Al-Jazeerah

Al-Haram Mosque in Makkah The Prophet's Mosque in Madinah . Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in Jerusalem

 

 

 

Islam: God's Message of Guidance to Humanity

 

By Hassan Ali El-Najjar

 

Table of Contents

 

I. Introduction: Basic Information

 

1. Islam: A Brief Introduction

 

2. Three Levels of Faith: Islam, Iman, and Ihsan 

 

3. The Scientific Evidence That God Exists and the Holy Qur'an Is His Message to Humanity 

 

4. Creation and Evolution in the Holy Qur'an

 

5. Humans, As God's Caliphs on Earth

 

6. Adam's Contest With the Angels, and Getting Out of Paradise


7.
Worshippers By Choice Or Forced Slaves?  

 

8. The Relationship Between the Spiritual and the Physical Aspects of Islamic Teachings  

 

9. Mind, Self, Soul, Spirit, and Happiness from an Islamic Perspective 

 

10. Heart-Mind Relationship in the Holy Qur'an  

 

II. Islam: The Five Pillars of the Faith Structure

 

1. Islamic Proclamation of Faith

 

2. Performing Islamic Prayers

 

3. Giving Zakat, Charity, The Third Islamic Duty

 

4. Fasting and Ramadhan, Great Gifts from Allah to Muslims

 

5. Haj, Pilgrimage, the Fifth Pillar of Islam

 

III. Iman: Allah, His Angels, Messengers, Messages, Latter Day, and Qadar

 

1. Allah, As He Described Himself in the Holy Quran 

 

2. Angels

 

3. Noo'h, Noah, in the Holy Quran  

 

4. Ibrahim, Abraham, in the Holy Quran

 

5. Moussa, Moses, in the Holy Quran

 

6. 'Eissa, Jesus Christ, in the Holy Quran  

 

7. Muhammed in the Holy Quran

 

8. Prophet Muhammed's Night Journey and Ascent to Heavens, Al-Issra Wal Mi'raj

 

9. Latter Day (Day of Resurrection)

 

10. Qada and Qadar: God's  Decree and Estimate of Provision

 

IV. I'hsan: Watching Allah in Speech and Deeds

 

1. Introduction to Islamic Law, Shari'a, Part I, Prohibition, Don't Do, and Do Commands in the Holy Quran

 

2. The No (La) Commands

 

3. The Imperative Commands 

 

***

 

Articles with Islamic Perspective:

 

Health Care Crisis in the US: An Islamic Perspective

 

"Terrorism" & "Islamo-Fascism" Propaganda Campaigns: An Interactive Lecture

 

Six Questions About Islam, Muslims and Jews

 

Five Islamic Issues: Predestination and choice, position toward other religions, angels, and the End of Days

Food Islamic Rules and Teachings  

 

Are Muslim women second-class citizens  

 

The French Ban on Islamic Headscarf, an Interview with

 

Links to Islamic Topics 2007-2010

 

Links to Islamic Topics 2007

 

Links to Islamic topics 2006

 

Links to Islamic topics 2005

 

Links to Islamic topics 2004

 

Links to Islamic topics, 2003

 

2002 Links to Islamic topics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Water on Earth Predates the Solar System, and Even the Sun,

 

as Stated in the Holy Quran

 

 By Hassan Ali El-Najjar

 

September 27, 2014 

 

***

 

ÇáãÇÁõ Úáì ÇáÃÑÖö ÓÇÈÞñ Úáì æÌæÏö ÇáäÙÇãö ÇáÔãÓíøö æÍÊì Úáì æÌæÏö ÇáÔãÓ ¡

 

ßãÇ æÑÏó Ýí ÇáÞÑÂäö ÇáßÑíã

 

ÈÞáã ÍÓä Úáí ÇáäÌÇÑ

 

ÇáÓÇÈÚ æÇáÚÔÑæä ãä ÓÈÊãÈÑ 2014

 

***

 

 

The Holy Quran mentioned that water preceded the creation of the heavens and the Earth. Most recent scientific research has explained this fact, as stated in the article below.

 

This scientific fact was mentioned in Verse 11: 7 and Verse 21: 30, as follows: 

 

æóåõæó ÇáøóÐöí ÎóáóÞó ÇáÓøóãóÇæóÇÊö æóÇáúÃóÑúÖó Ýöí ÓöÊøóÉö ÃóíøóÇãò æóßóÇäó ÚóÑúÔõåõ Úóáóì ÇáúãóÇÁö  (åæÏ ¡ 11: 7).

 

Ãóæóáóãú íóÑó ÇáøóÐöíäó ßóÝóÑõæÇ Ãóäøó ÇáÓøóãóÇæóÇÊö æóÇáúÃóÑúÖó ßóÇäóÊóÇ ÑóÊúÞðÇ ÝóÝóÊóÞúäóÇåõãóÇ ۖ æóÌóÚóáúäóÇ ãöäó ÇáúãóÇÁö ßõáøó ÔóíúÁò Íóíòø ۖ ÃóÝóáóÇ íõÄúãöäõæäó  (ÇáÃäÈíÇÁ ¡ 21: 30).

 

And it is He who created the heavens and the Earth in six days - and His Throne had been upon water (Hood, 11: 7 of the Holy Quran). 

 

Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the Earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then, will they not believe? (Al-Anbiya, 21: 30 of the Holy Quran).

 

In Verse 11: 7, Allah praise to Him stated that His Throne was on water before He created the heavens and the Earth. So, water preceded the formation of our solar system, as scientists concluded in their most recent research.

 

In Verse 21: 30, Allah praise to Him stated that He caused the split of the matter to form the heavens and the Earth and that He created every living thing (in them) out of water, which was already there. 

  

***

 

 

An illustration of the history of origins of water in our solar system. A new study finds it started in the molecular cloud (prior to the Sun's formation), traveled through the stages of star formation, until it wound up in the solar system. (Bill Saxton, NSF/AUI/NRAO)

 

 

Water on Earth Predates the Solar System, and Even the Sun

 

 September 27, 2014 

 

By Deborah Netburn

 

LA Times, September 27, 2014

 

Some of the water molecules in your drinking glass were created more than 4.5 billion years ago, according to new research.

 

That makes them older than the Earth, older than the solar system — even older than the sun itself.

In a study published Thursday in Science, researchers say the distinct chemical signature of the water on Earth and throughout the solar system could occur only if some of that water formed before the swirling disk of dust and gas gave birth to the planets, moons, comets and asteroids.

 

This primordial water makes up 30% to 50% of the water on Earth, the researchers estimate.

 

“It’s pretty amazing that a significant fraction of water on Earth predates the sun and the solar system,” said study leader Ilse Cleeves, an astronomer at the University of Michigan.

 

This finding suggests that water, a key ingredient of life, may be common in young planetary systems across the universe, Cleeves and her colleagues say.

 

Scientists are still not entirely sure how water arrived on Earth. The part of the protoplanetary disk in which our planet formed was too hot for liquid or ice water to exist, and so the planet was born dry. Most experts believe the Earth’s water came from ice in comets and asteroids that formed in a cooler environment, and later collided with our planet.

 

But this theory leads to more questions. Among them: Where did the water preserved in the comets and asteroids come from?

 

To find out, scientists turned to chemistry. Here on Earth, about one in every 3,000 molecules of water is made with a deuterium atom instead of a hydrogen atom.

 

A deuterium atom is similar to a hydrogen atom except that its nucleus contains a proton and a neutron, instead of a lone proton. (Both atoms also contain a single electron.) That makes deuterium twice as heavy as hydrogen, which is why water molecules made with deuterium atoms (HDO) are known as “heavy water.”

 

At the time that our sun was born, the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen throughout the universe was about 1 deuterium molecule to every 100,000 hydrogen molecules. But for water in the solar system, the proportion is significantly higher.

 

It's pretty amazing that a significant fraction of water on Earth predates the sun and the solar system. - Ilse Cleeves, University of Michigan astronomer

 

Water with a high deuterium content can only form under specific conditions. The environment needs to be very cold, and there needs to be enough energy to power the reaction that binds hydrogen, deuterium and oxygen. Over the past several decades, researchers have come up with two possible — and competing  — explanations of how this heavy water took up residence in our solar system.

 

The first is that it came from interstellar water ice that formed in the huge cloud of gas that gave birth to our sun and the solar system. Stellar nurseries can be found throughout the universe, and they are rich in both heavy water and regular water (H20), the researchers said.

 

The second possibility is that the violence and energy of star birth ripped apart that interstellar water, and its building blocks got reprocessed within the protoplanetary disk that would eventually coalesce into the planets and other heavenly bodies.

 

For the past several years, Cleeves has been trying to determine just how much energy was able to penetrate the cold, dense region of the planet-forming disks around stars.

 

“This study was kind of a side project,” she said. “We realized that if the amount of energy in the disk is as low as we think, that means the water in our solar system couldn’t have formed here, and it had to come from somewhere else.”

 

Using computer models, she and her colleagues concluded that the disk was certainly cold enough for heavy water to form. But the gas would have been too dense to allow X-rays to enter, and the solar winds and magnetic fields would have had no trouble deflecting cosmic rays.

 

Without these energy sources, Cleeves said, deuterium and oxygen couldn’t have formed heavy water.

But it would have been easy for cosmic rays to penetrate the gas cloud before it collapsed into the protoplanetary disk, she said. There, those rays could have helped heavy water get made.

 

“People have wondered for a while how much of the water in comets is inherited and how much was made in the proto-planetary nebula,” said Geoff Blake, a professor of cosmochemistry and planetary science at Caltech who was not involved in the study.

 

He said the paper successfully demonstrates that the young solar wind would have kept cosmic rays out of the disk entirely, making the chemistry inside too slow to produce heavy water.

 

“And if that’s true, much of the water in the solar system today had to be inherited,” he said. 

 

Ted Bergin, an astronomer at the University of Michigan and co-author of the Science study, said the results suggest there may be an abundance of ancient water in young planetary systems throughout the universe.

 

Most stars and their solar systems are formed in water heavy stellar nurseries similar to the one that birthed our sun. If interstellar water can survive the trauma of our sun’s birth, it is likely it can survive the birth of other stars as well.

 

“They are all made out of very cold material, with water, and that is being provided to planets as they are being born,” he said. 

 

Related Story: Hot Jupiters hold surprisingly little water, study finds Amina Khan

Untouched water as old as 2.6 billion years is found: Don't drink it

 

Solar System's Water is Older Than the Sun

 

News Discovery, Sep 25, 2014 02:00 PM ET // by Irene Klotz

 

Next time you’re swimming in the ocean, consider this: part of the water is older than the sun.

 

Guess what Earth's been hiding from us, way down in its belly? Water! Lots and lots of water.

 

So concludes a team of scientists who ran computer models comparing the ratios of hydrogen isotopes over time. Taking into account new insights that the solar nebula had less ionizing radiation than previously thought, the models show that at least some of the water found in the ocean, as well as in comets, meteorites and on the moon, predate the sun’s birth.

 

The only other option, the scientists conclude, is that it formed in the cold, intersteller cloud from which the sun itself originated.

 

The discovery, reported in this week’s Science, stems from the insight of lead author Lauren Ilsedore Cleeves, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, who realized that planet-forming disks around young stars should be shielded from galactic rays by the strong solar winds, dramatically altering the chemistry occurring inside the disks, said Conel Alexander, with the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

 

“The finding ... makes it quite hard for these regions in the disk to synthesize any new molecules. This was an 'aha' moment for us -- without any new water creation the only place these ices could have come from was the chemically rich interstellar gas out of which the solar system formed originally,” Cleeves wrote in an email to Discovery News.

 

“It's remarkable that these ices survived the entire process of stellar birth,” she added.

 

The finding has implications for the search for life beyond Earth, as water is believed to be necessary for life.

“If the sun's formation was typical, interstellar ices -- including water -- are likely common ingredients present during the formation of all planetary systems, which puts a wonderful outlook on the possibility of other life in the universe,” Cleeves said.

 

In addition, it’s not just water that likely survived the solar system’s birth.

 

“The same must be true for the organic matter that we know is present in molecular cloud ices. So I think this strengthens the case that we have interstellar organic matter in meteorites and comets too,” Alexander wrote in an email to Discovery News.

 

Play Video Water, Water Everywhere ... 400 Miles Inside Earth

 

NEWS: Signs of Water Found on 5 Alien Planets

 

NEWS: Hubble Reveals Weird New Exoplanet: Waterworld

 

NEWS: Water Vapor Found on Neptune-Sized Exoplanet

 

 

www.daltonislamiccenter.org