The Unsung Heroes of 20th Century

History doesn't tell us how people felt during the great moments of the past. Yet it is true that the course of history is always decided by how people feel. There are events that are reported in the press and recorded in history in a completely different light from how they influenced society. One such example is the heart transplant operations of 1969 and onwards.

Thanks to the poets, writers, philosophers and romantics of the past, the heart has come to be known as the yardstick of personality. Everyone knows what a chicken heart and a lion heart mean and only a generation ago black people were considered to have weak hearts compared to the white ones, and hence inferior. Women were regarded as the weaker and inferior sex almost all over the world. Their great intellectual achievements were totally ignored as accidental exceptions. Somehow their hearts were also to be blamed for that.

South Africa had somehow become the Vatican of racial prejudice or apartheid as they called it. The apartheid laws enacted in South Africa in the middle of the 20^th century imposed such indignities on the black and colored populations that the American law requiring a black person to vacate his or her seat in a bus in favor of a white person seemed like a blessing.

It was in this terrible country in 1969, that Dr. Christian Barnard and his team performed the first successful heart transplant operation in which the heart of a white woman was given to a white man, who survived for weeks with his new heart. Her kidney gave the gift of life to a colored boy. In the months and years to come, hearts were transplanted in al possible combinations of race and ethnicity -- and they all survived subject to medical limitations. The myth of racism was exposed. If hearts were interchangeable, all people were equal.

It is interesting that although the heart transplant received much publicity, the moral and intellectual implications were ignored. Although no leader made a statement and no editorials were written, the equality of hearts had proven the futility of racial and sexual prejudice. The truth had been expressed in action though not in words and it quietly sank into people's minds all over the world. Apartheid evaporated from South Africa and sexual and racial prejudice declined all over the world at a phenomenal rate. Today, one who considers women or blacks inferior would be considered abnormal.

The change can only be felt by someone who has seen society as it was in the mid-twentieth century and as it is today. I salute the heart transplant surgeons and so should all blacks and women.

The Tragedy of the Balkans

Nostradamus Century V, Quartain 70

Les regions suvjettes a la Balance

Feront trembler les monts par grande guerre

Captif tout sexe deu et toute Bizance

Qu'on criera a l'aube terre a terre

Translation

Of the regions subject to the Balance,

They will trouble the mountains with great war,

Captives the entire sex enthralled and all Byzantium,

So that at dawn they will spread the news from land to land.

Historic References

Most of the Balkan Peninsula is mountainous, with streams flowing in every direction. It comprises the countries of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro (formerly the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), Albania, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and European Turkey.

Byzantine Empire, eastern part of the Roman Empire (Roman Empire), which survived after the breakup of the Western Empire in the 5th century ad. Its capital was Constantinople (now İstanbul, Turkey). Constantinople became a capital of the Roman Empire in 330 after Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, refounded the city of Byzantium and named it after himself. Only gradually did it develop into the true capital of the eastern Roman provinces—those areas of the empire in southeastern Europe, southwestern Asia, and the northeast corner of Africa, which included the present-day countries of the Balkan Peninsula, and Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus, Egypt, and the eastern part of Libya. Scholars have called the empire Byzantine after the ancient name of its capital, Byzantium, or the Eastern Roman Empire, but to contemporaries and in official terminology of the time, it was simply Roman, and its subjects were Romans (Rhomaioi).

Yugoslav Succession, Wars of: The first war occurred in Slovenia and lasted ten days in June and July 1991, producing few casualties. The second war was fought in Croatia from July to December 1991 and in the summer of 1995. The third war took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995. The second and third wars resulted in hundreds of thousands of mostly civilian casualties, massive property damage, and more than 2.5 million refugees. The fourth war, sometimes known as the Kosovo war, lasted from March to June 1999. It was an air war conducted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), a rump Yugoslavia consisting only of Serbia and Montenegro. (In February 2003 the FRY changed its name to Serbia and Montenegro.)

By the summer of 1992 the Serbs controlled about 70 percent of Bosnia. They laid siege to Sarajevo, Bosnia’s capital, with artillery and snipers and carried out ethnic cleansing, through massacres and expulsions of non-Serbs in territories they controlled. Reports of mass murder, organized mass rape, and torture became widespread. Tens of thousands of people, mostly Muslim males, were herded into concentration camps, where many died or were executed. These atrocities produced worldwide condemnation, but there was no international intervention except for the delivery of humanitarian aid under the protection of otherwise ineffective UNPROFOR troops in Bosnia in 1992. By 1994 they numbered 24,000.

© 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Interpretation

Erstwhile Yugoslavia situated in the Balkan Peninsula, was almost entirely located in ancient Byzantine also called the Eastern Holy Empire. Rome and Byzantine formed the two arms of the balance of Christianity. The use of artillery and aerial bombardment during the wars of succession would shake the mountainous terrain, men and women would equally be gripped by the frenzy or suffer horrendous misery. The whole world would be anguished by the news and pictures coming via satellites.

The Future of Iran

Century V, Quartain 25

Le prince Arabe, Mars, Sol, Venus, Lyon
Regne d'Eglise par mer succombera
Devers la Perse bien pres d'un million
Bisance, Egypte, ver. serp. invadera

Translation

The Arab Prince Mars, Sun, Venus, Leo,

The rule of the Church will succumb by sea:

Towards Persia very nearly a million men,

The verbose serpent will invade Byzantium and Egypt.

Interpretation

When the Iranian leaders make venomous speeches against Turkey and Egypt, they will join in a coalition with the Arab monarchies, the super power and its allies to attack Iran. The navies of the Christian powers in the Persian Gulf will fall back and a land invasion by an army of nearly a million will be planned.

Question

Will there be a war or will sanity prevail?

Catching the Thief of Baghdad

Nostradamus' Century 10, Q 72

L'an mil neuf cens nonante neuf sept mois,
Du ciel viendra vn grand Roy d'effrayeur:
le grand Roy d'Angolmois,
Auant apres Mars regner par bon-heur.

Translation

In the year 1999 and seven months
The Great King of Terror will come from the sky,
He will bring back to life the great king of the Mongols.
Before and after the God of war reigns happily.

Historic References

In 1257, Hulagu (1217?-1265), the grandson of Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan and brother of Kublai Khan and Mangu Khan besieged and sacked Baghdād after the Abbasid Caliph al-Mustasim rejected Hulagu's demand for Abbasid surrender. In the massacre, only Christian lives were spared, apparently due to the intervention of Hulagu's Christian wife. Baghdād burned for seven days, and some historians estimate as many as 800,000 people, including the caliph and his family, were killed. In a letter to King Louis IX of France, Hulagu estimated his army killed 200,000 people.

The city suffered minor damage from bombing during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, which lingered on as a naval and aerial siege of Iraq by the US-UK military alliance. In mid-April 2003, U.S. forces captured Baghdād after extensive aerial bombardment that destroyed most of the City's commercial and governmental buildings and overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein. Television crews of the enemy countries were present and active in Baghdad during the invasion and the destruction of the city was shown live on television worldwide as a sort of entertainment. Looters ransacked many shops, warehouses, and museums.

Interpretation

In July, 1999 someone flew to somewhere and formed an alliance to attack Iraq and destroy Baghdad once again as the Mongol king had done in the past. This would be a continuation of the war that was started earlier and was paused, and would continue for an indefinite period.

Question

Who was the Great King of Terror?

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/145605
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulagu_Khan

Letter to President of Pakistan

2nd April, 2006

Your Excellency,

Please allow me to congratulate you on Pakistan's fabulous progress in the course of your dedicated leadership, There is also no doubt about the capabilities of the people employed by you to do the various jobs.

However, I would like to share my concerns about some of the national issues that deserve high priority.

1. Technical Manpower: The best part of our technical manpower is working abroad, and there is severe shortage of experienced workers especially in the construction industry. As industrial expansion takes place, the shortage will extend to all sectors. Private sector is very unlikely to invest in basic technical education as the students belonging to poor families would not be able to pay much. It may be a good idea to promote professional trade unions and involve them in training.

2. National Language: The Koreans once came to Pakistan to learn from its progress. Now they have overtaken us. Having worked closely with them, I find that the most important reason for them doing better than us is that they chose to use Korean language in all walks of life. In Pakistan less than 5% people who know English can participate in high commerce, or even read SROs, bank forms, telephone directories or send emails. In Korea, Taiwan, Thailand etc. 100% can. If we can produce technical literature in Urdu and enroll people who are already working in industry without qualifications, we may produce up to 30,000 experienced engineers in say five years.

3. Nuclear Defense: Possession of nuclear weapons increases the risk of nuclear war and tensions, unless nuclear shelters are available. I can arrange technical manuals for building facilities to resist nuclear attack.

4. Democracy: We may be able to produce better democratic leaders for future if we prepare a code of conduct for student union activities in schools and colleges and show role models on television.

5. Religion: I have already emailed to Sheikh Rasheed my article on the Basic Principles of Islam. It is also available on my website www.pkblogs.com/naseemmahnavi

6. Sacrilege: About time GOP started issuing travel advisories warning people against traveling to countries where they may be subjected to "Psychological Terrorism".

I shall be extremely willing to help in the matters highlighted above.

Yours faithfully,

Mohammad Nasim.

The Basic Principles of Islam

By Naseem Mahnavi

On a number of occasions I have been asked by nonmuslim friends and associates to explain my religion and beliefs that make me the unique individual that I am, in a language that they can understand. From a thorough study of the Holy Qur'an, Hadith and lives of good Muslims spanning over many years, I have derived the following basic principles of Islam. This is more a philosophical than religious discourse and may help the uninitiated to understand Islam. The references to chapter and verse have been omitted to maintain the reader's concentration. Any comment, criticism or suggestion for improvement will be welcomed. E-mail to mnasim_99@yahoo.com.

1. The Singularity of existence. Allah is the only God – an eternal persona having all knowledge, born of none and having no progeny, who has no needs or weaknesses. He created the world and protects, controls and nurtures it with utmost compassion and mercy. All changes in the world are by His command. One must not worship or call anyone but Allah for help.
2. The authentic messenger. Allah revealed His commands for correct human conduct afresh to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) who was a perfect human being and a model to be followed. The collection of these revelations is called the Holy Qur'an which is a book of guidance for all times to come. The code of conduct given in the Holy Qur'an is called Islam.
3. Islam is the religion of pure reason; nearly half of the Holy Qur'an consists of reasoning to convince its readers. Islam has no place for activities leading to psychological intimidation, induced change of mood, impairment of judgment or irrational attachment. Hence it does not allow the use of statues, pictures, music, dancing or intoxicants in religious, social or personal life. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) strictly forbade the making of his picture or statue.
4. Humankind is superior to all other creatures and Allah's viceroy on earth. Human beings must complement His functions of protecting, nurturing and improving His creations. This should be the only purpose of all pursuits of knowledge and scientific research.
5. Everyone will have to account for all his or her actions in life and be rewarded or punished on an appointed day. On that day, the world will cease to exist as we know it and all who would have lived and died will come alive again and become immortal to experience the pleasures or pains they deserve.
6. All human beings are equal in the eyes of Allah. Men and women have equal rights and a red man is not superior to a black man or vice versa. Allah has made people different to promote healthy competition and accelerated development. Cleanliness and piety bring one closer to Allah.
   
7. The viceroy must always act in consultation with the Creator. Five times a day, one must meditate, recite from the Holy Qura'n, go through the motions of prayer or Salat as done by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), communicate one's observations, thoughts, feelings and needs to Allah and take all decisions in attendance before Allah.
8. The fortunate must share the feelings of the less fortunate and be prepared for all eventualities. One must exercise complete self control and not eat or drink anything or indulge in carnal pleasures from sunrise to sunset during the lunar month of Ramadan every year. This practice is called fasting or Som in Arabic.
9. Charity is the highest virtue. Every year one must share at least a fortieth part of one's fortune with the needy without putting any obligation on them. This practice is called Zakat.
10. Go to the source of the truth. Those who can afford must, during their lifetime, make a pilgrimage to Makkah and Madinah to familiarize themselves with the environment in which the Holy Qur'an was revealed and go through the motions the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) made during the Haj.
11. Privacy is everyone's privilege and prerogative. One must cover one's private parts and ensure that others' privacy is not compromised. Privacy can only be shared between a man and a woman through a mutually agreed and solemnized relationship. A man can be shared between women, but a woman can not be shared between men. Children are the gifts of Allah and must be protected.
12. No one carries the burden of another's guilt. Punishment can only be physical and the freedom of movement of an individual can not be restrained except for a short period during the investigation of a witnessed crime. One has the right of equal retribution, but forgiveness is preferable. The right of forgiveness rests with the aggrieved party.
13. One must not consume intoxicants, CNS depressants, blood and meat of pigs or animals killed by shock.
14. One only gets what one strives for, there being no limit to what one can achieve. One must not indulge in pursuits that promise gain without effort or with token investment.
15. Honesty is the essence of Islam. In Arabic honesty and faith are synonymous. All agreements must be written down and witnessed. The terms of a loan agreement must be dictated by the borrower, and since consumable items can not be rented, interest can not be charged on money lent.
16. One must bow with those who bow and must not act in a supercilious manner. One must respect one's parents and care for them in their old age. One must ensure that no one is hurt by one's hands or tongue.
17. One's legacy must be distributed among one's survivors proportionately as instructed in the Holy Qur'an which includes all children, spouse, parents and siblings.
18. One must not hide the truth and must endeavor to dispense justice without prejudice or favor. One must protect the rights of the weak and the orphans and ensure that what is due to them reaches them.
19. One must respect the religious beliefs of others and not use force in matters of faith. Yet one must gently persuade others to embrace Islam, to do good deeds and renounce evil. Islam confirms Jesus (Issa, pbuh) and Moses (Moosa, pbuh) as true prophets of God and the Holy Qur'an recounts the stories of Biblical characters from Adam (pbuh) to Issa (pbuh) with rationalizations and proclaims belief in them as part of faith.
20. If there is no other recourse, one must wage war against injustice, repression and the domination of evil. The spirit of combat should be to eliminate injustice and evil, not to take revenge for personal offences. Aggression should be confronted with force, and preparations should be made if aggression is imminent.
    
21. For any collective activity, a leader should be elected by consensus and should be obeyed unless he or she violates accepted norms of Islam. Every one has the right to express disagreement with superiors and receive a convincing explanation.
22. The Sun and the Moon follow calculated paths, the trees and plants are in a state of submission and the world is at the disposal of humankind. One must not disturb the balances created by Allah.
23. The laws of nature are inescapable and one must try to understand them. One must strive to acquire knowledge of industry and invention. Iron is a gift of Allah and must be utilized for the benefit and protection of people.
24. Allah worked for six ages of a thousand years to set up the mechanism of creation and set up His headquarters in heaven, then said "happen" and the world took shape. He monitors the state of affairs in the world and sends new ideas in a cycle of a thousand years.
25. The human soul is immortal and there is a population of invisible spiritual beings in heaven and earth called angels and jinnat. The devil belongs to the genus of the jinn.
26. The devil is out to undo the goodness of human beings and they must resist evil temptations.
27. Adversity is never beyond the tolerance limit of the sufferer and one must never lose hope.

Definitions

As thing are today:

Buenocracy = Domination by good people. (It doesn't exist anywhere.)

Democracy = Universal equality of opinion and domination of majority opinion.

Democratic government = Domination by a group of people who have demonstrated their ability to manipulate public opinion better than others.

General = One authorized to get soldiers killed.

Engineering = The art and science of creating inorganic life.

God = The Singularity discovered thousands of years ago, but never defined scientifically.

Gravity = Inherent interconnection between bodies of matter.

Happiness = Disciplined pursuit of pleasure that does not result in regret.

Life = Ability to change others' perceptions.

Love = Urge to protect, nourish and share pleasures with.

Nation = A group of people who identify themselves with each other.

Marriage = License to share privacy.

Patriot = One willing to make sacrifices to defend the freedom of his or her homeland.

Peace = Absence of irritation.

Politics = Exploitation of the community's weaknesses.

Poverty = Absence of affluence.

Religion = Fixed belief in the unknown.

Science = Study of the nature and working of things and events; and belief in proven and verified facts.

Soldier = A man who waives his right of free judgment and becomes so scared that never puts down his weapon.

Space = Occupied part of the void.

Spiritualism = Interaction of central nervous and autonomic systems.

Terrorism = Tendency to achieve by violent intimidation rather than by asking, bargaining, creating, developing or earning.

Time = Differential element of age.

Zero = Difference between equals.

The Evil Cartoons of Europe

A small newspaper in a small north European country published the works of a dozen religiously bigoted cartoonists. It hurt the feelings of the few Muslims who saw it and they complained about it. Civilized behavior would have it that other newspapers would become vigilant that such offensive cartoons did not find a place in their columns. On the contrary, by chance or by design, the offending cartoons were reproduced in a number of European newspapers with much wider circulation. The wider circulation caused much distress to millions of Muslims all over the world, resulting in mass demonstrations and more than half a dozen deaths aside from scores of minor casualties.

The governments of Europe and the officials of EU are not willing to condemn the publication of the bigoted cartoons on the pretext that they care more about the freedom of their press than the feelings of millions of people who are not in a position to influence their election results. Either they are being blackmailed by their press or they are returning the favor that the press did by not taking them to task for the extrajudicial killings by NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The relevant question here is whether or not a crime has been committed against a section of humanity, and it is very likely that European and international courts would conveniently rule the matter out of their jurisdiction. The onus, therefore, lies on the more responsible members of world press to create an example of judging possible journalistic crimes. If the ICC can review bowling action and suspend a bowler, why can't the IUJ do the same?

As for the failure of certain countries to protect the Embassies of certain countries in the face of enraged mob-action, there aught to be clear cut international protocols for the punishment or exchange of people responsible for the initiation or execution of such acts.

Having made the legal case, let us look at some historical examples:

1) The US tested the first nuclear bomb named Trinity and with the encouragement of its allies dropped two of them on innocent Japanese civilians killing hundreds of thousands. Yet no civilized Buddhist or Shinto did anything that would be insulting to Jesus Christ (Hazrat Issa).

2) For the past many centuries, European pirate ships and colonizers have been constantly plundering the rest of the world and carrying out genocides eliminating populations of entire continents, but decent people of the suffering humanity have not held the religious or intellectual leaders of Europe responsible for those heinous crimes.

3) For over a century, the Israelis have been driving Palestinian Christians and Muslims out of their homes and killing them indiscriminately with superior weapons supplied by their friends. Almost every Muslim in the world hates Israelis, yet no one has made a caricature of Moses (Hazrat Moosa) depicting him as a murderer even though it could be justified historically.

There is something very wrong with the European civilization, if there is one.

The Story of Abraham

2.3 Abraham, the Father of Prophets

It was in this privileged region of Arabia, nearly four thousand years ago, that a man named Ibraheem was born in a family of stone carvers who, from his very early life, protested against man's worship of other men and stone objects. He also put forward the concept of a Supreme Being, omnipotent and omnipresent, who created the world and who alone deserved to be worshiped; that by comparison to that Being all humans are almost equal and ought to treat each other equally and that all human beings will have to account for all their actions on the day of judgment. As he became vocal in the expression of his ideas of human dignity, monotheistic religion and democratic attitudes, the imperial establishment unable to counter him by argument began to feel threatened and he was made the object of crude persecution. The refusal to worship political and religious rulers and their deities was really a negation of their domination, which deserved the most exemplary punishment. So much so, that he had to leave Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and migrate to Egypt with his beautiful wife Sarah.

His reputation as a man of great new ideas earned him access to the court of the King, but unfortunately the King was more impressed by Sarah's beauty than by Prophet Ibraheem's (PBUH) philosophy. According to accepted legends he promptly gave him one of his prettiest maids -- Hagar, hoping to make a fair exchange. But he was quite disappointed when he discovered Sarah's complete loyalty to Abraham. In the mean time Hagar also started showing signs of having been influenced by Abraham's philosophy of dignity and fidelity. The King was shattered. Here was a man who possessed the ability to command absolute loyalty and unity of thought with individuals close to him; something he had always wanted but never achieved. He could not have Ibraheem (PBUH) killed. So he simply asked him to leave Egypt and take both women with him.

Prophet Ibraheem (PBUH) on his part had learned the crucial lesson that it is futile to try to reform a corrupt establishment by joining it and working from within. He decided to create an institution of his own. By coincidence or design or divine guidance he ended up in the valley of Makkah situated in the middle of mountains and only a few meters above a great aquifer i.e. a natural underground water reservoir. There he settled with his wife who had a pious and obedient son Ismail with whom he built a cubic structure on whose walls he wrote his thesis on human dignity proclaiming the unacceptability of man's worship of man or objects, the equality of all men in worldly matters and the inevitability of a day of final reckoning leading to heaven or hell. The message would have been in hieroglyphics running in seven lines spirally along the four walls -- perhaps the writing referred to in the Qur'an as "Sahhaf Ibraheem". This was Ka'bah, the first monument to what we call Democracy.

For hundreds of years to follow, men and women would come to walk around this Ka'bah, read the inscriptions and meditate and get inspiration to live with dignity, freedom and democracy. From the traditionally established direction of circumambulation (Tawaf) it is apparent that the inscriptions on the walls of the Ka'bah were in a language that was written and read from left to right. The kissing of the black stone fixed at the edge from where circumambulations start and end is exactly in line with the Arab custom of kissing a book after reading it. The black stone of Ka'bah may have been the world's first bookmark. Traditions indicate that with the passage of time, the Ka'bah gradually came to be known as a place where one could acquire great knowledge and wisdom -- even magic. The sanctity of the place would impart the visitor absolution from his sins; and the infirm could regain health by exercising between the hills of Safa and Marwa and drinking the mineral rich water of the nearby natural fountain of Zamzam. So much so that even trading caravans travelling between Northern Arabia and Yemen began to make a detour to stop by it. Makkah thus became, maybe, the world's first city to have simultaneously a university, a hospital, a church, a trading center and no king.

The Secularized Story of Christianity

For those who receive religious education from an early age and develop reverence for their holy books, everything in them is credible. For those who start reading the Bible or the Qur'an after receiving secular and scientific education there is much to confuse and raise doubts. The following rationalization may help them to try and understand religion rather than ridicule it.

Civilized people take great care to pronounce proper names, especially those of people they respect, correctly. But, unfortunately, an exception has been made in the case of Biblical characters. The correct pronunciation and corresponding spellings can best be ascertained from the people who have lived continually through generations in the same lands where the Biblical events occurred, such as Palestine, Iraq and Egypt. In the following text, the Arabic versions of names are given along with the popular English names of the Biblical characters. PBUH is the abbreviation for Peace Be Upon Him or Her.

2.6 Jesus son of Mary

The translated versions of the Bible this author has studied, assign to Mary (Marium PBUH) a husband named Joseph who was a descendant of an unbroken line of prophets or saints or kings starting with Adam (PBUH) and who is said to have fathered Jesus (Issa PBUH). At the same time there is a hint that some misunderstanding may have existed between Mary (Marium PBUH) and Joseph. It is interesting that in the Bible, chapters containing the assertion that Jesus was the son of Joseph and that he was a divine manifestation born to Virgin Mary (Marium PBUH) have existed concurrently. The immaculate birth version of Luke is corroborated by Qur'anic text. Nearly half of the world’s population believes in the immaculate conception of Jesus (Issa) son of Mary (Marium). Mary(Marium) is said to have denied that any man had touched her before the angel informed her that she was going to become a mother, and there is no reason to doubt it. Angels are massless beings with such a low energy density that they can not be perceived by normal human senses, nor detected by sensitive instruments, though they have the capability to stimulate human brain cells in a pattern to produce a graphic image or vision. It seems unlikely that an angel would be able to synthesize a human sperm with extraordinary features inside a woman. The Immaculate Conception would have to be congenital. Improbable as it may seem it can be rationalized in the following way.

Embryological anomalies are not uncommon in any part of the world. Medical museums are full of extraordinary or miraculous partially and fully developed fetuses both single and twin. Some exceptional fetuses have even been born and survived with medical help. About two thousand years ago when the wife of Imran who lived in either Nazareth or Bethlehem became pregnant, two of her ova were fertilized and if things had gone on normally she would have had twins, a son and a daughter. However, due to some biological accident or divine interference the male embryo soon ceased to grow and somehow got embedded in that part of the female fetus which was to constitute its reproductive organs. The probability that one embryo would penetrate another without significant damage is so remote that it would, perhaps, never happen again. So, the wife of Imran delivered a baby girl called Mary (Marium) who, though apparently normal, was carrying a dormant fetus. As Mary (Marium PBUH) learned to speak, some of the speech information was also transferred to the partially developed brain of the fetus; and when Mary (Marium PBUH) became an adult the dormant fetus became active and began to grow. Thus Mary (Marium PBUH) became, perhaps, the world's first surrogate mother, and the child Jesus born to her surprised everyone when he was able to talk when only a few days old. There is striking similarity between the descriptions of the event given in the Book of Luke in the Bible and the Chapter Marium of the Qur’an.

Jesus (Issa PBUH) quietly grew up to be a good carpenter or fabric dyer (traditions vary), and it is possible that he may also have attended some courses at the University of Ka'bah during the period of his life for which there is a blackout in known history. Even Mary (Marium PBUH) may have felt the need for a redeeming factor to restore her respectability in view of the accusations she was facing. Makkah is less than a hundred kilometers from Jeddah, the Red Sea port which lay on the trading caravan route between Palestine or Jerusalem and Yemen, the home of Bilqees the queen of Sheba made famous by king and prophet Solomon (Suleiman PBUH). In any case, he did not become prominent until he denounced the existing order based on Judaic argument and Roman tyranny. Corruption and conceit in the community had risen to such a level that when Jesus Issa (PBUH) challenged those about to stone an adulteress to death saying that only one who had never committed adultery himself had the right to throw a stone at her, no one came forward. He was accused of committing heresy when he started talking of conscientious mutual treatment and human relations based on inviolable commitment in the name of God, the inimitable Power. In spite of being opposed to the prevailing political situation, he is said to have refused to lead an armed insurgency; and is quoted to have disapproved of being called the Messiah (anointed one) or Christ cryptically meaning King. Nevertheless, his ability to cure psychosomatic disorders, his discovery of the technique of reviving unconscious people by sprinkling water on their faces and his preaching of nonviolence were greatly admired by the masses. (In many Islamic communities the word Masiha meaning the Messiah or Christ signifies a doctor). Soon he found himself at the head of a well-organized and fast expanding medical and educational volunteer corpse. Unfortunately, his teachings of loyalty to God alone, forgiveness rather than revenge and equality of men did not win him any favors with the Roman governor or the Jewish establishment of Jerusalem and its adjoining areas. A vilification campaign was started, and what could be a greater taunt for a man whose parentage was disputed than to misquote his teachings substituting the word Abb (father) for Rabb (Lord). It is not easy to determine the exact words in which he preached for most part, but he did make a statement that was to become the hallmark of decency for all times to come. He told his followers that 'the spirit of staying clean' (Rooh-ul-Quds in Arabic) would guide them after he was gone. When translated into Greek, with the spice of Greek mythology, it became the 'Holy Spirit' and eventually the Holy Ghost. However, the commitment to self-denial and chastity apparent in the lives of many of those dedicated to the Christian cause clearly shows that they are guided by, among other things, the spirit of staying clean.

The animosity of the Roman colonialists and their local lackeys grew to such an extent that Jesus was accused of treason and summons for his arrest were issued. It seems that his companions reached the conclusion that the main cause of the wrath of the Romans was his opposition to wine and larded bread, both of which were imported in large quantities from the Roman homeland in what is now Italy. Jesus' (Issa's) opposition of wine and lard (traditionally prohibited in Jewish faith but forgotten) was a threat to the Roman economy. So they pressurized him into renouncing his opposition to wine and lard for the sake of saving the higher purpose and noble ideals of his movement. They may even have received such hints from the establishment. According to Biblical descriptions Jesus (Issa PBUH) had, during the Last Supper, produced a container of wine and told his companions that it contained his blood. In the light of Semitic custom such an action would constitute an oath meaning that drinking of wine would be as heinous as drinking his blood. By changing emphasis on the words, the prohibition has been turned into an encouragement. Similarly, he called larded bread his flesh and cursed its consumption. But when the mood of his companions did not change, he gave in and renounced his position by tasting both. His companions followed suit.

The next day, Jesus was arrested, tried and tied to the cross to die a slow death. However, as the news of his renunciation reached the Roman governor, he was pardoned, quietly removed from the cross and sent for treatment. A few days later he was released. He returned to his companions who refused to recognize him. After this, one of the following may have happened:
1) Jesus (Issa PBUH) was so disheartened that he went away to some distant shrine and spent the rest of his life meditating.
2) When the establishment learned about this split, they had him quietly picked up and terminated and buried him.
3) As most Christians and Muslims believe, he was taken away by the angels to heaven where he lives to return someday.


2.7 The Rise of Christianity

After the crucifixion and disappearance of Jesus (Issa PBUH) the political ambitions of his followers evaporated, but the service organization he had left behind grew into a sizable network. The rulers who were impressed by the discipline and services provided by them soon realized that if they could use the vast communication network of the Christian volunteers, their imperial power could grow many-fold. Moreover, the same network could be used to defeat the resurgent movement of dignity, freedom, democracy and clean living which was not in their best interests. Therefore, perhaps, the Empires of both Rome and Byzantium made themselves 'holy' by adopting Christianity as state religion. They also appointed a 'Committee of three' to act as God, including Jesus (Issa PBUH) himself in it -- thus perpetuating the worship of man by man and, by implication, the exploitation of man by man. Even today there are large numbers of people who accept the orders of heads of churches and governments as the words of God. They also made every effort to destroy the original works of Jesus son of Mary (Marium PBUH) and his close followers, and replace them with literature that would help to support their colonial ambitions. Moreover, having failed to intimidate the believers by a spectacle of the crucifixion of Jesus (Issa PBUH), they managed to reproduce and sustain the same effect by making it customary to have a miniature replica of the crucifixion in every church and home. With the passage of time, depending on local perceptions, the Cross acquired resemblance with objects of adoration ranging from flower to rapier. The Protestant movement in Europe was, it seems an attempt to break loose from the clutches of this lingering sense of intimidation and promote the original democratic values of Jesus (Issa PBUH) without acknowledging the contributions of such other great reformers and prophets as Abraham (Ibraheem PBUH), Moses (Moosa PBUH) and Muhammad (PBUH).

It took faithful Christians many centuries to find a plausible justification for the tradition of Trinity. Philo's concept of the logos which was supposed to act as an intermediary between perfect God and imperfect matter was identified with Jesus (Issa PBUH). Similarly, it came to be held that a power of divine origin permeated the universe, namely the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. The ideas were then combined into the catchy slogan "God is One; but He is also Three: Father, Son (the logos or Christ), and Holy Ghost". One wonders if Jesus (Issa) son of Mary (Marium PBUH) would himself have approved of such a statement.

The adoption of the Christian Churches by the State had many benefits for the rulers. Every crime that was committed was confessed by the culprit or his more religious minded accomplice before a minister of the Church and the information was passed on to the authorities. The police, after making an impressive show of investigation, would solve the crime and bring the culprit to trial with great efficiency. This established the authority and popularity of the police and judicial systems in the Christian world. Today, after having lost the benefit of the confessional policemen are being called by expletives that can not be printed.

The preceding analysis is not intended to offend faithful Christians, but represents the personal opinion of this author. To anyone who feels hurt by reading the above text, this author tenders profound apology.