Mesmerism

Tomb of Hazrat Gul baba Bektash in Budapest, Hungary

It may astonish a few, surprise some others and annoy the others to know that mesmerism is also claimed to have a basis in Islamic mysticism. I read about this in the book Irfan. I made a few translations from that book. My reading of Irfan was motivated by my desire to understand the nature of consciousness. I read it after I read atheism, specially The End of Faith by Sam Harris. The chapters I translated include An Account of Invocation of Jinns, Angels and Souls, The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their Misunderstanding and Certainty in Belief is Dependent Upon Seeing.The book is written by Hazrat Faqir Noor Muhammad Sarwari Qadri Kalachwi (RA). This book was first published in 1942. It has two parts. Both parts also  have translations in English. The urdu version of the first volume can be read here and English version can be read here.

Somewhere in Irfan the author suggests that mesmerism also has a basis in Islamic mysticism  According to the narrative in the times in which Franz lived there used to be Hazrat Gulshan baba Bektashi (or probably it was Gul baba) somewhere in the Eastern Europe. I do not remember the country precisely but I think that it was Hungary. Hazrat Gulshan baba used to treat the people about their problems. By the blessings of Allah he could cure the sick. He was also blessed enough by Allah the he could treat the wounded. Thus, it was reported that many wounded soldiers used to come to him and he  used to make dum on them. In hours of desperation he even used to apply his spit to the wounds of the sick and they used to heal by the blessings of Allah. Even Christian soldiers used to come to him and he was quite venerated by them.

In those years Franz Mesmer started visiting his shrine. From there he acquired a few tricks of the trade viz a viz what we now know as mesmerism or its descendant, hypnotism. This is what I read in Irfan, Allah knows the best.

God of the Orient

The other day I came across an Urdu novel titled "Khuda-e-Mashriq", literally meaning "God of the Orient" in English. I casually browsed its pages and I could not resist reading a part of it with a lot of concentration. I shall talk about that latter. But first I would like to briefly describe what the novel is about. The novel is written by Muhammad Zahid Afghan. As the name suggests, the writer is most possibly from Afghanistan. The central character of the novel is a British female who travels all the way from England to various Eastern countries and probably lands up somewhere in the subcontinent. Her name was Salomi. I am not sure though, but I think that I should reconfirm. There she makes friends. And she has her perplexities and bewilderment typical of a traveler.

The part that I found the most interesting was that the favorite personality of Salomi was the renowned German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In her conversations with her friends she talks about Friedrich Nietzsche and his nihilism. This was the part that I found most interesting. I heard about Friedrich Nietzsche  and a few about his quotes a long time a go from friends. Names such as Friedrich Nietzsche and others can be quoted in educated circles as a symbol of intellect. But after a long time, I started wondering what his really philosophy was. After all it is important to know what someone really contributed as a philosophy as opposed to merely quoting from his/her quotations. I came to know that Friedrich Nietzsche was an atheist and that much of atheism of the present day can be attributed to having a background in Nietzsche-ism. Well, I could be wrong but I suppose that Friedrich Nietzsche still has an impact. Latter I came to know that Friedrich Nietzsche was a nihilist about the existence of God. And I wondered what were the reasons that led Friedrich Nietzsche in to nihilism.

Salomi explained the underlying reason very clearly. At one point she starts narrating about the life of Friedrich Nietzsche to her friends with an emotional vigor. She says that as Christianity arrived, for some odd reason the West started indulging in barbarism. As a consequence Friedrich Nietzsche became agnostic about the existence of God. He abandoned his civil life and went somewhere in the alps to live there. There he created a new God. Zarathustra! 

Latter while having a discussion with her friends, they ask each other that then who was the God of Zarathustra. One of the characters proposes that the God of Zarathustra was the God of Hazrat Ghulam Moi-ud-din Chishti (RA). He (RA) was a sufi saint with a substantial following in the subcontinent. It is interesting to note that Zarathustra (AS) was himself a prophet of Islam. Overall the novel is nicely written and tries to address various philosophical curiosities. It is interesting to note also that there are people in Afghanistan who try to do such delicate and creative work.

Awaken the Giant Within

I was recommended to read Awaken the Giant Within, written by Anthony Robbins, a long time ago by a close friend. The book was recommended for learning about acquiring better emotional health. I have to admit that I could not put the book down as soon as I started reading it. It is a very fascinating and motivating book. It describes many methods for becoming emotionally healthy. Along with that it also provides guidelines for acquiring good physical health and for becoming financially sound. However, it is mainly focused on emotional health which, in my opinion, is also the best thing about the book.

The author takes a multi-pronged approach to rehabilitate the emotional health of its readers. It tells motivating stories about the lives of people who at some points in their lives were stuck in extraordinary circumstances. They eventually liberated themselves of their misery because of things like courage, motivation, dedication and hope. Indeed it is quite encouraging to read audacious stories about people who had a multiple personality disorder with around hundreds of altars, or of people who were stuck in concentration camps during the holocaust.

The book also offers practical tools such as neuro-associated conditioning (NAC). Following such methods and tools can definitely affect a person's personality in better ways. Among many fascinating things about the book, one is the power and ability of any person to change his/her state of mind extremely quickly. That no matter in whatever state of mind a person is, one can change that within an instant. Although there are many quotes in the book that affect a person immediately. But the one I liked the most is: Change your focus, change your life. 

The goal of the book is to make the reader to learn to become a happier and a more prosperous person. The main emotion one experiences while reading the book is that of euphoria. Anthony Robbins has indeed done a great job by writing such a marvelous book.

Understanding Digital Signal Processing

Understanding digital signal processing (DSP) can both be intriguing and frightening in the beginning. The mathematics involved in various integral transforms can turn off many teachers. The mysterious domain transformations can fascinate many a novice. For a long time as a graduate student I was amazed by the underlying idea behind transformation of a digital signal from time domain to frequency domain. I simply could not understand how it happened. After going through many lectures and books, I eventually came across Understanding Digital Signal Processing by Richard G Lyons. 

Understanding Digital Signal Processing (DSP) treats the subject in a way no other author or teacher has ever done. The best thing about the book is that elucidates the various and many key concepts of DSP in an extremely layperson friendly manner.  It is quite inspiring to learn with the help of examples on as to what the various transforms and transfer functions do with a digital signal. One has a great eureka moment when one learns that the Fourier transform is basically a cross-correlation function. In order to know the strength of a particular frequency component in a multi-spectral signal, the signal is simply corss-correlated with another signal of that particular frequency. This is a very enlightening way to learn about the Fourier transform.

There are many other cherish-able ideas in the book. For instance, to know that a FIR filter is basically a smoothing function. Similarly, the rationale behind choosing a particular Nyquist's sampling rate is also quite informative. The reasons for having bell-shaped windowing functions and their linkage with spectral leakage is also explained in a very nice manner. Other topics like the Z-transform, or IIR filtering are also covered in a very nice way.

 Understanding digital signal processing can is the best book for anyone who wants to learn DSP from the ground up. It is also quite suitable for anyone who is an expert but wants a revision of concepts. It is specially useful for learning the key concepts of DSP and for developing a transparency in the mind about what actually happens to the signal when it is transformed from one domain to another. Any person who wants to learn DSP should definitely read Understanding Digial Signal Processing by Richard G Lyons. Understanding digital signal processing (DSP) can both be intriguing and frightening in the beginning. The mathematics involved in various integral transforms can turn off many teachers. The mysterious domain transformations can fascinate many a novice. For a long time as a graduate student I was amazed by the underlying idea behind transformation of a digital signal from time domain to frequency domain. I simply could not understand how it happened. After going through many lectures and books, I eventually came across Understanding Digital Signal Processing by Richard G Lyons. 

Understanding Digital Signal Processing (DSP) treats the subject in a way no other author or teacher has ever done. The best thing about the book is that elucidates the various and many key concepts of DSP in an extremely layperson friendly manner.  It is quite inspiring to learn with the help of examples on as to what the various transforms and transfer functions do with a digital signal. One has a great eureka moment when one learns that the Fourier transform is basically a cross-correlation function. In order to know the strength of a particular frequency component in a multi-spectral signal, the signal is simply corss-correlated with another signal of that particular frequency. This is a very enlightening way to learn about the Fourier transform.

There are many other cherish-able ideas in the book. For instance, to know that a FIR filter is basically a smoothing function. Similarly, the rationale behind choosing a particular Nyquist's sampling rate is also quite informative. The reasons for having bell-shaped windowing functions and their linkage with spectral leakage is also explained in a very nice manner. Other topics like the Z-transform, or IIR filtering are also covered in a very nice way.

 Understanding digital signal processing can is the best book for anyone who wants to learn DSP from the ground up. It is also quite suitable for anyone who is an expert but wants a revision of concepts. It is specially useful for learning the key concepts of DSP and for developing a transparency in the mind about what actually happens to the signal when it is transformed from one domain to another. Any person who wants to learn DSP should definitely read Understanding Digial Signal Processing by Richard G Lyons. The book is particularly suitable for the mathematics shy.

Bunny in the Clouds

Muhammad (PBUH) written naturally in the clouds.

I remember having read an article a few months ago in connection with Dr. Eben Alexander's much hyped book Proof of Heaven. I don't remember exactly but I think that the article was published in the scientific American magazine. The article had a mention of a phenomenon of seeing a "bunny in the cloud" in it. According to my extrapolated understanding of it the term is related to wishful thinking. That no matter what random shape the rather amorphous clouds acquire, if a person is adamant about seeing a bunny in the cloud, he/she will eventually see it. This is a nice analogy to explain the idea of wishful thinking. That no matter what a person sees or feels in his/her dreams, hallucinations, spiritual trances or commas, if a person is hellbent on perceiving it as heaven, he/she will eventually do so. 

Laa Ilaaha Illa Allah written in a farm in Germany.

It makes a lot of sense to wonder that whether the phenomenon of seeing a bunny in the cloud is always a visual illusion or can it also be attributed some authenticity at times. Here I presume the use of the term "bunny in the clouds" to be metaphorical. This means that both bunny and the clouds can mean anything that can be seen or observed. For instance, bunny can mean a flower, food, drinks, a knife, a sword, Jesus (PBUH), Marry (PBUH), Muhammad (PBUH), Allah, a garden, heaven or fire. Similarly cloud can also mean anything like a cloud, a dream, moon, a potato or a watermelon. 

Religious people have a great propensity for seeing different types of such metaphorical bunnies in different types of those so-called clouds. Thus, it is not uncommon to see visual appearances in the clouds that resemble Jesus Christ (PBUH). Some of them are vague and there are others that seem to be made up. But there are indeed a few that appear to be shadows of a standing man with a staff in his hand. I have chosen one of such pictures of the clouds to post here. 

Jesus (PBUH) in the clouds.

Obviously it is no proof that it Jesus standing in the clouds with his staff in his hand. One cannot even claim that it absolutely looks like as if a man is standing in the clouds at all. These are just randomly arranged clouds. But still if we look at these clouds closely, they do appear to have a human head with rather thick and curly hair. A left arm. The bends of the chest. and something that resembles a stick. But whether this man is Jesus (PBUH) or not cannot be claimed. But this is only one picture. There could be other more vivid pictures on the web that may be easily claimed and classified to be containing Jesus (PBUH) in them. 

Allah written on a cactus.

Muslims also have a tendency for finding names of Allah and Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon him) written on clouds and other things. Indeed, there are many pictures on the Internet in which the word Allah has appeared to have been written naturally in the clouds.

Muhammad (PBUH) written on a goat

Similarly, a simple search query reveals that pictures with the word Muhammad (PBUH) in Arabic appearing on clouds and other things like stones, bread, or in a fruit are also quite numerous. At some points such appearances are vague but at others they are quite vivid. 

Allah written on foreheads of newborn twins

Such phenomenon has also been termed as pareidolia. There is also religious paredolia in which names or figures of religious figures visually appear in various natural phenomena.

Allah written inside a pomegranate

It is quite wonderful to observe that many of the appearances in the pictures are extremely vivid. One can only hope that these pictures are real and not forged. 

Gora

The Urdu word "Gora" literally means "white man" in English. Its feminine counterpart "gori" means a white woman. The word is commonly and quite frequently used to refer to an average white person of a Western origin. Particularly, it is used to refer to European and American white men. But it would not be an exaggeration to include people from other racial backgrounds, like the Chinese and the Japanese, to form a generalization. In short, the word gora can be used to refer to a person belonging to any of the advanced countries. In a literal sense it is used to refer to a white man of Caucasian background.  

It is not uncommon to hear mentions of gora in normal everyday discussions in Pakistan. Gora did this, gora did that. Gora is a genius. Gora is creative. Gora has better laws in his country. Gora has better values. Gora is humane. Gora is humble. Gora is funny. Gora is fun. Gora is simple. Gora is honest. Gora is innocent. Gora's science. Gora's research. Gora's technology. Gora's ideas. Gora is not jealous. Gora is not wicked. Gora's this and gora's that. Indeed, gora can sometimes be discussed in Pakistan like  the way shrimps were cherished by Bubba in Forrest Gump.  

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the gora has earned this good reputation and respect among the Muslim societies due to his/her superior character of the personality. Gora can be discussed in many diverse circles and places, ranging from markets to mosques. Indeed, many Muslims believe that should the gora recite the testimony of purity and convert to Islam, he/she would be a better Muslim than them already. Muslims claim to have with them a code of the most supreme morality in the form of Quran and Sunnah. It is a pity that the values of Quran and Sunnah are not practiced by the Muslims as the way they should be. They, nonetheless, find a practical implementation of these values in the life of a gora. Muslims, however, appreciate this strength of character. 

The Muslim Way of Speaking

Speech and language are essential and important components of human communication. Societies have evolved many languages over the course of human evolution. Currently there is a large number of languages and dialects that are spoken on our planet that may be believed to range between being euphonious to cacophonous. The manner in which a person speaks reflects on how genteel and humane he/she is. In civilized communities it is considered a norm to speak in a sweet-sounding manner. It may be thought that the early civilized societies may have had a tradition of learning to speak well too. To be able to speak is a great blessing of Allah Almighty indeed. But it is not difficult to find a widespread abuse of this blessing in everyday life. It is not uncommon to come across conversations that are full of swearing, cursing, profanity and slandering.

The Muslim Way of Speaking addresses this problem in a comprehensive, eloquent and lucid manner. The book is written by renowned Muslim scholar Harun Yahya. The book is available for download on his personal website and can be read online too. The book is also available for purchase on online stores like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

The book is written from an increasingly Islamic perspective. It takes examples from Quran and Hadith on  as to how to speak and address people in normal everyday discourse. First of all it emphasizes on the importance of praising Almighty Allah in speech and to call Him through His beautiful names. It advises to speak with the knowledge that Allah is with the speaker at every moment. It warns not to associate others else with Allah. It is advised to speak in the knowledge of one's helplessness in the face of Allah and that no task can be performed without the will of Allah. Quran should be employed as a guide in speech. One should speak in the certainty of fate and the truth that there is good in everything. Allah should be trusted in all the situations.

One should speak with the awareness that life of this world is transitory. One should have concern in his speech for what is lawful and what is unlawful. One should avoid the style of speech that is influenced by Satan and one should seek refuge of Satan from Allah. One should enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. One should speak with wisdom, sincerity, truthfulness, sensibly and logically. One should also give good tidings.

One should speak so as to arouse joy and enthusiasm. One should say what is best. One should not speak under the influence of the mean inner self and by being motivated by personal desires. A person's speech should be measured, courteous and respectful. Humility should be a cornerstone of good speech. Similarly, while speaking one should have an attitude of tolerance and forgiveness. Consultation should be a major part of intercommunication. One should make frequent references to one's disposition about submission to the will of Allah and to acknowledge that there is no strength but in Allah. It is very important to adopt good manners while speaking to one's parents. Backbiting and gossiping behind people's backs should also be abandoned. Suspicion and slander should be abandoned. Similarly mocking and ridiculing people should be discouraged and abandoned. One should not speak out of covetousness and envy. One should not speak in vein and make empty and trivial statements. One should not interrupts others speech and on their own turn they should speak calmly. A very important point is to adopt the manner of speech that is appropriate to the level of knowledge of the person that is being addressed. Speaking hypocritically should be avoided at all costs. A way of speech that gives rise to doubts should be avoided. A manner of speech that is probing and prying should be avoided. The statements that lead to evil should be avoided. Obfuscation should be avoided and secret and meetings should not be held. One should speak so as to defend and support our prophet Hazrat Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him).

Finally the books lists the advantages of adopting such meritorious traits in one's speech and the author presents the conclusion. The last chapter of the book is deception of evolution. It is dedicated to addressing Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection. It tries to show with the help of logic, and in the light of relevant literature review on as to how the materialist theory of evolution presented by Charles Darwin is wrong and flawed. 

Overall I have found the book to be a very enjoyable read. It is well written and the quality and amount of material presented in the book is quite balanced and enlightening. I found this book while I was looking for literature regarding neural basis for language, speech and accent production. Although I could not find anything of that sort in the book, I believe that the book is an excellent resource for behavioral rehabilitation.  

Air Conditioning

I thought about this idea a long time ago when I was a university student. The idea was to air-condition beds, sleeping bags, small tents, or any other similar thing which has a small volume good enough for one person to sleep in. The next thing is to attach a duct and a pipe with the facility and to eventually connect it to a small air conditioner. The air conditioner will keep the facility cold for as long as it will run. The person who would sleep in it would have sweet dreams. 

Such an apparatus would have an additional advantage. Cooling a small volume of space is easier and cheaper to do than to cool a larger volume, such as that of a whole room. Thus, it can be highly cost effective. Similarly, the same air conditioner that may have cooled a single room that may have been hosting a couple of people can be used to supply cold air to a larger number of people sleeping in things like sleeping bags. This can be done by spreading a small pipeline. And such an air conditioning solution can be useful in countries with hot climate. Countries like Pakistan that are suffering from an acute electricity crisis can benefit a lot from such schemes.

Language and Speech Production

The other day I was thinking about writing a small research proposal around the idea of studying neurological basis for accent and language production. There were a few interrelated reasons for which this came to my mind. First is based on the observation that some people have a natural talent for adapting themselves to various accents. I have personally met some people who can change from a very crude Punjabi accent to a very polite Urdu accent in a fraction of a second. It was also very cool to observe a few people whose native language was Mewaati and they used to change between swinging Mewaati and plain Urdu in a fraction of a second. Same can be said about multilingual people who can speak languages other than Urdu, such as Siraaiki, Potowaari, Punjabi and possibly also English.  Indeed, I have seen people who can copy accents very fast and can have a wide variety. There are people who can mimic a plethora of lingual accents and dialects. Many comedians and actors fall under this category.

The other reason was based on the observation that some people are more prone to speaking in a harsh and impolite manner. Indeed, swearing is very common in Pakistan. I am not sure but I think that the tendency to swear is related to the idea that a person appears to be more masculine and virile if he does so. I am not sure if swearing is considered a crucial positive aspect in grooming and upbringing of an adolescent boy. Moreover, most of this profanity loving psychology is inherited from Bollywood movies too.  Swearing and the use of obscene expression can be very common in Pakistan. When you have a problem, you swear. When you are happy, swearing can sometimes be the best way to express that joy.

On the other hand, I have also had a chance to come across many very soft-spoken people both in Pakistan and abroad. There are languages and dialects that may be considered very euphonious and sweet sounding. Indeed, the way you speak or the way you are addressed can have a great impact on your personality. However, this may not be claimed that people who are more likely to use rough and obscene language are indecent, less effective or less loved in any way. On the contrary, a sweet sounding person can sometimes be considered weak and worthless as opposed to a person who uses whatever words that come to his mouth and somehow manages to achieves his objectives, such as developing a domineering aura around himself.

But I think that it is worthwhile to study the neurological basis for accent and language production. To this end, it can be a good idea to study how people learn to speak from an early age and how they develop one way of speaking or the other. It would also be a nice idea to see the social and psychological factors that affect the speech related affairs of human personality. Along with that it would also be interesting to study the neurological basis for language. It would be interesting to see what parts of the brain play an important role in language production. Similarly, to see how the human ability to speak evolve over the course of his/her life, and whether it is a adaptable trait. It would also be very interesting to study the benefits multilingual people can have over people who speak only one or two languages. And most importantly, I wonder that what are the benefits and pitfalls of speaking in one way or the other.

Power of Unity

Following article in the August, 2013 issue of Ubqari magazine is particularly interesting and eye catching. This was written by Maulana Waheed-ud-deen Khan. I remember having posted another article by him earlier in December, 2012. That was about the importance of tolerance. I find this article important because it illustrates the importance of unity in our life and does so with the example of two European astronomers namely, Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe. The article is written below. It is quite interesting to note that the Ubqari magazine is getting better and better by the day. The writers in the magazines write articles for encouragement and motivation by taking examples from diverse cultural backgrounds. It is also quite interesting that the author may certainly have read about the works of the two characters of the following article. Johannes Kepler's name may be well known to many, as I remember that we come across this name in our high school physics. But I am sure that Danish Tycho Brahe is not a very well known name, although his significance in the history of cosmology cannot be undermined. It is interesting to have read his mention in the magazine.

Nonetheless, Ubqari magazine is a treat for everyone. It is an increasingly Islamic magazine that tries to teach all of the humanity as to how to co-exist peacefully. It is being published in a time while a great proportion of humanity is quite confused, and not least of the causes of this confusion is religion. Ubqari invites people to Islam and its magazine is worth reading and the sermons worth listening to. The article is as follows:

No person can do anything tremendous alone. But united struggle has a price. And that price is to overlook the differences and to unite on the common interests.

Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler were contemporaries. But one thing had become an obstacle for both of them in a significant discovery related to astronomy. That was that none of them had complete expertise on every corner of their respective scientific fields. Tycho Brahe had made a plenty of observations in astronomy. He used to keep writing his observations. He had collected a large volume of a written treasure related to the observations about astronomy. But the second aspect about the knowledge of astronomy is related to mathematics. But Tycho Brahe was weak in mathematics.

On the other hand the situation with Johannes Kepler was that he did not have any expertise in astronomical observations. His only specialty was that he was an expert in mathematics. And from a mathematical point of view he had formulated many precious ideas about astronomy. 

Although Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe had personal differences. So much so that in one of his letters, Johannes Kepler had accused Tycho Brahe of hypocrisy and had bad-mouthed him. But Tycho Brahe did not become angry with Kepler despite being short tempered. At the last moment of his life he thought that only Johannes Kepler can be a better inheritor of his knowledge treasure. Thus, he invited Kepler to himself while forgetting all of his rudeness. And in 1601 he gave all of his educational treasure to Johannes Kepler without seeking any reward in return. When all the stock of Tycho Brahe's observations reached Kepler, the deficiency of Kepler was addressed. Now he applied all the mathematical powers of his mind to associate them with these observations. The result of this came out in these three principles which are known as Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion.

This is the secret to a great success in the present world. Every man has a limited knowledge. And based on this any single person cannot do something tremendous alone. But united effort has a price. And that price is to overlook the differences and to unite on common interest. To unite with people despite the differences. This, indeed, is dignity and generosity.

The Code Book

After having read Simon Singh's Fermat's Last Theorem and Big Bang it is inevitable that one would go on to read The Code Book too. As the name suggests the book is about the history and evolution of the science of encryption. Apart from being a difficult subject, cryptography can come across as boring and lackluster. But Simon Singh knows how to treat his audience well. The Code Book takes its reader on to a roller coaster ride in to the wonderland of cryptography. In the book Mr. Singh chronicles the development of the science of cryptography and crypt-analysis from the times of ancient Romans and Egyptians all the way to our current times and quantum cryptography. During the course he records all the important events and hallmarks in the history of cryptography. The effect cryptography has had on the lives, wars, liberty and the geopolitical landscape of our times is described in a revealing way.

The Code Book begins with the Romans involvement with early forms of cryptography. Julius Caesar's secret military writings are discussed. It distinguishes between cryptography and crypt-analysis. It also elucidates the role of Arabs in the development of crypt-analysis and a few old methods of cipher analysis. It then goes on to discuss the clandestine plot of Mary queen of Scots to assassinate the British Queen Elizabeth. The assassination plot was deciphered by Queen Elizabeth and she had the former beheaded. At its climax, it moves on to the stage of world war 2 and a significant portion of the book is devoted to the developments concerning the deciphering of Germans' enigma codes. The efforts of Allen Turing and his contemporaries, on both sides, are worth reading.

The author then brings right in to our very own era of so-called modern cryptography. Here the author discusses the evolution of various techniques such as RSA, PGP and public-key cryptography. The author also discusses various philosophical, ethical and moral issues concerning personal privacy in our times. In particular, the discussion on the trade-of between the level of personal privacy and the level of information gathering by the law enforcement agencies is discussed from the point of view of security.

The final chapter concludes by speculating about the future of cryptography and discusses and analyses the potential of quantum cryptography. Here again the author has done a commendable effort to elucidate some of the intricate concepts in quantum physics, specially superposition, and to analyse their relevance with quantum computing and cryptography. Simon Singh has a very inspiring style of writing about popular science. All of his books are written with much lucidity and eloquence. The pace of the plot is fast while not compromising the fine details. A person who opens the book once and set's off to reading looses track of his/her diurnal chores, looses track of time and would find it hard to close the book before the last page is reached. Anyone who would read The Code Book would fall in love with cryptography.

Big Bang

I developed an addiction for popular science after reading Simon Singh's Fermat's Last Theorem. Afterwards I got hold of his Big Bang. This time I didn't borrow it from the library, rather I bought it for my personal collection of nice books.

The book takes a modest start by describing the earlier notions held by the ancient people of Greece, Perisa and Egypt about the nature and origin of the universe. After setting the stage for a keen discussion on the subjects of cosmology and astronomy, the author lands his readers right in to the lives and works of middle and post-middle age scientists. 

Simon Singh has a remarkable storytelling talent. The manner in which he narrates the history and development of any scientific enterprise keeps the reader spellbound till the last page, and for several subsequent days. The story is never less attractive than any bestselling thriller. Actually, the plot moves so swiftly while hopping over people and evolution of ideas that before the reader gets a chance to contemplate over any particular idea, he/she is ridden to a next more exciting one. Yet at the same time the fine details about the crucial concepts are not compromised. Everything is explained in an extremely lucid manner. And the biographies of the people involved make the whole narrative all the more interesting.

Big bang describes the works of notable scientists like Albert Einstein, Johannes Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho Brahe and Ptolemy etc. The list goes on. It discusses the times and circumstances in which these people lived. The hardships they had to suffer. The theories which they challenged or developed. Their confrontation with the bureaucracy and the popularly held beliefs. And consequently how the various theories about the existence of universe evolved. The book is also interesting as it educates its reader not only about the nature of cosmology, but also about the intricate interplay between science with other realms of human existence, such as religion. 

Johannes Kepler

I can never forget having read this book for another reason too. I read this book while in various European cities. These include, Limerick, Vienna, Salzburg and Graz. I particularly remember that while I was reading about Johannes Kepler and his work, I was sitting in a garden in Graz. And when I finished reading the chapter concerning him, I noticed that there stood a statue of him in front of me. Similarly, I remember that read about the steady state model and its comparison with the big bang model on a hilltop in Graz on which I had gotten to through a lift. There were many people around me but I was practically oblivious about their existence. I read about the CMB (cosmic microwave background) on my way back to Limerick in a bus. These vivid memories are unforgettable and romantic.

Big bang is a must read for every student of science. Once you will read it, you will fall in love with cosmology. And you would also want to live the rest of your life as a cosmologist or an astronomer.

Fermat's Last Theorem

I read Simon Singh's Fermat's Last Theorem in 2007. It was recommended to me by a dear friend as a cure to boredom. I was reluctant about reading it in the beginning. My shyness with mathematics was the main reason. I nonetheless got it from the library and once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down till the time I reached the last page. And when I finished it, I was expecting more. I was sad to see it end.

Fermat's Last Theorem is a story about many stories. First and foremost, it is a story about a mathematical problem that ensued from the ancient Pythagorean theorem. Fermat's Last theorem is basically a generalized version of the Pythagoras theorem. It suggests that whole numbered solutions for the higher order Pythagorean equation do not exist. The theorem was proposed by a French mathematician Pierre De Fermat who lived between 1601 and 1665.

It has stories about many mathematicians starting from Pythagoras himself and finishing at Andrew Wiles. The latter spent a significant portion of his life is trying to come up with a proof for the enigmatic theorem. He eventually succeeded. The way in which Andrew and a myriad of his predecessors approached to solve the mystery is absolutely epic and is the subject of this book.

Stories of many mathematicians are told not only from the point of view of their works' relevance to the Fermat's theorem, but also about their personal lives. It is very interesting and motivating to read the stories of some of the mathematicians who grew out of humble circumstances and became some of the most renowned people of all times. Some of the notable people among these are Laplace, Fourier, Galois, Yutaka Taniyama and Goro Shimua, to name but a few. 

The book also has lucid and eloquent explanations of various mathematical concepts and how they evolved over time. For instance, the book explains the generalization ability and importance of a mathematical theorem and its proof. Other topics such as group theory and elliptic curves are also introduced in a layperson friendly way.

Reading this book was one of the best experiences of my life. It kindled an interest about reading and knowing more about various disciplines of science and mathematics. After reading this I went on to read other works of Simon Singh, whose thrilling storytelling style vitalizes any narrative he wishes to tell. Any person who would read Fermat's Last Theorem would fall in love with number theory, at least for a while.

Rooftop Gardens

The idea of having a garden on the roof of one's house is a cool one. It struck me for the first time when I read an account of India's Narendra Modi's endeavors to install solar grids over the canals of Gujarat, the province of which he is the CM. Installing solar grids over the canals has two additional benefits along with electricity generation. It saves land space, which can be used for other purposes such as agriculture. Secondly, it saves substantial amount of canal water from being evaporated. Projects involving solar energy have great potential in Asian countries like India, Pakistan and other middle eastern countries, which can have very hot climate specially in the summer months. Indeed, when installed on rooftops they could also be beneficial in reducing the indoor ambient temperature of a house or a similar facility. But solar panels are not viably cheap so that everyone can afford them. However, the idea of installing them over canals or on rooftops has additional benefits as discussed above. 

A cheap alternative to having solar panels over one's house is to plant a rooftop garden. Obviously they would not generate electricity. However, they will offer at least three other benefits. First of them is, of course, that the gardener would reap his/her own homegrown vegetables. The second is that it will lower the indoor temperature of the house as rooftop plantation would absorb much of the solar heat from allowing it to penetrate in the house. There is a third very crucial benefit too specially for a country like Pakistan. Pakistan is basically an agricultural country. However, much of its agricultural traditions are being ruined for one reason or the other. One of the reasons is population growth itself. A consequence of that is that a substantial amount of arable land that was once used for agriculture is gradually being converted to habitations. Thus, reducing the land that was available for agriculture. Adopting rooftop gardens would revive significant portion of that land for household horticulture. Growing organic vegetables on one's own roof would also be cheap and healthy. There is a fourth benefit too of having an orchard on one's own roof. Developing a rooftop garden can also be a way of testing and honing one's aesthetic sense about gardening.

Rooftop gardening is quite common in western and other Asian countries. It has, however, not been adopted in Pakistan so far. Of the many reasons a common one is that we as Pakistanis are shy of adopting new ideas quickly. Fear of taking initiative is another common cause. Developing rooftop gardens can have many benefits both personally for the owner and the community as a whole. It can also be anticipated that developing rooftop gardens can be much cheaper and would not require much paraphernalia. Here is a good link to useful advice on developing rooftop gardens.

Excerpts From The Weekly Sermon

The following sermon posted on Ubqari is worth listening to. The sermon was delivered by hakeem Tariq Mehmood Chughtai. He has permission in all the spiritual orders.

Dress has a very profound effect on the thoughts and emotions of humans. Dress is related to modesty. And listen, when modesty is there, the dress expands. And when modesty goes, dress diminishes. But the reality is that it is becoming a source of loss in the society and homes. And all the things that I have said to you are because I want to help in reverting the peace and serenity of your houses and families. Rather I want it to be reverted in to every family. Not only in our country but also in other countries and societies, among Hindus, Sikhs, and everyone. They are all the ummah of Hazrat Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him). We are obliged to have sympathy for them. And we are not obliged to hate them. Remember this! Who ever holds hatred of non-Muslims in their hearts, should scratch it off. Develop an emotion of their well being in your hearts. I often say one thing, that Hazrat Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) has even prayed for the well being of a denier of religion, a denier of faith, a denier of Islam, who holds enmity of Muslims in his heart, and a personal enemy. Dress has a great deal to do with the personal well being of people. You will be astonished to see the nuns of the church near us, the women who work in the church. Observe their dress. They wear scarfs. They wear big gowns. Their dress indeed has modesty in it. This astonishes me. The dress of every religion is wonderful and best, remember this. Irrespective of whether if it is the religion of Jews, or the religion of a Christian, or the religion of a Hindu, or the religion of a Sikh, or if it is the religion of Islam. Every religion has a dress code and it is exemplary. Why? It has a sense of security in it.

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15th Ramadhan 2013

We have to take everyone together. One thing should become deeply ingrained in to a person's personality. That I will not move alone. I will take every person of the Ummah along with me. Jew is mine, Christian is mine, Hindu is mine, Sikh is mine. Attract everyone with love. There should be an attitude of sympathy and wellwishing about non-Muslims. Hatred should be abandoned. 

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A Prayer

O Allah! Give faith to all the Jews, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs. O Allah! Save all of them from the fire of hell.

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A Prayer

O Allah! Give faith to the Jews. Allah! Give faith to the Christians. Allah! Give faith to the Sikhs. Allah! Five faith to the Hindus. O Allah! Give us faith too.  O Allah! Do not let us die without faith. Allah! Give us a faithful death. 

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A Prayer

O Allah! Give faith to the whole ummah. O Allah! Bestow your blessings on the whole humanity. O Allah! Bestow your blessings on all the human beings. Allah! Shower your blessings on all the non-Muslims. Allah! Enlighten their hearts with faith. Allah! Enlighten our hearts with sincerity. Allah! Give pure faith to the non-Muslims. Allah! Give us with with practice. Allah! Make everyone a practical Muslim. Allah! Our biggest need is you. Allah! Give us the love of hazrat Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon him).

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A Prayer

This prayer is very interesting because in this prayer Hakeem Tariq Mehmood Chughtai and the whole congregation is literally crying while praying for the non-Muslims.

Allah! Give faith to the Christians. Allah! Give faith to the jews. Allah! Give faith to the Sikhs. Allah! Give faith to the Hindus. O Allah! Save them from the fire of hell. O Allah! Remove hatred from our hearts regarding non-Muslims. O Allah! Bestow upon us emotions of their goodwill. 

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Learning From Other Societies

Some people wear the apparent dress of the angrez, but do not become and show to be angrez (i.e. do not exhibit the qualities they have). Where there are bad things in them (white people, angrez, gora etc.), they also have many qualities. You have adopted their bad qualities, but you never tried to acquire their qualities. A person said that he visited Europe. He went to a shop to buy something. He asked if this thing is genuine or not. The shopkeeper said that we do not have the concept of dubious or counterfeit goods here. Everything is authentic. He said that those people say that if we cheated in our trade then in the whole world our trade will suffer. Then he said that in case they have to sacrifice their personal benefit, they keep the national interest at a higher priority.  They do not let the national interest suffer at the cost of their personal benefit. We can try to mimic them by wearing dresses like them, but the real thing is to have our inner selves like them. In that society there are so many such things that are forbidden according to Islam, but they have adopted so many such good things that we have abandoned. And so many such elegant trades of faith and Islam, whether they are about trade, business, about mutual exchange principles, and many spheres of life. Look, if we start looking at the flaws of a person, then we will not have time. I often say one thing to you. We should become like a honey bee. If some filth is lying close to a honey bee, she will not look at it. She will fly away to a far flung place where it will find fragrance and flowers. Similarly, a dirty fly will never sit on the flowers no matter how many or how close they are to her. She will fly far away to find filth and degradation and feed on it. A faithful believer is synonymous with a honey bee. It will go far away and look at the qualities of someone, irrespective of whether he/she is a Muslim or a non-Muslim. You have to gather qualities from everywhere. Ignore their faults. So much so if someone has a fault, do not raise any objection towards him/her. Do not say anything bad. Take their qualities. Adopt the qualities of the angrez. Is he a malingerer?  Look the job for which you got paid, one is that you do not devote your time honestly to it. Leave today's work to be done tomorrow. And what was prescribed for me to do, if I am not doing that, then I am being dishonest. Is the gora a malingerer? Does the gora do all the work that he is paid for? List the qualities that are present in that society. The other day a person came to me. He has been living in the UK for 22-23 years. He had some time, I asked, "Tell me a few qualities of the gora." He started looking at me astonishingly. He said that I am the first person who is asking their qualities. I said that I am asking because I have seen huge queues of people in front of their embassies. And the ones who acquire visas I have also heard them badmouthing the white people. Everyone wishes to get a visa for UK, America or states, or of Unaan (Greece) or Europe. Either through Iran or someone other way, they somehow wish to reach there. And then the badmouth them. I asked tell me some qualities. He started telling me their qualities. Then I asked that now tell me the truth that all of these qualities that they have are of Islam or of the gora? He said they are Islamic. If that is truthfulness, that is of Islam. If that is honesty that is of Islam. If that is trustworthiness, that is of Islam. All of the things are those of Islam. We have not taken from them those things of Islam. We have acquired a couple of things about dress and a couple of things about looks and we have abandoned the rest. We did not take them. That is our heritage. Wisdom is the lost heritage of the believer. This is wisdom. This is our lost heritage. The one our forefathers had left behind for us. We have to reclaim it.

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Doubt

Science doubts itself all the time, it even doubts its proofs. That is why we have water tight models and theories. Doubt is an integral part of scientific development. That is what the contemporary philosophers and thinkers like who prefer science over religion. That people believe in religion without an iota of a doubt, which to them is a bad idea. 

While curiosity is a major prerequisite for someone to develop scientific acumen, doubt is a major tool used to verify scientific hypotheses. Consider the case of the proof of Fermat's last theorem, as is normally the case with any scholarly endeavor and a subsequent peer-review. The theorem has a history of at least three centuries of evolution. The last of the adventurers, Andrew Wiles spent more than six years in near isolation to come up with a water tight proof of the problem. I suppose, that in doing so, he must not only have doubted the existing literature but also his own knowledge and procedures. I would not be surprised to know if someone told me that he doubted his own mental health at times. And that is healthy. And when he finally came up with a proof it was inspected by a select few of mathematicians who only had a clue about the problem. Someone had to doubt the infallibility of the proof to find a loop hole in it. Someone actually did it and that is why Wiles was sent in to isolation for another six months to come up with a cure to his proof. It finally got accepted and that is why it is considered water tight. I think that while curiosity drives scientific endeavor, inclusion of systematic doubt makes it more reliable.

Consider the importance of doubt in embracing doctrines. For instance, consider that there is a doctrine X proposed by an entity A, that considers itself to be superior and infallible compared with all other doctrines, say, Y and Z. Suppose that we humans are led in to believing it. One of the ingredients this doctrine X should have, if it should appeal so much to the humanity, is that it should be open to free inquiry. This is to say that the doctrine should allow its potential adherents not only to be able to inquire about the claims it makes about phenomena outside itself, but it should also allow free inquiry about itself. Otherwise, doctrine X stands a chance of being branded as mafia; you have to have faith in what I proclaim, or otherwise!

Similarly, if doctrine X claims to be superior than other doctrines, and is also seemingly so, it would compel the adherents of other doctrines to doubt the respective doctrines they adhere to. Suppose what would happen if adherents of other doctrines choose not to doubt their respective doctrines. They stand a chance to miss an opportunity to convert to doctrine X, which is possibly a better, or the best possible, doctrine. This is the benefit of doubt. And if one should choose to apply doubt to religion, the importance of studying comparative religion becomes clear.

Apparently  nobody is born to know which doctrine is superior than the other. One only gets to know after careful inquiry of various doctrines the superiority of one over the other.

Analogously, this can be applied to religion. For instance, if Islam is the true, the most flexible, and the best religion of God, it should allow the element of free inquiry to the humanity. Incidentally, it does so. It allows people to verify its claims about anything. Islam is not a secret religion. Everything about Islam can be read and learned anywhere in the world. Moreover, it allows people the choice to adhere to it or not as per their own will. This flexibility is granted even in the case of apostasy, a topic that attracts much controversy about Islam in the West.

Islam, nonetheless, advises mankind to strive to develop certainty in belief, which is dependent upon seeing.

Allah

Every now and then these days we are asked and hinted by skeptics to contemplate on the idea on as to whether God even exists or not. I have seen many comments of skeptics who have asked this question. As a matter of fact I have seen a question lurching on the websites of many skeptics that pokes the Muslims in to thinking whether Allah is real or not. In a recent article renowned atheist Sam Harris quoted that the God Muslims believe in is almost surely fictional. We live in times in which it is very important for any person to ponder over their beliefs. Indeed, it is very important for people to know why do they believe in what they believe. More specifically, it is very important for Muslims to know that why do they believe in Allah as the sole deity, and consequently Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon him) as the last messenger. It is equally important for non-Muslims to know as to why Muslims believe in Allah as their God. This is important not even from the point of view of faith literacy, but also to satiate one's own thirst of intellectual curiosity and skepticism.

This article is an attempt to contemplate on the word Allah, as a name or a concept. After all people have believed in various gods since millenniums and no one has ever seen a sight of a convincingly real god. To this end, no one has ever seen Allah as well. It is also important to investigate whether Allah really exists or whether it is a mere invention of the Muslims.

A casual literature survey reveals that the word Allah means 'the God' in Arabic. And even though it is widely believed that Muslims believe in Allah as their God, people from many faiths in the pre-Islamic Arabia believed in Allah as the supreme deity. Pre-Islamic Arabia had polytheism, Christianity, and Judaism as the major religions. The polytheists worshiped other sub-deities along with Allah. These included, Laat, Uzza and Manaat. Christians worshipped Allah along with Jesus Christ (may peace be upon him) as the son of Allah. And jews also worshipped Allah. And more importantly all of these three major religions had the word "Allah" solely reserved for referring to God. Polytheism gradually vanished by the advent of Islam. Christianity and Judaism remain to date as the major world religions along with Islam. And the word Allah is still used to refer to the God by the followers of these two major religions. For instance Arab Christians today still use the word Allah Al-ab (God, the father) to refer to the God and also to distinguish their usage of the word from the Muslim usage. Similarly, Jews use the words such as Allah and Elohim to refer to God, and agree that words Allah and Elohim are derivations of the same origin in a linguistic sense. The word Allah, or its close derivatives, also occur in many other languages as a reference to God.

To this end, it turns out that Muslims have not invented the name or concept of Allah. The only major thing Islam tries to do is to dissociate subordinate deities from Allah. This means, that on one hand Islam dissociates sub-deities such as Laat, Manaat and Uzza from Allah. On the other hand Islam suggests that Jesus Christ (may Allah's peace be upon him) was not a son of Allah, rather he was a prophet of Allah just like Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon him). This notion of Islam is summarized in the following chapter of Quran-e-Hakeem titled sincerity:

AL-IKHLAS (SINCERITY)

Total Verses: 4
Revealed At: MAKKA

112.001 
YUSUFALI: Say: He is Allah, the One and Only;
PICKTHAL: Say: He is Allah, the One!
SHAKIR: Say: He, Allah, is One.

112.002 
YUSUFALI: Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;
PICKTHAL: Allah, the eternally Besought of all!
SHAKIR: Allah is He on Whom all depend.

112.003 
YUSUFALI: He begetteth not, nor is He begotten;
PICKTHAL: He begetteth not nor was begotten.
SHAKIR: He begets not, nor is He begotten.

112.004 
YUSUFALI: And there is none like unto Him.
PICKTHAL: And there is none comparable unto Him.
SHAKIR: And none is like Him.

P.S. In writing this article I took help from a Wikipedia article. And also the idea that Christians of Arabia refer to God as Allah was brought to my attention for the first time by a close friend who is a devout Roman Catholic Christian. 

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