would finally be paid in full. The numbness was profound.
I spent a few hours walking around the fairgrounds looking for others like myself or those even worse off, those in shock or perhaps even ill. I looked for tears and slouching and found a woman on a bench sitting all alone. I tried to comfort her with talk of God and she appreciated it even though we were of different sects entirely, whole different ballparks of understanding about our status and the cause of the invasion. The woman sobbed as we compared what we'd seen so far and how we feared what else it might be that we would see. She spoke of the sister she'd left behind. It was a kind of sad excitement that allowed the closeness to exist between us for nearly a half hour. I finally got up, held her her for a moment and said goodbye to her. I can remember her face as one of average intellect, average sadness and a complete sense of loss and frustration that aggravated the tiny lines around her eyes. Her face was already anemic from several days living under seige in the south of our country. She could have been a woman in a painting.
When I returned to the hall, everyone in my group, my children and my friend and her two daughters were already asleep or resting with their eyes half closed. No one seemed to have anything left to say even though we'd not spoken more than a few words to each other since the early afternoon. I hadn't slept for nearly a week. The last time I had slept I awoke to a thunderous explosion above our building which lit the sky like a match suddenly lights a dark room. No one moved or said anything as I prepared to lay down, not even a goodnight let alone, an I love you. Then I fell without even a pause to observe my last deep sigh into a dark and immense sleep.
I woke up suddenly but without being startled or disoriented. I had no idea how much time had passed but if time were to be measured as change it must have been years that I had slept because what I saw as I opened my eyes was a world which had completely changed.
The cavernous hall which had been so empty was now filled, every cot in it had a sleeping body there and some held two. None of them moved. I cannot imagine how they settled so close to us in such silence, the way an army of butterflies must arrive in a tree. Thousands more had arrived in those hours or moments of sleep of which I have no real record to refer to. They appeared to be dead rather than exhausted. There was only one soldier walking out of the hall who looked back over his shoulder briefly before disappearing and I sat alone looking over the great event horizon. I sat and waited for things to begin moving again, I was frozen in pain and wonder at the company of souls in which I was immersed as if in the clearest water on the highest mountain, a place where no one had ever been before or would ever go again. Here it was at last, Nirvana, wildly unstable and utterly somnolent. The darkest star on the brink of radiation over a graveyard of the living.
The two obelisks mark the driveway but I do not want to know what they mean. I only know that I exist on the corner of 16th and Central, 319 North.
"Nothing in Clouds Hill is to be a care upon the world. While I have it there shall be nothing exquiste or unique in it. Nothing to anchor me." T.E. Lawrence
There is a sense of not wanting to be here on 16th and Center, address 319 North, some awful transposition of 19 squared there, in the Masonic house. Two small, concrete obelisks are on either side of the driveway and it ought to be pleasant to look out onto the hills from the large, clean windows of this house, the natural hills and those which are man-made and called slag; the way the sun and the iron play off of each other to create lavender vistas all around is very lovely. There isn't though any solace in the view or on the roofs of so many quaint houses staggered around the smallish valley nor any charm in the massive structure sitting directly across from here just under a natural incline where the cliffs contain whole dynasties of evolution in fossils. It is right at the base of dump number seven. That would be the old hospital which is now a boarding house for the indigent and elderly. It is a handsome building, particularly in the afternoon when the light sculpts the art deco facades into crisp shapes. The place is charming the way things like that are, irresistable to people overly accustomed to the less than Byzantine. It is mostly brick and wood laid against timber, all quite flammable and impermanent. The only solid structures in sight are the several frames of shaft elevators that dot the hills in seemingly arbitrary places that mark areas where minerals are easy to find and extract by those who, in the past descended to mine the rock walls for a variety of things like copper and silver and sometimes, a bit of gold. It ought to be pleasant, but it isn't.
The best part of being in a catastrophe is actually being in one. There is nothing anyone can really say about that sort of thing, there is no choice within the boundaries of it, no conclusions and nothing which resembles remorse. It just is. It is a case that one does what one is compelled to do and that would be, to move along with it as if in a river, just glide along and look at things as they pass by or remain motionless at various points along the way.
Waking up in a large hall prepared in advance for the arrival of so many souls (on the run) after one has slept what seemed like several lifetimes contained in a few seconds, is the material of which epiphanies are made, the kind of thing a person only gets to do once, like everything else in the scheme of things. Ship load after ship load, ours was the fourteenth wave. When a person arrives in such a hall, the rest have already disappeared to wherever it is they ship people like us, refugees. There are lines and lines of open cots with one blanket each and a brand new pillow depending on the invasion and the invader. In this particular case, it could be said of it, "it was well appointed". There are boxes full of food and the essentials, foot powder and sanitary napkins and one bathroom with three stalls and three sinks for the women and probably, about the same for the men. It is an exhibition hall on the Turkish side of the island. It is prearranged for cataclysm.
I lay down after spending several hours settling in to the camp by organizing and reorganizing my few possessions but could not sleep because I was still bleeding and felt unclean. I didn't want to shower out in the open with the other women. The children were sleeping on and off and our traveling companions with whom we had left the city two days before were actively moving about and making phone calls to Kabul and Boston. They seemed very busy. Jessica, the mother, was worried about her diet, she could not be around people who had eaten carbohydrates within the previous 24 hours, it was very important to her that we respect this. We had no phone though and there wasn't really anything any of us wanted to say, my children and I, to anyone we knew. We felt very far away, so far that no phone could ever span the distance we felt.
Night began to fall and the hall was still empty. The few stragglers from the boat before ours had departed at one, just after we arrived. We were absolutely alone with thousands of empty cots and all sorts of personal expectations that we knew could never be fufilled. We did not know how we felt yet, not really and somehow, I knew we wouldn't really know how we would feel for a very long time to come. Perhaps forever. We might never recover, I knew that much but also knew that recovery isn't always the best thing if it means there isn't a lesson learned or a price paid. We were paying dearly for something but didn't quite understand what or when the debt we had incurred would finally be paid in full. The numbness was profound.
I spent a few hours walking around the fairgrounds looking for others like myself or those even worse off, those in shock or perhaps even ill. I looked for tears and slouching and found a woman on a bench sitting all alone. I tried to comfort her with talk of God and she appreciated it even though we were of different sects entirely, whole different ballparks of understanding about our status and the cause of the invasion. The woman sobbed as we compared what we'd seen so far and how we feared what else it might be that we would see. She spoke of the sister she'd left behind. It was a kind of sad excitement that allowed the closeness to exist between us for nearly a half hour. I finally got up, held her her for a moment and said goodbye to her. I can remember her face as one of average intellect, average sadness and a complete sense of loss and frustration that aggravated the tiny lines around her eyes. Her face was already anemic from several days living under seige in the south of our country. She could have been a woman in a painting.
When I returned to the hall, everyone in my group, my children and my friend and her two daughters were already asleep or resting with their eyes half closed. No one seemed to have anything left to say even though we'd not spoken more than a few words to each other since the early afternoon. I hadn't slept for nearly a week. The last time I had slept I awoke to a thunderous explosion above our building which lit the sky like a match suddenly lights a dark room. No one moved or said anything as I prepared to lay down, not even a goodnight let alone, an I love you. Then I fell without even a pause to observe my last deep sigh into a dark and immense sleep.
I woke up suddenly but without being startled or disoriented. I had no idea how much time had passed but if time were to be measured as change it must have been years that I had slept because what I saw as I opened my eyes was a world which had completely changed.
The cavernous hall which had been so empty was now filled, every cot in it had a sleeping body there and some held two. None of them moved. I cannot imagine how they settled so close to us in such silence, the way an army of butterflies must arrive in a tree. Thousands more had arrived in those hours or moments of sleep of which I have no real record to refer to. They appeared to be dead rather than exhausted. There was only one soldier walking out of the hall who looked back over his shoulder briefly before disappearing and I sat alone looking over the great event horizon. I sat and waited for things to begin moving again, I was frozen in pain and wonder at the company of souls in which I was immersed as if in the clearest water on the highest mountain, a place where no one had ever been before or would ever go again. Here it was at last, Nirvana, wildly unstable and utterly somnolent. The darkest star on the brink of radiation over a graveyard of the living.
The two obelisks mark the driveway but I do not want to know what they mean. I only know that I exist on the corner of 16th and Central, 319 North.
Divinity versus Purity in the context of Miracles
The Quran in its style is not just a book being dictated as one would a letter, "to so and so". It is an actual theological event complete with Allah's knowledge of what occurs in the prophet's own mind and that is included. Even the notion that Allah dictates to the angel and then to the prophet what his own actions should be i.e. "Say" and then it is followed by what should be said clearly pointing out those verses from others. Other statements that are meant only for the prophet are also included and show the incredible detail required in recording such an event. It exposes the actual process of revelation so to speak. It also indicates that there was a moral "burden" on the prophet and what the actual burden looked like in great detail highlighting certain events and I don't think we are to consider it a log of ALL the prophet's activities, thoughts or actions. That would be impossible (to read). The thing is, when a person (prophet or ordinary guy) KNOWS they are in a miracle situation, their fear of making a mistake is much greater (I think) and in the case of Mohamed (SAW) his miracle was so great that he would be HIGHLY unlikely to make even the smallest of mistakes in his practice.
This type of recitation exists no where else in terms of the other prophets but that doesn't mean that a "theological event" of the mental order didn't occur rather it just wasn't recorded verbatim by any prophet that we know of.
To offer the rhetorical question: How does a personal miracle lead to a person's recovery from any given thing and improve their character?
On the Divinity of Mohamed (SAW), Musa (SAW) and Isa (SAW) respectively referred to as Mohamed, Jesus Christ and Moses by other "believers":
I think the question is actually of Divinity not necessarily infallibility in the sense of human error. The Quran clearly demonstrates that mistakes happened but not necessarily mistakes that were of the intentional type and what is a mistake in the landscape of a miracle?
The Quran suggests over and over and over that if Allah wanted to create people who would not err he could have and if he wanted to make a Quran that glowed and flew into the air or whatever, he could have but then there would be no "test" for the believers/unbelievers/humanity. Those things that occurred that "appear" to be mistakes are, to me, part of the story that is necessary to reveal something else and something else and something else.
As well, Allah did not write a story or plan a plot in which he wasn't aware of something or someone's intents, actions or the personal dramas they were all involved it. Allah is basically not constrained by time and already knows the conclusion of the famous tale of this particular civilization i.e. the one involving this group of adversaries and advocates. In that case, there are not mistakes really.
In some cases, the prophet and his companions were given details as well. Stories in the hadith and in particular some that I know of from the Nahjul Balagha were actually revealed to that peer group as well. Sometimes via dreams and sometimes via actual statements of the prophet that were often times cloaked in mysterious language so as not to directly reveal the future. Like the case of the death of Abu Dhar(pbuh) in which at the time of his inevitable death he told his daughter to go to the caravan road and wait and that travellers would soon be coming who would help her to bury her father. She left him alone in his close to death state and went to the road and was met by a caravan. When the members of the caravan questioned her she told them her father's name and they were incredulous and asked to see the old man. When they arrived he was already dead and the rich merchants buried him in a very expensive piece of cloth. There are several other deaths like this recorded in the Nahjul in which the person who was going to die experienced something particular and then stated "Ah, I am going to die then tomorrow as the prophet said such and such"..in one case that a fighter would drink milk just prior to dying. The man asked for water as he was dying but instead, was brought a glass of milk just as the prophet had indicated to him years before (the prophet was at the time dead already i.e. when the old man was readying to die).
In Sermon 5 of the NB, Ali Mu'mineen (pbuh) states the following:
SERMON 5 of the Nahjul Balagha, The Peak of Eloquence
Delivered when the Holy Prophet died and `Abbas ibn `Abd al-Muttalib and Abu Sufyan ibn Harb offered to pay allegiance to Amir al-mu'minin for the Caliphate
O' People! (1)
Steer clear through the waves of mischief by boats of deliverance, turn away from the path of dissension and put off the crowns of pride. Prosperous is one who rises with wings (i.e. when he has power) or else he remains peaceful and others enjoy ease. It (i.e. the aspiration for Caliphate) is like turbid water or like a morsel that would suffocate the person who swallows it. One who plucks fruits before ripening is like one who cultivated in another's field.
If I speak out they would call me greedy towards power but if I keep quiet they would say I was afraid of death. It is a pity that after all the ups and downs (I have been through). By Allah the son of Abu Talib (2) is more familiar with death than an infant with the breast of its mother. I have hidden knowledge, if I disclose it you will start trembling like ropes in deep wells.
This is an example of perhaps the deliverance of messages or information in dreams (not indicated in the NB though) and the idea that a believer should not share negative dreams openly to others.
Then, if you compare Isa (SAW) it is clearly stated in the Quran that he will be judged and will come to testify against others. It is exactly this type of thing, the insistence on the 'infallibility" of a human prophet that lead to the ultimate equating a human being with Allah. There are a few ayat that show that Isa (SAW) was also given the opportunity to "defer" from orders and he will answer for those things on al Yawm.
5:117 I did not say to them aught save what Thou didst enjoin me with; That serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord
And I was a witness of them so long as I was among them
But when Thou didst cause me to die, Thou were the watcher over them
And thou art witness of all things
(These above three lines are all spoken by Isa, SAW)
This shows that the Quran talks about the "end" so to speak and there are two mentions of Isa (SAW) as "among them" and then, as a resurrected soul along with all the other souls on al Yawm. I take it to mean i.e. 'among them' as not actually dead. Death hasn't come to Isa (SAW) yet and therefore this ayat refers to a future time when he too will present HIS evidence as a counter to the evidence of anyone in dispute with Allah's commands which indicates that Isa (SAW) himself had a 'choice'. If he had no choice that would be due to a predetermined 'infallibility' rather than what I think it is better described by and that is "divinity". It is just the case that with prophets, they are more highly motivated to avoid error and hence, do not make mistakes but I don't think that necessarily "predestines" them to not make any mistakes.
*And "thou were the watcher over them" I take to mean "at that time" which is the dispute here, the actual time of Isa's (SAW) death/non death i.e. the "crucifiction" which is witnessed really only by two individuals that we know of, the person on the cross and Isa (SAW) himself and of course, Allah.
Allah is the only infallible "thing" in that sense of the word.
Furthermore, this is the paradox of the time Isa (SAW) spent in the desert fasting and was tempted by the Shaitan. Whereas the argument is completely illogical the way it is presented by Christians (that Isa was God) i.e. it is impossible for the Shaitan to tempt Allah who created EVEN him (sic Iblis) with anything at all...comes into full focus for US. He was tempted. His role was not of the Creator but of the created and that is not indicative of "infallibility" but instead, the 'likelihood' he would withstand greater pressures than any of us would due to his divine information and divine skills imbued upon him by the Creator. That story (Injeel) includes Isa (SAW) being so burdened by one instance of his prophethood that he sweat blood much like Mohamed (SAW) was reduced to a shivering and practically insane "looking" individual under a blanket who feared either being insane or being perceived as such (upon his first encounter with the angel).
For non muslims and unbelievers, this is one of the ways in which they are prevented from accepting Mohamed (SAW) as the last prophet i.e. they "detect" fallibility in a variety of things from his war time activities to his marriage to a young girl.
The Quran in its style is not just a book being dictated as one would a letter, "to so and so". It is an actual theological event complete with Allah's knowledge of what occurs in the prophet's own mind and that is included. Even the notion that Allah dictates to the angel and then to the prophet what his own actions should be i.e. "Say" and then it is followed by what should be said clearly pointing out those verses from others. Other statements that are meant only for the prophet are also included and show the incredible detail required in recording such an event. It exposes the actual process of revelation so to speak. It also indicates that there was a moral "burden" on the prophet and what the actual burden looked like in great detail highlighting certain events and I don't think we are to consider it a log of ALL the prophet's activities, thoughts or actions. That would be impossible (to read). The thing is, when a person (prophet or ordinary guy) KNOWS they are in a miracle situation, their fear of making a mistake is much greater (I think) and in the case of Mohamed (SAW) his miracle was so great that he would be HIGHLY unlikely to make even the smallest of mistakes in his practice.
This type of recitation exists no where else in terms of the other prophets but that doesn't mean that a "theological event" of the mental order didn't occur rather it just wasn't recorded verbatim by any prophet that we know of.
To offer the rhetorical question: How does a personal miracle lead to a person's recovery from any given thing and improve their character?
On the Divinity of Mohamed (SAW), Musa (SAW) and Isa (SAW) respectively referred to as Mohamed, Jesus Christ and Moses by other "believers":
I think the question is actually of Divinity not necessarily infallibility in the sense of human error. The Quran clearly demonstrates that mistakes happened but not necessarily mistakes that were of the intentional type and what is a mistake in the landscape of a miracle?
The Quran suggests over and over and over that if Allah wanted to create people who would not err he could have and if he wanted to make a Quran that glowed and flew into the air or whatever, he could have but then there would be no "test" for the believers/unbelievers/humanity. Those things that occurred that "appear" to be mistakes are, to me, part of the story that is necessary to reveal something else and something else and something else.
As well, Allah did not write a story or plan a plot in which he wasn't aware of something or someone's intents, actions or the personal dramas they were all involved it. Allah is basically not constrained by time and already knows the conclusion of the famous tale of this particular civilization i.e. the one involving this group of adversaries and advocates. In that case, there are not mistakes really.
In some cases, the prophet and his companions were given details as well. Stories in the hadith and in particular some that I know of from the Nahjul Balagha were actually revealed to that peer group as well. Sometimes via dreams and sometimes via actual statements of the prophet that were often times cloaked in mysterious language so as not to directly reveal the future. Like the case of the death of Abu Dhar(pbuh) in which at the time of his inevitable death he told his daughter to go to the caravan road and wait and that travellers would soon be coming who would help her to bury her father. She left him alone in his close to death state and went to the road and was met by a caravan. When the members of the caravan questioned her she told them her father's name and they were incredulous and asked to see the old man. When they arrived he was already dead and the rich merchants buried him in a very expensive piece of cloth. There are several other deaths like this recorded in the Nahjul in which the person who was going to die experienced something particular and then stated "Ah, I am going to die then tomorrow as the prophet said such and such"..in one case that a fighter would drink milk just prior to dying. The man asked for water as he was dying but instead, was brought a glass of milk just as the prophet had indicated to him years before (the prophet was at the time dead already i.e. when the old man was readying to die).
In Sermon 5 of the NB, Ali Mu'mineen (pbuh) states the following:
SERMON 5 of the Nahjul Balagha, The Peak of Eloquence
Delivered when the Holy Prophet died and `Abbas ibn `Abd al-Muttalib and Abu Sufyan ibn Harb offered to pay allegiance to Amir al-mu'minin for the Caliphate
O' People! (1)
Steer clear through the waves of mischief by boats of deliverance, turn away from the path of dissension and put off the crowns of pride. Prosperous is one who rises with wings (i.e. when he has power) or else he remains peaceful and others enjoy ease. It (i.e. the aspiration for Caliphate) is like turbid water or like a morsel that would suffocate the person who swallows it. One who plucks fruits before ripening is like one who cultivated in another's field.
If I speak out they would call me greedy towards power but if I keep quiet they would say I was afraid of death. It is a pity that after all the ups and downs (I have been through). By Allah the son of Abu Talib (2) is more familiar with death than an infant with the breast of its mother. I have hidden knowledge, if I disclose it you will start trembling like ropes in deep wells.
This is an example of perhaps the deliverance of messages or information in dreams (not indicated in the NB though) and the idea that a believer should not share negative dreams openly to others.
Then, if you compare Isa (SAW) it is clearly stated in the Quran that he will be judged and will come to testify against others. It is exactly this type of thing, the insistence on the 'infallibility" of a human prophet that lead to the ultimate equating a human being with Allah. There are a few ayat that show that Isa (SAW) was also given the opportunity to "defer" from orders and he will answer for those things on al Yawm.
5:117 I did not say to them aught save what Thou didst enjoin me with; That serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord
And I was a witness of them so long as I was among them
But when Thou didst cause me to die, Thou were the watcher over them
And thou art witness of all things
(These above three lines are all spoken by Isa, SAW)
This shows that the Quran talks about the "end" so to speak and there are two mentions of Isa (SAW) as "among them" and then, as a resurrected soul along with all the other souls on al Yawm. I take it to mean i.e. 'among them' as not actually dead. Death hasn't come to Isa (SAW) yet and therefore this ayat refers to a future time when he too will present HIS evidence as a counter to the evidence of anyone in dispute with Allah's commands which indicates that Isa (SAW) himself had a 'choice'. If he had no choice that would be due to a predetermined 'infallibility' rather than what I think it is better described by and that is "divinity". It is just the case that with prophets, they are more highly motivated to avoid error and hence, do not make mistakes but I don't think that necessarily "predestines" them to not make any mistakes.
*And "thou were the watcher over them" I take to mean "at that time" which is the dispute here, the actual time of Isa's (SAW) death/non death i.e. the "crucifiction" which is witnessed really only by two individuals that we know of, the person on the cross and Isa (SAW) himself and of course, Allah.
Allah is the only infallible "thing" in that sense of the word.
Furthermore, this is the paradox of the time Isa (SAW) spent in the desert fasting and was tempted by the Shaitan. Whereas the argument is completely illogical the way it is presented by Christians (that Isa was God) i.e. it is impossible for the Shaitan to tempt Allah who created EVEN him (sic Iblis) with anything at all...comes into full focus for US. He was tempted. His role was not of the Creator but of the created and that is not indicative of "infallibility" but instead, the 'likelihood' he would withstand greater pressures than any of us would due to his divine information and divine skills imbued upon him by the Creator. That story (Injeel) includes Isa (SAW) being so burdened by one instance of his prophethood that he sweat blood much like Mohamed (SAW) was reduced to a shivering and practically insane "looking" individual under a blanket who feared either being insane or being perceived as such (upon his first encounter with the angel).
For non muslims and unbelievers, this is one of the ways in which they are prevented from accepting Mohamed (SAW) as the last prophet i.e. they "detect" fallibility in a variety of things from his war time activities to his marriage to a young girl.
20.1.07
Snow Drunk
The sky at dawn is the shadow
of the deer who hoped to be seen,
lagging behind like that to peek
through the hedges. Painters
only did that when they lacked
cameras to abstract that which is
abstracted. This one is gray
on gray with a spray of rose leaves
in the black of what is actually there:
azures, lemons, magentas, pales and darknesses.
The proof is in everything and each
of the prostrating shadows
of dawn, of noon, of dusk,
move this way and that way,
several ways, each one
a better color than the next
one and the unknown of that
is certainly more
than black can tell you
in the constant sillhouette
of the materials frozen
into the peculiar shapes of deers.
My shape is said to be that of a pear.
When I say this to the beholder
I am finished. Returning to
the window of shadows I find
the world has been lit up
and it has snowed.
It has literally snowed,
it is quiet and I am quiet
more than the snow
can tell me in its shushing.
We all begin to jump around
and we begin again our falling.
The sky at dawn is the shadow
of the deer who hoped to be seen,
lagging behind like that to peek
through the hedges. Painters
only did that when they lacked
cameras to abstract that which is
abstracted. This one is gray
on gray with a spray of rose leaves
in the black of what is actually there:
azures, lemons, magentas, pales and darknesses.
The proof is in everything and each
of the prostrating shadows
of dawn, of noon, of dusk,
move this way and that way,
several ways, each one
a better color than the next
one and the unknown of that
is certainly more
than black can tell you
in the constant sillhouette
of the materials frozen
into the peculiar shapes of deers.
My shape is said to be that of a pear.
When I say this to the beholder
I am finished. Returning to
the window of shadows I find
the world has been lit up
and it has snowed.
It has literally snowed,
it is quiet and I am quiet
more than the snow
can tell me in its shushing.
We all begin to jump around
and we begin again our falling.
19.1.07
The Molecular Model of Duality: Potassium
Dr. Plichta's conclusion:
The biochemical components of life, the amino acids, are coded by the number 19 . The structure of the eighty-one stable, natural existing chemical elements, the components of the Nature, are in many ways subject to the same code . A lonely number, the unique number 19, proves to be the King Number of the chemistry.
What worried Dr. Plichta the most, however , was the question, why all elements with odd atomic numbers possess either one or two isotopes? Only the nineteenth element, Potassium, does not? Because with its three isotopes the Potassium actually would have to be an element with even atomic number. Because this number is an odd prime number, and the element 19, therefore Potassium, behaves like an even-numbered element. For the first time, Dr. Peter Plichta came upon a double-face element. An element, which is odd, however it behaves like an even element .
41:53] We will show them our proofs in the horizons, and within themselves, until they realize that this is the truth. Is your Lord not sufficient as a witness of all things?
[ 72:28] ........ He (GOD) has counted the numbers of all things.
[ 27:82] At the right time, we will produce for them a creature made of earthly materials, declaring that the people are not certain about our revelations.
http://www.submission.org/miracle/19-chemistry.html
Dr. Plichta's conclusion:
The biochemical components of life, the amino acids, are coded by the number 19 . The structure of the eighty-one stable, natural existing chemical elements, the components of the Nature, are in many ways subject to the same code . A lonely number, the unique number 19, proves to be the King Number of the chemistry.
What worried Dr. Plichta the most, however , was the question, why all elements with odd atomic numbers possess either one or two isotopes? Only the nineteenth element, Potassium, does not? Because with its three isotopes the Potassium actually would have to be an element with even atomic number. Because this number is an odd prime number, and the element 19, therefore Potassium, behaves like an even-numbered element. For the first time, Dr. Peter Plichta came upon a double-face element. An element, which is odd, however it behaves like an even element .
41:53] We will show them our proofs in the horizons, and within themselves, until they realize that this is the truth. Is your Lord not sufficient as a witness of all things?
[ 72:28] ........ He (GOD) has counted the numbers of all things.
[ 27:82] At the right time, we will produce for them a creature made of earthly materials, declaring that the people are not certain about our revelations.
http://www.submission.org/miracle/19-chemistry.html
17.1.07
And hey, I'll "be damned" if I let a maniac like that get me down! Down to "wherever" he is.
The Divers, the Drowned, the Delivered
We landed on the beach in Bahia Kino
with our best memories and war stories,
monitoring time by watching shadows.
Simplicity is complex nowdays, so many gadgets.
There was a fire ring for instance,
and burning lanterns but no candles.
And diving birds, there were three kinds and their bones.
An old friend caught trigger and hoped for flounder.
After he had too much to drink
he resembled a demon but his hands trembled.
Near the fire at night his eyes glistened.
Don's wife likes Miami, she drinks there.
In the morning there was contrition
and there were flies to spread contagion
by thieving sugar and contempt, a diligent crew.
How many times have I seen this before?
Insects and yeasts take people apart
one piece at a time. We collect wood
to burn, it holds us together as it consumes.
Tayammum, sand ablutions are called Tayammum.
At dawn the sea leaves her glass behind,
ceramic prisons free for the taking.
I couldn't get enough, the sea is so generous.
I was questioned thoroughly, my fingerprints in sand are still there.
Don left so early Sunday, he left cans
and rope, he left precious amounts
of bile in shade trees, he left our rake unattended.
We come from a family of campers, we are honor bound.
Ours tell quiet stories of blindness all the time,
we frequent several places, the animals know
when we are there. Lizards aren't so cautious.
Aztec traders brought handmade trinkets on the last day.
Grandfather, father and two boys. Bedou salesmen
from the pagan interior. His son told me this, he knew why I asked.
He had assimilated over time using a small TV. His eyes said so.
There are rituals and there are habits. These are facts.
Yes I said, yes, there is only one.
He nodded when I spoke of the Arabs.
Vaya con dios I said. He liked that. He smiled.
The Divers, the Drowned, the Delivered
We landed on the beach in Bahia Kino
with our best memories and war stories,
monitoring time by watching shadows.
Simplicity is complex nowdays, so many gadgets.
There was a fire ring for instance,
and burning lanterns but no candles.
And diving birds, there were three kinds and their bones.
An old friend caught trigger and hoped for flounder.
After he had too much to drink
he resembled a demon but his hands trembled.
Near the fire at night his eyes glistened.
Don's wife likes Miami, she drinks there.
In the morning there was contrition
and there were flies to spread contagion
by thieving sugar and contempt, a diligent crew.
How many times have I seen this before?
Insects and yeasts take people apart
one piece at a time. We collect wood
to burn, it holds us together as it consumes.
Tayammum, sand ablutions are called Tayammum.
At dawn the sea leaves her glass behind,
ceramic prisons free for the taking.
I couldn't get enough, the sea is so generous.
I was questioned thoroughly, my fingerprints in sand are still there.
Don left so early Sunday, he left cans
and rope, he left precious amounts
of bile in shade trees, he left our rake unattended.
We come from a family of campers, we are honor bound.
Ours tell quiet stories of blindness all the time,
we frequent several places, the animals know
when we are there. Lizards aren't so cautious.
Aztec traders brought handmade trinkets on the last day.
Grandfather, father and two boys. Bedou salesmen
from the pagan interior. His son told me this, he knew why I asked.
He had assimilated over time using a small TV. His eyes said so.
There are rituals and there are habits. These are facts.
Yes I said, yes, there is only one.
He nodded when I spoke of the Arabs.
Vaya con dios I said. He liked that. He smiled.
Ah, what the news agencies won't tell you. I often have to gasp and wonder at the naivity of Americans in general.
You see, my losses due to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon this summer are truly miniscule indeed. And as we can see from below, the things I gained are immense. The discovery of hidden enemies there, the solidification of my children's faith, the immense amount of wisdom I picked up on my journey across the sea (which I still haven't really capitalized on yet)....oh I cannot even count the blessing that I have recieved.
The most important blessing that is going to be realized from Nasrallah's brave defense of his country against the Zionist invaders however is yet to come. Talks indicate that the Israelis are going to have to release TEN TIMES more Palestinian prisoners than they would have had to release if they'd have simply done the "right" thing, the "normal" thing and the thing allowed under the Geneva Conventions and had actually NEGOTIATED for the release of the few IDF commandoes. Ah. It is wonderful.
What has happened is that the families of those held in captivity are demanding Olmert negotiate and negotiate for real. Any country who is willing to try to "convince" the civilized world that they destroyed the infrastructure of their democratic neighbor in order to get a few men released must OBVIOUSLY care enough about them now to put their inordinate and Godly pride behind them and get those boys home. I must chuckle.
News of the return of the Golan Heights being negotiated under Ariel Sharon...well. I'll believe that when I see the backs of those mofos leaving the Shebaa Farms. And when I stop hearing of the constant invasions of Lebanese airspace. And when I hear that the Israelis are forced to pay for the demining of South Lebanon and when I hear of the trial of Olmert at the Hague for dropping little gadgets that look like musical toys on southern Lebanon that are made to kill children who pick them up not knowing the vile history of Israel doing that sort of nasty and vile thing. THEN and only then will I believe that this recent "leak" of a document that promises the return of the Golan Heights is actually going to be acted on. I am so entirely used to the lying of that group of people that it makes me want to puke.
You see, my losses due to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon this summer are truly miniscule indeed. And as we can see from below, the things I gained are immense. The discovery of hidden enemies there, the solidification of my children's faith, the immense amount of wisdom I picked up on my journey across the sea (which I still haven't really capitalized on yet)....oh I cannot even count the blessing that I have recieved.
The most important blessing that is going to be realized from Nasrallah's brave defense of his country against the Zionist invaders however is yet to come. Talks indicate that the Israelis are going to have to release TEN TIMES more Palestinian prisoners than they would have had to release if they'd have simply done the "right" thing, the "normal" thing and the thing allowed under the Geneva Conventions and had actually NEGOTIATED for the release of the few IDF commandoes. Ah. It is wonderful.
What has happened is that the families of those held in captivity are demanding Olmert negotiate and negotiate for real. Any country who is willing to try to "convince" the civilized world that they destroyed the infrastructure of their democratic neighbor in order to get a few men released must OBVIOUSLY care enough about them now to put their inordinate and Godly pride behind them and get those boys home. I must chuckle.
News of the return of the Golan Heights being negotiated under Ariel Sharon...well. I'll believe that when I see the backs of those mofos leaving the Shebaa Farms. And when I stop hearing of the constant invasions of Lebanese airspace. And when I hear that the Israelis are forced to pay for the demining of South Lebanon and when I hear of the trial of Olmert at the Hague for dropping little gadgets that look like musical toys on southern Lebanon that are made to kill children who pick them up not knowing the vile history of Israel doing that sort of nasty and vile thing. THEN and only then will I believe that this recent "leak" of a document that promises the return of the Golan Heights is actually going to be acted on. I am so entirely used to the lying of that group of people that it makes me want to puke.
Athiests, the OPEN enemies
of Islam and Muslims
I was talking to a muslim fellow this past week (what I do in my spare time nowdays as opposed to talking to drunk old poets) and he was having a problem defending a nice young man who has taken Islam for himself without the supervision or permission of his parents, AGAINST a known athiest from Denmark. Some of these folks like to go to Islamic message boards and tempt muslims away from their religion by posing various questions (good ones) about pedophilia, homosexuality, polygamy, women's rights, etc. It is incumbent on all muslims to discuss these things and through that kind of discussion with the "open enemies of Islam" some muslims arrive at even stronger faith. It is noted in the Quran that "they" i.e. all other types of people who are loyal to any doctrine from Christianity to Marxism to Athiesm....will not be happy until "they" convert a muslim to "their" belief system i.e. religion. In the case of this young man who required protection from a much more experienced debate partner, the muslim fellow I am referencing ended up defending the athiest's right to harrass this young man who is not on certain grounds of faith yet. Many young people experience a documented phase of moral development in their mid to late teens (15 -18 yrs old). This is known by all secular childhood development theorists and in Islam is considered a phase of "negotiable" faith patterns. By the time a person reaches the age of forty, a person is expected to have generated a solid faith and in some cases (like my own) a state of "certitude" is reached. It is the most desirable level of faith in Islam and is unassailable.
This fellow thought my protectionism of the young man's thoughts as being outdated and he asked me, "Are you one of those muslims that believes that athiests are the open enemies to Islam?"
Oh yes. For sure. Absolutely. They are not only open enemies but they are HONEST OPPONENTS.
The problem with those types of readings and rationales in Islamic thinking and this new trend called "Fundamentalism" (whereas, ALL muslims are fundamentalists in terms of literally accepting the Quran as the "Word of Allah" i.e. kallam)..the problem with that rationale is that less experienced muslims and those who have not achieved what is called CERTITUDE, do not read the statement in terms of its reciprocal truth.
That reciprocal truth is that muslims need to fear the HIDDEN enemies of Islam. Sometimes that hidden enemy can be within a person's own self, their own heart and their own doubts. And in many cases, the hidden enemy can come in the form of "friends" who are actually kafr i.e. unbelievers and pretend to "like" Islam partially or fully. Like the old goat who produced the video below did for over three years. Now we can see he is obsessed with certain things and insane.
Well, I am sure glad I found a few of my hidden enemies before it was too late.
Al'ham'du'lillah. Allahu Ahkbar!
James Wolcott, Vanity Fair:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/blogs/wolcott/2007/01/sunday_sermonet.html
of Islam and Muslims
I was talking to a muslim fellow this past week (what I do in my spare time nowdays as opposed to talking to drunk old poets) and he was having a problem defending a nice young man who has taken Islam for himself without the supervision or permission of his parents, AGAINST a known athiest from Denmark. Some of these folks like to go to Islamic message boards and tempt muslims away from their religion by posing various questions (good ones) about pedophilia, homosexuality, polygamy, women's rights, etc. It is incumbent on all muslims to discuss these things and through that kind of discussion with the "open enemies of Islam" some muslims arrive at even stronger faith. It is noted in the Quran that "they" i.e. all other types of people who are loyal to any doctrine from Christianity to Marxism to Athiesm....will not be happy until "they" convert a muslim to "their" belief system i.e. religion. In the case of this young man who required protection from a much more experienced debate partner, the muslim fellow I am referencing ended up defending the athiest's right to harrass this young man who is not on certain grounds of faith yet. Many young people experience a documented phase of moral development in their mid to late teens (15 -18 yrs old). This is known by all secular childhood development theorists and in Islam is considered a phase of "negotiable" faith patterns. By the time a person reaches the age of forty, a person is expected to have generated a solid faith and in some cases (like my own) a state of "certitude" is reached. It is the most desirable level of faith in Islam and is unassailable.
This fellow thought my protectionism of the young man's thoughts as being outdated and he asked me, "Are you one of those muslims that believes that athiests are the open enemies to Islam?"
Oh yes. For sure. Absolutely. They are not only open enemies but they are HONEST OPPONENTS.
The problem with those types of readings and rationales in Islamic thinking and this new trend called "Fundamentalism" (whereas, ALL muslims are fundamentalists in terms of literally accepting the Quran as the "Word of Allah" i.e. kallam)..the problem with that rationale is that less experienced muslims and those who have not achieved what is called CERTITUDE, do not read the statement in terms of its reciprocal truth.
That reciprocal truth is that muslims need to fear the HIDDEN enemies of Islam. Sometimes that hidden enemy can be within a person's own self, their own heart and their own doubts. And in many cases, the hidden enemy can come in the form of "friends" who are actually kafr i.e. unbelievers and pretend to "like" Islam partially or fully. Like the old goat who produced the video below did for over three years. Now we can see he is obsessed with certain things and insane.
Well, I am sure glad I found a few of my hidden enemies before it was too late.
Al'ham'du'lillah. Allahu Ahkbar!
James Wolcott, Vanity Fair:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/blogs/wolcott/2007/01/sunday_sermonet.html
ABU ALI HASAN IBN AL-HAITHAM
( 965 - 1040 A.D.)
Another amazing fact about the famous Islamic prime number 19, Allahu Ahkbar!
Abu Ali Hasan Ibn al-Haitham was one of the most eminent physicists, whose contributions to optics and the scientific methods are outstanding. Known in the West as Alhazen, Ibn aI-Hautham was born in 965 A. D. in Basrah, and was educated in Basrah and Baghdad. Thereafter, he went to Egypt, where he was asked to find ways of controlling the flood of the Nile. Being unsuccessful in this, he feigned madness until the death of Caliph al-Hakim. He also traveled to Spain and, during this period, he had ample time for his scientific pursuits, which included optics, mathematics, physics, medicine and development of scientific methods on each of which he has left several outstanding books.
He made a thorough examination of the passage of light through various media and discovered the laws of refraction. He also carried out the first experiments on the dispersion of light into its constituent colors. His book Kitab-at-Manazir was translated into Latin in the Middle Ages, as also his book dealing with the colors of sunset. He dealt at length with the theory of various physical phenomena like shadows, eclipses, the rainbow, and speculated on the physical nature of light. He is the first to describe accurately the various parts of the eye and give a scientific explanation of the process of vision. He also attempted to explain binocular vision, and gave a correct explanation of the apparent increase in size of the sun and the moon when near the horizon. He is known for the earliest use of the camera obscura. He contradicted Ptolemy's and Euclid's theory of vision that objects are seen by rays of .light emanating from the eyes; according to him the rays originate in the object of vision and not in the eye. Through these extensive researches on optics, he has been considered as the father of modern optics.
The Latin translation of his main work, Kitab-at-Manazir, exerted a great influence upon Western science e.g. on the work of Roger Bacon and Kepler. It brought about a great progress in experimental methods. His research in catoptrics centered on spherical and parabolic mirrors and spherical aberration. He made the important observation that the radio between the angle of incidence and refraction does not remain constant and investigated the magnifying power of a lens. His catoptrics contain the important problem known as Alhazen's problem. It comprises drawing lines from two points in the plane of a circle meeting at a point on the circumference and making equal angles with the normal at that point. This leads to an equation of the fourth degree.
In his book Mizan al-Hikmah Ibn al-Haitham has discussed the density of the atmosphere and developed a relation between it and the height. He also studied atmospheric refraction. He discovered that the twilight only ceases or begins when the sun is 19 degrees below the horizon and attempted to measure the height of the atmosphere on that basis. He has also discussed the theories of attraction between masses, and it seems that he was aware of the magnitude of acceleration due to gravity.
His contribution to mathematics and physics was extensive. In mathematics, he developed analytical geometry by establishing linkage between algebra and geometry. He studied the mechanics of motion of a body and was the first to maintain that a body moves perpetually unless an external force stops it or changes its direction of motion. This would seem equivalent to the first law of motion.
The list of his books runs to 200 or so, very few of which have survived. Even his monumental treatise on optics survived through its Latin translation. During the Middle Ages his books on cosmology were translated into Latin, Hebrew and other languages. He has also written on the subject of evolution a book that deserves serious attention even today.
In his writing, one can see a clear development of the scientific methods as developed and applied by the Muslims and comprising the systematic observation of physical phenomena and their linking together into a scientific theory. This was a major breakthrough in scientific methodology, as distinct from guess and gesture, and placed scientific pursuits on a sound foundation comprising systematic relationship between observation, hypothesis and verification.
Ibn al-Haitham's influence on physical sciences in general, and optics in particular, has been held in high esteem and, in fact, it ushered in a new era in optical research, both in theory and practice.
From the Sura called "The Cloaked (hidden) One" which is widely believed to be a Sura regarding mathematics and a proof to the Unbelievers:
74:18
For he thought and he plotted;-
74:19
And woe to him! How he plotted!-
74:20
Yea, Woe to him; How he plotted!-
74:21
Then he looked round;
74:22
Then he frowned and he scowled;
74:23
Then he turned back and was haughty;
74:24
Then said he: "This is nothing but magic, derived from of old;
74:25
"This is nothing but the word of a mortal!"
74:26
Soon will I cast him into Hell-Fire!
74:27
And what will explain to thee what Hell-Fire is?
74:28
Naught doth it permit to endure, and naught doth it leave alone!-
74:29
Darkening and changing the colour of man!
74:30
Over it are Nineteen.
74:31
And We have set none but angels as Guardians of the Fire; and We have fixed their number only as a trial for Unbelievers,- in order that the People of the Book may arrive at certainty, and the Believers may increase in Faith,- and that no doubts may be left for the People of the Book and the Believers, and that those in whose hearts is a disease and the Unbelievers may say, "What symbol doth Allah intend by this?" Thus doth Allah leave to stray whom He pleaseth, and guide whom He pleaseth: and none can know the forces of thy Lord, except He and this is no other than a warning to mankind.
74:32
Nay, verily: By the Moon,
74:33
And by the Night as it retreateth,
74:34
And by the Dawn as it shineth forth,-
74:35
This is but one of the mighty (portents),
74:36
A warning to mankind,-
74:37
To any of you that chooses to press forward, or to follow behind;-
74:38
Every soul will be (held) in pledge for its deeds.
( 965 - 1040 A.D.)
Another amazing fact about the famous Islamic prime number 19, Allahu Ahkbar!
Abu Ali Hasan Ibn al-Haitham was one of the most eminent physicists, whose contributions to optics and the scientific methods are outstanding. Known in the West as Alhazen, Ibn aI-Hautham was born in 965 A. D. in Basrah, and was educated in Basrah and Baghdad. Thereafter, he went to Egypt, where he was asked to find ways of controlling the flood of the Nile. Being unsuccessful in this, he feigned madness until the death of Caliph al-Hakim. He also traveled to Spain and, during this period, he had ample time for his scientific pursuits, which included optics, mathematics, physics, medicine and development of scientific methods on each of which he has left several outstanding books.
He made a thorough examination of the passage of light through various media and discovered the laws of refraction. He also carried out the first experiments on the dispersion of light into its constituent colors. His book Kitab-at-Manazir was translated into Latin in the Middle Ages, as also his book dealing with the colors of sunset. He dealt at length with the theory of various physical phenomena like shadows, eclipses, the rainbow, and speculated on the physical nature of light. He is the first to describe accurately the various parts of the eye and give a scientific explanation of the process of vision. He also attempted to explain binocular vision, and gave a correct explanation of the apparent increase in size of the sun and the moon when near the horizon. He is known for the earliest use of the camera obscura. He contradicted Ptolemy's and Euclid's theory of vision that objects are seen by rays of .light emanating from the eyes; according to him the rays originate in the object of vision and not in the eye. Through these extensive researches on optics, he has been considered as the father of modern optics.
The Latin translation of his main work, Kitab-at-Manazir, exerted a great influence upon Western science e.g. on the work of Roger Bacon and Kepler. It brought about a great progress in experimental methods. His research in catoptrics centered on spherical and parabolic mirrors and spherical aberration. He made the important observation that the radio between the angle of incidence and refraction does not remain constant and investigated the magnifying power of a lens. His catoptrics contain the important problem known as Alhazen's problem. It comprises drawing lines from two points in the plane of a circle meeting at a point on the circumference and making equal angles with the normal at that point. This leads to an equation of the fourth degree.
In his book Mizan al-Hikmah Ibn al-Haitham has discussed the density of the atmosphere and developed a relation between it and the height. He also studied atmospheric refraction. He discovered that the twilight only ceases or begins when the sun is 19 degrees below the horizon and attempted to measure the height of the atmosphere on that basis. He has also discussed the theories of attraction between masses, and it seems that he was aware of the magnitude of acceleration due to gravity.
His contribution to mathematics and physics was extensive. In mathematics, he developed analytical geometry by establishing linkage between algebra and geometry. He studied the mechanics of motion of a body and was the first to maintain that a body moves perpetually unless an external force stops it or changes its direction of motion. This would seem equivalent to the first law of motion.
The list of his books runs to 200 or so, very few of which have survived. Even his monumental treatise on optics survived through its Latin translation. During the Middle Ages his books on cosmology were translated into Latin, Hebrew and other languages. He has also written on the subject of evolution a book that deserves serious attention even today.
In his writing, one can see a clear development of the scientific methods as developed and applied by the Muslims and comprising the systematic observation of physical phenomena and their linking together into a scientific theory. This was a major breakthrough in scientific methodology, as distinct from guess and gesture, and placed scientific pursuits on a sound foundation comprising systematic relationship between observation, hypothesis and verification.
Ibn al-Haitham's influence on physical sciences in general, and optics in particular, has been held in high esteem and, in fact, it ushered in a new era in optical research, both in theory and practice.
From the Sura called "The Cloaked (hidden) One" which is widely believed to be a Sura regarding mathematics and a proof to the Unbelievers:
74:18
For he thought and he plotted;-
74:19
And woe to him! How he plotted!-
74:20
Yea, Woe to him; How he plotted!-
74:21
Then he looked round;
74:22
Then he frowned and he scowled;
74:23
Then he turned back and was haughty;
74:24
Then said he: "This is nothing but magic, derived from of old;
74:25
"This is nothing but the word of a mortal!"
74:26
Soon will I cast him into Hell-Fire!
74:27
And what will explain to thee what Hell-Fire is?
74:28
Naught doth it permit to endure, and naught doth it leave alone!-
74:29
Darkening and changing the colour of man!
74:30
Over it are Nineteen.
74:31
And We have set none but angels as Guardians of the Fire; and We have fixed their number only as a trial for Unbelievers,- in order that the People of the Book may arrive at certainty, and the Believers may increase in Faith,- and that no doubts may be left for the People of the Book and the Believers, and that those in whose hearts is a disease and the Unbelievers may say, "What symbol doth Allah intend by this?" Thus doth Allah leave to stray whom He pleaseth, and guide whom He pleaseth: and none can know the forces of thy Lord, except He and this is no other than a warning to mankind.
74:32
Nay, verily: By the Moon,
74:33
And by the Night as it retreateth,
74:34
And by the Dawn as it shineth forth,-
74:35
This is but one of the mighty (portents),
74:36
A warning to mankind,-
74:37
To any of you that chooses to press forward, or to follow behind;-
74:38
Every soul will be (held) in pledge for its deeds.
16.1.07
14.1.07
Iran has the right to attack Israel.
Well, I'll say.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/7/115611/5148
Everyone has the right to attack this rogue nation that is leading the world into the worst war scenario in history.
Well, I'll say.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/7/115611/5148
Everyone has the right to attack this rogue nation that is leading the world into the worst war scenario in history.
12.1.07
Penny wise and pound foolish
used to cut it but then we found
ourselves poor and very, very wise.
http://www.funeralplan.com/products/embalming.html
Your RIGHT to not be buried Like an Egyptian:
"Except in certain special cases, embalming is not required by law. Embalming may be necessary, however, if you select certain funeral arrangements, such as a funeral with viewing. If you do not want embalming, you usually have the right to choose an arrangement that does not require you to pay for it, such as direct cremation or immediate burial."
used to cut it but then we found
ourselves poor and very, very wise.
http://www.funeralplan.com/products/embalming.html
Your RIGHT to not be buried Like an Egyptian:
"Except in certain special cases, embalming is not required by law. Embalming may be necessary, however, if you select certain funeral arrangements, such as a funeral with viewing. If you do not want embalming, you usually have the right to choose an arrangement that does not require you to pay for it, such as direct cremation or immediate burial."
The Theory of Snow
The night was dark, really dark.
I stopped above the round about
and hurried to urniate
fearful of the wild pigs, omnivores
that stag along the streets
at night. The deer wander through
the hedges to gape and yawn.
The big cats and bears are still
one range away in their territory
where the roads washed away
in a hundred year rain last summer.
When will it be the last time?
This brain of mine is imagination,
corroborated and clean, full
of the most drastic information.
Women here are flag lace and spread eagled,
I'm not used to it anymore,
not used to the going feral.
This snow is a bright lozenge
in the night, hoped for, planned out.
Every piece falls conspicuously
through the lamplight as I wait
for the dragnet of your verbs,
the tragedy of all is well.
No one is well now, are they?
The night was dark, really dark.
I stopped above the round about
and hurried to urniate
fearful of the wild pigs, omnivores
that stag along the streets
at night. The deer wander through
the hedges to gape and yawn.
The big cats and bears are still
one range away in their territory
where the roads washed away
in a hundred year rain last summer.
When will it be the last time?
This brain of mine is imagination,
corroborated and clean, full
of the most drastic information.
Women here are flag lace and spread eagled,
I'm not used to it anymore,
not used to the going feral.
This snow is a bright lozenge
in the night, hoped for, planned out.
Every piece falls conspicuously
through the lamplight as I wait
for the dragnet of your verbs,
the tragedy of all is well.
No one is well now, are they?
4.1.07
Thermohaline energy transfers and global warming:
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/oceans.htm
Another great unknown was the interaction between currents like the
Gulf Stream and the giant eddies that the currents spun off as they
meandered. Evidence of these broad, sluggishly rotating columns of
water had turned up during a survey voyage across the North Atlantic
in 1960. This was confirmed by an international campaign carried out
by six ships and two aircraft in the early 1970s — another example
of how studying ocean phenomena needed international cooperation.
The survey discovered eddies bigger than Belgium that plowed through
the seas for months. What oceanographers had supposed were static
differences in the oceans between their sparse measuring-points, had
often actually been changes over time, not over space.
The oceanographers had been vaguely aware that when meteorologists
built atmospheric models, they included the energy carried by wind
eddies as an important factor (physical oceanography, as one
practitioner remarked, was "to some extent a mirror of
meteorology"). Yet it was astounding to see what prodigious
quantities of heat, salt, and kinetic energy the ocean eddies
carried. Indeed nearly all the energy in the ocean system was in
these middle-sized movements, not in the ocean currents at all.
(28*)
He has set free the two seas meeting together. There is a barrier
between them. They do not transgress. (Quran, 55:19-20)
He is the one who has set free the two kinds of water, one sweet
and palatable, and the other salty and bitter. And He has made
between them a barrier and a forbidding partition. (Quran, 25:53
Or (the unbelievers’ state) is like the darkness in a deep sea. It
is covered by waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds.
Darknesses, one above another. If a man stretches out his hand, he
cannot see it.... (Quran, 24:40)
Water is not like air, and computers that could handle meteorological computations were far too slow to work through comparable models for this swirling ocean "weather." As one ocean modeler complained in 1974, "Extensive research efforts have not yet yielded much more than a greater appreciation of the difficulty of these questions."(29) To get a handle on the problem, oceanographers had to understand the oceans from top to bottom. But they had little data on the depths — the occasional expeditions, retrieving bottles of water here and there from kilometers down, were like a few blind men trying to map a vast prairie. Oceanographers liked to remark that we had better maps of the face of the Moon than of the deep sea. After all, there was little economic incentive, nor much military interest either, in studying the colossal slow movements of water, salts, and heat through the abyss.
Another great unknown was the interaction between currents like the
Gulf Stream and the giant eddies that the currents spun off as they
meandered. Evidence of these broad, sluggishly rotating columns of
water had turned up during a survey voyage across the North Atlantic
in 1960. This was confirmed by an international campaign carried out
by six ships and two aircraft in the early 1970s — another example
of how studying ocean phenomena needed international cooperation.
The survey discovered eddies bigger than Belgium that plowed through
the seas for months. What oceanographers had supposed were static
differences in the oceans between their sparse measuring-points, had
often actually been changes over time, not over space.
The oceanographers had been vaguely aware that when meteorologists
built atmospheric models, they included the energy carried by wind
eddies as an important factor (physical oceanography, as one
practitioner remarked, was "to some extent a mirror of
meteorology"). Yet it was astounding to see what prodigious
quantities of heat, salt, and kinetic energy the ocean eddies
carried. Indeed nearly all the energy in the ocean system was in
these middle-sized movements, not in the ocean currents at all.
(28*)
He has set free the two seas meeting together. There is a barrier
between them. They do not transgress. (Quran, 55:19-20)
He is the one who has set free the two kinds of water, one sweet
and palatable, and the other salty and bitter. And He has made
between them a barrier and a forbidding partition. (Quran, 25:53
Or (the unbelievers’ state) is like the darkness in a deep sea. It
is covered by waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds.
Darknesses, one above another. If a man stretches out his hand, he
cannot see it.... (Quran, 24:40)
Water is not like air, and computers that could handle meteorological computations were far too slow to work through comparable models for this swirling ocean "weather." As one ocean modeler complained in 1974, "Extensive research efforts have not yet yielded much more than a greater appreciation of the difficulty of these questions."(29) To get a handle on the problem, oceanographers had to understand the oceans from top to bottom. But they had little data on the depths — the occasional expeditions, retrieving bottles of water here and there from kilometers down, were like a few blind men trying to map a vast prairie. Oceanographers liked to remark that we had better maps of the face of the Moon than of the deep sea. After all, there was little economic incentive, nor much military interest either, in studying the colossal slow movements of water, salts, and heat through the abyss.
3.1.07
Heavy water
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Heavy water is a loose term which usually refers to deuterium oxide,
D2O or 2H2O. Its physical and chemical properties are somewhat
similar to those of water, H2O. The hydrogen atoms are of the heavy
isotope deuterium, in which the nucleus contains a neutron in
addition to the proton found in the nucleus of the hydrogen atom.
This isotopic substitution alters the bond energy of the hydrogen-
oxygen bond in water, altering the physical, chemical, and
especially biological properties of the substance to a larger degree
than is found in most isotope-substituted chemical compounds.
Sura Al Baqra:
2:74
Thenceforth were your hearts hardened: They became like a rock and
even worse in hardness. For among rocks there are some from which
rivers gush forth; others there are which when split asunder send
forth water; and others which sink for fear of Allah. And Allah is
not unmindful of what ye do.
266: Does any of you wish that he should have a garden with date-
palms and vines and streams flowing underneath, and all kinds of
fruit, while he is stricken with old age, and his children are not
strong (enough to look after themselves)- that it should be caught
in a whirlwind, with fire therein, and be burnt up? Thus doth Allah
make clear to you (His) Signs; that ye may consider.
Ah! Hiroshima and Nagasaki while morons worry about something they
cannot possible understand regarding a hadith that states about
Aisha: There lies the scandal!
2:269
He granteth wisdom to whom He pleaseth; and he to whom wisdom is
granted receiveth indeed a benefit overflowing; but none will grasp
the Message but men of understanding.
2.1.07
News At Six
The night is just as cold
when you wait as when you don't,
it conceals the shadows
when the sunshine won't.
My sky is prettier at six
performing all those dying tricks,
so perfect it can make me cry
as on the stars I spy and spy.
No one can tell me a single thing
about fin and leg and wing
without the tongue and mouth
in a breath gone south.
I guess the world is a sadder place
and shame beats steady on the clock's old face,
I read a pome about a hungover gent
whose bed was full of navel lint
and parched old birds he keeps talking to
when no one else will listen or do.
Volume XXVIII, Voices
http://geclark.mystarband.net/
The night is just as cold
when you wait as when you don't,
it conceals the shadows
when the sunshine won't.
My sky is prettier at six
performing all those dying tricks,
so perfect it can make me cry
as on the stars I spy and spy.
No one can tell me a single thing
about fin and leg and wing
without the tongue and mouth
in a breath gone south.
I guess the world is a sadder place
and shame beats steady on the clock's old face,
I read a pome about a hungover gent
whose bed was full of navel lint
and parched old birds he keeps talking to
when no one else will listen or do.
Volume XXVIII, Voices
http://geclark.mystarband.net/
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v428/n6982/full/nature02399.html
Chromosome 19 has the highest gene density of all human chromosomes,
more than double the genome-wide average. The large clustered gene
families, corresponding high G + C content, CpG islands and density
of repetitive DNA indicate a chromosome rich in biological and
evolutionary significance. Here we describe 55.8 million base pairs
of highly accurate finished sequence representing 99.9% of the
euchromatin portion of the chromosome. Manual curation of gene loci
reveals 1,461 protein-coding genes and 321 pseudogenes. Among these
are genes directly implicated in mendelian disorders, including
familial hypercholesterolaemia and insulin-resistant diabetes.
Nearly one-quarter of these genes belong to tandemly arranged
families, encompassing more than 25% of the chromosome. Comparative
analyses show a fascinating picture of conservation and divergence,
revealing large blocks of gene orthology with rodents, scattered
regions with more recent gene family expansions and deletions, and
segments of coding and non-coding conservation with the distant fish
species Takifugu.
Chromosome 19 also has the gene for Alzheimer's. The verse corresponding to
senility is found in The Bee, 16 which "just happens to be" the haploid chromosome
number, of the bee. The same bee we know that practices eugenics.
16:70 It is Allah who creates you and takes your souls at death; and of you there are some who are sent back to a feeble age, so that they know nothing after having known (much): for Allah is All-Knowing, All-Powerful.
16:92 And be not like a woman who breaks into untwisted strands the yarn which she has spun, after it has become strong. Nor take your oaths to practise deception between yourselves, lest one party should be more numerous than another: for Allah will test you by this; and on the Day of Judgment He will certainly make clear to you (the truth of) that wherein ye disagree.
Alas, when will people understand?
74:30 Over it are Nineteen.
74:31 And We have set none but angels as Guardians of the Fire; and We have fixed their number only as a trial for Unbelievers,- in order that the People of the Book may arrive at certainty, and the Believers may increase in Faith,- and that no doubts may be left for the People of the Book and the Believers, and that those in whose hearts is a disease and the Unbelievers may say, "What symbol doth Allah intend by this?" Thus doth Allah leave to stray whom He pleaseth, and guide whom He pleaseth: and none can know the forces of thy Lord, except He and this is no other than a warning to mankind.
http://www.ishwar.com/islam/holy_quran_(yusuf)/sura074.html
16:126 And if ye do catch them out, catch them out no worse than they catch you out: But if ye show patience, that is indeed the best (course) for those who are patient.
16:127 And do thou be patient, for thy patience is but from Allah; nor grieve over them: and distress not thyself because of their plots.
16:128 For Allah is with those who restrain themselves, and those who do good.
Chromosome 19 has the highest gene density of all human chromosomes,
more than double the genome-wide average. The large clustered gene
families, corresponding high G + C content, CpG islands and density
of repetitive DNA indicate a chromosome rich in biological and
evolutionary significance. Here we describe 55.8 million base pairs
of highly accurate finished sequence representing 99.9% of the
euchromatin portion of the chromosome. Manual curation of gene loci
reveals 1,461 protein-coding genes and 321 pseudogenes. Among these
are genes directly implicated in mendelian disorders, including
familial hypercholesterolaemia and insulin-resistant diabetes.
Nearly one-quarter of these genes belong to tandemly arranged
families, encompassing more than 25% of the chromosome. Comparative
analyses show a fascinating picture of conservation and divergence,
revealing large blocks of gene orthology with rodents, scattered
regions with more recent gene family expansions and deletions, and
segments of coding and non-coding conservation with the distant fish
species Takifugu.
Chromosome 19 also has the gene for Alzheimer's. The verse corresponding to
senility is found in The Bee, 16 which "just happens to be" the haploid chromosome
number, of the bee. The same bee we know that practices eugenics.
16:70 It is Allah who creates you and takes your souls at death; and of you there are some who are sent back to a feeble age, so that they know nothing after having known (much): for Allah is All-Knowing, All-Powerful.
16:92 And be not like a woman who breaks into untwisted strands the yarn which she has spun, after it has become strong. Nor take your oaths to practise deception between yourselves, lest one party should be more numerous than another: for Allah will test you by this; and on the Day of Judgment He will certainly make clear to you (the truth of) that wherein ye disagree.
Alas, when will people understand?
74:30 Over it are Nineteen.
74:31 And We have set none but angels as Guardians of the Fire; and We have fixed their number only as a trial for Unbelievers,- in order that the People of the Book may arrive at certainty, and the Believers may increase in Faith,- and that no doubts may be left for the People of the Book and the Believers, and that those in whose hearts is a disease and the Unbelievers may say, "What symbol doth Allah intend by this?" Thus doth Allah leave to stray whom He pleaseth, and guide whom He pleaseth: and none can know the forces of thy Lord, except He and this is no other than a warning to mankind.
http://www.ishwar.com/islam/holy_quran_(yusuf)/sura074.html
16:126 And if ye do catch them out, catch them out no worse than they catch you out: But if ye show patience, that is indeed the best (course) for those who are patient.
16:127 And do thou be patient, for thy patience is but from Allah; nor grieve over them: and distress not thyself because of their plots.
16:128 For Allah is with those who restrain themselves, and those who do good.
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