Good intention counts

Abdullah bin `Abbas (May God be pleased with them) reported:

Messenger of God (PBUH) said that God said:

"Verily, God has ordered that the good and the bad deeds be written down. Then He explained it clearly how (to write): He who intends to do a good deed but he does not do it, then God records it for him as a full good deed, but if he carries out his intention, then God the Exalted, writes it down for him as from ten to seven hundred folds, and even more. But if he intends to do an evil act and has not done it, then God writes it down with Him as a full good deed, but if he intends it and has done it, God writes it down as one bad deed". [Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

9/11? What does Quran say about murder?

World Trade Center - New York City

"...Whoever kills an innocent soul it is as if he killed the whole of Mankind. And whoever saves one, it is as if he saved the whole of Mankind..." 

(Quran, Chapter 5 Verse 32) 

It is clearly Islamically unlawful to murder an innocent person. Hence, if anyone kills an innocent person, they have committed a grave sin, and certainly the action cannot be claimed to have been done "in the name of Islam."




What do Muslim scholars, NGOs, umbrella organizations, human right groups say about 9/11?

Who is Muhammad? (pbuh)

Language, Life and Religion: Motives and Challenges

What makes us up in the morning? What makes us feel down in our life?
How do we identify ourselves? Do we know ourselves and motives and how to deal with future, idealism and realism? In this context, how does language affect us, positively or negatively? Are there ways to encourage ourselves to motivate or get help from others who survived even after many challenges?

As I posted a few days ago The Pen Magazine has started the monthly seminar series. I have been invited to talk about Language, Life and Religion. My teleconference will be streamed  at 12.10 (Istanbul Time)

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The Pen Magazine Monthly Seminars

The Pen Magazine is a quarterly published educational and cultural magazine. Writers and editors give monthly lectures and here is the one of them.

The House of Wisdom by Jonathan Lyons

When Baghdad opened its gates as the new capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, the prime site in the city was occupied by the royal library. Both the city and the library, completed around 765, were built by Caliph al-Mansur, who devised a method for measuring the circumference of the Earth and was second in a long line of Abbasid caliphs who valued thought and learning above all else. The Abbasids created, shaped and developed one of the most rich and fertile periods of science in human history.

The library was officially called “the House of Wisdom”. It was a monumental structure, accommodating translators, copyists, scholars, scientists, librarians and the swelling volumes of Persian, Sanskrit and Greek texts that flooded into Baghdad. Not surprisingly, it became a magnet for seekers of knowledge from across the Muslim empire.

Jonathan Lyons tells the story of the House of Wisdom, the caliphs who supported it and the people who worked there, at a riveting, breakneck pace. In quick succession we meet scholars such as al-Khwarizimi, the illustrious Muslim mathematician and founder of algebra, the geographer al-Masudi,

Science and Islam: Lost and Found

History shows that the Muslims increased in civilization and progressed in relation to the strength of the truths of Islam; that is, to the degree that they acted in accordance with that strength. And history also shows that they fell into savagery and decline, and disaster and defeat amidst utter confusion to the degree of their weakness in adhering to the truths of Islam.



The hidden history of science, the gap between Greeks&Roman and modern times, has been revealed in an exhibition shown at the Museum of Science in London. Many people named it as dark ages which has now been turned out to be The Golden Age of the Muslim world. Visitors will have the opportunity to see the Muslim inventors of the basics of camera as well as of the first engines, Astrolabes (forefathers of GPS), the founder of the first university in the world, the father of optics, the master of modern architecture the pioneering surgeon who invented the first catgut which is stil in use in operations, the first man who flew 1000 years before Wright brothers, the developer of mathematics and the founder of algebra and modern trigonometry, the best ever experts of pharmacy and so on and so forth can be observed in this exhibition or can be read through the book named “1001 Inventions: Muslim Heritage in Our World” by Salim T S Al-Hassani.

Interview: Science Vs Islam?

Swan, 56, Engineer, English

It’s nice to be here in such an informative exhibition. I’m impressed by it. I’m an engineer and knew many things about Muslim scientists already, however, I didn’t see some of the interesting ones before. Of course all of the items exhibited here are attractive, but, to me, the most attractive one is the elephant clock of Al-Jazari. Here I have seen that the period that people of Europe call the dark ages were only dark for us. We were poor. There were many diseases and people were dying out of hunger as well as epidemics and surely was in a bad situation.

But, when I look back at the history here in this exhibition, they were not even busy with those which we dealt with. They were inventing robots, founding hospitals and universities, they were having good life styles, inventing coffee and musical instruments which were all luxurious in those ages for us. There is only one thing that I cannot understand, howcome such a sophisticated and developed culture leant back?
(To get the answer, please refer to the quotation in the headline, which was extracted from Ustad Bediuzzaman’s faourite work, Damascus Sermon, at the very beginning of the article).