Friday, August 04, 2006

The New World


Any account of the history of struggle for freedom and democracy can not be complete without the mention of the relatively recent and apparently successful movement that took place in the North American continent. However, in order to understand the democratic fundamentalism and fascination for weapons so deeply entrenched in the people of that part of the world, especially the USAians, one must go back to the origins of civilization itself.

Anthropologists tell us that initially the human race consisted of hunters who had to compete with animals for survival. Gradually, humans learned and developed home-building and cultivation which enabled them to establish agricultural settlements. However, although farming fulfilled the needs for grains and vegetables, a section of the male population still had to go out hunting to provide meat. Thus the communities divided into two distinct categories, namely farmers and hunters. The farmers concentrated on growing crops, developing new techniques of agriculture and experimenting with new crops to increase their output to feed the growing population. The hunters, apart from killing animals in the jungle and bringing their carcasses home, tried to develop new tools, weapons and methods of hunting. Soon it was found that it was more convenient to catch or herd the cattle to their villages, pen them and kill them when needed – and get milk as a bonus.

Later when the art of animal husbandry was developed, the hunters found a new vocation in protecting the villages from wild animals and attacks from the hunters of other villages, resulting in the evolution of civil and martial factions within the villages. As time passed, new professions developed and artisans and traders also became part of the civilian community while the martial community organized itself into an army of sorts. It was also discovered that locating the animal pens in the centre of the villages reduced the chances of their loss to both human and animal predators.

Eventually, fortifications were built in the middle of the villages for safe-keeping of some of the crops and cattle, and most of the valuables of the villagers. Each fortification was, probably, manned by a respectable administrator, a team of record-keepers, and a group of armed hunters or soldiers led by the bravest individual in the village. As the population and prosperity grew, fortifications were built around the entire city and the central depositories were converted into royal palaces, thus creating city-states or capitals of kingdoms. At some stage in the ensuing history, greed and opportunism overcame the guardians of public assets. The custodians and the soldiers conspired and the custodians took control of all the wealth of the people, appointed a king from among themselves and began to rule with the help of the soldiers. The farmers and artisans were forced to pay a portion of their produce as taxes in return for protection from both internal and external predators. Frequent skirmishes were fought with neighboring villages to keep people in a state of insecurity. Naturally, the king and the soldiers were very unpopular among the people and ways had to be found to remove this feeling. The king sent his soldiers to plunder the nearby weaker villages and celebrated the victories with the civilians. After a few generations the original usurpation was forgotten and the king became the divine ruler and source of inspiration. The king's word became the law. It is interesting that even in those days the rulers had discovered the psychological principle that given a high enough state of stress caused by threat and insecurity the people would fantasize and persuade themselves to admire the person or group capable of protecting them, no matter how evil he might be or how much he debased them.

As time progressed, reformers in various parts of the world tried to undo the tyrannical dichotomy and create homogeneous societies, without much success. By the end of the fifteenth century, there were large numbers of people in Europe who were looking for a way out of the system. The accidental discovery of the American continent in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, who had actually set out to find India, was the answer to their prayers. They braved the mighty ocean in large numbers and landed in the areas of the 'new world' now called USA, and founded a more or less uniform community of farmer-cum-hunters who set enviable examples of courage and patience in their dual roles. The cowboy was the manifestation of the ideal of farmer-cum-hunter.

However, the American continents were not uninhabited when the Europeans arrived. There were well civilized and organized, though illiterate and sparsely distributed, tribes of copper colored people whom the Europeans mistook as Indians or called them Indians because they were nearly black to differentiate them from the African black people who were already dubbed Negros. The Native Americans quite rightly opposed the influx or illegal immigrants into their lands and took measures to stop them. But the European immigrants were already at the point of no return and with the help of their superior weaponry, massacred nearly the entire population of the continent. Whether the Native Americans were too proud and freedom loving to accept alien domination or the European intruders were plain sadistic psychopaths is difficult to ascertain. Some historians suggest that 90% of the natives died of diseases and epidemics brought by the European invaders who themselves had immunity to those diseases, which also explains why the natives considered them abominable and dangerous.

Dutch, English, French, Spanish and Swedish colonies were established on the eastern coast of North America beginning 1519, mainly for trading and contacts were established with the local population for the exchange of goods. Only the English established colonies of agricultural settlers, about 400,000 coming in the 17th century mainly due to religious persecution at home. In 1624 King James I of England made Virginia the first royal colony. White servants worked the farms until the late 17th century. But earlier in the century, English tobacco and sugar planters in the Caribbean had adopted African slavery, long the chief labor system in Portuguese and Spanish sugar colonies in those islands. By 1700 the English colonized islands were characterized by large plantations and by populations that were overwhelmingly African. These African slaves were victims of a particularly brutal and unhealthy plantation system that killed most of them. It was not a coincidence that these islands produced more wealth for England than its other colonies. By 1720, most of what is now the USA was part of the British Empire. The American war of independence started in 1775, independence was declared in 1776, the war ended in 1783 and the constitutional US government was established in 1787. The American Revolution, as some historians call it after the French Revolution, accomplished two noble objectives. First, the war achieved independence from Great Britain. Second, the newly created United States of America established a republican form of government, in which power resided with the people.

Meanwhile, democratic movements had started in Europe and elsewhere in the world and kings were forced to separate their administration and tax collection from the military. In some places, the kings had to delegate much of their powers to civilian leaders such as significant property owners and bankers. The French revolution established a civilian as a president and a body of law makers to formulate legislation, state policies and budgets. The military was restricted to its barracks. The uniqueness of the US constitution was that it was the first political instrument that defined the basic rights of its citizens and limitations of the government in clear terms.

The people of the USA succeeded in forming a relatively conscientious society based on justice for and social equality of white men which transcended European national and religious prejudices and received due recognition from intellectuals all over the world. They were also able to evolve a unique ethos of fidelity based on shared interests -- institutional or economic, rather than ethnic bond or theological obligation. The poetry of Mr. Wiggleworth which combined the Islamic concept of resurrection and Judgment day with Christian and Jewish religious beliefs may have played a significant part in the evolution of the conscientiousness. This secularly righteous attitude combined with the benefits of free slave labor abducted from Africa, Ferguson’s agricultural machinery and Eli Whitney's invention of mass-production, resulted in unprecedented progress and prosperity in a relatively short period of time. Some historians suggest that the African slaves were actually bought by the white Americans from black Africans, but one can still find people of real Indian origin in the Caribbean islands who remember how they were abducted by the British from the streets of Calcutta and Madras in the early 20th century.

The new American philosophy of life also developed aberrations in due course. By the early 20th century the American dream had turned into a nightmare with distinct social divisions, growing militarism and corruption far in excess of that in Europe. However, there were good leaders trying their best to reform the society. At one time even an attempt was made to prohibit the use of liquor which had to be given up after about fifteen years. However, the abundance of opportunities had attracted people of other inclinations as well and, before long, the American society was also split into two functional groups -- the farmer-cum-hunters and the fortune hunters -- resulting in what is called the Capitalist system. The two shades of gray are quite discernible today and Veblen's leisure class really seems to exist. The basic weakness of the Capitalist system is that the vast majority of the population is so comprehensively bound in mortgages and loans that most people actually own nothing and are economically insecure. Any increase in stress level due to increase in the feeling of insecurity makes them cross the rationality threshold and allows a crook to become a temporary hero. Yet, one can not deny the great scientific and technological accomplishments of the people of USA resulting in such wondrous achievements as the moon landing and internet.

The two World Wars played a significant role in the shaping of US politics and economy. Encarta has this to say about World War I:

"Since the outbreak of war in Europe, pacifists and reformers had deplored the drift toward conflict; financiers and industrialists, however, promoted patriotism, “preparedness,” and arms buildup." About World War II, it says:

"Most Americans of the 1930s recoiled from involvement in the European conflict; they favored U.S. isolationism, and many supported pacifism. Some believed that “merchants of death” (bankers and arms dealers) had lured the United States into World War I…….

In 1935 and 1936, Congress passed a group of neutrality acts to keep the United States out of Europe’s troubles. The first two acts banned arms sales or loans to nations at war. The third act, a response to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), extended the ban to nations split by civil war……..

In September 1939 Roosevelt called Congress into special session to revise the neutrality acts. The president offered a plan known as cash-and-carry, which permitted Americans to sell munitions to nations able to pay for them in cash and able to carry them away in their own ships."

The American participation in the first and second World Wars resulted in the formulation of American national defense policy of maintaining a weapons and ammunition production capacity that would allow it to jump into a new World War at short notice. In order to keep the unnecessarily huge military hardware industry in working order, it must keep producing something all the time. But since there is a limit to the quantity and time period for which equipment and ammunition can be stored unused, they must find or contrive wars and keep selling or consuming the weapons and ammunition all the time. In the process, they also keep getting a lot of their own soldiers and citizens of other nations killed.

It is interesting to note that the Chinese, who feel militarily threatened by the USA, spend an amount nearly one fifth of the US military budget to maintain a defensive capability. The Indians, who feel threatened by the Chinese, spend an amount nearly a quarter of the Chinese military budget to maintain a viable defensive power. The Pakistanis, who have reasons to feel threatened by the Indian military might, spend an amount nearly a quarter of the Indian military budget to maintain a credible defensive posture.

The World would be a far better place to live in if the leaders of USA could be convinced that they can safely cut down on the defense production capability, arsenals and munitions stockpiles, and limit military production to only the quantities needed for training and exercises. The re-engineering of the US economy to make it a peace-time economy would bring unprecedented peace, security and prosperity to the American people and also the rest of the world. The problem is, ‘how to make it happen?’

Monday, July 24, 2006

Coincident Terrorism

The extremist Jewish regime of Israel is back to its favorite sport of killing innocent people, destroying their property and grabbing their land. Much of civilized humanity is acting as silent spectators because the bad boys of world politics have given Israel the license to kill at will. The excuse is that a group of poorly armed and informally trained Hezbollah adventurers raided a highly sophisticated and extremely well protected Israeli military establishment deep in Israeli territory, killed eight of their soldiers and returned to their own base unharmed with two prisoners of war.

The above story of fabulous bravery and efficiency of the Hezbollah soldiers seems very unlikely. It would be very difficult for the Hezbollah part-timers to penetrate the state of the art defenses of Israel armed to the teeth by the world’s only super power.

On the other hand, it would be very easy for an Israeli commander to send a platoon on a mission in which they would be certain to be killed or captured, providing an excuse for a premeditated carnage.

I say premeditated because a clear-cut pattern is emerging. In December of 2000, the large scale Israeli military onslaught on the Palestinians coincided with a terrorist attack on the Indian parliament in which a bunch of drunken men kept running and shooting in wrong directions until they all got killed; thus creating an international media and diplomatic diversion. In July of 2006, the Israeli attack on Lebanon coincided with a tragic terrorist attack in Bombay in which hundreds of innocent civilians lost their lives and limbs; again diverting world attention from the main event in the Middle East. The Indian leaders are busy spitting venom against Pakistan ignoring what is happening in Lebanon. Are the Indian leaders as naïve as their Pakistani counterparts that they don’t know what is happening in their own country, or are they working with the Israelis on a secret plan to establish world domination by two of the world’s most ancient religions and happily sacrificing their citizens for the ‘noble’ cause?

I sincerely hope that the world will wake up to the unsavory realities before it is too late.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Letter to President 2

Dear Mr. President,

My email to you dated 2nd April, 2006 was never acknowledged, but from the actions of some government officials it is obvious that it was received in your office.

Today, I must acknowledge the usefulness of reforms introduced by you in the last election and would like to suggest the following additional reforms for the next election.

1. Candidates for National and Provincial assembly seats must be domiciled in the constituency from which they contest elections.

Reason: The representative of the people should be from amongst them.

2. The two candidates getting highest and second highest number of votes from each constituency should be declared winners. Readjustment in constituencies may be needed for this purpose.

Reason: The Assembly will have a larger mandate of public opinion.

3. Election commission should organize public meetings to be attended by all candidates of the constituency with due security, where the candidates will speak to the voters and answer their questions.

Reason: People should know who they are voting for and what he or she stands for.

4. Photographs, names and party affiliations of candidates should appear on the ballot paper instead of election symbols.

Reason: Voting for lamp-posts is a legacy of the colonial rule and must end.

5. There should be a ban on commercial advertising for or against any candidate. Reason: Candidates should not be sold to the public, or they will keep selling themselves.

With best wishes for you and the nation,

Big Bang Revisited

The Big bang does not refer to the abominable attitude that any problem can be solved with adequate quantity of gun powder. It is a well researched and mathematically supported scientific theory that speculates how the universe could have come into existence. Billions of dollars have been spent on research to prove this theory, may be as much as the particle theory that explains the ultimate nature and structure of things as they exist.

Every thing that exists has certain properties or characteristics that can either be observed and measured directly or indirectly, or may be assumed and verified. Both the creation of the universe and the ultimate nature of substances are topics that have formed the basis of dogmatic beliefs, and need to be correlated scientifically. Whereas a theoretical analysis requires assumptions, equations, boundary conditions and computers, to produce a tangible result you need resources, creativity, effort and medium in addition to yourself. There can be no doubt as to whether the brick was made first or the building. The correlation of various scientific and non-scientific theories gives the following picture.

At sometime in the very distant past, someone created a few very large spheres consisting of extremely dense and brittle material that floated in the great void. The creator also incorporated in the spheres, certain laws of behavior that would be complied with in all circumstances.

At a certain point in time, one of the smaller spheres collided with a much bigger sphere and intense vibration was set into it. The energy build-up was so gigantic that it heated up to a very high temperature and exploded. The explosion was so powerful that the ultra dense sphere disintegrated into a huge expanding ball of dust consisting of a dozen or so types of submicroscopic elementary particles. A huge amount of electromagnetic radiation was also emitted. The particles having highest velocities were at the outer surface of the ball while the slowest were at the inner surface of the partially hollow spherical cloud, the rest were in between the two.

The nascent elementary particles combined with each other to form larger particles, atoms and molecules of the natural elements, in the form of hot gases or plasma which was much colder than the elementary particles due to highly endothermic reactions that combined them into larger ones. As time passed, the gases cooled further by emitting infrared radiation. Since the sphere was hollow, it did not develop a central point of thermal concentration. However, its continuity was breached at numerous points and millions of very large gas clouds traveling away from the center of the Universe were formed. The gas clouds were so large, that on cooling to a certain degree, they collapsed under gravity, re-exploded and formed galaxies, stars and planets.

It is also possible that the whole original sphere did not pulverize into elementary particles, but broke up into a few billion chunks. Some of these chunks continued to disintegrate and formed the centers of galaxies and stars while the vibrations of most of them died out in time and they became black holes.

However, one thing is certain--- our earth is not at the center of the Universe. The stars and galaxies that are moving in the same direction as ours, appear to be receding slowly (difference of velocities) while those on the other side of the center of the universe that are traveling in the opposite direction seem to be moving fast (sum of velocities).

Friday, May 19, 2006

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 20th 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.

Monday, April 17, 2006

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.

Sunday, April 16, 2006

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?

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

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.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

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.